Mackenzie Madison

WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO

2012-01-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

Actually, the title should probably say what have I not been up to… As you know, the holidays and New Year pretty much ramp everything down just in time to then super-ramp them up. Speaking of cranking stuff up, I did just that and created one of my best high-volume, base-building atmospheres of training yet. Ironically, it came from one of my best (rare, yet they always turn out good) spur of the moment decisions to head south. So, what I’ve been up to is playing outside in the sun for the holidays while mixing in a lot of fun training and catching up on that thing we call life.

ROAD TRIP! Pictures might do some partial justice…

December 15-19^th

I ventured first on down to my favorite place to train in Cali- Santa Cruz. It’s the Eugene of California. It’s pretty easy to see why this is such an awesome place to train. I also get to stay with my second family on the West Coast- Ron and Martha every time I go down there. Some of the most loving and fun people to be with.

Riding to Pescadero and up and down PCH is truly amazing. 5+ hour rides go by so fast in the sunshine. I was in love with the 60 degree weather.

I had to go back to Wilder Ranch State Park after my mid-morning long run and visit it again at sunset. It's so enjoyable to embrace the little things in life.

Yeah, I get to run up and down these coast bluffs on trails. Epic is an understatement at Wilder Ranch Park.

December 19-20^th Seal Beach SoCal!

I made a quick pit-stop before heading down further to Tucson in Seal Beach just in time to celebrate Kevin’s Birthday and have a good swim session at the pool with Megan. The headquarters of TYR is definitely TYR dominated in that pool…

December 21-31^st Tucson Time!

Oh boy did I have fun in Tucson. So many options, so little time! Swimming with the Ford Aquatics team was a pleasure to return to and bump up two faster lanes! I finally found a place in my heart for Tucson this time. I truly loved it and had a blast. I also got to hang out with my grandparents and stay with them for awhile. It was definitely a luxury to have my awesome, yes, "Ironman Live" famous Grandma cook for me every night! They were a pleasure to be around and we learned a lot of fun new things from each other.

My Grandparents pool in Green Valley was rad. And only .4 miles away. And outside. In the sunshine. What more could I ask for?!

I got in some awesome doubles and enjoyed a few sunset swims. Pools galore!

Christmas day was awesome. Swim in sunshine followed by a bike road trip from Green Valley- Mission, Gates Pass, Twin Peaks Road then to Oro Valley where my Grandparents met me at my Aunt and Uncles for an awesome Christmas Day Dinner! Picturesque Christmas day if you ask me!

Tom, my past roomie and fellow pro triathlete and I climbed to the very top of Mt. Lemmon. In shorts. It was 80 degrees. We only put clothes on for the descent. Despite being gluten free I was going to get a cookie at the cookie cabin, but there was about a couple hundred people there. One of my top 20 most epic rides for sure. And you can make that climb prettty hard if you want to.

Our Park-Link Road/ Oro Valley bike ride that turned into 6+ hour ride. Making both Leanda and I's longest ride of the year. Blast though. Fun times training with her. Positive and super motivated for this year. It fed off on me. LOVE it!

Leanda and I rode to Kitt Peak. Didn't stop us at border patrol good thing because L needs her visa...

Then Leanda takes me on a swim sesh in her posh J.W. Marriott in Starr Pass. Pure luxury.

I went on one of the most AWESOME trail long runs ever up at Dove Mountain! The small pebble gravel is a runners dream. And got a lasting souvenir from it ;) Even running uphill. I'm blaming the hard swim workout before. First whoopsie any type of crash in 2 years! So worth it though!

I went on some retail therapy- but not for myself, bought stuff for others for Xmas at La Encantada in Oro Valley.

December 31-January 1st! NEW YEAR in SoCAL Seal Beach!

I had a blast at Kevin and Heathers for New Years. Heather is thee best cook in the world, had an awesome dinner, played electronic banking Monopoly that Kevin was so psyched about and toped it off going to an awesome wine bar. The next day was full of Elliptago riding and laughing and getting an awesome highlight and cut by Miss H! Talent.

New Years was spent in Seal Beach with some of my favorites: Kevin and Heather and Mega-Meg!

January 1-8^thSanta Cruz with Ben!

To top off the amazing trip, Ben drove down to Santa Cruz with his sister Jessica to enjoy some sunshine and be an awesome training partner. Speaking of training partner- Ben’s racing Ironman St. George too. Honestly, he kept up with me on all the training sessions in Santa Cruz. He can swim faster than me, but I can run faster than him… I think. It’ll be a close race on who finishes first. I’m one lucky woman to get to train with my partner for the same IM. Not many couples can adjust their schedules to both compete and train together. Any bets on who’s going to cross the line first?

Got to swim outside in the 50m pool at the Simpkins Swim Center in Santa Cruz. LOVE this place... and my new Oakleys :) ok, and Ben.

Top 10 best rides ever. Period. Big Sur is truly amazing. I don't know how the Tour de Cali actually raced beside such spectacular views, but the switch-backs are a roadies dream! Plus the impeccable road surface there now!

The view along West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz every evening, whether it was coming home from a long ride or a brick run afterwards. I want to take up surfing. Have you ever seen an unhappy surfer?

I’m now back in Eugene, loving the massive aerobic base along and increased muscular endurance strength I’ve developed. I’m not loving not being able swim, bike and run all the time outside. But right now, I’m focusing more on my swimming, speed and starting to gain back more threshold work. The first race is in 2 months. Oceanside 70.3 marks my first race of the year and then there’s something bigger after that- Ironman St. George. So I’ll be going Southbound again shortly to keep making the best of my training everyday all while getting stronger.

Plus, I've been working on some other exciting stuff- like new sponsors for 2012. Stay tuned to see what's new for me for 2012! It's gonna be a great year!

Cheers,

- kenz

SWIM SPEED WORKOUT

2011-11-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

So it's the off-season. And my weakest link is swimming. Swimming fast.

Sound familiar? Or want dozy speed workout? Here's what I did today:

WU: 200-100-200 combo on 1:30 interval, middle 100 fast

200 pull

10 x 50 on the :50 25 drill, 25 swim sprint

200 pull

5 x 200 on 3:00 hard

5 x 50 on the :50 25 drill, 25 swim sprint

10 x 50 on the minute sprints

5 x 50 on :50

5 x 50 on :40

15 x 100 on the 1:30 above race pace for 15-20 sec rest

5 x 100 on the 2:00 all out fastest possible

10 x 25 sprints on :30

3 x 500 on the 7:00 one swim, one pull w.paddles, one paddles no buoy

Total: 7,400

IRONMAN FLORIDA 2ND PLACE: PART II RUNNING TO THE FINISH

2011-11-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

I jumped off my bike with an extreme willingness to be done riding. I was more than ready to hit the ground and start running for 26.2, or at least try to. Along with my quad “crampage”, I was getting hot foot (more like nerve zinger burning foot) on the bike. It’s happened to me more since the surgery and once it starts it doesn’t stop; despite crunching my toes crunching and flexing my foot. When I hit the pavement it felt like I was running on burning pogo sticks. I was ready to put on my K-Swiss shoes to help cushion the feet pounding on the pavement. Believe it or not I actually went with my trainers for the marathon, which was one of the best pre-race decisions I made this time.

I came in and out of T2 in 4^th. I wanted nothing but a podium finish. That was my goal coming into this Ironman. My body felt GREAT as far as my physical effort. All my aerobic training had been perfect and was endless. It’s just those random aches and pains of the body that get to you in an Ironman. It’s about being strong and staying strong. It’s about believing in yourself that you can remain strong, despite the race day mishaps. I was going to continue to reserve some energy in the tank, but go at a solid pace when I felt good. I started out at 6:50 pace, something I knew I was more than capable of holding onto regardless of muscle fatigue. I went light and quick on the feet to try to minimize the quad jarring.

I’m rolling along and something else starts to roll- my stomach, as it was my usual lunchtime when I started the run. So I immediately started hitting up the best treat ever- the sugary, slightly carbonated, cold, refreshing, caffeinated coke. I only took a couple of gels on the run and mainly got my calories from coke- the only time I ever drink pop(or “Soda” if you must). After about 20 minutes I came up on Sofie Goos who was currently in 3^rd place. A couple miles later I heard a golf cart come up and Michellie’s encouraging words and that I was about 7:30 back from Jessica Jacobs… If she cracks, 1^st place would still be possible because I was definitely gaining on second. The women’s 3^rd place cyclist leading me asked me what my name was. It was one of the simplest most entertaining gestures that was made during that segment of the marathon. She told people ahead that my name was Mackenzie because by then I was getting a continuous cheering from the crowds as the miles ticked by. One of the tallest guys I’d seen on the race course that day started running towards me at full speed to then quickly get in the phrase “Mackenzie will you marry me?” as he barely made it by me. It definitely gave me an odd "what the hell?" smile and took my mind of the quad and foot combo pain. Watch out other pros- it’s becoming a hilarious trend.

Quads kind of hurting... not so much smiling here, Michellie rolling up behind me.

I was heading back into town almost done with the first half marathon loop as I came upon Bree Wee who was holding 2^nd. She had been leading most of the race and I think I saw her son on a bike cheering her along when I started closing in on her. During the pass I told her to “stay strong” and she told me “she’s not that far up there- go get her!” Again it was time to start picking it up a bit because if Jessica cracks, I had a chance at winning. Little did I know that she had put an even further lead on me, she was now 9:15. But if she cracks…

I ended up closing in on the first half marathon in 1:29. Running down Surf Drive forced nothing but a huge smile and high-fives out of me. The whole experience felt like something you’d get in the Tour de France up those hill climbs mixed in with a beach club. Complete with strippers… or an aide station completely full of women dressed up in not too racy (they kept it PG for the kids) strip club attire. I proceeded to get whipped in the arse with a ball and chain get-up. I think it might’ve helped with my forward momentum a little bit.

I love my job. :)

Being in second made me up the ante a bit to try to make forward progress, but it was those damn quads and feet that continued to burn and get more and more pounding. I knew it was affecting my running stride. I had this locking jarring knee thing going on with a combo of running over hot coals look. Honestly, I really don’t want to complain to you or myself about my quads or feet hurting. I would complain to my 2^nd place lead cyclist Helen Phipps. I’d talk to her (complain) and chat with her as if I was trying to get rid of the aches or get them off my mind… or have a during race therapy session :). It actually helped just having someone else know what I was feeling. I was feeling like I was being trapped in my body, wanting to go. But that exact sensation has been going on this whole... Season... Long... But I kept fighting the darn thing. It’s what got me there to the start line and what was going to get me to the finish line in 2^nd place. I was doing it. I came again down Surf Drive where in the last couple miles I backed off the pace a little bit to save those quads and most importantly, enjoy the finish line. Enjoy the energy of the crowds, enjoy being happy, enjoy what I was about to accomplish. Enjoy what I was capable after only 4 months of training and how well that bolt screwed into my butt bone has worked for me. I crossed the line in 9:10:21. A new PR for me and one of the top 8 fastest women's times ever on that course. And I ran a 3:03:22 so heck yes I can run again! It signified to me and to the world that I had become a runner-- again. More importantly, it showed me I can continue to do this. I can continue to excel in my profession and I’m just getting started. My finish line speech consisted of (in my mind, not necessarily exact words that came out of my mouth):

“Don’t believe the words "you can’t" that people may say, and never believe that you can’t achieve something because of an injury or major obstruction in life. They are there to make you stronger, make you overcome, to make you truly believe in yourself.”

All I could think about in the back of my head was all the challenged athletes who can’t use their legs or anyone who is physically challenged. On a smaller scale in comparison, I am so thankful for what I have accomplished. It’s made me believe more in others as well.

Here is to believing we can all do anything.

IRONMAN FLORIDA 2ND PLACE: BECOMING A RUNNER AGAIN PART I

2011-11-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

I’m sitting in the Ironman Live Media room a couple days before the big race to answer some questions that the Ironman Live crew and triathlon legend Michellie Jones put together. To be honest, my unexpected late morning start and poor navigation skills had put my mental state on edge. My morning tune-up workout didn’t happen and I still had to get a lot done before all the scheduled meetings. This was the first race I’ve ever done alone without a “Sherpa” a.k.a Mr. Ben Metcalfe or another racer along for the journey. My mind was on defensive mode from the mass amounts of expo people and the 4 AM traveling to get to Florida. Plus, the time difference had me groggy making my eyes water in front of the bright lights and the sweating from running around in a mad dash at the 10:45 AM interview time. I was rather uncomfortable.

This trip was a lot of preparing as I went or tuning to the most immediate thing that needed to be done, ugh, yes, slight procrastination on my part. Most races I get my pre-race needs done ahead of time. Not so much this time. Then Kevin Mackinnon tells me before the race “Hey, your grandma emailed me the other day.” Most people would be extremely curious to find out what type of embarrassing thing they could’ve said, but nope, I have the raddest grandma who knows all the splits and info about all the other pros. So it actually relaxed me and reminded me of all the loved ones at home who were supporting me. It also reminded me of how special this race was going to be.

We’re rolling through the questions and Michielle says, “You have a solid bike but the run isn’t your strongest. How are you going to prepare for it?” This threw me off. I guess I’ve called myself a runner most of my life. It was my identity, my life, my friends, how I learned, it was my way of giving life meaning before triathlon. The question brought up doubts in my mind. “What if I can’t run as fast, what’s going to happen in an Ironman marathon after having a bolt screwed into my sit bones with my hamstring re-attached to it?!” But I controlled my anxious thoughts and reminded myself of the peak-volume workouts, the long runs, and what I’ve been able to push through. I responded back saying “I know I don’t have the 70.3 speed of the faster runners, but the longer the run, the better I can cruise.” And that’s exactly how I acquired success from this race. Becoming a runner... again.

Race morning came and I was already up at 2:59 AM, exactly 1 minute before my alarm went off. I felt awake. I felt ready, but I felt nervous for the unknown. All I wanted was for the swim to just start. I called Ben shortly after I woke up, where on the west coast it was 1 AM (sure enough he stayed up the rest of the day, glued to IronmanLive.com). It made me feel more at ease, like he was there to help me get ready. I turned on my shuffle to get some music going, sure enough, the one song that my sister sent to me that really get’s us going comes on. Yes, it’s from the How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack, but hell, it’s awesome. It made me smile. So did FloRida’s “Good Feeling.” Up not so bright but early along with me were my beyond AMAZING homestays Jason and Amber Wick. They have never done a triathlon before, but they have the lifestyle and amazing personalities from which I’ve acquired more great friendships. Pre-race I felt surprisingly calm, ready, and prepared. The timing for things was perfect.

Not too long later I’m off to go warm up in the crystal blue water and couldn’t help enjoying the sensation of the smooth white sand on my feet along the way. The gun went off and the "sprint" start of an Ironman swim began... it is more my type of swim start. I was with a pack and feeling smooth in the water. I recently went a size down in my TYR hurricane and couldn’t help falling in love with how it fit more perfectly and felt exactly like a second skin. I was gliding through the water almost effortlessly. I saw various jellyfish and stingrays below me. A couple jellyfish were closer to the surface so some funky sideways hand pulls were required to avoid any unwanted contact. The water was warm and getting warmer...

I was coming up on rounding my first lap- 28:20 at the halfway mark- holy smokes I was right on goal pace and it felt great! Back into the water I went for lap 2. Uh oh- I wasn’t surrounded by Sofie Goos and Heidi Jesberger anymore. The goal was to try to catch back up to some others and maintain pace. The current started to become stronger and I wasn’t as protected by the 2 other girls anymore. I had to start relying on my own navigation (which was better than pre-race) as the different swimmers I caught up to started to zigzag and nowhere in sight were swim caps straight ahead to give some immediate pointers. I glanced down at my Garmin it was getting close to 1 hour, it was going to be close… could I make it under? I also really enjoying how clear the water was so that I could actually see below to my watch! My decision to remain more comfortable on the swim instead of pushing it a little harder to swim a 57 seemed smart at the time. But in the aftermath, I just want that sub 1-hour swim dang it! I exited 4^th female pro out of the water in 1:00:19. Now it was time to ride.

The bike was going to be flat and fast. Or so I thought. My training and preparation gave all the signs of a 4:50ish bike split, especially on this course. Starting out along Front Beach Road was w-i-n-d-y. I generally work best by starting out at a faster than race pace effort that I don’t like too much to warm up and then settle into my groove. But it just wasn’t happening! “It’s OK” I thought- “I’ve got 112 miles”… or it might be that time difference thing that doesn’t want me to ride right now...

Ten miles in Jessica Jacobs passes me. Instantly I thought, “just wait, I’ll catch up.” I’m easing into it and I don’t want to blow up. I’m not too much of a complainer during training and in fact, I really don’t mind wind. Ask Rachelle about a ride in Tucson where I went directly into a headwind for 50+ miles going 15-17 mph. But the wind was getting to me and the time trial groove wasn’t happening on this flat course, which is exactly what you need to be successful. I continued to pound away at the pedals. I was shooting for a higher cadence but was forced to use the bigger gears to go faster. My quads started cramping and burning early into the bike around mile 40. Yes, it’s supposed to hurt when you’re riding but they were acting weird, just refusing to put out the power despite a lower physiologic effort. I needed to spin more, but I wanted to go faster. I then discovered one of my current race limiters (not during but in hindsight of the race)- since my hamstrings are weaker, I rely more on my quads than I used to. It was a trade off between speed and cadence that I couldn’t get just right for some reason during the race but I now understand. On my new bike, I think I’ll be dialed in just right. I’m glad I found this out to continue to move forward into the 2012 season.

It was headwind all the way up until the special needs. The roads so far were amazing to ride on as far as smooth and flat…up until the special needs. Cracks a.k.a. bike item and bottle launching/body shooters. I grabbed my special needs only to realize that the gel inside had completely exploded all onto my hand and I mean ALL of it. The good thing was it forced me to be in TT position as my hand got super-sugar-glued to the bars for the remainder of the race but it sure made shifting gears and shifting positions rather hard. It made me jerk my bike to the right every time my hand needed to be removed from the bars. It would’ve been the most ideal aide-station water bottle hand snatcher except for the fact that I needed the fingers to bend. I played aide-station dominoes a lot instead.

These annoyances kept happening, deferring my focus from my effort and race. They created frustrations and negative thoughts. But I was smart enough to reel myself in and remember that it’s a long race and it isn’t over until the marathon is done.

The return stretch back down highway 79 into town finally provided relief from the headwind. My mph average was starting to go up, despite backing off the power. My quads, however, were giving me doubts. I had been drinking and eating enough so I wasn’t dehydrated. I thought about Ironman Arizona coming up in a few weeks and how I could just end it after the bike here and have a better race there. Again, I reeled my stupid thoughts back in. Like I ever give up?!- I don’t. Let’s just see what we’ve got for the run and save some during the rest of the ride. I still clocked in 5:00:05- what is up with me ALMOST breaking those hour marks?!

Stay tuned for part 2 where all the good fun stuff happens with some marriage proposals, getting whipped in the butt all during 26.2 miles and most importantly, how I became a runner again.

TAKING CHANCES WHILE COMING BACK STRONGER

2011-10-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that being a professional triathlete isn’t a walk in the park or an easy day at the office. I did an interview for a project with one of the students I coach on the University of Oregon Triathlon Club about… how my day at the office isn’t an office. It’s not confined, predictable, task-listed, chair work. It’s the world, the roads, the pool, the trainer, the track it’s everywhere. And the ability to adapt to all you’re exposed to is a never-ending challenge.

I can honestly say that I have never had so many difficulties during training in training for Ironman Florida. My back hurting so bad I couldn’t sit, sleep or stand, my hamstrings being so tight I could barely walk, tingling in my legs while I run and loosing complete sensation, collapsing before the finish line of a 70.3 before half-consciously stumbling through to 3rd, getting really bad peroneal tendinitis in my feet, yada yada yada- yeah, it was a crap-load of stuff thrown at me. In hindsight, I’m actually happy that each and every single extremely annoying nuance happened. They have all been very important lessons learned- the hard way.

For a girl who never had injuries, this training season proved to me the complete opposite. My body was rebelling. My surgeon after my hamstring reattachment surgery did tell me, your hamstrings won’t tear or bother you- it's going to be other obstacles you'll have to overcome due to the deterioration of your legs after not walking for a couple months. Well, it’s been a waterfall of constant nagging injuries. But that’s what makes me human. It’s taught me to be patient in life more than anyone or anything could ever do. It’s also made me tougher than nails.

So when I entered my final couple big load training weeks leading up to the Ironman, something happened. Something good happened. The body became resilient. I had demolished all of my ongoing injuries. Everything felt amazing. Everything clicked. I’ve had the best workouts of my life; swimming, biking and running. I felt pliable, strong, happy and most importantly, I hadn’t given up during those really hard days at the office or workouts that were just a plan crap-shoot. I had the perserverance to continue to trust my instincts. I had finally achieved my body’s zen by balancing the fine line of pushing through and listening to what my body needed to get there. I also had a huge recovery and body treatment push where I spend a good 1-2 hours a day doing various recovery therapies that I’m going to post in a soon future blog.

A friend described to me that as a professional triathlete there will be “dark days” and the key is to embrace those by learning from them. The days that I went through leading to this upcoming Ironman had many of these, but in the end, all of my training fell into place. It has challenged me physically, mentally and emotionally at times. It has also made me grow physically, mentally and emotionally. Each preparation for an Ironman you figure out more about yourself. This one has definitely been the most challenging, but most rewarding to see the outcome of my fitness and mental willpower.

But the Ironman Florida will be a good symbol of not just a race, but also the fact that I’m on the start line, healthier and fitter than ever. Good things are possible. I’m going to stick to my plan, and let it rock!

BRANSON 70.3 RACE REPORT... and MORE MIDWEST FUNFEST

2011-09-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

My race really didn’t start in Branson… it started with the race to take apart my bike to break it’s flying virginity at midnight the night before the plane took me off to the mainland… err, I mean back to good ol’ Iowa. The plan was to visit Iowa the week before the race and head down to Branson with the fam to help support me for the race. Apparently Iowa provides the best prize money for the pros at the Hy Vee Triathlon the weekend before I arrived. I’m going to try my best to get myself on that starting line next year.

It was a good trip back that let me fit in enough days to make it to Lisa (Koll) and Kiel Uhl’s wedding. It was great to see all of my track alumni and those who I haven’t seen since my undergraduate years of collegiate running. Lots of good gals and lots of good catch up boyfriends, engagements and babies! Oh my! Yes, I’m getting “old.” And my sister is getting married in less than a year with wedding planning operating in high speed! Talk about weddings galore! No, not me yet… as that is the very popular reversal question asked. I got some racing to do.

Throughout the week before the race I had the opportunity to train at all my old venues and enjoy some new ones. Those new ones being the awesome trail that leads to the Dragoon bike trail that runs by the DSM river, the High Trestle Bike Trail that you can actually ride fast and in aero on and bless her speedy little heart Lo Lo our dog that can pull me along at a 6:02 mile pace for 4 miles (wasn’t expecting that one for my brick after a hard bike sesh). Yes, it’s safe to say that this dog can outrun me in a 10k. And with Ben racing his first half Ironman in 4:25 in Oregon while I’m gallivanting around at the wedding- awesome surprise to me! He’s got me pretty much beat and matched on to my fastest so far and has only been running more than 1 mile or ever riding a bike for a year… damn boys! The old training venues, the Ankeny Family YMCA where I had my fastest non-competition swim workout splits ever this past week, the country farm roads up to Slater and Ames and back, our giant downstairs airplane garage with the CompuTrainers and Tready’s… It was a good mix of the old and the new.

I also got to meet up with some awesome people, my family, my friends, my sister and more. Special shout out to Steve Fry one of the world’s best bike mechanics at Bike World. I actually put my bike back together successfully; he just gave it even more TLC- awesome guy and awesome people in that store. And, I have to say, my Mom is an amazing massage therapist, she added and complimented very well with my local massage therapists work Chance Fitzpatrick with a combo of myotherapy technique along with trigger point and deep tissue massage. I have my run legs almost 100% back because of her. She really got my legs feeling sensation again and downing the hamstring tightness. Yes, I’m lucky, I know ;)

The drive down to Branson began Thursday afternoon. Friday consisted of going over the swim, bike and run course. My Dad and I arrived to T1; he drove the course while I rode behind him, as the roads are HILLY. I like mountains, I really do, I love hills, but these were some swervy curvy hump bumps with blind corners and speedy cars with it not being closed/race day. And I simply hoped in the car when it got to the highway part. I’m glad I pre-road the bike course- even just the first 10 miles, because I immediately changed gears, literately and figuratively. I changed my racing strategy plans of attacking the bike course to seeing what I could do on the run. And let me tell you, I’d rank this bike course almost as hard as Lake Stevens 70.3. There are lots of longer power punchers, but not as short of power drilling and energy draining hills as the Lake Stevens course. After riding the course, we traversed on down to the Branson Landing where T2 for the run start took place. I loved the run course layout. I especially loved running through the shopping promenade and in front of a badass water display show where later that evening we had dinner at the Cantina Laredo and enjoyed a “Journey” concert outside in front of the light show. Dad was happy.

Pre race day was a lot of preparation and anxiety over the predicted race day weather. So far in Branson it was raining, no DUMPING almost all day every day and creating some massive rivers in the roads. The forecast called for a repeat the next day, specifically the next morning right at 7 AM. In my mind, I was saying “bring it on rain- MO whatchu got over Oregon?!” Ok- maybe Mizzou has thunder and lightening that zaps my computer charger completely. Or what can be described as angry rain- rainstorms. Whelp, I was ready.

3:30 AM my mom comes and wakes me up. Funny, I’d been having dreams all night that I was waking up getting ready to race in at least 5 very different and very odd scenarios in which I thought impossible for my brain synapses to concoct. Each one was ended abruptly by awakening to thunder. So my Mom was for real, no drinking mojitos and making a cucumber salad at a Hawaiian beach while somehow tuning up my bike in transition to race. Dream #4 was comical yet the most depictive of an underlying reason. Think I’m dreaming of Kona much? 2012 baby!

Sure enough when we got to T1 there was no rain and no light. I prepared T1 and did my usual warm up. In the water I was trying to almost slap myself awake and get into race mode. With 3:30 AM being 1:30 AM my time, and warming up the hour before the 7 AM Central time, I was trying to focus. With the sun not coming up until 3 min before 7, I was swimming in the dark, warmer 71-degree water. So needless to say I was not really ready to kick it up a notch and definitely felt that something was “off.” The canon went off, but I was still off. I was sprinting or so I thought, but just wasn’t ready to fight the pace that quickly both mentally and physically. I can normally psych myself up something good but went with what I had. I ended up drafting for the first quarter of the swim but got quickly separated from the front pack of girls. The entire swim I was thinking ok- GO! Faster arm turnover, kick those legs, and pull with those arms- now! OK- NOW! Well, it just wasn’t a happenin’! I came out of the water at 30 min exactly. Bummer. But again, I kind of expected a slower time with that brain-body connection not fully wired up yet.

