Adjusted Reality

If the part of last week’s post talking about the marathon upcoming was disjointed and weird, it was because I wrote and edited it over a few days and my brain kept changing.  Here’s where my head was at:

Monday: hamstring’s a little tight but whatevs.  Run 3 fast outside and feel ok.
Tuesday: hamstring’s stil hurting and tighter.  Decide to work quads on the bike.  Hurt hip. Fuck.
Wednesday: hamstring is like a rock and hip hurtiing.  Bag the 3 miler I was going to do that day and just rested.  Brain starts reeling about how stupid I was for thinking 70.3 training did anything for me for marathoning, that if I was going to get through this race, I was going to go in either woefully unprepared if I rested like I needed to or in some form of injury.
Thursday: a little better in the AM.  Run 2 miles and it starts tightening up so I walk the last mile and save my legs for the race.
Thursday night: getting to be a huge headcase and threw a tantrum and got drunk and went to bed at 2:30 when I had to get up at 7:30 for work.  Pretty much my subconscious pulling the “well, if I’m going to go into the day fucked, I might as well go in righteously fucked.  Pretty teenage of you, subconscious.
Friday morning: exhausted and a little pissed at myself… but hip and hammy feel a little better.  Drive to Dallas takes 5 hours (and we all know that 5 hours in a car is GREAT for hurty legs), getting in at 10:30, sleep at 11:30 for a 5am wakeup.  Fuck fuck fuck.  I never do well with bad sleep 2 days in a row.  This is going to be a disaster.

Even though I channeled the brat on Thursday night, I did ice and stretch and foam roll and biofreeze and shocky like a champ.  Even though I just wanted to run right through it because it didn’t hurt while running and see what happened with it, I can’t do that so close to the marathon.  If the option is undertrained or injured, I’ll take undertrained every time.  If I have to baby myself to get in a few key runs (read: long ones), so be it.

Something magical happened Friday night.  The 6 hours of sleep was amazing sleep.  Like, magical, healing, deep sleep.  I woke up not completely exhausted and *cue magical trumpets and angels* my hip/hammy didn’t feel too bad.  Then the bad news – my worst (well, worst, non-tragic, non-DNS) race fear realized – woke up crampy and bloaty.  Yes, it was the start of that happy time.  Argh.  Never has happened on race morning before.  So, it was either risk painkillers and upset tummy or deal with cramps.  Being that one was a sure thing (cramp misery) and one was a gamble (tummy issues),  I went with the gamble and ate an extra cookie so there was more in there and hoped for the best.

My goal was to get in 5 miles before the race.  Being that I slept in and we took a little longer than expected to get ready, I only got in 2.3 before I had to line up (32 minutes, that included about .75 of walking and I forgot to stop the timer a few times when  wasn’t moving) but the legs were holding up pretty good, so I was encouraged.  I snuck in with 2:25 pace group and Zliten was back with the 2:35… which was about 10 feet away.  So he just came up and hung out with me and we took off together.  The 2:25 pace was faster than I had been running, so it was a shock to the system but I tried to keep up.  The pacer was going a little faster than I wanted to go, so I let them get a little ahead.  I didn’t want to blow up or injure anything.

The early miles were difficult for me.  My strategy was use Frank Sinatra for the first half of the race to keep it mellow, then switch to pop for a pick-me-up.  Well, it was clear by mile 4 I needed that pick me up.  I was letting Zliten get ahead of me and if it was anyone else I would have just let him go, but I couldn’t let him beat me.  Every time he went ahead, I sucked it up and caught up.

Then, all of a sudden, I just sort of went from hating life to loving the course and the day.  There were alpacas to make llama faces at, longhorns to moo at, and it felt like running the bike course at Lake Pf.  Suddenly around mile 7, I realized I was halfway, and things just seemed… better.  Peppier music was helping, and soon I had crossed into double digits for the day and my body seemed to be holding up.  I concentrated on using my big ass quad muscles and using proper run form, and certain stretches did challenge my aging shoes and tender parts, but I was keeping it together.

Around mile 9, we had someone ask us if we were running or run/walking, and we said running.  She asked if she could run with us and we were like, “the more the merrier”, so she stuck with us.  Zliten likes to run and talk, and so did she, so it works (because I like to listen and nod, pretty much, I’m not a talky runner).  Mile 9, 10, and 11 ticked down, and we took turns pulling each other, and I kept counting down the miles to go on my garmin.  When we hit 12, I started speeding us up, and she asked to know at .5 to go to so she could speed up again, and once we hit it I kicked and kept accelerating, ending in the 8s when I crossed the finish line.  I felt great!  We hit about 2:25 exactly, which is a 2 minute PR for Zliten!

And since I was feeling so great, I knew that it was the day I had to do my 20.  I only had 4.6 miles to go.  I got my medal, towel, and some water and a random juice type beverage for some calories, gulped it down, stashed my finisher stuff with Zliten, and got going.  I counted a few tenths of a mile of walking to get going again, and then I took off.  It was a little rough to get going since I stopped long enough to get stiff, but I’ve never felt so fresh and energetic in the 15-16 mile range!  It was… amazing!  I kept thinking I was going to hit a wall and it never came.  I ran each mile right around 12:15s, slow and easy.  I kept thinking I’d walk at the top of the next mile each mile and then got there and didn’t want to stop.

I ran 3 loops around a short trail in the apartment complex next to the race, and at 3.7 I headed back.  At 4.2 I would be able to collect Zliten, walk the .4 miles back to the hotel, and end at 20.  At 4.1, I started to head in and then said “fuck this, I feel strong, I want to finish my first 20 running”, so I looped around and soon it clicked over to 4.6.  Holy crap.  20 miles in the bank, and I did them faster than either attempt I’ve done at 18 (3:55).  I was on cloud fucking 9.

All the worry from this week, all the uncertainty about how I trained and the choices I made last week, washed away.  Training for a half ironman may not be a traditional, or even all that smart way to get your body ready for a marathon, but it did wonders for my mind.  I am mentally stronger and much more patient with myself and can field the ups and downs of a multi hour effort like a champ.  Sometimes a cursing, spitting champ, but definitely not giving up on myself like I was last winter.  My body may have excelled better with different training, but the half iron training did wonders for my mind. If I could finish 20 feeling this strong less than 2 weeks out from my half ironman, I’m ready for the marathon.  Now it’s just time to keep skating the edge of as many miles as I can f0r two more weeks while keeping my body healthy and uninjured, and then taper.

Still TBD whether this was a good idea, but I feel a lot more confident that I didn’t make a huge mistake.  In one morning, in the span of about 5 hours, I went from feeling despair and uncertainty about the condition of my body and what it could do, to a feeling of strength, and power, and confidence.

