What's Next?

You know those days when you feel slow and your world is just a nice shade of gray. Maybe it's just from exhaustion, stress or lack of sleep,...maybe you just had a bad race with no silver lining. You look in the mirror and you look like you feel. You go for a run and you think, wow I feel like I already ran my workout. Well today is not one of those days. I feel great, I look awesome and you should have seen me cruisin along in my yellow Keen's. I got them free from Keen last year, was supposed to test them but hated the flashy yellow color. Couldn't get myself to throw them away though and tonight I was feeling spunky enough to wear them. Ran outside as the sun was setting, came in with the darkness - a simple 45 minute recovery run. Smiled at the ladies, chatted with a couple of friends. As I walked by the full length mirror of the elevator door downstairs, I even stopped, went back and winked at myself. It's simple really. If I curse myself for the days that I feel like crap then I will also celebrate when I'm feeling like...well I don't know what but something great. Yesterday I ran to track practice and I shot out of the house like the road runner. After just walking around for most of the day Sunday and full rest on Monday, I had energy to burn and rested muscles to wake up. I had some speed back and it felt easy. Very much looking forward to the Quicksilver 50-miler this Saturday. I don't intend it to be some spectacular PR run, just a simple 50-miler to get me back in the groove of ultra racing, fitness check and all that. Suppose to be hot and I hope it is. Pictures from previous race reports showed hills with no tree cover, nice.

Realistically my left IT is sore, so I will be stretching that baby till race day and I'm still waking up tired in the morning but that's also partly due to some late night work I've been doing. If I sleep well tonight and tomorrow night I should be golden. Out on the run tonight my mind was already picturing/imagining sections of the trail, going through checklists, wondering which friends I would see come Saturday and going through strategy and goals.

Not quite ready yet but I'm fast moving in that direction.

Swim Start Video

Swim Start!
Brian McNitt's girl Jamie (raced the short course on Sunday for her first Olympic distance triathlon), took a great video of a swim start. It's done in waves and I think this was the men's 35-39B start, my wave. So great to see. Brian was also the one who shot the Piñata video and Jamie was responsible for the Piñata in the first place.

Wildflower

All my training for this one moment:) Celebrating Cinco deMayo back at camp after a day of racing at Wildflower. Thanks to Brian McNitt for the video.

The Somewhat Quick and Dirty (Full report and images to come)
The Swim was refreshing, from the first stroke to the last. It was surprisingly choppy because of high winds and even I was initially taken aback despite being used to rough water. Didn't take much of an adjustment though and soon I was back into my zone. The wind continued to make it hell on the bike. It hit us at the start gave us a break in the middle then hit us again at the end of our ride. Not only did it slow us down but it also made a major descent on the ride dangerous. The wind would buffet riders and bikes became very unsteady. Bikes would get blown off position from the gusts. From what I heard from the spectators there were a lot of crashes. While I was out there, emergency vehicles passed me 4 times on the course. After the race I saw folks with road rash walking around!@#$*? My biggest worry wasn't me crashing but someone crashing in front of me. I was more than happy to get back in from the ride. Of course on the run there was barely any wind:) The hills protected us and it got warm. Run was tough and I pulled back the first 6 miles. In Wildflower 60% of the run is on single track and fire road. At mile 7 the course took us through camp right through our club's camp site where I was pleasantly surprised by a huge cheering section. Lots of love, photographs and even picked up a pacer for 50yds or so. It gave me a welcome boost and I was able to pick up the pace even more. By this time we were back on asphalt and I was able to motor along pretty quickly. Came to the finish line with just about 3 minutes under my time goal. Halfway through the run I thought I would miss it, gave up, ran faster without it hanging over me, got my boost from camp, ran even faster and made it, whew. Felt great after the race and returning back to the transition area to pack up and retrieve my bike I ran into Donald. He called out to me, didn't recognize him with his shades on. Talked for a bit, exchanged stories - nice guy. He was disappointed about his race but that's his story to tell. An excellent writer you'll enjoy the report.

Overall a great first event at Wildflower. The course and the weather seems to team up to make it a challenging event, at least in recent years. 3 years ago it rained. 2 years ago there was a heatwave. Last year it was normal, meaning the normal hot weather. This year it was windy. Hahaha bring it on. Soon as I crossed the finish line I was already planning my return for next year.

Sunday was spent cheering on the short course athletes. At the finish line I thought I heard the announcer say the name "Graham Cooper". Graham is the winner of last year's Western States 100 and a great triathlete. Maybe just my imagination.

Leave you with a post from a forum which I thought was particulary funny. It was forwarded by one of our coaches.
I've raced Wildflower 7 times since 1997. Heat, hills, etc, were nothing compared to the hell of Saturday. the swim chop (3 mins slower on average for most AG'ers) and the tornado that greeted us on the bike were the toughest hands down conditions I have ever seen in just about any race. granted I've struggled with a badly herniated disk and anemia since last year, but my bike split was 20 minutes slower than 2006. 

My plan was to take it easy the first 15, but just pedaling I was pushing 200-220 watts (42 year old lady here), which is very high for me. On the flat heading to Jolon Road , I was going 11 mph. It sucked big hairy donkey balls. I was 40 minutes off my time from last year (again, many injuries since, but still!, and a personal worse by over 25 minutes). 

The fact that Bjorn smoked that bike is a testament to what a great biker he is. 

Sue 


Here We Go!

Why is the vegetarian cooking the burgers? With pal Spamsi at the pre-race Zoom BBQ last weekend.

Leaving for Wildflower this afternoon. My friend Sasser is giving me a ride down, she's great conversation, great company. With traffic, it will be a 4 hour trip.

Taper has gone well as planned, just a tandard two week taper. To be honest I needed it, not just for the next two races but because my body was feeling tattered and worn again. Always experimenting with mixing the whole Triathlon thing with the Ultra-marathon thing. This year I've upped my hours training for Tri and it's made a big difference in my energy levels. When I'm rested I feel very fit and strong, moreover it's spread out to the biking and swimming too and not just running...not so lopsided. However the days I actually feel rested and "zippy" is few. So this taper has been a blessing. Once Wildflower is over I'm going to back-off the riding and swiming, if I do another triathlon this year it won't be till September. First week of the taper I felt no difference, this week however my legs feel great. This is why I love the taper, I can feel the difference in my body, in my energy.

I'm also mostly over last weeks health issues. I got sick with a head cold. It was slow moving, I was out of sorts for two days before symptoms finally appeared on Friday. Meanwhile I was racking my brain to find out why. When I finally realized it was a cold I sighed in relief, whew nothing serious:) Then while that was going on I had stomach issues. At Saturday morning practice I felt like throwing up and my stomach was sore all day. Had to cut out solid food till I felt better. Through this whole time I just swam and biked. Funny how a cold dunking in the bay made me feel a whole lot better. Swam Fri, Sat, Sunday. By Sunday I was able to run again and I felt great. Slower because of the cold and stomach issues but the legs were sweet.

So now I'm doing much better. I was never really stressed. Not sure if I will be 100% come Saturday but it will be somewhere up there. Whatever I have going on Saturday that's what I'll put on the race. I won't worry about the past, the future, what I'm missing, what I could've done better, etc, etc, etc. Toeing the line, just as I am...as I've done countless of times. So here's to the real kick-off race to my 2007 season. It's May and it's about time.

Here we go!