I hoped on my bike ready to ease into a stronger steady effort on the ride and then run it down. The bike course felt awkward for me physically, but the course was RAD to go over! I actually enjoyed it. We got to ride down the highways that were completely closed off and go up and down up and down being able to challenge speed and practice good aerodynamics. And whatdya know- the sun came out, and no blasphemy rain had been bestowed upon us yet. I found myself catching up to the top placing pro ladies gradually knocking the time down at the turn arounds and my avg mph speed getting faster.

You know if it’s a hard bike course if my bike time was 2:52 with the 2^nd fastest bike split and the fastest guy pros only averaging 22 mph. I honestly had times on the bike course where I thought top 5 was not going to happen today for me. For the first time I did ask myself why I was doing the race, even though the racecourse was awesome and I truly enjoyed it! I had that not so competitive feeling. But once I started getting closer and closer and passed a couple ladies, my game started to come around. Maybe it’s the time zone thing…. I’m blaming the time zone difference for lack of mental motivation for the first 2 hours... (I REALLY can’t use this one for Ironman Florida!)

I hopped off the bike feeling fresher than normal due to not pushing the bike as hard as I typically do. I almost think it was a blessing in disguise I wasn’t too into the bike. It made me pumped to get off it and start running that half marathon which hasn’t been the case in most of the half’s this year. Running down the promenade provided music, cheering, signs, perfume scents, shopping stores, lights, camera, and action… All the commotion made me feel like I was running pretty fast. I started ticking off the miles at 6:20 pace feeling pretty good. And to my disbelief, I was really gaining on top 3. Sure enough, I blazed by up to 3^rd place and was still gaining onto first and most importantly Nina in second. But then my hips and hamstring started to tighten the last couple miles and I started to do the math in which I knew it was impossible to run 2 consecutive miles at 5:30 pace to catch her so I didn’t push it to far and let my legs do their thing.

I’ve noticed that when I know the finish is in sight my body's frequent physical response is to have my hamstrings and lower back tighten up or cease up right when I know the end is coming. It’s been happening in my workouts too. So I’ve been working on mentally controlling my thought/ physical responses by having to “convince” myself that I have a lot more miles to go and I end up break through it. So with 2 miles to go, I kept telling myself I have 5 more to go, and in November I’ll have 15 more to go at this point :) I ended up finishing 3^rd place with one of the most epic scenery finish lines of the 70.3 series. The finish line was in front of this multi-million dollar light and waterfall exhibit. And I just missed 2^nd place by a mere minute behind Nina Kraft… Immediately I thought if I had just biked a little harder or had my swim right on or been out riding with the front pack the whole time… Persistence. Someday the big “W” will come, and it will be earned. But right now I’m pretty pleased to be a continual podium finisher so quickly after having such an intense injury and resulting downtime and surgery.

And the rain, it was kept at bay for no longer than 5 minutes after I finished. Because it started DOWN POURING. I really lucked out. Hard core, but you know who’s hard-core?! All those age groupers out there who finished that race and to Jessica Meyers who really raced and wanted the win- she earned it out there. She also has the cutest twins ever that are literally mini versions of her. Jasmine Oeinck did phenomenal for her first half ever and having to change a flat, she sure picked a toughie course for it! And came out of the water faster than any male or female pro. And Caroline Gregory as well for sticking it out and having her first top 5 finish in her first year as a pro. Let’s just say 4 out of the top 5 females wore TYR hurricanes.

After finishing this race was when I was going to decide if I was going to compete in Ironman Florida and perhaps the Miami 70.3 the weekend before. I feel confident in being able to transfer my 1.2 mile swim effort to 2.4 and my 56 mile bike to 112 and my 13.1 scaling back the mile pace just 5-10 seconds to make it comfortable to hang onto. I feel that my body has gotten stronger and is ready for IM training for the next 5 weeks with less running and more quality sessions, but still loading on the swimming and cycling.

It’s nice- my hamstrings are starting to contract again.

LAKE STEVENS 70.3 RACE REPORT: YES I PEED MY PANTS

2011-08-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

Apparently the way to get more twitter followers is to admit to your deepest, darkest secrets during racing…. One of them being that “yes, I peed my pants” going down a hill almost reaching the 50 mph speed mark during the bike portion at Lake Stevens 70.3. As a triathlete, you have to do it sometime. The adrenaline rush just worked out as a pretty good aide. And once again, Lake Stevens provided an action-packed bike course- especially for the pros. Matt Lieto broke his chain and was stranded on the side of the road to spectate the bike portion. His recap here, All of the female pro’s were jockeying for position back and forth…then our fastest women cyclist of the sport Tyler Stewart blazed past all of us after we were “ahead” of her coming out of the water. The age-grouper and car dodge-ball swerves and curves and then the climbs made for a steady rider like myself to find it more of the licking of a hilly criterium on time trial bike.

Really this race weekend adventure started on Wednesday- the day I have to round up to being a thirty-year-old, the day I meet my 1^st quarter life… and slight crisis. Glorious. I ended up having to visit the doctor as my spine was giving me some major lower back pain and sciatic nerve issues down both of my legs. The 1^st back cortisone injection in L4/L5 3 months ago decided to cease so I spent my birthday getting my birthday present wish of calming and healing the pain from my back. Sushi and none other than DQ of course followed this major detour. We were hoping that the injection would crystallize in 3 days- meaning I could race. As of Wednesday I could barely walk, lie down or sleep without pain. And it’s been exactly a week from today and to be honest- I NOW feel fine and in control/ feel 90% sensation in my legs.

Friday Ben and I drive up to Seattle. En route, I had this Dave’s Killer Bread gift certificate from winning a race. Since I’m gluten-free, I gave it to Ben J Well, apparently if you’re ever in Portland, the Bob’s Red Mill Headquarters/ visitors center is right across the street from it and let me tell you- it’s thee place to be! We had to head over to IKEA as well to break Ben’s IKEA virginity. Now we’re just trying to figure out how we’re going to organize all the tri/bike gear closets. We arrived in Seattle after someone rear-ended us in bumper-to-bumper traffic- seriously Seattle- you’ve got an even worse problem than LA. DO something about it! Our evening was topped off after finally arriving at Ben’s aunt’s place for some serious bike porn and good food while enjoying the sea from their backyard.

Pre-race day I was feeling nervous. I went for a test run with the back still hurting something good. I was totally prepared to back out of the race if need be. There’s one thing I’ve learned- you only get one body and you better treat it well so that my newly twenty-five year old body doesn’t feel like a seventy-five year-old’s one. And I want to be in this sport for more than the next ten years. I was not about to put myself through something that I felt would injure me. Surprisingly, the run made me feel more optimistic about the race, but with my leg sensation not 100% there, I knew I’d have to be racing at 50% capacity and be OK with that and not push it too much.

Sure enough, race day morning comes and I’m putting on my TYR hurricane and hoping in the rather warm 69.9-degree water. The gun goes off and I learned I have more of a sprint start than I used to as the flow of girls resulted in an almost immediate halt around me when I was just getting into gear. The swim went well for me. I focused on not kicking as much to try and tame down the heat production build up. I was actually mad at myself for not pushing the pace a little faster as I’ve learned in the swim portion you have to constantly ask yourself- are you swimming as hard as you can right now? The swim is a straight out solid push from start to end… and I’m still getting used to that. I’m now getting used to sub 30-minute 1.2-mile swims and coming out with the front pack of swimmers instead of the 8 minutes down I used to be on the swim. I’m very fortunate that I have picked up on swimming that much faster that fast- in 3 months. It felt good to get into transition and still have half of the women’s pro bike rack full.

Then onto the bike. You’d think I’d have learned by now that the 56 mile 2 loop bike segment in Lake Stevens is one of the hardest out there… well, I re-learned it again. The up-down, zigzag punchy-power hills and as previously stated the many “obstacles” out on the course for everyone- make it hard for a time trialist to really get into a groove on this course and right now I’m more of a “masher” and ride with really low cadence because my hamstrings are weaker than my quads (for now- surgery might do that ;) And my back/legs were pissing me off something good so I had to reset my goals and mind to force myself to slow it down a little. Glancing down at my Joule I was seeing anywhere from 200-500 on the course at times and mostly hanging out in the 230 range. But looking at my avg… 20.9 for the bike split was devastating. How could I have gone so slowly?!? I was resetting my theoretical bike split time to around 2:30, but once that hit and I was a couple miles out yet- sure enough 2:40 was when I clocked in. But apparently uber cyclist Tyler Stewarts time was only 2:31 and the second fastest bike split among the female pros was 2:39. It was definitely a slow, hard day out on the bike. But coming in put a psychological damper on me going into the run…

I came off the bike hurting. Instead of the top 3, I lowered my expectations to top 5 because it was one of those days… After running out of transition the announcer yells that I’m in 4^th. Which I honestly thought that I was wayyy behind after that bike time. Running was doable- but I had to pace myself and make sure that I could finish as my legs were cramping and feeling like baby deer legs already. It’s the oddest feeling. My running pace feels effortless, but it’s the neuromuscular feedback and power contractions that are lacking so it’s a chicken and egg physical and mental game I have to play. Relaxing certain muscles and contracting certain ones- you think it’d be really easy, but it’s harder than you think. Especially when your body makes your gluts and leg muscles contract not because of muscle fatigue but because of a pissed off nerve that says "no- protect and shorten this muscle! Not lengthen!" gimme a break....

I started out strong. I ended up running myself into 3^rd place, but Hailey Cooper was on a roll and I know I could give it the extra oomph to run, if I could :) And after turn around just about 1-2 miles ahead of me I’d see Tyler Stewart and she was speaking positive words to me each time I saw her and so did a couple of the pro guys as they passed me on their second loop of the run course. Luke Bell has class and had a solid run and really encouraged me to keep my head up and focus on moving forward despite my legs saying no. The interesting fact is that the hills on the run course did not feel as hard as when I was a stronger runner, and running 6:20 miles at the beginning felt relatively easy with a low heart rate. But those miles slowed down pretty quickly as I was going the pace of what my muscles would let me, never really breathing hard. Talk about feeling trapped in your body.

I rounded the corner and headed down the finish chute in 4^th place. Revised mission accomplished. I’ve concluded that my physical fitness capacity is higher than what my body allows me to do. My muscular endurance mixed in with the neurological complications I was born with has been exacerbated after not walking for a couple months. The key will be to strengthen the core, gluts, hamstrings and lower back so that my body can withstand the spinal stress.

What I truly enjoyed about this race was the group of ladies and how at the finish and throughout the race, everyone was supportive, friendly and had faith in each and everyone racing. I have to say I have definitely even higher respect and an even greater competitive shared camaraderie on the women’s professional WTC circuit after this race.

So what’s up next for me?! Some resting, rebuilding, strengthening and racing! Branson 70.3, which I am totally STOKED about on September 18^th! The whole fam is coming down and the course layout looks pretty hard to beat- some steady time trial climbs for me to motor up and down- that’s for sure ;)

And of course, I have some super supportive sponsors that have helped me race and train on my recovery trail to many top 5 race results in the beginnings of my short season so far: TYR a big part of my swim improvement is because of you. Powerbar, Garmin, CycleOps Power, K Swiss, SIDI, Lazer and my trusty Zipp’s and Continentals that never flat. (I don’t need to knock on wood…)

Keep fighting the good fight.

Cheers,

- kenz

THE CANADIAN ADVENTURES CONTINUE: IRONMAN CALGARY 70.3 RACE

2011-08-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

I always go to Canada and end up coming back with more. Not more in that the border patrol wants to stop me from smuggling in extra goods into the US, but the new friendships and experiences that I gain. There are a couple key things that I have learned from this race, the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, the scary, the insane…

The Good.

I fell completely at ease in Calgary with special thanks to our homestays- Ian and Keridwen. They are incredible people with amazing personalities and graciously extended their hospitality to Ben and I. It definitely increased the enjoyment factor we had in downtown Calgary. As far as competition for Calgary 70.3, it was looking to be quite a close field with the women’s field all very close in ability- which meant it’s going to come down to shear minutes, if not seconds… and I could potentially place at Calgary. It felt more like a goal-focused vacation than just another 70.3 race. I was ready and I felt ready.

The Bad.

Ugh. 6:10 AM start time = 5:10 AM Pacific Time. I have a hard “time” (he he) attacking the pool, let alone hard swim sets early in the morning without a long warm up or being up for a couple hours. So the race scenario for the chilly swim was less than ideal. I hoped into the water with my TYR hurricane but had to do one of those little breathing spasms because it was so cold. I continued to warm up but to be honest, it wasn’t sufficient and it sucked. The swim was ok. I just couldn’t ever get into a rhythm with all of the wakes, sticks and large pieces of wood that would come into my hands, hit my face or what not. I also followed the wrong female and male group as far as pacing and direction wise. I need to trust myself in sighting, even though it was still dark outside. Alas I come out of the water… in 5^th. I ran to the bike and hoped on it with the determination and mindset that it’s a time trial hammer fest baby! I wasn’t giving up on being on the podium at all. I still had my best cards to play yet. I was also glad to learn at the end that everyone’s swim times were a couple minutes slower than normal, so I kind of felt better about my “slower” time… 32:32…

The Happy.

There are certain times when you really REALLY love riding your bike and just get so into the race! This was definitely one of them. I define this as my happy “riders-high” with a comfortable 23.7 mph/ 230 watt averages to move me up to second place in the race and clock in at 2:28:52. The Calgary bike course was 90k or 59 miles due to that conversion thing, so on a hilly course and heart rate low, power high, and me slightly “high” off the riding experience, I was having a blast. There are definitely still areas that I can improve on to increase my overall bike split for sure and I learned what works and what will work more from this experience.

The Sad.

En route into T2, a road nastier than a lot of Tucson roads had a crack that I ended up riding over at the perfect angle to launch my beloved PowerTap Joule 2.0 off the secure snap attachment mount. Thank goodness Ben was directly right in front of me at the dismount line taking photos as I yell in front of the whole crowd go to him to go get my Joule about a mile up! So needless to say it got traveled over and lodged into a crack, but heck I wasn’t going to stop and get it! It was returned and the thing is solid- it still works after many blows and being shoved into a crack in the road. I came in 2^nd! I was ready to run down the race, or so I thought.

The Scary.

No gels or fluids were going down on the run. That’s because barely any fluids or gels were going down on the bike. I was so wrapped up with the bike that the little distractions made ingestion take the back seat in my mind. My fluids were too sweet for me for some reason so even though I thought I was drinking more, I was drinking less. My gel flask that I thought to be halfway empty was really only ¼ empty, but like a larger person laying out in the sun, it’s hard to tell if there’s still that much there from above- or in this case on my top tube.

The run felt good at the beginning, avg 6:15’s on the flats, but then something weird kicked in. My legs were feeling abnormally heavy and my nerves were acting up as well. Then the first monster downhill came, and with monster downhill’s, there are the monster uphill’s too. I can honestly say that I am not yet coordinated enough after surgery to run that fast downhill without slowing myself down with a little quad-breaking action. The whole run it was Sara Gross and I following each other, one tailing the other never letting the other one out of sight. Like I said, I was struggling in the run, water wasn’t going down… I forced myself to consume my favorite PowerBar Gel- Tangerine and even that didn’t sit. "Well, fine then!" was my attitude. I was still going to run what I could and I was actually thinking I could pass Sara at the end.

So the first 10.55 km avg was 4:06/ km… 4:36/km for the last 10.55 km. Yes, something happened besides my pace slowing way the heck down. Something beyond my control happened from pushing myself to my limits while being under fueled and hydrated, and the grand, hill quad-slam-fest probably contributed to my complete body shut down as well. Still, with it being days after the experience, I get emotional thinking about what happened. It started with less than 2 miles to go or 4k to go, every step felt heavier, every breathe I took sounded worse and worse, my legs were starting to wobble beneath me, but I was determined to keep going even though it was harder than almost any interval I’ve ever had to do. My pace was slowing and the legs were refusing to turn over, to create a powerful bound. Every time I dug deeper, 2^nd place kept getting another second ahead of me. I physically couldn’t go faster and was deteriorating fast.

The dizziness and blacking out started to happen, but I kept running and the legs kept seizing. I kept trying to stare at the finish line in front of me but all I could make out to see was the concrete in front of me while swaying ten feet one way and then to the other. I felt trapped in my body, I knew what was happening, but all I could do was try to keep focused on moving one leg in front of the other and balancing. It got so bad that I fell with 400m to go. The medics rushed over and said if we help you, you can’t finish. I got myself together and took about 30 seconds to successfully get back up and start walking. Ben and people were yelling walk as trying to jog was a disaster. But at this point, walking was difficult. You could picture it as the infamous Wendy Ingraham Ironman finish, but yet I was able to somehow get up and walk.

The Insane.

With every ounce of brain power that I had left, I had to concentrate more than I ever have to unlock the cramping, the blacking out, maintain stability, process coordination via all my sensory and imagery will power to accomplish the mere task of walking- and not even in a straight line. Nothing, I repeat NOTHING will ever be harder than that experience and deriving that willpower. I finished in 3^rd barely, with 4^th place only about 20 seconds behind me. If I would’ve hurried on up and avoided that episode- Sara finished a mere 7 seconds behind the overall winner Tenille Hoogland. It would’ve been an interesting sprint finish to first…

After passing the finish line, I fell straight into medical’s arms and went to the med tent. I laid there for awhile, drank a lot of water, cooled myself down and miracously somehow I felt better, still nauseous as all get up, but I managed to hobble on over to the award presentation. Thank goodness all of us top 3 ladies were leaning on each other and that sunglasses could cover up my closed eyes. I also still managed to open the bottles of champagne and spray them with the top 3 ladies to only quickly return back to the med tent after that.

VIDEO of the finish

Thankfully, I recovered very quickly after that incident. I also learned that I don’t need to wear my HTFU bracelet ever again as I’m pretty sure after that experience that it’s engrained in my head. I just don’t give up until I physically can’t and then I give some more. So that pain from intervals? That isn’t pain! Despite how traumatic of an experience it was, I learned a lot about myself. I am slightly insane, and I think you have to be in this profession to not limit yourself.

Onward to Lake Stevens 70.3 this weekend for another podium repeat! This time I'll try not to get too involved in racing my bike :)

REV3 PORTLAND RACE REPORT:: MY “LUCK”

2011-07-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

I am one lucky girl- for many reasons.

Perhaps the word “luck” should be replaced with the word “fortunate” because where I am today has taken a lot of diligence and hard work. Whether it was the hard work of recovery or pushing the body, or the commitment to my friends and family, everything happens for a reason. You can shape your future. I’m not too big of a fan to say “good luck” to someone before a race. If you’ve prepared the best you can, you really don’t need luck- you just need to “race hard”. And that’s what I did at Rev3 Portland. I thanked my “luck” that I was able to recover so quickly after hamstring surgery, but truly made my luck happen.

So first and foremost, I’m lucky because I was able to race Rev3 Portland even though I’m not supposed to be racing until the end of August and that I have such a high-caliber race right here in my wonderful home state of Oregon. I thought I wouldn’t be able to race yet and sure enough, I’m rocking the training and ready to roll on race day.

I’m lucky to have such awesome friends Lisa Koll and Kiel Uhl to hang out with and crash at their awesome pad in Portland. Lisa has by far given me the best running insight and the enjoyable trading of professional athlete war stories. My goal is to be able to run with her and Shelane at their God-awful insanely fast pace of 5:30’s for a long run…. For a couple miles :) And their new puppy Ruby is downright adorable.

I’m lucky because I have one awesome boyfriend who drives all the way back to Eugene to pick up my Torque to wear for the swim. Yes, despite the pre-race email stating the water temperature of 62 degrees, magically, the water temperature climbed up to a bubbly 70 degrees pre-race afternoon as stated during the pro-meeting at 3 PM. Yes, it was an insane temperature jump to make wetsuits illegal for the pros. Ben calms me down. The only two options were hope that the water temperature was taken incorrectly or get my Torque. I was going for option #1, but Ben was going for option #2. So he drove all the way back to Eugene, so another 4 hours in the car to bring back my Torque and Sayonara. I didn’t feel so bad because I actually ended up wearing my Torque for the race…. And Jesse Thomas wore my Sayonara… So his trip back didn’t end up just being for me… because I don’t know if I’d do that in return for him?!

For the race, I ended up swimming a 31. I started off in a good rhythm, broke away from the chase pack of girls, gradually catching up to the front pack swimmers Meredith, Bree and group. The sun decided to gleam perfectly in line with my eyesight (thank you astigmatism) making following the buoy lines a little more difficult. I hit some “low” patches during the swim, as it’s hard to concentrate on keeping my newly found faster swimming up. So for swimming solo, a little off-line and losing tempo a bit, it only left me down 3 minutes off the leaders- verses 10-15 last year.

I’m lucky because I got my first racing penalty after 11 years of racing triathlons, cycling, running, etc. You get the picture; I’m lucky my “good-girl” status got revoked. See slight angry racer face above :) But it makes me feel better that Micheal Lovato after 18 years of racing got his first penalty too. Odd...

I was a moving machine on the bike. My biking has been faster than it ever for the 70.3 distance. Despite a good bike split, there were still some things to work on. After looking at some of the race pictures, my position wasn’t as far forward as it normally was. And again, 70.3’s are about staying focused and asking yourself are you going as hard as you can- it’s about riding at or near threshold the whole time. Another thing to work on is not “drafting” an age-grouper for 9 seconds 80-100m in front of you. I need to obey the stagger rule and never be directly behind anyone. In other words, I should’ve been moving quicker and staying more focused the whole time instead of worrying about the huge pot holes, glass and other cars traveling on the road. I guess I should be happy that I got a 2-minute drafting penalty over not getting a flat. I ended up with a 22.75 mph avg or 2:27:42 err 2:25 :). Again, it was a solid effort but getting back into racing and learning to push the body faster. I was riding along at 4th place on the bike! And during the time penalty I ended up saying hello to 6^th. Depressing, but gotta work with it.

I’m lucky that I’m able to run competitively after a no running/ walking period from January-June and pull off a respectable half marathon. I’m still supposed to be on this walk-run program that consists of walking 5 minutes, running for 5 minutes for a whole hour! I gave that run all I had. I ran myself up to 5^th place while inching towards Bree Wee in 4^th. But Amanda Lovato was having an awesome day and was inching up on me in the last 3 miles and passed me 1.5 miles left. I tried to hang on as long as I could but she bridged a 20 second gap. I ran a 1:27:02 half, 6:39 mile pace avg and I remember when I first started running how bad a 7 minute mile felt. I ended up finishing with a new PR in the 70.3 distance for me of 4:31:22 (4:29:22 J) for 6^th place. And I know I can race even faster at my next race in Calgary! It’s all about getting stronger to get to the finish line faster.

I’m lucky to have such an amazing camaraderie in the women’s professional field. Despite the ongoing competition amongst us, deep down we are all supporting each other to push each other to the next level. Meredith- you never cease to amaze me and encourage me when you're pushing your hardest. And to all of the other ladies out there, it was a great race.

I am lucky to have such amazing sponsors. First and foremost, TYR you represent triathlon and how triathlon companies should be at the beginner, age-grouper and pro level, you’re always there. Garmin, you definitely have helped my running so far in my short month running bout to let me know my running pace. K Swiss- I love my Blade Light running shoes, and how dry and light they always stay.

And last but not least- AGAIN I’m lucky that I have the best partner in the world! Ben has truly been the one who has helped me get back on my feet and where I am today, helped me succeed, and be the best Sherpa and friend I could ever ask for. And he took some awesome pictures… and some of them ended up on the slowtwitch articles ;) Another task to keep Mr. Benster busy- tracking splits, running around, taking photos.... I think we're getting a camera :)

Three funs in one | Pro triathlete revels in own training and coaching others.

2011-07-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ridgeline Trails. Eugene, Oregon.

Click it!

Three funs in one | Pro triathlete revels in own training and coaching others.

Check it out. It's a great piece and exposes how Eugene embraces triathlon.

Here are some photos from the article from Colin Andrews!

Amazon Pool

RABBITS, REHAB... AND RACING!

2011-06-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

As a triathlete, you see the impossible happen. An amputee crosses the finish line or an 80-year old finishing an Ironman. Triathlon tests the body. The body can do amazing things. The body can be pushed to its limits and beyond. The body can be so durable and tough, yet so fragile at the same time. All of us are out there racing triathlon for one thing or another that reigns significant in our lives. Perhaps it was because when someone told us we couldn’t, we knew we could. We believed in the greatness held within ourselves.

And that’s just it. After discussing war stories with age-groupers and pro’s alike, we all have something holding us back that could make us a better athlete. No one is perfect, and that’s what triathlon accepts. Triathlon is about accepting our imperfections and overcoming them. But there are times that the body has to do what it needs to do before you can race. We all know that recovery from an injury or even a workout takes first priority over racing. You want to race in racing shape, not “broken” shape. On that note, I have been very fortunate enough to always be in amazing shape and make it to every race start and finish line that I set out to do, until this year.

Despite being the invincible youngin’ pro (that I thought I was) an underlying congenital spine deformation finally showed it’s tip of the iceberg. L4/L5 of the lumbar spine carries the sciatic root nerve out and runs down the legs, controlling neuromuscular facilitation. Instead of a curved spine, I have a couple flat ones, which make the nerves pissed off at times and make my legs do some crazy things.

Some minor but not debilitating injuries of my past included sciatica, and some odd loss-of leg sensations, and lower back pain. But these would go away, never hurting my performances. This past winter, those symptoms came on again but stronger. My hamstrings were unnaturally tight despite a lack of any sort of muscle strain. I started running a speed workout, and pushed the pace too much too early at the time and tore my biceps femoris hamstring away from my bone. I didn’t cry, bruise, or think I actually tore anything. I could continue to run on it believe it or not, but with some pain. Ok- the doctors said that the pain should’ve made it impossible for me to run. Well, I did. Whoops. This resulted in my only option of surgery for complete rehabilitation. So I underwent the knife and am now called “scar butt.” Got told I should get some awesome tattoo over it- or just keep the battle wound :)

I got out of severe shape, but I did get to lay in bed for almost 2 weeks straight. It was actually kind of nice. Completely emptying the mind, sleeping, movies, reading and catching up. I put on my heart rate monitor for kicks and disgusted myself at the fact that my heart rate was in Z2 or in the 130’s to hobble out of bed and into the kitchen on crutches. Not walking for 2 months meant devotion to becoming a fish in the pool 2x a day. Then came the biking when I could start walking again were 150 watts for 45 minutes put me in the high 150’s to 160’s- that’s threshold heart rate, and then came the running clearance from Dr. Lantz at Slocum here in Eugene, OR who did an amazing job on my surgery. And it feels phenomenal. Running feels truly how it did again and way ahead of schedule too… so much, that I just finished my first pro debut race- a hard half.

