Happy Halloween

Ok so how many of you have been munching on Halloween candy?  Guilty!  But thankfully only a few little mini candies.  I can walk down an isle in a grocery store full of candy and never once desire to grab a bag and bring them home, but if they are in a bowl, starring at me, I'll grab em'.  I hate that!  ;0)
So the cold weather hasn't completely arrived here in sunny Colorado, but it's coming no doubt.  We have been enjoying 70+ degree weather lately.  When the cold does finally arrive I start to layer on the goods.  I ran track in college and it had to be 40 degrees in order for a track meet to go on, any colder and they'd cancel.  Needless to say I became accustomed to running in the cold and with a ton of clothes on.  When I first started racing Triathlons I felt naked when I came out of the water.  I was putting on shorts and pulling them down on my hips, my friends would yell at me later telling me I was wasting precious time pulling up those shorts and I didn't need to wear them.  It took some getting used to, running around in a bathing suit.  Now we wear a bit more with the 'tri-suits', but it's much less than cold weather training.
This weekend we get an hour back, Woohoo!  But that means if you train in the evening, it's going to be dark and cooler.  Long sleeves, running tights, ear warmers, mittens (better than gloves, fingers together stay warmer).  If I can't find my mits I wear a pair of socks.  It works in a pinch.  And of course reflective gear and a head lamp.  I run part of the time on the road and part of the time in a park, dirt trail, so cars aren't an issue, but seeing the ground usually helps.  So stay warm and stay safe out there running in the dark.  Don't think a car is going to see you, they usually don't in my experience, so let them go first and you know you'll be good crossing streets.  Here is a link with some 'cold weather' tips.  I got a laugh out of the last one.  Sorry guys...the girls aren't that much of an issue.  http://www.runquick.com/corcorn/coldweather.html
Triathleta

Re-Play

So the first National broadcast of the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii was on NBC on Saturday afternoon.  I say re-play because if you're a bit of a tri-junkie, you had seen much of it happen live while watching the live feed from Ironman.com.  Seeing it in the broadcast, with commentary and age group profiles is a must see for me.  I spoke with my parents on my usual weekend call in and my Mom even watched it.  God Bless her, she is 81 and still is hip to the triathlon stuff happenings.  Gotta love when the 'rents' support ya, even if she is baffled by what you have to do!  Thanks Mom
I have to say, if you are ever in need of inspiration, just tape one of those episodes, from any Ironman program and it will get you motivated.  I swear I feel like I could run 100 miles after watching that.  I get all fired up and gives me the 'goose bumps' all at the same time.  I guess that's why I know even now, after all these years after being introduced to the sport that I can't let it go, or it won't let go of me.  Either one, I don't mind. 
So I started a new training program this week.  I have trained on my own for a long, long time.  I would love to have a personal 'coach' but I have the next best thing, in that my coach comes in a book.  I am using Ben Greenfield's 'Tri-Ripped' program.  It's 8 months long and covers all three disciplines along with additional weight workouts.  Since it is 'Fall' in Colorado, technically, but 'Winter'ish' on some days, indoor training on some days is necessary.  Running or biking in a snowstorm is not that practical or advised so working out on my bike trainer and getting on the treadmill will be necessary to keep up the workouts in the winter months coming up.  I have to say that the workouts for most days,  involve all three disciplines and the circuit training, which is more than I used to do.  I was doing more of the 'two a days' with weights mixed in there a few plus times a week so it's more work but I am planning on it paying off.  Thus far, I am not too sore, but I'm sure it just hasn't kicked in yet.  I am just hoping I start to sleep better now that I am working my butt off more during the day.  Here's hoping to more 'dream filled nights'.  Happy training to all and to all a good night.  Santa's coming, couldn't resist.  Until tomorrow... a little inspiration!

Triathleta

Girl Interrupted - a story of re-birth

 Shifts.  One day your on a run, a run you go on just about every day and the next your swallowing radio active iodine so some tech in a hospital can look at your thyroid to see if you have any growths or cancer on it.   Shifts.  Some feel like the plates of the earth move.  That one did it for me.  Although, after I had some of the facts, I researched what Graves' Disease was, I realized I was a walking poster child for it.  I had pretty much every 'symptom' for more than three years, yet no blood test or doctor or Naturopath I had ever seen ever saw it, nor did I. Or did I??   A lesson I had learned years before, to listen to your body, make mental notes of things that seem off.  I do remember telling doctors I was, or so I thought, always hot, that I couldn't sleep, Ever!  It was more than just insomnia, it was not sleeping more than two hours a night for a month and then crashing on a Sat. when I should have been on a long bike ride.  The worst was a really strong heart beat that would come and go but made it hard to do any workouts.  Test after test said all was fine, until of course, it wasn't.