When I came back, I found Zliten and gave him a huge sweaty hug and told him that I finished my 20 running and felt really good.  Then I found Libby and gave her a sweaty hug and told her I just finished my first 20 and said ‘bye and thanked her for putting on a great race.  Feel bad I didn’t get to talk more but we were both busy with our respective days.  We walked back to the hotel, showered and packed, and then got our prize – In N Out.  However, I had taken another round of ibuprofen before the cramps had a chance to hit, and they hit my empty tummy like a rock.  It was actually challenging to get my double double down, but I did it and half my fries and two sprites.  My tummy held it down and as it digested I felt better, so noting that I need to just make sure to keep the calories flowing if I’m going to do painkillers.

Just a note: I loved this race.  I sort of want to run it next year and try to PR.  It had enough hills to keep you honest and change what muscles were being blasted, but not enough to kill you, and it was gorgeous the whole way!  The volunteers were awesome and they had pace groups for every 5 mins for about 1000 people, and the medal rocks.

Sunday was for rest, and here’s the rest of my week.

Monday: 4 miles
Tuesday: 6 miles before work, 2 miles at lunch with the new work running group
Wednesday: 45 mins on the bike trainer + weights
Thursday: 4 mile run + weights
Friday: off (company launch party)
Saturday: off (recovering from)
Sunday: ~18 miles.  Something in the upper teens, certainly.  Probably best not to do a second 20 two weeks in a row, I gather.

I’m going to keep my goals the same this week:

-Eat good.  I ate better.  Veggies are part of my life again, though we need to see each other a little more regularly.

-Run with a goal of staying healthy.  Stretch, roll, shock, ice, and bag any workouts that feel like they may push me over the edge.

-Sleep like a champ.  Sunday was a 13 hour of sleep day, I’m pretty impressed with my slothiness!

Question of the week – what’s your favorite post race or post run food?

Bonus: silly video of me running via Zliten

Out with the old…

So, tri season.  Holy crap, what a ride.  It definitely had high points (Lake Pf tri, Kerrville) and low points (Jack’s Generic), but all in all, I did what I set out to do this season.  In an uncharacteristic move, I don’t think I did a season goal post at any point but I know what was motivating me so here we go with the wrap up!

Swim goals:

This year: Continue to improve swim efficiency.  Speed would be nice (and should come with better efficiency), but getting out of the water not feeling tired is the goal each race this season. 1-2 swim workouts per week.

How did I do?: Great.  I still swam slow as molasses, but a little less some days, and never overdid it in a race.

Next year: I want to see what I can really do in the water.  As soon as I can get back into swimming this winter (put on hold for a bit for marathon training + some offseason time), I need to work on some major sprinting.  Next spring, I need to get my ass to the lake and do some hard OWSs and get on the bike hurting.  I think I can handle much more than I expect, and going hard in the water is not going to completely waste me on the bike/run.

Bike goals:

Work on growing bike endurance.  I started the season having done 2 centuries I wasn’t ready for and about died after, and before that, had done 2-30 mile rides and a 35.  Not just this year, but EVER.  This was what I started the year most nervous about.  I got a trainer and became bffs with it all spring and summer.

How did I do?: Awesome!  I nailed this portion of the tri each time – I can pick a bike pace and execute by meeting or exceeding what I intend after studying the course.  I became familiar with 30-40 mile rides and did a few longer.

Next year: Two-fold goal – I want to over-endurance.  I plan on an epic 100 miler on the trainer this winter doing a movie marathon.  I want to get very familiar with riding 50-60 miles both outside and on the trainer.  Just as the half IM swim and run aren’t really a thing to me standalone, the aches and pains and weirdness I got around mile 45 in the race made me realize I need to do more rides over 50 miles.  Also, I want to get FASTER.  It doesn’t seem right that my half-IM pace and my sprint pace are about the same (15.9 in Rookie, Couples, Jacks, and Kerrville, I only beat that at Lake Pf and Tri-Rock…a hilly OLYMPIC).  I’d love to break 20 mph on a sprint one day.

Running goals:

Running was a three-fold goal.  First of all, I wanted to break into the goddamn 9s in a sprint tri 5k.  Second, I had to get past the mental (and physical, but really mostly mental) barrier of not running more than 6 miles off the bike.  Third, I had to get used to running on tired legs.  I wanted fresh running legs to be a treat like cupcakes – nice when it happens once a month, but not expected.

How did I do?: Eh, so so.  This is still where I feel like I can improve the most on tris, and it’s really mental.  There is no reason I can’t take that ~28 min 5k I proved I could do and stick it after an hour of biking and swimming like clockwork.  I only executed this one out of 3 times.  Rookie was muddy and I didn’t want to slip (and I sub 10’d it anyway, but it was only 2 miles).  Couples I gave up at the last hill out of frustration.  Jack’s I was too exhausted. I was pleased with my 10k at Tri rock because it was hot as balls, and I didn’t stop running and 11 min/mi isn’t too bad.  Kerrville – I got through it and didn’t hurl on any spectators or volunteers, and it will be easy to PR next year!

For the second goal, I got down enough bike + 7-13 mile runs that it didn’t feel awkward anymore.  Third – check.  I’m not sure if I remember what refreshed legs feel like. 🙂

Next year:  Speed.  I want to get FASTER.  I’m tired of slogging through long slow miles and ready to kill myself on sprints and pukeworthy tempos again after my legs completely recover after my marathon + offseason time.

Completion goals:

My race goals were to complete the Texas Tri Series, which meant completing my first half ironman. Also, PR at least one of the tris.

How did I do?: Check, check, and check.  The series is done, the 70.3 is in the books, and I PR’d Rookie by 3 mins, Pf by 8 mins, and cut over 40 mins off my Olympic Tri PR from 2 years ago.

Next Year: I don’t want to lock myself into this, but thoughts I have are: I want to do more Olympics (and would be fun to race one that’s not hot as balls to really see what I could do), at least 2 70.3s, but I do love a sprint tri.  Texas Tri Series next year?  Maybe.  I’m taking a LOT of time off racing earlier in the year, so maybe I’ll be ok with a tri every 2 weeks.  We’ll see.  Outlook uncertain.  NOTE: There is no full ironman in my future next year.  I need AT LEAST 1 more year.  2014? Maybe.  Outlook definitely uncertain.

Training goals:

I wanted to come up with a training plan that fit our limitations (I really, really need a Saturday or Sunday off.  I’ll have to give it up someday if I want to full IM probably, but I really need a day to do errands, dork online, and butt-to-couch reps), and got us from sprint triathletes with a bit of a half marathon running problem to full fledged 70.3-ers.

How did I do?: I did pretty good, and also gave myself permission to modify if I needed with no guilt if I was really overwhelmed.  I did run myself into the ground once, but I recognized it really quick and though it sort of mentally ruined a race for me, I figured out really quick and fixed that shit.  And, well, we finished the race, so I can’t complain.