Pacific Crest Half in Bend Oregon is one of the local Oregon favorites that truly amplifies all of the beauty Oregon has to offer. And has been on my race calendar for the past couple years. I choose it as my first test to see where I’m at after my recovery. I just started running a month ago, after not running since January and being non-weight bearing for 2 months, but could run a solid 2 hours or 16-17 miles on the concrete. The body responded pretty darn well. The hamstring responded pretty darn well too. Being a conservative racer, I surprised myself at what I was capable of and all of the fitness that was engrained into my body. All that swimming paid off- I was the first female out of the water and swam an easy 30 min 1.2 by myself. The bike was fun. I could go forever and finished at the same powerful bike time as last year despite stronger headwinds. The run felt like I wasn’t used to running off the bike quite yet but was only 3 minutes off of my stellar time from last year-, which put me at the same race time as last year being one of my best races. It was finishing proof that I am ready to be back in the field. I’m getting ready to really push it at Rev3 Portland- the clearance test was a complete pass. Kenz is back on the racing scene. And there will be some rabbits to chase there- looking forward to hunting again. And coming out of the swim WITH the pack this time. Pac Crest was a good solid win for me, but some go-getters will be nice to have.

So what do you do as a triathlete? Thank your lucky stars every time you make it to the start line in health, be thankful for what you’ve overcome and give respect to those who have made it there. And really take a look at the person standing next to you. I’ve had this happen to me as a pro, but my experience is so minute and farther removed on the continuum. And when I see a CAF athlete, it twinges my heart even more. I know what it felt like for a few months to not walk, but to live that way, and race triathlon?! Those are the real super-stars. A part of me races for those who were told they couldn’t, but can. Bottom line- the Ironman motto is true.

“Impossible Is Nothing”

And a huge thank you to all who have supported me through this and helped me get to the starting and finishing line. My friends, family and the awesome triathlon community both age-groupers and pro's alike who have helped me out and had faith in me the whole way. It's meant so much to me- triathlon is truly a supportive community where the word impossible is stripped from our language.

Until next time- I'm ready to ROCK REV3 PORTLAND!

THE BEST RUNNING TRAILS OF EUGENE: PRO TRIATHLETE APPROVED

2011-06-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

The McKenzie River Trails

You might be in town this weekend for Track and Field Nationals… or you just might be in my neck of the woods. If you happen to “run” through Eugene- here’s where you can run and which trails I use for different workouts.

1. The McKenzie River Trail

I list this trail first because it is hands down the best place to do your long run. It is beyond gorgeous, the trails are solid, and the imagery you experience is breathtaking. The McKenzie River Trail is about a 45 minute drive out from Eugene, but it’s beyond worth it every time. I park at the ranger station or the trailhead. Be sure to bring a hydration belt. You can literately run on the out and back trail 26 miles out and 26 miles back. There is a slight elevation on the way up but it’s hardly noticeable. I go to these trails to escape and be in the heart of some of the most amazing forestry in the world… and such peace. My running is almost turned into therapeutic and spiritual when running on this trail. It’s that epic. Conrad Stoltz 4x XTERRA Champion even says that these are the best trails he's mountain biked on- in the world. And Runners World ranks this as #2 best running trail in the world as well if you don't want to take my word for it.

2. Pre’s Trails

These are the infamous trails where Prefontaine would do is training, and you can now run on them by the Willamette River. They’re cedar bark trails and they feel amazing to run on. I do longer tempos on these. They often have XC races on Pre’s Trails. And you get to run by the infamous Autzen Stadium. You won’t miss it. Pre’s Trails can be looped onto Alton Baker Park’s sidewalk and cedar trails too. Eugene is known for it’s endless trail links. Eugene indeed has places to run. Even in town- pretty much everywhere.

3. Alton Baker Park

You can follow the Solar System- no really. There are planets along the pathways that are distanced and sized to resemble how far away each of them are and put them into perspective. There’s also a lot of wildlife and sculptures along the way. The world’s first bike suspension bridge also looms into Alton Baker Park. Alton Baker is a good place to park as well- it leads to the Riverbank Trails and Pre’s trails. Basically, it’s an amazing/ horrible stopping point, as you’ll have to choose where to go. Decisions, decisions….

4. Ridgeline Trails

I like heading up to the Ridgeline Trails after I start out from the Amazon Rexius Trails. Ridgeline boasts some awesome vertical climbs and launches you up into the foothills of the mountains surrounding Eugene. There are so many access points, so many loops, so you’re bound to find lots of “real” trail running in the woods. I love these for my recovery or duration runs.

5. Amazon Rexius Trails

I love the flat, cedar Rexius Trails in particular for tempo work. There are milepost signs, and the track meters are broken down. There’s also a track close by- the South Eugene Track where you can warm up and cool down on these awesome trails too if you need speed work. Adidas stepped in and had to make some sort of trails in the birthplace of Nike. There are water fountains, bathrooms and a parking lot. Very convenient place close to the University of Oregon.

6. The River Bank Trail

I LOVE these! They start less than a mile away from where I live- and there’s the East and West bank, with water fountains along the way. I usually start on these for my long runs and tempos and then head into Alton Baker Park then onto Pre’s and loop back. The River Bank Trails are paved, but they are ever changing and very scenic. The houses along the paths are breathtaking… and sometimes make me want to climb onto their awesome patio furniture and chill. They are the most inviting paved trails around here and they run up and down the Willamette River on both sides and have many bridges for transport back and forth over them. These are definitely my classic go-to trails. I NEVER have to stop at a stoplight. I can just keep running for miles linking all of them together, with water and bathrooms if needed along the way.

7. Hendricks Park

Close to campus, Hendricks park as an awesome hill that the University of Oregon XC and Track use for hill repeats. I have the U of O Triathlon club do hill repeats here as well. They love it. It’s a good short-looped running park. The trails are shorter but if you want to run to and around the park, do some hill repeats. This park is super close to campus so it’s a good option to get up into the hills quickly. And it is THEE oldest park in Eugene. Beautiful.

Enjoy the many paths you can take in Eugene. These aren't all of them, but these are the most popular and the trails I train on the most. You're bound to always see more runners than you can count on your fingers. It's the culture of Eugene, so you know we'd do it right.

THE TOP ATHLETE SUPPLEMENTS YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT

2011-06-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

We all know about Iron, Vitamin B complex, Magnesium, but I bet you don't know about these other supplements that have been in traditional medicine and proven research countless times on their healing and performance enhancing properties. They are all safe and legal within the healthy recommended dosages. You are probably missing out on what these supplements have to offer to you as an athlete.

GLUCOSAMINE.

Glucosamine is a combo of glucose and the amino acid glutamine. Glucosamine supplementation helps to support cellular structures within your body. IT especially helps to protect cartilage and overall cushioning in your joints. Glucosamine also helps to alleviate joint pain and symptoms related to osteoarthritis. The effects of Glucosamine can take from a couple weeks to perhaps a couple months, but is more than worth it when you’re on a high-volume training load. Any physical activity that stresses the joints, such as high-impact sports, will experience a benefit from this supplement. When increasing my running and cycling mileage again, I’ve noticed an extreme decrease in overall knee pain by adding Glucosamine to my supplements.

Recommended Dosage: 1500 mg/day, usually in 2-3 divided doses of 500-750mg

GINSENG.

Ginseng is obtained from a plant root. Ginseng has a lot to offer for an athlete. Ginseng increases energy levels, enhances athletic performance, relieves stress, improves mental function, helps to control blood sugar and even enhances immune system functioning. In general, Ginseng helps the body to adapt to stress by interacting with the hypothalamic-pituitary axis to balance the secretion of adrenal corticotropic hormone or ACTH (essentially adrenaline regulation). Make sure that you aren’t taking Siberian Ginseng, as it is not as powerful as the Asian Ginseng even though it comes from a similar type of plant.

Recommended Dosage: Dried root 1-2 g/day, Siberian Ginseng 2-3 g/day.

VITAMIN B1 + B2.

Vitamin B1 otherwise known as Thiamin is extremely effective at correcting nutritional deficiencies as well as helping the body during times of stress and gives an energy boost. Thiamin is a water-soluble vitamin that functions in carbohydrate metabolism to help convert pyruvate to acetyl coenzyme A for entry into the Krebs cycle to help generate ATP or energy. Vitamin B1 is found in nut, liver and pork.

Vitamin B2 is Riboflavin. It has the same benefits as Vitamin B1, but also helps with red blood cell formation and nervous system function. Since exercise and stress can tax the metabolic pathways that depend on thiamin and riboflavin, the requirements are increased in athletes and active people.

Recommended Dosage: Vitamin B1 1.2 mg/day-50 mg/day. Vitamin B2 1.7 mg/day – 200 mg/day. Upper limits listed are set to be safe by the NOAEL set by the Council for Responsible Nutrition.

GUARANA.

Guarana is a Brazilian herb that is found to help increase energy as well as athletic and mental performance. The compounds polyphenols and saponins found in Guarana are other active ingredients besides the caffeine content in Guarana. It’s a good option to substitute Guarana as a different form of caffeine intake as it can provide a greater stimulatory effect with a lesser dosage amount. The body gets used to certain forms of caffeine and switching up your caffeine source could give your body the extra edge on race day or on hard training days.

Recommended Dosage: from 200-2,000 mg/day, in divided doses of an extract standardized to 5.5-10% of caffeine (providing 11-200mg of caffeine per serving)

HMB.

HMB or Beta-hydroxy-Beta-Methylbutyrate is very efficient at reducing muscle catabolism during intense exercise training. So, in other words, HMB regulates protein metabolism by preventing the breakdown of muscle. It is found naturally in fish and milk. HMB is a very beneficial supplement during high-intensity periods of resistance and endurance training and following long-duration competitions. The only downside is that HMB is once of the most expensive supplements out there.

Recommended Dosage: as much as 6 g/day, but ranges from 3-6g/day

MSM.

Methylsulfonylmethane is a sulfur supplement that works well at treating athletic injuries, and treating and preventing arthritis and joint pain. MSM is also called Vitamin U that is a metabolite from a well-known solvent that has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties known as DMSO (dimethylsulfoxode). DMSO I use RELIGOUSLY on my knees and it vanishes any knee pain during, before or after long rides- I highly recommend DMSO as a roll-on solvent in addition to MSM. MSM has sulfur that is involved in many metabolic pathways. In particular, skin, hair, nail, tendon and cartilage health. MSM helps by increasing the amount of needed sulfur in the tissues and it does alleviate a great deal of pain as well. It helps make the body feel “well-greased.”

Recommended Dosage: 2-5g/day for the beginning or loading dose and 50-200 mg/day for maintenance.

GINGER.

Ginger is one of the top traditionally used spices, flavors and medicines. Ginger possesses a powerful anti-inflammatory, helps with gastric processes and stimulates peripheral circulation. Ginger also helps with pain relief and is one of the most powerful antioxidants out there. Ginger has also been proven to be effective in relieving nausea! I love cooking with Ginger!

Recommended Dosage: 1-2g of fresh or powdered root.

References.

Talbott, Shawn M. & Hughes, Kerry. (2007) The Health Professional’s Guide to Dietary Supplements. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Philadelphia. The Point.

MEMORABLE LESSONS LEARNED AS A TRIATHLETE

2011-06-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

Throughout my two years as a professional triathlete, it’s safe to say that I have done my fair share of mistakes that have really made me “learn my lesson” at times…But the thing is, despite their stupidity in nature, I’ve learned from these disasters. I’m being bluntly honest and exposing my mistakes- most of them I’m still laughing at. Pros make mistakes too, and hopefully you can learn from mine.

Besides, it’s not like I was the only person around during each matter. The word public humiliation requires a large group of people. Some of you have seen these events in action. Even though I get more mad at myself in the heat of the moment if I make a mistake rather than actually embarrassed.

They get from so so, to well, the worst, most traumatic ones of all:

Don’t hit another pro in the arse in T2. Lake Stevens 2010 I whipped my bike around accidentally whamming another female pro straight in the arse with my rear Zipp while she was putting on her shoes. It made her fall flat on her face. Shortly after I was out on the run course too I passed the poor girl. She immediately said sorry to me when I passed her exactly when I touched her shoulder and apologized too. She honestly thought I was mad at her for not letting me pass her before getting into transition. Well, I think I might’ve damaged her run. But after all that force, nothing happened at all to the bike, just the poor girl.
The swim exit is not straight into the male age-group swim start… and don’t trust volunteers, trust the guy with a megaphone. Oh Canada…. Calgary 2010. I was having a decent swim, but still alone in the women’s pro field. I knew I was coming in close but all the rain, clouds and dark sky made it hard to determine where the swim exit was. And to tell the truth I didn’t really know where the swim exit was in relation to the dock. I ended up flailing at the end, thinking that the finish was straight to the right of the dock, when in reality I was heading towards the 100+ group of male age-group starters. It was to the left! But people were pointing to me in that direction, but maybe they were telling me that they were about to start their swim straight into me? I was irate finally getting my head up and asking where the finish was. And then finally the starter guy on the megaphone told me to get out of the way and he told me to exit on the other side. So I ended up swimming all this extra yardage and would’ve had a good race! That cost me 4^th place there. Yeah- this was one of my biggest idiot moves.
Time zones can screw you over. I love Gmail, but I don’t love what Gmail does. I had the mandatory pro meeting in my calendar, placing it as 1:00 PM while in Eugene (Pacific Time). Even though I changed the time zone on my computer, Gmail assumed that since I made it in Pacific time it would still be Pacific time and moved it to 2:00 PM Arizona time. So here we are, tooling around on our bikes going over the run course to waste some time before for the pro meeting. I get there, almost a little late, but then there’s Chrissie being interviewed and looks at me like what are you doing here now? Ok something has to be up. I go in the completely empty room and it’s full of empty water bottles and turned chairs. I had missed the pro meeting. The repercussions of that meant not being able to race. The WTC laid down the law on the pre-race meetings and I thought I was done. All that work and I won’t get to race Ironman Arizona. This is where Ben chimes in well you “learned your lesson” I think it’s a guy thing to pick bad wording and the worst times…. But obviously, I still got to race. I just had to chase down Paul Huddle.
Know the course before you predict your time. I honestly thought I could race a 4:30 at Wildflower in my first year as a pro… and so I did an interview with Triathlete and they asked me what I was expecting to race and I told them a 4:30… which resulted in them saying so you think you can beat Julie Diebens record? I had no clue who she was at the time, and uh- yeah right…. No way I could pull off a time like that then on such a tough course. So wishing I could’ve pulled a Jesse Thomas at that point and prove people wrong.
Never grabbing water on the bike during a triathlon- ever. The first race that finally put a big enough damper on stuff was Boise 70.3. Needless to say I didn’t grab any water during Boise 70.3. In fact, I was a bike aide-station virgin until Ironman Canada- and I grabbed the first one flawlessly. Back to Boise, my aero drink completely spilled out in transition and on the roads. Meaning that the extreme wind and hot temperatures left me with 1 water bottle on the bike. Needless to say, I got super dehydrated. I became so dehydrated that I actually stopped at the water fountains along the run route that was conveniently a bike path. I stopped; walked, restarted I don’t know how many times. I learned my hydration lesson. The rest of the slow almost 8 min mile way to the finish and in the med tent afterwards.
Forgetting the swim skin. I’ve had several wetsuit issues. At Vineman, I forgot to bring my Sayonara swim skin, as it was a no wetsuit swim. And I swam as slow as a turtle. For some odd reason I thought it was faster to get up on my bare feet and do a jog-dive combo in the water while stepping on sharp rocks… and having to race in my drag suit uniform. It’s the worst swim time I’ve ever had. And then there was the time in Bend that I put my wetsuit on inside out. I only realized it after someone told me- thanks kind dude in Bend.

At the end of the day, lessons are learned, everyone makes mistakes. You learn from them and get better at not making them. But triathlon is all about making the least amount of mistakes because ultimately, there really is no absolute perfect race in triathlon.

DON'T BREAK UP!

2011-05-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, there’s one thing that I hope never happens- the break up. The awful, dreaded break-up that makes me irritated that it even happened. They end up cutting it short, but then they come back because they decided they wanted more. But for some reason, things just weren’t the same the second time around… it felt worse than before. Things really aren't just the same when you prematurely end a running affair that was meant to be a long lasting one… Breaking up your long training sessions is not an experience you want to partake in!

From a triathletes perspective, training involves multiple workouts per day. Sometimes there are two swim sessions (acceptable), there might actually be a morning and PM bike or run… so you’d think that breaking up something like your long run really isn’t that big of deal… but it really is a big freaking deal people. Trying to break up your long run, ride, or a swim to get part of it in earlier and then another part later in the day is just… clearly a waste of time, energy and recovery… unless you’re into that type of (aimless) training…

The purpose of a “long” ride or run is to gain the benefits of training for longer than your typical training session durations. The adaptations that you acquire don’t really start to kick in until the last 15-20% of the total duration. The precious time towards the end of your long session is exactly what you are working for. Yes, there is a lot of build-up and time spent just chugging along until you get what you want. When you put in the time, you finally get the added metabolic and cardiovascular benefits you need to be a successful endurance athlete when going long. A long session also gives you an important test of mental focus and improves your overall physical comfort stamina range. Both of which are just as important as being in shape.

What you can only get from going long:

Muscle strength and adaptation for going the distance
The metabolic advantages of burning more fat making you more efficient
Cardiovascular endurance to continue to push onward
Being able to mentally tough it out for a long training block… no one said it was easy!

If you end up breaking up your session into two parts, it’s important to know that your body won’t just “resume” where you left off. In general, a session consists of a warm up period, the workout part, and a cool down. The body likes to go into recovery mode very quickly. In fact, in about 10-15 minutes of rest, you’ve missed your window to continue onward. The same thing goes for longer rides, running sessions, swimming, etc. When you are training long, frequent, longer stops should be avoided at all costs. You’re shutting down the body and then having to re-vamp it back up. It’s like they never went together, they’re just two separate workouts. SAME THING GOES for your transition runs- you've already missed out if you've taken more than 15 minutes to start your run after a ride. It's a perfect time to practice your quick transitions. Be prepared before you head out for your ride if you know you're going to do a transition run.

Ever notice how many people in various endurance condition form can just go out and ride a century? But they stop, a lot, for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 1 hour… at a time. The same principle can be brought to this concept. Breaks make training easier, and your time restraints aren’t as difficult to manage… Now these are all good excuses and are definitely more inviting to the mind, because the training is easier in these scenarios. Again, no one said it was easy and that’s not the point of a long training session.

Consider if you split up your long run. You run 13 in the morning, and 9 more at night… can you guess how those 9 miles are going in the evening? Worse than if you could’ve combined the two together and now the recovery time for your body is reset as well as not getting the benefits of going long- the marathon is 26.2- not rest after a half and go run some more after lunch. Endurance sports require the body to become efficient the longer you go. Don’t cut yourself short by breaking up these precious workouts. When you break them down, you’re breaking yourself down even more by wasting your recovery, your time and if there’s one thing I can’t express enough- you’re letting go of one of the best quality workouts you can get.

I mean, I know we’re not runners, but look at the feedback of advice asking for almost permission breaking up their long run!

As a professional athlete and coach, you can tell I don’t allow it. But by all means if you just like training a lot and want general, non-directional fitness, go ahead! And worst case scenario, if you really REALLY can't fit it in, can't skip an extra hour of sleep, going for the long run on Friday night instead of grabbing beers... then I GUESS something is better than nothing, but science and I still feel very strongly for the full-on affair. It's not easy, but many have made the lifestyle choices and adapted to the long hour demands of ultra-distance training.

WHY EUGENE IS THE NEXT BIG TRI SCENE

2011-05-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

There have been plenty of times… especially during the dreaded, rainy, chilly… no... bone-chilling, cold long rides where I can successfully convince myself that I loathe where I live. It was always inevitable that the warm water availability of the shower never quite made it to de-thaw your body. It was that bad. But then again it wasn’t…

The brave, die-hard cyclists would still show up at 8:30 AM every Saturday morning to face whatever kind of weather to ride the hammer fest together. With that type of camaraderie, the rainy days didn’t seem so bad. It’s not as god-awful as it seems because it's all about the attitude and culture exhibited from the athletes in Eugene, Oregon. We all have the drive to play hard outside, rain or shine. We are all out there together either having a blast or suffering together. Who cares about the weather?

And then gradually some additional retrospective thoughts about Oregon knocks some sense into me to further clarify my selfish pity-party attitude. It’s really just the WEATHER and not Eugene that makes it unpleasant at times. You have to pay for the greenery somehow- that means rain during the winter and the spring. Just when you think it'll never break, the clouds start to part, the weather gets warmer and the rain goes away. You see why the rain was worth it. You can see how Oregon (Eugene) is pretty much a triathlete’s dream playground.

Eugene might be known for holding the title Track Town USA, but there’s way more than just a running culture, it’s an outdoor junkie’s dream environment. Eugene is in close proximity to the coast, the mountains, skiing, national forests, vineyards, the Boulder of the west coast Bend, big city Portland. Oregon is just a step up from Cali that offers pretty much every type of landscape you could want. Oregon has the true vibrant green you can only get in the Northwest.

My training here is unlike anywhere else. Here are a few highlights Eugene has to offer:

Being able to get anywhere on my bike: bike lanes and bike paths galore
Pre’s bark trails along the river
It’s home to the University of Oregon giving it the college town feel and making athletics an dominate part of Eugene
Getting to train on Hayward Field, need I say more?
The Multisport Advantage offers a GREAT triathlon training shop
Super close open-water swim opportunities at Fern Ridge or Fall Creek
Plentiful amounts of hills that will redefine your definition of a mountain
Thee Thursday Nighter and CSC weekend rides
Healthy food stores + fresh fish and seafood
The mass amounts of traffic, crack and debris-free roads to ride and maybe hit 2 stoplights in a 5 hour ride (Courtesy of my Garmin to map my fav long ride out)
Being able to run on one of the best trails in the world- the McKenzie River trail
Amazon’s 50m outdoor long course pool
The huge cycling community that supplies tons of racing and training opportunities.
The lack of corporate America’s chain stores and instead dotted with many unique, one-of a kind stores
And... No sales tax
The satisfaction of breathing fresh air
242 Scenic Highway provides 1.5 hours worth of a straight vertical cycling climbing and 30 minutes of pure adrenaline descending
The spirit of Pre and living in the heart of the running culture
The lifestyle: liberal, yet full of people who care about their bodies and their environment

I’ve visited San Diego, lived in Tucson for the winter and used to live in the Midwest, but all I can say is it’s going to be tough to make me leave such an amazing, convienient, friendly, training atmosphere that Eugene creates. I mean, it didn’t take long for Triathlete Magazine to list Eugene, Oregon as one of the top 10 not so obvious tri-towns in an article. They know what I know.

Yes, I might leave again for the winter for a couple weeks and head back down to Tucson or someplace warm to escape some of those HTFU mind-insanity cold, rainy rides, but I will always call Eugene, Oregon as the place that turned me into a professional athlete and has helped me test my limits. I’m in love with the city.

TRIATHLETES SHOULD KICK

2011-05-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

The general excuse for triathletes about not kicking or ignoring the kicking component of swimming is the “I need to save the legs for the biking and running.” So swimming to these triathlete’s means incorporating the light slow, two-beat kick because swimming just uses the arms. Ignoring and placing little importance on kicking is actually exactly what you should not do.

There are three main purposes of your kicking component in your stroke:

Forward movement
Maintaining correct body balance position
Proper body rotation

Kicking is not just for forward movement. In fact kicking helps stabilize and balances you for proper body position in the water. Kicking propels you forward mostly during the downward part of your kick. That downward segment of your kick is also where you receive the greatest lift of your body. For example, a pull buoy helps lifts your hips up and takes the place of lifting up your legs and core for you. When you take the pull buoy away, it is necessary to kick properly so that you are able to maintain body balance in the water. So not all of your kicking is used for forward movement. A great deal of the kicking energy is directed towards balance, which amplifies why being an efficient kicker is so important! As far as kicking helping with rotation, you should never kick directly up and down. In fact, you kick at angles which help stabilize and rotate the body. Essentially your legs act as an anchor to help you pivot and rotate as well.

Take a look at the awesome online swim stroke application Mr. Smooth to see how kicking plays a "roll" literately.

I instigate kicking workouts for my athletes and you know what, I see some of their fastest swim splits. Kicking gives them that extra break through speed during faster sets. Kicking activates the other two massive limbs on your body that can give you some major propulsion in the water. The lesson to drive home here is not to skip the kick as it’s what’s most likely to give you that extra edge and make a break through in your swimming.

Lesson learned: kicking is uber important! You should include a main kicking set each week in your training. It’s important for all race distances and levels of triathletes. Kicking also helps activate the legs for the bike-run portion. If you are competing in an Ironman to just finish, then it might be wise to save those legs and not focus on kicking.

Here are a couple swim workouts emphasizing kicking. If they’re too much or too little of yardage, subtract or add onto the sets.

Pacing Practice Kick Set.

WU: 4 x 100 @ :10 rest, 4 x 25 with perfect technique @ :10 rest

Kick Set

4 x 50 FAST kick @ 1:15

1 x 50 FAST swim @ 1:10 maintain kick throughout

4 x 50 FAST kick @ 1:15

1 x 100 FAST swim @ 2:00 maintain kick

4 x 50 FAST kick @ 1:15

1 x 150 FAST swim @ 2:30 maintain kick

Set 1

*2 rounds

50 @ :55

50 @ :45

*2 rounds

50 @ :50

50 @ :40

*1 round

50 @ :45

50 @ :35

50 Active Recovery

75 FAST with 25 Active Recovery

Set 2

6 x 75 @ 2:30

6 x 50 @ 2:00

6 x 25 @ 1:00

10 x 25 kick sprint, 25 FAST swim @ 1:15

CD: 250 perfect stroke

Total: 3600 yds

Short Speed Focus Kick-Swim Workout.

WU: 400 easy swim.

MS:

4 x 50 very fast (30”).

50 kick easy.

4 x 50 very fast (30”).

50 kick easy.

4 x 50 very fast (30”).

50 kick easy.

4 x 50 very fast (30”).

50 kick easy.

4 x 50 very fast (30”).

50 kick easy.

CD: 400 easy swim.

Total: 2050 yds

Kick-Swim Speed Workout.

WU: 300 easy

300 kick- 100 side, 100 back, 100 stomach

2 x 150 pull 2:30 2nd Descending 150

6 x 50 on the minute 25 kick/ 25 swim, 25 drill/ 25 swim

MS:

50 kick 1:00

100 on the 1:30

50 kick 1:00

100 on the 1:40

50 kick 1:00

100 on the 1:50

50 kick 1:00

100 on the 2:00

50 kick 1:00

100 on the 2:10

800 alt. 100 free/ 100 back

12 x 50 on 1:20 50 sprint, 25 scull/ 25 free

CD 200 easy

Total 3550 yds

Arizona Master’s Combo Swim Session.

WU 200 swim NS 100 pull 4 x 50 1st 25 drill, 2nd 25 build

3x through:

50 +10 or RI :10 off of threshold pace or "T-pace"

100 +10

150 +15

Kick

50 +20

100 +20

150 +25

Pull

50 +10

100 +10

150 +15

CD 100 easy

Total: 3100

Another good article that shows why kicking is important on Slowtwitch.

