Single Digits. Almost.

Can someone stop the clock, please? Seriously! We are down to just over one week to go until IM Boulder and the freaking out has begun in earnest!

I cannot believe we are this close. After seven months of training, we are about to receive a new title. We are excited, nervous, anxious and ready to get the show on the road. This morning, we had our last long OWS (open water swim) at Grant Ranch. Neither of us wanted to get up at the crack of dawn again but knowing after next week we can sleep in (well, for maybe a week. Then it's back to training for NYC) got us out the door. It was a good thing we went. The view was beautiful!

Freddy got in about 2 miles and I did just over 1.5 miles before we had to head home. The pace was nice and easy and we felt great after the swim.  During the swim we both reflected on how far we have come and how excited we are to see all our friends and family on August 3. We have worked so hard to get to this point-just training for an Ironman is a huge accomplishment that we don't take lightly. 

We will be unplugging completely next week to turn off all "noise". I, especially, get incredibly anxious before races and need to be in my bubble so if you text and hear silence from me, please do not be offended! If you have not joined our "Where's Waldo fan club" on Facebook, please do so. My dear friend Laura Chartrand has set up a great page for you to get all your scoop on the big day: where to meet up, best places to cheer, how much tequila to put in my margarita, etc. Please join the group and feel free to contact Laura with any questions. She is my right hand girl and I'm so lucky to have her!  You can join the group here.

Freddy and I have also purchased a cool gps gadget we will be wearing on race day. This will allow you to see where we are at any point on the course. The best part? It's free to our fans! Visit My Athlete for more info. If you have an Apple or Droid smart phone, you will need to download their free app, type in Ironman Boulder (they don't have that event live yet) and our names. I'm not sure if you need our bib #'s, but if you do, I am bib #150 and Freddy is #149. No smart phone? No problem! Ironman Boulder will have a live feed set up on several places along the race course (typically swim start, half way on the bike, a couple places on the run and of course, the finish line) you can view here.

We are incredibly blessed to be participating in the inaugural Ironman Boulder with so many friends and even more blessed with our support system. We honestly could not have gotten through this without you! Thank you all, so much, for believing in us, cheering us on, pushing us when we needed pushed and supporting us every stroke, pedal and stride along the way!  Let's get this done!

I leave you with a video that makes me tear up everytime. If you wonder why we do this crazy stuff-this is it.... enjoy! 

Village people

Hannah, me, Molly, Melissa & Freddy before our run along Boulder Creek

I don't subscribe to the whole "it takes a village" to raise a child BS. But in the case of training for an Ironman, nothing could be more true! It is, in fact, taking me an entire army to get ready for August 3!

While most people enjoyed a nice, relaxing long 4th of July weekend, Freddy and I were experiencing our toughest training weekend yet. Friday morning we awoke early to head to Boulder to run 3 hours on the Ironman route (which is on the Boulder Creek Trail). I had done this route many times with Runners Edge, know it like the back of my hand and since I've done so many marathons, a 3 hour run is kind of not a big deal to me. Freddy, on the other hand, was pretty nervous. He had never run that far before and had never run the Boulder Creek Trail. We got really excited when Coach Marco gave us a special treat-he invited his wife Hannah and said he'd be out there on his bike cracking the whip on us! Giddy-up!                                                  

Hannah and Freddy took off like bullets while me and my girls trotted along at a nice, comfy pace. All the while, Coach Marco shuttled between us, Hannah and Freddy to offer encouragement, advice and every now and then, a squirt from his water bottle.  The IM route does a modified 13 mile out and back, so we were able to run the entire route to see what we are in for. The trail is great-very shaded (although by the time I'm running, it will be dark), pretty and cool as it runs along the creek so there are plenty of places to take a little dip for some relief as Freddy found rather quickly!  Another bonus is you can get an awesome contact high from all the Boulder Hippies lining the route. I'm sure this will come in handy around mile 130.

Totally worth all that effort!

Me and my girls enjoying some girl talk!

Don't ask me what he is doing. 

