Glass Empty, Glass Full..I Choose my Future..

I vaguely remember my Dad explaining that if you fill a glass half full of water, you have a choice whether to see the glass half empty or half full. Oh, how I struggle with this! Especially athletically, when I know I work hard and am fortunate to have the good health to race, especially at "my age". I still have to constantly choose the glass "half full"..

It's Friday-time to blog again! I have been in a whirlwind of training, eating, sleeping, train, eat, sleep. I am really, really tired. Today is my day off and it is well needed! I find myself thinking so many brilliant thoughts to share during the week while biking, running and swimming but alas...the week is a blur so will have to stick to my less than brilliant recap.

Last weekend was a big one of training. We met the team, in the dark last Saturday after a trip in our Maxi taxi down to Williamstown to meet the group at 6:00 AM, decked with bike lights on and full of coffee. It was cold, rainy and windy. Not a great combination as we took off with the group, barely hanging on. Their "warmup pace" is our balls to the wall pace in some stretches. I fell off the group a few times as we road along the beach. The wind, cold and intermittent rain was relentless. Finally H and I said our goodbyes after a great suggestion of one of the coaches to do loops around a rather secluded section inland. Thank goodness! As we made our way several times around the loop, we encountered a quirky looking older man who would pass us, slow down in front of us, we passed, then he passed us, slowed down, etc. I was getting rather pissed off-was he doing this on purpose?  Finishing our faster paced race pace efforts,we left the wierd guy to make our way home. We finally found the beach Esplanade way home along the boardwalk. It was a beautiful 2 hour adventure home. The wind and cold was still present but we were getting use to it and distracted by our surroundings by now, I suppose. After getting lost only once, we finally made it home. Over 80 mile a of character building was quite enough for me that day! Off the bike to run for a bit, my legs felt fine...this was a huge relief as the ride seemed to literally taken the wind out of my sails. I fell into bed after much food consumed on Saturday night!

Sunday was a whole different story..we woke up to sunshine, calm and temp in the 70s. Wow, a perfect day to run! We ran down the beach for 2 hours, 10 minutes in total bliss. I had awakened Saturday night to go to the bathroom and on the way back to bed Bam! My big toe hit the end of the bed, sending some searing pain through my foot.  I felt quite a bit of pain in the toe and foot the first hour of the run. I just hoped I had not broken anything. After the endorphins kicked in on the run, the toe settled down a bit. I had throbbing pain in my toe Sunday night and Monday, which really worried me. I felt so stoopid doing such a lame thing to my foot! Finally midweek, the pain stopped. Whew! Anyway, Sunday's run was great, I felt strong and fast (well my fast). My walking has decreased to a short 30 second walk/jog very 4 minutes and it feels great! We did a second 40 minute run Sunday late in the day as prescribed by our coach and all was well, minus the stoopid toe pain..Also a 30 minute swim in the ocean in between runs to round out the day. I felt seasick as we swam along the shore right outside our apartment. Blah! Something new to deal with as the waves were roling me back and forth in the shallow surf. I did my best but felt terribly slow and awkward. 

Over the weekend, I was able to practice my new nutrition plan with Shotz nutrition gels, Electrolytes and bars. I was quite pleased as my stomach felt fine on both days and alas-only one trip to the porta potty on Sunday-yee haw! Now I just need to tweak some things nutrition wise and I am good to go on race day, I think..

Weekend training done!

 

Sunday afternoon, we got to watch the Geelong 70.3 TV. special that we were made part of before and on race day. I had no idea how much of our interview before, during and after the race would be shown. Actually I was quite surprised at the 10 minutes or so total coverage we did have. H and I sounded somewhat intelligent the day before the race on the beach. Post race at the finish line, I blathered on about the course conditions, how I felt, etc. A far cry from Emma Moffit's (the female Pro who won) calm post race comments but that was my reality! I must admit, it was quite fun to see ourselves on TV. This is, of course our 15 minutes of fame, as they say. Part of me was horrified that I was DFL and posted such a horrific time for the race, which they showed boldy on the time clock as we finished..I know the conditions sucked, even winner Pro Craig Alexander said so-if he said so it must be true! But this finish doesn't exactly fill me with confidence for the big one in a little over 3 weeks from now. It's a glass full, glass empty situation. I finished Geelong, something hundreds of people apparently didn't. However, I was so slow in that wind on the bike. This scares me as I know the weather will be unpredictable on IM race day. Some things I can control, but the weather I can't. So I will need to mentally prepare for the worst and the rest will be cake..Maybe we will get a good day out there, maybe not, but I will definitely have my best training done for such an event. There is time to work on what I can control! 

I did like when the interviewer said at the Finish Line Did you ever feel like quitting?, to which I responded No, never-I do not quit! For this, I can definitely thank my Mom..who never quit in her life.

Monday I was tired! After a brief ride and a trip to go shopping cart in tow, I did my best to rest before our open water swim with the TEAM and coach Monday at 6:00 PM. I am a morning person by nature and although I know the value of getting in the water or training later in the day (after all Ironman is a really long day and well...I will be out much past dark on race day presumably), it is still hard for me to muster up the energy to walk out the door to swim at that hour. I was grumpy and tired. We got to the water and of course the wind had picked up and ocean quite choppy by then. It is important H and I get use to these conditions, I know but in the moment it was all I could do to muster up the energy to get my wetsuit on to jump in the wavy water. When I went to pull up my wetsuit rip! My wetsuit tore at a seam. It wasn't just a little tear but a big tear..I was almost in tears at this point. H was having trouble with his wetsuit zipper and we were late getting in the water already. We were ready to call it a day but after some encouragement from Coach Michael, I finally got in the water. I swam as fast as I could against the current out to a bouy some 200-300 yards away. Then back to shore with the tide, which although I never feel like I am really swimming in these conditions, somehow I make it back to shore. We repeated this a couple of times, ran down the beach and did a U shaped swim around 2 bouys. I and my busted wetsuit were doing fine by now. I actually felt great once I exited the water. I took my frustration out by swimming-a novel idea!

