I give up..

I think I need a coach now..I am feeling less motivated this week so took 3 days off..Biked today in the rain to start out with, then just cold and actually not so bad for 30 miles. Now I do not know if my lack of motivation has to do with the weather but it SUCKS lately here in the "Q". I have not even donned my bike shorts here yet and it is Easter..Easter folks! Also the big "A" that has hit us all (allergies) with a vengeance this year...WTF?

I have a running race in 3 weeks and a half Ironman triathlon in 11 weeks. I feel like I am falling behind because basically I am following my own training plan and guidance..Is this a good idea? I sense not. Because now H is following me too and I may be leading us down the wrong path altogether. We are loosely following Beginner Triathlete's plans for the half marathon and half IM. I just do not feel the same about race season this year. Maybe it is because the big one is so far away...I have no heart in Sprints this year and I know they are good for me to practice..

H pulled a calf muscle this week again..poor thing has this weakness in his legs that just seems to put up a fuss when he trains alot (imagine that!). Soooo he is out for running for awhile which makes it even more difficult to get my engine going...

Yes Coach Eric will be hearing from me soon..I just do not trust myself after all these years..

Today is Easter. I miss my kids..remembering when they were really small and we use to dye Easter eggs and hide them. This seems like another life ago and now they are having traditions with their own families..I even remember the family of origin and back in the day when my parents thought it was a good idea to dress us all up in matching dresses (5 girls) on Easter Sunday. Now that is just a little weird..no wonder I question my autonomy..

A short bitch about the weather..

And we, the supposed lucky people who live in the "Land of Enchantment" have this to train in the next few days:

TodayApr 8
Partly Cloudy / Wind
75°42°
10%
10%
FriApr 10
Partly Cloudy
71°45°
0%
0%
SatApr 11
Showers
55°38°
40%
SunApr 12
Showers / Wind
63°39°
40%
40%

Not to mention the allergy count is off the charts..
I am so spoiled...

Tour de Phoenix..

This is it. It says 72 miles on my Garmin and 74 miles on the medal. I will take the medal!

The last few miles were uphill as shown on the profile. It was a bit tough but nothing worse than what we ride here.

Here are our friends we stayed with:

We actually stayed with Chris' sister in law in Mesa-very generous Margie, who opened her home to total strangers..

This is us at 5:00 AM getting our dose of caffeine before we joined 950 of our new best friends on the tour.

I was not really in it to "race" but felt compelled once we were out there to give it a valiant effort.

We ended up showing a 4:45 time, although 20 min. of that were at rest stops..and it took us 3 min. or so to get to the starting line..People seemed very serious at this ride. I tried to chit-chat with a few cyclists, but was met with very little return conversation. We drafted Chris for awhile (on his fixie of course) but alas he drifted away from us when my HR started getting into the 150s. My favorite line from the day was when Chris said "Thank you" to an officer who was stopping traffic for us at an intersection and a woman at the corner (without skipping a beat) said "F&*k you-I have to get to work!" Lovely..

The course was well supported buy local law enforcement at every intersection. The nutrition was a bit lame at the rest stops (bananas and oranges)..But all in all a great time.

Yesterday we had a 2 hr. 15 min. run to do before we hit the road. I could only do about 8 miles and that was run/walking. Had terrible RTs, allergies that made the ones here in the "Q" look like child's play..I was not a happy camper. We hit the Indian Restaurant when we got home last night which made things so much brighter! We got to see Avery, Heidi and Jack when we arrived home...

I still feel fat and have to cut back again on the hormones. Very discouraged about the whole thing really!

The Details to Follow..

I honestly don't remember how this got started now..Seems we were looking at Ironman Races overseas, then there is the Milford Trek in New Zealand being planned for next March. Then we saw that there were only 1,000 people or so in the race and the idea was hatched...Hey why don't we do Ironman Western Australia? We make numbers 101 & 102 that have signed up for the race. Say what? There is one other woman in my AG who is from Hawaii (there goes my Kona slot!)..The course looks fairly "easy" although winds can be a factor. Wind, shmind, we have that one down pat! In my ever growing enthusiasm about the race, when they asked me what my estimated swim time was, I said 1:10...and overall estimated time 14:00 hrs! What was I smokin' last night?


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Of course this means we can't join all our local Ironman buddies at IMSG in Utah in May. Not as athletes anyway. However we are on board to sherpa and be volunteers at that race to cheer our peeps on..I feel a little sad about this and even entertained the idea of doing both but since we want to travel for 2 months after the Aussie competition, this is not practical..I have to admit even I have limits. Doing two IMs last year was a bit daunting and taxing on the 'ole body, I must admit..We can still train with our buds when we get back, yet stay inside on the COLD, WINDY days like we had the last week...

So much planning to do. I am in talk with a triathlon travel agency, although things seem a bit laid back over there. When I asked how we could get our bike sent back from Busselton (blogspot spellcheck does not recognize Busselton..hmmm) while we travel after the race, the person responded, you can just wait until you get over there and see...Hmmmm..may be time to research another travel company..I think things roll a bit different down under..

We are massively excited about this adventure. This is our dream.. to travel endlessly like really retired people...Now that the Internet will keep us relatively on the pulse of what is happening at home..it is more of a reality to do.

So now we have a half IM in June, half IM in November and Busselton in December..gulp..

Oh yes we did!

It is official..
We have lost our minds..

Details to follow!