Hotter than Hell

I will NEVER forget this ride. It was 1hr shorter than planned (5:15) and there was absolutely no way we could've done the 30min trun, but the mental struggle we endured out in Ocotillo (middle of f'in nowhere!!) will make the aid station-lined, cool temperatured Hawaii course seem like a stroll in the park!

In all the rides I've done- short, long, indoor, outdoor, in rain, in cold, in heat, on flats, up Palomar....this one is by far the hardest & the only one where the last 2hrs I seriously questioned whether or not I was going to make it back, and if so, whether it'd be rescued or actually on my bike.

I'm too tired to write and Julie, my partner in hell, did a wonderful job rehashing our adventure:

http://www.jdunkle.blogspot.com/2010/09/arrive-alive.html

Randoms

51 minutes left before I can go run :)!
I made a bet with Kristin last night that I could wait until 10am to head out on my first workout- usually as soon as the coffee works its magic I'm bolting out the door.
So, in order to make time pass quicker I thought I'd blog some random $h*t...

First, after a wonderful 2.5hr HILLY (seriously only ran flat for maybe 2 miles), pavement run in San Antonio Sunday morning, my brother, his girlfriend and my mom went to Austin hoping to get in a swim at the Quarry. But, little did we know we'd drive 1hr to find out Pure Gym is 18 and up only. Great! Our next thought was Barton Springs but that was closed due to the flooding earlier in the week so we went to Deep Eddy Pool. It wasn't so great as it was packed as usual for a Sunday. But, we made the most of it and followed that up with dinner at Whole Foods before driving home.

Monday morning I kept true to my routine of some sort of F up when I'm within a month of Kona. Only kona- it doesn't happen for any other race, go figure. I was SLOWLY walking down our hardwood stairs to go get breakfast and in the first two steps, just like out of a cartoon, I flew backwards and landed smack dab in the middle of my back, right on the vertebrae!! The first thing I did, trembling, was stand and move around in every which way to make sure I hadn't really screwed myself. Thankfully my fate wasn't to be a vegetable for the rest of my life :)
I iced, spread Traumeel all over my back, and hoped this soreness/bruising would go away soon.

Yesterday I went to see KP for some chiro and so he could give me expert opinion whether or not I had done any serious damage, and if not, whether I could run the next day (today) without making things worse. He gave me the "go" but warned it would hurt for the next week or so, and to just get through it no worries.

Cool.

Also, I've decided to race SD Triathlon Classic this Saturday. I'm still waiting for the final OK from coach Paul, but I'm pretty sure he'll say yes considering my "long" day is set for Sunday.

Lastly, I thought I'd post my latest fave songs on my playlist:

Riahnna "Only Girl in the World"
Eminem "W.T.P (white trash party)"
Eminem "Cinderella Man"
Shakira "Waka Waka"
DJ Khaled, Akon, & TI "We Takin Over"
LMFAO "Shots"
Katy Perry "Teenage Dream"
Ke$ha "Take It Off"
Luciana "I Like That"

Wrapping up Texas trip!

I'll give a day by day play from Sun trough today, Thursday....
Sunday: morning swim at Barton Creek pool and then race check in. Then watched tennis all afternoon!
Monday: Austin Oly----> had a great race! Sunday I stopped at Austin TriCyclist and Missy, the shop owner was nice enough to lend me her personal Aquaman wetsuit. I had never heard ofthat brand but it fit so I was more than thankful!
It turned out to be a great suit that with zero body glide or any other lubricant came off in miliseconds :)
I had a good swim- great start then just past the turnaround lost touch with Desiree an continued just behind her coming up around a min from her into T1.
On the bike my legs were far from fresh but that's exactly what this race was about- pushing through and findingthat extra gear from the fatigue. Thankfully the open wave escaped the rain on the bike. It started to drizzle just as I was turning in for T2. Without my carbon break pads that wouldve been sketchy.
Onto the run it rained for about 2 miles then stopped and turned quite steamy :) I felt on pace - miles like 3-5 was inconvenienced by a stabbing little cut on my heel from the wet chafing without socks. But the last mile or so I just got usedto it and was able to close the run a bit faster.
All in all a solid day that I'm very happy about!!

Tuesday: start of the monsoon :/ But not much tocomplain about on a recovery day. We had a.m. Masters planned but it was supposed to be outside so Sierra said it was off. I was already up and coffee'd so googles a YMCA and went for a good 3k. Then an easyspin on the trainer later in the day and more tennis!!

Wednesday: monsoon continued. I was supposed to ride 5hrs with a 40mjn run but that turned into 3hrs on the trainer and a treadmill run.
Ehhh whatever. It was a solid session noetheless and you get what you get.