WASTEFUL

2011-04-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

The past couple days have really opened my eyes to a major problem; how environmentally wasteful we as human beings are:

Hundreds of trees chopped down in stacks of shaved and ready to send off loads bigger than trucks.
The mass amounts of fuel we use despite the rising costs.
A lone tall-tree surrounded by smaller unnatural rows of little shrubs.
The back of our Puffins box finally got to me, on how our global warming and oil spills are causing those poor little helpless things to go extinct.
How easily disturbed I was about the Styrofoam take-out boxes from our sushi last night
The amount of paper, cardboard and trash shuffled around each day, and the explosion of junk in my mailbox. Multiply that by millions- it’s devastating.
How artificial our cities and life structures have become.

And the matter of the fact is, there was one key item I read that really opened up my eyes to how big of negative impact we are creating on our planet. Nike presented an impressive list of their extreme efforts taken in order to reduce their company environmental impact. And then the one item that got me was that just by using 75% recycled cardboard for their shoe boxes, they save 200,000 trees annually. That’s a lot of trees; and this is just one company. Can you imagine all other larger corporations and how much paper and waste gets processed through each company? If you need an immediate example, as a triathlete, just look at the aftermath of a half Ironman or a triathlon along the feed zones or aide stations; wrappers, cups, sponges, bottles... We leave marks too.

I’ve been a hoarder and a complete user-upper ever since I was little. I still find it very uncustomary to throw away a bottle that still has product left in it. I fully empty jars of their food contents with a spatula and then put it in the recycling. Lessening your trash impact is the biggest step you take in making a difference. It’s a lifestyle choice and as well as an attitude. How you view disposable everyday items besides your beloved laptop or cell phone takes more thought, effort and understanding that your responsibility doesn’t just stop there. It’s an effort everyone should take, but one that most are too lazy and selfish to care about his or her impact on the environment. Can you imagine more and more individuals reducing their overall trash consumption?

I don’t know about you, but living in a place where nature is appreciated and taken care of by humans makes you see how big of a difference it really makes. It also makes you see how easy a resourceful life can be- where urban sprawl, air pollution, trash and big name companies are in the minority. Oregon is one of the few places on earth where I see little to no trash on the roads. It’s where I can train and escape the artificial American life.

More companies need to start focusing on supporting our living- our earth. Without it, we won’t survive. There’ll be no more beautiful escapes on the bike through national forests, clear lakes to swim in, clean air to breathe, cedar trails to run along. Sport is pure; pollution isn’t. Here are some companies that are making the triathlon and sport purer. I hope that triathlon companies are seeing the future of the sport and of our lives and adapting to what needs to be done to preserve our gorgeous race and training playgrounds.

Trek has their carbon recycling program to recycle used and or broken bikes.
Trisports is uber ecofriendly by making every effort to recycle everything and offers a “green” bike box.
Tinkerlog.com recycles your old wetsuits and turns them into laptop sleeves and more!
Clif Bar wrappers are recyclable!

Recycling bins are now being distributed at races so that bottles and race gear can be recycled. More and more people are donating used running shoes to those who can’t afford them. The Big Creek Triathlon located in Iowa were one of the first to pioneer the reusable bags, make hats from ecofriendly recyclable products, distribute reusable nalgene water bottles verses plastic and have those recycling bins everywhere. We need to continue and mainstream these efforts to be mandatory in triathlon. This weekend, the woodstock of triathlons, Wildflower, is now providing recycling bins for the thousands of racers- this is a huge, positive step forward!

Make it your goal to simplify your life by reducing, reusing and being resourceful.

SPIN TO WIN: WHY CYCLING CADENCE MATTERS

2011-04-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

How comfortable would you feel if I told you to race at a cadence of 90-100 rpm’s? Would you struggle or is that already how you race? Why does it matter if you ride at 70 rpm’s verses 100? Why should you monitor your cadence? Let’s just say you could be wasting a lot of energy, be trashing the legs and not moving as fast as you could with an improper cadence. You could also be feeling a lot better coming off the bike and run faster.

How cadence plays a role in power output.
For a given power, the average force or torque applied to the pedals over an entire pedal revolution at a fixed power output is reduced at higher cadences. Therefore the overall power produced from the pedal torque created by your muscles depends on your cadence as well.

Power (watts) = average net effective pedal torque x angular velocity (cadence)

So from this equation cadence or your pedal rate influences:

A. production of power and B. rate of energy consumption

200 watts = torque↓ x 100 rpm vs. 200 watts = torque↑ x 80 rpm

It takes a greater amount of energy to spin at a higher cadence. There are ranges of power output needed dependent on the race specificity and duration. This means that cadence selection is largely time and race specific. As you can guess, the time to ramp up your cadence is when you will need to push the most watts. The time to slow down your cadence is when you need to push less power for longer. Higher cadences are less economical than lower cadences and being economic matters when you’re going long and don’t when you’re pushing your max. Here are some general guidelines for cadence selection:

Sprinting: Interval or road race cycling, sprint attacks upper Z5, 200% FTP
100-120 rpm
Simply put creating a higher power output is much easier at a higher cadence. Cycling at a higher cadence can produce an overall higher power output or sprint than if trying to sprint at lower cadence values. Do the math. Even if you could create the same average net effective pedal torque, you can’t put out as high of wattages at a lower cadence than a higher one.

Time Trial: anywhere from 5 min ~3 to 4 hours. Sprint-Olympic perhaps Half Ironman. Road time trial races, 40k TT’s
90-105 rpm
Riding right below, at or above threshold is hard. Chances are you're operating at 75-80%+ of your VO2max and it isn't easy. Therefore, knocking down the higher cadence by 10 rpm's saves your cardiovascular system the extra energy, otherwise you'd tire out too quickly. But a "spirited" cadence provides muscular relieve while pushing that intensity pace for a longer duration.

Ultra Distance: 4+ hours. Ironman races, century rides.
70-90 rpm
Lowering the cadence improves your cycling economy, which is what matters when you’re going long. A lower cadence means less of an energy demand from your cardiorespiratory system. So, for a given power output, you are operating at a lower percentage of your VO2max. However, the caveat is that the more you mash, the more torque your muscles have to create and become damaged, stressed and fatigued. The goal is to continue to maintain higher cadences longer and/or be able to generate greater muscle torque for longer.

Why if in doubt, you should just ride higher.
Higher cadence levels are proven to increase circulation. The contraction rate of your calves acts as a muscle pump, returning the blood back to the heart. This causes increased blood flow to the muscles and increased blood flow back to the heart to be oxygenated… as well as helping clear lactic acid and other metabolites from your legs. So after leaving from T1 and entering T2, you should focus on increasing your cadence for smooth transitions.

I advocate cycling at a higher cadence during long rides for as long as possible with the goal being able to eventually hold a higher cadence for the entire long ride duration. The longer you can hold onto higher cadences, the higher your cardiovascular adaptations are. I’ve found that if there is a lack of focus on maintaining a higher cadence during longer rides, over time endurance athlete’s ability to operate at higher cadence levels are reduced. Always spinning slow essentially teaches your neuromuscular system to have one slowtwitch gear, and that’s perfectly fine if you never want to ride faster. Ultra distance training kills speed, so don’t fuel the fire even more. Focus on acquiring, maintaining or enhancing your ability to operate at higher cadence levels to benefit from the neuromuscular skill, speed and coordination gains.

The bottom line is, each individual’s optimal cadence is varied. Individual optimal cadence depends on overall cardiovascular capabilities (VO2max) and your muscle fiber composition (slow twitch or fast twitch). Science shows trends that the duration of the event dictates the cadence selection, but individual differences are what give the +/- 10 rpm ranges. To dial it in, play with your numbers. See what ranges you are better able to put out the watts for race pace. Compare your cadence to power averages and heart rate responses to create the best combination for your race. In general, the specified cadences above can be applied to everyone from the beginner to the advanced cyclist.

For more info and graphs:
Abbiss C.R., Peiffer J.J., Laursen P.B. (2009) Optimal cadence selection during cycling. International SportMed Journal, 10(1):1-15.

Gotshall R.W., Bauer T.A., Fahrner S.L. (1996) Cycling cadence alters exercise hemodynamics. International Journal of Sports Medicine, Jan;17(1):17-21.

Vercruyssen F., Brisswalter J., Hausswirth C., Bernard T., Bernard O., Vallier JM. (2002) Influence of cycling cadence on subsequent running performance in triathletes. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, Mar;34(3):530-6.

DISTANCE THRESHOLD SWIM WORKOUT

2011-04-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday my arms got the joy of completing this amazing workout. (and longer workout- yikes!) My swim times are what separate me from having a greater chance of being on the podium. My running and cycling are both two sports that I've competed in as exclusively a runner and exclusively a cyclist. They're solid bike-run efforts, but as you know, can always be improved too. In order to knock down my Ironman swim time and 70.3 swim time, I've got to become a swimmer. Focusing during swim sets like these are key. This workout makes you focus on form, being able to mentally push yourself and stay on task.

Approximate Duration: 2 hours
Total Yardage: 7450
Set Focus: Working on threshold, pacing practice, long course race pace endurance, mental focus, stroke distance power

WU:
TYR's Anti-fog goggle spray so I don't get fogged up during these long sets :)
4 x 50 25 drill, 25 build free (work on quick WU triathlon starts)
500 "Pre-set WU" 200 build, 100 fast, 200 dps finish last 100 fast :30 RI

8 x 500 on the 7:00 (or ~20 sec RI)
500's as 200 build strong dps, 100 fast/ quicker arm turnover, 200 dps above threshold (T-pace) Goal is to get faster each 500

--1 min rest btwn set--

5 x 200 faster than 500 pace on 2:55 (or ~15 sec RI)

--1 min rest btwn--

10 x 100 fast to very fast on 1:35 (or ~15-20 sec RI)
5 x 100 hard pull with paddles (TYR) on 1:30 (or ~15 sec RI)

CD: 5 x 50 25 drill, 25 perfect stroke free

If it's a little too much of a time commitment or a matter of life and death for your arms, cut the workout sets in half.

Enjoy. I did- all 7450 yards of it :)

Want help with tailoring your swim workouts while running and biking stronger from yours truly?
Check out my online coaching programs.

A NEW ERA OF PROFESSIONAL TRIATHLETES

2011-04-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

First off, I’d like to explain that these thoughts and opinions open-heartedly ask for controversy. I’ve debated posting it due to the content, but I feel that the subject needs to be amplified. It is not directed towards or against anyone in a negative form. I simply want to amplify the changes that are happening in the sport of triathlon.

In today’s triathlon racing, it’s not uncommon at all for age-groupers to beat a handful of the professional field. It displays a slight lack of depth within the professional field. But it also shows the ever-increasing upward movement of the overall triathlete population and it’s talent depth.

For example, take the highly popular sport of running. The depth of running and talent within the sport is statistically greater. It takes an even more severe dose of talent to be a professional distance runner than a triathlete. (However, I am not saying that my professional status went without hard work, suffering and some sort of inherent genetic disposition.)

Why is this true? It’s true because of running’s long-standing history, popularity and sport overall easier accessibility. In high school, running programs are offered. Colleges then offer the high school stars the next level of running competition. Running is cheaper and it’s a heck of a lot easier to run anywhere than try and juggle the three sports of swimming, biking and running. And now, the triathlon population is on the rise. This gives more depth to the whole range of triathletes: to the beginners, finishers and the talented. It is making it an even greater challenge to succeed as a professional triathlete. But it is also testing the limits of our sport.

Chrissie is one of the most dedicated, talented and hard working athletes I know, well, that we all know of. She even reigns placements in the men’s professional field. Her obvious goal is to challenge herself and others “the impossible” in sport. Chrissie has a unique and very well deserved anomaly position in the sport of triathlon. She is miles ahead of where many other top females are. She’s far ahead of her time in triathlon and could very well be called the revolutionist of triathlon. She is one of those very talented individuals that found the sport of triathlon and ran with it. But that gap is gradually closing.

Just this past weekend new and upcoming pro Heather Jackson and World Champion Miranda Carfrae raced each other to their limits being seconds apart from 1st and 2nd in Oceanside California 70.3. This shows that even at the start of the 2011 season, the women’s field is changing. The race winners are becoming less predictable. However, I don’t want my thoughts to be misinterpreted; I do not hold the attitude of “competition is my enemy” towards the women I race against. Yes, everyone is in it to win, but there’s a different light that’s displayed in the women’s professional field- and it’s pretty awesome. After experiencing racing with many of the women this past year, it’s apparent that we’re in it to support and push each other to our limits. And while racing, may the best race effort win. In the future, there are going to be more and more women and men professional and age-groupers to challenge all the levels.

Winning race times in the professional field from 2-3 years ago now bring you to perhaps podium, but generally 5-8th place. I don’t think that race times are ever going to remain stagnant or reverse. Places will differ by seconds and that extra edge is what counts. Again, younger, less experienced professionals are challenging a lot of the long-time known professionals. At the same time, many of the experienced professionals are racing to personal bests of their careers.

As a younger professional, I often times think about who I’ll be racing against in 5 years. Am I one of the new era professionals or will I be challenged exponentially each year? Will they be the long-term experienced professionals, or each year a batch of new anomalies? Another professional revolutionist? I think so. I don’t think it’s unrealistic that the women’s’ field can be at or closer to where Chrissie is at today. But then that has me wondering how fast she’ll be then.

MUSIC PLAYLIST FOR THOSE HOURS OF POWER

2011-04-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

Even though the weather is getting warmer, there are still some workouts that need to be done on the trainer… the ones where you need that extra motivation. Here’s a playlist of my favorite songs to workout to during the pain cave sessions.

Luckily, I grew up with awesome parents where blasting whatever music through speakers at home was totally acceptable. Especially while running on the tready in the pain cave. And when I go home, it’s still acceptable. My Dad, Sister, Mom and I all use the treadmills for training. My family likes our music.

When I was little, my sister and I would play while my Dad ran away on the tready blasting classic rock. My Grandpa would give us tapes of the classic oldies. My Mom practiced singing for her swing choir. She entertained us with CD’s during road trips and I learned many albums by heart. One of them was Madonna’s Immaculate Collection. I’m still a die-hard Madonna fan. My older friends introduced me to the beginnings of rap. And then I played piano for 7 years and was in dance for 9 years. Music has been an important part of my life; I associate different times, feelings and events in my life with various songs. I'm sure you do too.

So enjoy the beat-pumped music journey. There’s everything from some oldies, classic rock with today’s pop culture- but remixed into awesome beats. WARNING: PG-13 for some lyrics and my style of music might have too much energy-induced vibe for some. Feel free to skip the dislikes and move onto a tune you like as there are more than 2 hours loaded. And give some of the songs time- you might not like the beginning, but there’s more than 1,000+ likes by the song for a reason ☺

Enjoy!

Or head to youtube.com for the playlist

BEST WRAP EVER!

2011-04-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

I guarantee that there is NO other wrap, sandwich, let alone gluten-free wrap that even comes close to this amazing, mouthwatering, refreshing, healthy, lunch of mine. While I can cook, Ben can grill and make to die-for sandwiches- including this one.

So what’s in this taste-bud party wrap?

All from Trader Joes:
- Brown rice tortilla wrap
- 2 slices muenster cheese
- Parmesan, mozzarella, asiago fresh sliced trio
- ¼ Avocado
- ½ Roma tomato
- Goat cheese
- Rosemary ham slice
- Herb spring salad mix
- Cranberry walnut gorgonzola vinaigrette salad dressing
- Red onion
- Sea salt

It's pretty simple.
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
1. Heat the brown rice tortilla wrap with 2 slices of Muenster cheese on one half of the wrap for 10-15 sec.
2. Lay a thin slice of ham on the side with the cheese and start to layer other ingredients on same side.
3. Cut up the avocado and tomato into thin slices and lightly salt with sea salt.
4. Drizzle a little bit of the best salad dressing ever over the pocket of yumminess.
5. Fold over to one side taco style and have the best lunch ever.

Do A Fruit Twist:
Replace the red onions and cranberry vinaigrette with thinly sliced pears and or clementine orange slices and zest with TJoes orange champagne muscat vinaigrette + almond slices.

I love this wrap. A picture will have to wait... it’s gone already. In the meantime, make yourself one :)

HELLO SUNSHINE VITAMIN

2011-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

The days are getting longer, its getting warmer and the sun’s coming out of its winter hibernation… or you could be a lucky pro triathlete who gets to train in sunny Tucson, Arizona or one of the many college students taking that sunshine dose break. But what happens if you’ve spent most of winter inside on the trainer, you weren’t a pro, a college student or a lucky age-grouper who got to take a training vacay down south? Well, that just puts you at a greater risk for a Vitamin D deficiency.

Q: Why would I be Vitamin D deficient?

A: Vitamin D is not formed within your body. Meaning you require other modes of obtaining this vital vitamin. The two modes of obtaining are via food and through ultraviolet-B ray exposure. If you are lacking foods high in Vitamin D or seeing any glimpse of sunlight (which is oh so common in the Pacific Northwest winters) you are at very high risk of not having enough Vitamin D for your body to function at it’s best.

Q: What happens if I don’t get my Vitamin D that would hurt me as an athlete?

A: Vitamin D does a lot. Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption for bone growth, remodeling and maintenance. Being an endurance athlete you pound out miles and stress your bones. Why would you want to weaken them even more?

Vitamin D also regulates cell growth, neuromuscular and immune function. And it REDUCES INFLAMMATION. Low on Vitamin D results in sore muscles and slower muscular repair.

Q: Where can I find it?

A: Tucson.

I'm slightly being a smart-ass, but actually giving an honest answer. Tucson is the sunniest city in the US with over (generally) 350 days of sunshine. Some would beg to differ in this time of wacky-weather. You can obtain Vitamin D via ultraviolet-B ray exposure to the skin. This causes your body to undergo Vitamin D synthesis.

The total time needed in the sun is 15-20 minutes to get your full dose of vitamin D. So even if its just a break or a quick walk, make sure to get outside!

A: Food.

In the healthy fats of fish- especially salmon, (certain fish contain healthy omega-3 fats as well and helps your body absorb more of the good fats and more vitamin D!) milk, as well as some breakfast foods are further fortified with Vitamin D such as cereal, orange juice and yogurts. Or supplements such as Occina have Omega-3's and Vitamin D!

So here’s one more very important excuse to head or stay in a sunny city during the winter. And enjoy more outside breaks, more salmon and a happier body.

Me enjoying sunshine in Kona- I'll be back, but racing this time!

Just remember at least sunscreen SPF 8 as a minimum. (SPF 8 is the highest you can go to not inhibit full Vitamin D absorption) SPF 15-30 is still recommended for your longer riding sessions. Damaging the cells on your skin from sunburn is not healthy. It also inhibits your skins ability to sweat and thermoregulate properly. So before the races- protect and your body will be able to perform at it’s best!

MY INFAMOUS MORNING OATS

2011-03-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

Considering my last blog entry was about the benefits of not eating breakfast before training, I thought it’d be good to offer the other end of the spectrum. I eat oatmeal every morning of my life and I wouldn’t dare choose to substitute for it. During a ride with Chrissie we had a 20-minute discussion about the vast amounts of yummy combo additions to oatmeal. That’s right oatmeal is highly praised in the endurance athlete realm.

Triathltes like food. We can eat a lot of food. Food is fuel for training. So it’s no surprise that a beloved staple such as oatmeal can get it’s own post. If you’re a non-oatmeal eater, you should really consider all of the benefits oatmeal can give you. Even professional triathlete and nutritionist Pip Taylor suggests trading over the cereal for oats in last month’s Triathlete Magazine.

Why oatmeal’s the winning breakfast choice:
- It has the perfect nutritional balance of carbs, fiber and fat to keep you going
- Lower in calories and sugar per serving making it a higher quality food
- It’s quick, easy, portable and cheap
- It sits well with digestion during training and gets the colon rolling
- The fiber: it gets the colon rolling and it slows down your digestive process
- The health benefits of lowering cholesterol, reduces risk of heart disease and Type II Diabetes

I often have a smaller portion of my customized oatmeal creation again in the middle of the day between workouts or before an afternoon swim practice. I’ve found that this is the one food my sensitive stomach can handle before hard training. I’ll even have my special oats after long 7-hour training days when I’m still hungry after dinners to make my tummy say, “I’m done.” Plus, it tastes so good that it’s like desert.

So here’s how I turn something so simple into an amazing diet staple:

- ½ cup steal cut or whole oats
- ½ water- I like mine non-soupy so it tastes like a crisp when all is mixed
- Trader Joes frozen mixed berries added first so they melt in (blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)
- ½ scoop vanilla PowerBar Protein Plus Powder (makes the wow taste-factor and a potent satiety weapon)
- TJ’s Antioxidant Berry Trek Granola Cereal Mix
- Dried cranberries
- Almond slices
- Sweetener: honey, splenda or agave

And that’s how I can last before and between my workouts without any extreme hunger pains or adverse upset GI side effects during training. So to every athlete who loves and loathes oatmeal, try adding some more nutrients packed goodies to create your own or start with a taste of mine and eat your heart out. And to the oatmeal haters, I guarantee you won’t be a hater anymore.

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT?

2011-03-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

It’s early. Your alarm goes off at 5 AM so you can make it to Masters swim practice. Should you head to the kitchen or train on empty? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that supplemental calories during a long ride will allow you to bike further and faster than if you went without fuel. But there are some advantageous metabolic adaptations that can be gained from skipping the pre-workout chow.

So why would I ever want to train on empty?

Here’s Why: Years of research have proven that exercising in a fasted state stimulates greater utilization of fats over carbohydrates than when fed.

Bonk (bnjk) v. bonked, bonk-ing
Expression used by athletes to describe exercise induced low blood sugar levels; being a feeling of light-headedness and weakness in all limbs. Similar to “The Wall” in running.

v.lt. "But I'm going to bonk if I don't eat!"

Your body relies on energy to train and has to get it somewhere whether it’s carbs or fat. Your body burns a mixture ratio of fat to carbohydrates depending on your training intensity. More fat is burned at lower intensities zone 1 to zone 2 and then shifts to carbohydrates for energy in training zones 3, 4 and 5.

As you sleep, your body uses the glycogen stored in your liver from last night and you wake up on empty. In general, no food in the system results in low blood glucose and low insulin levels whether it’s when you wake up or during the day. Low insulin levels cause elevated plasma epinephrine levels, which stimulate greater fat metabolism.

One more study came out last month by Proeyen et al., which further amplifies the benefits of increased fat metabolism during moderate exercise. I’ve translated them to what that means for you, the athlete. And why you could sleep in an extra 15 minutes and skip the kitchen.

1. More oxygen to your muscles and greater efficiency. Your muscles ability to extract more oxygen is up regulated by the increasing oxidative capacity of your mitochondria.

2. More glycogen stores. Basically, gels already in the body, specifically your muscles. Teaches your muscles to store more glycogen during recovery to prepare you for going the distance in your next workout.

3. Resistance to “bonking.” Your body learns how to rely more on stored energy (fat) sources to regulate your blood sugar levels. It’s been shown that if you consume calories before or during exercise, your body relies more on carbohydrates than fat. It reverses your body’s reliance on gels to burning your own fat.

While I’m a believer of the science, I think realistically I could only go for a 1-2 hour training session without the calories in the morning. If I were going for any longer or completing an intensity session, I would implement breakfast. When it’s quality training, I want to be able to train longer and be able to tap into the next gear in which calories would be necessary. My own personal twist to exercising in the “fasted” state is completing longer rides without (3-4 hrs) or few calories (5 hrs 200 cals). I’ve found that when this is done especially in early base season that instead of my gels being crutches in a race they are my performance aides. Even Pro Triathlete Chris McCormack is a firm believer in training on empty for workouts in the morning.

To try fasting before a workout, determine which zones you’ll train in. If it’s endurance Z1-2 then fasting or calorie restriction can be implemented during training. If your workout session includes Z3 or tempo, threshold or intensity work, you need the fuel. Remember the fat to carbohydrate continuum; it transitions just as your training zones do.

In all realism, I like my food and eating right and at the right time has helped me recover faster, train harder and reduced my overall body fat percentage. It is true that it’s all about what you eat and when you eat and regulating your blood glucose level. Obviously, adapting to exercise during the fasted state and getting used to training through bonking is something that would be challenging at first- but in the long run make you even more resistant to that low sugar level “bonk.”

Here’s to less bonking, more efficiency, a leaner body and hitting that snooze button a couple times.

Proeyen, K.V., Szlufcik, K., Nielens, H., Ramaekers, M. & Hespel, P. (2011). Beneficial metabolic adaptations due to endurance exercise training in the fasted state. Journal of Applied Physiology. 110:236-245.

TRAINING WORKOUTS TO GET POWER ON THE BIKE:: TRANSITION-BASE SEASON:: PART II

2011-02-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

I’ve heard the praise… and the degree of punishment factor from the past base season workouts that I posted back in January. They will hurt if you’re doing the workouts right. No pain no gain is a fairly true statement. I am a big disbeliever of the statement that you should never hit upper intensity (Z5) or threshold work ever in base season. However I also don’t believe in doing 12 x 2 minute all-out intervals right now- that is only unless you are wanting to peak for an early race.

The main point of these workouts is to transition you into the early season races, hit some intensity and further work on your threshold with your expanded base and muscular endurance that you have created so far.

Remember, these workouts are on the high end of what you should be aiming for as far as duration, intensity with the longer end of the sets placing your fatigue resistance at your best. It takes work to be able to hold onto threshold and/or higher repeatedly. I’ve put what I complete for these workouts as an extreme to give you a glimpse of what I do for training.

Before you head out, be sure to check out some of the previous pointers of the Base Season:: Part I post.

Again, I’ll describe the efforts in heart rate zones as most athletes have established these. I will also include some FTP% (functional threshold power) and CP (Critical Power) explanations for those power-data geeks- such as myself.

THE 40K or CP60
The hour of pain can give you ridiculous amounts of information along with some intense training benefits. You can start to prepare your body to learn where you are as far your “threshold” or hour threshold, CP60 (your critical power you can hold for 60 minutes). This workout also teaches you: a. proper pacing b. cadence/ power/ heart rate manipulation and c. mental toughness.

* WU for at least 30 minutes. Focus on higher cadence levels 90-110 rpm to get your HR up for first 15-20 min into upper Z2-3 and ending into Z4. Recover 2-3 minutes and complete an 8-10 min tempo in Z3-4 working into Z5 (CP60) for the last minute.
* Rest 2-3 min then complete 2-5 x 2-1 min Z5 workup efforts into CP30.
* Start the “hour of power.” Ride at what you feel you can hold to for an hour or if you’re outside, start the uninterrupted 40k (24.8 miles) or the Olympic distance triathlon bike leg.
* Remember not to start out to hard, you should be sitting in Z4 and perhaps hit Z5 towards the end if you are able to really push it. Waiting until the last 10 minutes to hit it hard won’t give you as high of average power or a clear picture of what you can truly hold- pace properly.
* Cool Down and ride in Z2, Z3 with some bursts for 3-5 min of 80% of the TT effort to make it a 2-3 hr workout. It’s best to complete this workout 1-2x per month.

HILL REPEATS
If you want power, endurance, sprinting ability, efficiency, top end training or pretty much everything- all of it you can gain from climbing. As part of your base season, hills provide an amazing backbone to all of your developing aspects as a rider. A secret of long rides is to hit the hills in Z3-4 tempo or at threshold to really further develop yourself. Staying the same pace won’t get you any further. The hills during races won’t take as much out of you either.