Next Year: Considering joining a team or getting a coach, but also have definitely learned enough lessons to be a better self-coach.  I really feel like I needed to exhaust myself this year to get the endurance I did, especially with the race/vacation schedule I had, but next year I really, really want to make good on the rule of “3 weeks build, 1 week recovery/stepback”.  I just needed every week this year.

Podium Addendum:

After some digging, I figured out that I am ending the Texas Tri Series ranked 2nd in my AG (of 3) that finished all the races.  I was 4th going in to Kerrville, but I beat #3 by enough that I took over 3rd, and 2nd and 5th were a no show for the race, so… yay for a silver by attrition!  However, I’m really, really glad I’m not 40-44… that was the most competitive age group by far!

In with the new… (for a few weeks at least)

Well, in exactly 33 days from now, I’ll be a marathoner or die trying.  I am slightly less terrified of this race after the last two weeks, but still pretty fucking terrified.

The three things that have built up my confidence:
1. I finished the half ironman with a smile on my face.
2. A guy at the half ironman said he’s done many of both and they feel about the same after.
3. I did my longest run ever Saturday at 18.1 miles and didn’t quite die or have my legs fall off after (well, sort of, I’m dealing with pain this week but they’re still there).  Although I did get angry with Zliten who took us on a detour that killed my mojo around mile 15.  I may have amused myself by spitting on the yards who have the opposite candidate than I plan to vote for’s signs the last few miles (the yards, not on the signs, that would be disrespectful, this was just…. well-timed spitting that I would be doing anyway).  I actually took down 400 calories during the run (cliff blocks, I love you), kept my pace pretty even throughout minus a despair walk break, and even sped up a bit at the end.

I am having some left hamstring soreness and hip soreness on my left side, but so far so good elsewhere (besides a little kink in my neck, but I don’t think that’s related).  I just need to get healed, then through a few more weeks of stupid (for me) run volume and then taper and see what throwing a whole season of training for a half ironman + some long runs will net me on M-day.  I expect it to be hard, painful, and lots of cursing/crying/giving up running forever, but I think I have the will to get through it even if I barely have the endurance.  It’s going to be slow, but I’ll make it as long as I don’t do anything stupid.

This week I ran a speedy 3 yesterday (9:22 pace!), and planned to do more miles than I did this week due to my leg sort of kinda falling off (see above), and I’ll race the Showdown Half put on by the fabulous ultra runner Libby and add about 5-6 miles before/after.  I said I’d race a 2:15 for the 13.1, but we’ll see how that pans out (my plan is to try to get 5 miles first slow as molasses, and then stick with the 2:25 pacer and see how I feel halfway through).

Next weekend I plan to do my requisite 20 on Sunday (after a work costume party Friday and resting the hell up on Saturday) and then taper, taper, taper, and see what happens.  Eiieeeee!  These are my excitingly terrified noises.

Also, let me just say (speaking of my Halloween costume) – I impressed myself by going out after work last Friday night with a goal costume, trying 3 on, and finding one that I really liked.  Shocker: it was even a “sexy” version.  I really liked how it looked, even fat from vacation and 70.3’ing.  Woo!  We went back out and grabbed all the accessories, and I have shoes at home that aren’t so uncomfortable I want to die and that work, so Halloween was done within 2 hours.  This is huge for me as it’s usually 3 weeks of trying shit on, hemming and hawing, and getting pissed off that nothing fits my weird body right.  I even snapped a pic just in case I forget to when I put it on for real, but for now, it’s a secret…

It’s been a weird experience lately – I just feel… ok with what’s going on lately.  I’d like a little less athlete in my tri-suit, but I was feeling pretty dang good with where I was at before I went on vacation and pretty proud of where my body has taken me this year.  I’m already seeing some nice fall-off on the scale this week (back in the 177s, down from the land of the lost), and it will be interesting to see what offseason will do.  I dropped about 3-4 lbs in August by just peaking and then resting twice (the most significant loss happened during the rest weeks).

I know I’m going to have to watch portions and all, but I think I could really do some good to myself if I treat the holidays as DAYS and put mostly good things in my cakehole at other times.  I’m starting to work on the transition of “OMG WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT WHENEVER I WANT IT” from 70.3 training to “healthy shit mostly whenever the fuck I want it” so that “healthy shit mostly AND NOT AS MUCH DAMN YOU NO CARBLOADING FOR AN HOUR WALK” isn’t a surprise.  The change in “hmmm, nothing is working” to “hey, slow as molasses but that’s a little lower” came when I switched to a) less meat b) more GOOD carbs/grains, which I plan on sticking with, but also c) really started ramping up my training.  So we’ll see.

My head is already spinning around what I want to accomplish next year but we’ll talk about that…um… then.  Let’s just do the deets and be done.

Last Week:

Monday: off (beer+mac and cheese reps?)
Tuesday: off (thought about swimming, and decided to sleep instead)
Wednesday: 30 min trainer, 30 mins weights
Thursday: 3.3 mile run in 33 mins
Friday: off
Saturday: 18.1 miles run (4 hours)
Sunday: off

This Week:

Monday: 3.2 mile run in 30
Tuesday: 30 mins on trainer (~9 miles)
Wednesday: costco walkin’ for an hour
Thursday: 2 miles in 22:53, 1 mile walk
Friday: off or another EZ run if my legs feel better.
Saturday: 13.1 mile race + ~5 miles add on before/after
Sunday: off

Goals for this week:
-Shove lots of good healthy food in my mouth.  Less sweets/chips/junk.  Perhaps that will take a bit off the scale (back into the 178’s so that’s something).  Veggies and fruit and hummus and beans and whole grains and stuff, oh my.  Like, how I used to eat before vacation ruined me.
-Run without injuring myself further and dying this week.  Listen to my body and realize that missing a few midweek runs this week to deal with the leg issues is ultimately ok and not going to ruin my marathon.
-Sleeeeeeeeep.  Like a boss.

Question of the week: what are you going to be for Halloween?

Since we’re already about 3 weeks out from this actually HAPPENING, I tried to be brief.  And only did one post instead of two – so, long end of vacation recap below.  I guess that really for real means it’s over…

Friday: Chocolate and Starfish

Thankfully we had gotten a bunch of sleep, as we had to be up and off the boat at 7:55.  Since we didn’t eat much the day before, I sent Zliten up to snag me half an english muffin and some fruit.  We just made it and h0pped in the bus and got the schpeil on all the gear and how things work.  We were to be covered head to toe so it wouldn’t be too cold.

8mm thick wetsuit, booties, hood, facemask, gloves… there were two little circles on each cheek that were exposed to water.  That was it.

