"Teta" Means "Booby" In Spanish...

I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today

2012-01-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I woke up and was overwhelmed with a sense of peace and happiness. I dreamt the cancer was only in my brother's mouth, and the doctors were able to zap it away. At 10:17am yesterday we found out that my dream, and everyone else's dream, came true - the cancer was only found in my brother's mouth. We are all overcome with emotion; this is the best possible news we could have heard. Hopefully Chris goes for a second opinion at Sloan Kettering, but the treatment plan from his current doctors involve taking a chemo pill for a year...with constant monitoring to ensure that the stupid cancer goes bye bye. Chris will beat cancer. Cause cancer needs a good ass kicking and my brother can certainly give it.

Last night I went for a run and dedicated it to my brother and Grandma; it was the best run I have had over the past few weeks. I felt weightless, without a care in the world. As I ran down a pier in the Navy Yard I was beaming from ear to ear, and I wanted to throw my arms up in the air and pretend I was Rocky. At that moment I was so thankful for everything and everyone in my life. As all the weight in the world dropped off my shoulders, a huge gust of wind picked me up and carried me forward for a second. I felt like Grandma was there, telling me to never stop moving forward. I felt a sense of calm.

Later that evening Mike and I celebrated the good news with dinner and a cocktail at a local tavern.

Now my dear readers, please tell me one piece of great news you have received lately!

Do they serve dirty martinis in heaven?

2012-01-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

Cause my Grandma definitely deserves one (or five).

My witty, doesn't take shit from anyone, beautiful Grandma passed away Friday January 13th. My phone rang when I was on the treadmill, and I just knew. She is no longer in pain, no longer suffering, and has a lifetime of fun and dirty martinis with my Grandpa to look forward to up in heaven.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to you all from the bottom of my and my family's heart for all your support, positive words and prayers over the last week. A quick update on my brother - he was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histocytosis. Chris has a team of doctors at the cancer center, including one of the top doctors in this field who is based in Texas. This morning he had a PET scan to determine if the cancer is in any other areas of his body other than in his mouth. Here's to hoping and praying the cancer is single-site and we can nail it with chemo and radiation!

Fear Not, For I am With You...

2012-01-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

I have never been a very religious person. As a child, I went through all the motions to be a "good" Christian, but I never really "got it". I memorized all the books of the Bible in order, I went to Sunday School, and summer church camp. But when it was time to make confirmation, I stepped up my faith quite a bit. Our group was to put on the Sunday church service and I chose to be the minister and prepare the sermon. I remember spending so much time on perfecting my chosen topic - prejudice. When I stepped up to the pulpit, I was nervous, but I spoke clearly and spread the word - my words. It was...well, exhilarating. Since I made confirmation back in the day, my trips to church have waned. My faith has wavered over the years.

On Monday my 34 year old brother was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. My family is devastated. Chris is scared for his 3 year old daughter to see him be sick. We don't know much at this point - the information out there is scarce, particularly in adults. One thing that seems to be consistent that is smoking might have been a cause. (My PSA...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - if you can stop this terrible habit to save your health, do it!) Today Chris has an appointment with a cancer center in NJ for more testing. Right now we are just waiting for more information, to figure out what organs are affected, to figure out what he needs to start treatment. It's a waiting game at this point, and the unknown is scary and frustrating.

Yesterday my Grandma was moved from her hospital room to in-patient hospice and is being treated with continous morphine. Dementia has set in.

It's been a trying week and my heart has been so heavy and full of pain. I would have thought I would be dried out from all the tears I have shed, but they just keep coming. I am so lucky to have a wonderful support system who have provided shoulders to cry on, funny antidotes to make me smile, or just a listening ear. Countless people are praying for my brother, his wife and daughter, my grandma, my parents, and me. I am finding faith again myself...and have found two verses that are helping me through this dark patch...

Isaiah 41:10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

2012 is going to be the year of faith and strength.

Is That Your Final Answer?

2011-12-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Last week I was given a preliminary diagnosis of a lumbar stress fracture. Monday night I had an MRI. Tuesday I brought said MRI to the Spine Center at Beth Israel. After taking an xray and examining my MRI, I was told by the nurse practicioner I had Degenerative Disc Disease. She gave me a script for physical therapy. Today I went back to Dr. Corrado, Sports Med Dr at Children's Hospital (again I was the oldest patient there by 15 years). I met with another doctor who took me through the findings and results of my MRI.

Final diagnosis...Facet Joint Arthritis

Thankfully the MRI did not show a stress fracture as originally thought. When Dr. Corrado joined us in the room, both doctors ruled out Degenerative Disc Disease. "You have a pretty perfect spine. If I were a 20 year old football player, I would kill for your spine. Anyway, for someone who is active as you, we expect to see some normal wear and tear of the discs, but this is not what's causing you pain."

I'm going to copy and paste a portion from the website that I linked above because this is pretty much exactly what they told me:

Facet joint arthritis develops slowly over a long period of time. This is partly because spinal degeneration in later life is the main cause of facet joint arthritis. Symptoms rarely develop immediately when degeneration is causing the problems. However, rapid movements, heavy twisting, or backward motions in the low back can injure a facet joint, leading to immediate symptoms.

So I have probably had this for a while. How I have previously dealt with the pain was to overcompensate by using other body parts/movements. Whatever I did in the TRX class in September sent my joints into overdrive, causing me massive amounts of pain.

Okay so what does all this mean? Well Dr. Corrado said if I'm going to have back problems, Facet Joint Arthritis is probably the best problem to have. What will happen now is that I will start physical therapy. Go for a few times a week, learn the exercises and do them at home. Go back to physical therapy and for them to assess me. In the meantime, I could wear a back brace while sitting at my desk at work, and during working out.

CORE CORE CORE.

It is no surprise to pretty much anyone who personally knows me that my core sucks. I once held a plank for over a minute. Now I can barely hold 20 seconds, but the pain in my back makes me topple over. I can't touch my toes because my hamstrings are too tight because they overcompensate for my back issues, which again, relates to my nonexistant core strength.

Okay I get it, my shitty core has led me down this road. But can all of you say that you are super core strong? Maybe you are, I'm not here to judge. But when you swim/bike/run constantly, it's hard to find time to do core work.

But alas, it is time to do core work. I am going to research some yoga/pilates studios in Boston. Dr. Corrado wants me to do Bikram type yoga where you can only reach/stretch as far as you; he doesn't want me to be pushed into poses. So that is going to be my homework. Find a good studio - one that I will feel comfortable going to, as I am a super beginner and one that won't push me to be in a particular pose. Any Boston peeps have any studio recommendations?

Oh, and I am allowed to do any sort of workouts I want, but if it hurts...don't do it!

I just dropped off a prescription for Voltaren, an NSAID which will help treat the pain and I am looking into wearing a Boston LS (back brace) for when I'm sitting at work or working out.

If the pain during physical therapy gets worse, I can go get steroid shots.

So I think that's it with regards to my back.

Sheesh!

Okay so in other news...I have been cooking up a storm...I wish I have taken pictures, but in the last week I have made...

Crockpot vegetarian lasagna

Spinach salad with herbed goat cheese, cranberries, sliced mushrooms, and Michelle's sweet and salty pecans

Stuffed mushrooms with smoked gouda and panko breadcrumbs

Black and white cheesecake squares

Pork Tenderloin Roulade

Salt n Vinegar Potatoes

and....

MY FIRST CHEESECAKE!!! (Recipes compliment of my mom)

I have been dying to try my cheesecake baking skills since my upstairs neighbor boyfriend loves it (although he has yet to try anything I have baked before which is a little frustrating!). After pursuing many recipes, from Giada's with marscapone cheese, to Paula Deen's with 68 sticks of butter, I decided upon using my moms...and it came out great! I had a little slice last night although I only had had in the fridge for 2 hours, but I'm looking forward to trying it out aagin tonight. My only question for you cheesecake bakers...how do you get the graham cracker crumbs to stick to the sides of your springform pan???

Over a delicious dinner last night, Mike and I decorated my gynormously beautiful tree...

I personally do not really do any in-store shopping, but this Saturday I might have to venture into a mall. EEK! Hope you are all enjoying the days leading up to the big dance!

Backing it Up

2011-12-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned my chronic lower back pain on this blog from time to time...particularly the time I fucked it up in September after a TRX class...but I mostly keep quiet about the severity and frequency in which I experience this pain. I try not to let you all know how much of a pansyass I am. Well, I can't take it any longer.

Back up - 8 years or so ago, after having bloody uncontrollable diarrhea, losing 20 pounds (and not in a healthy way), and losing hair, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Shortly thereafter I began running, biking, swimming with a boyfriend at the time. Shortly after that, my back pain crept up on me. I don't remember much about the pain at the time, but it was enough for me to seek out advice from a doctor. First I went to my Primary Care who sent me back over to my GI doctor. Without xrays or an MRI, I was diagnosed with sacroillitis (inflammation of the sacroiliac joint) which is often common with UC patients. I was put on Vioxx...it didn't work and a few months later, Vioxx was recalled and taken off the market.

Throughout the next 7 years I continued running marathons and training for triathlons all the while having this chronic lower back pain. I went to acupuncture, massage, and ART. I iced it, put a heating pad on it, took Advil and Oxys.

Finally this past September was my breaking point. Having severe back spasms and not being able to walk had me *running* to the doctor again. My PCP said I pulled my back muscle, and gave me muscle relaxers (which did not work) and went to physical therapy.

I rested, didn't work out for a few weeks, and the spasms eventually went away. But what I was left with was a 9 on a scale of 1-10 on everyday pain. Mornings I gingerly roll out of bed. I can barely sit at my desk at work for more than 5 minutes. I can't stand standing. Strangely enough my back doesn't hurt as much when I run as I do when I sit. Lying down seems to be the only position I can put myself in without pain.

I have had enough. I made two appointments, one was this morning with Dr. Corrado, a Sports Med doctor at Children's Hospital (so what if I was the oldest patient in the waiting room by like 15 years). The second is next Tuesday at the Spine Center at Beth Israel. I honestly had no clue what I was expecting when I saw Dr. Corrado this morning. He asked me some questions...was I an extremely active kid (um yes, tap/ballet/jazz/pointe for 13 years, softball, basketball, soccer, track), am I extremely active now (ummmm yup)...and then had me do a few basic movements and expressing my pain like touching my toes (no pain) to bending back (OUCH OUCH) to raising one knee up and bending back (OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!).

His diagnosis? Spondylolysis, in basic terms, a stress fracture of my lower back (5th lumbar vetebra). He scheduled me an MRI for next week, and we made an appointment to meet next Friday to discuss the results and treatment.

What does this mean? We didn't discuss treatments in depth yet...he mentioned back brace (does this mean I'm going to be like the Joan Cusak in 16 Candles?!) and physical therapy.

Surgery may be needed due to the severity. I don't want to jump to conclusions, especially after an initial appointment. While I'm glad to be given some sort of diagnosis, I'm upset and want to burst into tears. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess I was hoping for a quick fix, a "take this pill, and tomorrow you will be 100%." I feel like I'm being penalized for being so active throughout my whole life.

What does this mean in terms of training? I have no idea. I was not told to stop training. I haven't biked in about a month and will probably continue not to since the pain is the worst when I sit. I might run once or twice this week since he didn't tell me not to, and then see what he says next Friday.

And I still have that apppintment with the BI Spine Center; doesn't hurt to get a second opinion.

I'm not going to wallow in my sorrows forever, just today...and maybe tomorrow - until a glass of wine assures me everything will be okay.

On Target

2011-11-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

Thursday I took a vacation day and went with Mike to help him pick out cabinets. See, he owns the condo/apartment above me, and is in the process of redoing his kitchen. He was looking for a woman's touch in regards to his color scheme, but I think he has a better eye for matching his wall paint to the oak cabinets to the wood floors...WTF do I know about this stuff?

Afterwards we ate at Conrads - otherwise known as the best steak tip joint in the East - and then headed to his parents house. So unbeknownst to me, earlier that day Mike and his dad decided that we were going to hit up the shooting range. Ooookayyyyy. Last year I went to an indoor shooting range and got cold feet; the loud noises, the earplugs, the goggles - were all just too much for me. But this time we were going to an outdoor range...I was hesitant, anxious and nervous...but seeing that we were completely alone at the range and having an incredibly knowledgeable teacher, I had no problem taking the little 22 rifle and shooting at a metal disc 100 yards away. Shortly thereafter I took a semi-automatic 22. And then I tried a different rifle with a laser. I tried a 45 but holy kickback and loud noise - not for me. I kept going back to the others, and before I knew it, I was pretty darn good. I was hitting that metal disc 100 yards away. PING PING PING! So I'm glad I went, it was a great experience, but I'm definitely not planning another trip anytime soon - although the girls in my bookclub want to go...so maybe that will happen in the future!

(I was going for the jugular with this target. My other two targets have many more hits in the orange!)

I've been back to training almost every day...still taking the TRX classes on Monday, and got on my bike two weeks ago for the first time since September. Yesterday I was supposed to swim for the first time since September, but wouldn't you know it, I skipped it in order to go for a run with my girl friend and her puppy. I'm up to running 50 minutes which doesn't seem like a heck of a long time but it is 50 minutes more than I have ran again, since, September. I'm just running based on feel right now, not on heart rate, and my pace obviously has decreased since taking the time off to get my back back in order. Holding sub-9s (have been averaging 8:55s for 99% of my runs), but it just feels good to get back outside and enjoy these 60 degree days that definitely will not last for long.

This past weekend was our 11th Annual Boston Lupus Pubcrawl and once again was a major success. We raised over $7,000, and I thank everyone for coming out to support this great cause.

With that being said, I, of course, had an absolute blast, as usual. Three of my former college roomies made the trip and we laughed until we cried while slamming scorpion bowls, doing the nutshaker dance, and reminiscing about the good ole days.

So that's pretty much it...this weekend the besties and I are having our annual early Thanksgiving, where I am making homemade mac and cheese, kicked up spinach dip, and a pumpkin pie. Much wine and laughter will be had as usual.

Have a great humpday everyone!

11th Annual Boston Lupus Pub Crawl!

2011-11-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

In 2001 the “Boston Lupus Pub Crawl” was born. It started as a group of friends getting together to have fun and raise money for Lupus research…

Today, the pub crawl has grown from a group of 40 friends with no real plan, into an annual event with typically 6 bars to enjoy and an estimated 400 people from around the country annually in attendance.

As we grow the stories get better, the hangovers get worse, and we stay true to our goal of raising money and awareness for Lupus Research!

If you live in the New England area, and are looking for something to do this Saturday afternoon, please come on down to Faneuil Hall to drink a ton of beers/scorpion bowls, win some damn cool prizes, listen to the best cover band Headspace, and help raise money for the Lupus Foundation of New England. As part of the Committee, I will be registering people at the first two bars, so look for me!

Saturday November 5^th,2011

The 2011 Annual Boston Lupus Charity Pub Crawl

Official 2011 Bar List!!

2:00 pm to 3:30pm Bell in Hand

(Music by Brian Richard http://brianrichardmusic.com/, food, prizes!!)

3:30pm to 5:00 pm Hennessy’s and Paddy O’s

5:00pm to 7:00pm Ned Devine’s

(Music by Head Space http://www.headspaceboston.com/, food and more prizes!!)

7:00 pm to 8:30pm Hong Kong and Sissy K’s

(Food, Scorpion Bowls and Good Times!)

8:30pm to ??? Good Bar

(Ending the night with some Dancing and Fun!!!)

Registration and Donations can be completed using the link below. Online registration will be closed on November 4^th at Noon. Donations will be accepted at the door in Cash or Check made out to “Lupus Foundation New England”:

Pub Crawl Registration

We will have a limited amount of t-shirts for sale at the event:

http://lupusne.org

http://bostonlupuspubcrawl.blogspot.com

BostonLupusPubCrawl@gmail.com

Hope to see some of my fellow blogger/friends there!

Some of my favorite previous years' photos...

October, And the Trees are Stripped Bare

2011-10-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

Of all they wear

What do I care

October

And kingdoms rise

And kingdoms fall

But you go on

-U2

My apologies for abruptly turning my blog from public to private, but a little something something was going on in my life and I needed the privacy. But alas, I'm back, but honestly do not have much to say.

Workouts - what are those? Since my back injury over a month ago I have been putting workouts on the back burner. I've run and ellipticalled once or twice, started going back to TRX, but other than that, I haven't had much motivation to do anything. I think I'll sign the beau and I up for the Hyannis Half Marathon (Feb 2012) so at least I have something to train for.

Life - besides the not working out thing, life has been excellent! One of my best friends from home got married a few weekends ago and I had an amazing time dancing and celebrating the night away. The beau and I headed up to Maine for his college homecoming and we ate more lobster than I ever thought possible. This past weekend we headed to M&Bs new pad in Andover where the fabulous hosts led us on a hike, and later fed us deliciously spicy meatballs with a side of Light and Stormys. It was a perfect Saturday afternoon. Later that night I met two of my favoritest BTT gals at the Harpoon Tasting Room for some brews, and then went out for some wine. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling my best yesterday. But nothing some good greasy diner food couldn't cure.

I suppose it's time to introduce said beau to you my dear blog readers...so without further ado...here is my upstairs neighbor/boyfriend/partner in crime...

How we got together is actually pretty amusing - to make it short, 3 years or so ago when I moved into my apartment complex, I was bringing my tri bike into the building when I saw a cutie on the back stoop. We exchanged pleasantries and that was that. Fast forward to last year when my neighbor across the hall frantically called me at work one day saying that the water heater from upstairs was leaking into my apartment, and could I come home to check out the damages (which turned out to not be a big deal). Mike (upstairs neighbor) took care of fixing the little damages that his broken water heater caused in my apartment. He was adorable and kind and I appreciated him painting and giving me a check for the "food" in the fridge/freezer that perished due to my electricity having been turned off for a few days. (Meanwhile, the "food" in my fridge mainly consisted of condiments.) Fast forward to this July...my relationship at the time ended. Mike and I reconnected. He didn't think I would be interested in him because I was a bad-ass triathlete and he, well, he likes the Bruins and Budweisers. As the cliche goes, "the rest is history". We are both pretty lucky that it's not a long-distance relationship :)

Anyway, that's what has been going on...enjoying life without the stress of having to work out. I am looking forward to doing more of that the next few weeks or so until I start the half-mary training. Upcoming events...my annual Lupus Foundation of New England Pub Crawl and early Thanksgiving with my friends! Happy October all!

Flat on my Back

2011-09-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my back was hurting more than it usually does. I came home from work, plopped on the couch and relaxed. a few hours later i could not get off the couch. literally. mike had to pull me up. i was in excruiating pain, and it only got worse. i took some aleve and went to bed, unfortunately i had difficulty getting into bed, and once i did, i could not move from one position to another. i had to grab onto mike to turn to my side. i didnt sleep a wink last night. at one point i had to pee and painstakingly tried to get out of bed. took me about ten minutes, which usually would be a one second movement. my first step walking had me practically crumpling to the floor. the pain was so bad in the morning that i had to get on a later bus simply because all my morning movements took longer than usual to do. at work i immediately emailed my doctor, who was able to get me a last minute appointment this morning. i took the green line to brookline and hobbled the rest of the way to her office. after answering some questions and going through some tests, my dr decided i pulled a muscle in my back which led to muscle spasms. and this was most likely a result from my trx class. wtf. ive done trx numerous times before, but now im fucked up.

so im on my couch watching tv on ten mg muscle relaxer. no workouts for a week. nooooooo!!! Why me?! Arrghhh! Stupid back. Stupid stupid.

Laying Down a Deuce

2011-09-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

Where did I last leave off...oh right, a little trip to San Fran. While the trip to Napa fell through, I was able to knock out two fantastic runs in between all the drinking and eating we did. My friends Ken and Michelle live in this ridiculous place pretty close to the Golden Gate Bridge. So Friday morning I ran along the beach and up and over the Bridge and back. 7.25 miles, average 8:30s. It was an incredible run, amazing scenery and of course I had to stop and take pictures.

The next run was Sunday morning before football watching. I had a specific speed set that I hit 3 out of 4 times and felt completely pooped afterwards. The temps were unseasonably high that afternoon and I was sweating my tits off. Nevertheless, I was happy to run in an amazing city.

Last week I raced in a 4k trail run with my company. We did the same race last year, and we are ferried over to an island with a bunch of other corporations, do a 4k trail race, and then have bbq and Harpoons afterwards. That morning and early afternoon at work I was having major poop issues, and I contemplating dropping out of the race. I chugged some of my coworkers expired Pepto and hoped for the best. The course was different this year, incorporating more hills than last and the whole thing was still a clusterfuck of people, dust and rocks. After polishing off a very fast first mile, I had to stop and walk - yup I was one of those people. I was having terrible stomach cramps and thought I would poop myself. Eventually I started running again and finished in the exact same time as last year - 20:18. At least I'm consistent! Still #1 in my company out of females, and 220 overall out of 728. But I was probably the first person in line for hot dogs!!! And the chocolate chip cookies...and Harpoon!

Friday the gentleman (boy)friend and I had date night. We walked over to Neptune Oyster and put our names on the waiting list, and after hearing it was a 2 hour wait, we walked over to Florentine Cafe for some drinks. Then we had a drink at Goody Glovers. Finally it was time to eat. I had been waiting for this since the last time I went to Neptune's which was probably 2 years ago. Once again, the food did not disappoint. We shared a dozen East Coast oysters, and for our entrees, I went with the hot lobster roll, and Mike had the lobster tails. Amazing. Sensational. Best date night. Ever.

What else...ummm I had my girlfriend's baby shower on Saturday. Then yesterday I raced in the Funtastic Nantastic Triathlon. I drove down to Hull and saw huge crashing ocean waves. Swimming in those waves by far was the hardest tri swim I have ever encountered, including two Ironman swims. Once you jumped out far enough to start swimming, the waves would knock you right back to where you started. Thankfully it was a short swim, and I managed to finish without dying.

The bike...well my goal all year was to average 20mph on the bike. I thought it would happen since my first 5 mile split was 13 minutes. I was passing people left and right. Lots of newbies riding the left line, which was really frustrating. Only two or three women passed me. Was feeling good. Unfortunately the headwind caught back up to me on the return trip, and I just missed 20mph...again. Damn it.

The run...my Garmin died as I was getting off my bike, so I ran naked. The run was an all beach/sand run. I just trucked along. One girl on my tri team passed me, she was in the wave behind me. I was hoping to hold on to perhaps an age group placement, but once again, our ages weren't marked on our calves, so I had no idea.

I did.

2nd in age group/16 (Clearly Lauren on my tri-team spanked me) - and a huge obvious -

START SWIMMING!!!

9th female/168 - holy shit!!!

69th overall/387

Not bad, not bad.

I celebrated afterwards with Sunday Funday with the gentleman (boy)friend and one of my besties Anna and a friend of hers!

Now it's time to get my ass into fall road races!

Enjoying the Ride

2011-09-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

You can already tell that August (and the summer) has ended in New England; temperatures dropped about 20 degrees, the MBTA is packed again since everyone is back from vacations, and everyone seems grumpy. Triathlon season is winding down, and I had the chance to put in another sprint this weekend. My training has been pretty crappy lately to say the least; I only swam once since my last race last month, and my speed workouts have been off the mark. However, I might as well make the most out of my season and try to end on a high note. I signed up for the Mayflower Sprint Triathlon down in Plymouth this last Saturday. I love racing on Saturdays and wish more were scheduled on that day so I don't waste the weekend resting and hydrating for a race that takes a little over an hour.

Anyway, the gentleman friend and I were going to head down together on Saturday, however he wound up having to work since that hobag Irene knocked power out for thousands of people in the MA/RI area. (Meanwhile on that Sunday when Irene showed up, I ran down to the YMCA and it was closed...so I ran outside. Irene doesn't fuck with me!)

So I woke up Saturday at 5:20am, ate my gluten-free waffles, pooped just once - yup, believe me, just once, and then drove 40 minutes down to Plymouth. I did poop again once I parked my car, but other than that, my stomach was feeling strangely normal. So I picked up my race packet, set up transition and went for a little run. Shortly thereafter we had to walk the 0.25 mile down to the race start, as the swim was point to point. I took a quick dip in the harbor, holy shit was that water FREEZING!! I was honestly petrified that once I started swimming, I would have a panic attack due to the frigid waters. I was in the third wave with women under 40, and I hopped off the dock into the water and paddled my way to the swim start. As most of you know, I have a hatred for swimming which clearly has fucked me over in races before. I missed the last podium by less than a minute because my swim is so slow. I wasn't expecting any huge swim gains at Mayflower, I just wanted to finish without panicking. As usual I started off on the right hand side and kept most of the women's field to my left. This meant I was pretty alone from the get go which is two fold because (1) I don't have to worry about people knocking me around, however (2) I don't have any feet to hang onto.

Nevertheless, I finished the 0.33 mile swim in a whopping 13:53. Yup, not my finest 13 minutes. There was a super long transition run (advertised as 0.25 mile) on partly carpeted, partly concrete/rock path to T1.

T1 = 3:30

I saw a girl who's bike was racked next to mine get into transition the same time I did. She beat me out of the water by 2 seconds, but I took her out during transition. Her race number was 84, mine was 82. We wound up battling through this whole race.

Next up was the 11 mile bike. I had no idea what the course was like, but I will say that it was hillier than I anticipated. #84 and I played cat and mouse the entire bike. She would kick my ass on the uphills (on her road bike) and I would pass her on the flats and downhills. The one issue I had with this race was that our ages were not marked on our calves, so we had no idea who was in our age group or not. Frustrating. 2nd issue with this race was that the last portion of the bike you are on the run course on a very narrow street. You were forced to bike slowly, and you certainly couldn't pass any one. In conclusion, I was really disappointed with myself for not breaking 20 mph on the bike portion in a sprint once again.