So training for the NYC Marathon and planning on running with a friend who was a firefighter, who survived 9/11, on what was to be the first race after that horrific event, went from 'on schedule' to 'closed until further notice'.  It was a huge shift.  Resting heart rate of 52 was now 120, all the time.  It was hard to walk up the stairs to my office let alone keep training for a marathon and triathlons.  But I didn't think it was my time to throw in the towel nor was I going to spend the rest of my life on medication, never be able to race or even train like I had before among a slew of other important things.  The meds they had me on, long term side effects were Lupus and Parkinson's Disease.  That's great.  Trade up for two illnesses worse than what I had.  Even writing this now still makes me angry.  Lots of push back from docs who told me nothing I did or eat or do would change a thing.  They were wrong.  They were dead wrong.

But I often wonder if these doctors know about many of the more natural remedies that people would rather use to get well, but just refuse to admit that they work.  The almighty dollar unfortunately resonates louder to some of them than the oath they pledge when they become a doctor.  'At First Do No Harm' or something to that affect.  So much for that.  I will probably never know as far as the doctor I went to is concerned but thankfully there are those who support alternative methods and help in the utilization of them in any way they can and for that I am grateful, because some of them helped me.

Six months after I started the meds, I had no change in my blood levels, which is basically the barometer of how they would check to see if I was responding and 'getting better'.  I was on 10 times the normal dose and a walking zombie.  It was no way to live.  I went for a run one day to try to feel better, get the endorphins firing, get some good, happy mojo back in my body/mind.  I took two steps and I felt this pain in my thighs.  But not in the muscle, it was deeper, in the bone.  I had many aches and pains all through childhood and college playing sports.  Spent most of my college track 'career' (ha) in the training room icing my shins, getting electrical stim on my quads, met half my friends in that training room, so I knew what 'sport' aches and pains felt like.  This was different.  But I remember the first thought that came to me was, 'Wow, this is not good and I can't continue on this path.  So I put my money where my mouth usually is, on something holistic, and jumped in with no looking back.   I met a Canadian doctor who had been in much worse shape than myself, in terms of illness and he got well.  So I flushed my meds down the toilet and went all in.  I found a doctor who would monitor my blood work without giving me grief and lectures about what I was doing 'wrong' in the medical community's eyes and low and behold...6 months later, my blood work was just about completely 'normal'.  But I wasn't out of the woods yet.

Backlash from 9/11, job cuts.  My work/projects in Arch/Design stopped and so company layoffs ensued.   I got laid off my job two weeks before I got the results of my blood test.  There went the funds I was using to pay for all those 'holistic' remedies.  C'est la vie!  We move forward anyway.  Like it says on my 'Road I.D.' bracelet; 'Glass Half Full - Always.  There is always a brighter side, we just have to pull the curtain off the light to see it.   And I did, although for a few years I think I was on a bit of a roller coaster, which of course made getting back in some sort of 'triathlon' shape a bit more challenging.  I learned that the stress I had compartmentalized was doing me no good, so I got into yoga.  Bikram to be more specific.  I loved it.  It actually helped all those old tight muscle injuries I had, got me flexible, to a point, again.  But I realized when I was doing yoga that my overall strength and endurance was not being worked enough, so I started to run again, ever so slowly and not very far.  I think, once a runner, always a runner.  I had to tell myself after a run I went on that was farther than I probably should have gone, that I have to get back, but start out as if I was a beginner runner.  In my head I could run 8 miles, no problem.  But my body wasn't back there yet.  I used to get that 'runner's high' at mile 7 when I was able to run farther.  It would feel like I got a shot of adrenaline and some 'fairy dust' happy feeling and it was propel me another 7 miles, it was just awesome.  There is something about that feeling of just floating.  I wanted that back and I have been working on it ever since.