Today: OUCH!!!!! I really don't know how I couldve handled this workout if yesterday had Bern as long as planned in the usual high 90s sun. John, Sierra's husband, came along for my track workout and I couldn't have had better support!! It wouldve been very difficult without him. 23min rolling w up to track in steam room conditions, 20x400s hitting 1:25-1:30. Stoked to be pretty much smacking a consistent 1:28
At 5 to go I felt like I was gonna faint :/ i really shouldve taken a gel as I desperately needed salt. But gotta keep pushing and I finished strong with a 1:27 and back home in about 25min. Total run was about 1:30-1:40.
Lots of rest now and heading for a long swim at Pure Gym on the Quarry. It'll be rad cuz Ill do about 4k in the pool theb 2x the 750m course set on Quarry Lake/pond which is part of that gym- freakin awesome!!

Tomorrow: swim, 110+mi ride, 45min run. I'll follow that up with BBQ at Whole Foods and head home to sleep lots fr Sat's culmination!

Sat: 2:30 am run, swim, 45min PM run

Sunday: REST & delish brunch with the family at Club Sonterra :)!!!!

Monday: back to Cali to recover and then push a bit more before flying out to Kona!

Labor Day Weekend!

Getting into Austin Riday afternoon I was reminded why this was my close-second choice after San Diego for where to move after college! Austin is just RAD! I made the obvious first stop at Whole Foods to get some real TX 'cue that I'd been craving for months :) The Bowie St BBQ joint inside the store is insanely yummy- I pounded down a full rack of baby backs and 3 spare ribs!
After that I still had some time to kil before heading to Sierra's so I went by Jack & Adams to inquire about a wetsuit rental as I forgot- or rather left on purpose as I really didn't think the race (at least for the elite wave) would be wetsuit legal. Sadly, at 73ish degrees it's wetsuit :/
J&A had a Rocket Science small that Im going to test out at Barton Springs today and if that doesn't fit then Sierra thankfully brought her Zoot swimskin that might fit.

Anyway, I got to Sierra's & Marie, our other training partner for the week, her husband, & John were already there so I settled into my room quickly and planted myself on the couch absolutely demolished!!

After Sierra flew in we all made it an early night to be up early for a swim.
That long run Thursday really did me in- you know when you're lying in bed with flu-like night sweats and the desire to sink into bed as if it were quicksand....yeah...

Luckily I got great sleep so by morning I was feeling like the semi big brick wasn't going to land me in my grave!

We swam at Barton Springs Country Club which was fab as we had the whole 25m pool to ourselves - & efficiently cranked out our 3k workout.

Then it was back home for a quick change and off on our ride! Sierra said after that she was a little concerned with the pace I set from the start but it was the best choice as I knew it was an effort we could hold and given that we all seemed to have some fatigue in our legs it's better to start out working than plan a "build"- you're likely going to get xomforable at that ez warm up pace and never really descend. It's like the start of an IM marathon. I hear a lot of people say "start slow and build" uhhh good luck! I agree you're retarted to fly out of T2 at like 6:15 pace but starting out at 9:00s hoping to drop down to high sevens or low 8's is just as dumb. Unless you have a huuuge downhill stretch home negative splitting is possible in your dreams only. I believe in starting out at a controlled pace about 20sec/mi slower than your goal pace.

But I digress....

So our ride was solid- we did a good 3x20 intervals on te Velo loop and back home for 4:30 total and 85miles. Oh and we managed to get a $200 ticket for turning left on a red light. Marie escaped the ticket as the light switched green right as she took the turn haha.

We're hoping to giro court sometime next week to get that dismissed!!

After the ride, we did a painful little 30min trun on some good rolling pavement and dove straight into the pool hehe :)

Sierra & I then hit Costco & Whole Foods to stock up Ironman style, & John grilled some chicken, I made Salad, & she roasted some sweet potatoes for a perfect recovery dinner! Yes, dinner! W finised the day at like 3:30 so after showers and the trip to the store it was time for the last and only real meal of the day :)

More couch and US Open time then hit the sack for a bit of broken sleep and up at 4:00am- that's what happens to me after any semi big training day- I can't sleep much!!! :(

Whatever. As soon as everyone's up we'll hit the pool for a swim then get our bikes ready for check in, pick up race stuff, I'll do a short jog, and chillax with another homemade dinner for the Austin Olympic tomorrow!