Bike = 33:56 (19.4 mph)

T2 = 1:08 - for the last two races I opted to not put socks on for the run. I could suffer for 3 miles right?

The run. What can I say about the run but that it personally sucked ass for me. The run was advertised as two loops of 1.5 miles. To start you have to climb up 31 steps of stairs. This was not very fun. Thank goodness I will never do Escape from Alcatraz.

So another issue I had with this race was again with the narrowness of the road. The portion I previously mentioned where cyclists and runners were on the same road at the same time, cones were set up and people had to run single file for a good 0.5 mile in each direction. I was attempting to pass people but runners were coming towards me and I would have hit them head on. For some reason this run was painful; I was experiencing stomach cramps right under my ribcage...they weren't side stitches, they weren't poop cramps, they were like gas cramps that I couldn't get rid of. #84 passed me on the second loop and I couldn't hang on.

I wish I sucked it up and sprinted until I pooped. Because yup she was in my age group and beat me by exactly a minute...putting me in 4th place.

DAMN IT!

Second time this has happened to me!

Final issue with this race, um the run was short. Like really short. Like the results say that it was a 2.8 mile run (should have been 3 miles) and clocked me in at 17:42 which is a 6:20 min/mile. No fucking way did I run that fast. I was coming in closer to 8s. And one of the fastest runs for the day was 3:31 min/miles? Yeahhhhhh not so much!!! I remember turning the corner and the finish line was there...and I was dumbfounded - like wait, I'm not done yet! I didn't push hard enough!

In conclusion, I tried my best, and enjoyed the day.

1:10:08, 4th in my age group out of 18.

Not my finest hour, but I'm learning a lot about myself through sprints, which I had never done before this year.

After I drank a Muscle Milk and caught up with my teammate who took 2nd in her age group, I met blog reader Hilary! Great to meet you little lady, and congrats again on the PR!!!! Hope to see you out there again some time!

As I was packing up my stuff, I had the chance to meet #84 (at the time neither one of us knew who the top 3 were). She was a super sweet chick and we both thanked each other for pushing ourselves during the race.

I drove back to Boston, relaxed for a bit, and then gentleman friend and I drove down to the Cape for some fun. We took down some big lobsters at a friends house, drank copius amounts of cocktails, and played Balderdash well into the evening. Sunday after breakfast, I convinced the boy to come for a quick (15 minute) run with me. Because he isn't in the triathlon/running circuit he often wonders why I put myself through torturous workouts that I dread and then complain about afterwards. "I want you to do it because you enjoy it" he says. I finally was able to agree to that statement after I gave him my race recap. It's really refreshing to date someone who is not a triathlete/runner but who can completely understand my crazyness and love/hate for the sport.

Anyway we hung out at the friends house again until it was time to shower, get dolled up, and go to dinner at the amazing Ocean House that overlooked the Nantucket Sound. We dined on more lobster and a filet, some robust and delicious Malbec, and finished off the dinner with creme bruelee. Afterwards we met up with friends again for some cigars and more wine. The evening wouldn't have been complete without a pee in the bushes where the boy's friend wound up hiding and scaring me (thank goodness I didn't pee on him) and then a late night trip to the beach.

We knew we were going to hit traffic on the way back yesterday, so we got some fountain sodas and combos and tried to enjoy the ride on the way back. We would laugh at various drivers who you could tell were completely road raging because of the backup before the Sagamore Bridge. Some guy in an Infinity kept switching lanes...hey buddy, you aren't going anywhere faster than the rest of us! Another guy completely cut us off as we were going 5 mph. Really pal?

The gentleman friend has taught me so much in the short time we have been dating...why stress out about uncontrollable things, take pleasure in life, and slow down and enjoy the ride.

In two days I am heading to San Fran (and Napa) for a 5-day much needed vacation where I will be doing more of this like last year!

Eating:

Riding trolleys:

Kissing a pirate's gun:

and DEFINITELY hanging out with my guys!

Happy September Everyone!

The Weekend the Kiwi Rolled Into Town

2011-08-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

All last week I was so excited as the Kiwi was coming to Boston! Technically he wasn't coming to actually hang out with me, but he was flying into Logan on Friday, and then driving up to and racing in Timberman 70.3 in NH on Sunday. So I had the distinct pleasure of hosting that little son of a gun on Friday night!

I actually had signed up for a little swim/RUN/bike on Friday evening...a teeny tiny little race up north, no frills, no bike racks, nothing. I was pretty excited all week to race, and left work early on Friday to meet up with the Kiwi at my apartment, and then we would drive up north. The Kiwi appeared at my apartment in Chucktown and he looks exactly like he does in pictures - but wasn't wearing spandex. His lovely wife put together a little care package for me with scrumptious gluten free cookies and Lara bars - thanks Lindsay!

Anyway, I put on my BTT race kit when the thunder and lightning struck. And then torrents of rain poured down. We gave it a little while and talked it over...what's the point of driving 50 miles (potentially with a shit ton of traffic) when the swim could very well be cancelled and then I would just run 2.4 miles and bike 9? Honestly that would be a huge waste of time.

So we did what every coach and athlete would do...drink! I took him to my local bar/grill and we had a few cocktails and some food, chatting about all things non-tri and tri-related, before heading back to my apartment. A little later, me and my new gentleman friend (and his friends) forced the Kiwi to go out to another bar. The Kiwi hydrated with water, while I took down a few Guinness. We left the Fours around 9:30 in order to get the Kiwi into bed and fully rested for his drive and race later that weekend.

By the time I woke up on Saturday morning, the Kiwi was gone...without a trace of him left behind. Sneaky little bastard. I hopped on my trainer for 1.5 hours - having some random stomach cramps, which only persisted more and more on my T-run which I had to cut short. I was cramping all over the place. Ugh! I rested and relaxed the remainder of the day until my gal Trish picked me up...yup this girl is a rock star; competed in the USAT Nationals and drove straight back from Burlington to Boston in record time in order to go out! We met up with Kelwin, had a few glasses of wine, and went out to Eastern Standard for a few more. I love me some girls night!!

Sunday I awoke and went for a quick run - and I do mean quick. I only made it about 20 minutes before I crashed and burned. When I started running it was pouring outside which made the heat a little more tolerable, however when the rain let up and the sun came out, I felt like I was melting. For the next few hours I just couldn't cool down, despite pounding massive amounts of ice water. After a cold shower, I ran some quick errands, and then was easily convinced to head out for Sunday Funday.

My gentleman friend and his friends and I did a little outdoor pub crawling...drinking one John Daly after another, enjoying the day and the company. After a few bars, the guys went bowling but gent friend and I went and mowed on some Alaskan King Crab legs. Pretty damn amazing.

When we got home, we were greeted by the Kiwi who I'm sure now thinks I am a wackadoodle, and I promptly got into bed and fell asleep. And again, when I woke up in the morning the Kiwi was gone! He did leave behind his swim cap and a race hat (not sure if that was intentional or not)...but it was almost like a dream...thanks for visiting James - and congrats on a solid job at Tman!

So my lack of posting is due to the fact that (1) I've been concentrating solely on my social life and dating this new gent and (2) my training/racing isn't as hard core as it has been.

But don't you worry, I'm sure I will have a lot more exciting things to post soon - like a San Fran/Napa trip!

Lil Spur of the Moment Race

2011-08-08T12:01:00.001-07:00

Last week in a hungover induced state of mind, my girlfriend Anna convinced me to sign up for the Gloucester Fisherman Triathlon. I haven't been training much because I have been too busy doing my thing (galavanting) but I figured I might as well get another race or two under my belt while the tri season is still upon us.

I laid off the booze for the whole weekend (can you actually believe that?), tossed a baseball around with a new friend, and got in a little bike/run. The forecast for Sunday was looking pretty miserable but I wasn't about to bail when I wasted my weekend resting rather than getting after it. My alarm sounded at 4:30am yesterday, and I quickly arose, ate some gluten free waffles, pooped once, took an Immodium, and we were soon off to Gloucester. It was pouring. Not even drizzling, it was wholeheartedly pouring. My fingers and toes were crossed that lightning would strike and cancel the swim. We arrived, and I pooped once more, picked up our race packet, and met up with my pal Donna who was pretty convinced that the swim wouldn't be cancelled. She told me to be careful on the bike, particularly on a steep downhill which had a sharp right turn at the bottom. I'm a pretty pussy biker in the fact that I feather my brakes on even the littlest descents. I'm far from aggressive which pisses me off since I'm rather aggressive in every other aspect of my life.

Anyway. It's pouring out. I look towards the ocean and see some pretty big waves, and I'm not happy. I wish there were more duathlons in the world, because I just plain ole hate swimming. Anna and I went for a little jog to warm up and we were just soaked all the way through to our underpants - if we were wearing underpants. There was no point in getting bodymarked because everyone/everything was wet, so the race directors said not to worry about it. At the time I didn't care, but gosh in retrospect I wish we had though.

The race director came through transition and announced that the swim was cut short from 0.5 mile to 0.25. YIPPEE!!!!! This was GREAT news for me! I was happy. Super happy. Does anyone know how difficult it is to put on a wet wetsuit? Yeah it took me a good 30 minutes to get that damn thing on. We walked down to the water and went out for a quick warmup swim, then lined up on the beach and waited for our wave. Women 39-under were in the 3rd wave, and it seemed to me there were a lot of pink caps ready to go. I lined up on the right hand side, about 3 rows back in hopes to not have a panic attack and drown in the cascading waves that lie ahead of me. "GO GO GO" - and we were off. For all the girls in the wave, I had little to no contact, which I was really happy about. Unfortunately the clockwise swim meant that I was breathing into the oncoming waves, so I choked a little bit. I tried to get on some people's feet, but unfortunately couldn't find any.

In typical fashion I had one of the worst swims in the age group.... 7:22. I suppose I really should get into the pool at some point.

I tore off my wetsuit and got on my bike within 42 seconds - one of the fastest T times. Sweet!

Onto the bike. The website originally said that this was a fast and flat course. I was told differently. The bike course was neither fast nor flat. Which sucks for me. I don't like hills. It was a 2 course loop though so I knew what would be approaching after finishing the first loop. I finished the first loop in 22 minutes and was feeling pretty good. However, I was finding myself falling into a comfortable zone rather than pushing it into Z4. There were some definite uphills, and like Donna said, there was this pretty significant downhill that turned and ended under a bridge where you make a sharp right turn. I feathered the brakes out of that shit. It was pouring and I couldn't see, and snots were dripping out of my nose. I'm sure the race photos will be stunning.

Anyway the whole 2 laps I was playing cat and mouse with a girl who was wearing a GForce Multisport uniform....I didn't want to draft off her, but I couldn't speed up and pass her, so I stayed behind her legally and did my own thing. Unfortunately she crept a little away from me on the second loop and I probably finished 30 seconds or so behind her. Because hardly anyone was bodymarked, I didn't know what age group she was in.

Finished off the 15 mile bike in 45:30 for a 19.7 mph which pisses me off because I was hoping for 20mph. But I did have the 3rd fastest bike split in my age group (top split was only 2 minutes faster) which makes me happy.

T2 - well I decided because my socks were drenched that I would go without them. In 39 seconds I scrambled to get my sneakers on, grabbed my race belt, Garmin off my bike, and headband and scooted to the run start.

Okay Gloucester Fisherman triathlon people - do not advertise your race as fast and flat! Because it is not! You start your run going uphill. Then there are a few more uphills. Where I felt like walking. My legs were SCREAMING at me for mercy, and I wasn't even running fast. The girl who had beat me on the bike trucked by me as a reasonable pace, and I followed her for a bit. I really wanted to know what age group she was in (looking at the results, I discovered that she was in the 25-29 age group and came in 1st, beating me by 30 seconds just as I suspected. Oh to be young!) Uphill, downhill, flat. Continue. It was a 2 loop course, and I was not looking forward to doing these hills again. I felt slow. The fast running paces I have seen lately in training were not showing up on race day. Sonofa. The cool thing though was passing people (guys). That made me happy.

After the one last hill, I turned the corner and spectators were clapping and I knew it would be over quickly. I stepped it up and crossed the finish line.

Run - 24:17 (7:50 pace).

Overall time: 1:19:41

I missed 3rd place by 42 seconds. DAMN IT!!!!!!!! I had no clue I was even in the running, but to know I was that close I wish I stepped up my game a tad. But signing up for a race last minute, not having race goals, and dealing with the pouring rain - I'll gladly take 4th place!

I was completely soaked to the core and shivering nonstop. I put on my wet jacket and waited for Anna to finish. We turned the heat on in the car to 82 degrees and drove back to Charlestown in the pouring rain. An hour later we were cozied up in our local tavern for lunch and drinks. 8 hours later we left.

Twas a great day.

Tap Tap...is this thing on?

2011-08-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

"And I'll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I'll know my name as it's called again
...
Cause I have other things to fill my time
You take what is yours and I'll take mine
Now let me at the truth
Which will refresh my broken mind

Cause I need freedom now
And I need to know how
To live my life as it's meant to be"

I've been on a huge Mumford and Sons kick lately, and many of their song lyrics coincidentally resonated with my recent personal life. But as I have closed one chapter, flipped the page and moved on, I realize...wow...I'm incredibly happy. I wake up refreshed - well maybe not always because I am finding myself saying "YES" to invites with old and new friends for a cocktail (or 10). Last week alone I think I went out 4 nights. I just booked a trip out to San Fran to hang with some guy friends...a baseball game and wineries are on tap. Yes please! I have friends coming to visit and I am heading down to the NJ/NYC for a few fun events. Everything these days is based around F-U-N!

My training has definitely suffered, but here's the thing...I DON'T CARE! I'm getting in workouts when I want to, and still working hard when I do. Last night for example...it started to downpour in Boston around 4pm. I had a track workout. I hit every single one of my intervals while the rain came down, thunder rumbled, and lightning brightened the sky. After my last interval, I looked towards the sky as rain cascaded down my face, and I smiled. And I couldn't stop smiling.

Things have changed a bit over the past month. I'm walking lighter...and not just because I have lost weight. But speaking of, I'm back to the weight I was right before Ironman Cozumel. Thanks to a dear dear friend, I have started incorporating a more Paleo type diet into my life. My workouts have been shorter, but with higher intensity. I signed up for a few sprints to finish off my season because to be honest, I have no clue what I want to do with myself triathlon-wise. I'll let the cards fall as they may.

My stress is at an all-time low. My friends are amazing. I have new friends that make me smile. I'm always looking forward to something.

So that's that my friends. I'm enjoying life. I'm still reading blogs...I'm just too busy out enjoying life to update mine as often!

After the Storm

2011-07-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

And after the storm,
I run and run as the rains come
And I look up, I look up,
on my knees and out of luck,
I look up...

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair
-Mumford and Sons

In the wake of some recent personal strife, I took a hiatus from blog posting and from triathlon training. I desperately needed to regroup to remember who I am, what I believe in, where I've been and what I deserve out of life. Thankfully I have the most incredible support system in the form of friends and family and I returned to my roots and had an absolutely fabulous weekend with my three best friends from home who helped me bring me back to life. We dominated NYC and Hoboken, searching for that perfect cover band, "investing" time in random conversations, dining on disco fries, and making our mark (literally) wherever we went - especially on 3rd Avenue. We gossiped and drank, basking in the sun and tried to perfect our cannonballs. We laughed until we cried and drank until we passed out.

It was bittersweet heading back up to Boston, but it was time to piece my life back together and move on. Unfortunately after almost 2 weeks of little to no triathlon training, I was not quite prepared for the Oly triathlon that I had on my calendar for this past weekend. So after talking to the Kiwi, we just decided to just "have fun" with it - no goals, no set paces. Well, I won't lie and said I had fun with the race, but I finished. I was far from the paces I have seen lately, but for me, just getting out there and racing was another step in refueling the fire in my belly.

Without any other set races on the schedule my summer is free to do whatever I please. And I am looking forward to having the best summer I possibly can. I think I'll sign up for some local sprints, and just try to have fun with my new bike. I look forward to partying my ass off on the weekends, and traveling back down to NYC/Hoboken/NJ for a bachelorette party/wedding/fun - and taking some time off for beach days with my friends.

Life is good.

Bang Bang Bullet List

2011-06-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

I'm really fucking sick of the weather in New England on the weekends. I'm really sick of riding on my trainer, especially because I have a new bike I'm dying to get out on the open road. This Saturday come hell or high water, the new sexy steed will be brought outside. Speaking of, I have some names I am testing out for Him, but think after we have an outside date, I will have a clearer idea of what He will be dubbed.
Another recent annoyance is that I don't yet have speed or cadence on the new bike. I'm neither technologically nor mechanically advanced, so I am unable to move my speed and cadence sensor from Blue Thunder to the new bike myself; I ordered the DuoTrap for the Trek Speed Concept, but I doubt I will be able to hook that up myself either. So I'm just biking purely on heart rate right now, which sucks.
My wooha has been in a little bit of pain as well because I have been testing out a new saddle on the new bike. After testing out numerous saddles in the past, I found that the Terry Butterfly Saddle worked for me. I put a Cobb V-Flow Saddle on my new bike. It's harder than the squishy Terry saddle, and I think it can work, I just need to get used to it. But I will definitely keep the Terry saddle in case I need to swap it out.
Speaking of Blue Thunder, I found a new home for her! A newbie triathlete here in Boston will be taking her home sometime this week, and while I am sad to see her go, I'm glad she will be going to a good home.
On a completely different note, has anyone else heard Noah and the Whale's recent song on the radio and not known what the letters spelled out...I got the first part..."L-I-F-E..." and then there's a "G" but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. I google searched it today...and they were spelling out "Life Goes On". Um right. That's stupid.
I went out on Saturday night with one of my girlfriends and quickly realized that there are not a lot of tall men in Boston. K is a pretty tall lassie, and I was wearing 4 inch heels and we were clearly the tallest people in the bars...we went to 3....and we were the tallest people there.
I've had some pretty terrible back pain lately (well I have had back pain for 10 years now but it's been getting worse) and I started going to my BTT gal and physical therapy guru twice a week to make it better. She has me doing a few stretches and exercises to strengthen it, and I hope over time the pain will eventually go away.
I started taking Powerbar High Intensity supplements...anyone have any experience with these?
Book club on Monday nights proves to make the rest of the work week very exhausting. 7 girls (well only 6 girls drinking) + 12 bottles of wine = good times at the moment but not good times the next few days. I was pissing and sweating out Sauvignon Blanc the following days.
I think that's about all I have to report. It's only hump day, I'm exhausted, and need a nap.
Take care, brush your hair, wear clean underwear.

Welcome Home Handsome, Welcome Home

2011-06-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

Yet to be named...have a bunch of ideas floating around in me brain... after I ride him tomorrow I should have a better idea!

Thanks to all the folks at Landry's who hooked me up!

And I'll be putting Blue Thunder up for adoption shortly on Ebay... if anyone is interested in owning a very sexy (and speedy) entry-level 2007 Guru Trilite (size 52), let me know.

He's Gonna Kill Me but...

2011-06-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAUN!!

Blaze of Glory

2011-06-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

I didn’t quite get that HIM PR that I was looking for (AGH, only 2 minutes off!) or my ultimate goal of sub-5:30, but given the circumstances, I raced much better (smarter) in the Patriot Half Ironman than any other HIM…so to me, that is a PR.

Was in bed around 8:30pm on Friday night and awoke at 4:50am to eat waffles, poop and pack my bag for the big race. Shaun and I drove down to East Bumblefuck, or East Freetown, MA, parked and I immediately needed to poop again. We initially decided to leave our bikes at the car, register first, and then come back for our stuff, but the line for registration was so long, so we headed back to the car for our stuff. Unfortunately we were running way behind everyone else, so we only had a few minutes to set up transition before heading for the water. I got a few minutes to acclimate to the water (and my wetsuit) before lining up for my wave.

I was one of the last orange caps (women 39-under) to line up in the water, and as I was getting myself situated on the right hand side, I tripped over a huge underwater rock, and fell face first into the water. Not embarrassing whatsoever. The gun went off, and I began swimming. Since it was my first open water swim of the season, and since I have a tendency to panic in the water, I wanted to make sure I was away from the crowds and doing my own thing. Thankfully I found my own groove and didn’t really have much interaction with other swimmers. Unfortunately because I was so far to the right I felt like in the grand scheme of things, I swam a longer distance than 1.2 miles. But I didn’t panic much (only once when I swallowed a huge mouthful of pond water and began coughing) and actually felt like I was having a great swim. I felt super strong and was tried to incorporate 20 fast strokes every now and again. As the fast swimmers from the next wave passed me, I tried to hang on to their feet, yeah not so much. Then the super fast swimmers from the next wave passed me. Okay this means I am way way behind. The last stretch my goggles in typical fashion started leaking – can any recommend goggles that DO NOT LEAK?!!!! I finally made it to the end, looked at my watch and winced – 42 minutes. That might be my longest HIM swim of all time. Crap!

Swim time: 42:31 – 331 place – ouch

I got into transition and was really disoriented. I couldn’t get my damn wetsuit off. And the transition rack holding our bikes had fallen and I couldn’t get my seat under the rack (rack was too low). So I had to take my bike and make it horizontal, hitting Shaun’s bike in the process, in order to get it off the rack. Finally I scooted out of transition – 2:12.

I jumped on Blue Thunder and tried to keep it easy for the first mile or so to get my heart rate in check. I immediately started passing people, but then a huge wave of guys drafting off each other passed me. It was really hard during the first loop of the ride to avoid drafting, so I made a point to not bike directly behind someone who was my speed, but instead biked more on the left. I got to the point where I was really frustrated with people in front of me, so I would put the pedal to the metal and push it on the flats and get in front of them. Two officials in a scooter seemed to be around me every second for the first loop, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t get caught in any way for drafting. Little did I know they gave penalties for other things…more on that to come.

I was happy to see that I hit 20 miles in that first hour, I felt pretty good despite some random right hip pain. Also Blue Thunder’s gearing was really pissing me off; she kept skipping gears! I kept passing girls, and I would look at their age marked on their calves as I passed by. I was seeing women of all ages, but I was particularly happy when I passed girls in my age group. I was riding for a while right near a girl in my age group, we were jockeying each other for a few miles. All of a sudden a girl in a black tri suit passed by sucking on the wheel of a guy. And I mean SUCKING. As they passed by, I called out to her “Man where are those race officials on the scooters when you need them?” I don’t know if the girl in my age group said something to her as well but I saw the drafting girl tell her something. Then when I passed the drafter a mile down the road, she started making an excuse for why she was drafting…all I heard her say was something like “my friend is stuck on 24”….um what does that even mean? And then she says, “I’m sorry for offending you.” I ignored her. Girl, you’re not offending me, but I would absolutely run you off the road if you were in my age group! I was really beginning to wonder if I would place in my age group since I had passed so many girls…and I had researched last year’s times and thought I was doing pretty well.

Anyway, she drafted on, and I kept to my pace. Coming through the first loop of 28 miles and passing through the spectators I got goosebumps of excitement. Unfortunately I was about ready for the bike to be over at that point. Too bad another loop was coming up. I got my second wind and kept on riding. This loop I was alone 90% of the time. Sometimes I wondered if I was even riding the right route. Not much really to report for the second loop other than passing a few more folks, but all the fast guy had passed me at this point, I was just waiting to see if Shaun would pass me (he was doing the Aquabike, but I didn’t know what swim wave he was in…turns out he was in the last wave so he didn’t catch up to me). I had a long pee around mile 45 or so…man that felt good. I was thinking I should be drinking more fluids…Blue Thunder can only carry one bottle on the downtube and an aerobottle and I usually drink 1 bottle/hour. Unfortunately I won’t drink the Heed they served on the course, and I didn’t grab any waters. Stupid me.

As I approached the final 56 mile, I hammered as hard as I could, but unfortunately volunteers made you slow down since cars were on the road (the course was not closed to traffic, so this was quite annoying at times when you wanted to pass someone). I was hoping to hit sub 2:50, but couldn’t be more pleased to take Blue Thunder out in a blaze of PR glory.

Bike time: 2:51:04, jumped to 165^th place! SO SO SO close to averaging 20 mph :(

I saw my BTT teammates as I pulled into transition and gosh darn it, I forgot to take my Garmin off my bike while riding, so I had to spend time in transition to get it off my bike and onto my wrist. My feet were wet (maybe from peeing myself?) and I had difficulty putting my socks on. I didn’t quite pull them up high enough but figured I would be fine. T2 time was 2:12 – talk about consistent transition times!

I started the run feeling pretty good, well as good as one can feel starting a 13.1 mile run after biking 56 miles. I had a gameplan to run faster every 4 miles, but I needed to start off conservatively so I didn’t blow up. Guys started passing me. Girls started passing me. It was so damn hot. I didn’t realize how hot it was on the bike. But running without any shade cover, the heat and sun were really getting to me. Mile 1 I hit in 8:59 and I was okay with that. Unfortunately I didn’t see any sub-9 minute pacing until mile 9. I stopped at every water stop (mostly every mile) and walked – put ice down my shirt, down my shorts and poured water over my head. The sun was brutal, I felt like my skin was melting off. I heard someone behind me yell that he needed the porta potty ASAP but was hoping “Kim” didn’t make it there first…I turned around and blog reader Carl sprinted past me! Poor guy needed some relief ASAP! I kept trucking on, dreams of a sub 1:50 half-marathon being crushed with every step I took. Mile 6 was the worst – I hit a 10:02 min/mile – I was probably walking at this point. While the course isn’t super hilly, it does have some good rollers and I just needed to walk at times. And I still walked through every water stop.

