A New Year, a New Outlook on Racing

It's hard to believe it's already 2014! I had a somewhat lackluster 2013 in terms of racing, but I was happy to receive 2nd in the Athena category for the tri-family race series. I was even more excited that my daughter took 3rd in her age group for the series!!

This year I am focusing on quality rather than quantity of races. I would like to focus on getting faster and fitter. Most of all, I want to have fun! Rather than racing in the longest distant race--I'd rather be racing somewhere fun, with fun people, and enjoying it. I did a bunch of sprint tris in 2013 and it felt good to get out there and race, but be finished with plenty of time to enjoy my day.  I've also had my fill of Tempe Town Lake!! I don't have any desire to swim in it or run around it any time in the neat future. 

I'd also like to focus on training--both on my own and with my daughters. I only have a few races on the calendar so far for 2014, so we'll see what comes up and sounds like fun. :) What are your race goals for the new year?

Note To Annette

Dear Annette -

I am writing you a love note.  Why?  Because I want you to know how PROUD I am of you for: (1) signing up for your first OLY; (2)  attempting your first 10k as part of an OLY; (3)  fighting through your cramp; (4)  FINISHING your first OLY and 10k; (5) sticking to your weight loss plan; and (6) maintaining a positive attitude.  YOU ARE AWESOME!  Keep up the good work. 

                                                              The Biggest IronMom 

Kate's 2012 Race Schedule

I think I have a plan.  I have my races labeled A, B and C.  A is the priority of course.  Bs are the races that I want to focus on in preparation for IMAZ.  Cs are the "maybe" races that I will try to do if I can make the logistics work and/or if there is a buddy doing it. 


Race Schedule:


B - March 3 - Phoenix Half Marathon [Kim]
C - March 24 - Tour de Cure
B - March 31 - Oceanside 70.3
C - April 14 - Tour of Mesa
C - April 28 - Tour of Tucson Mountains
C - May 5 - Shiprock Half Marathon
B - June 3 - San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon  [Tana]
C - July 21 - Taylor House Ride (65 or 95)
B - Sept 23 - Nathans Oly  [Kim]
C - Oct X? - Tour of Scottsdale
B - Oct 21 - Soma 70.3 [Kim]
A - Nov 18 - Ironman 2012

A New Year, A New Race

Danie and Kim--10k finishers!

Happy 2012!!!  It's finally the year of the Ironman.  :)  I started the year off with a race!  I have been in Minnesota for the holidays and the weather has been awesome.  It's been in the 30's or 40's most days and there hasn't been snow or ice on the ground.  So, about 5 days ago I thought it'd be a good idea to run the Polar Dash 1/2 Marathon on New Year's Day (and to convince my cold-weather hating friend to run it with me).  The weather forecast was clear and upper 30's--perfect running weather for this Ironmom.  Well, my signing up must have been Mother Nature's signal to remind me why I like the weather in Arizona...

Last night, it rained--then it froze and snowed.  This morning the winds were shaking the house.  I headed out on the slick roads and made it safely (albeit slowly) to the Twin Cities.  Danie and I made our way to the race start.  It was cold and windy.   The night before the race director emailed everyone and said that any 1/2 marathoners who wanted to run the 10k could do so without penalty.  The 1/2 marathon course was described as 2 loops following the 10k course.  The course was really an out and back--twice for the 1/2.  It was also a hilly course. 

Danie and I were doing well and felt good out on the first loop.  However, when we turned around,  we found ourselves running into the wind.  The combination of hills, repetition, and wind (and the easy out given by the race director to run the 10k instead) helped us decide to end the race with the 10k.  The last stretch of about 1/2 mile was in direct and unrelenting wind.  So, instead of finishing a half marathon dead tired and in pain--we ended a 10k feeling good!

After the race, I hit up one of my favorite St. Paul eateries--the Highland Grill.  I had a delicious turkey burger and awesome sweet potato fries.  I also had my first soda of 2012--a cherry coke, but after a year of not drinking pop, I could only finish 1/2 of it (a good thing!). 

Happy 2012 to all of you!

Las Vegas Half Marathon Recap

Kim and Stacey at the start

This is a long time coming, but I am finally recapping the Zappos.com Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon that took place on Sunday, Dec. 4. 

The race was huge!!! Approximately 44,000 runners were there and about 38,000 of those were half marathoners.  I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be running a PR with a course that full.  The race took off in front of Mandalay Bay and continued down the strip, veering left at the Stratosphere and then looping by Fremont Street and back onto the strip to finish behind Mandalay Bay.  The best part of the course was that the lights on the Strip provided a great distraction from running.  Having said that, there were also some pretty significant drawbacks.  One, it was too crowded.  To give all runners the experience of running the strip at night, the marathoners started about an hour before the halfs and joined the halfs for their second half of the marathon.  Unfortunately, this meant that all 44,000 runners were on the course at the same time.  This meant that the course was crowded for the entire race.  I ran about .2 miles more than a 1/2, which I think can be attributed to running around people. 

Two, there weren't enough port a potties.  The starting line was crazy, so it was nearly impossible to get to the port a potties at the start.  I passed up the first set up port a potties assuming there'd be more soon.   I was wrong.  Nearly 3 miles later, there was a single port a potty, which I waited over 7 minutes to use.  That's a lot of down time for a race.

Three, the finish area was a mess.  I crossed the finish line in a pack of about 50 other runners.  It kind of ruined the fun of crossing the finish line.  Then, it took us nearly an hour to make it back to the car.  The whole area around the Strip was chaos--I felt bad for anyone who was vacationing in Vegas that didn't know about the race.

Fourth, I am not sure this was a negative, but it was odd--the race was at night and it was cold (really cold for Vegas standards and the finishers at the end were treated to some rain).  It was difficult to plan on what to eat all day and when due to the start time. 