* WU 15 minutes starting out with a cadence of at least 85-105 rpm while gradually increasing your effort/ pace/ wattage at a comfortable rate to upper Z2-Z3.

SHORT hill repeats: 1-2 minutes in climbing length that is relatively steeper, start out at a brisk effort the first 1 min in Z5.
* The last minute should be focused on really increasing your power output and leg turnover by finishing stronger and almost into a sprint towards the end. It’s important to finish strong on hills to teach your body to create higher power outputs during maximum fatigue. You don’t want to create muscle memory that can’t “tap” into that next gear. The last minute should be in standing position.
* Complete 8-14 times with about 2 minutes of recovery between each.

LONG hill repeats: 6-30 min in length to climb.
* Ride strong throughout the entire hill at an effort you wouldn’t be able to talk at- Z5 for 6-10 min (CP12-30). If you can, ride in upper Z4-Z5 for 30 minutes typically 10% lower than your CP30 or the same depending on your power output on hills.
* Repeat 6-15 minute climbs 4-8 times through with 4-10 minutes recovery between each.
* Repeat 15-30 minute climbs 2-6 times through with 10-15 minutes recovery.
* Focus on a non-dropping cadence as well as proper posture (mostly seated climb) while climbing.

MICROBURST RIDE
While the ride isn’t the easiest, it is one of the more exciting, speedier workouts that shortly taps into your max top end to teach or re-teach your neuromuscular system. Just because you’re an endurance athlete doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work on speed, quite the opposite actually. It works on your top end power to bump up your max output therefore widening your overall training zone capacity. The other benefit is speed skill and coordination. These are good for early season cycling races as well.

* WU for a good 20 minutes starting out with a high cadence of at least 85-105+ rpm's. Gradually increase the wattage to Z2 to Z3 for the last 2-3 minutes.
* Complete the “Micro-Bursts” or 2-3 x 5-10 min: (15 sec. on, 15 sec. off for 10 minutes straight).
* 20 minute recovery between the sets. You should be in Z5, at 150% above your threshold, or FTP power during the sprint then drop to 50% of your FTP or easy warm up pace.
* Complete 5-10 x 10 second sprints out of the saddle at 300-350% of FTP or your max out sprinting.
* Recover at least 2 minutes between each max sprint effort.
* Cool down for 20-30 minutes gradually reducing your effort while maintaining your cadence.
* There is no need to do more sprint sets than above, too much sprinting intervals will affect you negatively. You want to be fresh and able to hit each hard, but yet still experience some fatigue.

RACE PACE LONG RIDE WITH MUSCLE TENSION STRENGTH
Like tempo and threshold work, riding at race pace during training teaches your body to step up your longer ride paces over time to a new level instead of being stuck at the same endurance pace and not getting any faster. It also works wonders for pacing and adapting to a stronger bike race pace.

* WU for about 30-1 hour into your long ride.
* Complete 20-30% of your long ride at desired race pace. Race pace intensity generally follows: Sprint: upper Z4-5, CP60 Olympic: Z3-5 Half: Z3-4 Ironman: Z2-4.
* You can break up the race pace into segments lasting 10-60 minutes in length at race pace.
* Recovery between each segment is your choice of 5+ minutes.
* Next, complete 3-6 x 2-4 minutes around 60 rpm in a big gear to work on your muscular strength towards the end of your long ride.
* 5 minutes recovery between each low cadence set. Make sure to complete the recovery at a higher cadence 90+

Power on.

- Coach Mackenzie

TOP 5 SUPPLEMENTS EVERY ATHLETE SHOULD TAKE

2011-01-18T20:06:00.000-08:00

MAGNESIUM
We all know the importance of electrolytes. You can find them in most of the sports drinks: potassium, sodium… Magnesium? Nope! Magnesium deficiencies pretty much have the same tell-tale symptoms of potassium and sodium depletion. You lose Mg when exercising through sweat and it’s also excreted through your kidneys. Magnesium helps to maintain normal muscle and nerve functioning, it regulates blood sugar levels and blood pressure. It also helps with energy metabolism and protein synthesis. But having chronic muscle cramps could be related to a Mg deficiency instead of potassium and sodium. Mg also helps with calcium absorption. I use Biotics Research Corp Mg-Zyme Magnesium Complex.

IRON
It’s simple. Iron contains heme which is used to help the red blood cells carry oxygen in the body. The more Iron available, the greater capacity the Red Blood Cell RBC has to carry oxygen to the working muscles during exercise. Increased Iron supplementation can increase overall muscle oxygenation during exercise. The RBC’s therefore have more ferritin (which is what you get tested for Iron concetration of RBC at the doctor) in RBC’s means maximizing your body’s capability to carry oxygen to the muscles via blood. Vitamin C helps increase overall iron absorption- dairy products inhibit iron absorption.
I use Hema-Plex.

GLUTAMINE
Training is the breaking down of tissue. Recovery is rebuilding the damaged muscles and tissue into a stronger state. Glutamine is a strong anabolic or “rebuilder” that is already present in your body. It also prevents excess protein breakdown as well. But with extreme training, just like additional calories are needed, sometimes the body doesn’t produce enough of what’s needed or it’s max self-supplying level isn’t enough compared to the amount of stress placed on it. Glutamine has been scientifically proven to help speed muscle recovery as an amino acid rebuilder. It’s also been prescribed medically for those who need serious tissue repair.
I get mine through a blend Recoverease.

OMEGA-3’s + VITAMIN D
Omega-3’s enhance body cell membrane make-up and overall flexibility. The fatty acids of Omega-3’s help decrease inflammation, improve immunity and also prevents cardiovascular disease and improves its co-morbidities. The addition of Vitamin D and E helps the aide the absorption of Omega-3’s. Make sure to get a product with the addition of Vitamin D and with the proper dosage of 3-4g/day with both fatty acids EPA and DHA.
I use Ocinna.

ANTIOXIDANTS VITAMIN C/ E/ beta-carotene (A)
As an endurance athlete, research has shown that increases in physical activity increases the overall amount of free radicals produced in your body. How? Oxidation reactions go into hyper-drive in your body when you exercise via the transfer of electrons. The byproducts of these reactions are free radicals. Why are free radicals the hot topic right now? Because free radicals damage cells; all types of cells within the body. So at large, reducing and preventing cellular damage can be done via antioxidant supplementation and diet. Plus, Vitamin C helps keep your immune system healthy.
I get my dosage of these from nuun- Orange Ginger is my favorite!

TRAINING WORKOUTS TO GET POWER ON THE BIKE:: BASE SEASON:: PART I

2011-01-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

A couple key tips to consider before trying these workouts:

- Trainers that hold specific wattages are good for interval and threshold training such as the CycleOps PowerBeam Pro and CompuTrainer Pro
- Hill workouts are good for doing lower cadence power holds but not time trial efforts where higher cadence efficiency is key
- Make sure that you get to a location where you can complete the main workout without interruption. The last thing you want is to have a quality session interrupted to make it a non-quality session. Plan ahead.
- Keep in mind when training with power that once your total power output starts to decrease by 10-15% of what your current workout wattage workload, it’s time to call it quits. Beyond this point, you are stepping backwards in your training duration.
- For simplicity, I will describe efforts in HR zones as most have established these more than power zones

THRESHOLD TEMPOS
These workouts really prep you for time trialing and being able to hold onto your threshold even longer during road races. More matches in your matchbox.

Warm up 10-15 minutes in Z2. Make sure that you’re in a location that allows you to complete the full tempo without stopping or any interruptions.
10- 30 min in length in Z4 or at CP30-CP60.
5 minute recovery for shorter lengths, 10 minute recovery for 30 minute sets in Z1-2.
Repeat 2-8 times depending on your race distance and specificity.

OVER UNDER
One of the beneficial things about having a powermeter is to have access to your threshold wattage. By collecting workouts, the poweragent software can analyze your approximate threshold by compiling your data or you can just hang out in Z4. Typically, the durations spent teetering over and under are about 30-90 minutes. For half Ironman athletes or those where extended time trials are key, the longer the better. I’ve spent up to 120 minutes hoping.

10 min 5-10 watts above threshold (beginning upper Z4 beginning Z5) 5-10 min 5-10 watts below threshold (upper Z3)
Repeat 2-8 times.

THE RAMP
Ever felt like that VO2max test you did you didn’t get up to your max? Well, with this workout you’ll have enough times to practice it. It essentially teaches your body and trains yourself to take note of how you feel within your ranges. It also facilitates a better understanding of how your body feels and responds after repetitive fatigue. A trainer with programmed resistance works perfectly for this so all you have to worry about is your effort. This is also a good workout to try and get your max HR or high end Z5 figured out.

Start out at an easy recovery pace and with each minute, gradually knock up the wattage 10-15 watts (or 3-4 bpm) until you are at max- you’re cranking as hard as you can, you’re still maintaining a high cadence… you might feel like you will fall off your bike.
Say hello to your max HR or close to.
Stop- recover so that your HR gets into lower Z2 or Z1, super easy- repeat as many times as you can.
Hopefully you’ll continue to get warmed up and the next time you ramp up, you’ll get a little farther- that’s the point. This workout is excellent for warming up for a time trial and prepping time trial warm ups.

CADENCE FARTLEK
Cadence is so important. Neuromuscular facilitation, as well as maintaining the ability to continue to drive more power. You can put out the same amount of power say 250 watts at 70 rpm’s and 100 rpms. Which one is easier? You tell me. Distributing the power output with a quicker cadence turnover eliminates the extreme torque that is needed to overcome the workload. That’s why on hills, torque increases, you have more forward drive from your pedals with a lower cadence. It’s all about building efficiency.

WU 15 minutes starting out with a cadence of at least 85-105 rpm while gradually increasing your effort/ pace/ wattage and a comfortable rate up to upper Z2-Z3.
Ride for 40 minutes at "tempo" effort start out in upper Z2 reaching middle to upper Z3.
Ride for the next 20 minutes at a cadence 15 rpm's lower than your normal cadence but still put out the same effort, HR, wattage, speed, pace, etc. in Z3.
Ride for 40 minutes at tempo in Z3 at your normal cadence.
Ride for the next 20 minutes at a cadence 15 rpm's higher than your normal cadence but still put out the same effort, HR, wattage, speed, pace, etc. in Z3 to Z4.
Cool down for the last 15 minutes with your higher cadence, but GRADUALLY decrease your effort, lower your gears, etc.

Stay tuned for the next set of base season bike workouts! Remember, these can be used throughout the season too!

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea." Isak Dinesen

24 THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ME...

2011-01-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

C'mon, I've got to be somewhat crazy to train as much as I do! But to give you a glimpse inside my quirks- here they are!

1. I never crashed, fell over or get a flat on my bike in 2010. True story.
2. I’m gluten free. Dare me to eat a pizza slice or a cookie, there better be a hefty reward.
3. I’ve never seen Saved By The Bell. And probably never will. Glee is my current entertainment.
4. I’m originally from Iowa. No, I did not grow up on a farm.
5. I wake up most of the time without an alarm clock or 5 minutes before it goes off- damn!
6. I listen to Frank Sinatra when I train sometimes. Classic.
7. I eat Jolly Ranchers for my long ride pick-me-ups Cherry Cherry gives me the boom-boom
8. My toes are always black- nail polish, not black from running
9. I’m obsessed with the weather and forecast. I look at it at least 4-5x per day. Perhaps it’s why I studied Environmental Exercise Physiology
10. I hate driving. I get anxiety attacks with all the traffic. I prefer riding my bike
11. My most eaten food- dried cranberries. The Orange TJ kind!
12. My favorite movies of all time are Pirates of the Caribbean. God bless Disney and Johnny Depp.
13. I never do/have a load of white laundry. Black is for stealth.
14. I prefer training alone out in the middle of nowhere over town. Please get me away from exhaust and traffic!
15. I talk to my bikes Presto and Andante, respectively according to their tempos. Presto is faster as the TT bike, Andante my road bike
16. I put Power Bar chocolate gels sometimes on my gluten free bread in the morning. Yes, true and not that gross- to me at least.
17. I used to work for Red Bull. Yes, I drove the mini around it's where I learned to give energy and how to get it. With or without caffeine enhancement. I'm talking positive lifestyle change.
18. I like waking up early. Training early, relaxing at night. I call it quits for training after 5.
19. I love techno. DJ's are my heros.
20. I could barely run a mile. In the PE mile, my best was a 13 minute as the last kid. Proof that childhood athletics means zilch.
21. I like Dairy Queen blizzards… a lot! Ah hem Raspberry Truffle!
22. I have a temper, it just takes an awful lot to bring it out. Don't worry, you'll probably never see it. If you do, consider yourself blessed in an very odd way.
23. I can remember pretty much anything anybody says, the time, what they were wearing. My memory is "colorful"
24. I’m dyslexic. I wix my mords around sometimes... ok maybe a tots of limes...

TUCSON TRAINING AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES SO FAR

2010-12-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

- The girlier I appear, the more space I get on the road
- Vineman’s course really isn’t that rough at parts… I’ve learned through a comparison of the heat modified roads down here (the bumpy video below might give it away ;)
- I enjoy daily sunshine and the associated 70-80 degree weather

- I miss Eugene’s convenience and amazing bike paths to get everywhere, but not the rain, cold and clouds of winter
- I also miss Eugene’s wonderful bike routes so peaceful you barely see any cars
- I love my 20 million tan lines and being able to take advantage of wearing all types of my TYR swimwear and spandex all day, everyday
- I’ve gotten more peace signs from people in cars than anywhere else (even despite living in hippsta Eugene)
- There are so many trails and dirt paths here it’s overwhelming

- Outdoor pools year round are AMAZING and there are TONS
- The sunset over the mountains every night here is so simple and beautiful I am in awe each night
- I am no longer a Chipotle virgin, it’s tasty! Thanks to my awesome roomie!
- I finally saw a road runner! (the animal ;)
- I like the fact that Arizona doesn’t celebrate that daylight savings-time nonsense…
- The multiple Trader Joes, Whole Foods and endless health food stores are my shopping-spree splurges

- I don’t think I’ll ever have enough time to ride all of the roads here!
- I’m getting really good at doing the “roller coaster” style roads
- All I want to do is SWIM- like 3x a day!
- I love the smell of oranges and they’re everywhere!
- 2 weeks after an Ironman I feel more flat than the week after = swim focus! Yes more swimming!
- I’ve already randomly seen people I know from out of state riding around, small world

So far, it's not been about trying to be motivated to train, it's about trying to figure out how to have more hours in the day and having enough time to recover as well. I'm looking forward to exploring, training and meeting more people out here. Time sure flies when you're having fun ;)

IRONMAN AZ RACE REPORT:: MOVING FAST

2010-11-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

That’s right- I’ve been moving forward at warp speed in my life. Little did I know that what I thought to be one, little insignificant move to race an Ironman would lead me to discovering something I knew was within me but didn’t know if it’d ever show.

I don’t know if it was my yearly flu sickness back in late July that infested my brain with crazy thoughts to do an Ironman in a months time while signing up for the thing as I’m still laying on the couch or if the stars were aligned in that decision process. Who knows? But one things for sure- it was one of the best random decisions of my life and I found out that the Ironman is my race. As a 24-year-old first year pro and training of a pro only since March, I figured after finishing 3rd at my Ironman debut in Canada that I might have figured something out here.

I have conflicting personal thoughts and outside comments towards me such as I’m not “supposed” to be racing Ironmans right now… I’ve got at least DECADE until I peak in endurance maturity years! Do I hold my racing back? Or do I move fast forward with something my body *shouldn’t* be able to handle with my experience? By golly I’m going to move on forward with it because it feels right and I’m going with my gut! My body has adapted to the distance training and intensity and is still injury free. I wanted to make sure my Canadian performance wasn’t some fluke. So I made the move- to race Ironman Arizona with the special perk of Greg Madison (my father) to race as well whom I am forever thankful for to get me started into triathlons.

So here’s how it went down in Tempe town…

Well, first off, the water was NOT that cold in the Tempe town lake despite everyone's freak out session of cold water. It was actually pleasant. The only non-pleasant part was the very dark start with no sunrise yet... Gun went off! The nice thing about this swim is that you can follow the shoreline perfectly and to top it off my swim felt GREAT! At the halfway point I glanced at my watch- 29:54 which was RIGHT on pace for an hour! I was so happy! Then things went south. Right now you could insert the Robert Frost poem of “two-roads diverged into a yellow wood” and “I took the path less taken.” Or in other words, the path that I should not have taken… Some of the women I was swimming with went one direction, while I followed the other girls which lead me outside of the swim line. Then there were white caps starting to show on the water to help aide in our “path less taken.” I shouldn’t complain about the wind creating those white caps- it was so miniscule compared to what was to be experienced on the bike. I came out of the water in 1:07. My time bummed me out, as I was 110% positive I was going to swim around an hour. Lesson learned- trust myself for sighting more than others. Apparently on Ironman live I was moving wayyy too fast for my own good and swimming up in the lead group… then they corrected it. Yes, that was the other Hurricane wearer- Miss CW. Just wait… I’m swimming everyday here in Tucson.

Then it was onto the bike. I LOVED the bike course. It’s a relatively flat 3-loop course with a long steady climb. It was chock full of spectators and CHEERING! When I first hoped on the bike, I used the first lap as a quick warm up and gauged where I was in the women’s pro field. I knew what was going to happen as the race clock ticked on and it would be exactly like what happened when I previewed the course a couple times- a mega dose of bizarre wind. Basically, it was a mini Canada repeat sans the steep descent. Heck, it wouldn’t have been a true IM bike experience for me if I didn’t feel some more hail and rain too. Again, thanking my lucky stars that the TYR uniform is thee best wind/ water shield. The wind was so strong it liked to change to the left, to the right, to the front, to the back you’d think it was trying to do the Tootsie Roll dance, with a little of the slide action in there too… and what would the West be without some tumble weeds rolling across? But I had a plan in place. I previewed the wind diagnostics at specific times; I knew to go a little bit harder in the beginning when the winds weren’t as strong. Then for the second half be smart and milk the tail winds for all they’re worth. Somehow that got me getting faster and faster each lap: #1 21.78 mph avg, #2 22.37 mph, #3 22.62 mph for a bike time of 5:02:00. Dang, if I knew I had that in me with all that crazy wind to get that close to breaking 5 hours, I would’ve done it. But I’m happy averaging 22.25 which is a new personal best for me. I learned I could bike hard too.

What was SO awesome about this course was that I saw my Mom and my sister so many times, I heard the super supportive TYR gang and SO many other people were out there cheering not just my name but for everyone racing around me. The atmosphere was so much fun! However I did make some pretty stupid mistakes on the bike. I definitely didn’t eat or drink what I should have, but I was still OK coming off the bike. For this Ironman bike segment you had to stay in aero the whole time so there weren’t near as many opportunities to consume gels, grab water bottles while climbing, etc. Since it was 112 miles of constant pedaling with no coasting whatsoever, it took that much more out of you…

And I realized that as I hoped off my bike. There was no real time to coast and get ready to transition to the marathon. I passed a handful of ladies on the bike so that I was in the top 8 running mix. I knew what I had to do; I knew how close top 5 to 8th place would be and that it would be a run down. I would have to pull out my running guns and run quicker, yet steady and stay on pace. My goal was a sub 3-hour marathon. To me this accomplishment was not out of the question- the question of the matter was do my legs have it in them today? Unfortunately, I knew the answer to that question already from out on the bike course so I pushed the bike a little bit harder than normal to give myself more of a buffer if indeed I couldn’t have a stellar marathon. I did a trail run too close to the race (I’m still kicking myself in the butt for that… and ok maybe a couple trail runs… I couldn’t HELP IT) which gave a short, quick, shock to the quads and knees that was quite unnecessary. Another lesson learned- No hilly surfaces 1 week prior to IM! I loved the run course though- for the first half. I started out at my hopeful pace of 6:45’s and averaged it the first 8 miles. I kept waiting for my legs to feel flushed out but they never did. But I kept smiling and acknowledging people along the course though. I ended up running the majority of the marathon with Erika Csomor with a little shuffle action. She ran in front for a little bit then I moved, then she moved. What was also necessary time costing element was a 2-3 minute porta potty visit.

All in all, I ended up slowing down. The quads where just not having it and cramping up. I felt fine, but they did not want to move! However, I still rocked out a solid 3:09 marathon with a break in there! I owe a sincere thanks to all of those volunteers and the endless amount of cheering I was surrounded with, for they motivated me to keep grinding along. I was never wanting to stop ever. I wanted to gut it out and finish it! I had moved up to finish 7th place in one of the toughest domestic women’s pro field in Ironman history. I was happy with my new PR 9:24:11. I kept thinking the whole race of how I loved being out there. I love being with multisport people. I love how supportive the women’s pro field is. I love how I belong to a sport that has such awesome competitors and to be blessed to race with one of the best female athletes of all time- Chrissie Wellington. She inspired all of us and definitely added some more spirit and livelihood to the race. I finally got to race with my studette TYR teammate! The performances from everyone were amazing. The course was amazing. I loved the race. I loved having my family there and seeing my Dad race too.

So I don’t know if it was actually an Ironman sickness that I acquired in which I haven’t shaken off, but I’m going to keep on thinking about that craziness of racing Kona 2011…

INTERBIKE

2010-09-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

Well Vegas was fun. I can officially put a first-time check mark beside attending Interbike. The mass cycling (and related thereof) event has the best in industry meeting every year. I got to finally meet a lot of the people who have helped me throughout this past year and made way more connections than I ever expected.

I want to send a sincere thanks to everyone at TYR for making Interbike such an awesome experience. I learned which companies care about their athletes and I’d be proud to say that those are the companies I want to further foster a relationship with. That’s what helps triathlon grow, it’s what helps make PR’s, helps me get from point A to point B, and ultimately gets me from start to finish that much faster from their support. I can confidently say that TYR is one of those awesome companies: age-grouper or pro, product buyer or individual, TYR takes their diligence with the highest respect to everyone and cheers on the rest of the triathlon industry.

All I’m saying is I’m one impressed, thankful and proud TYR athlete.

Those select companies who I talked to for 2011, I enjoyed talking to you and I’m looking forward to an even better season with you on the starting line.

WHAT'S NEXT....? ARIZONA

2010-09-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

I’ve taken the time to sort out some of my thoughts for 2011 racing and decided that I am going to take on another Ironman before the end of the year- Ironman Arizona on November 21st (desperately hoping for water to swim in- perfect conditions not needed). I’ve been focusing a lot on my swim recently because that is one of the only differences between being on the podium and not. Seeing my swim come together before the years over will be rewarding. I’ve been doing more core and basic strength training which has significantly increased my swimming already. Putting in yard after yard of technique and form focus has also proven its weight in gold to me already.

This week marks the second week back at the training. Since I’ll be completing endurance base training all winter for a strong season, it makes sense for me to compete in an Ironman in which my body will be the most conditioned for such an ultra-race test. Once 2011 rolls around I’m planning on hitting less 70.3 races while placing a greater emphasis on longer training blocks. So when I race I’m going to make each one count. The World Triathlon Corporation is changing in which a points system qualifies pros for Kona 2011. I want to make sure I have my opportunities aligned to compete in Kona for 2011 which means that racing Ironman Arizona logically works. I will still be a 70.3 athlete, but know that my forte is ultimately the Ironman distance with eyes on Kona 2011.

I'm also headed down south to train this winter to Tucson Arizona and possibly southern California. They will emit glorious sunshine and a temperature that Eugene just can't cut for the mere winter months. Longer rides sans just trying to keep warm here I come! And, pool time will be spent in sunshine everyday. I'll still come back up for some hard core CSC 4-5 hour fender suffer-fests with the guys in the rain... :D Eugene sure makes you HTFU in the winter months...

MY ESSENTIAL WORKOUTS FOR 70.3 AND IRONMAN TRAINING

2010-09-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, I’m doing it, giving away some of my best held secret workouts that get me from just finishing a 70.3 or Ironman to racing it. However, these are workouts that work for me and doesn’t mean that they will reap the same benefits for everyone. I’ll give you a little more information about myself and if any of it sounds like you, you’ll probably benefit from these workouts too. They maintain and improve my strengths while working on my weaknesses.

Strengths: the ability to cover long distance workouts, hold on to threshold for long periods, collegiate running background, time trialing, hill climbing, swimming long yardage sets.
Weaknesses: Recovery from many multiple workouts per day, swimming long distances at a high pace, very high bike intensity intervals above threshold, running faster intervals shorter than 2 miles.

SWIM.
This workout gets me faster in the pool, lets me hold onto longer sets at faster paces while playing with arm turnover and pacing strategy.
WU 500 N/S, 3 x 100 :15 RI
Main Set x 4 :30-1:00 Recovery between each 500
200 complete under 3:00 (:5 RI)
100 start on the 3:00, complete under 1:30 100 (:03-:05 RI)
200 start on the 1:30, complete 200 10 sec under 3:00
What would 500’s be without RI? = Goal pace for next 2 x 500’s
-- 1:00 recovery between sets --
2 x 500 1:00 RI
CD: 200 with drills
Total: 4000 yds

BIKE.
I hate this workout with a passion but it’s money. I have to psych myself up for it- it’s on the trainer and halfway through each tempo I feel like I can’t go anymore, but I do. It significantly increases my lactate threshold and I can tell when I stop doing this workout that my threshold wattage drops.

CompuTrainer- meaning you can’t slack and consistent efforts without the interruption!
Warm up 15 minutes of increasing wattage to 150. Focus on high cadence 100-105.
6-10 x 10 minutes above threshold (270-280 watts depending on fitness) high cadence again 105-110’s.
5 minutes recovery at 130 watts- still maintaining high cadence 100.
After the 1.5 hours inside, I head outside and finish it up for a 3 hour ride or I run 30-45 minutes afterwards for a brick.

RUN.
Quality, not quantity is how I take these workouts. I don’t run frequently, but when I do I make them long and hard to get the most out of my training while eliminating junk miles and maximizing recovery time. This workout helps build my top end so that I can run progressively faster and further at higher mile paces while working on the ability to recover. It also helps my ability to push through harder challenges on the course such as hills.

Warm Up 30 minutes. I start out really slow- 8 min miles, get down to 6:30’s to ease into it.
10 minute tempo at 6 min mile pace to further shake out.
5 minutes recovery at 7:30 mile pace.
6 x 1 mile progressive repeats: 5:30, 5:28, 5:26, 5:24, 5:20’s, 5:20’s while negative splitting each 800.
Recovery 800m between each mile “quick” jog at ~ 7:15-7:30 mile pace so that it’s a continuous yet interval workout.
Run 1 more hour close to race pace ~7 min miles = about 2.5 hours.

End Notes.

From each workout I analyze my wattage, heart rate response, how I felt and if I improved from the last time I completed the workout. Also, I progress each workout’s goals by making little small improvements. Swimming that 500 a second faster, holding onto 5 watts more, running a mile repeat 1 second faster or completing one more repeat or decreasing the recovery time.