Around mile 7ish a girl in my age group passed me. I was annoyed because a girl already in my age group passed me earlier and since I really kind of thought I could place, I tried to run behind her for a bit. At this Garmin said I was averaging 9:30s. Ugh. This was no good! My left ankle was killing me. I thought it was my timing chip, but alas, it wasn't...my failure to pull my sock up made my skin rub against the back of my sneaker and it was raw and bloody. Ouch!

At mile 10 I started to feel different...incredibly different. I picked up the pace. My wet sneakers squished against the pavement as I increased my speed. I passed the girl in my age group and she tried to hang on, but couldn’t. I passed another girl with terrible form, but who had passed me a while back. I hit mile 10 in 9:16. Mile 11 I hit in 9:12...and I stopped and walked at every mile marker for water. I kept looking down at my watch and see 8:30s and wondering where these paces had been earlier. I was passing people walking. I was passing guys who were looking crushed. I was wondering if I could hold these paces, wondering if I would break and walk at some point, but I kept running faster and faster. Mile 12 I hit in 9:04. I felt awesome!!! I passed spectators who cheered and said how strong I looked. I was cruising but couldn't wait for the end. I was hurting. So hot. The finish line was close, but I had to run through this grassy area. I grunted as I passed one final racer and asked where the finish line was. I had nothing left in the tank. The tears appeared as I passed the last group of spectators and heard my name being called over the loudspeaker. Mile 13 I hit in 8:51 and last portion with a 7:28 pace.

Run time: 2:02:55, jumped to 159^th place! A far cry from 1:50 but I will absolutely take it since I rallied the last 4 miles. (might I say that the fastest female run splits ranged from 1:42-1:48…ummm seems like everyone had a tough day out there?)

Overall: 5:40:53

When I crossed the finish line I saw Shaun and I said to him “I’m so hot, so so hot, I need to cool down.” There was a small baby pool filled with some sodas and cold water. I found a small washcloth on the ground and kept soaking it with the cold water and dumping it over my head, over my arms and over my legs. I chugged a can of Diet Coke. And then another. Finally I felt normal again.

As I waited for the results, I saw my bloggy pal Ana Maria! She had a very very solid race despite puking on the run, poor thing. (I also later saw Melissa...who also had some tummy issues and rocked it!) I saw my results and gasped.

4:00 minute penalty

WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!!!!

Next to the results was a pink piece of paper of penalities given – next to #37 (my bib number) read something like: “Illegal Disposal of Equipment”. I was flabbergasted.

WHAT THE FUCK??!!!

As I asked Shaun and my BTT friends what that meant, some woman said, “if you lose your race number on your bike, you will get a penalty. It says it in the race book.” I looked down at my bike and that stupid fucking cardboard piece of shit was no longer twisty tied to my bike. So that’s it? Really?

And boy was I mistaken, I wasn’t even close to placing in my age group…I came in 12^th out of 25 girls (having the 4 minute penalty tacked on)…without the penalty I only would have come in 10^th. The girls in 30-34 age group certainly came out to play on Saturday – top 3 times were between 5:05 and 5:16. Man, what a huge let down!

Regardless of my slow as shit swim and the slower than anticipated run time, I couldn’t be more pleased with how I executed my first HIM of the season. I was only 2 minutes off my overall PR time (Firmman last year, but the swim was so fast – 32 minutes for 1.2 miles for me? Yeah thanks ocean current!). I PRed the bike by about 8 minutes! And I was only about 2 minutes off my HIM half-marathon time. I’m definitely disappointed that I have been putting so much work into my run lately and that didn’t show, but those last 4 miles came out of nowhere and I know I have it in me to break 1:50…some day my friends, some day.

So goodbye to Blue Thunder…2007-2011, you will be missed.

And finally, a PSA – wear your sunscreen.

Finally - a very happy father's day to the bestestest dad of all time!

Farewell Race

2011-06-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

If we ignore Friday's swim workout consisting of a 1,000 warm up followed by 20 x 100s where I felt like I was swimming backwards, this weekend's workouts were pretty solid. Shaun and I attempted to ride the Patriot Half Ironman course on Saturday, but we kept making wrong turns, then could not find a left hand turn around mile 12, so we just did an out and back - in the pouring rain. I did another out and back so I didn't get lost, and I really was getting soaked to the core. Blue Thunder kept making funny sounds; creaking and rumbling, like she wasn't happy about the ride.

Before driving home, Shaun and I hit up Landrys...I wanted to get the Speedfil installed on Blue Thunder before Patriot, and I wanted to get a little tune up....well this tune up would cost to the tune of $1,000. Blue Thunder's cables were completely worn down and would need to be replaced. She also needed a new chain, but obviously not that big of a deal. While I contemplated Blue's fate, I browsed around...

and bought HIM.

A Trek Speed Concept 7.0- black on black on black. Completely different than Blue Thunder in the looks department. This guy screams mysterious and sexy. Blue Thunder is flashy and wants attention. Man oh man, I can't wait to ride him.

The unfortunate part of my new purchase is that all the bike fitting appointments this week are booked, so I have to wait until after the Patriot and yet another week (the 27th) to take this black sexy beast home. The guys at Landrys will put a band-aid on Blue Thunder to make her race rideable and then I will be putting her up on the open market for someone else to enjoy. Saturday will be Blue Thunder's farewell race. I hope I do her proud.

After a low-key Saturday night of sushi and wine, I woke up Sunday to more crappy weather and another workout. I had a 10 miler on tap that the Kiwi wanted me to do in the morning. My legs were feeling sore, but I knew I had to get out on the road. Unfortunately the streets in Charlestown were closed off because of the Battle of Bunker Hill Road Race and parade. I saw the fast 8k racers pass my apartment, and then I set out.

I was going to do 2 loops of 5 miles but I found myself on the Charles, and I forgot to bring a Gel with me, so I was worried I would crash and burn. Luckily, there were water fountains along the route, and it was cool and misty out, so I wasn't dehydrated. After a very slow 15 minute warm up at about 9:50s, I hit my intervals. And I hit them hard.

I had 0.50 miles left when I got back to my neighborhood so I ran 2 laps around the track to finish up my 10 miles.

10 miles in 1:26:37 averaging 8:39 min/miles. Wow. Solid.

After a shower and two blueberry pancakes with eggs over easy, I totally crashed on the couch for a 2 hour nap. Then I laid on the couch the remainder of the day, too exhausted to do anything but get up to pee and eat chocolate frozen yogurt.

I'm feeling pretty ready for Patriot on Saturday. My running has been coming along, but my swimming - well, it sucks. And I haven't done any open water swimming yet this year, and I really hate open water swimming. I don't want to drown. So as long as I can get through the swim, then I am golden.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

You've Been...Thunderstruck!

2011-06-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

Not much to report this week...I had a pretty long weekday brick on Tuesday. For some reason lately I haven't been able to get my HR up past Z2 on the bike and it's starting to get really frustrating. I'm grinding away in the big ring, standing, sitting (fight fight fight) and nothing. Talked it over with the Kiwi and he's sensing some fatigue...so we toned back Wednesday's volume on the bike (well, I just cut out Wednesday's bike altogether). Anyway, back to the brick. Had 1:45 on the bike with some difficult intervals, then a 30 minute T run building from easy to fast.

I did my best to take it easy on the first mile since my nickname is Crash and Burn Kaltreider...

Mile 1: 9:06

Mile 2: 8:45

Mile 3: 8:32

last portion: 8:04

My note in Training Peaks... (had to stop at 27 minutes on run bc I was going to poop my pants)

Yup. I felt the rumbling in the Bronx and prairie dog walked it home.

Wednesday I hit up the pool for some volume...I love how the Kiwi totally underestimates the "planned" time for my workouts. He says he's not good at math, I think he is just trying to kill me. His 1:10 hour swim workout turned into a 1:35 actual workout. I'm just damn slow in the pool.

Yesterday I had a "1:00 planned" run workout - 5 x 1.25 mile intervals after a good warm-up. Well, if you live in Boston, around 5:15pm yesterday the skies turned black and we had some pretty severe thunderstorms. And if any of you raced IMLP in 2008, then you know how bad the weather was that day and figured I could suck it up and run in the rain, so I did. When I left the apartment, some guys cheered for me "way to run in all weather!" 1 minute later I was fully soaked. I could see the lightning out on the water and the thunder struck no more than 1 minute later. Charlestown was still and quiet. I ran through the Navy Yard without a care in the world, feeling like a bad ass for braving the elements as pedestrians huddled under umbrellas hoping to catch a break from the rain. I welcomed the downpour and started to forget about avoiding puddles, there was no use. My soaked sneakers slapped against the wooden planks along the water, and I felt powerful.

My usual 5 mile loop was too short for the workout, so instead of repeating the loop, I finished my last two intervals on the track despite the Kiwi stating "DO NOT DO ON TRACK" in Training Peaks. Sucks to your asmar, I'm gonna do it anyway. Obviously I was the only person on the track, the only person who was actually outside during the storms. I had to pee, so I simply peed. I was already soaked right? I hit my intervals and walked home.

Twas a great workout.

Tomorrow morning Shaun and I are heading to East Freetown to test out the Patriot Half Ironman bike course, then have date night, Sunday I have a 10+ mile run, and then a well needed massage on Monday. It doesn't look like I will be tapering too much next week which is great because I really hate the taper, so I like to see workouts on Training Peaks.

Hopefully I can finally find some time to head to Landrys and take a peak at some new bikes! Maybe a Trek Speed Concept or a Trek Equinox? Maybe a QR? Maybe a Felt? We shall see.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Rolling in the Deep

2011-06-06T10:02:00.000-07:00

Anyone else love that song as much as I do? Speaking of that song, in my hungover state yesterday, much to Shaun’s dismay, I found myself 100% addicted to The Voice's all-day marathon! I had never seen an episode before, and boy do I love it. Maybe I just love looking at Adam Levine, but boy is this show addicting!

Anyway.

It was a busy weekend. But when is it not?

After Thursday’s race + additional miles, my company headed to our favorite local watering hole for some drinks and grub. I was ravenous and was eating anything put in front of me. Calamari? Check. Chicken fingers? Check. Nachos? Check check. Pizza? Check check check. I had a few glasses of wine too, and made it home around 11pm which is definitely later than my bedtime.

When I realized on Friday that the Kiwi had a 14 mile run on tap scheduled for that evening, my immediately thought was to skip it. Which would have been bad. But I was hungover and dehydrated and my legs just didn’t want to move. But throughout the day I drank loads of water and ate some good protein and when 5:30 rolled around, I was hoping my legs would appear. My gameplan was to run a few loops around my neighborhood; that way I would be able to stop at home for potty and Gel breaks and could stop for good if I really needed to. Shaun was heading out for a run too, so we ran the first mile or so together, but when we got to the Navy Yard, I felt a rumbling in the Bronx, so I stopped at the YMCA for my first poop stop of the evening. The Kiwi had set intervals for me which I was worried about hitting, but I managed to stick it to the Man and nailing each and every set. I was actually feeling pretty good, and made a quick stop at home after 45 minutes for a Gel and a potty break.

Back out for another loop, and yet another YMCA poop stop. I’m pretty sure the front desk lady thought I was being super sketchy, but I couldn’t help it! I ran into a friend I had not seen in a while, so I caught up with him for a few minutes before carrying on. I was fully expecting my legs to give out at any point, but I just kept plodding along at the prescribed paces, feeling pretty darn good.

Back at the ole homestead after 10.5 miles, and I got up to our apartment and I jubilantly announced “3.5 miles left to go!” I was thrilled to be having a good training day, and I quickly peed, took in a Gel and headed back out. Thankfully this time I didn’t need to use the YMCA’s bathroom, and I ran down the distance of the Navy Yard and turned around. I passed a guy grilling outside his apartment building and I yelled “if you’re not careful, you might be missing some food when you go back inside!” Those burgers sure did smell delicious. I watched as my Garmin ticked off the miles, and as 13.1 finally appeared on the screen, I saw the time…1:55.

I shook my head in disbelief. How in the world did I manage to beat my half-marathon race time? I was running on tired legs! Wow. This felt good. Even if I was running 10 minute miles and felt GOOD, I would have been ecstatic. Because the half-mary only a week ago felt TERRIBLE.

As 14 finally appeared on the Garmin, I was elated. Somehow I managed to pull out a 2:03, with an 8:47 average pace. I couldn’t have been more happy with executing the run.

Unfortunately Friday’s night sleep was horrendous. I was awake when the alarm sounded at 6am. I didn't want to get out of bed and contemplated skipping the workout. But alas, I could not. We quickly got ready, but I was ready to head out before Shaun, so I drove out to Concord, parked and started my ride. Shaun was heading up to ride as well, but unfortunately we didn’t see each other over any of the 11 mile loops we did. My legs were not wanting to ride whatsoever. When we did this loop a few weeks ago, the first portion we were hitting 18-20mph. Unfortunately this time around, a strong headwind had me going 15! I even stopped my bike a few times to make sure the speed sensor was working. Unfortunately messing around with it fucked up the cadence sensor so I spent the whole ride going by feel on cadence. After 3 loops I looked at my watch and figured I could only get 1 more loop in plus my 30 minute run before I needed to head up to Albany. That last bike loop felt like shit and I kept wanting to pull to the side of the road and hang out for a while until Shaun came by. Alas, I kept going, finishing up around 45 miles. Not as far as I wanted to go, but enough given the time constraints.

I loaded my bike into the car, tied on my sneakers, peed, and went out for my 30 minute transition run. I was dreading this run, and I kept looking at my watch and wondered why I felt like I was running through quicksand but going at a reasonable pace. I scaled it back a bit which felt like I was walking at this point, but in the ranges that the Kiwi gave to me. At 15 minutes I turned back around and the last 10 minutes I felt like I was flying. My pace was faster than prescribed, but I couldn’t help it. As I broke through a little clearing, I saw Shaun flying by on the bike. Unfortunately he didn’t hear me yelling at him (what, is he deaf or something?!) and I turned into the parking lot, turned off my Garmin, changed, turned on my car, and drove 3 hours to Albany where I spent the rest of the evening drinking with my former college roommates, and kicking some butt in flipcup.

Yup, show your guns (or lack thereof)

Michael Jackson Hand

I think she wants to make out with me.

This is my serious flip cup face

************************************

Btw - it astonishes me how many people are brought to my blog by Googling "Justin Beiber". Folks, I am not friends with Justin Beiber, I don't listen to his music, in fact, I pretty much loathe him (and his hair). Thanks for visiting, but you might want to move on!

Keeping the Streak Alive

2011-06-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening was the JPMorganChase Corporate Challenge and once again my company signed up to partake in the 3.5 mile race throughout Boston. As I have mentioned in previous year's posts, this race is a pure shitshow. It's a mob of 12,000 people running and walking on some rather narrow streets. The Kiwi didn't want me to go all out, and in fact, run 3 miles before and 3 miles after. So in total 9.5 miles, with a 3.5 mile race sandwiched in between.

On my 3 mile warm up run I headed down to the water. The temps were nice and cool, but there was some pretty major wind...must have been residual from the tornado that parts of MA had suffered through. I met my company and we walked down to the Common. It was FREEZING. It was like the temperatures dropped 20 degrees from the time I did my warm up run. But when we finally got to the Common, the sun began peeking out of the clouds and I stopped shivering. My two guy coworkers and I attempted to weasel our way to the front part of the starting line, and boy was that difficult. We didn't understand why people who were clearly going to walk the challenge were in the front of everyone?! We finally found a spot amongst the runners (and some walkers, very frustrating), I quickly took in a Gel, and we were off. Well we crossed the starting line, and make a turn onto a narrow street, and everyone is jammed together and slowing down.

My two guy coworkers took off like bats out of hell, and I just plodded along at my own pace. People were practically sprinting down the street, but then I would pass them later walking! Guys were jostling me, so I kept high elbows to protect my space, and just kept going. Only 0.5 miles into the race, there was a water stop...really folks? You would have thought it was 100 degrees and a marathon! People were trying to run on the sidewalks, but volunteers called them off, or would even throw out their arms to block them! It was insanity!

Without a goal time, I just kept plodding along the course without a care in the world. My back was starting to ache, so I just really wanted it to be over.

I got passed by a guy wearing a full orange body suit....seriously, a full cling-on orange bodysuit covering his entire body and head. Okay then!

More water stops.

So the finish line was up ahead and people were whizzing past me. Plod plod plod.

Well.

I PRed...

2010: 28:04

2009: 29 something

Then I have no idea about previous years.

2011:

Garmin: 26:21, 3.54 miles, 7:27/pace

Website results: 26:15, 3.6 miles, 7:30/pace

Let the PRs keep adding up!

Afterwards I met up with the two guy coworkers who finished before me, and they happily joined me for a 3 mile cool down. I cut it a tad short because I was ready to poop my Lulu shorts. Luckily I made it into our office without an accident and I pooped in the bathroom. After a quick tshirt change, we headed to our local watering hole where I devoured calamari, a slider, and a chicken finger - and some Pinot Noir.

Tonight I have a 14 mile run on tap, then tomorrow morning I will be up at crack of dawn early to get a 4 hour ride/run in before driving to Albany for my 10 year college reunion.

Let the fun keep on keeping on!

Have a great weekend!

Squeek Squeek - Squeeking By

2011-05-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

I'm a little sick of weekends flying by - anyone else?

In typical fashion my weekend consisted of swim/bike/run with a little training race in there. A few weeks ago my pal Brenda confirmed what I had been thinking for a year or two since living in Charlestown - that there was a pool literally in my backyard at the Community Center. Every time I would run past there, I would smell chlorine, but had no idea a pool existed back there. I decided to check it out last week after Shaun popped in and was more than thrilled. An olympic size pool for $25/year? Yes please! Only caveat is that it's only open 3pm-8pm (which is fine by me) and adult swim is from 6-7pm (again, fine by me). It certainly beats the crowded YMCA and paying $40/month. So I checked it out, was super excited, and got my first swim done...but holy hell does an olympic size pool tire me out!

Anyway, Saturday I met up with Meg for our favorite ride, the Wakefield 50 miler. We both decided to wear our BTT tri tops as the temperatures were looking to reach 80 degrees, unfortunately that morning it was damn cold! Meg put on arm warmers, and I had to brave out the cooler than expected temperatures. Not only was it unexpectedly cold, but it was cloudy, and it was misting a bit. I pulled up my big girl panties and suffered it out. We had a really great time; Meg asked if I was getting reminiscent as this ride last year was when I met the ole ball and chain for the first time. Pretty funny stuff.

We lost our way a few times, but nothing major, but every time we stopped we were attacked by mosquitoes! I guess all that rain over the past few weeks made the little blood suckers come out in full force. We decided we wanted to invent "Vagina Bug Away" or something similarly called, to protect our private parts from being bitten by mosquitoes when popping a squat during a bike ride. Unfortunately we had to wait until more than halfway through our ride to pee - we stopped at a Cumberland Farms and both used their very sketchy bathroom to relieve ourselves.

Back onto the bikes and as we hit the big hills at the end, the sun broke through the clouds, the temperatures rose, and I even wound up getting a nice little tan on my back. It was a great ride, but I definitely need to practice practice practice on those hills!!!!!

Back at the homestead I crashed on the couch, trying to hydrate as much as possible. Sunday I woke up at 6am and headed out to the Boston World Trade Center for the Run to Remember Half Marathon. Up until this point in training, I had not run more than 7 consecutive miles since the Boston Marathon, so this was purely a training day. James and I had a "race" plan and while I thought it might have been a bit aggressive given my lack of volume, I was going to do my best. I took 2 Immodium and a Zyrtec, did a little warm up, and then lined up between the 8 minute mile pace and 9 minute mile pace area. I forgot my sunglasses at home, but the morning was cloudy, so I didn't expect to need them. I was wearing my usual IMCoz wicking shirt; I pretty much wear this shirt for all my long runs and road races because of the fit and the comfort of it. I have yet to find another wicking shirt that is as comfy. Well, this is probably the last time I will be wearing this shirt to race in. Immediately from the get-go, waiting for the gun to go off, some very awkward guy asked me about IMCoz. He did IMLP, IMFL and won a Kona lottery slot. I learned he finished in the 15 hour area, he rode a Cervelo, and he had not run more than 4 miles to train for this half-marathon. Um, so why was he in the 8:30 mile group? The gun went off, and all 5,000+ runners slowly made their way to the starting line. The guy decided he wanted to run right next to me. Sweet.

The streets were crowded, and I could remember how annoyed I got when I ran this race in 2006 with all the people the first few miles. Anyway, I tried to stick to the race plan.

Mile 1: 8:43

A little slow, but I would try to make it up.

A guy wearing an IMFL visor asked me how IMCoz was. "Super!" Okay please stop talking to me.

We turned past Shaun's old apartment and made our way up and over the bridge and onto Memorial Drive.

Mile 2: 8:13

Whoops, a little fast.

We made a turn and some guy asked me if he should sign up for IMCoz. I don't know buddy, do what you want. He told me it would be his 10 year wedding anniversary the day of the race, and they could vacation afterwards. Okay, do it then. I'm not stopping you.

Mile 3: 8:34

Good. Hold it.

Memorial Drive is where I would almost always do my longer runs, but this time the road was closed, so I was running in the middle of the street. Very strange. I was so thirsty; at this point I realized that water stops were far and few in between and they were VERY VERY hectic. Please don't have children manning water stops. It was a shit show.

Mile 4: 8:40

Eeek, get back on track.

At 4.5 miles, I was supposed to switch into a different (read: faster) gear. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen. Or happen at all.

Mile 5: 8:43

Crap.

At some point the lead runner was on his way back to the finish line. He looked young (he was 21) and fast. A guy close to me commented that the guy probably doesn't drink beers or eat cheeseburgers. He kept talking and I wasn't really having it.

Mile 6: 8:34

Not bad, but not where I should be.

I just wanted to be done at this point. I was hotter than balls and I could feel my face burning off. Every water stop I would take a sip and pour the rest on my head. So hot. So so hot.

After the turn around, some guy with an IM visor asked me about IMCoz.

Seriously mother fuckers, stop talking to me, don't you see I want to die?!

Mile 7: 8:43

Please make this race be over.

I was on my way back to the finish line but I thought I wouldn't make it. There were some folks on the side of the road; heat stroke/dehydration would be my guess. Ambulances would take them away.

Mile 8: 8:38

This was my last somewhat decent mile.

It was now a death march. I was supposed to be passing people the last 4 miles, however, I kept getting swallowed up by people running faster and looking great as I plodded along, staring at the ground, trying not to trip over empty water cups.

Mile 9: 8:58

Oh shit. This isn't good. I wasn't supposed to be running that slow. I am not supposed to be running 9 minute miles. Please make the pain stop.

The Longfellow Bridge felt like it was an 18% grade mountain. I wanted to walk like some other folks, but for crying out loud, how could I walk during a half-marathon?

Another thought...why in the heck would I possibly sign up for another IM in 2012 if I can't even finish a half-marathon? That would be stupid. (Yes I am considering an IM in 2012.)

Mile 10: 9:09

Finally after reaching the top we made our way through Beacon Hill. I was not amused by the crowds, not interested in high fiving any kids. I just wanted the damn thing to end.

Mile 11: 8:58

Every step hurt more than the last. My form was terrible. I kept staring at the ground in front of me.

Mile 12: 9:00

Heading back through downtown Boston and wondering where the finish line was.

Mile 13: 9:23

I was done. D-O-N-E. Done.

Where was the fucking finish line?! I climbed over the last incline and felt like walking the last part. I saw Shaun. I barely acknowledged him.

My Garmin kept ticking... but the finish line was up in the distance.

I trudged over the finish line, went inside, drank 6 cups of water, and 8 cups of Gatorade.

Total: 1:56:24, 13.26 miles, 8:47 pace (Garmin)

Total: 1:56:22, 13.1 miles, 8:53 pace (Cool Runnings)

Well, it was a PR, both on this course and overall half-mary.

Not as big as we anticipated, but still a PR on a non-racing day, on tired legs, and not enough volume.

I was spent, and hungry. After waiting over an hour to get my car out of the area since the course was still open, we finally made it home, and I took a much needed shower to rid myself of all the salt that collected all over my body. Shaun and I went for a delicious lunch and took a walk through the Common and took some time by the flag garden. These 20,000 flags on display honor Massachusetts soldiers killed in combat; really a touching display of patriotism.

We were both exhausted from our workouts, and we were home mid-afternoon and completely crashed on the couch for the remainder of the day/night.

Now it's back to the workouts, and back to HIM training.

So far in 2011, I have PRed in every race I have encountered. I still have work to do, but I'm ready to see what else I can do this season.

1 Part Riding, 2 Parts Running, 3 Parts Drinking

2011-05-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

BTT Training Weekend is like Vegas - what happens there stays there. But the memories will always live on.

I headed up to Waterville Valley, NH with Megster and Dougmore Friday late afternoon and when we arrived immediately started getting into our cups. We had a great time catching up with our teammates, learning more about the rookies, and...well....laughing over some cocktails.

We headed to bed, and I awoke to diarrhea. NO!!!!!! I popped some Immodium, geared up, and met everyone downstairs to head out on our group ride.

The weather last week in New England was dreadful; cold and rainy, and no one was looking forward to training in similar weather. Lucky for us Saturday morning turned out to be quite beautiful, and us 3 girls set off for our 40 mile ride. The first portion of the ride was perfect, well, because we were averaging in the 20mph range... because we were going downhill! Everyone loves the first 10 or so miles going downhill, but after a few hours, everyone dreads coming back up that hill to our townhouses! We weren't so sure where we were going, so we waited for the fast boys and girls to catch up to us so we could "join" them for a few miles. After a little while, the 3 of us went on our own merry way... when we saw the black ominous clouds. We were riding into a storm. The rain came. And came, and came. Thankfully we weren't riding the Cank like most folks, so we "only" had about 16 miles left to ride in the rain. But it was mostly all uphill.