Our reward at the end-a Rocky Mountain Ice Bath!

We thought we'd try Freddy's trick. It hurt......

After 3 hours, Freddy logged around 18 miles and me and my girls came in just shy of 15. Freddy was thrilled to have this milestone behind him and I was thrilled to have some great company! But I was dreading what was to come.....

Sunday was a big day. The monster of all demons for me. The dreaded "entire IM bike course" training day. I did a century bike ride a few years ago and hated it. I also swore I would never do one again. So, don't ask me why I thought riding 112 miles in an Ironman is a good idea. 

We met up with our group bright and early at 6:00am on Sunday morning to begin our journey. Luckily, my girls were there with me and we decided we would hang together. We also were able to rope my dear friend Laura into being our sag wagon for the day, providing us food, water, encouragement and direction. I'm not sure she entirely knew what she was getting herself into!

We took off and were greeted with a nasty cross-wind on Hwy 36. UGH. I hate wind. It totally blows. No problem. This is all good training. Around mile 35, we came across signs saying "road closed ahead". Odd, but whatever. We are on bikes. We're good to go. More signs warning us to turn around. Surely they aren't talking about us. Then we saw it. The orange fencing and on the other side, no road. It had collapsed into the river below! WTF?? We all looked at each other going "how are they going to have this road fixed in 3 weeks? This is crap!". After pondering our situation for several minutes we decided to call Laura who informed us we were way too far north and missed our turn. After figuring out where to go, we all turned around in silence. A detour did not make us happy. But no one complained. We just continued on course. 

We all had maps but quickly designated Lehiwa as our trusty guide. I was too anxious about the ride to focus on anything but pedaling. She did awesome and made sure we were on track. She also knew of detours for bathrooms! About 60 miles in, we were low on water, burning up and pedaling to get to Laura when all of a sudden this man with no shirt on and Richard Simmons shorts started running towards us in the grass. We pretended not to see him but pretty soon he started flailing his arms saying "ladies, we have treats for you one block ahead! Come on over!". Then we saw it: an oasis in the plains. The most beautiful sight we'd seen that day. There was a tent with about 6 people, all of whom had ice-cold rags in their hands that they quickly put around our necks. Others grabbed our bikes and water bottles and started to re-fill them with ice cold water. They had candy, food, sunblock, anything we wanted. Turns out they were just some nice folks knowing there would be a ton of people training that route and they wanted to help. It was awesome!

As we pedaled through the corn fields, we encountered horrendous heat, head winds (that mysteriously switched direction every time we turned), hills and more hills. Having Laura on the course was a life-saver. If she wasn't out there, I truly don't think any of us would have made it. 

Close to the end of our ride and about 10 hours into our day, Dan, Frank and Ian came out to cheer us in. Frank had even bought us some goodies to eat for the final stretch. We asked for rides back to the cars, but they never acknowledged our inquiry. Jerks. Finally, after 8 hours of pedaling, 11 hours out on the course, and 115 miles, we arrived at Boulder High School-site of T2 and our start/finish spot for the day. After literally one minute of celebrating, Frank grabbed our shoes and pushed us onto the Boulder Creek Trail. We still had a run to do. So, Ashley, Molly and I headed out on our short 20 minute run. And it felt great. 

Sunday was a huge day for me. It proved I can do anything I set my mind to. It eased my fears, ever so much, about August 3. I learned a lot and know that race day it will all come together. And I cannot wait!

My Iron Village: Melissa, Molly, Laura, Lehiwa & Ashley. You ladies are the best and I cannot wait to cross that finish line with you!!

Becoming too tough to kill

Just as we suspected, last weekend was a tad brutal and a little crazy. Scratch that-a lot crazy. I got very excited as my run on Saturday was "only" 45 minutes! "Whatever will I do with myself?", I thought, until I looked ahead to Sunday. Sunday was "race prep day" and after I got out my trusty calculator to add up all the hours, realized we would be doing an "almost" half Ironman. For training. WTH? Our training plan called for a 1 hour open water swim, 4 hour bike ride, and 2 hour run. For those of you who have trouble with math like me, that's 7 hours of movement. In one day. Kill me now.