More questions that could be answered or guided by a coach with a Masters Exercise Physiology background? Mackenzie@GetZoomPerformance.com

DON'T STOP BELIEVING: IRONMAN CANADA 3RD PLACE WOMEN'S PRO RACE REPORT

2010-09-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

What you do, see and hear at an Ironman is drastically different than any other race. My first ever experience of an Ironman was Ironman Canada ten years ago as I watched my Father complete this race. Your perspective changes when you’re the one completing the race. It turns into a nervous, anticipated test- both physically and mentally. But what I did learn was that the body follows the mind. Going into this Ironman was an experiment, but a carefully planned out experiment and most importantly, the goal was to have fun.

First of all, I only deem it appropriate to coordinate my Canadian Ironman journey with, well, a soundtrack of the songs I heard at different time points of the race.

1. Let’s Get Restarted- Black Eyed Peas
Pre race I felt fairly prepared, or as much as I could possibly could be. I felt ready. My body was antsy for the Ironman and full of energy but I held back as much as possible in the 2 week taper leading up to Canada. I went over the course, planned my race nutrition, played scenarios over in my head, talked to other pros for advice and set overall goals.

2. California Girls- Katy Perry
It’s race morning. I’m finishing up the final preparations on my bike and here we go, my favorite girlie song comes on… and yes I start to sing to it and laugh. The other pro girls must have gotten a smitten grin or inside chuckle but, hey- most importantly I was relaxed and ready for this race.

3. Snow Patrol- Chasing Cars
Onto the swim! 6:20 AM time to get my TYR Hurricane wetsuit on and gear up for a long, steady swim. 6:44AM before the gun goes off “Snow Patrol Chasing Cars” comes on… ok, really meaningful song to me but I was hoping for a faster paced, pump-up song! But more importantly, it set me up for a steady swim and to conserve my energy with long, steady strokes. I felt more “on” for the 2.4 mile swim than not. I ended up being in the second pack of pro women. For the first half of the swim I’d look around me and see some crazy kicking along with 4 pink caps drifting inwards of the buoy line. They were spending twice as much energy as me and not swimming straight due to the small current. I finally ended up getting tired of my tendency to follow those swimmers and just made the move to go to the front alone for the second half. Good move- we all swam in a straight line. I was proud of myself in this swim! I might not be the fastest swimmer, but I swam straight and came out in an aerobic cruising speed of 1:06. This placed me 16th out of 22 pro females.

4. Please Don’t Stop The Music- Rhianna
The bike was epic. I can’t tell you how fast it actually went by. The scenery was constantly changing and the terrain was gorgeous. Trying to stuff your face with food and monitor your effort really makes things fly by. Regardless of what race I’m doing, Rhianna’s Please Don’t Stop The Music comes in my head when I’m time trialing. Good thing because I used it to monitor my cadence.

5. He’s a Pirate- DJ Tiesto
Richter Pass was a good climb. I caught up to another pro right before the climb. She ended up re-passing me and hammering it a little more up the climb. I hung tight. I made sure to keep my heart rate at 150. I wanted to keep it at 143-155 for the whole ride to make sure I didn’t burn any matches. Patience was key. I ended up passing 3 more female pros up the climb still going my same pace. Then whoosh! Downhill baby! I milked the descent for all it was worth. Then the landscape hit you- literately. Epic valleys mean crazy headwinds. Perhaps Kona level wind at times. Thankfully, I have experienced such situations previously. I got a sneak preview of mother natures freak show in Penticton by pre-riding the course during some of the possessed wind. I just kept at it during the race and continued to focus on my effort. The turnaround on McLean Creek showed me that I was so close to the other female pros and had some carrots in sight. My plan was to move up, get stronger and run people down. It was working so far. Unfortunately, my special needs bag didn’t really exist for me. Mine was forgotten-meaning I had to stop, wait for my bag, then restart on an uphill- ouch. They dropped it because my Red Bull in there exploded all over me as I tried to dump it in my aerodrink. Newbie mistake- put it in a water bottle! Being that sticky wasn’t fun but I washed it off next aide station with water. It was a little downfall but I moved on. Lots of little mistakes on the bike…

5. Thunderstruck- ACDC (how bizarrely convenient…)
Raindrops started. Then it started to rain. I had reached the Yellow Lake Climb and steadily passed 3 more female pros. I was feeling awesome! I was eating my PowerBar Gels as much as I possibly could and trying to drink calories and get Gatorade at every aide station- chug and toss. There were supporters lined ALL THE WAY up that dang hill! It like it was the Tour de France! I was laughing and smiling- people were dressed up as chipmunks and cheering hard core. I was having a blast! I was feeling great! I couldn’t understand why others were bonking at this point. The energy the crowd gave was unreal! Upon reaching the top of Yellow Lake, it became freezing. My feet were numb and tingling uncomfortably. The wind was freezing which made those raindrops turn into, yes hail. It had to be about 45 degrees at the top. A long, exposed descend was what was coming up. I tried to go down in aero but I was too scared for my life. If big, orange construction cones are blowing across the road as you’re descending a mountain- you'd better have the hands on the brakes. The combined rain, wind and hail made it mandatory for me to slow down and lose some time. I traded out for time for safety and warmth. The gusts of wind were so strong that my frame hit the side of my knee and bruised it making it bleed. There were things I was extremely thankful for; I kept repeating to myself out loud “I’m glad I’m from Oregon” and I’ve experienced this bone-chilling rain! I’m not going to let this stop me! As I descended and saw volunteers I yelled and thanked them. They were still all along the descend standing out in the cold rain cheering with smiling faces that could only force me to smile some more as well. I ended up finishing the bike in 5:19:49 avg 21.0 mph.

6. Cow Bell- (no song recognized due to miles of cheering crowd)
Back into town the amount of people cheering and lining Main Street was ridiculous! I was 10th female pro now. I came in smiling, legs feeling re-warmed and refreshed from a long descend to run a marathon. I split up each sport in my mind, never really thinking about the next one. But in reality I was thinking it’s a swim-bike journey to run a marathon. I came on out of transition and for the first time in any race, never felt the weight of the bike to run transition. I started out at a pace that felt right. I said hi and waved to people I knew down Lakeshore Drive... and passed Tereza Macel?!?! I think the cold got to a lot of athletes. Little did I know that our spring like summer here in Eugene would emit such a purpose.

7. Beautiful Day- U2
About 4 miles into the run I heard U2 being played from a house. I pumped my fist up and said awesome song! Little kids were running around, people were chilling with wine glasses and lawn chairs by the road...I saw familiar faces... I couldn’t help but smile back at people cheering and full of energy. I definitely caught some of it! I was still unaware of my rather fast mile pace. I had to hold back at times because I’d get rolling to the music and energy given off my the supporters and aide stations. I was catching women- fast. It kept giving me more motivation and energy. I used quicker strides to eliminate the impoundment on my quads. I also took the uphills slower and used the downhills. Again, I focused on keeping my heart rate at 150 for the marathon. I knew that my muscles would fail me before my endurance. Best to prepare for the unknown- patience.

8. Gangstas Paradise (Techno Remix)- Coolio
Oh the hills! I almost started losing hope of doing well at this Ironman when I pre-rode my bike over the marathon course and experienced thee hills. But surprisingly, I kept myself in check during the run. I didn't waste any excess energy up the hills and cruised on the flats. At the turn around I was in 5th. WHAT the heck was I doing?! I felt well, pretty darn good still. I started laughing when I heard Coolio at the turn around. How on earth could they have picked the exact song that I sheepishly admitted to having on my ipod (see video interview above) oh they did. And did again too…

9. Macarena- Los Del Rio
I did it. I ended up running down the next two girls and ran the last 11 miles holding onto 3rd place. The run back was uphill into a fierce wind that was blowing full Gatorade bottles, cups, banners, the birds were flying backwards... so this slowed my pace down significantly- but I kept at it. I ended up having to see the finish line, but do another short loop before I could finish- torture I tell you. I felt sand being pelted on me from the beach on that little torture stretch. I was running sideways literately! The frickin’ Macarena was playing and I was hating the wind... couldn’t feel my hands... but I was about to finish. I was numb to anything happening because I couldn’t believe what was actually happening…

10. Don’t Stop Believing- Journey
I was running down the finish line in 3rd, at my first Ironman! The people were cheering and the speakers were blaring! I did it! I finished it with a 3:03:54 marathon and an overall time of 9:34:51. Apparently Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing came on, but I was unaware due to all the commotion and state of shock. I just finished an Ironman! I just got 3rd! I didn’t stop believing in myself when the going went tough. I ended up leading myself to one of my best personal victories so far in my life. The experience was surreal. I can still relive it vividly. I want to help others experience this feeling by coaching and helping them achieve the impossible.

I made some mistakes, I followed the wrong group of swimmers for awhile, I didn’t eat or drink enough on the bike, I hammered a little too much on the quads during the bike, I downed all of my nutrition too fast so that I didn’t burp out all of the air and it caused some GI upset, I had side cramps the whole bike, I didn’t get my splits for my run to see if I was pacing correctly, had a painful tingling in my left foot the last 8 miles and did not consume enough while running either. But there is never a perfect race, but to me, this is one of the most perfect races I’ve ever experienced.

I knew after about 20 miles on the bike that this is what I was meant to race- this felt so right! This race was a defining moment of clarity- an “Aha moment” of my life, my purpose, to help others achieve the impossible while personally achieving it.

A special, warmest sincere thanks to TYR for supporting me like no other and getting to wear the new 2011 hydrophobic suit to shield water, chaffing, and yield no doubt minutes faster overall time because of the racing suit. You guys rock. And K Swiss- I ran the fastest marathon in your shoes, PowerBar for fueling me. And my family and life-long supporters and to the other pros who’ve given me some of the best advice- only learning from the best of course.

PRE RACE IRONMAN CANADA: IM IN FOR A TREAT

2010-08-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

This is it- the icing on the cake, the grand finale for me. I had no idea nor real thought of ever competing in an Ironman until I was in my late 20’s as a professional athlete a month ago. Now, here I am a month later in Penticton making the final preps for tomorrow’s epic race. I say epic for a couple reasons.

Epic #1: This was the first Ironman event I ever saw exactly 10 years ago when I saw my Dad compete in his first Ironman. This too will be my first Ironman. The Madison’s have history here and I want to be apart of it. I am fortunate to race in one of the worlds oldest and most high sought out Ironman course besides of course the one on the Queen-K.

Epic#2: I rode the back side of the course up Richter pass down into the most gorgeous valley and back up to Yellow Lake. It reminds me a lot of Banff and the Canadian Rockies. It’s truly the most beautiful, scenic race that I will experience discipline round. The swim, the bike and the run courses are going to be a treat compared to a lot of “duller” races this past season.

Epic #3: This race is going to be a real treat if you’re a masochist. The distance alone- I mean who wants to go out and complete 2.4 miles of swimming, ride 112 miles then run 26.2? I know in my training I’ve done enough and I’m prepared to race the distance, but it’s not a nonchalant affair. I’ve never pushed my body through such distances. I’m confident, but fully aware that it’s a problem solving endurance journey.

My mentality for this race is to well, conserve and move up. I’m going to swim at a good pace, but use long strokes to save the energy for my strengths. Riding the backside of the course proved that you could easily fly the first half, but what awaits are some true cyclist climbing, descending coordination challenges. I’m going to conserve all I can on the bike. I'm going to think of this as a traveling journey on the bike to run a marathon. I stole this from Uli Bromme. We both start out the same but can run. But who knows- this is my first Ironman. Lots can happen but I have good vibes about this race. It’s going to hurt and I’m gong to go through a lot. I’m excited to test the unknown, I'm nervous but yet feel confident about it.

I’m also doing this for my athletes as for myself. I’m doing this to experience what it takes to compete in an Ironman. I feel that personal experience of such a race as a coach and exercise physiologist brings on a whole new meaning to guiding others to experience and test themselves to their limits. I want to be able to experience that epic, glowing, defining moment of such a raw, human achievement of a lifetime. To all of you who support triathlon and experience this, here's to you- I got the Ironman bug.

So far, I’ve enjoyed Penticton, the journey here, training, traveling, getting to meet up with some of triathlons most enthusiastic athletes, sponsors and supporters. I’m glad to be apart of it. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be a blast, and it’s going to go by slow, it’s going to go by fast. I am out there to finish and experience this as my first Ironman, but I’m still out there to race. I’ve never once questioned myself why am I doing this, why am I competing in half Ironman’s, why do I do triathlons. I doubt this will be one of them.

It’s time to rock n roll.

TRY IT- OR YOU'LL NEVER KNOW: HIGH DESERT ROAD RACE WIN

2010-07-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

There are things you do in life that are planned… or spontaneous, stupid or smart, right or wrong, good or bad, exciting or boring… but fear only shows its face when what lies ahead is unknown. In life, one thing’s for sure and it's that you’ve got to take risks and be comfortable with the unknown in order to succeed. You also need to be able to learn from mistakes in life and know how to apply them to succeed in the future. Here’s my first blog entry of my past couple weekend “try’s and tri’s”… and outcomes.

Race Attempt #1: High Desert Omnium Road Race July 11th
Outcome: Random, spontaneous complete success with some awesome teammate guidance
Lesson Learned: Bad starts are not bad omens, have faith and not doubt

The morning started out good. I had my race-day Red Bull and was excited to go to Bend to race with my TAI ladies! Then my water bottle leaked and spilled on my cell phone that eventually stopped it from working and had directions to the race start… but I have a Garmin… but my Garmin didn’t know where Edison Sno Park was and neither did the people at a gas station in Bend. So I just found a cyclist, asked, and kept following bikes and my memory. Ben thinks I need a map. I think maybe he’s right.

Made it to registration with 2 minutes to spare. Great- no cell to contact the people I was meeting up with and talk about stress. Jill said it’d be alright, and she was right. Jess came over all cheery and handed me Vitargo. Brave one- considering my current state. Libby was just full of wayy too much positive energy- but it was good, I think she gave some to me. Karey let me do my quick complaining then rocked at getting our women’s team together and discussing race plan. And then the race started. Quickest 20 minutes of race prep in my life.

It was a rather large women’s field with the pro 1/2/3’s all together- made for a good ride. There were lots of mini attacks. And what was awesome about this race was that I ALWAYS saw one of our TAI ladies up front- either attacking, pulling, or guarding. We were so active in this race, it made it awesome. I hopped on up there a couple times but it took me the first half to really get warmed up and into race mode. On the longer climb in the second half of the race I hopped on to the front and set an up-tempo pace to warm up because I had a feeling this was going to be a sprint finish… or so I thought. And of course what goes up, must come down. So, I was still at the front pulling on the downhill which is FUN! I love my drops and forming a moving front peleton going that fast! Then the attacks started again so I positioned myself at the front following each one as Libby and I were going for placing in this race. And again, our TAI ladies were pushing, attacking and we were having a blast.

Around mile 45 there was a false flat and I decided to attack. I took a risk without even considering the consequences or location or current rider conditions. I just went for the hell of it. I felt pretty warmed up at that time so I figured game on for the last 15 miles of the 60. And no one chased. I was surprised. I kept going at tempo, keeping it around 240-50 watts and didn’t know what the heck was going on back there. I kept looking back then looking down at my pacing, trying to not get too concerned about the unknown. Just another day at the office doing some threshold work- no big deal there's just a pack of 30 or so women might be chasing me down and it's a race. Talk about adrenaline rush! After awhile I had to really strain my neck to see where they were at. The gap was getting pretty big. I estimated my lead distance and did the math- 10 miles to go- can I hold it off? Naw, I’ve got to go uphill and into a massive headwind for the finish. 1 vs. 30 is a huge risk. What the heck, I might as well start hauling.

Meanwhile, the gap gets so big that I don’t even see them in sight. It’s looking like one of the best random, spontaneous risks I’ve taken in a race. The last 10 miles I kept it up and upped my power output, stayed in the drops fighting the wind the whole way. Every turn I was hoping the finish was just around the corner- my legs were starting to burn. It finally came and it definitely wasn’t a sprint finish. I crossed, but had people at the finish looking behind me, confused… where’s the rest of the field? Honestly I didn’t know. But what I did know is I had the girliest “Yay!” when I crossed the finish line. There was no two handed upraised arms for me- it was more like one and a Miss America half-ass wave type. I was kind of confused myself, as I KNOW some of the other girls in the peleton could’ve easily put out 260 watts for 10 miles… I guess it was just a good, intuitive move on my part.

Then there was the pack with the rest of my team almost finishing 4 minutes behind me. Woah now- no one really ever attempted to attack. 4 minutes in 10 miles?!? After hearing what went on in the peleton from my teammates, it sounded like no one in the field thought I’d stay, or continue to keep going. But I did. I doubted myself but I took the risk and ended up with success. I thought why not. I’m strong on the bike, let’s test it. I ended up getting 4th in the omnium without even doing any of the other races. Sweet. Awesome fun race, our team really played the race out well.

I’ve learned that I have to be comfortable with mistakes, mishaps and undesirable conditions and just be able to focus mentally at the task on hand because life goes on, and after all you’re living in the moment and I’ve got some awesome supportive people out there- thanks ladies.

Things in life can really turn from stressed out to rockin’ like that.

HERE WE WIN AGAIN. PACIFIC CREST TRIATHLON RACE REPORT

2010-07-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Training has been going…. a little too well- almost to the point where I feel that I might not be human anymore in regards to the ease of doubling my training hours, my ability to hit the splits and then recover like it never even happened. In all honesty, I trained through this past weekends race in Bend, Oregon. I came into the race with 31.5 hours of training the week before and felt only “slightly” tired after finishing this years Pacific Crest Long Course Triathlon. I still don’t believe myself as I look at what I’m accomplishing as a professional triathlete daily and at the races… it’s just not right! But I must be doing something right- in fact, a lot of things right. I’m coaching myself, paying attention to myself, focusing my motivation and energy into what needs to be done for me to succeed-- and boy, am I having fun while doing it.

On my way driving to Bend along the beautiful McKenzie (my training stomping grounds…really trying to resist the urge to get out and run a couple hours…yes, not kidding) I knew I had a lot to look forward to that weekend. USA Cycling Nationals where being held in Bend as well. It just goes to solidify how much of an endurance meca Bend truly is. It’s also not every day that I get to compete with my athletes and see the final outcomes of their training and my coaching- which is by far one of the most rewarding experiences. It’s not about me all the time. It’s about the guidance that I give and their efforts to challenge themselves in multisport and seeing them succeed. It’s also not everyday that I get to see Courtenay Brown and race with her! The weather was gorgeous, the drive was gorgeous, plus the friends and athlete inclusion set up for a good weekend in store.

Friday night’s energy from the downtown criterium race reminded me how much I love cycling, but then again how much I love swimming and running and being a triahtlete. I’m definitely not a one sport girl, but I have a love for each individually that makes me feel right at home when I watch any of them isolated. Even with my life mostly consumed with triathlon: swimming, cycling and running, I love every minute of it. I don’t ask myself why, I just do. And that I did the next morning…

And I’m off. Wikiup Reservoir was lacking the waves and choppiness of the normal 1.2-mile swim legs, but for some odd reason instead of me wanting to drift to the left, I was drifting to the right. Long steady strokes was what I had in my head, but apparently what I was doing was making constant giant football shapes with Courtenay for yes… ugh- 35 minutes! Sayonara sub 30 which was my fastest swim time here last year! Supposedly there were a couple elite females in front of me 3 or 4 that was noted from an urgent, but firm voice from Ben... duh, I saw my time and I'm disappointed so yes, I need to go get ‘em! I already knew that… Onward…. Bike. That of which I definitely can do… and well.

The bike course is epic, challenging, scenic, hilly, fast, slow, hot, windy, smooth and rough- yes if you want an all-inclusive bike course, this is it. Having had last year’s race under my belt had me prepped for knowing what to expect and when. But, I’m pretty sure, no, 100% sure that from Boise somehow while traveling my bike seat lowered itself about 1 mm leaving my quads BURNING for the entire bike portion. Being smart and learning my lesson about not hydrating fon the bike at Boise and then having to visit and RE-VISIT the med tent taught me that I need to drink fluids constantly and spin. I've got to have a higher cadence if I’m going to make this subsided of a seat work for me. I’ve got some money and a title on the line to defend. Well, it didn’t feel like I was going to defend again looking at my speed… but then I guess I forgot how much of a long, lonnnng gradual uphill it is to Mt. Bachelor. Steady. Thinking steady on the climbs. But really all I could think about is how fortunate it is that I’m a good climber from cycling realm and that I didn’t take the double-whammy hit from the climb that everyone else felt. I also want to thank the pure-hell wind spells from the Boise 70.3 and the accompanied death grip exercises it gave me to make me eternally say "what wind?" From here on out- no wind is wind... unless it's that wind. Period. With that double-edged blessed experience and with more confidence on the bike I pummeled down the long Mt. Bachelor descent in my aerobars the whole time and through it all- through the wind gusts from the side I kept steady nor did I let the wheel-wide cracks freak me, I just went. I trusted myself and dominated that descent and had a blast- at full blast speed (almost 50 mph!). The only other person who’s ridden my P3 has descended down that and weighs 20 lbs less than me and eventually won the Pole-Pedal-Paddle in Bend… so if Ms. Stephanie Howe can do it, I sure as hell can to. It needs to keep its winning streak. And I rocked the bike. I came in off of the 58-mile bike leg in 2:34:28… and to think I was even dogging it the last couple miles in. Solid.

Into T2 and it’s always a good sign to see no other bikes. I was in first. As I was getting off the bike, I was definitely ready to at that point, I felt good running. It felt easy, right and everything felt so smooth. The first strides of running felt like they should. I felt quick, springy and non-dehydrated… again unlike my experience at Boise. I’m pretty sure I was hydrated too- I had the tell-tale signals… The only thing I don’t like about Pac Crest is the mind-game, trippy run course. It’s windy, hot, and dry and shade comes as a rarity. It also doesn’t help that the vacation homes at Sunriver all. Look. Thee exact same. I could’ve sworn that last year I did loops… but this year it was clear that there was no double looping of any sort. Fully cognizant this time- right on. The run felt great. Since I was in first, digging myself in super deep wasn’t an ultimatum, but I wanted to break my course record. The 5 minute time hogger swim had me under already for that’s a heckova lot of time. But as I started going, it looked like I was still in for the money and still in for the record. It felt great. I could’ve run harder, but training through was in my mind. The run was a decent 1:29:33 on an loop-de-do, heat, cross-wind, bump, criss-cross athlete dodge ball extravaganza. I was passing duathletes, the relayers and the marathoners still running left and right. I also held up my expectations of no one passing me- guys or girls.

The finish. It was a good finish. First time I felt great crossing the finish line as the first female and 13th placer overall. And I did so at 4:42:53… with a nightmare swim, a stellar rock-out bike session that squeaked in 2 extra miles and a jog in the park run. I broke my old course record by 5 minutes. Success. I didn’t feel the urge to throw up. Double success. It didn’t take long for my mind to imagine what I can now do on a flatter course, just having a solid swim, how steady and fast I can go on the bike and finally feeling like I’m not going to die during the half marathon at the end and feel like a runner. I think it’s safe to say that I’m in for the 4:30’s at Vineman… or bust.

I’d also like to thank all of my athletes and congratulate them on an awesome completion of a challenging race. Knowing that you were out there gave me motivation, as well as my fellow pro triathlete race-partner in crime Courtenay Brown for a stellar 3rd place overall. And congrats to all my friends from Eugene and new friends from the race. K Swiss I ran in comfort and speed because of you. TYR, you carry me through the whole race from swim, bike and to the run. Nuun was successfully utilized this time in which I did not lack body water- thank you. PowerBar- you gave me the consistent fueled energy balance with electrolytes. And I also want to thank those of you who really helped me when I needed it- tuning my bike, massage therapy… you know who you are.

A GOOD REALITY CHECK

2010-05-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Oh, I'm bad. I'm super bad for zilch race reports for the first two pro races of the year (Oceanside 70.3 and Wildflower). But it's because I've been reflecting. Reflecting on what has happened in my life these past couple months and how awesome everything is turning out to be. And, in all reality, the not so good experiences have been rewarding- an oxymoron? I think not...

MY REALITY CHECK LIST:

1. I am not crazy-- there are others.

Wow. Going to Oceanside and Wildflower I met a lot of other pros. Wildflower was beyond awesome as the ladies there were super cool and it being the Woodstock of triathlons out in the middle of nowhere you kind of got to know one another. Courtaney Brown is awesome. I would nominate her as one of the friendliest, most helpful girls out there. But the thing is after talking to all of them, my training didn't seem so ridiculous. My daily habits of recovery, workout regimens and lifestyle became the norm. So I'm not crazy, I'm not absolutely insane; I'm just a triathlete. I may be one of the only Oregonians among the Californians, but heck, there is indeed a triathlon scene.

2. There are such things as cramping.

To tell you the truth, I never really understood what these leg muscle cramping occurrences were that people were talking about, in particular bike racing. Never is no more. I now understand and have experienced it. Karey Miles from my cycling team's first response was "welcome to the normal athlete population." I completed a 3-day stage race the weekend before Wildflower in The Dalles in which I pushed myself beyond as far as power output wattages. Since that race, I've experienced IT band leg cramping at higher power outputs if I mash. Unfortunately, I started cramping on the bike leg during Wildflower, but still had a good bike split and caught 6 other pros despite my body dysfunction. So, what started on the bike, continued to carry over onto the world's toughest run course. I was cruising along, but the extreme uphill’s (power hills) caused my legs to want to give out and continue to cramp. The last 5 miles were essentially a death march for me, there where times when I wanted to just roll over into the ditch because my whole legs were cramping and it was starting to travel up to my lower back. And no, I was not dehydrated I had the proper bodily functions of a hydrated triathlete twice- once on the bike and once during the run as I was taking magnesium and my awesome nuun tablets like crazy leading up to the race and during. Lesson learned- listen to my body and don't push so hard on the bike so close to a race as well as I can still rock a race with close to complete body dysfunction. If that's one of my worst, I'm anxious to see my best.

3. Even with little recovery between races, I can still race hard. (However see # 4)

Oceanside I trained right through and PRed4: 42:03 with a crappy swim, ok bike and stellar run. You could tell that I started to realize that "oh, I'm racing again and this is what it's like." Mentally it took me halfway through that race to get into race mode. Wildflower I did a stage race the weekend before and with complete body shutdown, I still raced the worlds toughest half course pretty well. If I would've maintained my first 8 miles of the half, I would've placed top 8, or my goal placing. Instead, I got picked off on the run by a couple of familiar faces of the women's pro field, but I passed 3 of them that never passed me back. I ended up 12th at Oceanside and 11th at Wildflower for the top half of the stacked women's pro fields. I just decided to go to the races that seem to have the best of the best race at and that's California for you. I'm taking these first couple races as learning experiences and seeing what it takes to get me down to my goal time of 4:35:00.