I not entirely sure I’ve ever looked sexier.  We were lead down the path, and put on our fins and masks and gloves and in we went.  I asked and they said the water temps were in the low 50s.  Youch.  At first, it was pretty chilly as the water got into the wetsuit but after a few minutes it warmed up, and I, the cold-water weenie, will attest that it wasn’t bad at all.  I don’t think I even complained.  I even got to pee in it!

One of our instructors was Tad.  Here he is, holding up a sunflower starfish.  They can grow up to 20 legs.  Crazy!

This was Steve, our other instructor.  He’s holding a Sea Anemone!  We saw quite a few of those.

I has me a sea cucumber.  It was so ugly it was cute!  I kept pretending to nom nom nom it but I don’t think it liked that much.

We saw thousands of these all over.  I saw a baby one and I thought it had made my day.  Then I saw another and another and another.  That was awesome!

Those glowy ones were apparently harmless, but these jellyfish were stingy.  However, considering we were covered head to toe, as long as we didn’t kiss them, we were all good.  No making out with jellyfish, check.

And this is the tiniest starfish.  D’awwwwwww.

And this fish certainly enjoyed her time in the water.  After we got dragged out of the water and changed and showered and hot tea’d, we hit up the atm (it’s hard to find a Wells Fargo in Austin, but apparently they’re everywhere in Alaska…), and walked around the shops (didn’t get anything), and we saw a bald eagle.  Cool.

After a morning of activity, we were hungry, so we got a bite to eat.  It was Alaska, so I got some crab, duh.  What I ended up with was essentially 1/2 lb of crab, an english muffin, two pieces of cheddar, and two tomato slices.  Zliten got fish tacos.  They were both pretty tasty!

We did a little more peeking in stores and made it back to the boat just in time.

Ketchikan.  I approve!  We walked around on the top deck watching the boat sail away (the horn scared me half to death, we were walking RIGHT by it when it sounded, I seriously jumped two feet in the air) and then we decided lunch wasn’t quite enough, so we got a salad snack and then retired to the room for another glorious afternoon of reading and napping and napping and reading.  We got up, finagled ourself cute, and went to the fancy dining room and had one of our best dinners yet.  I finally got some crab on the boat with a yummy crab cake, and had tortilla soup, peanut chicken salad, and I went light for dinner with tilapia and had some lemon sorbet for dinner.

We hadn’t hit up much on ship entertainment, and one of the gals in the comedy troupe joined us for snorkeling, so we made sure to plan for that, but first we saw the broadway review.  The curtain was really cool.  The show was pretty darn good too – seemed like they had practiced a lot and could tell they were end of their run both because they were really really together and good, and also, the singers (both the boys and girls), had a little pooch (from cruise food).

Then, since we hadn’t eaten in a few minutes, we hit up the chocolate buffet.  We tasted a little of everything and I think the white chocolate truffle was the best.  We saw our friends up there and found out that J was going to do the “dancing with the pearl stars” show so we tried to hurry back there but we missed him as he had been eliminated in the first round.  Awwww.  The rest of the show was pretty funny – the couple who won was this lanky female dancing with a 4 foot tall dude – they got assigned the tango as their dance and she carried him around, it was a whole bunch of LOL.

After that, the comedy troupe came on and did their late night show.  They were pretty decent, and I know how hard improv is having done some in college.  Our friend were having some drinks and we were just kinda pooped from the day, so we just did the read and sleep thing again.

They knocked on our door a few hours later, but we were just OUT.  Some days, you’re the obnoxious drunk one, some days, you’re the lame one.

Saturday: Mellow Victoria

I bet you can probably guess what I did in the morning.  If you guessed read and napped, you’re right!  Ding ding ding!  We were over breakfast, so we skipped it.

We did something completely different later that morning though… we went to the GYM!  I had planned on Sunday and Monday off, and took Thursday off due to being dumb the day before, and shorted myself some bike miles from Friday (we considered getting a bike in Ketchikan, but we didn’t have time and then the nap monster claimed the afternoon).  Also, eff it, it was vacation!  However, we both kinda felt like gymming, so we biked and ran.  I got in 45 mins of climbing hills and sweating profusely on the bike, and then 4 miles of impromptu mini-hill repeats.   The boat was pretty rocky that day getting to Victoria, so each rock back and forth changed my “elevation”.  It was HARD!

We changed and headed to the dining room and ran into our friends D and P and we sat with them.  They actually bought a picture of us as a present because they thought it was cute.  Which I don’t have yet.  So take my word for it. 🙂  I had corn chowder and a club sandwich.   It was yummy!

Next, we made sure to pack as we got into port at 6pm and had to have the bags out an hour after we got back.  It was kinda sad.  And smelly.  So many sweaty clothes in such a small space.  Making use of a hair dryer to dry some of it for next-day use didn’t really help.  Then, if you’ve been playing along, you’d know we had a bottle of champagne we won in the room.  We changed it in at the bar, got some OJ, and drank some last-day-of-the-cruise mimosas. We hung out with our friends for a bit in the lounge, and then headed to dinner (seafood chowder, salad, seafood ciopinno (the shrimp and fish were fantastic, but the octopus and oysters were not my thing.

We got into port at around 6:30, and I was feeling kinda crampy, so we took the bus into town instead of walking the 30 mins.  We walked around a bit, checked out a big fancy hotel with gorgeous gardens, checked out a minatures museum, and decided instead to find a rooftop bar and a beverage.  I got the best apple ginger cider and fantastic garlic hummus and pitas!  We watched the sunset and enjoyed the milder temps!  I was only somewhat freezing!  After it got dark, we poked in some of the shops and walked out with some chocolate, and caught the bus back.  Dumbly – we got second dinner when we got back on the boat (last night of cruise gluttony and all).  For some reason I had avoided the indian food mostly, but I got a plate of it and it was excellent!  We ended the day the way we started it – book and bed.

Sunday: Pineapple Everything

We were up around 7:45 and out of the room by 8:15.  By this time, it was clear that vacation had really screwed up my sleep schedule, as getting up this early was getting difficult (which was 2 hours later at home – so dragging my ass up by the equivalent of 9:45 was challenging – I am seriously still recovering my early-birdness).  We snagged a little bit of breakfast with our friends and said goodbye – most of us were staying in Seattle that day but we all had our own plans.  Except for us – I uncharacteristically didn’t plan the hell out of our Seattle time, so we had 2 days to just wander.

Getting off the boat was the most painless process ever.  We were off, through customs, got our luggage and in a taxi to the hotel by 9:30!  Unheard of! Usually it’s like, NOON before they let you off.  I loved the hotel as soon as I saw it.  Their big thing was “pineapple hospitality” (what does that even mean?), so everything was pineapple themed.  Super cute! They didn’t have our room ready (not a surprise), so we checked our bags and went off on an adventure!  First stop – the space needle.  That was the ONE thing that I really wanted to do.  When we got there, we saw that there was a city-pass thing where you spent 69$ and got admission to like 8 different things – score!  Adventure found! Since I’ve never been to Seattle, I was happy to do the touristy things.