5 miles into our walk. I need an ice bath just looking at this! Gorgeous scenery but dear Lord it was hot!!

My friend Ann, also training for her first Ironman in Boulder, called me earlier in the week to make a plan for this race prep day. We decided that Aurora Reservoir would be the perfect place to partake in this madness. The water is clear and cool, we can park our cars in the lot to stage our transitions areas, there is already an existing bike route from the reservoir, and there is an 8 mile bike path around the reservoir. Perfect!

Freddy got called out on a very busy one day trip on Saturday which had him leaving our house at 5am and not getting home (if he was lucky) until around 10:30 pm. After my group run with Runners Edge, I had a wedding to attend downtown beginning at 6:30pm, so knew between the two of us, Sunday would be tough.

Sunday morning, Ann, Dan, Freddy and I left our homes before the birds were awake to travel to Kansas, er. Aurora.  We arrived at the reservoir and were giddy when we saw we were the only people around. We put on our wetsuits, jumped into the reservoir and started our day. On about lap 3, we noticed a very large school of fish started hanging out with us! They were huge and had horns on the tops of their heads and were not bothered by us in the least! After swimming in our rec center pool, Boulder Reservoir and Grant Ranch, they were a very welcome sight!

After an hour, we got out of the water and made our transition to the bike ride. We were all feeling pretty good as the temps were still cool and we were still fresh. We decided to ride the Harvest Moon bike course. I've never done this course but Freddy and Dan had and they warned me it was tougher than I envisioned. Hogwash, I thought. It's Aurora. Aurora doesn't have any hills. Good thing I'm a fan of roller coasters, because that's exactly what this course was. You were either going up or going down.  No flats in this part of Colorado! Crazy! The road was so beat-up that I was literally out of my saddle and squatting for most of the ride to try and save my bike from all the pounding in the pot holes!  There was no shoulder on most of the route which made me too nervous to eat while riding, so I had to pull over to eat. Then the wind came. And it stayed. Then it's friend, oppressive heat came with a vengeance. And it just got worse. The only saving grace about this ride was that we were in farmland and that made me smile all over. I only saw two other cyclists the entire ride and other than that, it was me, the cows, the farmers, some ducks and lots of tractors. I felt like I was home. I went through the entire John Denver collection in my head until I got to "Annie's Song" which made me tear up, so then had to quickly switch my soundtrack. Three hours and 45 minutes later I arrived back at the reservoir, tired, HOT, and hungry. Not good when you have a 2 hour run still to come.

Freddy and I drank an ice cold coke, dunked our heads in some ice water (which evaporated before we even left the truck) and headed on our way. Coach Marco had sent us an e-mail the day before after looking at the weather forecast (the high for Sunday was to be in the upper-90's) saying there was no shame in backing our bike down to 3 hours and our run down to 1 hour. He did not want us being hero's out there. Not today. So, with this in mind, Freddy and I decided we would break up the run in small segments to re-evaluate. We took off on a slow run but quickly realized the heat was zapping us of our energy fast. Our plan was to go out 1 mile, turn around, go back to the truck to get more water, and continue this trend until we couldn't go anymore. Our mantra was "No hero today. We save it for August 3." We got in 6.5 miles and called it good. We arrived back to the truck and promptly jumped back in the reservoir to cool off. When we got home and looked at our data, Freddy's Garmin said the temps had reached 100 degrees. I wouldn't argue that-I think that's probably about right!

During our 6.5 mile march, I shared with Freddy one of my favorite marathon sayings:

In my re-cap about the day to Coach, I told him he needed to try a little bit harder to kill us. He wasn't successful on Sunday and I promised to pull out all the stops on Aug. 3. There were no heros in Aurora on Sunday. But Boulder better watch out. We are comin'!