The rest of the week was filled with bikes, swims and runs. It all feels like a blur now. Wednesday, we were supposed to bike 3 hours, followed by a short run. We got out there on the gloomy looking morning. About 30 minutes into the ride it was pouring rain. I was torn between Hey, we need to learn to ride in this in case of race day weather possibilities and Screw this-let's go have breakfast!. Well, we landed somewhere in between as we both started shivering in the rain (**note to self, bring actual rain jacket on race day and warm clothes for special needs bag**). We turned around after deciding to switch training days since Thurdsay had scheduled an hour long bike and run. We would do this today and do the longer ride on Thursday. Brilliant! Off we went to the gym, after drying off and cleaning our dirty wet bikes. We both had a swim lesson with Craig, our new best swim friend. He took one look at my wetsuit and confirmed what I already knew. It could be repaired but the rest of the suit had seen its day in the last 5 years..decision made. Time for a new wetsuit, which I will be heading out to purchase today. I will probably stick to the same Blue Seventy brand, just a newer model. Craig can hook me up at his swim shop.

Yesterday we had a beautiful but windy ride down the coast for 3 hours. We experienced a headwind going and tailwind returning. The best kind of wind to have! We stopped briefly at a bike store on the way down to see what was clicking on H's bike and I saw a mirage: a very large piece of carrot cake staring me in the face at the adjacent cafe in the bike shop. Really??? How am I to pass this up? Well, we did, however briefly because on the way back we succumbed to temptation and stopped to enjoy splitting a piece of heaven! It tasted so good, not too rich and gooey. I felt a fleeting emotion of guilt stopping that long and consuming a much non training friendly sugar fix, but man it was good! I am still on my quest to eat a lot of healthy foods but this was too good to pass up, even if it was not on my bike nutrition plan..oh yea! Quick run off the bike and I fell into a stupor of watching stoopid TV on my IPad after consuming large amounts of healthy foods for dinner. I felt like a Zombie..

Which leads me to today. I slept in until 7:00 AM. Yippee!! My world is getting smaller by the day. Sleeping, eating and training is an all consuming practice..lol. After waking up at 4-5:00 -AM most mornings since I have been in Melbourne, a sleep for 9 hours felt like heaven! We did stay up late until 10:30 to watch American Idol, which for some reason is on same day Australian TV.  I kind of wish they showed The Voice also but beggars can't be choosers, right? I can watch The Voice online the day after so am not too deprived.

I am doing laundry everyday, I mean almost every day! This is the joy of not having much stuff to wear and the way we go through bike, run and more bike wear these days is well, ridiculous! It does have a simplicity to it I suppose. I have given up actually folding clothes. Why bother? It gets thrown on the bed, in drawers, wherever it can have a home for one day and not care too much..

I have a real treat coming on Monday-we hired someone to do a thorough cleaning of the apartment..OMG it really needs it. I have tried to do my best wifely duties up until now (*snort*), but can't keep up daily cleaning enough as my energy is well, limited these days. Not to mention I hate cleaning toilets, mopping floors, especially hard wood ones, which I haven't seen since the 70s. So one deep cleaning following my few feeble attempts after 6 weeks is a luxury I can afford. We still have apartment issues but finally, now that the weather has cooled down significantly, the air conditioner has been fixed and screens will be in our windows to keep bugs out about the time we leave-haha...the joke is on us!

I am starting to have nightmares about the Ironman race in 3 weeks. Dreams of not making the cutoff, getting lost, not starting on time. The all too familiar pre race stress nightmares! Then I see there are 5 women in my age group after they posted the bib list online. I would be excited about this except I found out at the Ironman Asia Pacific Championships, they only go 3 deep for age group awards. Wtf? In the US, they go 5 deep. So in order to get an AG award, I will have to work for my reward. Oh well, just need to get psyched up to have a good day out there, goodness knows I am training for it!! And let the cards fall where they may...I am having a difficult time thinking positive in my Iron tired state. I guess one advantage to doing 5 of these already is that these stress related exhaustion thoughts pre-race are totally normal. In 2 weeks, as I am tapering, I expect to feel like a horse at the starting gate-lemme at 'em!! I have done some research on my competition on Athlinks (website that has nearly every athlete's previous races and times) and I see no real reason I can't do well out there on March 23rd. Patience is my friend! I have worked so hard training the last few months, the work is pretty much done at this point. We do have another week of hours out there but in reality, I am pretty well trained at this point. Then we taper....

Well, off to buy a new wetsuit and get myself psyched up for another long training weekend. I can't even bring myself to look at the weather forecast yet. It is often not right anyway, we are on the ocean and no one tells Mother Ocean how to create weather I have found! Today being my day off it is beautiful out there of course- time to try out a new wetsuit?

Total Immersion Ironman Camp..Melbourne style..

"Team Wess" is in the "Iron Tired" phase of training now. I feel like all I do is train, eat, train, sleep, eat train...that's the sign I am on the home stretch before the big day March 23rd. Funny, I do not remember how tiring training for this kind of endurance event is. Kind of like pregnancy, until I am right up against it the last month of training my memories are blocked from the previous race buildup. A very familiar sense of fatigue that only the daily grind of the run, bike, swim is in play, as I build my endurance muscles for the big day. The hunger is unreal. I will eat a meal, be hungry an hour later..wtf? The words insatiable appetite come to mind!