Like I mentioned before, that last 10 or so mile portion back to our townhouse is completely uphill. While we averaged 20 mph for the first hour, our speed decreased significantly on our way back. I was so unhappy with being poured upon that I just decided to "hammer" it the last 7 miles. Maybe I shouldn't say "hammer" because (1) I suck at hills and (2) riding 13 mph is not really hammering it. We finally all topped the acme of the mountain, and were thankful that the rain had stopped and we were almost home.

Once back at the condo, I peeled off my soaked clothing (boy is it hard to put on a dry sports bra when you are soaked to the bone), and set out for my 45 minute transition run. Well, my stomach was still unhappy with me, and as soon as I turned onto the main road, I ducked behind a tree and took care of business. 2 seconds later Shaun and Trish returned from their ride, so I'm glad they didn't see me with my pants down - not that they would have been surprised!

My legs turned over nicely, but then again, the whole first portion was downhill. I had a 15 minute warm up, and then started my 5 x 5 minutes at 7:550-8:05 pace. Well this pace was met and beaten since my legs were sprinting downhill. Unfortunately as I turned around, I could barely hold that pace going uphill. After the 25 minute set, I finished up with another mile or so of a cool down, which actually felt pretty damn awesome for going uphill. I found my legs and finished strong.

FINALLY time to eat! I pounded a huge sandwich, a glass of milk, laid down on the bed for a bit, and then got a massage. I was having very intense back pain, and to be honest, I felt like the massage made it worse.

After cleaning up, it was time to PARTAY!

Yup, good times had by all. I have a pretty sweet bruise on my knee from sliding across the dance floor on them. Yup, that's how us BTTers roll.

After two recovery days and a massage, I am back in the thick of training. My back is still acting up, but hopefully with some stretching and after some SBR, I will be back to normal.

In other news...I might be making a purchase in the near future...perhaps a new bicicleta?!

The 4 Ws

2011-05-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

First, I forgot to mention something last week. Last Sunday was the NE Season Opener. Monday I was moving my bike onto the trainer in my apartment when I noticed that my back tire was completely flat. After further inspection, turned out I had a pretty significant gash in my tire. Made me wonder if I was riding on a semi-flat tire for the race. Because I never pay attention when instructed but mostly out of laziness on my part, Shaun was sweet enough to change the tube for me - and for extra cautionary measures put a piece of a Powerbar wrapper in between the tube and tire.

So there was that.

So the 4 Ws.... weekend/workouts/wine/wrecked.

I always look forward to the weekends. I like to sleep in an extra...oh 5 minutes of so.... and just lie on the couch after workouts. Saturday I had a 2 hour ride and 30 minute run on tap. I drove out to Concord to start the 11 mile Charlie Baker TT loop. Shaun was busy doing a threshold test in Framingham but was going to join me afterwards. I pulled into a random parking lot near the start and started getting my bike stuff together. Shaun called and said he was in Concord. "ME TOO!" I exclaimed. I explained where I was parked. He explained where he was parked. I was confused with his explanation because it sounded so familiar. I looked over, and saw the top of his truck in the parking lot! So yeah we were having a conversation in the same parking spot. What luck! We set off together and tried to stay with each other, until I sped ahead to get in my big gear/low cadence workouts. On my recovery 5 minutes, he popped up behind me. Thankfully we were able to stick together for the most part for the 3 laps, averaging 18.4 mph, and he continued on, while I packed my bike in my car and got ready for my T run.

Well, like another workout last week, I could not hold the prescribed paces for the 30 minutes. I tried, but the wheels fell off. I wound up averaging 8:10 minute miles. Blech. I drove to Rite Aid and picked up some chocolate milk and headed home.

After some laundry, picking up dry cleaning and cleaning the kitchen, Shaun finally came home. We showered (not together you pervs) and decided to just head to our local bar/grille for some grub and drinks. 3 glasses of wine later, I was certainly in the bag. The Bruins game was about to come on, so the bar had gotten crowded, so we ordered our usual food for takeout. When we got home, I ate maybe one or two nachos, and then I passed out on the couch while Shaun polished off the food, watched man shows and went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up on the couch and made it to bed. Maybe that explains the soreness in my neck and back.

Sunday I woke up (in bed) and the weather was super grubby. I putzed around for a bit, made an egg sammy, and was watching some reality tv while Shaun was at the office. He came home and needed to get his run in before leaving for 3 days, so I finally got my ass off the couch, into some running stuff, and headed out for my 1:15 run. It was a very dismal day, and of course it started raining 5 minutes into my warmup. For the first time during a workout, I was wearing the Zoot compression socks that I won from one of Charisa's giveways in hopes to eliminate late onset soreness. The warm up went well, and then I had to hold some pretty fast paces...which I failed miserably trying to do so. I tried to hold on, but once again, I felt like I was wheezing and my upper body felt so tight...even though my heart rate wasn't all that high. Allergies? Was my body just wrecked? Yes and yes.

Thankfully I finished the workout, but not after I peed behind the track on a pretty main street. Does anyone really have to pee after intervals?

Anyway, I was completely wrecked when I was done. After a shower, I got back on the couch and watched "Bad Girls Love" , "Love Games", "Pregnant in Heels" and "Grey's Anatomy' from approximately 3pm-9pm. Then I slept like crap even though I took a melatonin.

Today is another dismal day in Boston, and the rest of the week's forecast looks that way too. And the weekend when my triathlon team is heading up to Waterville Valley for our training camp. Damn it! I suppose I'll just bring my trainer and hope for the best...and drink and dance like a rockstar.

In unrelated news...why is someone googling this phrase...and being led to my blog? What does this even mean? "my son take me to country side house for fuck"

Finally, a huge congrats to my awesome coach for coming in 7th at Orlando 70.3!

Workout of the Day - 15 Minute Warm Up including 1 Giant Poop

2011-05-13T10:32:00.001-07:00

The Kiwi is continuing to quietly torture me. He leaves me such friendly voicemails with his silky smooth gentle voice, I feel like I'm being touched by an angel, yet when I embark on my daily scheduled workouts, I begin to think I'm being coached by...

OR...

For the most part I have been nailing the workouts...you want me to run 5 minutes at 7:05s after a 1.5 hour bike? Okay dokey but I might poop myself. You want me to do 50 medicine ball pushups and box dips? Sure but I'll grunt and moan as Shaun laughs at me. Swim with a snorkel? Fine, but I have to snot rocket every 25 years. I have come home beaming after workouts that I nailed. I have been surprising myself with every new workout given to me. Yet last night's workout...my first major failure. When I initially saw the workout I was excited yet nervous. Could I hold these paces? Given my recent training sessions, I figured I could... it wouldn't be easy, but I could get her done. Unfortunately all training days aren't perfect.

I started the 15 minute warm up and I went up the hill on my street, gliding along, donning for the first time since getting it, my neon yellow Boston Marathon shirt. I continued on my usual loop and as I made my way behind the track, I got the "uh oh" feeling. That feeling I got two weekends ago when I came *THISCLOSE* to pooping my pants. So I decided to continue on with my run, and I would stop at the YMCA to take care of business (which I did the one time, and then continued on to poop in some porta potties in the navy yard...and then when I was home afterwards as well!)

Well...I had to stop running because I was prairie dogging at this point, and started to bowlegged walk towards to the YMCA as fast as I could. The Y seemed so far away, and I knew I wouldn't make it. I viewed my options...I cut the alley way to the Y and there was a building with a huge bush in front of it. I made sure I wasn't in front of any windows and dropped trou. I quickly wiped with a leaf, pulled up my shorts, and walked nonchantely away from the scene of the crime.

As I turned back onto the main road, I started my Garmin again and set off at my designated pace. As I did, I ran into Shaun who was finishing his run...he wasn't surprised about my ass spending some time with nature. Isn't Vitamin D good for the bum?

Unfortunately I barely hit the first set of designated paces. And my paces kept getting slower and slower. I was wheezing (stupid allergies) and panting (my HR was nearly at threshold) and my legs felt so heavy. It almost felt like weights were tied onto my legs and feet. I was exhausted and my 1 minute walk between sets turned more into a "okay let's just stand here for a minute and try not to pass out" 2 minutes. As I began my trek home, I was disheartened, but tried my best to finish out the prescribed workout (although I was not holding the paces). I was just simply running hard, just to finish up the damn workout.

I came home, shed my shirt, put on a dirty cotton one, made chocolate milk, and didn't budge from the couch for a good 30 minutes. I didn't move one ounce of my being. I couldn't. I finally showered, but I was nauseous and wasn't hungry for dinner. I slept 9.5 hours...which has become a norm for me over the past week or so, but still woke up tired. I have a pretty big weekend of workouts scheduled, but I think we need to dial back my paces just a wee bit. But who knows, maybe I will continue to surprise myself.

I do constantly surprise myself with where I make emergency poops...so there is that.

Happy weekends everyone!

Entertaining Pics and Holy Snorkel Workout

2011-05-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

So the pictures from the New England Season Opener just became available. Not only were there action shots, but there were candids...and I love em! So I present to you three of my favorites.

1. I was chatting with someone on my team before the race. Looks like I was more ready to take a nap or drink a beer than actually go out and race.

2. Triathlons/duathlons are difficult for me due to the fact that I cannot keep my hair in a messy bun on the top of my head (see above picture). I do not like low ponytails or braids. I do not wear hats or visors. So on the run in the triathlon I usually take my low ponytail out and put it up in a bun while I'm running. For this race, I kept it in the low ponytail and hated it.

3. First, my boobs just look gynormous...combination of having my period, an old sports bra, and running in a loose cycling jersey (I was wearing Shaun's)... plus the fact that I do have big boobs doesn't help. But they just look much bigger than normal. But look, both my feet are off the ground!! Proof that I really was running 7:15 minute miles!!!!

In other news, the Kiwi really has no rest for the weary. No sympathy from the devil. It was back to the grind Monday with a difficult TRX session and recovery ride, followed by a swim and a hard 30 minute run yesterday.

So the Kiwi loves his snorkel workouts. I, on the other hand, would rather be in Aruba wearing a beach snorkel than using this ridiculous thing in the pool. Not only is it embarrassing to be wearing a snorkel in the pool, but after 25 yards, I have to stop and clear the snots out of my nose. I can't continuously swim with the damn thing more than 25 yards at a time. So you can see how a 300 yard snorkel workout would turn into an hour long snot blowing session. I'm sure the other swimmers at the Y really enjoy snots in the pool! At least it's not pee or poop though right?

Back to the grind - happy hump day everyone!

Expecting the Unexpected

2011-05-09T05:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I raced in the NE Season Opener Duathlon; a 2 mile run / 10 mile bike / 3.1 mile run. There was a triathlon as well, but there was no way I was getting my tush into some frigid waters this early in the season, plus there was also the fact that I haven't really been getting my swim on. So duathlon it was.

I didn't have any expectations going into this race. My training up to this point was really only running; I wasn't hardcore swimming and my longest bike to this point was 1.5 hours on the trainer and a little over 2 hours outside. Obviously I wasn't worried about the distances, it was about pushing myself to the point of wanting to barf.

The race start was moving from 8am to 9am, so I slept until 6am, ate some waffles, pooped a ton, got my period, took some Immodium, and left my apartment to head up to the scene of the April 18th crime (Boston Marathon) to give this duathlon a go. I got my number, was bodymarked, set my transition area up, and went out for a warm up run. Holy hills!!! I should have known that the area is hilly - the Boston Marathon starts there...unfortunately we were rarely going downhill during this race! Particularly on the run!

I met up with some of my teammates before the race, and before we knew it, we were corralling into this very narrow area for the first run. I just seeded myself somewhere in the middle, not really knowing what to expect. And my legs felt speedy...we were running on sand though, so they weren't turning over that quickly. I found a rabbit, coincidentally a girl on my triathlon team, but she soon pulled away after the 1st mile ticked away. I wound up passing a bunch of girls, and as I passed, I closely checked their age on the back of their calves. No one in my age group. Hmpf. I was feeling good, hoping to keep up the fast pace as I made the turn to finish off the 2nd mile. We finished back up on the sand, and I passed another girl, but she wasn't in my age group either. Where were all the 30-34 year olds?!

2 mile run: 14:37 (7:18 pace)

Transition went fairly quickly... not much to report, :59 seconds

I got on my bike and immediately we were heading up a hill. Granny gear to start? Ugh. I tried to get my heart rate in check, but it felt like it was going to going to burst through my chest. The bike was no joke. There were hills galore. And on the downhills there were so many pothills, so I was constantly getting out of aero and feathering my brakes. Frustrating. Not one girl passed me on the bike. I was playing cat and mouse with a girl on the bike...who was wearing pants, so I had no idea how old she was... and at this point the triathletes were out on the course. I wasn't taking my chance, and I finally blew past her with a few miles to go. I wanted to break :30 minutes, but due to the hilliness of the course, plus my lack of bike training, I wasn't too surprised when I didn't. But I did drop 12 overall places on my bike...and I was thinking maybe, just maybe, I could place in my age group.

10 mile bike: 34:45 (a whopping 17.3 mph) - the thing is that I think the fastest women's bike split was around 31 minutes...so I don't feel too terrible about my time.
T2: :47

So we were now back onto the run, and my legs would NOT turn over. I was struggling BIG time, and a girl I had passed on the bike (not in my age group) had just passed me. I was running at a 9:40 pace trying to get up this first hill. If I wasn't passing anyone in my age group, this could mean there were girls behind me that were hungry enough to pass me on the run. I didn't want this to happen, which meant I had to suck it up and get my ass in gear. After half a mile, my legs turned over, I topped the hill, and I was ready to get it on. Unfortunately we were instructed to run on grass/sand, and that felt terrible on my legs. It was at this point when a 10 year old passed my ass like I was standing still. He was a scrawny midget and just ran like the dickens. I commented to one of the volunteers that I was getting spanked by a 10 year old. "Run your race" he commented. Um yeah thanks pal. Just making a joke.

There was another friggin hill, and I wanted to walk. The men triathletes were passing me like I was stuck in quicksand. I constantly heard foodsteps behind me, and I was hoping it wouldn't be a woman. Thankfully I was only passed by 2 women...one was definitely a triathlete, and the other was a woman in the age group ahead of me. She was smoking fast. As I went up over the levy, I heard some guys yelling for a "Julia" behind me. I turned around, it was the girl who I played cat and mouse with on the bike. I started sprinting. Thankfully crossed the finish line in front of her....she was a triathlete though...and I think that she won the entire women's triathlon field, but I'm not sure.

3.1 mile run: 24:49 (8:00 minute pace) - OUCH

Overall time: 1:15:55

Which I later found out was good enough for 2nd in my age group (out of 15) and 7th woman (and 37th overall)!!!!! Thanks to PJ for picking up my swag (and um she came in 1st in her age group and took home National spot from the triathlon!)

Remember how I mentioned my rabbit on the first 2 mile run was a girl on my triathlon team. Yeah, she won overall female in 1:09...

The race wouldn't have been complete without me losing my car. The Hopkinton State Park was HUGE and there were tons of parking lots. I felt like I was walking FOREVER. I finally got on my bike and coasted to try to find my car. I happened to make the right turn, go down about half a mile (there were still runners on the course), and FINALLY! Typical Kim!

Anyway, I definitely didn't expect to place going into this race. But doing so gives me confidence that this is going to be a phenomenal season!

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another

2011-05-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to be burnt out after only 3 days of training?

3 days = 6 workouts = over 6 hours.... and I'm exhausted!!!

When you think about it, it doesn't seem all that much though. Friday I did a TRX workout and had a short run. Oh TRX and new exercises. My arms are still sore. I am scoping out an outdoor spot to hook up my TRX, since our door frames are very low and the straps hang way too low. Should take care of that this week.

My first outdoor bike of the season took up the bulk of my workout time, a whopping 2:19. Saturday I met up with two of my loveliest BTT ladies for a ride around Dover. Not only did Meg offer up her house as the starting/ending point of the ride, but she served as the cue sheet leader. Good thing, because I know I would have gotten us lost! A few miles into the ride, I recognized the area, as I rode there before, but of course I had gotten lost. A huge swarm of riders pulled in front of us, and I recognized a triathlete who I had biked with before. We stayed together for less than a mile until that group turned off, and us ladies kept going with our ride...except we had someone sucking our wheel!! Some guy decided to join us (I mean, who wouldn't want to join us?!) and just sucked on the back of our wheels for miles! Finally he asked Meg how far the ride was and where we ended. She politely told him we weren't part of the group ride and he wasn't invited to her house afterwards. He sped off. See ya!

We had a great ride and I look forward to hanging with these ladies again (on the road, at training weekend, drinking events...pretty much all the time). I must say though I have a lot to work on. Marathon training obviously meant lots of running, but the most time I saw on a trainer was 1:30... once. My cycling legs aren't where I want them to be, but in due time hopefully they will come back. And my vagina; well, she was hurting. She is NOT in saddle shape. I wish there were some exercises I could do with her on the off-season to prep her for longer rides. She's okay now, don't worry.

Post ride I went to Landrys to talk to my bud Mark about ordering me a Speedfil. Over the past few years of triathloning, I have been through at least 5 aerobottles. They simply piss me off; they buck around and splash, and I wind up tearing it off the bike and throwing it in the woods. My seat post is worn down and I am unable to keep a cage back there. So I am stuck with 1 bottle on my seat tube. The Speedfil seems to be my only option, so I'm going to give it a whirl.

I came home, relaxed on the couch for a few hours, and then went out on a 30 minute run. Shortly thereafter Shaun came home from overseas, and we relaxed on the couch for the remainder of the evening.

Sunday Shaun was out the door by 8am for a long ride, so after putzing around the apartment for a bit, I went to the YMCA for a pool workout. Small world as usual, but a speedy guy on my triathlon team was doing a swim/video clinic there. I stuck to my workout and felt like I was going to drown. My 200 time trial time was EMBARRASSING. Never in my life have I swam so slow. Wow, I really have a lot of work to do in the pool. I was embarrassed to be wearing my "I'm a winner, not a weiner" bathing suit since I certainly did not seem like a winner that morning!

I came home, make a post-workout smoothie of 1% milk, banana, protein powder and peanut butter. Yum! I vegged out on the couch for a few hours until garnering the strength for my run workout. I felt actually pretty good on the paces that Kiwi James set for me. I was hitting and beating them and wound up literally running in Shaun who was on his :50 minute transition run. I started my cool down with him until I felt some GI discomfort. Actually, SOME is not accurate.

I stopped running, turned around, and began walking to our apartment. I wasn't more than 2 blocks away from my apartment, but I didn't think I would make it. This was an emergency situation. I was in public, but there was NO private corner to duck into and drop trou. It certainly wasn't appropriate to poop in the front of the high school. Or on someone's stoop or on their yard. (If it were nighttime, I'm pretty sure circumstances would be different.) Walking like, um I was going to shit myself, I made it to my building and hobbled up the stairs holding my butt. I didn't want to poop myself, I really love my Lululemon shorts. Anyway, I almost lost my bowels in the hallway on someone's welcome mat. And then I almost lost my bowels on our welcome mat. I quickly opened our front door, dropped my phone on the welcome mat that I was using for music and sprinted for the bathroom. I didn't even shut the front door. I didn't even close the bathroom door. Relief, finally. Liquid poop. Ugh ugh ugh. Thankfully it happened in the toilet and not down my leg...in public. In the projects.

So there you have it. Kiwi James has already given me a workout where I push myself to the point of nearly pooping myself. Wow. Thanks Kiwi James!

April Showers bring May Kiwis

2011-04-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

When I’m not sleeping at night, I know I’m ridden with anxiety. My mind races 1,000 miles a minute (wish I could run that fast) about 1,000 topics…from the most common ones of work, family, triathlon, health, relationships, money –to silly ones like “where is that sweater I want to wear tomorrow to work?” and “if the power goes out, then my 2 alarm clocks won’t go off…let me check my phone again to make sure the alarm is set.”

Yeah.

So I lay awake…well, I rotate from my side to my stomach to my back. Every 15 minutes I look at the alarm clock and groan.

It has been happening a lot lately, more often than not. I even tried Nyquil over the weekend when I was sick. Nothing. I try Melatonin. Nothing.

I realized that until I made a change, then I would continue to be anxious, restless and confused.

After countless PRs under her tutelage, including a MAJOR one at the Ironman distance, half-ironmans, a marathon, half-marathons, and every other race I encountered over the course of the 2 years we spent together (including 3 of 3 this year), it was time to say goodbye to the wonderful and talented Coach Jen. She took me in when I was as low as I possible could have been. Her positive “go get em” attitude and always interesting and difficult workouts brought my mental and physical well-being to entirely new levels. I can’t thank her enough for bringing the love of the sport back to me.

With that being said, I traveled (well not really, I just researched) near and far and set my sights on an exotic fruit… a kiwi. For a while now I have heard about this guy’s talent (particularly after his 4:02 finish at Vineman last year), and had been doing some research on him. Also, over the past few months, I became blogging friends with his lovely wife who has been an incredibly helpful sounding board regarding my GI issues and gluten free cooking. After a lengthy phone conversation the other night, I knew this guy was the right one for me… James Cotter.

I also had to make a decision that I had been playing with since April 20^th; running another marathon to get that sub-4. I was 99% set on running the VT City Marathon over Memorial Day weekend.

Cause if I’m already in marathon shape, why not race another one in a few weeks? But there is the fact that I am racing in a half-ironman mid-June and I would have to sacrifice swimming and biking over the next month. But for what? Why am I trying to prove to myself that I can run a sub-4? Ego my friends, ego. My goal the beginning of the year was to run Boston and do triathlons. My sub-4 goal for Boston didn't just pop into my head in January. But somewhere along the way of my marathon training did I come to the realization that I could run a sub-4. When that didn’t happen, my ego deflated. But you know, I don’t need to test fate at another marathon to try to build my ego up. Getting my ass in the pool and on the bike, and testing my fate in triathlons is my plan.

So no marathon. Well, at least not now. That is on the back burner. Something tells me I’ll be back. Like I was with the IM.

It’s time for me to set my sights on triathlon season…in fact, this Saturday I will be riding outside for the first time this season. While I’m not looking forward to the wooha being mad at me, I’m looking forward to embarking on a new journey with hopefully lots of PRs along the way. The wooha will just have to get over it.

Bye bye Boston...RIP

Stomach 1, Heart Rate/Legs 0... Who Saw That Coming?

2011-04-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

Bloggers – I know how neglected you feel… thank you all for checking in with me. If you only knew what was going in workland, would you understand. I haven’t had a single minute to surf the web for over the past week due to some craziness happening at work. I apologize for having not read your blogs in so long. Unfortunately there is no end in sight. So yeah there's that.

In any event, I owe you all a Boston Marathon recrap – I mean recap.

Besides Friday after work getting my number from the expo and having a fabulous time with the BTT gals, I stayed far far away from anywhere marathoners would be for the rest of the weekend. I hydrated and carbo-loaded in the vicinity of my apartment, right on my comfy couch, right in front of the tv. It was glorious. I was feeling anxious and ready to go.

Fast forward to Monday morning. I woke up, ate breakfast, yadda yadda (took a bunch of poops), and thankfully I have the best boyfriend who drove me up to Hopkinton… we wound up leaving around 8am, but I suppose the busses left the Common a bit late and we passed them on the Pike. I am so blessed to have Shaun and to have his understanding that on race morning, I cannot be on a schoolbus without a bathroom in site. There could be an emergency situation. Luckily, our drive went smoothly, and I got up to Athletes Village in the perfect amount of time. I peed twice, stretched, lubed my feet up with Vaseline, and safety pinned two Gels to the inside of my shorts.

Get that part folks? There was NO massive diarrhea between the last one at the apartment around 7:45am, and the race start WITHOUT the aid of Immodium.

Then the 10:40 wave was sent to our corrals, and I sadly ditched my Cranford Varsity sweatshirt and sweatpants. I situated myself on the left hand side and began chatting with a guy next to me. He was shooting for 3:30, yeah see ya later fastie!

The gun went off, and like the thousands of others, I was off!

The first mile I hit right on target, 9:15. But the heart rate of 170 was a tad high to say the least. That’s zone 4 for me. Should not be running in Z4 for a marathon, especially when you’re holding back on the pace AND going downhill.

The miles to follow were much of the same thing, hitting the pace, but the heart rate would not go under 170. It got higher in fact. And this pace, one that should have been EASY, felt hard. Very hard. I was exhausted and it was only mile 2.

I had a specific goal in mind.

I had a specific race strategy in mind.

Unfortunately while I hit the first portion of my race strategy, it hurt terribly, and it just got worse from there. My pace kept dropping. 9:15s turned to 9:20s which turned into 9:30s, and then I found myself at an 11 minute pace going up Heartbreak Hill.

Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago when I did the 21 miler on the same marathon course where I averaged 9:16s?

No one wins training days.

I think the worst part of the day was not enjoying the day. The weather was glorious. My friends and teammates were out on the course…I put on my best smiley face passing everyone, but inside I was hurting. I wasn’t able to enjoy the funny signs held by the Wellesley girls. I couldn’t enjoy the drunk BC kids. I didn’t want to high-five any children. I didn’t want to talk to any of the other runners who were chatting me up. Instead I moved to the other side of the street. I just wanted to give up. So many times I wanted to go to the med tent because my legs were in so much pain I could barely keep a shuffle going.