The space needle was awesome.  It was cool to go there first to sorta get the “lay of the land”, and to read the history.  I thought it had some higher purpose… I guess it was just meant to be an iconic structure!  Zliten kept calling it the spaceship on stilts, which I thought was super adorable and definitely fit.  After that we were hungry for a good burger – the ones on the cruise sucked because we’re spoiled with organic grass fed type beef and these were just… not.  We took the monorail downtown, hit up Yelp, and found a recommendation for Pike Brewery.  It did not dissapoint.  We got a great quality cheeseburger, some baked fries that were amazing, and a tasty craft brew.  It was refreshing to have a meal that didn’t feel like it was covered in butter!

(Picture from the next day – apparently we didn’t take our camera out that day…)

I had a wardrobe misfortune and had to grab some new socks (but they are now my new fave running socks so it works!).  After dealing with that, we spent the afternoon near the water – we hit up the aquarium and it was way fun!  We saw lots of different fishies – quite a few of which I had handled or seen in Ketchikan.  We saw a giant octopus, sea lions, and lots of other cool stuff.  Then, we got on a harbor cruise and got an hour tour around the Sound.  Zliten and I both were a little sleepy and the sun was hitting us *just right* so we both kinda dozed off intermittently.  It was sublime.  Someone even proposed on the boat!  Then, we checked out a curiosity shop with a bunch of shrunken heads and even a shrunken torso!  Creepy!

We were totally ready for some chill time after a pretty full day of adventure, so we snagged some ice cream (they had COTTON CANDY, I had to!!!) and headed back to the hotel.  The room was STILL not ready, so we nommed some pineapple cupcakes they had in the lobby, and sat on the couches there and read.  Finally, the room was available, and we took a great shower (it was sooooo nice to be in a larger bathroom, the shower was actually about the size of the whole bathroom), and decided upon the hotel restaurant for dinner because it was easy and had “safe for running in the AM” foods.

Normally before a long run I’ll carb up a bit but as you can tell my stores were pretty full.  We split an appetizer of pepperoni pizza rolls and I just had a side salad and tortilla soup.  Both were pretty decent.  The restaurant advertised big buckets of booze, which looked intriguing, but we were exhausted enough that even if we weren’t running, I don’t think we would have partook.  We headed to bed after some reading and watching TV, hoping to wake up really, really early to knock out our run so we had a full day to play in Seattle.

Monday: Running Paradise

You know that sleep where you can practically feel your body repairing itself?  Yeah, that.  We snoozed for a few HOURS because neither of us could bear to bring ourselves out of the wonderful, healing state we were in.  Especially to run a bunch of miles.  We got out about 2 hours later than we hoped, but the run was critical to get done, so we set out and did it.  The weather was gorgeous, and we walked about 1.5 miles out to Union Lake (we got confused a bit trying to get there, but finally found a bridge to cross the street).  I was a little rough getting started, and we had to take a pit stop around mile 2 for Zliten, but once we got going again it was just a gorgeous, wonderful run on a beautiful path.

Instead of following the lake we ended up taking the Burke-Gilman trail up through the university and it was just pure pleasurable running.  I had a pit stop at mile 5 or so, and then at 6.5 we turned around because it was clear that we were off our intended path of 6.2 miles around Union Lake, twice, and it’s a good thing as apparently it’s 40 miles long or something and I’m not that badass yet.

It was a huge confidence builder, we ran the whole dang way, at a decent pace (11:30 avg), and felt awesome at the end.  We walked the 1.5 miles back to the hotel and got gatorade on the way (best gatorade EVAR), for 16 miles total.

We hit the showers and then went out in search of food in the Queen Anne Hill area – we settled on Peso’s for Mexican food.  I got my norm of chicken fajitas, and Zliten got some tacos.

We made quick work of some chips and salsa and I polished off all my fajitas quick (total runger), and I enjoyed a prickly pear margarita.  By that time, we really only had time for one more activity before our evening plans, so we picked the EMP museum which was just down the street.

They had an awesome horror exhibit exploring the psychology of horror.  It had a soundproof scream booth which I apparently negated the soundproofness.

There was a cool projector that twisted shadows into scary thing…

…and so, so, so many awesome props from too many horror movies to name.

They also had a sci-fi exhibit with tons more props – they had lots of Star Trek and Stargate stuff we drooled over and Daleks that wanted to exterminate!  Sadly, we were really close to out of time so we raced through the upstairs rock n roll exhibit and hit the hotel quickly for a shower and splurged on a cab downtown to meet some friends of Zliten’s from college for dinner.  By the time we had finished the first glass of wine, I knew they were good peoples.  The bread there was excellent, and I had a dinner of crab cakes, mashed potatoes, and broccolini.  So, so amazing.  Zliten got the same thing.

Then, we hit up an Irish pub and enjoyed some booze and watching the sun set over the water and chatting.  Then, we went to go see the gum wall, and I added my contribution to Seattle.

We hit up a bar right on the water and drank some wine and split some more cotton candy ice cream.  The only thing we wanted to make sure to do was the space needle (again) at night.  We were a little sauced up by then, and thoroughly enjoyed the pretty lights from hundreds of feet up.  We ran around that!

Across the street was a crazy metal band playing at a bar called Funhouse, so there we went.  After some more drinkies and hanging out (I felt pretty out of place in my dress, boots, and cardigan there but oh well), they took us back to the hotel.  We weren’t ready to call it a night so we found a bar right down the street called Solo bar.  It was very “ultra lounge” inside with cool lighting.  We spent the last moments of our last night in Seattle with a hipster blond, techie nerd, and being serenaded by a homeless man.

Fun stuff.

Tuesday: Don’t wanna don’t wanna don’t wanna

Woke up feeling pretty crappy.  This is how I felt about going home.

Zliten was thrilled too.

We had considered getting up early and hitting the science museum, but instead we slept and then furiously shoved our shit in suitcases anywhichwayitwouldgo and caught a car to the airport with just an hour before our flight (oops).  It worked out ok, because we ended up having just enough time to get through security, snag a turkey sammich from quiznos, and hop a plane.

We stopped in San Jose, and then had just enough time in Phoenix to grab La Madeline (pesto chicken pasta and a sourdough roll – if you’re going to have a last vacation meal, you might as well go whole hog!) and get on another plane home.  Everything went without incident, got into Austin on time, got our bags, got our car, and made it home after 11 and hugged our couch, enjoyed the best night of sleep in weeks, and cursed ourselves for not taking another day off work to recover.