Everything's Bigger in Texas

Apart from the monster size barbeque & trucks, there's the wonderful triple digit temps in the summer :)

It's been almost two years that I've spent the majority of my time in California living and training. So, when I arrived yesterday evening to San Antonio & did an easy evening jog to the gym, core workout, and jog home, it was clear that my heat resistance was in a bit of a hole.

However, I knew that in just 2-3 days I'd be near perfectly adjusted since growing up here I spent every day-lit minute outside playing under the scorching heat and humidity- the body does not forget that ;)

To accelerate that process, I really gave it to myself today hehe.

After an amazing 9hrs of sleep, I woke up, had some coffee and headed out on one of my favorite long loops around Alamo Heights- passing by my elementary, middle, and high schools. By the time I got started, 9am, it was already in the 90s. Usually I can run 2hrs with just a short water fountain stop. But today for my 2.5 I wanted to start my run on an empty stomach and practice fueling in the heat. I'm proud to announce I downed 2 powergels, and a full bottle of gatorade, plus another one of ice water I snagged from a gas station.

After that, came home, and....another lovely part of hot weather: I'm not hungry!!....so just some greek yogurt and fruit, a nap, and I felt ready to swim. The gym pool didn't sound so appealing plus I'm trying to be outside as much as possible so I went to the Alamo Heigthts Pool which I haven't been to since birthday parties when I was like 8, and I had the whole 50m outdoor pool to myself!!! Fantastic!!!!

The water itself was in the lower 80s so coupled with the sun beaming on my back close to 100F, it fell just short of heaven.

Tomorrow I'll do a short ride then head to swim at Barton Springs, dinner at Whole Foods Austin (best place in the entire world!!!), and plant myself at Sierra's to be her little rag doll until next weekend.

I look forward to smashing myself as much as possible and getting back to California for some recovery in the best shape of my life. Today showed me things are right on track. This trip was definitely KEY for my race.

silence is golden

Actually, silence means I AM golden :D

I don't have much to say so why blog. It's simple- training is going well. I'm having fun, still healthy, & no injuries.

The work in SoCal has been done & Wed I leave for a last block in Austin until the 14th of Sept.

Back to San Diego until the 26th and it's off to Hawaii!!!

This year Kona will be rad- just from the fact that so many friends are going to both race and spectate!

If I could turn back time...

This post is a detour from my usual rant on MY training & racing. Which, in short, has been stellar. This weekend ended a 3wk block & am very much looking forward to a recovery one to follow.

Since Saturday afternoon, just before starting my trun off a long bike, I've been devastated for my brother. My mom texted me saying "not good. he ran great, but was 3rd or 4th chase pack". My stomach sank, I continued my day very sad and couldn't get a hold of him to have him explain what happened.

I decided not to go watch because it was a hassle to switch my big training weekend my coach had planned and Daniel and I agreed it would probably add more stress to his morning and his race.

Anyway, now it's Sunday, I've picked him up from the relay he did with some teammates today and we both can't stop talking about "woulda, shoulda, coulda". It's good he goes back to TX tomorrow or we'd drive each other insane wanting to change the past.

I now understand what parents go through with kids in competition- I can't think of anything else all day!!!!!!

It's his fault, he knows it, and that's what kills me the most. He ran the fastest run split of the day in 15:22, was 4th out of the water, but his mistakes made his bike PEDESTRIAN.

I told him the night before "don't make unforced errors. It's one thing to be beaten than to lose. The former your competition was clearly better, the latter you f'd yourself".

So when I got the run down of how the day played out he explained his rookie ideas of changing things up before a race (helloooo!! that's the #1 thing you don't do before an A race!!)

Frist, decides to leave his trikit unzipped so he doesn't have to deal with unzipping it for the run. So when the wetsuit came off, so did the one piece- bear chested, he lost valuable time in T1 putting it back on.

Fine, moving on, that was not the end all. What was? Deciding sometime this week (so mad I didn't know about this!) to cut his shoe straps sooooo short that when getting his feet in while riding, the strap comes completely out of the buckle. Thus, he rode the entire ride unstrapped. One did strap in- getting that one to work cost him being dropped from the 1st chase pack....eventually landing in the 3rd or 4th!

I want to strangle him and hug him at the same time. He has two more years as a Junior, but he had this race. Just being in the 2nd chase pack, with that killer run, it would've been in the bag.

Unfortunately this journal/blog of mine, which I often use as a way to vent so I don't bottle stuff up, is public so many will read this as excuses I make for him. No. I've told him he sabotaged his own day, there's no pitty party only moving forward and having a great XC season this fall. It's a lesson learned. However, it does hurt deeply- & hard to tell if it hurts me more or not :'(