The funny – not ha ha funny, but you know what I mean – part is that my stomach was SPOT ON!!!!!! I didn’t have diarrhea, I didn’t have a sloshy stomach…the only slight issue I had was I think a tad of dehydration.

It felt like I was running forever at a shuffle that wasn’t getting me anywhere. One step in front of the other was all I could do. One step at a time.

I knew I blew my goal time, so I was just holding on barely enough to try to PR. I heard someone yell my name during the final half-mile on Comm Ave, I turned my head and saw Shaun. I found my motivation and my inspiration. I turned on what burners I had left in my heart and in my legs. Passing people, I sprinted down Hereford and turned onto Boylston. Well, I forgot that the finish line seems sooo far away when you make that final turn onto Boylston; at least it did to me. I didn’t want to run out of gas, so I pushed and pushed and passed more people. It was the fastest mile of the day. 8:30 if I'm not mistaken. So I crossed that finish line.

And I PRed.

2011…4:17:16
2006…. 4:41:27

Not the result I was looking for, but a PR is a PR…

I finally got my stomach issues fixed only to have my heart rate and legs not show up on race day. I didn't have to stop and poop in someone's yard. Or behind a fence. Or just on the street. That was amazing. But it is disheartening to have put in some solid training days to put in 1 bad day at the races. It's frustrating to put in so much training... and HEART only to have it trampled on, like the sad little used cups after the water stops. It is unclear as to why my average heart rate was in Z4, although I did get sick 4 days later, so perhaps my body was already starting to fight off an infection.

Either way, no excuses. It wasn’t my day. (But I held my head high afterwards, went to our favorite restaurant, ate a burger, onion rings, french fries, and an entire bottle of wine. And I sharted. Yup, I sharted in my running shorts. Thankfully it was only a mini-shart and was confined to the lining of my shorts. Luckily I had a spare pair of pants.) Anyway, back to my bitchfest. Later that night and the next few days I cried. I bawled. I bitched and moaned. After a few days I gained perspective, stopped being a debbie downer and vowed to move on with the rest of my season.

So far this year I have raced 3 times, and I PRed at each of those 3 races. I’ll take that.

********************

And I leave with you some pretty war wound pictures....

1. I have NEVER had a blood blister during all of marathon training. This one was a doozy and it kept me up at night because I couldn't put my feet under the covers or have it touch ANYTHING.

2. Some guy really wanted to get to a water stop and proceeded to claw at my arm until he got there.

********Stupid race pictures don't want to come out bigger :(

Trying to Put the Fork Down

2011-04-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to enjoy the taper, but it's hard when your mileage is cut significantly down but the times you put fork/spoon to your mouth has quadrupled. The good thing is that I'm eating relatively healthy...salmon with raspberry and wasabi glaze, maple chipotle sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus, jalapeño garlic grilled chicken, brown rice, peas, granola, almond milk, almonds... the list goes on and on. From the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep I'm hungry. And I have been getting up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat to eat too. Sweet.

As if the anxiety of the upcoming marathon wasn't enough, I'm having work anxiety. We lost someone in our group recently, so 2 of us are doing 3 people's work, and if that wasn't enough, we just got bombarded with a big project, so yeah working the midnight oil for the next 3 weeks or so.

Needless to say, I have been visiting the ladies room quite a bit lately.

And while I am a huge social butterfly, I have decided not to partake in any pre-marathon blogger meet ups this weekend. It's me, not you! After today I am going to stay away from marathon blogs (no offense) because I get so caught up in other people's training/taper/nutrition/race strategy that I drive myself bonkers! I am high strung as is, and I honestly just like to take the days leading up to a race to be by myself and collect my thoughts. I don't want to be around the Boylston area until race day...I want to leave that excitement for Monday. So starting Saturday (tomorrow I'm getting my bib number and meeting up with my favorite Boston Triathlon Team ladies for a drink) I am going to hole myself up in my apartment, lay on the couch, visualize race day and focus on my race strategy.

But as soon as I cross that finish line, I am ready to GET IT ON.

LET'S GET IT ON.

Best of luck to all my peeps running the Marathon on Monday as well as all my peeps racing anywhere this weekend!

Isn't It Nice We're All Together?

2011-04-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Friday mid-morning I zipped down on Amtrak to NJ for the weekend. Saturday my family was coming from near and far to surprise my grandma for her 85th birthday. Before driving down to Spring Lake for lunch, I managed to get in my last *long* run (1:05 isn't long by any stretch of the imagination, but we have officially entered the taper!). I was really excited to be running in gorgeous weather (60 degrees!) and around my hometown. It was the first day of fishing season and as I jogged through Sunny Acres Park, loads of fisherman were gathered at the river's edge hoping for a bite. I jogged along the river and through the woods (but not to grandmother's house), past my 7th and 8th grade school, through town and down to Dairy Queen. I was nailing my pacing (5 minutes at 5 different paces) and turned back home.

Oh shit.

That's right, you all know how my run starts/continues/ends...with a poop! With about 10 minutes left to go, the colon was a rumbling and only one thing could cure this was an emergency poop. Luckily, I was running along the woods, so I quickly scampered off behind a tree and took care of business. Ah! Nature! Isn't it nice I pollute other states than MA?

After a quick shower and change of clothes, it was time to head down to Grandma's party. We anxiously awaited her arrival and needless to say, she was both surprised and excited! Everyone enjoyed the food and company for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to bid adieu. Happy 85th Birthday Grandma! And a big thank you to my parents for hosting the fabulous get together.

So in other news, the word on the street is that Boston is in 1 week. This is batshit crazy.

Elementary My Deer Toenail

2011-04-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

So the title is obviously a play on words...because there were three running-related entertaining happenings over the weekend that I wanted to touch upon.

Friday I had an easy 45 minute run, so I went out with Shaun who finally got his shit together and decided to start IMAZ training. Note to self, do NOT eat peanut butter and jelly on a Joseph Wrap immediately before running. After 8 minutes, I had to stop in my YMCA to poop. Then 5 minutes later I was ready to crap my pants when I saw a random porta potty in the Navy Yard - and it was clean! After I got all the crap out of me, we continued on our slow path around the neighborhood and I finally finished at Johnny Foodmaster where I picked up some dinner items and a movie from Redbox, and we headed home for a relaxing evening in with The Fighter (I wasn't too impressed with the movie to be honest).

Saturday I decided to sleep in a bit since my sleeping hasn't been the best lately. I'm having difficulty falling asleep despite taking Cortisol Manager, and I'm still waking up with night sweats. Last night I woke up with my entire tshirt soaked in sweat. Ugh.

Anyway, Saturday morning I ate 2 gluten free waffles while Shaun got on the bike, and after 2 hours of digesting, I drove up to Middlesex Fells for my last long run. Logistically, trying to run the Boston course was proving to be more difficult than I anticipated, so I figured I would try some new scenery but also get some hill work in.

I drove up 93N and parked on South Border Road....and immediately pooped in the woods. Ahhh nature.

So my gameplan seemed simple enough...run 4.5 miles out, turn back around and run to the car, refill my fuel flasks and head back out for another 9 mile out and back.

In theory, it was perfect. I set out wearing shorts, a long sleeve shirt and a zip-up jacket. I put an 8 ounce fuel flask filled with Gatorade Endurance and a Gel in my pocket. I held a 4 ounce fuel flask filled with water. I wasn't exactly sure where I was going to run, but I figured I would find my way. As I ran back towards where I drove in from, I saw a HUGE deer in the woods, on the same side of the road in which I was running. All of a sudden, it made this sprinting charge for me. I immediately freaked out and stopped running and tried to cross the street. A pick-up truck saw the deer and it's proximity to me, stopped his truck and started blaring its horn. The deer ran back into the woods. I crossed the street for the time being, and I could see the deer tracking me - running in the same direction as I was. My heart rate shot up to threshold during this episode!

I wound up turning away from the Fells and into a suburban type neighborhood. I was hot. I took off my zip-up and tied it around my waist, but now the fuel flask was hitting my bum. Who knew 8 ounces would seem so heavy! Because I have a tendency to get lost wherever I run/bike, I tried my best to not make too many turns and to just run straight. Unfortunately the roads kept ending, so I ran through West Medford until I ran smack dab into a really nice area with a running path. Too bad it was time to turn around.

Back the way I came and up some crazy long hills. I was feeling great.

I found my way back to my car and almost pissed myself. Actually I had to go so bad that I stood in front of the hood of my car and dropped my shorts, but cars were whizzing by, so I pulled my shorts up as I was peeing, so I did pee on myself. First urination on myself of the season!

For my second out and back I decided to head in the other direction, towards that running path I saw before. After a mile or two I hit the Winchester reservoir and Mystic Lake area - or something like that. I was now running on trails! Awesome! This was a great break from running on the busy streets. I was still feeling great. Kept up my nutrition plan, and kept going.

As I entered busier streets, I started feeling tired. My legs were hurting. Besides the first mile where the deer scared the living piss out of me, up until this point, mile 13 was my slowest mile of the day. It hurt. And I was supposed to crank the last few miles out if I was feeling good. I did try to crank up the pace, and I did somewhat, but I was hurting.

And in typical fashion, I had one huge hill to climb back to my car. Holy friggin shit was that tough. Yup, last mile was 9:43. Ouch!

Nevertheless, I hit my goal. 100% on target. 18 miles in 2:45. I timed my run perfectly and executed my nutrition plan.

Please God, let this happen on April 18th!

When I got home, I knew that compression socks wouldn't cut it, so I decided to take an ice bath. I quickly scrubbed the tub and started running the cold water. When enough water was in the tub, I put on my sweatshirt, tri shorts and collected my chocolate almond milk and a magazine. But I couldn't even dip my feet into the water, it was so cold. I forgot how ice baths fucking hurt! I whined like a little elementary school kid until Shaun came over, emptied the tub and told me to get in and stop being a baby. I sat in the tub with my knees bent to my chest, refusing to straighten and submerge my legs into the freezing cold water. I attempted to get out of the tub, but the big mean man said no! So I sat and screamed and whined and splashed around. After some time I straightened my legs and let the cold water flow over my knees. I kept calling out, "how much more time do I have?!" After 15 minutes I was done. And the hot shower afterwards was pure ecstasy.

When I got out of the shower I checked out my feet for blisters, and in typical fashion I had two big ones on my big toes that no amount of Vaseline will ever keep away. But, oh, what is this?! My right baby toenail came off! Thankfully a new baby toenail was already growing underneath it. For some reason, this toenail is always the one that bids me adieu. Goodbye my friend!

Later that evening Shaun and I went to my Guncles for dinner, drinks and board games. When we got home, we were having a dance party in the bedroom (no, that is not code for something dirty!) and I was having such a great time, I fell into the closet. Yup, toppled right into the closet. Needless to say, we had a wonderful evening. I slept well until 11am on Sunday, something I never do, and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Now...enter the taper mofos!

Oy! Soy!

2011-04-01T05:34:00.000-07:00

With my new elimination diet in place, I thought it would be best to take note of when I am feeling bloated and gassy and the food I ate throughout the day to try to find a pattern. Two nights in a row last week I went to bed gassy. There were some overlaps in my diet, but I attributed the gassyness to the big ass salads I had both days for lunches.

Tuesday night this week I had book club, and the host made a very benign meal... baked chicken and salad. I came home and spent the night tooting.

Last night was the worst night I have had in a while. I was up until after midnight because I felt terrible. My stomach was swollen and bloated and my gas was even making me tear up.

I figured it out...

That's right. Each of the nights last week and earlier this week I drank a cup of chocolate Silk milk after my workouts.

Yesterday...I had Daiya cheese both with my lunch and my dinner. And then I spent the entire night with the most painful firey gas.

Not only can't I have real cheese, but now I have to eliminate fake cheese :( And Silk Milk. Well, at least I can still have Almond Milk and Coconut Milk.

Baaaa!

Anyone else have this experience with soy?

In other news, my company's Biggest Loser contest officially came to a close. From January 3rd-March 31st we have been weighing in weekly and seeing who would come away with a substantial cash prize. I tried my best and finished in 4th place (first female) out of 14. I lost a total of 13.4 pounds - and I have just a few more to lose before Boston.

Finally, I woke up this morning to a slushy substance on the ground, happy April 1st in Boston! Tomorrow I have my last long run before Boston - 2:45. Hopefully the streets will be clear, and my ass will be back to normal.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Don't Buy Stock in Immodium Quite Yet!

2011-03-29T09:49:00.001-07:00

As you all know by now, I have been battling some major gut issues lately. (Again, I thank you for all for your website referrals and suggestions on recipes and products to eat!)

With my longest training run staring me in the face every time I opened up Training Peaks, to say I was worried about how it would pan out on Saturday is quite the understatement.

Dr. Brian and I finally touched base late last week about all the details; from what to eat Saturday morning at what time, to what and when to eat during the run. To my excitement, the Boston Marathon charity runners had their longest run scheduled, and they were all getting shuttled to the starting line in Hopkinton for a huge organized training run. This meant lots of support, between all the runners out on the course, to all the water stops. Unfortunately because I'm not a charity runner, I had to plan my own way to get out to the starting line, so I parked my car at a BC parking garage, and I was lucky enough to have my friend, who is a coach of one of the charity teams, drop me at the starting line.

Let's rewind a few hours; I awoke at 6:30am and ate 2 gluten free waffles with some syrup, and drank 1 bottle of Powerbar Endurance. I pooped 5 times. It was diarrheaish. But Dr. Brian and I decided that I would NOT take Immodium, and see how I felt.

My stomach was gurgling driving up to BC and when I parked, I knew I needed to go again. While the BC football stadium gates was open, the bathrooms were locked so I began to panic a bit. I was rushing around trying to find Jorge but I really had to pee, so I just dropped trou and peed next to my car in the parking garage. We drove up to Hopkinton and lucky for me, there were porta potties! Thankfully we got there a tad earlier than a lot of the busses, so there was no line and I easily took care of poopbusiness.

I cannot tell you how wonderfully organized the run was. There were police officers at every major intersection, water stops every time you needed one, and so many enthusiastic runners on the course.

With the first part of the course going downhill, I made sure not to go out too hard too fast. It was going to be a long day, and I was trying out a new nutrition plan for the first time. Let's play it conservative.

Mile 1: 8:54

Hahahahaa well okay I was excited. I can't pull that shit on marathon day. Unfortunately my HR monitor wasn't synching up correctly - my threshold is 181, and it said my max during Mile 1 was 211. Um right. Not correct.

Mile 2: 9:19, HR back to normal - average 150. Perfect.

Dr. Brian wanted me to drink 8 ounces of Powerbar Endurance/Gatorade at mile 2. I brought along one fuel flask that I carried in my pocket that I figured I would keep refilling at water stops. Unfortunately as soon as I drank that 8 ounces, I immediately felt the slosh slosh feeling in my stomach. This was a very very bad start to a long day.

Mile 3: 9:23, heart rate 150

Slosh slosh slosh

Mile 4: 9:08, HR 149

I was supposed to take in a Gel with 8 ounces of water. My stomach was sloshing like crazy and I couldn't fathom taking anything into my system.

Mile 5: 9:17, HR 158, a bit high here, but still within my training zones.

Runners were passing me, I was passing runners. I was in great spirits and kept saying "Good morning!". My legs were feeling fantastic.

Mile 6: 9:03, HR 157

I took in a Gel with about 4 ounces of water. So I definitely fell off track with my nutrition plan at this point, but when your tum tum is sloshy, you have to listen to it, not necessarily feed it right away.

I don't remember off-hand where I refilled my flask with Gatorade, but I did at some point!

Mile 7: 9:11, HR 153

Mile 8: 9:13, HR 159

Over the train tracks in Framingham! Jorge drove past me blaring the Rocky theme song. In typical Jersey fashion, I fist pumped.

Mile 9: 9:14, HR 156

Mile 10: 9:17, HR 156

I finished my second fuel flask of Gatorade.

Mile 11: 9:32, HR 156

Mile 12: 9:12, HR 156

Gel + water

Mile 13: 9:19, HR 158

Through the rolling hills of Natick-Wellesley. Woohooo, half-way through and feeling GREAT!

At the Wellesley Community Center, Team in Training had a huge water stop set up. Being a 3 time TNT alumni, I remember all the times we had gathered at the community center for our group runs. Running by all the posters of children with Leukemia and Lymphoma set up on the street brought tears to my eyes.

Mile 14: 9;19, HR 160

Mile 15: 9:31, HR 164

Woahhh Nelly. I'm feeling the burn! Up up up and then down down down. A Central Mass Striders guy had a water stop set up. I stopped to refill my flask. He asked if my hands were cold and if I wanted gloves, I thanked him profusely and declined. What a nice guy. Drank some Gatorade and moved on.

Jen told me that even though my legs might be still trashed from the half-mary in Aruba, to pick up the pace for the last 5-6 miles of this training run. Let's see what I could do.

Mile 16: 9:05, HR 160

Ohhhh almost at Comm Ave!!!!!!

Before making the turn at the Newton Firehouse I could hear cheering and as soon as I made the turn I could finally see the huge crowd gathered at the Mile 17 water stop. I stopped quickly to take in a Gel and drink some water. But I quickly moved on. Keep those legs moving.

And here come the hills!

Mile 17: 9:26, HR 160

Despite not running at the speed of light, I was passing folks on the hills. It was quite motivating to be honest.

Mile 18: 9:24, HR 165

Mile 19: 9:06, HR 166

My legs were starting to complain. I knew Team in Training was only running 20 miles that day, and their finish line was coming up. Technically I only had 20 miles on my schedule, but I wanted to get up every single one of those hills. So I passed the purple team, and followed the other charity team runners.

Mile 20: 9:09, HR 167

At this point I was definitely talking to myself. And heck, yeah I was grunting a little bit. Sue me!

1 mile left. 1 mile left. And I felt pretty damn good still!

Mile 21: 9:36, HR 171

This was the absolute toughest mile and it showed. I was panting and grunting but I did not walk one step up the hills. Not one.

I saw the finish line and little girls handing out St. Pattys Day beads. There was a finish line painted with chalk on the street. I looked at my Garmin and smiled in disbelief.

Just a few weeks ago I did a 20 mile road race. I suffered a great deal, both physically and emotionally on a pretty flat course.

I finished 20 miles in 3:11:53, average pace 9:36, average heart rate 166.

Saturday I tried a new nutrition plan. And I was nervous. But with some stomach issues at the very start, the majority of the run was successful. Sure I belched a lot. But I never thought I could say that running 21 miles never seemed so....enjoyable. Emotionally, it was a dream come true.

I ran 21.07 miles in 3:15:14, average pace 9:16, average HR 160.

While I know that no one wins training days and it's only how you perform in a race that matters at the end of the day, I feel like I came, I ran, I conquered.

The Biggest Clusterfuck Race I Have Ever Ran - Race Report

2011-03-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve only done one other race out of the United States, IM Cozumel, in 2009. But I knew going into Cozumel that the purpose of the trip was first the Ironman, THEN the vacation. I also knew that I would be staying in a place where we would be able to buy groceries and cook our own meals. Going into international territory this time around was a bit different; vacation came first, and sure, why not run a half-marathon while there. Unfortunately we were staying at a hotel without a kitchen, so I would be forced to fend for food by myself, which this trip around, I was trying to stay dairy, egg and yeast free. Before we left Boston, I bought some GF bread and made a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and baggied up some GF pretzels and animal crackers. That way I wouldn’t be 100% without food I knew I could eat.

I was also going into this “race” without a set nutrition plan. We still had not nailed down what I would eat race day morning or set a real game plan for what I would do during the race. I figured I would wing it and hope for the best.

Without going into vacation details yet, Friday I made the mistake of indulging on two sweet beverages – a strawberry daiquiri and a pina colada. Later that night I played it safe and stuck to wine and a fresh seafood bouillabaisse. Shaun and I walked back to our hotel, but towards the end I had to walk a crapload faster because I would soon have a crapload of crap in my white shorts. Needless to say I had some explosive diarrhea that night. You know that kind where things are a floating? Yeah not a very romantic way to spend my birthday evening.

Saturday morning I woke up with diarrhea. I took in 2 chewable Immodium and played it safe with neutral food for the rest of the day but, hey it was vacation so I definitely indulged on a few cocktails (wine and champagne, yum!). I drank what I thought was a copious amount of water and Gatorade throughout the day. We were in bed early, as I had a wakeup time of 2:30am to get in my pre-race breakfast because the race was starting at 5:30am.

When the alarm woke up at 2:30am, I quickly ate 1 banana and started eating the GF black bean bread with peanut butter. Holy shit, note to self, this bread is DISGUSTING. Absolutely retched. I choked down about half of the sandwich before tossing it aside and pounding a Gatorade. I went back to bed, awoke at 4:10am, and we jumped in our rental car and headed in the pitch black for the other end of the island.

This half-marathon is as rinky dink as a race could get. Previous to leaving Boston, we searched all over the internet for race information, including where we needed to register, and where the race started. I found a small piece of information on a website where you were directed to an email address. Someone on the other end sent me a registration form that I filled out and emailed back. But other than a time, we had no other race details. Everyone we asked near the resort had no clue there was a half-marathon in Aruba on Sunday. The Hertz rental car guy gave us a map and we followed the streets to lead us to the Athletic Complex in San Nicolas.

When we parked, the scene was a complete shitshow; there were people all over the place. We followed the crowds to what we thought was the registration table. Everyone already had their bib numbers pinned on, so we were confused about where and how they already got them, and why they were waiting on this line. So we waited and waited. Well I waited and waited because it was approaching 5:30am, and the line wasn’t moving. Shaun ran back to the car to get his sneakers so we could be ready to go come race start. As I approached the front of the line, I told them I registered online and didn’t have my bib. I was told to wait by the side of the table. I waited and waited. Finally a guy came by and handed me an envelope with my name on it and the bib number inside. Apparently you had to pick the bib up on Wednesday…but from where? How was I supposed to know that? So I didn’t get a tshirt, but I did get a bib and my bracelet, and I ran for free. Unfortunately there was no race day registration, so Shaun was unable to sign up for the race, but he ran it anyway – such a bad ass.

We quickly ran to the car to grab my Gels, went to the bathroom, and as we were running back to the starting line, the race started. Whoops, go go go!!!!

(You might note that I did not poop the morning of the race. This was the first time this has happened in my entire racing career, and I didn’t like it very much. I felt incredibly stopped up, and not like myself at all.)

The race wound up getting started later (5:40amish maybe), but it was hot, and it was dark. We navigated through the dark streets passing houses with dogs barking their heads off. My plan was to hit 9:10s for the first 6 miles, and then sub-8s for the last 6. I was to take a Gel every 25 minutes (I have always taken a Gel every 40-45 minutes so this was new to me) and drink a lot of water with each Gel.

I was already thirsty as mile 1 passed. Around mile 2, a local dude decided he wanted to run side by side with me. I didn’t mind to be honest. He kept me going. At times he would sprint up ahead but then slow down. Sometimes he would lag behind but then catch up. And the streets were pretty darn empty, but he wanted to run right next to me.

Anyway, I kept licking my dry lips and wishing there was a water stop ahead. 5k into the race, finally a water stop.

Mile 1: 9:08
Mile 2: 9:15
Mile 3: 9:00

So I think the United States should start using the Aruba way of water stopping. Instead of cups of water, they handed out these balloon type things (we found out later from the local policia that they are biodegradable) that are filled with water. You bite down and puncture the balloon and you squeeze the water into your mouth or over your head. I was a huge fan of this, because you could keep the punctured balloon in your hand while you were running. Or you could tuck an extra closed balloon inside your sports bra for later. The only negative is that I am putting my mouth on a balloon that people have been touching all morning. Gross. Then again, (Shaun, earmuffs) I have made out with some pretty mangy boys before so I shouldn’t talk about gross.

In any event, I took in a Gel right before the water stop and was able to wash it down with the balloon water.

Mile 4: 9:11
Mile 5: 9:24
Mile 6: 9:15
Mile 7: 9:20

So as I look at my Garmin data, I realize that the first 30 minutes were mostly downhill. Then the fun started. Sure you think that Aruba would be flat, it’s an island, and it looks flat! Um but it’s not. There were some really really long inclines starting around 50 minutes and ending for me at 1:20. Mile 6 is where I hit 167 on my HR. I definitely felt that.

I had lost my local guy on the hills (I passed him once and for all) and I suppose my Boston marathon hill training was working. I was passing people on the hills – that never happens!

Around mile 6, I started experiencing a very sloshy feeling in my stomach. I felt really dehydrated and wanted to get the water in, but I didn’t want to drink the water and have it slosh around. It was a quandary that I didn’t know how to fix.

Because mile 7 was an uphill, I wasn’t able to break into my sub-9s, but I figured I could make that time up. I coasted downhill, but I was feeling really really sick.

Mile 8: 8:48

Okay good. Hold it.

Unfortunately my stomach had other plans. The course was flattening out, but my stomach was almost making me sea sick.

Mile 9: 9:16

Blech. No good. No good at all.

Mile 10: 8:51

Good! Keep this up!

At this point I was hoping and praying I could get each of the last 3.1 miles under 9 minutes. Only 3.1 miles left! I could do this!

Stomach said no.

I kept putting in the Gels but I wasn’t taking in much water. But man was I thirsty.

Mile 11: 9:13

With 2 miles left I was passing people who were walking. And while I wasn’t running particularly fast, these people would see me passing them, then decide to start running side by side with me, only to stop to walk 1 minute later. It was almost like they didn’t want the blonde American girl to beat them!

Mile 12: 9:08

Okay I had had enough at this time. I was hot as hell, and I really wanted something sweet to drink. I wanted Gatorade. Or a Coke (which I have NEVER craved in any race or generally in my life). I passed the Renassiance Hotel and the downtown area where casino employees were outside cheering everyone on.