The weather seems to have mostly cooperated so far. We took a "Maxi taxi" to Williamstown (a community across the bay) last Saturday at 6:00 AM, bike lights and all to meet up with the "TEAM". The plan was to go biking on a stretch of road that had virtually no traffic lights for a couple of hours. We kept up with the fast kids' pace for a good hour and a half, after which boom! H had a flat tire, which one of the coaches helped us fix. Then they were off to a higher pace and we headed out on our pace (this was the plan). Heading back to Melbourne we were on a pretty busy highway with a huge shoulder but somewhat scary at times with cars/trucks whizzing by. We had a map which my coach had given us but after we made the turnaround back to port Melbourne, we couldn't quite find the point at which we get off the highway and head back from Williamstown (a good 8 miles from home). We met a very nice guy (shocker), who told us how to get back to the city via a bike trail, which at the time seemed like a good idea. There were some twists and turns to this trail and all the maps in the world including google maps (which doesn't seem to recognize bike trails at all) could not save us from the slow and go trip back. I am so sick of maps!! So the return was a bit frustrating, I am the "map person" in Team Wess and more than once I wanted to call in a Maxi Taxi to get us back home. Finally, we made it to some familiar territory in Docklands, north of Port Melbourne. A few days before we had been there looking like 2 lost Amercian puppies, when a fellow on a bike came up and asked us if we were lost..is it that obvious? I thought, map in hand with a thoroughly frustrated look on my face. We said yes and he guided us to the trail back home. He was a local but we chatted a bit and found out he had just gone to America. Not only that, he had visited New Mexico.Which is really wierd because most Australians, heck don't even know where NM is in the US! This guy went there because of Breaking Bad, which apparently has been popular even over here. I told him about our daughter and son-in-law's Biking Bad tour at their bike rental and tours shop in ABQ . We wished he knew about them on his recent trip..

After this short conversation last week, we found our way home and said goodbye to the lovely stranger who had helped us get out of the fray of the city and on our way. Again on Saturday we were in the same exact place, having the same exact bewildered look on our face when we saw the same guy again! He said are these the folks from Albuquerque. Are you lost again? I was somewhat embarrassed that we were but so grateful we had found our guardian angel of Melbourne to point us in the right direction again.. We conversed again for a couple of minutes..said our thanks and finally made it home after a long day on the bike. An almost perfect day minus the getting lost part, which seems to be a regular occurrence these days but it is all part of the adventure. Almost 80 miles on the bike..done..After a short run off the bike, we were off to our favorite sport these days-eating!!

Imagine our surprise when we got an email from our daughter from their bike rental store in ABQ. She had received an email from Adrian, our guardian angel, who remembered the story of their business and wanted to get together to show us around the city on our bikes. Wow! Can these Australians be any more friendly and gracious? Long story short, we did hook up with Adrian and yesterday he took us on a lovely ride around the city perimeter mostly on bike trails. It was so amazing and beautiful and the best part? There were no maps involved! On the way, Adrian took us to his charming house in north Melbourne,which was built in the 1800s, an amazing piece of Victorian architecture. We enjoyed his homemade fruitcake, which was delicious! In spite of 2 flat tires (this seems to be our curse this week) and an unplanned trip to a bike store, it was another great adventure in the land of Oz!

After our Melbourne tour ride, I headed to the pool and had a swim lesson yesterday from "Craig" a recommended swim instructor who also owns a local swim shop. He was awesome! He gave me some positive feedback (at last I feel like I am not the slowest kid in the neighborhood!), some great tips on Ironman swimming and staying efficient in the water. I actually worked my ass off in the pool, walked away tired and happy. I googled "Craig Percival" when I got home and damn! This guy actually competed in Ultraman Canada (think double the distances of an Ironman only more) in August and was in first place after the first 2 legs of the race. Craig set a record in the 10k swim. He was so down to earth, who knew I was learning swim tips from such a(nother) amazing athlete! Another brush with greatness, I feel so lucky to meet such knowledgeable athletes here.

We also talked to a nutrition expert this week, who gave suggestions on how I could prevent the nagging "runner's trots", which is exactly like it sounds in the experience. It happens mostly on long runs, but can attack me on even shorter runs when I am training this much. Several trips to the porta potties or bushes while running down Beach road trail is NOT my idea of a good training day at all!! So I will be trying a new nutrition plan for Ironman. More direct electrolytes (no Gator Aid) and a different gel for calories. Take that..you G.I. Distress!! Shotz Nutrition is my new plan..Darryl, who invented the product is yet another fountain of knowledge we were privileged to tap into before the big race.

I am exhausted today. Our 2nd run to the gym was more like a death March for me today. For the first time in weeks, I begged off strength training and laid on the gym couch watching the Winter Olympics, women's figure skating. Up until then I was like what Olympics? I have been WAY out of that loop this year. I hope to at least catch the figure skating. TV here is a bit limited but they are showing the new American Idol-a real treat when I manage to stay up to watch it!

Another big weekend of biking and running after a much needed day off tomorrow, is approaching. Today, the wind was so strong I was almost blown off the bike. Monday we did an open water swim in the choppy seas-this is all "character building" preparation for Ironman Melbourne.

That's OK-bring it!!

PS We are going to be on Australian TV this Sunday! The notorious "Geelong 70.3" race 2 weeks ago In which they did several interviews of us, is apparently part of a one hour " triathlon special" on local TV. The show is at 2:30 on 7Mate TV. Only our Aussie friends will be able to watch but I will try and obtain a copy of the program for our friends and family at home. It may be only a 2 minute spot for us but we will count it as our 15 minutes of fame!

 

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Livin' the Dream..

5 weeks til Ironman. Five weeks!! Time will fly, I know. I'm starting to get the "Oh crap am I doing enough?" paranoia already. But alas, in reality there are many days to remedy that. I should really wait until the week before the race to go there...

Sunday in Geelong was rough, really tough. The weather conditions were unpredicted and affected all legs of the race. Heat, wind-the only thing we didn't experience was rain..that would have been much more of a mess and probably stopped the race way before the race officials actually decided it was too dangerous to continue. We are still fighting with IM powers that be, to get H's 2nd place award. I mean we are one of the subjects of the TV special they are making about the race..shouldn't H get some credit? Plus, to arbitrarily stop people from going on the run wasn't right...I can see they didn't want racers out on the course all day but what if the slower riders could rock the run? Well, can't rewind so we wil go with what will be, will be. 