Enjoy the Fitness

It's happened. The nightmares are becoming more real. It must be close to race day-I get nightmares before marathons and now before Ironman. And the other night's was a doozy! I woke up in a panic at around 1am after a horrible dream about race day where everything that could go wrong did. As I tried calming myself down, I had a horrible thought. Race day is 39 days (oh crap on a stick!!!) away and after factoring a 3 week taper, that means we have less than one month of training left. This thought had me up all night as I reviewed every second of my training since February. As many times as I tried telling myself to trust Coach, trust the training and trust that I've done everything right, I couldn't shake it! So, needless to say, I had a very sleepless night which led to a slug-fest in the lake the next day!

As always, our training is steadily increasing week by week. Our swims, rides and runs keep getting longer. Three weeks ago, Freddy did his first century of the season with a big bunch of our Runners Edge of the Rockies friends and coaches while I joined my girlfriends for the Skirt Sports Half Marathon. Unlike me, Freddy was born on his bike and would be perfectly happy if he could be on it all the time. But he said the ride was brutal. It's in Castle Rock, which makes for a tough course anyway, but the winds that day were horrible and made it that much tougher.

Freddy and some of the gang at Elephant Rock. I think he lied-it doesn't look that windy!

A couple weeks ago, my friend Shannon and I (who is also training for her first Ironmanm but she's super bad-ass and decided she wanted to do Lake Placid) decided to ditch the guys and do a girl's ride, just the two of us. Shannon did awesome and kept squealing in delight over how much fun she was having, which made for a very fun day for us! We logged 75 miles on the bike and followed that with a 20 minute run. We loved riding together and decided that we should do it more often. We may or may not have discussed doing our next Ironman together. But not anytime soon!

Freddy traveled to Iowa to run in the Marathon to Marathon with his dad, Claire. Claire has become quite the runner and will call us occasionally with a challenge for us to join him. Sadly, my work schedule kept me home for the weekend, but Freddy had an awesome time with his dad and I'm SUPER PROUD to report that Freddy PR'd (again) with a time of 1:58 and Clair took first in his age group! I could not be more happy for those two and am thrilled they got to spend the weekend together!

Freddy & Claire. Two of the speediest guys Iowa has ever seen!

This shit's gettin' real. I just opened up my training for the next couple weeks and had a mild panic-attack. My friends Jay and Frank, both accomplished Ironmen who will be joining me in Boulder, warned me last week that the next couple weeks would be brutal. They were right! Coach Marco knows how to keep me in check. He will make notes like "enjoy your 'easy' day by doing something you haven't done in a while", or "rent a funny movie and watch with friends", but a favorite of Freddy and mine is "enjoy the fitness". So, my mantra for the next month will be just this. I am enjoying the fitness. Every early morning, gu-filled, Bonk Breaker Bar, rice cake, leg-pounding second of it!

Pants on fire....

I fear I've lead you all astray. Before you reach for the closest rotten tomato to hurl my way, please let me explain. In the past couple weeks, I have met with many friends and have heard some version of "you are so chipper! Sounds like training is a piece of cake for you!" I'm of course flattered that people think I'm in a good mood all the time and that this training is a breeze, but sadly, this is not the case! There are days when I'm just flat tired of training. Luckily, those days are few and far between, but I'm human. Some days the couch is calling my name so loudly I have to spin a little harder on the trainer to block out the noise.

Take last weekend, for example. While "normal" people looked forward to a relaxing 3 day weekend, I honestly was facing it with a bit of dread. I knew what was on our training schedule and that come Tuesday, I'd wonder what happened to our weekend. Saturday was a 9 mile run with my group, Runners Edge of the Rockies.

Saturday with my favorite runners. Don't be fooled. We aren't always this well-behaved!

Sunday, Freddy and I again woke up at the crack of dawn to do our first OWS (open water swim) event of the season. After days of cold weather and hail, the water was frigid. Freddy did a one mile loop while I braved a 1.5 mile loop. The swim was followed by a 45 minute bike ride which was followed by a 1 hour long bike skills course.

Umm, is this the law or only a suggestion?