The end has to be in sight. I turned a corner and a guy with long rasta braids screamed “FUCK!”. He saw me and another girl pass and he apologized. “Cramps!” he yelled. “Me too!” I grimaced.

I couldn’t see the finish line but could hear names being called, so I knew I was close. So close, so close. So close. I was disappointed I didn’t bust out a huge PR.

Mile 13: 8:56
Mile .13: 1:03
13.13 miles = 1:59:48

I did manage to squeak out a 5 second PR, although courses are apples to oranges, and the course I originally PRed on last year was the hilliest course I have ever ran. But whatever. I’ll take it. Even without having a nutrition plan and having a sloshy stomach and full-of-poop colon! (Since returning to Boston, I have been in communication with my Dr., reported my half-mary issues, and hopefully I will have better luck with my upcoming 20 miler this weekend!)

“Numero blah blah blah, Kim Kaltreider” (and surprisingly they said my last name correct!) as I crossed the finish line. I immediately stood under the fire truck’s hose to cool off, grabbed 4 cups of Gatorade and 1 cup of water, and began walking back on the course to find Shaun.

Shortly I found Shaun, and we ran the last mile or so together – but unfortunately because he wasn’t registered, couldn’t cross over the finish line, so we scooted around it, and got him something to drink.

So this was a point to point race, and we figured there would be shuttles back to the starting line where everyone’s cars were parked. We spoke to two police officers who were trying to figure out how to get us back. After about 2 hours (I should have just ran back to the car), the kind officers personally drove us back to our car. But not after handing us a “Get out of the drink tank” card should we run into any trouble while spending our last few days on the island. These two police officers were incredibly friendly and helpful, and we are so grateful to have met them.

It was back to vacation time which meant more sun, fun and booze!

I'm VERY Tan

2011-03-23T10:24:00.001-07:00

So much to recap from the trip to Aruba...but for now I will put some important highlights in bullet form.

I would like to go back. Now.
Besides a terrible rainstorm on Friday night, weather was absolutely perfect.
Birthday celebration with a bottle of Veuve and being with Shaun was more than I could ask for.
Who doesn't love jumping off a phallic symbol into clear blue water?

I do need to apply sunscreen more often than not.

Apparently older people love to talk and hang out with us.

Arubians (is that a word) apparently love to run with American girls. Side by side on an empty road.

Running a half-marathon without a nutrition race plan isn't very much fun.

Running a half-marathon hungover in 80 degree weather and having a sloshy stomach while being dehydrated isn't very fun.

PRing by a whopping 5 seconds isn't too bad considering.

Being a bronzed goddess at work while everyone else is as pale as Casper is pretty awesome.

Being at work.... SUCKS!

Sun and Fun (and a birthday) in ABOOBA!

2011-03-17T06:04:00.000-07:00

First, last night Shaun was pleasantly surprised by not being stink bombed out of bed. It's only been really 1.5 days since the E.D. (elimination diet), but I'm already feeling less bloated and gassy (although I need to cut down a bit on the raw veggies). Last night we were getting take out, and it seemed like everything involved bread or cheese. I wound up having a pretty tasty ahi tuna steak with a mixed greens salad and roasted sweet potatoes and apples. So far, so good!

Second...tomorrow is a big day for two reasons...

It's my 32nd birthday and
We are on a 7:30am flight to ARUBA!

I can't wait to don a bikini, frolic around in the ocean, eat fresh seafood, and maybe I'm even looking to running a half-mary while I'm there. Per the amazing Dr. Brian Perry I will be trying out both a new pre-race nutrition plan AND race nutrition plan. Looking forward to giving it a whirl!

Anyway, wishing you all a very Happy St. Patricks Day!

And I'll leave you all with one of my favorite birthday pictures from last year...

and some pictures of where we will be spending our next 5 days...SLAINTE!

Goodbye My Lover, Goodbye My Friend

2011-03-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

It's been nice knowing you eggs, cheese, milk and baker's yeast. We had a good run, from the homemade pizzas to the eggs benedict. You were always there for me over the years, wherever I went, there you were. I cherished every moment we spent together and I will truly never forget you.

But my friends, it is time to say goodbye, or perhaps just "see you later".

Today marks Day #1 of my Elimination Diet.

I have started doing a bit of research on my own, and have reached out to many folks - including many of you kind readers - for assistance on finding my way to a pain-free gut. There are many a questions whirling around in my head...

Do all breads contain bakers yeast? From my understanding...YES. I did a bit of research and discovered my favorite bread company, Food for Life, makes a yeast-free bread. This excites me.
Recovery drinks: Obviously chocolate milk is out, and so is Endurox. Now what?
Breakfast: I have been eating Fage yogurt every weekday morning for the past...oh 3+ years. Today I ate Quaker Oats with a scoop of whey protein powder. I feel like it's just so heavy of a breakfast! Cottage cheese is also out... so yeah. This isn't going to be easy.
The day before a big race, I always have a big old pancake breakfast. This makes me sad because pancakes are my favorite thing to eat in the entire world...well, along with pizza. So now what?

Anyway, I have a lot of questions that I hope to find answers to. I feel like for the next week or so until I get a better handle on this all, I will be eating the same exact things....

Breakfast: quaker oats w/ whey protein and frozen berries

Lunch: Salad w/protein or Turkey on Ezekiel bread w/ veggies

Snack: Almonds and apple

Dinner: Chicken/Steak/Fish w/potatoes, brown rice, or quinoa, and veggies.

Yeah talk about BOOORRRINNG!!!

Time to start taking Probiotics, Vitamin D and Calcium too!

Before I sign off, I want to thank you all for being such a supportive sounding board. From all the comments to the personal emails, you have all played a part in helping me to a healthy and happy gut.

Gutting it Out

2011-03-11T06:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got my Comprehensive Food Panel (IgG ELISA) and standard blood test results back. I asked my doctor to send them to me before we meet on Tuesday so I would have a chance to look over the results and come back with any questions.

The results were pretty astounding.... 50% of the things I am eating on a daily basis are tearing my gut up.

Class 3:

Cheeses - the panel tests for cheddar, cottage and swiss. I dinged class 3s on all of them. NOO!!!! Why me?!!!!

Safflower

Class 2:

Eggs - NOO!!!!!!!!!!! Please God NOO!!!!!!!

Bakers Yeast

Class 1:

Milk (Cow's)

Garlic

I am definitely 99% shocked about these results, but honestly, not too shocked about eggs. Eggs are hands-down one of my favorite things to eat. Heck, I eat eggs for breakfast and dinner sometimes. I love them, scrambled, over-easy, fried, poached.... any way they come, I want them. But boy does my ass hate them.

So when I meet with my doctor on Tuesday, I have questions...do I completely eliminate these items? What can I substitute for these items? Almond milk? Soy milk? As for baker's yeast... does this mean no pizza? I'm a little confused. I'm fine with wheat... speaking of, I was also tested for Celiac Disease and it looks like I came back negative. I am low with my red blood count, but that's not a huge surprise since I have colitis and have been anemic. My Vitamin D is on the low side, so I imagine I will have to work on fixing this.

While I'm a little upset and am taking time to digest (thanks to Michelle for using that phrase this morning in an email), I'm looking forward to figuring all this stuff out with my doctor, as hard as it may be. Because these stinky ass farts and tummy aches have GOT to go.

D, E, F and the Oregon Trail

2011-03-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

So last week we hit the ABCs, and this week we are hitting up the DEFs.

Unfortunately that week's list was all rainbows, puppies, and sunshine. This week’s list is full of…well, here it is, you be the judge.

D. Diarrhea. Dizzy. Dehydrated. Disappointment.
E. Extreme Fatigue. Exhaustion.
F. Frustration. Failure.

As you have previously read, my longer training runs have been going fairly well for the most part. My typical pace has been around 9:09s in a solid Z2. I was actually looking forward to the Black Cat 20 Miler yesterday. I was ready to see where my fitness level was when I put myself to the test.

And the result was a big fat failure.

After pooping roughly 8 times Sunday morning, I took 4 Immodium and we left for Salem. I was looking forward to racing in SHORTS, but it was drizzling off and on and I wound up wearing a long-sleeve wicking shirt with the shorts.

I wished my pal Donna the best of luck at the start (who did amazing on the 10 miler), and then we were off!

Per my race plan, I was to start off conservatively for the first loop, roughly 9:15 minute miles. I held back and did my best to not get caught up in all the hoopla. I noticed my heart rate was ridiculously high, like Zone 4 high, and I felt like I was working hard, when I know I wasn’t. This was definitely not a good sign. However, I clocked in mile 1 at 9:15 – right on the button!

One thing that absolutely ticks me off while running races is when people run 3-4 people across and block other runners from passing them. This one 4-some I followed for a good 3 miles listening to them chatting, which is another thing that really irritates me, and finally I had had enough. This is where mile 3 came out to 9:06 and mile 4 was 9:03. Yes, they were a bit fast, but in all actuality, the first 10 miles came out exactly to 9:15 minute pace.

I don’t have too much to report for that first loop other than my heart rate was really really really high. Zone 4 is way too high to maintain for 20 miles. I was concerned.

The second loop I was to negative split and run sub-9 minute miles. As I rounded through town, and I handed Shaun my long sleeve shirt and he handed me 2 more Gels, I was exhausted. “This HURTS!” I gasped running past him.

Needless to say, those sub-9 minute miles never came. Not one of them. But now I was running in the high Z4s. My heart rate tops off around 181, and at mile 11, I was at 173. Yeah this wasn’t good whatsoever. My legs weren’t moving, and as the 10 mile folks finished off their race, us 20 milers just kept running. Lots of people dropped off, and I found myself alone for most of the 2nd lap, other than being passed by everyone. My pace kept dropping, dropping. Now I was running 9:30s. I was so thirsty, but I was also having stomach cramps. I was taking Gels every 40 minutes with a bit of water, but I didn’t want to drink too much and have a sloshy stomach.

I was defeated running that 2nd lap. Mile 16 came and I was feeling lightheaded. This is where the shit really hit the fan. I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I had passed a few folks a few miles back, and they passed me back, chatting about running 50k and 100ks. I couldn’t see more than a few steps ahead of me.

Remember playing the Oregon Trail computer game back in the late 1980s, early 1990s? This is what happened...

Yup, my wagon axle fell off. Then all the wheels fell off.

There was more than a dozen times where I was going to stop and ask for help. Every time I passed through an intersection I wanted to ask a policeman to bring me to the finish line. To call Shaun. I wanted to sit on the curb and put my head between my legs. I started a jog/walk for the last few miles. And my pace kept dropping…For miles 16-20 I ran a 9:52, a 10:21, a 10:24 and a 10:42 and a 9:52.

My goal of 3 hours came and went. How could I bust out some great training runs at 9:09s with sub-9 minute miles at the end in Z2 and was now running 11 minute miles and feeling like death.

The finish line seemed so far away, and I rounded the corner and heard Shaun and my other teammates cheering me on. (BTW, props to my two teammates who really threw down some amazing times that day.) I crossed the finish line feeling faint and sat down on the curb and put my head between my legs, like I had wanted to do for the tail end of the second lap. Why was I feeling so faint? After sitting for a while, Shaun helped me up and to the car.

It took another 1+ hour for me to go to the bathroom, which totals roughly 5 hours of not peeing. I spent the rest of the day on the couch with my compression shin guards on, and ice packs on my knees. For some reason after these longer runs, my right knee hurts so fricking bad. It’s fine when my leg is straight, or when my leg is bent, but it’s the bending movement that sets it off. Anyway, speaking of icing my knees, I gave myself frostbite.

My performance at this “race” was disappointing to me, 3:11 with an average pace of 9:35? I have been training really hard all season and my results were not indicative of my fitness level. Granted this was really only a training run, it was the longest distance I have covered yet this season by 3.5 miles, and it wasn't even a "C" race in my 2011 goal schedule. But there definitely is something wrong, and I am going to try my best to figure it out.

One thing I am going to be figuring out is how to counteract the dehydration that comes along with taking Immodium race morning. I have been peppering fellow triathlete, colitis patient, and blogging pal Teresa Nelson with questions about colitis, nutrition and dehydration. I’m going to seek some guidance from both her and my primary care/nutritionist/sports guru to see what we can do to fix this. I believe changes have to be made to my pre-race nutrition and perhaps even incorporate some IV therapy.

I’m willing to do whatever it takes to have a successful Boston Marathon; whether it has to do with training – more volume, slower paces, longer distances - or changing up my nutrition and diet to avoid dehydration. 6 weeks left. I can do this.

Cause I DEFINITELY don't want to go down like ole Heidi here.

It turns out, I don't look nearly half as bad as I felt....

Not sure what I am looking at....but this was the first lap, probably around mile 5... I had tied my shirt around my waist, and the Gel that I had safety pinned to my shorts is gone.

So I passed this guy at some point, I think rounding lap 2. Then he passed me around mile 16 and didn't look back.

Here is the LOONNG stretch back to the finish. See there is no one around? Probably because everyone had already finished! I'm surprised the photographer stuck around!

Friday Random Thought of the Day

2011-03-04T13:16:00.001-08:00

Why do people wear shorts over running tights?

(We don't have to get into what "Deak" is doing with his hands here...)

(And...I'm not really sure what to say about this...)

Talk amongst yourselves.

****Steve, I understand your frozen weiner worries. However, I can't imagine wearing shorts on top of your running tights would help keep your ding dong from freezing and falling off. I like to keep my va jay jay warm on cold weather runs, and I bought a version of these from my local tri store, to wear UNDER the running tights. Good luck, God speed, and hope your wee wee stays warm.

http://www.craft.se/products.html?tx_mdb_pi1[view]=viewLVL3&tx_mdb_pi1[lvl1]=Craft&tx_mdb_pi1[lvl2]=Layer%25201&tx_mdb_pi1[pageid]=976&tx_mdb_pi1[lvl3]=Zero%2520Extreme

AAAA BBBBB CEEEEEEEEE

2011-03-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

So I have two quick updates before jumping on the recent blogger bandwagon of the ABCs...

On Tuesday I had a 75 minute run. I was concerned about (a) my heart rate being jacked up and running 15 minute miles, but also (b) my IT band. Holy IT band. Anyway, Jen and I discussed and I would go out for an easy run and see how I feel. (She gave me the opportunity to bike instead but (a) my IT band hurts more on the bike than going for a run, and (b) I went to Dr. Yuck Tuesday afternoon and my va-jay-jay was a wee bit sore. So off on a run I went.

I had zero expectations and just took the first few miles easy as the IT band was screaming for mercy. After a couple 9:20 minute miles at a 149 heart rate, I decided to finish off the prescribed workout. I wound running 8:59 miles at 155 HR (Zone 2) and 8:30 miles at HR 163 (Zone 3).

My confidence was restored again as I finished off the run. Thank goodness I'm back.

We FINALLY booked our flights to Aruba. I have been watching the prices fluctuate the last few weeks, and last night I went onto the Jet Blue website and put in all of our information. When I entered in my credit card information, a red error message popped up that the flights we requrested were no longer available. Are you fucking kidding me? 1 minute later, the flight price went up. Can you say FURIOUS? Nevertheless, I sucked it up and booked them today. So on my birthday (March 18th), we are sneaking away to sun and fun! Oh, and I'll run the Aruba Half-Marathon while I'm there too!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

Age: 31... to be 32 in 15 days!

Bed size: XL Twin bunk bed

Chore you dislike: All which is why I have a cleaning lady (and Shaun)

Dogs: Shaun (sometimes)

Essential start to your day: A good ole fashioned poop

Favorite color: blue

Gold or silver: silver

Height: 5'8 and 1/4

Instruments you play: Skinflute and the violin

Job title: Compliance Associate / Social Director / Poop Machine

Kids: Just the ones I drop off at the pool

Live: Charlestown, MA (right where they filmed The Town!)

Mom's name: Carol

Nickname: KK, Kimmy Beans

Overnight hospital stay: tonsillectomy when I was 8 (ummm I think. Was that overnight?)

Pet peeves: Public transportation passengers have no consideration for those who were waiting at a bus/train stop before you and cut in front of you (and sometimes the bus/train gets so full, so that even though you were waiting a longer time, has to wait for the next bus/train). This peeve also goes for those rude folks who don't let passengers get off the bus/train before barreling their way on board.

Quote from a movie: "What? You pooped in the refrigerator? And you ate the whole... wheel of cheese? How'd you do that? Heck, I'm not even mad; that's amazing. How 'bout we get you in your p.j.'s and we hit the hay." Anchorman

Righty or lefty: Righty - but lefty sometimes if I'm partaking in extracurricular adult activities

Siblings: 1 bro, Chris

Time you wake up: 7:30am

Underwear: I own probably 200 pairs. Wear them most of the time, but not when exercising... I usually got pantless, esp on the bike. Free vagggin!

Vegetables you don't like: Broccoli and hot spinach.

What makes you run late: Usually nothing, but if Shaun is involved, then forget about it

Xrays you had: Tibia, Teef, Boobies (do ultrasound and mammograms count?)

Yummy food you make: Weiners, Pizza, Better than Crack Brownies

Zoo animal favorites: None. They all stink like shit.

Something is Definitely Up...

2011-03-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

It could be your weiner... but I'm talking about my heart rate.

Last week I had three pretty shitty runs…two of which I nearly quit 5 minutes into it.

The week started off well enough, I hit 1:15 on a plank! Now this may be chump change to most people, but I was really friggin proud of myself, considering two months ago I could barely hold 20 seconds. Okay 10 seconds.

I wound up making a kickass Turkey and Roasted Vegetable Quiche, compliments of ER, who forwarded the recipe off to me.

But then Wednesday came and I had an hour run incorporating some fast paces. Unfortunately it sucked. My heart rate was jacked up in Z4 and I was running…a 9:40 pace. When it was time for the faster paces, my pace was only 8:05s, and then an 8:02. I was struggling. How I could bust out some fast miles a few weeks ago during a race, but could barely hold the paces for less time? Frustrating I tell you.

Friday I saw another run, this time an EASSSSY 45 minutes. For anyone that lived in Boston on Friday, you can remember the torrential downpours that day. By the time I left work, the rain was tapering off, and I figured 45 minutes wouldn’t be too bad. Boy did I think wrong.

The first mile was fine, I averaged 9:22s going up the gynormously long hill that I live on. But then….I felt like I was going to pass out. Mile 2 was 10:03. Then 10:09. Sleet and wind was pelting me in the face. I wanted to cry. After ignoring my Garmin, I finished off with a 9:51and decided I had had it for the day.

Seriously WTF was going on.

After a turkey wrap for dinner, I went to bed early, keeping my hopes up for a decent 2 hour run the next morning. I slept in a tid bit, and set out around 9:30am. I was having the poops again, so I popped 3 chewable Immodium. Oh poops poops go away. Anyway, there had been some snowfall over night, and along with the rain from the previous day, I was worried about my footing. But I set off without Yak Trax in hopes Memorial Drive would be clear.

The run started off innocently enough until I realized that the sidewalks and running paths were covered in snow and ice. Particularly this one section of Memorial Drive where I literally had to jump over the barricade and sprint my ass off towards on coming traffic. Now that was fun.

I felt slow again, as I saw my pace continue to slow; 9:19, 9:24, 9:32. Why did my legs feel like lead pipes? I was over it. I was ready to turn back around and walk the fuck home. But I kept trucking on. I was getting steamy, and kept tearing off my mittens and my ear warmers, but then I would put them back on when the wind picked up. But they were sweaty and cold and didn’t seem to help block the wind. I felt like everyone and their grandmothers with walkers were passing me. I got to the point at the Charles where I would have to go through a tunnel to keep running up the Memorial Drive section. However, the tunnel was a sheet of ice, so I simply kept running around the Charles and back on Storrow Drive towards Boston. Unfortunately running back towards Boston was very disheartening because I was not yet at the 1 hour mark and I was already running home! After 1 hour, I turned back around and proceeded back the way I had come from.

Plodding along, I was not looking forward to the last portion of the run where I had to run at my next goal pace. Apparently I felt like I had something to prove and went ahead and just ran how I wanted the 3.5 miles, finishing with an 8:30, 8:50, 8:37, and 8:23, all between Z2-Z3. Thankfully the fast ending rounded off the 2 hour run with 13.12 miles and a 9:10 pace. Well, at least I know I can fuck up a training run and still manage to run a half-marathon in 2 hours.

Later that evening my Uncle John and his husband Steve were coming over for dinner. My uncle is a chef and I didn’t want to disappoint him with my cooking, so I enlisted some help from a few Italian friends, and came up with a solid dinner. Homemade lasagna (unfortunately not the pasta though) with both a bechamel and tomato sauce, homemade meatballs (Shaun was in charge of these, he made some big balls!), homemade garlic bread, salad, and bananas foster (you light this baby on fire!). We had a wonderful time drinking, eating, and playing board games.

Sunday I awoke to see more snow on the ground. Seriously Boston?! I was nervous for my pals who were running Hyannis and hoped they were all safe. After an entire lazy day of watching the boob tube, I finally got my ass on the bike. A 2 hour ride, longest ride of the training season! It surprisingly went by quickly, as I watched Jersey Shore and 90210, but I think the biggest reason was because my vagina didn’t hurt! I think the ole wooha is finally getting used to the saddle (and Vaseline never hurt anyone).

I’m experiencing a very tender and tight IT band and it needs to go away by my “race” this weekend. I have an easy run tonight, which will hopefully go without pain or sub-par paces then I have Book Club with the Charlestown ladies.

And I’m still in 4th place in The Biggest Loser. 30 days to go and hopefully 10 more pounds to take off, and then 2 more pounds before the Marathon. This shit is HARD (actually that is literally true – the Immodium stopped me up for a few days! Stupid Immodium)!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far!

Diarrhea, Take Your Pants Off and Penis Costumes All in One Weekend!

2011-02-24T07:13:00.000-08:00

Where to start, where to start?

I suppose I should start at Friday, when I had my longest run so far of the season. The temperature in Boston was a balmy 50+ degrees so I told Jen I wanted to take advantage and to move that 2:30 run scheduled for Saturday to Friday instead. I brought a bunch of clothes with me to work on Friday, as I wasn’t entirely sure how the weather would hold up, it is Boston after all. I consulted a few folks about what to wear, and Jamie gave me the best advice (after he asked if I was a rookie) – shorts and a short sleeve shirt and arm warmers. Done and done.

Leaving from work a few minutes early, I headed straight for Beacon Street. My plan was to run up Beacon Street past BC, hang a right and run back down Commonwealth Ave. I started out and immediately took off my arm warmers. This was the first time I wore my fuel belt this season, and ugh, I realized quickly how much I hate the fucking thing. I wanted it tight, so I had it up on my belly. Then I moved it down to my hips but it kept riding up. The thing was jiggling all over the place, and was super uncomfortable.

The sidewalks were finally clear of ice and snow so I didn’t have any issues in that sense, unfortunately there were throngs of pedestrians out…walking two and three abreast! I felt like I kept saying “excuse me, excuse me” as I creeped up on them. I was starting to get a little ticked off.

Feeling the need to pee, I dropped trou right by the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. It was finally dark at this point so I just crept into a little parking lot behind a snow bank and let the pee flow. Shorts back up, moving on.

I climbed the long steep hill past BC and immediately felt the burn in my legs. Hitting the top, I coasted downhill, but the streets approaching Newton Centre were extremely dark and I was afraid of busting my face open by running fast. So I took it easy and just coasted for a bit. When I finally reached Newton Centre, I made a right and ran past my old stomping grounds on Centre Street where I lived for a year or two. I was halfway through my run, and making my way back home via Commonwealth Ave.

As usual I ran on the carriage road of Commonwealth Ave which was completely deserted, unlike Saturday mornings when all the Marathon runners take to training. It was dark, quiet and serene. I could feel my heart beat, hear every stride I took, and concentrate on the task at hand. Unfortunately as I was running down Comm Ave, I could feel my bowels moving. I really do think the fuel belt played a large part in making my stomach feel as awful as it did. There was an emergency quickly coming into play and I needed to do something about it. However, I was at the crowded intersection of Comm and Beacon and no where to go. Prairie dogging it at a slow pace, two blocks later I turned onto a side street and considered my options. There was an apartment complex with a dark parking lot. This would be my bathroom stop. Next to a dumpster, pretty much in plain sight of anyone passing down the street, I got down to business. Fortunately there was a little snowbank next to me, so I used a big ole handful of snow to clean myself off. Ahhhh sweet relief.

And back to the run!

I was trucking along, wondering how in heck Comm Ave was so hilly, as Beacon which runs parallel, is not – after Heartbreak Hill. I felt like I kept climbing and climbing. Finally, a downhill, and I landed myself right in BU territory.

HOLY.
SHIT.

Hundreds of students. Hundreds. Walking in the same direction as I was running. With some cops directing traffic I quickly realized there was some sort of event happening at the University. Shit shit shit. It was extremely difficult getting around all these kids, who were walking 5 side-by-side. I dipped, dodged, weaved, ducked, dodged around the crowds. “Excuse me!” I called to a group of students. As I passed through, this one fat kid says “excuse me, pardon me” in this snotty snide way. I stop running, turn around and yelled “REALLY?!” He just looked at me, and I ran on. At this point I mentally said “Fuck it” and scooted onto the street and ran on the bike lane. Soon the bike lane was packed, so I had to get back on the sidewalk where crowds were now walking towards me. The sidewalk could only hold 2 people next to each other at the most, so I spent most of the time throwing my elbows out because people weren’t watching where they were walking. Not my fault!

Thank goodness I was finally free of the kids. Unfortunately I was getting tired. I was exhausted. Without any gels left, I slowly made my way back towards Charlestown. I weaseled through Beacon Hill and down Storrow Drive, up the bridge and then I was done.