There will be an hour long special on "Mate7" (Australian TV) TV on February 23rd at 2:30. It is the special about the Geelong 70.3 race that will include the interviews and stuff about us. We got an email from the Ironman Asia Pacific people that this is when the special will air. I have no idea if we will have just a snippet or our full interviews or what exactly. All I know is I look pretty messy most of the times they got me on film. I am awaiting an answer if whether or not I can get a copy of the Special to take home with me. The interviewer did tell me our interview would be directly following the interview with Craig Alexander, the Pro who is very famous in the Ironman Triathlon world. He actually won the whole race on Sunday. He said he raced in the poorest conditions ever and his 4:05 time was way off his previous times (sub 4 hours). My race took me twice as long as his and I was off my previous times also so pretty much Craig ("Crowie" is his nickname) and I are the same...haha!

So onward to Ironman Melbourne training which looks something like this for this week (we are recovering from Sundays race the first couple days):

Sunday: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run (Geelong 70.3)

Monday: off

Tuesday: Bike 1.5 hours easy AM, bike 1 hour PM, run 10 minutes off the bike (brick, my coach likes bricks, a lot of bricks..), weight training

Wednesday: 2 hour easy ride AM, 15 minute run off the bike, swim 1 hour, walk to and from gym to swim (around 3 miles)

Thursday: 45 minute run in the AM, 20 min run  in the PM, weight training

Friday: laundry, cleaning our disgusting dirty apartment, shopping (well, maybe I added these things), resting-we are off!

Saturday: bike 5 hours easy, include some "short race pace" segments, 20 min. run off the bike, stand in the ocean for 15 minutes for recovery (this is my personal favorite-something very soothing and healing about sea water..)

Sunday: run 1 hour 55 min in the AM, 30 min. PM, 30 min. easy swim.

When I see this on our training plan, it looks easy but when I actually write it down here I think damn! That's a lot of hours of training. The training plan will consist of many 2 a day training sessions, which is good for me. I can train in the PM heat, but not too long (yet), plus I get the sense of running during the time of day I probably will be out running for the actual race. Mental preparation is good for the soul! So far, so good on the training. I did cut the swim short on Wednesday. We swim laps in a gorgeous 50 meter pool at the gym. There is one such pool outside and one inside. Little did we know when we planned to go, there was a swim competition in the outdoor pool and very few lap swimming lanes in the indoor pool because of kids' swim classes. I was asked to move once for a class, then had to share a lane with like 5 people (OMG the little old ladies at the gyms in ABQ would freak out at this arrangement!) Well, I guess I was one of those little ole ladies because after 30 minutes, I was totally over kids screaming, trying to figure out if I was in the right lap lane, blah, blah blah..so I got out. I wished I had opted for an ocean swim, right out our back door! 

Note to self: call gym before we go to swim to check if classes/swim meets are going on. 

I mean don't get me wrong. When I see a million kidlets swimming or learning to swim as part of a school program, I think How civilized getting kids out to exercise! In the US, I do not see much of that, at least in our little corner of the world. So Bravo to the Australians for getting their kids out there!!

Our biking is mostly down Beach Road, the main thoroughfare north to south from Melbourne, all the way down the Phillip Bay coast. It is very busy with cars, especially certain times of the day but we are actually handling riding on the left in traffic quite well. We can go for miles and miles on this road. 26 miles down the coast is Frankston, the site of the beginning of Ironman MEL. The bike portion actually goes on a very busy freeway for the race, the road is shutdown for the race, 3 laps on a supposedly very fast highway loop. So no practicing for race day on the bike course however the run course is a different story. After the bike portion in Frankston, we run from Frankston to St Kilda, up in our neck of the Melbourne woods. A 26 mile run along the Port Phillip Bay, using the beach running path that has stunning views and happy, healing ocean air is my idea of a good ending to Ironman. If we can figure out the train system to Frankston, we may do public transportation down there and run back for a training run this Sunday..nearly everyday is an adventure for team Wess these days...

In other news, today is Valentines Day in Australia. We may even venture to the "CBD" (city) on the tram for dinner, a very early dinner. H and I will be missing our annual Valentine's dinner at Villa de Capo, the restaurant we had our first date at exactly 25 years ago today. We have had the last 25 years of Valentine's day dinners there, every year without fail. Wow, is this bad luck that we are missing this year? Will the restaurant notice? If only the restaurant walls could talk, it would have some stories to tell of team Wess over the years! We will have to "settle" for dinner in lovely Melbourne, not a bad second choice..For V-Day, H bought me flowers and "TimTams", my favorite Australian dessert. Seriously, I think TimTams should be a food group here, they are so awesome.. Speaking of food, I am hungry all the time, I mean all the time! It is hard to make healthy food choices when all you want to do is eat and in the evening the craving for ice cream and chocolate makes me feel like a pregnant woman again after all these years. I am Ironman hungry! Doing my best to eat right but it is hard..

Tomorrow AM., we are planning to meet some folks from the "TEAM" to bike in a new place west of us. A 6:00 AM start is mighty early even for me, who basically doesn't sleep past 4:30-5:00 anyway but need much coffee for early workouts. It brings back memories of years ago when my training buddies were always wanting to start biking at the crack of dawn and me dragging my ass out of bed many, many Saturdays! Tomorrow morning, we are taking a taxi for the 6 mile trip to the meetup since we do not really feel up to riding to a new place, in the dark trying to follow google maps along the way. We will probably stay with the group only for about 15 minutes but that's OK. These folks are fast!! We get to try a new bike adventure...game on..