All in all, a freaking fantastic vacation.  One of the best ever.  Alaska was definitely a unique experience, being part of our friends getting hitched was awesome, I kinda have a little crush on the sunny version of Seattle, and I can definitely say that it didn’t cause me any race issues – it probably helped me be a little more rested and relaxed (though I did get about 75% of the training in I wanted to – which is GREAT for vacay).  I ONLY gained about 4 lbs (I’m around 179 now, and I was at a low of 174.6 the day I left) and as you can tell I ate like an asshole the entire time.

I usually have HUGE post-vacay sads but I have so many cool things to focus on in 2012 I’m not even worried about it.  Plus, we have another 10 day vacation coming up next spring. 🙂

What was the best thing from your last vacation?

I don’t mean to brag (yeah I do) but when you have a year like this with the bestest and most wonderful partner in crime ever, you can’t help it…

We drank a lot of rum and chilled the eff out in Montego Bay, Jamaica…

We enjoyed the heck out of Christmas with an epic 17 hours of presents (overboard, we went there a little…)

We PR’d Zliten’s 5k time in a gorilla suit…

We ran half marathons together….

We rode bikes a lot for stupid distances that we shouldn’t have until we got good enough to own it….

We got groceries a lot….

We danced with a dancing with the stars star…

Did just a few triathlons this spring and summer…

Made funny faces in airports….

Soaked up the Sun in San Diego….

Got our good friends hitched…

Spent time in Alaska looking swanky…

Spent some time looking sweaty in Alaska…

Ran the hell out of Seattle…

And finished our third married year conquering a half ironman together…

I’m not entirely sure how to top this third year of awesome adventures with my Zliten, but I’m sure excited to try in year 4!  Happy anniversary sunshine! 🙂

Settle in, this one will be a long post.  Get yourself a cuppa something and come back… we’ll wait.

Ok.  So, while the overall year goal is 24 races in 12 months, and we wanted to complete the Texas Tri Series (done!!!), and I wanted to do a century ride and a marathon (6 weeks left, ieeee!), this was really my biggest goal race of the year.  Ever since I bagged the second attempt at marathon training in January, I have been focused on ramping up from a sprint triathlete who did one olympic two years ago and pretty much died after to having half ironman endurance.

I knew it would be a long road so I did lots of run training and ran multiple half marathons until  was extremely familiar with the distance, and really didn’t ever drop below being able to bust out a half at any time.  Then, the bike.  I had only done one ride last year over 30 miles, and certainly hadn’t done anything before or after it, I was pooped.  I ripped that bandaid off pretty quickly doing two century rides in the spring that I really, really wasn’t ready for.  I got through them, but I was so wiped after I didn’t know how I was going to take my bike shorts off, let alone run a half marathon after.  The swim I was comfortable with, but I knew I could use some form improvement so I was less tired after even if I wasn’t faster.

Long story, well, still long but less War-and-Peace-like, we got a trainer and rode at the lake and rode the veloway and did a hilly group ride and rode on the trainer some more and finally about a month ago I really had confidence that I had this shit.  It took six months of training, but the key workouts I finished that really boosted my confidence were – the two century rides for sure, but then the really hilly 30 mile bike + 10 mile run in the heat, the 56 mile trainer + 13 mile run (with 120 miles of trainer the next week), the 50 mile outdoor ride at the veloway where I finally proved to myself I can keep a decent (15mph) pace, the Olympic tri (where I didn’t die after, I was training again the next day), and finally the great 16 miles outside in Seattle (not blogged yet, sorry, September was just that epic I’m still catching up), where I proved that my slowness/wussiness on the run really was heat induced.  Those made it easy to forget shitty sprint races and rough training sessions.

I was paranoid as fuck though this week so it helped a bit with my taper crazies.  Everyone at work was sick this week.  I threw my lower back out Sunday cleaning, but a trip to the chirocracker fixed me up.  Then, on Thursday’s easy 4 miler, I had something in my eye and I kept fucking with it and on my last workout before the race – I popped out my upper back.  Back to the chiro Friday, and she said it was really out.  She said it would likely have fixed itself on the swim, but there was a chance that I could have made it worse and really painful.  I was totally ok with a 20 dollar copay not to play the odds.  I spent a lot of time refusing to do anything but couch, ice, electro-shock, and take valerian root and requiring Zliten massages every night which he gave out like a trooper.  Laziness FTW!

Also, I spent a fair amount of time weather-stalking.  There was rain in the forecast but it was supposed to clear up before the race and be a low of ~60 and a high of 78.  Unicorns and rainbows in my perspective.

By Saturday when we left I felt better.  The drive was uneventful, we picked up our packets, dropped our bikes off, drove the bike course (and got incredibly lost so it took almost as long as it did by bike), checked into the hotel, and dropped our T2 bags off.  The day’s work being done, we had a traditional pre-race meal (salad, bread, filet mignon, and mashed potatoes) and ordered some to-go desert for the next day (carrot cake for me, buttermilk pie for Zliten), and shared some spumoni ice cream.  We figured we were ordering a scoop, and this is what we got.

We took half that to go too.  Didn’t want an icky belly.  We settled in bed early, drank some sleepy juice and watched TV and dorked on the tablets.  We were sharing one uncomfortable queen bed, so it wasn’t great sleep, but sleep it was, and we woke up and got going.  I maintained being 90% excited and 10% nervous the whole time, and I just couldn’t stop saying “it’s here, it’s here, it’s here” and dancing around.  I knew one of the major things I had to do was just get myself to the race with no injury (close call), no illness, a working bike, and a good attitude, and the rest would sort itself out race day.

We did a warmup run, I ate as much as I could stomach (a PR bar, half a honeymilk in my tea, and we hit the breakfast buffet and I nommed some fruit loops and a piece of bacon), pooped a bit, then walked down to set up T1 (it was right outside the hotel which was AWESOME) and they were playing gangahm style and I danced around a bit, went back to the hotel to drop stuff off and try to poop again, and got back in time to turn on my garmin, try to poop one more time, and hear the national anthem and it was time to race!  They weren’t letting people in to do warmup swims which made me sad but it was what it was.

It was definitely a different caliber of folks here than the normal tri – lots of Mdot tattoos, my bike was probably the cheapest by far on the rack, I was one of only a few non-wetsuit people (its usually too hot for a wetsuit in the TX).  I suppose in a different mindset that could have psyched me out but I was really set on running (tri-ing?) my own race.  It was me + the course.  Everyone else could do what they would.

Zliten’s wave was only 4 minutes before mine, so after hugs and kisses he went to do his half ironman thing and I put in my earplugs and focused on the day to come.  That was new this race – get used to hearing me be dumb and trying new things on my biggest race ever, but all for reasons.  I don’t swim well to my left side without earplugs due to water in that ear bugging me, and with my back being all wonky,  I didn’t want to aggravate it.  It worked like a charm though.  I was afraid that I couldn’t hear or they’d be annoying to deal with but I had no issues.