16.36 miles, 2:30 for an average pace of 9:10.

I felt exhausted. Maybe it was because my last long run of 2:15 was two weeks prior, since I had the 5 mile race the week before. Maybe it was because I was on a hillier route. But I was spent. Absolutely smashed.

At home I pulled my sneakers off, and saw that I had holes in both my thin socks and I had been running with my big toes poking out. Hm, note to self, don’t buy these socks anymore! The next thing I knew I was in the bathroom pooping my brains out. Actually scratch that, the rest of the night I spent pooping my brains out. (Guys, plug your ears, but I’m pretty sure most of us ladies spend a lot of time pooping before/during we get our periods right? Mine was coming in a day and boy was I hurting.)

Shaun had lovingly bought me my favorite turkey, stuffing, cranberry wrap from Ironsides, but I could barely eat. Not only was my stomach fucked up, but my right knee was so sore that I could barely move or bend my leg. This was not good.

Restless Legs Syndrome no doubt kept me up the entire night. I didn’t get a wink of sleep from the time I laid my head on the pillow at 11:00pm to when I finally got out of bed around 9:00am. Poor Shaun had to listen to me ask if he was awake every hour on the hour the entire night. I was that creepy girl that was just staring at the boy in bed. Sorry honey! I couldn’t turn my body over in bed without using my hands to lift my legs up. I was miserable. Absolutely miserable.

So yeah while I was super excited to get my long run done on a Friday after work in glorious weather, there were definitely disadvantages…(1) I had to wear a fuel belt – typically on Saturday mornings I do not, as many charity runners are out there with water stops, (2) Students – I really do hate snotty college students, (3) Restless Legs Syndrome, (4) diarrhea that I couldn't stop.

Fortunately it was a 3-day weekend so my lack of sleep on Friday was somewhat made up over the rest of the days between napping and longer sleeps. We grocery shopped, cleaned, and prepped for a housewarming party we were throwing on Sunday. I volunteered at my triathlon team’s time trial….telling riders to “take their pants off”. Seriously. Brenda and I had the terrific jobs of weighing riders in before their heat. We would coyly tell them to take their pants off, or if they were so inclined, to go take a poop before weighing in. It was the perfect job for us.

(See how much fun we are having?!)

Then it was time to PARTY! Not to name names (AHEM you know who you are speedy), SOMEONE had the bright idea that there should be a costume party…

For penises.

Yes that’s right. At some point in the future, the guys should make costumes for their penises.

I have an example of a costume (don’t worry, it’s on a beer bottle, not a real penis) on my camera that I need to download, and I will post on here for your viewing pleasure. It was hilarious and we all had plenty of laughs about it.

Presenting the first-ever Penis Costume!!!

The evening came to a close, but not after polishing off a bottle of tequila from Cozumel, a bottle of Goldschlager, 24+ bottles of wine, and countless beers. I did feed everyone though; baked brie, wieners, little pizza bites, macaroni and cheese cupcakes, and better than crack brownies.

LASTLY, Monday afternoon I went to see Dr. Weissberg at the Marino Center for Integrative Health I had been meaning to get a food sensitivity test, and after meeting with the doctor for 1.5 hours, blood was taken, and I get the results in 2-3 weeks.

So there was my 3-day weekend in review. Hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did (minus that whole diarrhea and Restless Legs Syndrome thing)!

************************
By popular demand... HERE is where I got the recipe for the delicious mac and cheese cupcakes!

I omitted zucchini because I don't like it - although I didn't even get to try them :(

My thoughts as they came out of the oven... hmmm I wonder if they could be cheesier, so the next 12 cupcakes, I put in more cheese! Also, 1 pint of grape tomatoes was definitely wayyy too much for 12 cupcakes, so if you are going to stick with the recipe, I would use half pint of tomatoes.

Picture taken from How Sweet It Is.

Race #1 - PR - CHECK

2011-02-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

Race #1 of the 2011 season is in the books.

Saturday I ran in the Bradford Valentine’s Day 5 Miler. Shaun and I decided that we would run in the open male/female (couples) competition whereas one person would run the 5 miler and the other would run in the 6k and the lowest combined time for the couple wins.

Our team name? Do These Running Tights Make Us Look Fat?

Yup, the registration lady had a good laugh when she signed us in.

I honestly had no expectations going into this race. I have been running longer distances in low heart rate zones, and shorter distances with inclines, so I really had no clue what a 5 miler race pace would be. So I was just planning on running in Z4 without a pace in mind.

In 2008, I ran this race for the first time, and boy was I blown away by the hills. I finished in 41:33 that year, only 4 seconds shy of a PR which I had hit the month before on a flat course.

Could I run faster this year than 2008? To be honest, I only really started training January 1 this year, so I’m really only 1.5 months into the season. What pace could I hold?

I had the poops before we left our apartment. I took 3 Immodium and hoped for the best. We hit traffic on 93N on the way to the race. Ugh! So we took a side route and got there with some time to spare. We parked in a church parking lot where we each peed next to the car. No shame my friends, no shame.

We checked in, got our numbers, and found our spot near the starting line. There were some fast looking couples there. It’s a difficult start though because both the 5 miler and the 6k runners start at the same time. Also, the chip on our bib was only for the finish line; there wasn’t a starting line check-in so unfortunately everyone would have the same starting time regardless of where you were crossing the start line.

The most pitiful horn sounded and we were off. The first half mile or so was flat, and Shaun and I trucked along at a 7:50 pace. After 3/4 mile, the 6kers hung a right while us 5 milers kept going straight up Up UP a long incline. Shaun and I told each other to not drop the pace since weren’t able to run together any more.

I tried not to.

Mile 1: 8:00

Okay good. I would certainly PR if I kept this up. However, my pace immediately dropped as I went up and over the hill. I was already in Z4 and was afraid I would blow up. There was a bit of a downhill and then a flat. We eventually made a right and I saw a mile 2 marker on the ground. My watch had us at 2.05, but no big deal. I was getting super hot, so I took off my hat. Holy hot.

Mile 2: 8:02

Okay good. Hang on. But to be honest, this race sucked. I forgot how hard it was to stay in Z4 and not want to pass out and die. The hills kept coming, and I found myself huffing and puffing. People were passing me, but then after a while, everyone found their pace and tried to hang on. I knew my average pace was dropping as I kept climbing the hills. I felt so fatigued. My form was failing, and I was hunched over saying to myself “one step at a time”. Yeah that wasn’t very motivating. I kept looking at my Garmin. My pace was significantly dropping, and so was my positivity.

Mile 3: 8:32

Oh shit. Okay this isn’t good. There is 2 miles to go and I’m really having a tough time. Hell, I can’t even focus on a rabbit at this point. A few girls trotted past me, and I just couldn’t keep up. So I sadly watched them run off into the distance. Tear tear.

I was steaming up. I took off my gloves and shoved them in my pocket. I was a sweating pig and it was cold out. I'm burning up! I would have stripped down into my skivvies if I could!

The streets weren’t totally clear of snow and ice, so it became frustrating to navigate around the black ice areas with other runners in front and in back of you. I kept looking at my watch and telling myself to pick it up the fuck up if I wanted to get a PR. I couldn’t keep running 8:30s if I wanted to get her done.

Unfortunately my legs weren’t listening to my brain.
Mile 4: 8:35

At this point I was running side by side with two guys. With 1 mile to go, I tried to switch into a higher gear. As I started picking up my pace, I wondered if I put in the kick too early so I settled right behind one of the boys. I literally ran one step behind him. He looked like a runner, tall, slender, wearing a grey fleece, black pants, a hat and earphones. An older guy with a mustache wearing a Boston Marathon jacket running near us made a comment about a close by dog barking. “He should be out here running” the ‘stache guy said. Grey fleece took his earphone out, “I wish I had his enthusiasm!”. I laughed. ‘Stache guy ran on, and I ran up next to grey fleece guy. “You have one of those watches, you must be a triathlete” he said. “Yup yup” I grunted in return. “You?” I asked. “Yup” he cheerfully responded. “Which races are you doing this year?” I asked, trying my best not to keel over and die. “Mooseman, Timberman…” he listed off the races. “Best of luck this season!” I said. “And thanks for letting me draft off you!”. He laughed, “I need your help now!” as he tucked in behind me.

I don’t know how long he stayed behind me for, it might have only been 10 seconds, because I knew there was less than a half mile left and I had to kick it into high gear. I started sprinting as fast as I could. Making the left hand turn going downhill, there were a bunch of cones on the side of the road to keep drivers from hitting the runners. Unfortunately the 6k course finishes with the 5 mile course, and there were some still runners out on the road. I was sprinting as hard as I could trying to dodge these runners, so I wound up running smack dab in the middle of the road, holding my hand out to stop cars from hitting me.

With a 10th of a mile to go, a woman ahead (who must have ran the 6k) was trying to motivate her husband/boyfriend/friend to run faster, so she started sprinting in front of me. Well, it gave me the motivation to beat the guy, so I sprinted past her and over the finish line.

Mile 5: 7:35

Um 7:35? Where did THAT come from?

Overall time (Garmin): 41:03 – 5.05 miles, 8.07 average pace
Overall time (Cool Running): 41:06, 8:14 average pace

Which….either way you cut it – is a 24 second PR!!!!!!!!

Sure I look forward to the day where I run consecutive sub 8-minute miles (which I bet I could do in a 5k right now), but alas, I will wait for that day to come.

If I could run a 7:35 mile at the end of the race, I wonder if I could have ran the entire race faster... thoughts?

In other news, Team Do These Running Tights Make Me Look Fat…did not win.
Shaun put on an impressive display despite not running since IMAZ last year and eating lots of ice cream in the off season with a 30:24, and combined with my time came out to 1:11:30 which was good enough for… um 19th place out of 40. The winning team? 22:31 + 25:44 = 48:15. I want drug testing.

We celebrated our not-so-close victory (but my PR) with hot chocolate, pancakes and eggs.

After 2 weeks of shorter runs, this weekend I am back to long distance running – 2:30. Let’s hope I keep up the decent work!

There’s NO time! There’s NEVER. ANY. TIME!

2011-02-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

Oh Jessie Spano, I hear ya sister. I hear ya loud and clear.

Between working 50+ hours a week (but then again who doesn’t work this much, right?), Boston Marathon training (isn't everyone training for something though? I recently emailed Jen and commented that I'm not even IM training and I'm exhausted!), and my new roommate moving in, I have been go-Go-GOING for what seems like every second of every day. I’m sleeping, but fitfully, and seem to take melatonin more often than not. But then I still am up, tossing and turning, thinking about all the things I could be doing if I wasn’t sleeping. But alas.

On Friday the movers came, but not everything from Shaun’s apartment was packed up and ready to go. Both of us living alone for so many years means combined we have 2, or even 3 of everything. 2 Couches, 2 coffee tables, 3 beds, 6 end tables, 8 lamps…you can imagine how packed the storage unit is now. Having to choose which person’s stuff for the most part was easy, it’s the smaller stuff – picture frames, knick knacks…that stresses me out.

Anyway, for the first time since I started Boston Marathon training, Saturday’s morning run was an “easy” run… I say “easy” because it wasn’t 15+ miles. I thought it would be relatively easy until I got to the gym and had a big fat FAILURE of a workout. I was supposed to increase my speed every few minutes, until I was at my 5k speed towards the end. Yeah well my heart rate was around 170 and I was jogging at about a 9:40 pace, which is NOT my 5k pace. Even putting on the Black Eyed Peas station on Pandora didn’t help. I was exhausted. My legs were so beat up and I got off the treadmill and walked home. I changed Pandora stations and Matchbox Twenty’s “Look How Far We’ve Come” came on. It brought tears to my eyes and I knew that one failed workout wouldn’t break the Boston bank.

The rest of the weekend was spent unpacking and organizing. Mr. Type A spent most of his day 3-point folding his tshirts, while I took matters into my own hands and put together the Crate and Barrel bookcase and wine bar…slicing my finger with a scissor in the process. Ouch!

Sunday I had a bike workout. My bike workouts have sucked lately. My heart rate will not go higher than mid-zone 2 while my legs feel like they are pushing through quicksand. And I’m sweating my tits off. WTF is going on with me?

Last night I had to hit up the treadmill again. Even doing a slow warm-up jog to the YMCA proved difficult as the sidewalks and streets were covered in sheets of ice. I hopped on a treadmill (like on Saturday, all the newer treadmills were taken, so I was on one of the sketchy older ones) and began my workout.

So I’m beginning to think it’s the treadmill, not me, that is making my recent workouts suck. Can two entirely different treadmill brands, set at apparently the same incline, actually be different inclines? (Does that even make sense?) I feel like the treadmill I have been on the last two workouts at the YMCA has a much difficult 1% incline than the treadmill at the fitness center where Shaun used to live. Is this a silly thought process? Or is it just me?

In any event, like everyone else in New England, I’m over this weather. We are rethinking the Aruba trip next month…um we don’t want to be stuck with spring breakers and are trying to decide where we should go…Turks and Caicos? Curacao? Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I look forward to a relatively low-key weekend of more unpacking, a small road race, and spending some quality time with one of my besties...froofy massages, brunch (bloody marys and oysters please!) and shopping...couldn't ask for a better afternoon!

Next post…I am honored to accept Everett’s Stylish Blogger Award…stay tuned!

5th Time is the Charm...and a delish din-din!

2011-02-02T06:24:00.000-08:00

Today I was supposed to see my dentist for what I thought was the 4th and final step to my root canal surgery; receiving my permanent fake toof. But with this crazy ass shit weather in Boston, the dentist's office had so many cancellations so the receptionist called me yesterday at noon and asked if I could come as soon as I could. I had just prepared my lunch at work; tomato soup, two hard boiled eggs, and some roasted chicken, so I sadly stuck it back in the fridge and trudged off in the snowstorm.

I just thought he would pop on the new toof and I would be good to go, but apparently he had different plans. He shot me with Novocaine, which, I'm sure I could numb the Baltic States with all of the Novocaine I have had over the last 3 years (2 root canals, 4 cavities filled, deep scaling, and wisdom teeth removal). These Novocaine shots though brought tears to my eyes, and I kicked my foot out in pain. The shots were deep in the gum, and hurt. I was a little bitch yesterday.

Then...the drilling began.

Which I could feel.

More Novocaine.

More drilling.

I'm panicking that I can't breathe and something is obstructing my airways.

My dentist tells me to breathe. I didn't realize I was holding my breath.

On Monday when I had a massage, the masseuse told me to breathe.

So yeah, holding my breath is a common occurrence. I notice it when I'm working out. WTF is up with that?

More drilling, more drilling. I see bloody stuff coming out of my mouth.

Finally, after 1 hour, I am told they just need to make an impression of my tooth and then I am good to go. Until next time.

So yeah, NEXT time I get my tooth. This time they had to put the post in. Aghhhhhhh. Two more weeks of not eating real people food.

I asked the dentist if he could get me a gold front grill. He laughed. I wasn't joking. I guess I'll just have to get a regular ole toof.

So yeah, 5 times is a charm.

I went back to work with a numbed up mouth. Then I was in pain. Around 3pm I finally got around to eating something....I threw away the tomato soup and chicken (all the tomato soup I have been eating has been giving me canker sores, OUCH) so I had the 2 hard boiled eggs.

I should be losing more weight than I have been due to this damn tooth issue. 7 pounds down for the month of January. Two more months to go.

Anyway.

I take 3 Advil, go home, quickly change, and head to the fitness center for my 45 minute hill workout. I start my 15 minute warm-up and notice I'm definitely getting faster, but still the treadmill makes me feel like I'm working harder. I noticed at 10 minutes my incline for the warm-up was 1.5% instead of 1%. Whoops. After 5 more minutes I start into my hill repeats, and they really didn't hurt too bad.

I was pretty happy though when the workout was over. Now what was going to be for dinner?

Since I still can't really eat totally solid foods, I'm pretty limited. I have been craving lobster mac and cheese for a while, but I wanted to make it myself. And I wanted to try a gluten free recipe. See, I want to start incorporating some GF meals into my diet, to see how/if my digestive track and overall well being would improve. Over the past month or so I have been reading and talking a lot to Lindsay, who not only has a delightfully bright view of the world, but focuses around a GF lifestyle. She posted an amazing looking mac and cheese recipe in October 2010 which I decided to recreate...with lobster.

Shaun and I walked down to Whole Foods and were surprised how easy it was to find the GF ingredients. GF pasta (Lindsay told me that buckwheat, quinoa and wild rice were the best GF whole grains - rather than corn, soy, white rice/potato flour), Daiya cheese (I had no idea what this was - was it a flavor? Was it a brand? Yup, a brand, right there in the WF cheese section!), a can of chickpeas, a jar of pimentos - and finally, some cooked lobster! It took a while finding the cooked lobster because I wanted it to be refrigerated, not frozen, but unfortunately WF only had it frozen. "No worries" said the WF fish monger, "all you have to do is run it under cold water".

Done and done.

We went home and I started the INCREDIBLY easy recipe.

Compliments of Lindsay Cotter:

Ingredients:
Gluten Free Pasta (macaroni or rotini)
Daiya shredded cheese (1/2 cup)
1 can chick peas
1 jar pimentos
curry powder
garlic- 1 to 2 tsp.
sea salt and black pepper- to taste
olive oil or other oil of choice (2 tbsp.)
almond milk (unsweetened)- 1/4 to 1/2 cup

Directions:
First, drain the chicken peas and dry them off. Coat them in 1 tbsp. oil and curry powder. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 400F for about 15 minutes or until gold brown. Set aside. Then cook pasta according to the directions. Strain the water and add it the milk, cheese, oil, and seasoning. Stir on low until cheese starts to melt. Once its starts to melt, add in your chick peas and pimentos until all the cheese is melted and coated onto the pasta and chick peas. Then……EAT and ENJOY in GOOD company. Goes best with family and friends!

20 minutes later it was done. And holy shit in a bowl, it was DELICIOUS.

I wanted Shaun to try it because he is the mac and cheese world champion. He loves him some mac and cheese. But he really only eats the boxed kind with processed cheese, so I didn't think he would like the GF kind (even though my gal pal Meg made a kickass GF mac and cheese for NYE - and he loved it) because it tasted - well a bit different.

Yup, he loved it. And kept eating more and more of it!

Success!!!!!!!!

Thank you to Lindsay, Meredith and Meg for inspiring me to try my first GF recipe. I'm going to have to scroll through your websites again for more recipes!

What is your favorite GF recipe?

Happy Humpday everyone!

***Stayed tuned next week for a GIVEAWAY!!!!***

Annnndddddd don't be jealous; we just booked a trip to Aruba for over my birthday (March 18th). Woohooo!!!

This Little Piggy Got Run Over...

2011-01-31T06:30:00.000-08:00

I unfortunately had to miss a few workouts last week after the second round of root canalling. Blech. Thursday night after work I was ready to get started back up, so I hit the fitness center and grabbed an empty treadmill. As I cranked along at a 10:30 pace (okay what is it with treadmills being harder to run on? Because of the 1% incline? I don't get it.) when a guy started a workout on the adjacent treadmill. He was wearing running pants and a long sleeved wicking-type shirt. Turning the treadmill up to 7.2, he would run for approximately 1 minute, then hold onto the sides of the treadmill and slam his feet on the ground. Then he would keep the treadmill running while he jumped off and went to the water fountain, and then grunted. Repeat. Every 1 minute. I didn't get it. The runner on this guy's other side and I just kept looking over at this dude, trying to run hard, and then getting off to get water. And grunting. And holding onto the sides of the treadmill so he wouldn't fall off.

Finally after 25ish minutes, he got off, and another guy got on. This guy was hocking loogies. He wasn't spitting them out, but making that noise - you know exactly what noise I'm talking about. Sucking in all the snots and phlegm in his nose and throat. I nearly threw up every time he did it. I kept giving him the stink eye.

Thank goodness when my workout was done.

Blech!

I was a bit worried about my long (2:15) run on Saturday morning since I have been having mild success with my mile paces the last two weeks, particularly two weeks ago when I averaged 9:20 min/miles over the Boston Marathon hills. I went to bed early on Friday night and woke up at 7am, which is earlier than I get up for work. I quickly dressed, took a poop, and set out for the Red Line to catch the T to South Station. Unfortunately my colon wasn't happy with me, so I had to do a quick doody stop at Au Bon Pain along the way. The train got to South Station, and I made my way to the commuter rail area. I bought my ticket and set out for Wellesley Square, which is mile 13 of the Boston Marathon course. The ride was quick, but unfortunately my colon was super angry. I didn't know where the bathroom was, so I held it in the entire train ride. When I got to Wellesley Square, I knew I needed to go. ASAP.

I started running, looking for deserted alleys. Finally around mile 1, I had sweet relief behind a parking lot. And I wiped with a snowball. Tee hee!

Okay keep going!

Two weeks ago the pace I kept felt easy, but Saturday I was hurting. Not sure what my issue was but my legs were just barking at me. I was sweating too. I overdressed so I took one of my shirts off and tied it around my waist. Soon I hit Commonwealth Ave and started the hills. That first hill after the Newton Firehouse is a bear. It's the worst hill out of all the hills (in my opinion) and my heart rate always jacks up super high.

I begin seeing lots of charity runners, including someone on my triathlon team, Jorge, who is also the coach for Run to Research. He was manning a support vehicle as his team ran up Heartbreak. I stopped to say hi, and then kept going. I had a few rabbits, who either I passed or they passed me, and I never saw them again. But seeing other runners out there kept me motivated and kept my pace on track.

Making my way through the course I realized I was almost home. I ran down Beacon Street and saw I was going to get the green light to cross. I started to cross the street when a car ran the red light and I tried backing up. Unfortunately I didn't quite make it as the car came barreling through the intersection, running over my right foot's toes and the antenna smacking me in the face.

"OOOOOOFFFFFFFFF!!!!" I grunted. But I kept running. Wow did my toes hurt. Luckily I only had about a mile to go. I wanted to stop and check my foot out, but I just wanted to get home at this point. As soon as I got in the door, I pulled off my sneaker and saw the toe of my right sock was all dirty brown. At least it wasn't bright red. Thankfully my toes were in tact, although my big toenail was cracked and broken off at the top and definitely bruised and sore to the touch. I cut the toenail down and tried to keep my foot up most of the day.

The fantastic (and surprisingly) news is that I had a very successful run. I busted out 14.77 miles in 2:15 with an average pace of 9:08 and average heart rate of 153. I dropped 12 seconds/mile from two weeks ago and 21 seconds/mile from last week's run. The funny thing is that my fastest half-marathon was at a 9:10 pace....soooo yeah let's hope I can keep this up. I would love to run a 4 hour marathon, which I never really even considered!!!

I'm pretty excited to see that next Saturday I don't have a longer run...the time is shorter, but the workout is more intense, so that will be...ummm fun? Different for sure.

In other news, I'm getting a new roommate! :) So the last week or so has been filled with organizing, sorting, packing, moving and getting the apartment in order. YAY!

And finally, Boston is going to get another 15-20 inches of snow tomorrow/Wednesday. I can only laugh now. Absolutely ridiculous.

Have a great week everyone!

"Kimber, Shut Up!" and Other Tidbits O'Fun

2011-01-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went back for more root canal surgery. I wasn't sure what exactly was done last week, but for some reason I thought this week I only needed to get a crown put on. Boy was I wrong.

I was nervous coming into the appointment and as I waited in the chair, I noticed my hands were shaking. And I was sweating. Like a lot. I asked the hygienist if I could listen to Pandora on my phone during the appointment, and she said sure.

All of a sudden, someone from the next room said, "Kimber (or Kim or Kimberly - not sure which)... SHUT UP!".

I was baffled. Who in the heck was telling me to shut up? I had a root canal in 2008 at the same office, but why would he be telling me to shut up?

It was time for the oral surgeon to do her work. 9,000 shots of novicaine later, I had the blue rubber sheet over my mouth and she was ready to do her work. My hands were clammy and I was trying hard not to panic. The rubber sheet over my mouth makes me want to pass out. I can't breathe. After some work was done, I felt like I had something lodged in my throat and I was choking. I gasped for air, and the oral surgeon lifted the rubber sheet off my mouth to check if my airway was obstructed. Nothing. She continued on, and I felt pain. More novicaine. I'm swallowing and sweating and the music isn't helping.

Minutes seem like hours. Seconds seem like days.

They make you wear these sunglasses. I keep my eyes closed to avoid seeing the hideously scary tools that are entering my mouth. Drill after drill. Suction after suction.

After what seems like hours, the oral surgeon was finally done. Apparently the back molar is a tough tooth to work on, and the nerves was being little bitches. She said I would be sore for a week. Prescribed me Motrin 800 mg and another round of Oxycodones.

The hygienist begins to take off that bib around my neck that fell over my sweater. It was covered in sweat. Embarrassing. My hands left sweat marks on it as well.

I got out of the chair only feeling half my mouth. My left side of my mouth, my tongue and my lips were completely numb. They would only regain full feeling 5 hours later, at 9pm.

As I start to walk away, I hear the person from the next room.

It was my coworker, also getting a root canal. Explains the "Kimber, shut up!" comment. He's that kind of coworker. We walk out together, droopy faces and all, and go our separate ways.

Next week we put an end to all of this by going to the dentist for my permanent crown.

Last night I took an Oxycodone, but couldn't fall asleep. I was tossing and turning. Got up around 12:30am and drank a sleepy-time tea. Didn't work. Finally I tossed back a little Nyquil and finally fell asleep.

I'm tired and groggy today. And my jaw hurts. Protein shake for breakfast, along with some Motrin 800 mg, and soup for lunch.

And of course I had to miss my workout yesterday. So frustrating. I hate missing workouts ya know?