The apartment continues to be a challenge. We have complained more to the owner than any place we have ever stayed as far as a VRBO kind of rental. Granted we are here for 10 weeks so others may not mind no air conditioning, hot water or disconnected internet for a night or 2 but for us, not so much..the temps have soared here some days to the 90s. So when the a/c stops working at those times, especially at night, team Wess gets grumpy real fast..

The owner is very responsive to our needs. I complained that the drawers in the kitchen were dirty (I mean crumbs in them, grime, etc. kind of dirty). She came right over with help, bucket in hand and spent the next 3 hours cleaning-just the kitchen! She fixed the dirt and clutter in the kitchen. We have had a/c people here 3 times now, this afternoon they are promising to fix it. We have to leave all the windows and doors open at night just to sleep, the windows have no screens, not unusual for the area, I think. Last night it was exceptionally humid so mosquitoes or whatever version of biting Aussie bugs were coming in and having a feast on our bodies. I finally had to go into the extra bedroom, shut the door and window when I couldn't take anymore bug bites...I was Googling "bed bugs" this AM but I can pretty much rule these out so yes, they must be mosquito bites on both H and me.

Note to self: get mosquito spray

The Internet stopped working randomly one day, as did all the lights and appliances in the kitchen. The other owner, or partner of the owner fixed the electrical thing, all the time complaining how much money he had spent on this apartment; the a/c, the water heater, etc. Uh, after what we pay, we really don't care about hearing that! 

We spent a couple of hours on the phone with the Internet company getting it fixed. Not a huge deal but just another annoying thing to deal with. In these moments, I miss our home in ABQ, where I take long luxurious baths and have cold a/c and the lights pretty much work all the time! 

I am very hopeful we will get some relief tonight with the a/c fixed. Fingers crossed..we are paying top dollar for the absolutley stunning view of the ocean and bay, the access to the beach and shopping. We know this and when you rent a place overseas, it is always a crap shoot. I am learning the right questions to ask now that we have opted to do these long term rentals in a foreign city as part of ourtravel  experience.  Like I said, always an adventure!

Sometimes, I feel guilty that we are able to travel and play like we do. We are young enough to do all these things and are fortunate to be healthy enough to continue to train and race like we do. Should I feel guilty and say we are so lucky? Well, partly we are lucky. But then I remember that we worked our asses off to get where we are and do what we do. H and I worked our butts off for many, many years in successful careers and child raising. Our plan was always to save money to retire early, in our 50s. Well, H was 59 and I was 52 when we retired. Life happens, we were able to spend time helping take care of/with H's mom for a couple of years before she passed. This was not in the plan but looking back I am so grateful we did. After that, we started livin' the dream. That's what we are doing-lucky, probably. Grateful for our health, always. But by golly, we earned it!

Wind Blown, Tired and Happy..

Well it was a day of all days...a windy hot Australian race day. It was déjà vu of IM Western Australia of 2009 only hotter and twice as windy. Welcome to Aussie long distance Triathlon!

The weekend started with H and I taking the train from Melbourne to the race venue on Friday. It was a pleasant ride, the train accepted us with our bikes and in no time we were in Geelong, a coastal city with beautiful beaches, sailboats and Restaurants on the coastline. We had booked the  only hotel available at the time we registered, a good mile from the race site and beach. The "Mercure Hotel" was quite dated, which we could handle. It was a 40 year old establishment with the furniture to prove it. The day we arrived it was in the 90s outside. Since the A/C in our apartment in Melbourne seemed to be challenged with all the heat waves happening lately, we so looked  forward to a nice air conditioned hotel with a nice bathtub, (the apartment didn't have one). Well, long story short, this hotel had neither. It was explained that the whole hotel was on the same temperature, a not so cool a/c system. We were pretty upset by this so started to inquire about a room at the really nice Sheraton across from the finish line of the race down at the beach. No luck-they were booked, with no cancellations. I called many times Friday night and Saturday morning to see if anyone canceled. When we went to packet pickup Friday we even went in person to no avail. Finally on Sat. AM, when we went to drop our bikes off we walked in and score! They had a cancellation 30 seconds before we walked up to the counter. So we moved to the beautiful Sheraton on Saturday, perfect A/C and a bathtub-yay!

The weather Saturday was beautiful..We went for a practice swim and the ocean was calm. We biked for a bit on the streets of Geelong and it was awesome! Ready for race day on Sunday. We had dinner with our new coaching team, TEAM Tri Coaching. There were 25 or so athletes at the dinner- high energy, fun, happy young Triathletes. We felt very welcomed and accepted even given our "older status" and not so stellar fast ability. It's all good and we love our Coach Michael and other Coach Xavier, the founder of the team. 

Pre-Race:

We awoke very early after going to sleep around 8:30 the previous evening. It was a warm, somewhat windy AM, the temps already in the 80s. H and I felt good after a good night's sleep in our nice air conditioned room. After eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, coffee and Red Bull off we went to transition, a mere 10 minutes from our room at the Sheraton, our new abode. I felt excited and nervous, my usual state of being before any race, even a "practice race" as Geelong 70.3 was intended to be. It was still dark but the lights were bright in transition as I began to set up my transition. I met the other 2 women in my age group who were lovely women. The whole energy of this race transition seemed much less intense than races like this in the US. People were polite, kind and somewhat mellow. After getting setup with our bike, swim and run stuff off I went to the team tent, which was right outside transition. There were a couple dozen teammates there, chatting and happy pre race. We found our coach who was bright and cheery this race morning. It gave me calming energy to be at the team tent, even in my pre race jitter status. We had heard the wind was suppose to pick up as the morning wore on. The ocean in the "protected cove" was pretty calm as the sun was starting to rise and the light of day arrived. H and I headed down to the swim start along with the other 2000 athletes. I started feeling quite nervous after the Pros went out and it appeared to me they were fighting some ocean chop. Maybe I was imagining this...not.. After H and I helped each other on with our wetsuits, I took a short practice swim. All seemed fine, the water was warm, the air temps quite warm. The air was forecasted to cool off as the day wore on, so I really wasn't worried about the heat or wind. The most the wind was suppose to "gust" was 30 MPH, a PIA kind of wind, but nothing I hadn't felt in NM on my bike. 