Monday, again the alarm went off way too early, and we headed up to Boulder for a 58 mile bike ride with friends. On our way to Boulder, I was a little grouchy. There is nothing easy about getting up every morning before the birds and getting our tails out the door. Nothing. But you wanna know a secret? We chose to have a good attitude about training! And guess what, it makes it much easier. Life is what you make of it. Sure, we could bitch and moan about how hard it is but why? After all, we knew what we were signing up for. We knew there were sacrifices we would need to make. Truth is, we love the challenge! What gets us out the door are two things: 1) we have many loved ones right now that couldn't train if they wanted to. We are so blessed to be healthy and able to train and 2) visualizing the finish line of the Ironman and hearing our names with the words "You are an Ironman" after them. That brings tears to my eyes every single time I think of it. EVERY TIME!!!

Ironmen to be times 5!

Friends, no matter what you do, do it with passion. I promise you if you add passion to your task, it will become much easier!

There is still time to donate and make a difference! Follow this link to our Davis Phinney Foundation page. Every Victory Counts!

2 Races, one weekend

Last weekend was a blur. A fun, crazy blur!

Freddy proudly representing our tribe-the Davis Phinney
Foundation!

Friday night, Freddy did his first ever sanctioned bike time trial in Superior!  Freddy loves speed and has always wanted to race in an official time trial, so with a little encouragement from Coach, he signed up for the Superior Morgul Classic.  I picked up my mom and traveled to Superior to cheer him on for his 8.2 mile loop-keeping an eye on the skies that were beginning to look ominous. Freddy got to the starting line, took off, and immediately the heavens opened and it started pouring. My mom worried about the slick roads. I assured her Freddy was in his element and would be just fine. Freddy, Coach and I all had our predictions about how fast he would do this TT (time trial). Coach thought maybe 27 minutes. Freddy was hoping 25-30. I told both of them Freddy would sub-25 it.  They both raised their eyebrows and thought I was high. 23 minutes after Freddy took off, he came screaming across the finish line-which just so happened to be atop a very long, steep hill.  He loved every second of it and is trying to figure out how he can retire and become a sprinter. We bought two lottery tickets that night. We didn't win, so we are working on plan B!

 

Conquering the giant beast of a hill at the finish!
Mom thought it wasn't very nice of the race
organizers to put that hill there at the end. 

Freddy and my mom celebrating an awesome finish!

On Saturday, Freddy got to rest and I got to head out with my girlfriends for a girls' ride from Sedalia to Palmer Lake-one of my favorite rides! Ann, Molly, Shannon and I arrived bright and early and excited about the day. Until we looked at Shannon's brand new tire, bulging at the rim, exposing her tube. After all of us gave our expert opinions on the state of her bike, we all agreed that she best ditch the ride and head straight to the closest bike shop to get the tire taken care of. And then we were 3. Ann, Molly and I took off and had a lovely ride through the country, chatting, discussing race day strategies, and how we would all have to starve ourselves the next couple months to not look like sausages crammed into the very un-flattering tri kits. It was a great ride-no flats, no drama, no crashes, only some annoying wind and a dead snake to contend with! 

Me, Ann & Molly at our turn-around point. We look so happy because it's all downhill from here!

Sunday morning, Freddy and I awoke again at o-dark-thirty to run the Colfax Half Marathon. I've done some version of this course several times and was looking forward to doing it on the new course. This was Freddy's third half marathon and was busy figuring race day strategies. I told him not to sweat it-that he would once again PR and he once again thought I was high. I don't know why these guys never listen to me!  We arrived in time to cheer on my friend Jill, doing her first full since a nasty foot surgery and recovery. While I was waiting in the corral, I got a text from my friend Natasha who decided at the last minute to jump in and do the half. I was thrilled as I didn't have anyone to run with! The new course was great. It traveled through the zoo, literally through a fire station, had one stretch with all the firefighters from the Denver Firefighter Calendar shoot, scantily-clad, and had a lot of great crowd support along the way. It wasn't a great race for me-it was a humbling day for sure and made me seriously question what I've gotten myself into, but I'm proud to report that I once again predicted correctly and Freddy PR'd by 11 minutes!  He had a great time and I was thrilled that he did so well. After the race, we enjoyed taking it easy with our Runners Edge of the Rockies teammates while sipping on bloody mary's. Overall, it was a lovely day in the park!