Blech. It's almost all over.

In other news, I had an okay run on Saturday morning. I joined up with TNT for their long run. Because of the icy roads, we ran back towards the Boston Marathon start. We started in Wellesley and ran up Natick 6 miles and turned back around. When I started I was freezing and had to stop in a Whole Foods to warm up. My thumbs were numb. I ran a quick first mile and then settled into a comfortable pace. But it just didn't feel easy. And my heart rate monitor was acting silly. Kept dropping very low and then very high. I wasn't trusting it, so I barely looked at it. The entire run I felt like I was working really hard and my pace times kept dropping. I was ready to call it quits more than once. I ran 12.7 miles in the 2 hours, so roughly a 9:28 minute pace, with an average heart of 145 which is ridiculously low, so I know my HR monitor was way off. Oh well. In retrospect my pace wasn't too far off from the previous week so I'm not going to complain. It just felt... well, harder. It hurt.

It hurt so badly that when I got home and took a shower, I didn't get off the couch for the rest of the day. I had restless and tired legs. I was lying on the couch and my legs just wouldn't keep still, but they were tired, so tired. Anyone have this before?

Anyway, I put together my little 2011 race schedule. Some of the races are up for debate, but I am planning on doing 2 HIMs in total, along with a few olys and a sprint. Besides this month (January), I will do one race a month until...well, whenever I call it quits... so without further adieu...

Feb 12: Bradford Valentine's Day 5 Miler (Shaun and I are entering the couples competition - one person runs the 5 miler, the other runs a 6k. Lowest combined time wins. Our team name is: "Do These Running Tights Make Us Look Fat?")

March 6: Salem 20 Miler

April 18: Boston Marathon

May 8: NE Season Opener – sprint triathlon

June 18: Patriot Half-Ironman

July 17: Fairlee Oly

August 28 : Cranberry Oly

September 11: Firmman Half-Ironman (or another one this month)

Hope to see some of you out there for these races... I'm still up in the air about Firmman... the course sucks (debris on the roads, lots of flats), but it's a fast ocean swim. This year I want to stay away from a lot of the big races... Mooseman, Timberman, Pumpkinman... I like the smaller races, and I'm excited to do my first race in VT this season!

I also wouldn't mind traveling somewhere fun for a race and a vacation... any suggestions?

Hope everyone has a fantastic hump day... and guess what? Another Nor'Easter is coming to Boston tonight/tomorrow. So far this season, Boston has received 50.4 inches of snow, a nearly 270% increase over normal snowfalls of 18.8 inches at the same time previous years.

Awesome.

Vacation time anyone?

The Gods Must Be Crazy

2011-01-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

Ever see that movie? It's a pretty good one.

I digress.

After Tuesday's emergency root canal surgery I was pretty down in the dumps. And my jaw hurt. So I would take some Oxycodone and go to bed. Rinse repeat.

Wednesday night I decided to try eating some real food, because I had been dining mostly on lukewarm soup and melted ice cream - so much for my Biggest Loser contest. Anyway, Shaun picked me up some spicy tuna rolls. Soft and easy to eat right? I was 3 rolls in, chewing away on my good tooth side, when I felt the temporary fake tooth shift...and then break off.

Oh for crying out loud.

I spit the spicy tuna roll and a piece of my tooth out.

Now the remaining piece of tooth was super jagged and jutted out sharply against my tongue. It made it very difficult to talk. And it was sharp!!!! I was pissed. Furious really. If you're gonna put in a temporary fake tooth, at least make it stay the week until I get the real one put in. I stopped eating, pouted, and went to bed.

In the morning I was brushing the good tooth side when I felt another piece of the fake tooth break lose. SERIOUSLY?!!! WTF!!!!!! Well at least this time the piece that fell off evened out the jaggedness so it didn't hurt my mouth anymore.

Yup, those are the pieces of my teeth along with my awesome coffee mug.

Still pissed off, I left the apartment and immediately called the oral surgeon. I went to my appointment at 10am and they told me that I should have called my dentist to have the tooth fixed, that they didn't have the materials to replace it. Ummm, you guys put it in! You should fix it. Regardless, the filling covering the root canal work was still in place and it could hold until next Tuesday. I called my dentist who confirmed what the oral surgeon said. A total waste of my time. Ugh!

I was finally able to get my ass off the Oxys enough to start working out again, so I hit up a treadmill for a difficult hill workout. Yup, it was difficult, but it went fast as I read the subtitles for "Princess Diaries".

To be honest, I have been craving oysters for a few weeks now and the mussel incident wasn't going to poop on my oyster parade, so Shaun and I went out to Moo for some drinks and food. I had 1/2 dozen of the West Coast Oysters and tuna tartare while Shaun had the burger. I was satisfied with my food, but hands down the winner of the night was the warm, salty and buttery rolls served in a cast iron skillet. SO GOOD! Go to Moo NOW!

I forgot after last year's wisdom teeth surgery that Oxys make me constipated. Yup, and here I thought it was just because I hadn't been eating enough fiber. Yeah right, I should know better; I have colitis for crying out loud. Walking home from Moo last night was rough. And then going to the bathroom was even rougher. Note to self - drink Metamucil or something when taking Oxys.

In other news... I have some new additions to my apartment! The Nature Sketch Rug from West Elm and the Sloane Espresso Leaning Wine Bar with 2 Bookcases! I can't wait to have a little party to showcase off the new pieces!

In typical fashion, it's snowing here again in Boston, but I'm heading out for a 2 hour run tomorrow. Hitting up the Boston Marathon course again... keeping fingers crossed that my run is as successful as last week's. Then Sunday we are meeting up with my Uncle John and his husband Steve (who we hung out with last weekend for drinks and dinner) and my Uncle Bruce for some cocktails. Gotta love putting together a chef, a hair stylist, a teacher, a world traveler and me for some cocktails. Looking forward to that!

Have a great weekend everyone!

True Grit

2011-01-19T07:59:00.000-08:00

Wow. One day you’re running 11.5 miles, the next you’re hopped up on Oxycodones drooling out of the left side of your mouth.

All in a matter of 3 days.

The weekend started off innocently enough. Shaun and I actually went to the pool. Which was extremely crowded. Which was extremely frustrating. But we got our swim workout in, and had an early night.

Saturday morning Shaun drove me to the Newton Firehouse at Mile 17 of the Boston Marathon course. Which meant hills. Lots and lots of hills. Coincidentally, The Leukemia and Lymphoma’s Team in Training was out there at the same time. Well it wasn’t really coincidence since I have known since 2006 when I was on the team that they have organized runs Saturday morning and I have joined them as an alumni before. Nevertheless, we were out there the same time, on the same part of the course. There were hundreds of runners on the same course. I saw some of my buddies. The motivation out there was high. I was cruising up the hills.

And I mean…CRUISING.

I have had some sub-par runs since starting my training a few weeks ago. The speed just hasn’t been there. For the most part I have been okay with it, because speed doesn’t just pop up right away after taking a break. But I’m not going to lie, it has been a little depressing.

I had no expectations for this run. Coach Jen told me to run 1:45 as I felt. And I did exactly that. Though as I ran, my mile paces were a lot faster than I have seen in a while. And I was afraid I would blow up. But I didn’t. I didn’t at all.

I stopped for a poop break by Boston College and forged on. I didn’t run Boylston at all to avoid traffic, and I wound up running loops near Shaun’s to finish up the 1:45.

9:36
9:37
9:15
9:34
9:27
9:17
9:12
9:08
9:13
9:17
8:51
Total: 1:45 – 11.26 miles, 9:19 average pace, 159 average heart rate

I could not believe that in about the same total time last week, I only ran 10.25 miles, with almost the same average heart rate. In disbelief, I emailed Coach Jen:

“how did this happen? i mean, is there an answer for the difference? what i ate the day before? the fact that i ran in the morning this time, and at night last time? i hate to be so excited if this is a 1 time thing and i don't see the same mile paces next time ya know?”

I don’t want to get my hopes up that every run going forward will see the same results. But Saturday’s run gives me enough faith that I can kick Boston's ass.

Like the hills of the Boston Marathon course, every up has its down, and the down happened to me on Monday. Shaun and I took a day trip up to Newburyport and had lunch at our favorite place, Black Cow. I ordered the mussels and had put a 2nd mussel in my mouth when I felt a sharp pain in my molar, and the cracking noise was loud enough for Shaun to hear. The pain was overwhelming and I ran to the bathroom and saw that my lower back molar had completely cracked in half, due to biting on a piece of grit in the mussel.

I immediately left the restaurant in an extreme amount of pain and called my dentist in tears. Unfortunately it was a holiday, so my dentist was paged and we set up an appointment for first thing the following morning. It turned out that the grit that I had bit on broke my molar and exposed my nerve. I was sent to an oral surgeon where the doctor removed my tooth and performed an emergency root canal.

The last two days were spent until the daze of Oxycodone, lots of tv and a lot of naps. Next week I have another hour appointment to get the screw drilled into my gum for my fake tooth to be anchored on. I’m not looking forward to spending another day in the dentist’s chair and having Novocain shot in my mouth.

Another frustrating thing was having to miss workouts the last two days…just when I was getting back into the swing of things.

But alas, as Young MC once said, “Every dark tunnel has a light of hope. [So don’t hang yourself with a celibate rope]”.

Moral of the story, be careful of putting mussels in your mouth. You might get more than you paid for.

Gotta Love New England

2011-01-12T05:52:00.000-08:00

Another nor'easter in Boston. Another day I have to trek my ass to work in a storm. Stock market doesn't give a shit about the snow. I can't complain about the snow. It's to be expected in New England in the winter (or fall or spring) time!

I don't mind running in the snow. I would rather run in the snow than on a treadmill. But the 1x a week treadmill workouts that Coach Jen gives to me, I actually don't mind! I'm hitting it up tonight in fact. Hot date, you know.

What's been happening. Well, the other day I ran 10.5 miles. In icy conditions, which wasn't so smart since I didn't have my yak tracks, but I did wear a headlamp for the first time, which definitely helped. I'm getting a TIT BIT faster. I'm still running 10 minute miles, but more of exactly 10 minute miles rather than 10:20s. So there's that.

I went to an 80s party over the weekend. I hate karaoke but after a bottle of wine, I LOVE it! I rapped "Bust a Move". It was a party hit.

I am currently in 2nd place in my work's Biggest Loser contest. I dropped a little over 5 pounds in one week which is a pretty big drop, but I always feel like the first week is where you see the biggest drop - with the water weight, clean eating, and lots of working out. I just don't understand how I, out of 14 people, can be in 2nd place. I mean, I get it - I eat right, I exercise. But this is my lifestyle. It's honestly not that hard to eat well MOST of the time but still enjoy things you love in moderation (chocolate, ice cream, pizza). People stop by my desk and discuss their eating and exercise habits. I give them suggestions and provide constant positivity that they can make great changes. But then they eat burritos, chips, donuts. Sorry folks, I can't help people who don't have willpower.

I digress because I'm getting upset about it.

Um what else... ummmmmmm. Hmmmm.

Sadly I think that might be it.

Be safe in this weather New Englanders! And Happy Humpday!

Plans and Goals are "For Me to Poop On"

2011-01-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

Says this guy - I would NEVER say something so crass.

Colleen and I were catching up today on email. My last sentence in my last email to her was as follows:

for some reason I just cant get the fire under my butt and get some races on the calendar and figure out my goals for this year. What is my problem?!

Um yeah here is my currently planned 2011 race calendar:

Black Cat 20 Miler - March 6

Boston Marathon - April 18

Patriot Half-Ironman - June 18 (I deferred last year's entry to this year, so this one is a no-brainer)

Then...

Umm...

Yeah. It's super exciting right?

Where am I going to race? What am I going to do? What do I want to do? AGHHH!!!!!

Every year Coach Jen has us fill out a goal sheet.

Last year 2 of my goals were pretty easy to figure out:

1. Sub-2 on a half-marathon (CHECK! On a a straight alone half-mary, unfortunately

didn't hit this in a HIM)

2. Sub-3 hour bike in HIM (CHECK!)

The last goal was just one I made up because I didn't know what else to write down:

3. Sub 5:30 in a HIM

Yeah I didn't foresee it happening, but it's fun to dream big right? Well, I was 8 minutes shy of this goal in my last HIM in 2010.

So this year...I'm not sure. I haven't ran a stand-alone marathon since Boston in 2006 when I was 180 pounds running for Leukemia and Lymphoma. I would say "I ran 12 miles today, I can eat 1/2 a large pizza, a 12 inch sub, and a few chocolate dipped M&M cookies immediately after."

Yeah that didn't work out so well now did it?

So part of one of my goals I suppose is beating my 2006 time of 4:40... I mean, for goodness sake, I ran the IMCoz marathon in 4:50).

As for more specific goals? Maybe I should lock myself in a closet with a bottle of wine and think hard about what I want to accomplish in 2011. I mean, should I try the sub 5:30 HIM again? Should I try a sub-2 in a half-marathon in a HIM? Those are just plain boring, don't you think?!

On second thought, some of the things I accomplished in 2010 weren't written on any goal sheet....

I was promoted, I graduated with my MBA, I fell in love with a MTV superstar, I made some incredible new friends, I cherished the time with the friends I already had, I visited beautiful Sonoma, had some great races, had some okay races, had some terrible races. I learned. I grew (yes I gained weight too!).

My current every day goal is to not get caught up with my training paces. I am trying to learn that running 10+ minute miles in January is okay. It sucks, but it's okay.

While I'm excited about seeing what 2011 will bring, I am going to relish in every step along the way.

Happy New Year!

Nothing Says "Merry Christmas" like having Explosive Diarrhea

2010-12-28T10:32:00.001-08:00

Let me preface this by saying, surprisingly, I wasn't the victim in this case!

Christmas in the Dirty Jerz was exactly what I expected; copious amounts of everything - wine, food, and laughter.

There was a meeting of parents and boyfriend, and went extremely well - but that was no surprise!

The parental units.

I get excited about snowmen.

By the way, my sweatshirt says "This is my beer drinking shirt."

I am playing Wonder Women here with my new pair of swim goggles and bracelets.
Yes we had been drinking for the previous 4 hours.

It was the Christmas of drink and food giving.

Shaun got beer AND snacks.

We spent Christmas day at my brother and sister-in-law Kristina's, and I finally saw my goddaughter who I had not seen in a year. She's almost 2 and boy did she grow up! Kaylee was definitely a little weary when she first saw me. She wanted nothing to do with me! My sister-in-law would ask her to share her toy with me and she would say, "I don't wanna!" or "NO!". Well okay then.

Kaylee started the day with having a tummy ache and diarrhea, but still was playing like a normal kid. She went down for a nap and when she awoke, we could hear her singing and talking to herself through the baby monitor. She would alternate between her "A, B, Cs", "Grandma, Grandpa" and some other incoherent mumblings. After a while Kristina went up to bring her downstairs. Poor thing blasted through her diaper and it was all over her and the crib. After a quick bath and a change of clothes, she was good to go. She didn't feel well, but her energy was ridiculous and played nonstop the rest of the day.

Kaylee began to warm up a little to me by presenting me with bits and pieces of the wrapping from her gifts. Then she started sharing her blanket and stuffed animals with me. By the end of the night, we were like best friends. Kristina brought her upstairs for night night but after a few minutes called me upstairs; Kaylee was calling out for her "Aunt Kim". I rubbed her back and said goodnight. It was really special. Hopefully I get a chance to see her before another year passes!

Kaylee LOVES singing Jingle Bells.

For someone who is not yet 2, she is a smarty pants. She knows shapes, colors, animals, etc.

She conquered one of the puzzles my parents gave to her.

My brother put a light-up Mets ornament in his mouth.

He's classy like that.

That's my dad in the background with a funny Santa tshirt on. He owns a holiday tshirt for every day in the month of December. He also owns about 20 or so Christmas hats.

After the 3-day weekend home, Shaun and I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to get started on our drive back to Boston. There were warnings up and down the East coast about the Blizzard of 2010. We got back to Boston before the storm hit and awaited for the snow to come.

Unfortunately like the post office, neither snow, sleet or rain prevents me from staying home from work. I pulled on sweats and boots and walked to work yesterday. Thankfully the city of Boston plowed the streets all night and day so I had a very easy time getting into work. The day sped by (I wish I could wear sweats to work every day) and we stopped for a few Guinnesses at a local pub on the way home.

In other news, I am eagerly looking forward to January 3rd which is the first day of The Biggest Loser contest at work. I have been eating and drinking my weigh up the scales and I really am excited to start eating clean and dropping that off-season weight. This time around I enlisted the help of a professional. Not only does she have the same name as me which means she is super cool, but she is an amazing triathlete, a registered dietitian and someone who I trust will help me get down to my fighting weight for the Boston Marathon. Thanks Kim for taking me on!

Hope you all had a happy holiday and are preparing yourselves for Amateur Night...aka New Years Eve. Instead of spending over $100 to go to a crowded bar, fight to get a drink and be lucky to get 1 free glass of champagne - we are choosing to spend it with some close friends.

(This is Madame Veuve Clicquot. She doesn't know we are best friends. I love her. And her delicious champagne. See you at the party La Grand Dame!)

Bringing in 2011 will involve the best things in life...friends, food, cocktails, game night and pjs. Couldn't ask for anything more.

Put a Weiner in Your Mouth this Holiday Season!

2010-12-23T07:00:00.001-08:00

Shortly after my date night last week, I got sick.

Poopsicle.

I slept maybe 15 minutes on Friday night, but woke up *almost* as fresh as a daisy because I was hosting my 5th Annual Floozies Party! I wasn't going to let being sick bring me down.

Shaun and I spent about $70 on various medications; Alka Seltzer Plus Cold, Emergen C, plus what seemed like over a dozen Vicks products - nasal spray, vapor rub, and my favorite thing of all time - Vicks Advanced Soothing Vapors Mini Waterless Vaporizer with Nightlight. Sure it's found in the kids section, but the thing is absolutely amazing.

The party was an absolute shitshow, with my favorite part of the evening being Meg throwing an entire glass of wine on my living room wall after someone said "pubic hair". Hilarity at its finest. The boys met us at the bar for some cover band dancing and it was an early night for me since my cold was taking over my body.

Waking up Sunday I wasn't as hungover as I was sick. Chills, coughing, body aches, sore throat. Thankfully Shaun was an amazing boyfriend; he prepared me chicken soup, bought me super soft tissues, and tucked me in a big warm blanket and gave me the remote control. Monday I didn't go to work and the day was spent in the exact same position as Sunday. Thankfully most of my symptoms were going away, and Tuesday I finally got my butt to work, but not without a huge box of tissues and some meds. Today I am much better. I've been getting lots of sleep and staying out of the cold, snowy, nasty New England weather.

There's no time to be sick - because IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!! Besides the eating fest on Thanksgiving, Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year because I get to spend it with my parents, brother and sister in law, and goddaughter, who I usually see only 1 time a year. We are leaving Boston tonight and driving down to the Dirty Jerz, and am really looking forward to spending some quality time with my loved ones.

I just emailed Shaun, "DON'T FORGET THE WEINERS!" for when he picks me up tonight from work. In typical fashion, I made weiners for Christmas (pigs in a blanket) which are my signature appetizer for all parties I host or attend. Best party app of all time.

Happy Holidays to all of you and your families! And don't forget, nothing says Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah like a little weiner in your mouth!

Reunited and it feels so goooooood

2010-12-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a date.

Since we planned the date, I was nervous. All day yesterday my brain was fighting with my body. My stomach (well my butt) said "PFFFFTTTTT" in nervousness but my brain said "suck it up pussbag".

As you could tell, I was REALLY looking forward to this date.

I slowly trudged home. What would I wear? I wondered what would he would think of me since it's been over a year since we last saw each other.

Would my heart race? How long would we be together? Do we shake hands? Hug it out? Dry-hump?

I donned my very best outfit (black is slimming you know), and left the building, turned the corner, and entered the adjacent building, and opened the door to meet my fate.

There he was. In all his glory. He stood there proudly. But he wasn't alone. He had 4 friends with him. I shyly smiled and slowly approached him.

"Hello old friend."

The first 15 minutes there was an uncomfortable silence. It was awkward to say the least.

But then something clicked and everything felt right between us. For the next hour we toyed with each other, almost flirting if you will (don't worry Shaun, I didn't cheat). When the conversation got a little more serious, I gave him a run for his money. And I remained calm even when he got a little tough with me.

When it was time to finally say goodbye, I could actually tell him "I look forward to seeing you again...under the same circumstances". He blinked at me, which I took as a silent agreement.

Oh treadmill. I'll see you again.

"Exercise? Blech!"

2010-12-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

After getting mildly scolded by Coach Jen (it's my own fault for not working out for 3 months), I decided I was going to fully embrace my Boston Marathon training program. Well *FULLY* embrace is being a bit aggressive... I decided I would ahem, stop ignoring logging onto Training Peaks, but instead tap into it on a daily basis and GASP - adhere to the workouts!

With all the holiday parties and traveling happening, I know that completing some of these workouts would be difficult, but I would do my best. And I have! I really have! (Insert applause here.)

My work holiday party was Friday night and I was much more responsible than last year... only two glasses of wine and I ate! It was a relatively early night as Shaun and I had a 9:40am train to NYC! Needless to say we had a fantastic weekend of catching up (i.e., drinking) with my best friend from college, eating delicious food (I am not going to go into foodie details, but Quality Meats is hands down the best steakhouse I have ever visited), shopping, visiting Rockefeller Center, and just having quality time together.

(Seared Three Filets? Don't mind if I do.)

One of my favorite things over the weekend was Saturday's run. Jen prescribed a 90 minute run, which would be hands-down the longest run I have done since... ummm Firmman in September. My longest run so far in this off-season was about 6 miles. So yeah. Shaun is coming off IMAZ but decided he wanted to go for the run with me (thank goodness, because I damn well would have lost my mind). Our initial game plan was to run the 1 mile to Central Park, run around it (a little over 6 miles) and run back to our hotel. We started off running on the sidewalk, but quickly moved to the street to avoid walkers. After a mile or two we came across a bike lane. A very wide, very empty bike lane. In a city as busy as NYC, this bike lane was a true blessing.

We followed the bike lane for our entire run. Sure we wound up in a totallyd ifferent direction than Central Park, but we wound up running through Greenwich Village.... and here is what was friggin crazy... the 12 Bars of Christmas Pubcrawl. There must have been over 1,000 Santas all over the village.

It was the craziest shit I have ever seen. Shaun and I ran along - gathering high fives from drunk Santas... and one Santa yelled "EXERCISE? BLECH!" Trust me pal, I feel the same way. The whole scene was quite amusing until we got taunted a bit so we ran our tits off to get out of the neighborhood.

After 1:20, we ran 8.25 miles which was pretty darn good for our first "big" run back. My heart rate maintained Z1 and Z2 the whole way except for the last "uphill" back to our apartment. We both felt as fresh as a daisy, except for my nips were super cold and it took all night for them to warm up!

Here are some pictures to sum up the long weekend!

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend!

Hahaha Wow My Vag Hurts!

2010-12-09T07:16:00.001-08:00

That was my one and only comment I posted into yesterday's Training Peaks workout.

Coach Jen emailed me laughing that I crack her shit up.

Sure it was only a 60 minute trainer ride. Don't laugh.

But it MIGHT have been the first trainer ride I have done in a month. That's right. I checked my Garmin and my previous trainer ride was exactly one month prior, November 8th.

Insert a tiny groan for being so incredibly lazy during this off-season.

My wooha certainly felt the lack of time in the saddle, as within the first 5 minutes it was screaming for mercy.

I'm sorry senorita. I'm truly sorry for what I am doing to you.

But then I smiled.

God acts in mysterious ways...I thanked him for the next 55 minutes of the workout for closing out IMAZ before I was able to sign up :) He saved my wooha and I am forever grateful.

Where Has The Time Gone?

2010-12-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

It's December 7th.

Holy shit, where has the time gone?

Well I spent a week in AZ for the Ironman and Thanksgiving. I was sad it was unseasonably cold in Arizona - I barely got out of sweats the entire week. But when I went for a run on Turkey Day in shorts and a tee, I couldn't believe people were wearing Uggs, puffy jackets and hats! Needless to say, I had a blast with Shaun's family; eating, drinking and playing board games. Coming back to Boston and real life was definitely a bummer.

BUT, the start of December means HOLIDAY TIME!

We both got Christmas trees for our apartments (REAL of course!), and this was the first Christmas tree Shaun has ever had in Boston! It has taken us 3+ tries to decorate his; as he had to buy lights (didn't have enough the first time around) and ornaments, and we still need a star.

But my tree went up without a hitch! I totally love my 1981 Campbell Soup ornaments... I was only 2 years old back in '81, but managed to snag them from my parents! I also have quite a few homemade ornaments compliments of Grandma K. Definitely makes my tree very unique!

Another fun-filled event was this past Saturday... needless to say, I took a good 121 pictures with my camera, but you don't get to see 118 of them :) Some people aren't wearing clothes. That's for only our eyes to see!

Anyway, here are the ladies that I love to pieces.

This Friday is my work holiday party and then Saturday we are heading to NYC for the weekend. Hope everyone is enjoying the start of the holiday season!

Forgive Me Father, For I Have Had Impure Thoughts

2010-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

....

thoughts of an Ironman.

This morning I was thinking 2011 would be my year of "Never EVER Say Never".

Boston Marathon
Ironman

However those thoughts were quickly erased from my mind as the hours passed....

This morning, Ironman Foundation slots were available for IMAZ 2011, but this afternoon, they were all sold out.

Crisis diverted.

But still, 2011 is my year of "Never say Never (at least when it comes to Boston)".

Now let's get back to your regularly scheduled program.