The Swim:

As the gun went off for my swim wave (35 and up women), I jumped in..here we go! The first thing I noticed is that the swells seemed rather large. OK, maybe near the shore we have this chop, but once we are out further,it should calm down, I thought to myself.  Uh, no-no it didn't. It only got worse. The swells were 8-10 feet high, I think. Imagine a huge roller coaster in the ocean and this is what it felt like. I looked up to sight the buoys (which I could mostly not see) and I would see a huge wave coming at me. I was trying to "swim" but I don't even know what I was doing to move forward. Slapping my arms in water, breast stroking, trying not to run over or into my fellow competitors. I remembered hearing somewhere if you had to swim through huge waves that when you see one coming at you, jump into the wave to the other side. I tried to incorporate this, having no real plan in these surprise extreme ocean conditions. I started to think well hell, I could be one of those people who survive in a sinking ship and swim to shore...no really! At this point it was a matter of trying to see the swimmers ahead of me and follow them, hoping they were headed in the right direction. Swimming into the huge swell seems to last forever! Where are the effing bouys? I felt like I swam forever to the turn around. I was worried about getting seasick, but alas the gods were smiling on me and I never felt sick for some odd reason. I did manage to take a few gulps of sea water, the sodium probably helped me later in the day.  Finally, finally, we made the turn, after an extremely rough water surrounding the buoys. I made it to swim along with the current of the waves at last. I thought this would be easier but we had to swim diagonally to make the turn around the next set of bouys on the triangular course. Strangely, I didn't feel that tired, or nervous-just anxious for the swim to end. We finally got to swim with the tide and I flew into the finish, riding over the huge waves in my best swim surfing style, which I really had never done before. I felt like I was out on the ocean for over an hour. After exiting the swim, I still felt remarkably good. And relieved...I saw one of the team coaches and made some expletives about the swim. I had no idea what my time was but didn't really care at this point. I made it!!

Swim time: 43:20 (about 5-7 minutes off my usual time)-not bad and surprising!

T-1: it took awhile to get my wetsuit off, mess around with bike shoes, get nutrition so a pretty slow 4:20. I was happy to get on the bike, well for now anyway!

The  ironman live TV crew was filming me as I exited T-1 as the interviewer was asking me how the swim was (keep it clean I thought). I think I said "it was like a roller coaster, I loved it," or some B.S. like that. I wanted to sound like a positive American and a rock star..haha!

The Bike: 

Oh the bike....the bike...it started out not too bad. It was 2 loops initially heading south in some pretty exposed areas at times. I decided, along with my coaches advice rather than paying attention to my bike computer that I would go more by "perceived effort". I would go a bit faster than my Ironman pace gauged by my P.E., which I did. It was windy going out the first lap, but nothing I couldn't handle. I would say 15-20 MPH against the wind and of course I tried to fly on the tailwind portions. The Ironman Live TV crew filmed me for about 5 minutes on the bike. Wow,  I felt like one of those pros they film during a race. I was trying to remember what they do in this situation, I smiled, tried to look all athletic and everything but when I hit a hill, I said in my most professional triathlete classy voice "hills are not really my forte". I finally was kind of over this camera crew thing. I felt so gross, dirty and hoped like hell the sweat running down my face wasn't showing on camera! There were many twists and turns on the course, so I would be going against the wind, with the wind and side winds all in a 10 mile stretch. The 12 miles back into town seemed the most difficult with full on headwinds and side winds. The first time back into town, I noticed the winds were picking up and I was starting to slow a bit. The first lap I average 16 MPH. A little slower than I wanted, but was following the plan..As I made the turn around for the 2nd bike loop the wind seemed to be getting stronger and the gusts even more gusty. The temperature topped 100 degrees midday and I was beginning to feel the heat. The twists and turns were getting more intense until halfway through the 2nd loop, I noticed my bike getting blown sideways. It was taking a lot of effort to keep the bike upright at times. To be safe, I spent much more time out of the aerobars this loop. I felt way more unsteady riding aero in this kind of wind. I noticed people around me slowing down, with an occasional young fast dude passing me. How the heck can they ride this fast in this crazy wind? I continued to try and fly with the tailwind, which even on the downhill was getting more slow/unsteady by the moment. I would guess the winds were way above 30 MPH by now, the gusts even higher. I noticed the folks riding in the opposite direction towards town were really struggling, visions of things to come. As I made the turn back into town, the wind was by now hurricane force. No really...at one point the wind was so strong, I was thrown into the middle of the road where another cyclist missed me by inches. We both said we were sorry but who's fault was it?  There was stuff getting blown sideways, branches, coke bottles, the dust was unreal. I was told at one  point the wind was 80KPH, which is roughly 50 MPH. Gusts were higher. The poor volunteers were getting blown all over, the tables for the aid stations getting rocked, course markers-forget it. I put my head down and just got well, determined to finish this damn bike!! When there were gusts of a headwind wind, I sometimes literally felt like I was riding backwards. I stopped twice, just to get nutrition, try and get blood circulating to my feet, which were killing me by now. I tried to catch my breath. The side winds were the worst. Downright scary at times. I think the last 10 miles took me about an hour? I started to see ambulances as I got closer to town. Uh-oh, now folks are getting hurt. Did I mention the heat?? It was extremely hot for part of the bike. When the sun was out, it was over 100 degrees (the weather prediction was nowhere near this heat). I was sweating profusely and drinking as much as I could hold. I pee-ed twice on the bike, so that was good. It is hard to gauge nutrition when pushing so hard in these extreme conditions but I seemed to keep up, filling up with electrolyte drink and water at every aid station. God bless those volunteers in this crazy wind!! I ate several gels and two whole bars, something I rarely do (eat solid nutrition) but I was hungry expending all those calories I suppose. I started to feel a bit light headed at the end of the bike, which frightened me a bit but I kept my head down, kept drinking, drinking..it seemed to come in waves.The last 5 miles to T-2 seemed to take friggin' forever. Against the wind, passing transition to make one last small loop into transition was torture!! Finally, I reached the transition area, sure they would tell me the run would be cut short in these conditions. Nope, game on!