4. I can't continue to train 27.5 hours a week.

I was getting a little worried there for a while with how much training and intensity I was doing. I don't know if I could manage doing that much training in my life over and over right now. It's good to know that improvement isn't coming that fast and my body can get the proper development time that it needs. My fitness, training and capability levels are higher and developing faster than my recovery adaptations. I learned this. I learned that my recovery is as important as my training. The little things like that extra hour of sleep, eating right after a workout, drinking proper amounts of fluids, getting enough iron, protein, massage, chiropractic work, foam roller, compression socks, staying off my feet, naps, etc really do help. But, I've been bad in this department too. I want to be out and about, TOB, dancing on my plantar fasciitis or just doing something. But I've got to take the time for myself and do these little things.

5. You can have the fitness above the skill, but you need the skills too.

After a year of being a triathlete-cyclist, I have finally upgraded to a Category 2 rider. It's been my goal for the past couple months and I have achieved it. I can now race NRC races. With that in mind, I was seriously considering competing in Nature Valley. However, I believe that years of experience are just as valuable as fitness. Considering that I'm 23 and the ladies I'm racing against in the pro women's triathlon fields are 5-10 years older than me, and with more experience, I'd consider my successes in triathlon so far partially due to experience and exposure during my younger years of racing triathlon. By no means am I as experienced as the ladies in the women's pro field, which is refreshing considering how much room for improvement I have. It's a good scary feeling that yes, indeed I could really confidently say that I'm doing the right thing by putting a considerable amount of time and energy into my training and that I do have the ability to do what it takes to be successful at the pro level. I just never imagined in my life that I could improve beyond what I'm doing right now. A couple of years ago if you asked me what I thought I could do, I'd be perfectly happy if this was as fast as I'd ever be. But, now, there's more to be gained and I'm pretty excited about that. On the flip side, I'm not at the skill level of a cyclist that could be super competitive at the NRC cycling level and I'm going to experience and learn more as a cyclist. Plus, intuition tells me that if I get in a big, bad road race crash, I'm done for in triathlons. Best to place myself where I belong the most for right now and understand that skill is as valuable as fitness.

6. Swimming is my weakness, cycling and running aren't.

Oh dear. So I've been swimming everyday and thanks to TYR I can pretty much be super pumped to go swimming everyday as their swimsuits and gear have really helped me out a ton and rock. In the pool, I'm rocking the splits, but out in open water, I'm not able to push myself to my expectations. It's pretty much one of the only things that differentiates me between the top third of the pros verses the top half. My cycling and running splits rock. Oceanside had a stellar 13.1 run of 1:25:00 6:29 average mile pace. Of course, it did help to run along the beach and feeling the ocean breeze was pretty sick. Despite the inherent crampage during Wildflower, I still averaged 7:02 while dropping considerably my mile pace the last 5 miles to almost crawling pace. I have to admit that K Swiss shoes that I ran in during Wildflower have more umpf to them than Nikes- are something to write home about. They made me more of a forefoot striker instead of a heel striker saving my quads from further extended trashing. I was hesitant at first, but now I'm training in them. Oh boy am I going to get it being in Nike town USA- whatever. They're solid.

7. Don't expect to PR at Wildflower, expect to PR at Oceanside

Ah, so completely forgetting how brutal the Wildflower course was and considering my physical shape, I was all set to feasibly PR at Wildflower if I had a good swim, bike and run time and most things went smoothly. Scratch that-- it is SUPER had, way harder than I remembered but of course I was pushing myself beyond anything that I thought capable during muscle failure. I ended up with 4:53:30. I'm pretty sure I was crawling at the end at 5 mph at times. Physically I was fine but muscles no bueno. Again, recovery is becoming my best friend.

8. People have quarter life crisises- and yearly crisis.

I'm pretty sure of this. I've yet to come across a person who hasn't had something major happen yearly that dramatically changes their life. It's life-- things happen. Things happen for a reason and make you a stronger, better person. I believe that overcoming obstacles in life create new pathways and options. I'm perfectly content with not knowing exactly what the next step is in my life. I'm happy with coaching and training right now-- and seeing where that takes me. Don't mind if I help others and give back while getting the life I've always dreamed of.

That's my reality.

GLUTEN FREE- THE WAY TO BE

2010-04-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the last thing you want to take on is some high maintenance diet dilemma in which you are constantly starving, craving the foods that are forbidden and more. Realistically speaking- being gluten free is all about keeping the fillers and highly processed foods out of your diet. It's about more than eliminating the gluten and it's inherent inflammatory responses. The gluten free diet helps you make better food choices. It's the diet that we were all meant to be on. The modern diet is not how our bodies work- yet we continually try to medicate our population by trying to fix problems when a lot of it is because we are literately putting toxic new age chemicals into our bodies that help preserve foods. Let's dive more into how being gluten free works and how it works more for some than others and how you can make it work for you.

I want you to consider this: every item you place into your body or consume is involved in thousands of chemical reactions within the many systems and components of your body. The big-ticket topic of the twenty first century is inflammatory reactors and responses. That's right- I bet you've already guessed it that indeed gluten has been proven to be an inflammatory provocateur. Gluten has more repercussions in individuals who have celiac disease, which is autoimmune in nature. These individuals have an inflammatory response in the small intestine resulting from wheat protein interaction via food consumption. Screening for celiac disease is becoming more and more common. Your chronic gastrointestinal issues might be more than what meets the eye. If you think you might have celiac disease, it might be a good time to hit up an appointment with your doctor and get gluten sensitivity tested. Essentially, even if you do not have celiac disease, gluten sensitivity can be ranked on a continuum with celiac disease on one end and those who could just darn eat what they please and not have any effects- or does everyone have some type of reaction? You don't really know how gluten affects you unless you restrict it from your diet.

Surprisingly, being gluten free isn't that new, but it is in the news. Research was first done on gluten-free diets and individuals responses clear back in the 1950's and 1960's providing clear evidence that a gluten-free diet helps those with gluten sensitivity issues. In fact, in another study by Holmes et al. (1989) following subjects for 11 years found that those on the gluten free diet had overall decreased rate of cancers.

So why is gluten even important anyways? Well, try baking WITHOUT it. Gluten forms food consistencies and creates a paste-like texture in nature. Hence why pastas, breads, all baked goodies stick together. Gluten again, is also used as a filler and especially so in highly processed foods. Again, by eliminating gluten, you eliminate highly processed foods out of your diet as well.

WHY would anyone want to be wheat free? Well, there are a couple of reasons... there are my personal reasons and then there are the scientifically backed up reasons. I'll list those first and then my hippie viewpoints on how being gluten free has worked for me.

Gluten free diets have been shown to:
- Decrease gastrointestinal inflammation
- Increase vitamin and nutrient absorption
- Decrease abdominal pain and cramps
- Increased productivity of digestion

Gluten free diet has helped Mackenzie:
- Feel better
- Have more energy during workouts and throughout the day
- Recover faster
- Complete two-a-days while still eating all the calories I need to
- No more gut cramps
- Feel lighter, become lighter

The thought of me no longer eating pizza, bagels, cereal, couscous or pasta has turned into my conscious decision to avoid gluten and consume only wheat-free products. I've been wheat free now since the New Year and I can tell you one thing, I won't go back. I do, however, consume the occasional great northwest brewery of choice or have a slice of someone's birthday cake, but I will still avoid wheat if possible. Traveling to races has made it extremely difficult at times; some friends can contest to that. Additional toughie situations include dinner gatherings, which can be awkward if the main dish is wheat based. But for me, being gluten free is the right choice. I've noticed it for training and as well as in my everyday living and overall health. Personally, I don't need any more reasons as to why I'll stick to being gluten free probably for the rest of my life. I have yet to be tested.

I honestly believe and have many friends and family members who have contested to feeling better, performing better and losing weight as a perk to being gluten free. You don't have to have Celiac disease to justify being wheat free. I don't think I have celiac disease, but I know when I consume something with wheat or soy in it and it definitely doesn't jive with my body. Try it for a week or two. If you don't notice any positive changes or feel any different, then go back to your old ways of consuming wheat in your diet. However, still be mindful of what you put in your body, such as the type of wheat source (highly processed, low-quality food) and chemicals within the food play a role in your overall health as well. Best bet- shoot for organics.

You are what you eat.

For more info and one of my favorite articles published recently about being wheat free
http://www.mensjournal.com/winning-without-wheat

STAPLE DISTANCE WORKOUTS

2010-04-08T13:58:00.001-07:00

As a coach and triathlete, I've gotten a lot of requests recently for some workouts specifically for half marathon training. Here are a couple of my staples that I have seen immense personal improvement from as well as from many of my athletes.

Since time is short and there are three sports, I believe that "longer is better" by adding on longer warm-up time and cool-down time for a two in one workout: intensity + base = 2 workouts in one. Be warned, these aren't for the faint of heart, but they sure help you get the job done.

Workout 1: 10k TT
- 15-30 min warm up starting off slow working up to higher intensity/ faster mile pace.
- 5 minutes recovery and prep for 10k.
- 10k negative split time trial- decrease mile time by 5-10 seconds per mile starting first 3 miles lower than lactate threshold pace and ending the last 3 miles over lactate threshold.
- 30 min -1 hour + cool down

Total: 75 min- 2 hrs, 10-19 miles

Workout 2: 6 x 1 mile Progressive Repeats
- 15-30 min warm up starting off easy then working up to faster mile pace.
- 6 x 1 mile repeats running each mile faster than the previous but still at a fairly high intensity- only getting 3-5 seconds faster each mile with .5 mile faster jog recovery between each or 2-3 minutes recovery easier jog.
- 30 min- 1+ hour cool down

Total: 80 min- 2 hrs, 10-19 miles

Workout 3: VO2max Hill Repeats
- 15-30 min warm up
- 6 to 8 x 5 min uphill hard surges. Trust me, you'll feel like you're at your max, run as hard as you can on a longer uphill (Ridgeline or Fox Hollow is a good local starting point) 4-5 min moderate run recovery between each max effort.
- 30 min - 1+ hour cool down over hillier course or trails. You won't believe how much easier hills feel!

Total: 75 min- 2 hrs, 10-18 miles

Workout 4: 5k Tempo Sessions
- 15-30 min warm up
- 2-4 x 5k tempos at 10k pace or faster. You can complete each 5k progressively faster. A shorter version is also 2-4 x 2 mile tempos. 5 minutes recovery between each tempo.
- 15-45 min cool down

Total: 70 min- 2 hrs, 10-20 miles

Enjoy!

WHO'S IN YOUR FAMILY?

2010-03-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Support. Without it, nothing exists. Without a cellular structure to support a cell, the cell will not exist. A building without its support beams can’t withstand its composition. Without your mother or father to support you as a baby, you couldn’t have survived by yourself. Everything in life revolves around support. Our evolution has been created due to support from prior living organisms, supporting our food chain, supporting our health, our growth, our existence. Human beings need support.

Support can come from many different routes, your friends, your coworkers and your family. The support system is further extended than what you may think. As a professional triathlete, or any athlete that has sponsors, they give you support. Your closest supporters are there, helping you weave a network into other supporters. Foundation is key, and strong helpers are as well. The definition of support is given as follows: to give moral or psychological support; the activity of providing or maintaining by supplying financially or materially; be behind; to back up; to hold, to defend.

What I’ve learned is that there are those who do support you, those who will back you up, those who will support your life’s endeavors. For one and foremost, my family has. My family has given me more support than any one else and they deserve a life-long thank you from me. Listen to your parents, listen to your grandparents, and listen to your siblings. Even though they don’t know the context of your direct life, they know you and they will forever continue to support you. Cherish and celebrate your differences and similarities.

I have also finally accomplished what I set out to do here in Eugene, Oregon. I have received my Masters Degree in Human Physiology at the University of Oregon. It’s made me realize a lot of things that I want in life, where I want to go and how I feel that I can give back to others in our society. I’ve realized that I enjoy the guidance I can give whether it be coaching, teaching, or helping people out in some rhyme or reason, that’s what I want to do. I want to give back to those what I have to share from human physiology information to exercise and training questions, to being a supporter. I want to be apart of the support network. I want to give support to people.

I understand that people need assistance. People need guidance. But doing it alone helps you grow and I also now understand the value of that guidance due to the lack of support in some areas and how I've greatly appreciated it when it's been there. To some extent, advice can always be given from one to another, no matter whom, what or when. That’s why I coach, that’s why I do the things I do, it’s why I enjoy the bare essentials of living- exercising, knowing I can push myself, to feel exhilarated by something simplistic as training or running through the woods. Not thinking, just doing what my body was meant to do. I’ve realized my intelligence has diverted down a different path- book smarts are some of it but understanding the complexity of life and seeing more than the average person has shown new meanings for me. I believe I’ve turned into more of a realist instead of a pure scientist. I want to be a supporter- and in that a supporter of triathlon, a supporter of the energy-driven component of life- the part that gives you exhilaration and lust for life.

In a way, my sponsors have become apart of my further extended family to help me do the things I want to do and support my goals. A sponsor is not just someone who hands you freebie things, it’s a mutual relationship in which you both support each other because you have a passion for their product, their attitude, what they represent. I am very grateful and honored to be supported by my sponsors, for I truly believe that they are the best. I support companies in whose products I believe in.

I want to thank my following sponsors for the upcoming triathlon season and thank you for all the support you’ve already given me to get to the starting line. It’s going to be a great one.
- TYR
- Fi’zi:k
- PowerBar
- nuun
- Ocinna
- CycleOps Power
- Yankz
- Dr. Brian Gervais

I'd also like to really give a shout out to those of you who've made my passion and reconfirmed the concept “do what you love in life”
- University of Oregon Triathlon Club
- Zoom Performance Coaches and Athletes
- My fellow grad students at the University of Oregon
- The girls on my cycling team TAI
- My old running teammates and best friends on ISU Track and XC
- The OTC team here for continuing to fuel my passion towards testing athletes and helping out top tier coaches

Oceanside 70.3 is next on the plate! See you there!

TIME SAVING TIPS FOR ENDURANCE ATHLETES

2010-02-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

The last thing you probably want to hear is how you could be a more efficient athlete or someone telling you how to manage your time. For those of you like many of my athletes- students in college, parents with a full-time job training for long course triathlons, or if you own your own company, if you work 24 hour shifts, if you’re a single parent… I can bring you a few time-saving reminders to the table as well as save you more time than it will take you to read this article. Personally, I can relate with life’s constant time crunches while being in graduate school, coaching, being on a women’s cycling team as well as a professional long-course triathlete. In order to do it all and be happy at the end of the day, even though some days are chaotic- you should always remind yourself why you are an endurance athlete and how it defines you. Yes, sometimes life comes at you, but you shouldn’t have to get rid of your hobby, lifestyle, and fun-filled endurance training time that defines YOU.

So what can you do?

1. Embrace the concept of living to train, not training to live.
So retracting a step back from what I said earlier, that endurance exercise defines you and that your training is more important than anything else in your life—because it’s not. What you do for a living, obligations, loved ones, family and friends are what life’s all about and then so is your job to support your life and make it possible for you to train. If you train 10-24 hours a week, where is that other time spent? Training is not the sole purpose of your life, so to make life easier for you, plan your training around your life plans or incorporate them together. Don’t forge something that takes up the majority of your time for something that takes up the minority. I preach this to my athletes all the time and plan their training around their schedules. I just don’t give them a plan and then say follow it. The rate of successful workouts decreases or even the completion factor, and the angry boss or partner factor that thinks you’re selfish or aren’t putting in your part.

2. Plan ahead.
Yes, annoying, but knowing your schedule and when you can train for certain sports, which is the most direct after work, or on your way, or what days work better for cycling or running, etc. Knowing your training plans for the week and fitting it into your schedule already takes the questioning time, the planning time, what workout am I doing? Then you are prepared for each and every workout for the week. You know the key workouts and longer sessions that you have to do, and you know the shorter recovery workouts that if time allots for them, you can fit in.

3. First thing-- in the morning.
When you train early in the morning, your day can’t run away and steal your energy by 5 PM, or that unexpected deadline now has you working through your planned workout. Training in the morning also allows you get ready for the day- if you’re showering in the morning anyways, might as well not have to shower and get ready in the middle of the day or end of the day again after another workout. It also gives you a time crunch- you HAVE to get it done before work. It makes you not waste time in the morning doing other things- instead you’re getting to do what you love first thing of the day. Who doesn’t love getting your personal time first and then getting a huge morning rush afterwards. You have the rest of the day to relax and recover at that desk job now…

4. Make plans with others.
Train with others- it forces you to complete the workout as well as vouches for some social time. You are then held accountable and ridiculed if you don’t show up early in the morning to go swim with your friends…

5. Put your workout in between or right before or after another appointment to get better quality use of your time.
Giving an exact time window will not only get you into your workout as quickly as you can but also making it a quality and timesaving session. You have to get in, do your training and get out. If it’s the only time you have, then chances are you’ll get it done.

6. DON’T do junk mile workouts!
Make it a habit of always doing your quality workouts. They are a complete waste of your time and energy and greatly decrease your recovery capacity. Think about it, is it really necessary to do that 30-minute run or a workout without a purpose? If it’s a recovery session, you can skip out on this session and just make it an off day. But remember, consistency is also a large factor in your training. Just play it smart- follow your plan and discuss with your coach what workouts you can afford to miss.

7. Compromise every other week.
So your kid has soccer games on Thursday’s every night, why don’t you attend every other game and trade off with your spouse for workout times, or if a weekly invite from the co-workers have you attending happy hour every Friday after work, go every other week. You’ll save money, time and energy and create a variety to your habits. Just because something is weekly doesn’t mean you have to go every week.

8. Schedule a workout when you feel your productivity level slipping or when you need a refresher.
If something requires you to think or is task-oriented and you just can’t keep focus. Take a break and complete your training! Training is body and mind and just doing. Yes, it requires some focus, but unlike the daily tedious tasks of life. When you come back, you’ll probably be more attentive and refreshed and get more done in a smaller amount of time.

9. Commute.
Ride into work or run to drop off the mail or a prescription or errands during your warm up or cool down. It’ll be full when you come back. If you’re meeting the fam or a friend at a low-key eatery- what better way to meet up with someone after a run or ride with a recovery smoothie, café treat or casual meet up by running or riding to the destination.

10. Practice quick transitions.
You’ve done your bike workout, now off to that run! Again, don’t stall around your house, eat a quick snack, or check email or missed phone calls- make it realistic. You are training right now! Practice going right to that run. Don’t pause between workouts that are supposed to be continuous. You’ll save an extra 5-15 minutes which equals instead of a 15-minute transition run a 20-35 minute run. Complete things when you can finish them. When it’s workout time, focus on the workout.

11. Know when to shorten your cool downs or make them longer.
If you have the time tack on a longer cool down for an even greater endurance benefit or go into a moderate endurance pace for an extra 10-30 minutes after a workout.. Never shorten your warm up unless you’re in a real time crunch.

12. The stash.
Keep workout clothes with you at all times. Keep running shoes, extra socks, swimsuit, cap and goggles, gym clothing that can mix-and-match and have multiple purposes so you’re always prepared if time comes or if you forget something. Keep it in a locker or desk drawer, or in your car. Then you don’t have to go through what workout clothes to wear and bring everyday and no more excuses for not training. Keep energizing gels, drinks, etc. for a pre-training pick-me-up at the office or where you work so you can’t skip out on a workout because you’re hungry or don’t get in as good of quality workout because of lack of nutrition. Little preparations can prepare you for high time-quality workouts.

13. Lay things out the night before.
Ok, so I’m culprit to this. It’s amazing how much ground-work a long ride in the winter or even the summer takes tons of prep, or for packing for the day, clothes, work items, making food—all that gear (3 sports) is a lot to keep up with not to mention just someone not exercising has difficulties with this in the morning! Make your life easier- fill up the water bottles before bed, lay out the clothes, make lunch the night before. It’s a lot easier to do these simple tasks that don’t require too much thought the night before and then you’re not in a hast trying to scramble around the next morning and forget your PowerTap head because you left it hooked up to the computer… yeah…

14. Keep that water bottle beside you all the time.
Water constantly reminds you to hydrate as well as reminds you of your active lifestyle. Heck, wear an athletic watch or have something on your computer screen in your office that will motivate you. Some might say that having training on your mind or a reminder is distracting, but ultimately, that little cue to your brain will already have you fired and prepared for the workout later on. Just don’t put up a huge, wall-encompassing poster of Lance Armstrong—I think your boss would rather have you idolize them instead.

15. Don’t log onto Internet or social sites before a training session.
Ah, facebook, twitter, email, etc. are thee distractions that can waste away 10-15 extra minutes before you know it. Computers, BlackBerry’s and the TV can be time suckers. Designate the time after your workout to log into training peaks as your treat. Your first priority is your training—after all posting how that workout went awesome for you is what you end up posting on facebook, right? Training first. Relaxing is for afterwards for your treat. Do what needs the most energy first as well as minimizing distractions.

16. If you need to study, do it while you’re on the trainer or the treadmill.
Or, listen to audio books or podcasts of lectures, or even watch informative DVD’s—two kill birds with one stone during moderate-easy endurance base training. It has worked wonders for me.

17. Inside or outside?
Sometimes doing the workout inside works out better, on the trainer you get more quality for the time since you don’t have to go through stoplights, worry about flats, coast often, etc. Same thing on the treadmill. Especially if weather implies more clothing and accessorizing which can cost you 15-20+ minutes sometimes.

18. If you have kids, get a baby stroller or a Burley.
Yes they cost money, but the time and money you save from having a babysitter and the time trying to schedule one is more difficult than just hitting up the wagons and lacing up your shoes. Not to mention, it’s more time to spend with your kids and promote an early healthy living lifestyle for them.

19. Recover, recover, RECOVER!
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome is a perfect example of this. Every coach knows (or should know if they don’t then you don’t have a knowledgeable coach) about Selye’s GAS- it is the balancing act of recovery to challenge and how your body gradually adapts to greater stressors- which is where the heart and soul of training plans, build weeks and recovery weeks come from. If you’re a busy person, you’ve really got to be proactive about recovery. You don’t have that extra hour to take a nap, stretch forever after a workout or relax- you’ve got to go on to your next task. Therefore, nutrition, hydration and watching over your body and treating it well is key. Masking overtraining with large amounts of caffeine to sustain your efforts is not ok. Caffeine is good for harder workouts in the morning, but not all the time.

20. Have a close social network that supports you and your training lifestyle goals.
You’ll be less likely to ditch that workout, trust me- they’ll ask you how it went. When the going gets tough, it’s not as tough with a support crew on board. Find these people and embrace them. It’s not a fun situation when you’re trying to make and have time for something if people don’t support you and your active lifestyle and goals. If your boss supports you, then you should be in a world of major happiness with support like that.

21. “Double Duty” workouts.
I love these. Especially as a triathlete, you have to focus on 3 sports. I always put a tempo session or longer repeats or harder efforts into my long runs, bikes and swimming. It’s allowed me to get two workouts in one, save me tons of time, and recover twice as fast because I didn’t have to go out and run twice. Plus, it helps you get out of that same endurance pace. It helps you become faster and bumps up your endurance pace and lactate threshold so easily you won’t know that you actually fit in 2 weeks of training into one minus the time and recovery stress.

22. Have a strategy.
Ok I know that Google and your Garmin can strategically plot your routes in the most efficient way, so that means so should be able to too. Just think before you go—is something along the way, or an errand. Don’t do a long 30+ min trip if you have to go out that way in a couple days/week anyways unless it’s a matter of life and death or your sanity (but knowing you, I think training saves your sanity). That’s 30 extra minutes you could’ve trained as well as saving gas money if you weren’t riding or running there. Be smart about things- eliminate single errands and tie multiple errands into one. Mundane, yes, but you’d be surprised about how ironic it is that you don’t think about efficiency being outside of being an endurance athlete.

23. It’s OK every once in awhile to skimp out on sleep.
If there’s a key workout you want to get done and the only time you have to complete it is early in the morning (4:30 AM or late at night 9:00 PM) then sometimes you just have to do it. If once a week you have to sacrifice a couple hours, try to make up for it when you have more sleep time. Shuffle time slots around to make it fit. If you know you have to get a workout done and you plan on it, you will do it. Just accept some sacrifices some days but some rewards on others.

The bottom line is, be prepared for your workouts and really use multi-tasking to your advantages. You’ve also got to be willing to compromise other little things in life, like perhaps not completely styling your hair, or eating breakfast at your desk in the morning, or lunch. It’s better to have had your workout than take a break from sitting and working with more sitting and eating during your break! Now who’s ready for that 5 AM alarm clock?

THE FULL CONTACT SPORT

2010-01-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

I realized a lot of things during my excursion back to the Midwest for Christmas. In particular, I realized how fortunate, happy and lucky I am to live the way I do in Oregon. I have been taking it for granted that I can hop on my bike and travel anywhere in Eugene under 20 minutes- which is the exact same time it would take you traveling in a car. I also realized the convenience that lack of urban sprawl can do from the continual renovation and preservation of most of Eugene. Trader Joes is on the way home, the U of O and downtown is just a couple pleasant miles on the extensive bike trail system. You can also break away from the cars, busyness of life and be surrounded by cascading rivers, greenery, reservoirs, excellent hill climbs, camp in a National forest (one of the most beautiful places on earth!) in a 45 minute drive. Oh, and school, office and rec is all in the same building for me- a.k.a pool, weights, treadmill, place to shower, store bike all in the same building without leaving. Yeah- that’s rad. In the Midwest you had to get in your car, travel… everything took twice as long and was easily more than twice as difficult as accomplishing it out here. I also realized that I could really ride my bike year round, as well as be outside year round. I know a big portion could be my daily routine being tampered on a place where I no longer live, but you’ve got to remember that I used to live in Iowa I know and remembered what I had to do to accomplish daily living tasks.

Upon arriving home in Iowa, most of the activities were inside, including training. My daily feel-good session consisted of only one option. And that one option was running. Pretty much the only workout I could get in was running- which in my case is the least time demanding quality workout I could do to keep my aerobic deterioration at bay. My other running option depended on how much running on ice I could handle. And about that- talk about never being able to get into a groove due to the endless number of cross walks, stop signs and zooming cars. It doesn’t take an idiot to realize that most cities weren't designed for the active people in mind. Their only concern is the overweight people in SUV’s trying to get from one place to another. Thank God this is starting to change. It needs to. I was more scared for my life than worried about my workout most of the time. On Christmas day a lady pulled out in front of Paul and I during our run causing a near miss. Her response was “I’m SO SORRY. MERRY CHRISTMAS” which was in the most exaggerated, unsincere voice tone. She then proceeded to speed off. Don't get me wrong, I love the people in the Midwest, my family, my friends, and there are some definite cool things that are being started in the Midwest. It's just not my cup of tea for what I want to enjoy in life. Plus, Oregon has no sales tax, milder temps, more greenery and heaven on earth ;)

I had already planned this break to be another “break” from the uber intense training and it was. I definitely expected more family gatherings, being tired… So running when I can was the plan (and getting Paul to run too). It didn’t take me long to remember my past running era. I was reminded what it felt like to run. Every day. Just one sport. Ouch. On our drive to the Eugene airport to fly to the Midwest, one of Paul’s friends Nick, a triathlete pretty much summed up how you feel after really running a hard workout or a hard long run. Here it is- courtesy via Nick: “you don’t realize how running could ever feel like you’ve just been beat up as if you were in a full contact sport until you, well realize it can.” And it does. That was probably one of the most "ah ha!" word analogie comparisons anyone's made that directly correlated to my feelings of just running.

