Swim, bike, run - How Bad ASS can I be?

So after the Northwest Triman in June,  I said that is it I am never doing another Ironman distance Triathlon.   I officially retired from that distance and am actively pursuing all the other things I want to do.     Joe – Yeah right Me – No that is it – I am done no more Joe – I don’t believe you Me – Believe it   - I have too many things I want to do/learn.   Joe – You say this now but you will do another Insert just about anyone else in the Joe section and the   conversation was pretty much the same with mom, other family member, friends, neighbors, co-workers, running buddies, random strangers – ok maybe not random strangers… Anyways you get the gist   - know one believed me.    So what I have been doing since Triman you ask?    Well I have kept busy not to worry – registered for a standard tri and a 10km run in September so still running, riding and swimming just not uber long distances. ...

I know, I know this should have been posted a while ago.  My tale of procrastination is sad so I won’t even try and sell it.   Here is the long awaited race report! First some background or review:   the original plan for this event was for me and Joe, my husband to go and do the event together. Joe would race his brother and I would “participate”.      That did not happen for various reasons , suffice it to say I was doing this event/trip/adventure without Joe   physically there. What I will say was he was there in spirit along with all the rest of our family and friends and he helped me more than he will ever know on race day.   The Wednesday before I flew out I did my usual group run with my run club and tweaked something in my Right Hamstring.   Worrisome but this injury has been on and off for the better part of 6 months. The next day I ran before I got on the flight and it was still quite sore but nothing I could do ...

With less than 4 weeks until event day my anxiety is starting to kick into overdrive.   Have I trained enough?   Have I done enough hills on the bike?   Is my nutrition plan going to be ok? Am I getting a cold?   Why does my right knee hurt? Double, triple, quadruple check my travel plans, pack lists, documents, etc, etc.  And well honestly the realization that my best friend will not be at the start line with me this time.   That I am doing this on my own - the person I have always leaned on won’t be there and he won’t be coming out on the run course to pace me no matter how much I wish for it. That is probably the hardest part.   So I have been working really hard on my visualization.   A few years ago I had the amazing luck to train with Barb Zimich.   She was and her husband at the time, Larry, were big proponents of the power of visualization and the importance of incorporating it into your training and race day plann...

NUTRITION – the other Discipline in Triathlon Everyone hears Triathlon and they go Swim, Bike, Run – 3 disciplines WOW - but there is actually a 4 th discipline and if you don’t nail it the other 3 will suffer and quite possibly can end up causing the dreaded DNF (did-not-finish) on race/event day no matter how much training you did.   It is NUTRITION   - if you are not eating and hydrating properly you will suffer – during training and definitely on event day .   I will be honest my nutrition plan this time around has been absolute #!@*@ .   Let’s face it, you will always drop a bit of weight when training for Iron distance events but I have never dropped 40lbs any other time.      Now some of this is due to the running streak but a lot of it is due to just not eating enough or properly. So with 2 months to go until race day I have to start working on my nutrition and get my plan in place because quite frankly I have not been on top of ...

With only just over 10 weeks – (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth) to the Triman in Spain I am not gonna lie – I am starting to freak out a bit.   Which is not very Bad Ass of me at all. The running portion is not going to be an issue as long as I stay injury free.   The problem is I have to do a swim and a “wee” bike ride before I get to run.   I have been pretty consistent in my swimming – I will get it done – I am not speedy but I am consistent and persistent.   The bike this is where an Ironman will come crashing down if you have not done your time in the saddle.   I will own it I have not put as much time on the bike as I normally do – I have been consistently doing Power classes since last fall but December, Jan and Feb got derailed.   The weather sucked – too much snow/ice and I live on the side of a mountain.   Which really is me just making up a good story because there is a trainer in the house that I could have been ge...

Day 148 of running and counting....                   How did this streak start, you ask?   One of the local running stores Capra   does a challenge every November – run 30 minutes every day for November - https://www.capra.run/pages/the-november-30x30 -   initially I thought about it and said no.   I was starting to train for my Ironman distance race in Spain for June 2019 and I have always believed that if I run more than   4x a week I will get an injury so it was going to be a hard pass.   However my brother-in-law had been running every day for over a year and seemed none the worse for it and well it was only 30 minutes each day.   So I thought well let’s give it a try and see how it goes plus there was PRIZES and not for how far or fast just for running and I LOVE prizes.   My streak actually started the streak on October 31 st because the club I run with   https://www.fac...

I know – I should post more often but being a Bad Ass is busy work – no really I have been busy. So I had mentioned that I did my very first ever swim meet in Feb.   I am not going to lie I was a little apprehensive as   I can swim forever but not at a “brisk” pace.   I was part of our Coast team that is made up of swimmers from our Masters club and well they all swim at a “brisk” pace and Coach Stewart put me on 2 relay teams. Well I am happy to say I had a fantastic time and loved every second of it.   The people we “raced” against came from all sorts of backgrounds and skill levels and the vibe was inclusive and lots of fun.   Coach Stewart was completely right just like a running race- I would encourage anyone to   do one just for the experience if nothing else.   I signed up for the   400 and 800 front as well as the 100 back.   I was then added to 2 relays teams   one I was front and one I was breaststroke.    I...