Bike time: a miraculous 3:59:53. A new slowest PR. in an 70.3 but given the conditions, I was good with that.

I really tried to hustle out of T -2. Not sure why it took another 4 minutes but soon I was out of the run course.

The Run:

I have never been happier to start running! I still had not seen H all day. Finally during the first mile or so on the run, I saw him in the last stretch of the bike and yelled at him. I knew he could catch me on the run if he was feeling good, so this made me happy. I started my walk 3 minutes, walk 1 minute. All seemed to be working, I felt pretty good after the "Hurricane Bike". The wind was horrific on the run also but most of the course was protected by the trees in a very pretty park area, birds chirping and all at times. The only really, really rough part was down by the ocean, where the trail followed about 2 miles in gale forced winds. H caught me in the beginning of the run and told me he was pulled off the course at the run start. They had closed the run about 2 minutes after I went off on the run because of the dangerous conditions..wtf?? After surviving that bike course, he was kept from the run, where the wind was manageable?? H was pissed, he said he just ran through the barriers anyway and caught me to run with me. We ran the whole half marathon together, which was so awesome. I loved having him there, even if at times we literally could not hear each other because of the wind, which seemed to be picking up even stronger still, if that were possible, especially the ocean shoreline part of the course. The volunteers were still there, thank goodness. I needed more nutrition, eating gels about every 2 miles. After the first loop of the 2 loop run, it seemed apparent they were going to start pulling the slower people. At one point I thought we were screwed as a volunteer asked us to wait at the side of the course, but we just kept going and got our 2nd loop bracelet. The first loop had had tons of runners but now the field was..well non existent. We saw 4 poeple on the run course, 2 of them behind us. I began to worry I would not make the race cutoff..dang! After all this, to be stopped from finishing would have killed me. I would have thrown a fit, believe me! The officials came by and took our numbers (they still thought H was on the course officially, we just kept on like he was..).

I gave up on my run/walk method at this point. We just started running, maybe walking a few steps here and there. I was sure we would be pulled at any moment! This added a whole new definition of race pressure for me. When we had about 5 miles to go, the volunteers were still at each and every aid station, fueling us up and cheering us on. This was amazing to me, it brought tears to my eyes. The last few miles of the run I started getting really, really tired. And grumpy...we couldn't even locate the course at times because all the orange cones were blown everywhere and when volunteers said, "just go the same way you went the first lap" I said to H, wtf?? That was 2 hours ago! I don't remember all the twists and turns..this frustrated me, I was so afraid we would not make the cutoff. The wind, the tiredness, the stress of finishing, it all started getting to me. H was doing his best to calm me down, bless his heart. I was starting to feel out of it. H was worried about me but I knew I was OK , just exhausted! We finally got to a place on the beach where we turned up to make our way back to the finish line. A race official came up behind us and said "you have 1.5 Kilometer to go with 10 minutes to cutoff, you should make it." I told the guy I couldn't run that fast. He told us "you'll make it!" We started hauling ass running. I then realized they had pulled the 2 guys behind us off the course. We were going to be DFL! Which I really didn't care, I wanted this race to count. Plus we had a chance to go to the 70.3 World Championships if the other women in my AG didn't finish or want the slots. Worlds are in Quebec in September, we really thought it may be a possibility..so off I ran my heart out the next mile with the race official following us. No pressure there! As we ran down the final race chute, there were a few spectators left to cheer us in. Wow, we made it!! As the race announcer announced that " Team Wess" was coming in as the last racers to finish, I felt so relieved, happy, disoriented. Then came the cameras from IM TV live in our faces! The interviewer Steve started asking questions, "how do you feel." Me: "Out of it". Some other questions about the race.."Was it the hardest 70.3 you have ever done?" Me: YES! "Did you ever feel like quitting." Me: Hell no! (Or some version of that). Something about the weather conditions?  Me or H: Brutal! We have yet to find out where all this TV footage will be, I think it will be part of an hour long special on TV here in Australia at the end of the month. We read somewhere about a "Geelong 70.3" highlight TV thing. We will know more soon. I never in my wildest dreams thought we  would be followed in the race and cameras on us at the finish line!  They asked if "they could do an interview with us" a month back by email but I never thought it would be constant coverage...We had done a little interview on the beach the day before the race but this? We have our "15 minutes of fame as H  puts it! 

Run time: 2:48. Not bad for a crazy windy run in a half IM!

Final time:7:40. 2nd slowest half ever. With the conditions, I felt like the thing that got me there was pure determination, luck and my hubby..

We went to the Awards ceremony. I had no idea where I had placed in the 3 women in my AG. As it turned out, I was 2nd. I picked up an awesome plaque, a well earned prize! The lovely woman who beat me said she was going to take the Worlds slot in Quebec, which she totally deserved! The other woman must've DNF'd. It looks like looking at the results today, that 30% of racers DNF'd-crazy! I was last in the overall females, 151st. About 70 females did not finish the race at all. I waited for the remaining of the Worlds roll down (more slots may be available if athletes from other age groups don't take them) while H was sorting out his official time since he did do the run after all. Our coaches agreed it was total BS that they pulled him from the run because of "weather" after surviving such a hellacious bike.  He was not that far behind me but said whole tables were being blown over at aid stations on the bike when he went through the last couple aid stations. It must've been heartbreaking for those who were told the run course was closed after getting through that crazy ass bike! Anyway, they told H he would get his 2nd place since he finished the run. I went up and asked if there was any chance I could get a roll down slot to Quebec. The announcer told me I missed the cutoff for the qualifying time, 7:30 for worlds. Damn! Oh well, wasn't meant to be for H or I this time. Just means we will have to keep trying and outliving our competition. 