This weekend, while all the "normal" folks are sitting on their decks eating brats and drinking beer, we will be logging 6 hours on the bike, doing our first open water swim, and running. So, please, have a brat and beer for us!

Find your inspiration & kick 'em in the balls.....

I didn't want to go to the pool yesterday. Not even a little bit. When the alarm went off as it always does at the un-Godly hour of 4am, I hit snooze and did what I always do when I'm procrastinating: check Facebook. I was scrolling away when I saw that a running acquaintance Vince had updated his blog. Vince is battling stage 4 brain cancer with more strength than I could ever imagine. I read the blog, wiped the tears from my eyes, and got my ass to the pool. As I was swimming, I thought about how lucky I am that I have a choice to either lay in bed or workout. I have many loved ones right now battling any number of issues who would give anything to be able to get out of bed and swim.

During my swims, there is a lot of time to think. I mean, honestly, there's nothing to look at in the aqua treadmill. There are no hazards, no mountains, nothing to do but think. Some of my best thinking is done in the pool. Which is sad-if that's the best I've got! During a lot of my swims, I think of my Papa. Papa and I would spend hours in the pool when we were younger-only coming out for food or the bathroom. Then, after our business, we were right back in. Even when Grandma and mom told us to wait 20 minutes or we would drown. We didn't care; we were willing to take our chances. Papa would cannon-ball into the pool which I thought was the coolest thing ever and I would dive to the very bottom to see if I could find any sharks (I was convinced that Jaws lived in the drain). We would play Marco Polo, I'd climb all over him like he was a jungle gym, and just be silly for hours upon hours. These memories make me so happy-I credit Papa for my love of the water. I also credit Papa for getting me into the world of endurance sports. So, all this training is his fault, really.

Several years ago, in an effort to turn me into a cyclist, Freddy found a ride that he knew I could not say "no" to. It was the Copper Triangle: a loop course beginning and ending in Copper Mountain, and climbing 3 mountain passes. Honestly, it wasn't the ride that got me excited (the thought of mountain riding made my ass twitch). It was the non-profit who benefitted from the ride: the Davis Phinney Foundation. A very quick summary on Davis Phinney: he and his wife, Connie Carpenter Phinney, are cycling royalty. Davis was the second American to win a stage in the Tour de France. Long before Lance, long before our feather-light bikes with more gears than we can count. Connie is a highly decorated Olympic cyclist. Davis was diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 40 and since then has began a crusade on helping people with Parkinson's live better today. Our first year riding in the Copper Triangle, we made the top 5 in fundraising for the Davis Phinney Foundation. Each year since, our goal has been to increase our fundraising goals. And I am happy to report, that each year we have exceeded our expectations!

Freddy, Davis Phinney and I after our first Copper Triangle!

Freddy and I at our last pass-Vail-during our very first Copper Triangle! Yep, you're eyes aren't deceiving you. I am indeed wearing a camelback. I was such a rookie!

Over the past 6 years, we have come to call the Davis Phinney Foundation our friends. We truly believe in their mission and have created great bonds with the staff, volunteers and members. My Papa has been battling Parkinson's for over 10 years now and every day amazes me with his humor, strength, and resolve.

We are not only going through this Ironman journey for ourselves, but to raise funds for the Davis Phinney Foundation in honor of my beloved Papa. His brave fight everyday is what gets me out of bed, gets me to that next mile and will get us both to the finish line on August 3. There are so many wonderful causes out there and it's impossible to chose just one. But this is the one closest to our hearts. Every little bit helps and we appreciate any donation, no matter how small or large! If you would like to donate, please visit our donation page.

Ironman training is tough, no question. But life is tougher. My Grandma taught me at a very young age that if I ever face an impossible challenge, to "kick 'em in the balls". Every day, find your inspiration and go kick 'em in the balls.