Now, that roller coaster knows its coming to a final destination and that is coming soon.  The last few years, for many, many, many of us have been challenging in more ways that I could imagine or properly articulate.  I have learned who my friends are as well as who they're not, which at first was hard to swallow.  When you realize that you have invested time into people who just don't give a damn, it makes you mad.  But then you decide to choose carefully who you let into your world.  So my 'back on track' chapter begins with a smaller crowd, but sometimes starting out on your own is the best.  Less drama, just you and the road (water too).  Get out of your head, I tell myself.  Don't think so much, just do it!  So if you're up for it, follow me, if you will, I have some ideas in the works, the website, which is new but growing quickly with new product lines that launch this Spring and this blog, which keeps you guys up on what I am doing and a new training program I am working on which will hopefully get me to Kona someday.  Who knows, I may even qualify at a race I create myself.  (the last of three things I am working on, so stay tuned and keep your eyes open for the Triathleta Race Series, coming to a city near you)  It may take me longer to get there (Kona) but I am working on it.  A constant work in progress...and God willing, I will be working on it for years to come. 

Caroline / Triathleta

2012 Ironman World Championships - Kona

So this past weekend, October 13, 2012 was the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.  I watched it live online and as always, a site to see.  So many athletes, so many dreams about to be realized.  It's still my dream and I have decided once and for all to finally make it a reality.  Too many detours for me so I am going to make this happen, or else! 

It's been a long time coming because I was introduced to triathlon in 1993.  I moved to Charlotte, NC after college to find a job.  I'm from Massachusetts so moving down south was never a 'plan', it was more of a push from a friend who didn't want to be there alone, after her job transferred her there.  So while looking for a job, I needed to be able to workout.  A bit challenging to pay membership fees with no job so I lucked out and got a job at a club which then gave me FREE access to the gym.  The YMCA in Uptown Charlotte, where my triathlon obsession began.  The guy who introduced me to the sport was really good and so were many of his friends.  Serious, hard core athletes.  To say I was intimidated is putting it mildly.  I had a track background, a sprinter and jumper.  I rode my 10 speed tank of a bike all through high school, on what I thought were 'long' rides, 30-40 miles.  Yes, I was in for a surprise.  But a great one really and probably more than I bargained for.  I was welcomed and groomed into 'the frey' and learned all about distance running, and pace, and interval training.  Doing 'two a days', swim in the morning, run/bike in the afternoon.  I was introduced to another triathlete who was a really good collegiate swimmer and he worked with me in the pool to show me the ropes.  I knew enough to know I needed help in the pool.  I could swim, but never like a triathlete trains.  So I took my lesson and did the work and in a very short time realized I had been 'bitten'.  The triathlon bug had got me good and it really has never left me. 

Shortly after that I did my first half-marathon, which was a task as when I was in college I would cringe when my coach would enter me for the 400.  I remember all my friends telling me that if I could do a half- marathon I could definitely run a full.  What the mentality was for that, I don't know, but they all said it and within another year I had completed my first full.  So they were right!  I read a 'tweet' the day of the Ironman that said a guy saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said 'I run marathons', Oohh that's so cute!.  Made me laugh.  But at the time of the marathon, it seemed like a big deal.  It was the first of my 'amazing' athletic experiences and really made me crave more.  Shortly after that I moved to Atlanta where there were many athletes that I met and trained with.  But at the time I was there, it was considered 'Hotlanta'.  Lots of people moving there and I wanted to go somewhere that had not been 'found' yet.  I stayed for three years and then got the gypsy urge to move again.  So I trekked across country to Denver, Colorado and found my home. 

I moved to Colorado in 1998, when even back then, Boulder was a mecca for professional triathletes to live.  Many knew training at altitude was a key factor in fitness and I jumped right in.  Boulder became my place to ride and run.  I trained and raced for about three years after landing in the mile high, did a few marathons, brought some friends along and had lots of fun.  Then a shift occurred. 

Count UP to race day with me! My story starts here...

Ok, so this seems a little strange to me, typing a blog into cyber space,..this unknown black hole of mega information.  Who is out there reading?  I don't know, hopefully someone who is interested in Triathlon training, products and getting tips from someone who has been around the sport for a few plus years/decades or so.  But here goes.  This blog is going to be about my past, present and future in how I got into training and racing Triathlon and of course where I hope it goes.  Like many of you I'm sure the grand daddy of all triathlons, the World Championships in Kona is the ultimate dream and goal.  Getting there, the journey and all that's involved, the aches and pains, the ice baths, numbing sore muscles in hopes of healing faster and all that fun stuff, is what I am going to be sharing with you.  I hope you enjoy reading and in doing so maybe I pass on something new for you to try on your own.  I know I get inspiration from others and if in some small way I can pay that forward to all of you out there in the great unknown, then it will all be worth it.  
Thanks for reading...Stay tuned and check back often.

Triathleta/Caroline