All of a sudden we were in the water, I started near the back since I wanted to start conservatively, and the horn went off and we were swimming.

It was really really really nice to be able to swim to both sides, but I think it slowed me down, as the only time I do a 3-stroke is slow recovery swimming in the pool, and it took me a while to break out of that and get to something like a race pace.  As I suspected, the first ~500yd out I was like “woe is me, everyone is passing me, I must be the last one in my wave”, then after the turn around I started realizing that people were way spread out and I was indeed not the last one, passing people, and even some people in waves ahead of me.  So I felt better.  The only thing, besides just going a little faster, that I would change was my brain.  I kept thinking about the bike and the run, that I still had a long day ahead of me, and I was ready to be done swimming so I could get on with it.  I also had stupid gangahm style in my head which is not useful because I don’t know the words, and it kinda annoyed me.

Then, about halfway through, I got myself out of that and realized that I loved swimming, I loved swimming in that lake, and there was a long day of AWESOME ahead of me.  Apparently I passed Zliten (he said he saw me) around the ~1500m turn around, swam strong into the finish, got righted by the glorious volunteer helper people, got my earplugs, swim cap and goggles off, put my sandals on my princess feet, and jogged up the hill.

Swim: 53:55 for 1.2 miles.  Slow and steady.  Not quite the 50 I was looking for, but still solid.

When I got my sandals, I noticed Zlitens were still there, and I was surprised not to see him in T1, but hey, I must have had a decent swim then!  I took the extra 30 seconds to put on my arm warmers as it was still in the 60s, did my normal transition-y stuff, piled everything into the T1 bag, and clomped off to start the second leg.

T1: 4:15.  Again, could have been faster, but I struggled with my arm warmers for a bit and took it a little slower than normal because – hey, it was going to be a long day.  Less than the 5 minutes I allowed myself.

On the bike, I noted that I wasn’t nearly as cold as last year.  The arm warmers were totally worth the extra time.  I chatted with a few people as I got going and threw a chompy in my mouth.  Sadly, one person blew past me and then just totally wrecked into the curb on the first mile.  She was ok, but dang… not a great way to start the leg.  The course was essentially a slight 14 mile downhill and then a 14 mile slight uphill.  It was pretty flat as courses go but there were a few things in the back half to be ready for (thank goodness for driving the course).  It was a little confidence busting that I didn’t pass a single person in that 14 mile downhill stretch but a) I was making it a point to ride conservative the first loop and b) I had a 19.5 mph pace.  I wasn’t coasting along.  So on I went.

As we went to the back hilly half, I finally passed my first person, and started turning on some effort.  I warned people when we got close to the sneaky hills – one was across a bridge and then up around a turny corner that you couldn’t see, and there were two more like that later in the course.  Nothing I couldn’t handle, and nothing like carnage, but I did have to get out of my seat on the last two for a bit.  No big d.  I was feeling great, and by the time we met up with the sprint course I was 3 miles from being half done with the bike, and had a great pace – if  could keep the same pace on the second loop I’d be around 3:10 – 20 mins earlier than my A goal.   I got super jazzed and had a shit eating grin even up the last big hill and around to the finish/lap 2 split.  One of the pro women passed me as she was coming in for the run, which made me happy – she was the only woman who lapped me! 🙂

On the second lap it got a little lonely.  Everyone in the pack with me was on the Olympic, which was one loop, and I couldn’t see anyone ahead of me for miles.  Also, it started spitting and the wind changed to be at my face.  I was ok with it since it was downhill, but I didn’t pick up nearly as much speed as I did the first time.  I got back up to 17.5 average from 16.5, but I knew I was going to have to book it on the back half to make up the time.  And then the wind changed again.  In my face.  Rude, rude, rude.  I encountered many loopy people, some were talking to themselves or singing to themselves, but so was I, so we were in good and looney company.

Also, very proud that I spent a lot of time (~10 miles?) in aero.  I am not very comfortable in aero on roads, but it got to the point where I needed to switch around how I sat and I feel like I leveled up a bit on aero-ing yesterday.  I still need to play with the fit and I may want to switch out my curvy handles for straight ones, but it was working for me.

I started losing track of eating, though, anytime I realized that I ate something, so I got down two packages of chomps, half a pack of honeystinger chews, and most of a honeystinger waffle (some of which fell as a sacrifice to the road gods), and I felt nice and fueled even if I didn’t stick to my strict every 2-3 miles put food in my face plan.  I also never got off the bike to pee or get aid and had what I needed so I never had to make a bottle grab, so that was good.

Also, 2+ hours on the bike started wreaking havoc on first my lower back, and then I really felt my quads tighten and then start hurting. It really became clear to me that a) I need become more comfortable with 50+ miles.  I feel great with 30-40, but I only did a handful longer than that, and ~45 is where I started to break down.  Since I had been having back issues that week, I put an emergency “cocktail” of 2 ibuprofen and 2 303s (herbal muscle relaxers) in my bento box just in case of emergency.  I’ve never taken either during exercise but figured having would be better than not.

By mile 50 I convinced myself that this was an emergency.  My back and quads were feeling pretty rough.  I didn’t know how I would make it through a half marathon.  So I grabbed it out and was about to take it and realized I don’t have those skillz on the bike.  I reminded myself to take them in transition.  I would have a waterbottle in transition.  Don’t be a dummy and forget to take them in transition I repeated to myself.

I got through the last 6 miles as fast as I could and didn’t drop below 16 mph avg (my A goal) until right when I hit transition.  Considering my centuries earlier this year were both above 5 hours for 5-10 miles more, I was stoked.

Bike: 3:31:23.  Nailed it. ~1 min over A goal is just fine with me.

In transition, I stripped off the arm warmers (they stayed up the whole time and made me extremely happysmiley), popped my cocktail, chugged a little extra nuun as my camelback had run out at 54 (perfect timing), did my normal transition-y stuff and headed out, shuffling, and hoping that I could knock out a decent half marathon.

T2: 4:09.  Way slower than normal, but I was fiddling with pills and arm warmers and a little shell shocked from 4.5 hours of DOING.  Still under the 5 mins I had allowed myself.

Something strange happened.  I got out on the run and I WAS FINE.  The pills couldn’t have kicked in yet, but the work I did to really try to keep my calves and hammies fresh on the bike and only waste my quads really worked.  I was out and down the first hill fast (well, 10-somethings – more than I had hoped for).  I realized I was feeling a little nauseous so I backed off on any nutrtion as gatorade or coke wasn’t really working, chomps or gels sounded like the worst things ever, fruit slices sounded soooooo good but didn’t sit well, and pretzels just got spit out.

I finally saw Zliten coming back from my first loop, and he looked rough.  He said “loop 1?” and I said “me too”, and I saw him each time and we high fived and exchanged words each time.  I was hoping I could catch him on a loop and run with him for a while but we were just off enough that I would have had to really book or he would have had to slow down a lot and that never happened.