Despite all of that, I finished in 2:28--not a PR, but if you subtract 7 minutes for the port a potties and a couple of minutes for the extra distance, it would have been!  That's surprising to me.  Overall, I am not sure I would run the race again, but I did have a great time in Vegas and was excited to see my friend Stacey and start the race with her!

After the race, we hopped in the car and took off for Phoenix--arriving home around 3:00 in the morning.  Then, I woke up the next morning and hopped on a plane to South Africa!  I had the good fortune of getting to present at a conference there and then  took a little side trip to Kruger Park.  While, I didn't get a lot of running in (I ended up being sick, the temps were high when I felt better, and I was a little afraid of crossing paths with a highly venomous snake running around Kruger), it was a great trip and I am getting back in the swing of training as of today!

Women's Half Marathon-Scottsdale to Tempe 2011

Rock star finishers!

This update is a little late--the race was almost a week ago, but the race was great and I was happy overall.  I was super excited to have my friend, Danie, down in AZ visiting to run this race with me!!  She is a fantastic runner (even though she's only just picked it up again this year after about 15 years off!).  I knew she would motivate me to keep moving.  And, we definitely kept moving.

It was a cool morning (alright--it was cold--even for Minnesotans).  Once the sun came up, it felt a bit better.  It was perfect weather for running in my opinion.  We started towards the back of the pack in corral 5.  Unfortunately, there must have been a lot of walkers assigned to corral 5 as we had a hard time getting around them for the first 2 miles.  The first 1/2 mile was particularly frustrating--the walkers were everywhere.  We even saw one (or two) carrying their purses!!!  Once we got around the walkers, we settled into a comfortable pace.  Then, we had to stop for a bathroom break.

 

The break took a bit longer than we would have liked (we estimate somewhere around 4-5 minutes were spent waiting for the port-a-potties).  It also put us back in the pack with some of the slower paced runners, which were challenging to get through again.  After that, we were really on our way.  We cruised through the halfway point feeling good.  I typically start to hate the run somewhere around mile 9, but I was feeling good all the way through about mile 11.  At that point, things started tightening up and water was sloshing in my stomach, but we soldiered on and finished strong.  We finished just under 2:22--that's seven full minutes faster than I ran it last year.  And, I felt particularly good because I think we could have easily taken off at least 10 minutes (if we'd been able to start at a faster pace and if we'd have been able to skip the long bathroom break). 

All in all, it was a great race and I was so glad that I had Danie there for support and company.  It made the time pass much faster.  :)  It was like the old PIHS CC days (albeit slower and longer distance).  

Next up, the Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon in Las Vegas in December--followed closely by the Rock 'n' Roll Full Marathon in Phoenix in January!!

Ironman Wisconsin 2012 - My friend Debb's blog

So I posted earlier about my friend Debb and her battle with Ironman Wisconsin.  She has signed up again and the 3rd time WILL be a charm.  She started a blog to document her journey.  Here is the link if you want to follow her training for IMOO and weight loss.  I think this will be a great year for all of our training!  Go Debb Go!!

Tri and Tri Again  http://astudyinpersistence.blogspot.com/

look what came in the mail today!

Apparently I placed third in my age division for the Red Rock triathlon!

I checked my results and saw I was in fourth, and didn't bother waiting around after that. Luckily the top finisher in our age division was in the Overall top three and so she was pulled for the age division category, so I got bumped up to third.

How nice of them to mail me my award!

I'm moving again!

Yep.  I'm moving again.  On vacation I went on an hour long ride and a four mile run.  Feeling good!  I have 20 days until an Olympic distance triathlon.  Kim and I are going to KILL it!  (positive thinking)  My biggest concern is that I know the water tempature will not be wetsuit legal.  This is one of the only races that is not wetsuit legal around here.  The wetsuit is my safety net in the water.  When I wear it I just float.  Without it, I sink . . . or I think I will sink.  Should be interesting.  Go Ironmoms! 

Kate's Race Schedule

I've had two weeks off and have had some time on my hands so I've been planning my races.  (I should be training but I'm just planning)  I've come up with a schedule that I think will be pretty solid. 

I need to keep races on the calendar.  If I don't schedule anything I found I don't train as much or as hard.  A big part of this Ironman goal is to lose as much weight as possible before the real hard core Ironman training begins.  I think if I lost about 20 pounds I would feel so much better and be able to move a little easier.  I would REALLY like to lose 25 to 30 pounds but I will start slowly.   

My list of races are listed below.  I'm hoping Annette does them with me in some form.  I think it would be nice to have the same race goals so we can continue to train and go to the races together.  It is not very fun racing alone! 

2011 Races:
09.25 - Nathan's Olymic Distance (registered) - 1500m Swim, 24 mile bike, 6.2 mile run
10.02 - Tour of Scottsdale (registered) - 70 mile bike ride
10.23 - Soma HIM (registered) - 2000m Swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
11-06 - Women's Half Marathon - 13.1 mile run
11-20 - Vounteer at Ironman Arizona (Registered) - Swim exit and changing tent
11-21 - Annette and my Ironman Arizona 2012 Registration Day

2012 Races:
01-15- PF Chang's Rock n Roll Marathon (Registered) - 26.2 mile run
03-31 - California Half Ironman 70.3- 2000m swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
04-14 - Tour of Mesa - 70 mile bike ride
05-XX - San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon - 26.2 mile run
09.XX - Nathan's Olymic Distance - 1500m Swim, 24 mile bike, 6.2 mile run
10.XX - Tour of Scottsdale  - 70 mile bike ride
10.XX - Soma HIM - 2000m Swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
11-XX - Women's Half Marathon - 13.1 mile run
11-18 - Ironman Arizona 2012