I knew there was something about chronic running over and over again that my body hated, but I could still handle the torture from it. Those feelings of whole body soreness to the touch from the mass jostling and constant ground reaction forces absorbed by your body… all of that- day in and day out- reminded me why I do more than one sport. I do triathlons because I love the way each sport compliments and fully develops me as a well-rounded athlete. As a triathlete, you don’t get just the giant runner calves or just the powerful, massive quad-hamstring-glute muscle group of a cyclist or the chiseled upper body of a swimmer. Being a triathlete molds you as an all-around athlete with no real body proportion extremes. Obviously, if you specialize in a sport the muscle group you use over and over again will develop more than the others. Hence, my complaint of competing in just running has resurfaced physically. Only one part of me was getting stronger or either continually getting sick of doing all the work- my body didn't like just running.

I feel that my switch to a multisport lifestyle has been a good one. I feel better, physically and performance-wise too. I’m no longer ignoring my other strengths. Typically, people who are good at sports or athletic can do well in a variety of activities. What if you had that athlete ignore their ability to generate power up a hill, have abs of steel or coordinate a successful steeplechase jump? What if that athlete just did one sport, never strengthening themselves outside of that sport? They would gradually lose what made them strong in the sport in the first place. It’s what gave them their abilities to adapt to challenges and respond to so many unforeseen situations of their sport. Sometimes losing those little strengths and only training for an expected, straightforward race is what makes the difference between winning, losing or finishing. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Kenyans shouldn’t do any other sport than run, (the top runners also do strengthening exercises, aqua jogging, etc.) I’m just saying that as human beings we weren’t meant to do the same thing everyday. As my first running (<- ironic?) Coach- Coach Lee at Iowa State University said "We were meant to gather food, hunt, run, travel, be spontaneous…" I will also add to that statement "and not train and do the same thing day in and day out."

I truly believe this is how I saw such a dramatic rise in my physical capabilities and performance. I became more of a well-rounded endurance athlete. Training for triathlons has allowed my body to rest specific muscle groups and movements while I could work on other ones. I still run 40-50 miles per week, swim up to 10,000 yards per week, ride up to 15 hours per week and lift weights twice. Instead of just the aerobic endurance from running, I now have power, force, speed and muscular endurance. It just took me running a week straight to remind myself why I am a triathlete now. You’d think after all the training I do as a triathlete I would relate more to the whole contact sport feeling instead… especially when it can actually happen in open water swims, or perhaps some bike collisions, or constant contact with a bike saddle for 5 hours, or the repetitive contact with my foot hitting the ground for 2.5 hours, or the constant swinging of my arms slapping and pulling through the water… and all I can say is nope. I don’t ever really feel that chronic, worn out feeling. It’s because my other strengths can carry me if one starts to tire. My body has it’s own built-in back up plans. My body works like a team, not an individual. Go ahead and take me on! I’ll be ready for that hit!

I ATE 7 COOKIES

2009-12-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, so maybe it was more like 10... But it was over a course of a day... And they weren't all the big giant palm sized cookies. Unfortunately and fortunately, the Human Physiology Department knows food and loves food- so do my fellow grad students. I think the Minson lab is known for our abilities to eat and be merry but know what being active and training is all about as well. And, well-- I feel bad. Not so much on the mental side but on the physical side. Last time I checked (yesterday) I can still fit into my size 2 Abercrombie jeans. However, I still have one problem and that relates to the extra quad "musculage" I have- no tightness in the bootie or waste but extreme constriction in the quads and hamstrings. Thank you bike for donning me with sculpted quads and hamstrings in such a way that designers can't even come to making such an exception and appreciation... OOOOO- maybe they'll just advertise them as compression jeans! (humor- please)

And so the holidays have me already feeling guilty. What's odd is I don't hate that I actually ate the 10 cookies, its the way it makes my body feel physically. Its like having 10 drinks. The body burns the fuel you give it and mine (and everyone else's in the world should) likes to burn clean fuel. I don't know if those cookies count as perhaps maybe 2-3% healthy, but chocolate does have a decent amount of iron in it... I just know that my body loves it when I fuel it with the proper fuel. I feel better and its what's made my metabolism skyrocket. Eating healthy-carbs, protein and yes fat (mostly Trader Joe's) helped me lose 13 pounds since last year (in addition to more muscle mass too). This appalling feeling has made me understand why I treat my body the way I do and eat what I eat. What I don't understand is how other people eat- doughnuts for breakfast, Mcky-D's for lunch and Pizza Hut for dinner. No wonder America feels like crap and has so many issues. It literately makes you sick! However, on the opposite side of things, I've learned to appreciate my body, it's musculature, it's ability to swim, bike and run fast. I embrace my non-stick-as-a-twig body image as I see girls and guys who apparently have issues. Just because you're skinny doesn't mean you're healthy. Heck, I just got reminded today that research says you can be FAT and healthy. It's about what your body is capable of doing. Your size doesn't matter, but how you treat it, fuel it and take care of it does.

Maybe as athletes we feel that we are somehow missing out on being a "normal" individual in that those 10 cookies might be worth it when the thought of "hey, I work out more in one day 4-5 hours than someone who even "exercises" does in a week" crosses our minds. So, in essence, those 10 cookies were actually worth it in a weird messed up kind of way- especially after cooperating and eating healthy for months! Who knows- maybe its our nostalgic athlete way that's similar to college students and drinking. In other words, something you couldn't ever do when you were under strict control, but hey- now its desert time and that plentiful tower of sugar in front of you is calling. Then the truth comes along. You realize that blacked-out night or 10 cookie-count binge wasn't all its cracked up to be- it was fun at the time but it ended up really screwing you over.., In some ways its a blessing in disguise- reassuring your lifestyle commitments and what you want to do and how you want treat your body.

Go ahead and eat those cookies- I dare you.

Or 11. Beat me. That's one competition I'll let you win over me.

THE BREAK AND THE BRICK

2009-11-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

Nothing like left over turkey et al. to my right, Christmas tree to my left and the beautiful fall sunlight shinning in through the gorgeous red and orange leaves to really bring out the satisfaction of a good solid 4.5 hour ride and a slammin' 45 min brick run... yeah, I'm finally taking a break from my break- I mean really slowing it down. To most, a 5+ hour day doesn't really mean relaxing and taking a "break"- that is true. So far, my Thanksgiving "break" has been the best shot at me getting work done: thesis, 3 projects, TAI stuff, wrapping up personal sponsorships-- essentially getting caught up in life. It's also been a chance for me to go out and enjoy some training with those I only get to train with on weekends. Overall, everything has really started to take an upswing in my training. As weird as it sounds, I've realized some pretty amazing things and feel even more confident after this past week.

I was on the edge of really considering being mentally burnt out from everything going on in my life- all going in different directions: school, project, coaching, training, life after school... I don't have the typical 8-5 job where you get to leave everything there and your work is consistent and all in the same realm. It's a double-edged sword; I have the ability to manipulate the majority of things in my life to be able to fit everything in. It does take time to plan things out and the more you have on your plate the more you gotta know what's going on and can't waste your efforts anywhere. Anyone seen the "I Love Lucy" episode where she has to be on a schedule? ... yes comical, but ridiculous at times- no time to stop and smell the flowers. The constant switch-to this- switch to that has to be planned to a T in my life. If one thing gets messed up, then everything else waterfalls...

About a week ago, there was a day that I could not take anymore of. My stomach was in knots and all I wanted to do was sleep to recharge and be able to move on to the next day. I ended up falling asleep at 6:30 PM and woke up at 7:30 AM- 13 hours!!! But the scary thing was that I've been having a lot of those days where the mental go-switch-go-switch really had me wanting to relax at night instead of getting more work done right up until bed. My body must've thought the break was coming earlier. Isn't it strange how people's bodies seem to just make it to a specific point until it breaks down? People collapsing mere strides before the finish, fighting that cold through stress and the end of finals, but then having if full-blown once the tests are over?....

I ended up going my chiropractor the day after I felt that tired. Having it only be the second time I've ever gone- I am honestly hooked and really, truly forgot what it felt like to be at one with my bike. I have so much more hip mobility and flexibility. Plus, with the insane ease it was to put out power, it actually had me 5-7 beats per minute lower than before I started getting treated. My body was fighting itself and now that it's not, I realized how efficient I am and how easily I can put out 200-230 watts for 4+ hours only weighing 60 kilos. I can honestly say as well that I have NEVER in my life had consistent 4+ hour rides were my lower back never, EVER-- not once hurt. It is amazing. My efficiency also showed it's surprisingly beautiful face during a recent VO2max test. I reached my highest ever value on the bike 66.2 ml/kg/min.. and what's even doubly crazy is that I saw something I've never seen before in anyone that I've ever tested- which is a lot of people. At 70% of my VO2max for an hour, my RER value was hovering around 0.80-0.83... metabolic proof that I am a metabolic endurance efficiency freak-junkie. I must be doing something good :)

It's also safe to say that things tend to waterfall for me in good situations as well. Once something good happens, everything gels together. I am thankful for at least one thing that always remains pretty consistent and seems to keep climbing; the only thing I do for myself and use as my "me" time-- my training. Thursday's excellent 3.5 hour ride consisted of 5 second, 1 minute and 2 minute power records, yesterday was one of those good steady 90 minute endurance runs and today's 4.5 hour ride and 45 minute brick- went amazing. I've never been able to run 6:45 miles consistently like that and so effortlessly. I was just starting to think that I missed my ability to hit the intensity without excruciating pain, extreme fatigue, or the mer fast-twitch muscle tap-in capability that I used to have... Naw- I like the steady, distance right now... I also like seeing how smooth and easy my body responds to last year's "hard" paces.

2010 here I come!

THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

2009-11-11T22:15:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is when I see someone at 9 PM at night who's running at a good clip that makes me want to hop on the treadmill next to them and run faster. Isn't it enough that I've already trained and ran for an hour and a half tempo-hill workout earlier and swam for an hour and lifted weights? Why the heck am I so competitive?!

Did it ever occur to us that we are the exact people that motivate others- our apparent hard work and sweat dripping in the gym, being the lone rider on the road, or the only one breathing hard in the pool... Its how we got to where we are today by pushing ourselves and having the motivation from others

Anyways... I'm a morning person I think as I leave the gym-oh... and I was running wayy faster than the chic on the treadmill- but I still gave her kudos for a good tempo on my way out. After all with out those to push us, how are we ever going to support each other as athletes to get to the next level without some friendly competition? My work was done earlier. I'm already a couple steps ahead of her (or miles-whatever way you want to look at it)

Dang competitive nature! At least its friendly :)

PRO OFF SEASON

2009-10-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

I am definitely all for an easy, off season this year. I accomplished my goals that I set for 2009 and therefore in need of my optional choice workout types: enjoyable reflective workout, go hard if I want, easy if I want, even sprint if I want, cross-train, WEIGHTS (I'm already feeling the benefit in swimming, the ouch in climbing) or nothing. Those double and triple workout days? Phish- only if I have time or even feel up to it. School seems to come with perfect timing meaning less sleep, more early AM workouts, more sitting, more schoolwork and studying. It's time to redirect my energy to other things such as schoolwork and coaching.

2009 was an overwhelmingly successful season for me. I had a blast. I set many PR's in triathlon and the various disciplines. I accomplished more than what I wanted in 2009- including my professional triathlete status and learned more than I could ask for. I truly enjoyed the experiences and successes of 2009. I can safely say that I don't miss being a runner and being able to out run some runners- except Mattie Bridgemon from the U of O distance team who can kick my ass, but I guess I can get bragging rights for being able to run with her. I enjoyed getting challenged on the weekend long-rides by some local cat 1-2 guys as well as learned a lot from them mentoring me. Needless to say I am in LOVE with cycling, but not to the extent that I would train as many hours sitting on the bike per week as I would for triathlon to become a pure cyclist. Cycling races are dynamic, game-minded, yet predictable and unpredictable all at the same time. As far as competition of a pure sport, it's beauty (bike), brain and guts that goes into the race- making cycling the only races I'd gladly partake in outside the realm of multisport. I also swam with some speedy swimmers who pushed me (or more made me hang on for dear life during 100 sets). I might've not ever been the fastest in any of the groups, but I learned a lot from each of them. I've taken key elements, experiences and ideas from each of these groups and integrated them to my training, exercise physiology understanding and coaching.

2010 season starts now. I've set higher goals, starting new training with new people and new sponsors. I have no doubt that I can finish in the top half of the Pro Women's field in every triathlon and upgrade to a cat 2 rider perhaps to ride in some NRC races. In 2009, I turned the thought of "it would be nice to race at a higher level" into "I can and I'm going to race at the professional level in 2010". It's amazing how much improvement I've seen with just one year of pure triathlon and cycling training. I have no hopes to be the best in every race or to be the world champion. I can only be thankful for how much I've improved in my early years of training and hope for the best in the years to come. I know there will be peaks and valleys, with major mess-ups turning into learning experiences and there will be personal successes resulting from hard work. Why do I do this, you might ask? Or why do I care? I enjoy competing because of the people, the experiences, the physiology I learn, the positive can-do successful attitude it brings and because you just can't beat the solitude of trail running in the mountains along the McKenzie River, or getting in a break with your teammates, or the feeling of the fluidness and speed of the crisp water. And where else can you really apply the nitty-gritty of exercise physiology: lactate threshold, ventilation, cardiovascular control and powermeters in an exercise physiology program without constantly talking about it over beers with friends on a Saturday night?... This is why.

I have decided to have this be my last year in the Master's program at the University of Oregon. I'm going to take some time off from school and take advantage of my early years of my life to do some things that I love and have talent for: teach, coach and train. In a couple years down the road, if the right university fits, I will continue my Doctorate in exercise physiology. But for right now, I think you could guess that I enjoy seeing the world by foot or two wheels... I really enjoy coaching my athletes and I have begun coaching the University of Oregon Triathlon Club this year which has been extremely rewarding already. I also have joined a women's elite cycling team Therapeutic Associates Inc., with an undeniably amazing group of women with unique strengths to bring a well-rounded, respected and supportive team that I am honored to be apart of. Like I said, 2010 is turning out to be a great year already.

Now off for some "reflective" strengthening....

Oh and last goal-- to bring more short and sweet entertainment to the screen more than four times a year.

OPTIMISM CREATES EMINENCE

2009-08-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have always had general goals in mind, knowing what paces will get me what times in a triathlon. But since there are three legs, there’s so much more that can happen- in other words you have to keep in mind the inevitable “fudge factor” of triathlon. It’s always a give in one part of the race and a take in the other. As world champion pro triathlete Michellie Jones says “there’s no guarantee you’re going to win the race-- there’s no guarantee that you’re even going to finish the race.” It’s a gamble you take being a triathlete. Being said, I still have a goal for my optimal 70.3 racing- a goal that I believe attainable. To me it seems odd that I can compete at such levels, but my workouts, my pure physiology has told me, well currently speaking you could say my “body is over mind.” If everything went perfectly paced for me, for my peak race at Lake Stevens 70.3 half Ironman, I would come out with a 4:35:00-4:40:00 ish (there’s the fudge factor I’m talking about). I like to say what’s doable at my best race, what my body is capable of doing, but I don’t hold myself up to competing at those times. It’s a goal, not an ultimatum. What if the course is hillier? What if I my hip acts up on the run? What if I swim off course? What if…

If I swam 1:30 per 100, that would get me out of the water in about 30 minutes.

What really happened was a 34 minute swim. It was disappointing seeing that time while coming out of the water- knowing that it’s my first leg and I’m already a whopping 4 minutes behind my approximate goal time. That's a lot of time- especially on the swim, the shortest event, in only a 30 minute time window well, I used up a lot of my ish’s. Mentally, this gave me a little hit glancing down at my watch. It definitely messed with my feng shui; however this has happened to me in the past during the swim so I still had some hope.

Swimming with the age groupers gave me something I won’t ever miss- the endless buoys, some massive human wave machines, involuntary submerged hydration and line hogging just to name a few. From the start of the swim I was off with thee fastest girls- no doubt some of them were ex-collegiate swimmers (intimidation strike one- one of the few in I have while competing in triathlons). I was pushing it to keep draft behind them as our 40+ total female group split up instantaneously after the mass, chaotic in water start. It felt good to swim up with the sharks. Although I was definitely exerting more energy that normal, I knew what a fast swim time could get me and drafting behind those girls was saving me tons of energy and clip right on through the water. Cruising speed was fun- until we caught up with all the males who went off in waves before us. Please forgive me if this the male triathlete who happens to be reading this- but what good does it do to kick as hard as you possibly can and swim side to side while moving your arms side to side wasting energy while swimming 1.2 miles?!!?! Especially if there is a group of 5 sharks coming straight towards you and swimming around you? Well I guess in this scenario- he felt like he was being overcome by strong females, got scared and tried to swim faster, or perhaps he was trying to get the hell out of the middle from us. This hang up unfortunately prematurely ended my sweet swim bliss- with me being stuck behind him. And then there was 4. I tried to swim up with them, but like I said- they were moving fast. The rest of the swim consisted of me battling, dodging, slowing, stopping, curving, etc. to get around everyone. I wanted to be right next to the buoy line- so did everyone else. That choice was vetoed- it wasn't even an option. Just keep swimming… just keep swimming…

T1: Me and my wetsuit- I think it loves me too much to want to leave me. I either need a wetsuit stripper or I need to practice stripping. One career I should be glad I would never succeed in. Spinning on…

If I bike 2:32:00 (ish) that’s putting me at 22 mph average. Training and the powertap say that’s possible- so says speedster P3 Presto… sometimes…

What really happened was my mental race mode and optimism was challenged for a long 2:39:53 on the bike. Prior to the race, I was feeling it- feeling my body, feeling it hurt- bad. I was feeling some major muscle swelling and the edema along with it. But, I like to say you never know what’s going to happen until you’re out there racing. You can feel like shredded meat, mentally foggy, physically tired, but you’re there to make the best of what you have and it's race time. You can do your best to prepare, make yourself feel at your best, but ultimately, nothing goes 100%- again, there is no guarantee. At a local crit here in Eugene, I had a men’s cat 1-2 rider come up to me and tell me that he doesn’t think he’s going to race. He said that he felt like well, all of thee above. My response-“ You won’t know how your race is going to go until you’re out there... Plus, you don’t get into the groove of the race until after it’s started.” He raced and went on to have the best crit race ever and placed. I feel good when my experience and coaching mentality comes out and I’m glad I could be there to help some else convince themselves that they can- they can be successful. But, back to me on the bike = hurting. The “flatter” course wasn’t flat at all. It was full of consistent rollers and steep ones at that- with technical turns which eliminated the possibility of me ever getting into my TT rhythm. It also eradicated my cruising speed with all the other riders out there- with all of us bearing in mind the pre-race threats of a drafting penalty. Needless to say, I do not believe in drafting, not even creeping up behind someone. I believe that this is what makes triathlon cycling different from road cycling. If you’re a dang strong rider, you finally get the credit for it. You haul. You haul past the wind suckers. So when I would haul past, the men got a little peeved. Whether it is disbelief that a girl can ride so strong and them not wanting to be overtaken by a girl, or the fact that it gave them the signal that they must not be going that hard- they speed up and brought unnecessary ego and surges along with them. I hate excess baggage. Either way, guys need to be on the look out. No more is it that women aren’t successful in sports or for that matter in life. A hint of feminism? Perhaps…

This dilemma presented me with even more issues on the bike: having to push that extra 30 watts more because the man I’m trying to “overtake” and not draft of off has challenged me- then forcing me to do some hard effort intervals to burst out past them. Another issue was the dodging riders down hills at 45+ mph and then having to hit the brakes because the slower riders are hugging the center line instead of the right side to allow for safe passage- interstate driving, drivers education anyone? (actually, that was the whole time). On the second lap of the bike course, just when I had overtaken a couple people, while I was climbing up the hill, my chain fell off to the inside which resulted in me climbing off the bike, quickly fixing it and then getting my momentum back again while going uphill on not just a road bike, but a TT bike. And then the shuffle game happened again. The chain dropped AGAIN and the series of men that I had overtaken passed me AGAIN. This time, I was cursing at Presto, my bike- why- why WHY was this happening?!?! Could I not successfully shift into a lower gear again? Should I chance shifting anyways? Do I have to climb in my big chain ring? (ouch) The answer was all of thee above. (If you took my tests and answered all of thee above I think you'd get an A+ always.) I had to do something. I had to try and move on from this mess. I tried and with vengeance I did. I started cranking it with a higher cadence, took the down hills harder, took more risks and crested over the hill tops with some extra power. I needed those couple minutes I lost. Plus, my sub-par bike performance was not looking good so far. If I wanted to make a difference with without burning all of my matches- long, hard and steady trumps the short, all-out at the end. Consistency is key. I might as well try to start the consistency sometime. And I did start having some consistency, until 10 miles to go of the 56. Coming back in through a little town, a truck with its trailer full of pigs ( sheep, goats?) pulled out in front of me then slowed down to 15 mph to follow the slower cyclist in front of him which forced me to slow down and deal with Sunday cruiser bike ride speed for about 5 miles... on a TT bike and aero helmet- how dorky. Frantically, I started saying "please pull over to the other side to let us go!"- yes us. The truck was moving so slow that within a 5 mile time period a fair amount of us had funneled behind him. That was pretty much about it for me. I started having the terror edge in my voice- “PLEASE PULL OVER TO THE LEFT”!! as if I was an actress in a movie begging for my husband back in a murder scene, well maybe not quite that extreme but you get the urgency from my message. I was trying to have a higher ending note in my words so that I didn’t sound too abrasive- after all, I don’t want this man’s first and last memory of triathletes as horrible, angry, hurried people… well it was a time trial and time is of the essence... The pigs got scared but apparently that wasn’t enough to have the truck driver get a move on. Other guys were yelling as well, but none the less, we were still non-existent to the driver. Finally, the truck pulled 1 foot to the left over the center line, barely allowing for someone to squeeze through. Huge risk but yes, but I darted, I went for it and went through knowing that there was no shoulder and I could easily wipe out but I made it. And I kept hammering. At this point, it was better for my frustration to push it. At least I was trying to race or force myself to realize I was still in a race. But that was what was so hard about the bike and the swim. I couldn’t focus on the race, I couldn’t merely focus on my effort- I was surviving the rat race.

T2: was surprisingly, indeed, faster than some of the pros. I jetted out of there. Zoom Zoom.

If I run a 1:29:00-1:30:00 ish for the half marathon that’s about 6:50’s per mile. I’d be thanking those years of collegiate running. Smokin'.

So... how I really felt at the time was running 7:15 miles giving me a 1:34:47 half. I had no clue where I was. I saw Paul as I started the run. I told him what happened on the bike- all of the things that brought me down (in many ways). Maybe I was trying to relieve them onto someone else as an excuse- to verify why I wasn’t racing the way I was supposed to be racing. The run had me breathing hard from the get go. My legs were still killing from the bike. My body, mind and soul were hurting. It was truly a challenge. When I was trying to focus on the race and just when I really REALLY needed to- I couldn’t. I kept on seeing all these other females on the run- where they ahead of me? Behind me? How was their gait? Pace? Cadence? Stamina? I even had two guys come running past me just chatting, clipping along at 6:50 miles. Wow. What was wrong with me? Heck, I knew what was wrong with me! My body hurt, my legs were tired from the bike, I couldn’t feel my feet, I was behind…I just… couldn’t go… This is the time where I tried to define myself, as a triathlete, as to what I held my personal standards up to. I have 10 miles to go. I can either give up, knowing that I didn’t try my best, or I can try with the little mental motivation I have left. C’mon Mackenzie- don’t you have any pride within? Yes. I do. I am going to do my best, with what I have today, right now, right here. For the rest of the run it was daunting- going around a two loop course and seeing Becky Lavelle run down the hill as I’m running up the hill to the turn around, seeing Michellie Jones cruise on the flats opposite me, then seeing other females who weren’t pros running fluidly and strong, apparently ahead of me. It hurt; it hurt knowing what I could do and it hurt running period. I was in pain. I was moving one leg in front of the other as my legs were seizing up my stride shorter and shorter… or so I thought. For the rest of those 10 miles I ended up passing everyone, only being passed once, by another female. Bummer.

I finished 4:52:15. It was way off my goal time and in my mind, way behind everyone else. Little did I know that in fact, I was ahead of everyone else. I ended up placing second overall- giving me my professional triathlete status. I beat half of the pros- with a horrible race, with mental disparity, with unforeseen physical limitations, with… almost giving up. That was one of the hardest races in which I am so surprised I didn’t mentally give up. I was tested as to what would happen to my performance when I place so many hours of dedication, training, time, money, sacrifices, hardships and frustrations in my life to prepare for this as my peak race and to do well at it. What would I really do when all that is tested when unpropitious obstacles are placed along the way. In a way, this was almost the best race and completely worth it to achieve my professional status. I had proved to myself, that even in adversity, I could personally succeed. And who knew that my bike time would be up there with Michellie Jones’ time even though I had a few bumps along the way… Let’s just say "NO" to the chaotic racing style and "YES!" to the streamlined, organized, professional racing. Amen. On a side note, I actually give age groupers a lot of credit. They have to deal with a lot more than just their own race verses what the pros are blessed with during racing.

Even though there were some things that I lowered that I didn’t necessarily want to lower (instead of lowering my overall time, my core temp before the chilly race start, my chain lowering-err- well dropped two times on what would be known and called as a steep incline, my speed on the bike while behind a trailer for 5 miles…) I realized that despite my animosity at times during the race, my worst is not my best, but my sub-par performances aren’t something to be ashamed off. I’ve realized that when you train for something and specialize in it, when you become that next level athlete- you know you can still pull off a good race despite it not being your 100%. You can dig deep, push further, outperform your past and tread into a new realm of consistent performances. They may not be the best, they may not be the worst, but it’s inevitable that you can’t win if you don’t anticipate that “ish” factor and knowing as well that you won’t always be able to race at your capacity. You can’t perform your best all the time. In fact, I believe that what has made me a stronger athlete is not being successful all the time, but having unforeseen complications along the way to success- in training, in racing- in life. Tuning into what happens during your training and racing- such as how your bike cadence affects your overall time, knowing when you need that gel, refocusing on the race after fixing that flat- listening to your body and reacting- responding. Races aren’t set to test your endurance head on- it’s personal strategy. Heck, if there’s any race or competition that doesn’t include strategy- please let me know. Like Michellie Jones says, “there’s no guarantee.” Once you commit, you take that chance. After all, life’s about taking chances- isn’t it? But who would’ve thought- the worst race of the year could turn me into a professional triathlete? That’s what experience and reaction to a response will do for you. If something isn’t going your way, don’t call it quits in life. It’s just one of life’s many lessons to teach you how to succeed in your future experiences. It’s why we enjoy testing ourselves so much- to see what we can truly achieve, give meaning to our life, apply such challenges triathlon and other sports bring us to other areas in our life- resulting in each our own personal successes. When something’s not going your way- think twice. Think why and think how to overcome it. Success is always a possibility if you make it one.