I was doing great though, my pace was around 11:10s and the painkillers had kicked in.  I was loose, happy, not feeling any ill, and each mile that ticked off, I was like, ok, 13-n more like that, and kept plugging away feeling strong.  Then, around mile 5.5 the lack of nutrition hit hard and I got a little dizzy on the second loop uphill.  Nausea I can race through, but I take dizziness seriously, so I made plans to walk the next aid station and got two orange slices and gatorade.  At a walk pace, I was able to get them down and felt better.

On loop three it was clear I wasn’t going to be able to book through 11 minute miles.  If I wanted to finish, I had to take it slower.  I walked each aide station, getting down as many calories as I could in orange slices and gatorade, and then shuffled along.  Then, apparently, all the acidity of the oranges (plus maybe the ibuprofen?) just wreaked havoc on my stomach, so it became walk when I had to, run when I could.

But the thing I’m damn fucking proud of is I never let it get me down.  I was smiling and joking with the volunteers, dancing at the girl playing LMFAO on the sidelines, and smiling and feeling (besides the obvious issues) great!  Even though I saw my under 7 goal slipping away, I knew it wasn’t just me being a wuss and damned if I wasn’t going to enjoy my day.  I rounded the turnaround the final time and was pumped!  I ran down the hill only stopping for the aid station, hi fived all the volunteers, walked when I had to, ran when I could, and told everyone on the way back that I would see them next year and tried to run all the way uphill.   I had to stop for a bit as Cthulhu had definitely taken root in my stomach, but around 12.6 I went for it and took off with all I had, giving the horns and cheering, and hi-5ing everyone along the way.  I ran through that chute with my hands up and celebrated!  Oh my god I actually did it!

Run: 2:50:29 (13 min/mile)  It is what it is.  I need to work on nutrition on the run as while I can rock a half with nothing in my belly, after 4.5 hours of swim/bike, not so much.  Also, need to train and try the muscle relaxers and/or ibuprofen to see if that’s what did it.

Total time: 7:24:13.  I finished!  In like, over an hour and a half after the cutoff!  And I smiled and kept a great attitude the whole way.  Being my first, it’s an auto-PR.  It will be easy to beat next year (I am so doing another 70.3 next year).  I stayed mentally in it and made the best decisions that I could at each moment to finish strong and smiling and thrilled about racing and proud of what I had done to get there.

However, my tummy issues sadly didn’t go away.  I got my medal and the chip off and I was HUNGRY.  I went to the food line, and just couldn’t wait, so I grabbed some beanito chips and took my water and sat waiting for Zliten.  I ate some chips, felt ill, drank water, cheered on finishers, got hungry and then went OMG chips, ate more, felt sick, cheered on people, went OMG chips and kept up that cycle.  I saw him as I was about to finish and he was on his last lap and he said that it might be another hour until he finished at his pace so I knew I might have a wait but I kept hoping he just picked up his pace.

Finally, I saw him at a distance shuffling and I went and ran him in (my legs were working! yay!) and he said he was going to be ill and asked me the best place and I said I didn’t know, off to the side somewhere?  I split off to give him his finish and asked the guy at the finish where I could get into the finisher area and he said just to go through the finish line since it thinned out and I ran up and did the hands up things again (after he did) and the volunteers were confused because I had a medal and no chip and I told them I was running someone in and they told me just to go through again.  So I will have two finisher pics!  Whee!

He went to the med tent and got ice and held his cookies down.  We tried to get food which wasn’t working for either of us, but then we got beer, which is the first thing my belly liked since the bike all day, so I got down two of those.  We checked our results and got times, and had a little post race de-briefing on the benches together, and then realized we had to deal with our bikes.  In that they were 2 miles away from the hotel and we had no vehicle and the shuttles had stopped.  We were lucky enough to happen on some kind triathletes that took Zliten and his bike to the hotel while he got the car, and I chilled out on the sidewalk and cheered in the last finishers.  He collected me, and we went back to the hotel to get some of the most wonderful and painful (chafing, chafing everywhere, and why the fuck did I forget SUNSCREEN) showers of our lives.

We wanted nothing to do with our to-go deserts (a day full of nothing but sweet calories does that), so we got some tacos to go, which were probably just above taco bell quality, but OH MY GOD THEY WERE THE BEST TACOS I EVER HAD.  I was happy dancy (oh god tummy) happy dancy, but Zliten was a half a dude.  We shared a bottle of champagne and talked (mostly me talking and he nodded a lot) and then grabbed some drinks, and neither of us could get them down. 70.3 was officially the first distance we couldn’t party after.  We ordered to go from the restaurant at the hotel and ate a little of it (went between OMG SO HUNGRY and OH SO SICK every few bites) and then passed out.

I slept fitfully (crappy small bed, sunburn, tummy issues) and then got up, got some breakfast buffet (bacon, biscuits, and hash browns which were awesome, and then a glass of juice which made me sick again due to the acid) and packed up and left.  I was very disturbed because usually I have an iron tummy (half iron tummy? :D) so we stopped and got some pink stuff, and I felt better and then sitting in the car made me sick again, and then we got home.  Ahhhhh…

We hit the gym hot tub to relax the muscles, and then Zliten got lunch and I actually couldn’t think of anything I wanted to eat besides mac and cheese, so I went to the grocery store and grabbed anything that sounded good – including mac, a sandwich, baked fried shrimp, salad, mashed potatoes, guac, chicken and stars soup, and a couple other things.  So far, today, I’ve downed most of a package of mac and cheese and some beers, and am working on some tater chips and a sandwich and while it’s not the picture of health, or anything close to what I normally eat, it’s doing my belly good.  No more sickies!

I definitely want to give some love to Zliten.  Not only is he supportive of what I do, he’s joined me in my crazy and it’s pretty cool being able to spend QT with your husband on the trainer or on a morning run or lifting in the gym, or swimming laps.  It’s cool being able to finish a long training session or a race together on a weekend and then go drink and dissect it on the patio.  It’s amazing when you’re in your pit of despair from a peak week and he’s having a good day and he pulls you out, and vice versa.  I thank him for trusting my mad leet amateur coaching skills to get him from 5k to half marathon in the winter to half ironman in the fall and not complaining.  Too much.

As I wrap triathlon season ’12, I have probably another post of forward looking to what I learned and next years goals, but let’s leave it at this for now.  Also, I have my first damn marathon to run in 5 weeks and 6 days (ieeeeee).  However, I had the dude rooming next to us say that at the end of this, it feels just like a marathon, which just means I need to take it slow and careful, and just worry about keeping my ass smiling.

If you’re still reading, I commend you.  Off to down a few more beers and some more calories and enjoy the perfect temps on my patio and bask in the glow of being damn (half) ironpeople together!