We went out to eat at the best steakhouse around last night. That was the best steak ever!! After  a nice dessert of a chocolate chip cookie, we passed out at 8:30 after a very long exhausting day. I woke  up at 3:30  this morning and never went back to sleep. I was up peeing every 2 hours, guess no dehydration there! After waiting 3 hours for breakfast to open, H and I pigged out on a well deserved excellent buffet breakfast. 

We are packing up to take the train back to our home away from home in Melbourne. After a couple days' rest, we will continue our training for Ironman Melbourne in 6 weeks. I felt very trained for the Geelong race and plan on being well trained for IMM as well. I mean what are the chances the weather will be this bad yet again for an Australian race? I am not holding my breath but I know after yesterday, all things considered, I can face anything!!

Now, off to eat some more food. I have a bottomless stomach today!

The Good, Bad and Ugly of Aussie IM training..

First all the good:

We rode today with "the Team", which consisted of about 27 young, strapping, kick ass male triathletes who apparently have checked their Egos at the door. Or maybe Aussie males are born with the "be nice to the old, slow athletes" gene. There were a few women in there too...young..fast, plus our coaches. It  was early-we left our condo at 5:30 AM to meet the group, equipped with front and back lights on the bikes. I always thought only crazy people rode after dark with lights. Well, I am now one of them! One reason we wanted to get out the door so early was the HEAT. There is apparently a heat wave comin' this way. I have traumatic memories of Ironman Western Australia 5 years ago where almost 100 degree heat almost did me in during an Aussie "heat wave". As it turned out, today it is "only" 90 degrees this afternoon. I am sure glad we did our ride early right now!

I hung with the big kids for about an hour. Tucked away in the middle of these incredible athletes, I was able to keep up a pace of over 20 MPH for that first bit. One of the coaches did give me a couple of pushes up the hills.. Thanks Coach! Then the big boys pulled away for their "real workout". We never saw them again, which was part of the plan. We knew we would be dropped after their warm up. H and I continued on our journey south on Beach Rd, which is apparently quite popular on most days, especially weekends..We were passed by no less than around 500 cyclists-no really. One apparent Pro was following a motorcycle, we figured this could be one of the famous triathletes that live around here. He/she was probably going over 30 MPH while we slugged along at our 18 MPH pace, which is actually still pretty good for us. There were literally hundreds of cyclists going both directions on this weekend day. Not an unusual sight apparently!

On the return, I started to lose energy after my early on fantasy of being young and athletic. Funny, the body remembers the age eventually! Around mile 50, I really started to slow down. H was way ahead, then I realized, oh crap, I have, a flat rear tire. After about 30 minutes of struggle, problems with my chain and 2 cyclists attempting to help me later, I finally got going again. We stopped at a bike shop in Frankston, where we met father and son shop owners, who helped me with air in my tire. They are both competing in IMM also in March. The dad had done the race before and gave us some info on the course. Again, wonderful Aussies helping the clueless Americans!

We finally reached home around noon, 77 miles in all. The heat only got noticeable the last hour or so. It was a fine day. After a quick brick (run for 10 minutes off the bike), we went to the ocean and stood in the cold water, watching as families, dogs, kids and boats surrounded us. A pleasant Sat. at the beach. The water felt so good on our tired legs!

This is only one of our training days this week. The other days were shorter. We need to shop most everyday for food, since we have no car and the stores are a short 10 minute walk from here. Big city living, a fer cry from my small town Ohio upbringing. My NYC born and raised hubby knows how to shop/live this way so when in Rome...We opted not to rent a car (so far) because of all the traffic and left sided driving, roundabouts, lack of parking, etc. It has not been an issue except when I have a yen for shopping at Costco or Target. Oh and there are THREE Lululemon stores in Melbourne! Probably a car is not a good idea..lol. (Wait, there is always public transportation-he-he). I did manage to get a Mani/Pedi at a nail place not too far from here. I feel a little less scuzzy as a result, since I spend a lot of time sweaty and gross from training. I can tell it is Ironman Season because there is laundry everywhere, I find it tiring thinking  of cleaning the little apartment. Thank goodness we have a washer and dryer! The place is also equipped with a dishwasher..other than that the fact the place was built in the 1800s, and hasn't been updated since the 80s, really shows. We lost hot water already  and had to call the owner, who did respond promptly to show us how to "over ride" the hot water timer. The air conditioner stopped working. Again we were showed which button to push to get it going again should we need to. We sacrificed little conveniences and luxuries for the location to the beach and shops. It is definitely a trade off but somewhat disappointing for the price we are paying. For just a few hundred bucks, they could spiff this place up (actually is dirty in some drawers and closets). If I were a VRBO owner...The owners are so sweet, how do you tell someone there house it too dirty to rent out? Oh well, I will sweat it out as I enjoy the magnificent view of the ocean and sunset!

The bad: Well, this week I got the "bug" that started with the sore throat. I felt miserable, had the "Stites cough" (which sounds like a wounded seal). I was for a brief moment panicked that the dreaded pneumonia would dig its claws in me again. But this time, I was ready! We had a Z pack of antibiotics with us. Take that you pneumonia! I was coughing like crazy until last night, when things started to settle down. I laid  in bed all day Wednesday, which I think helped...

The Ugly: Well, that would be my hair on any given day these days. I got a not so great haircut before we left, coupled with the shaggy, just washed or sweaty look I seem to Sport during Ironman training!

Did I mention we are racing in Geelong, a 40 minute away town next weekend? It is suppose to be a "practice race" half Ironman, 6 weeks before Ironman Melbourne. I always have a hard time with "practice races" because I usually push too hard and obsess too easily. I already looked-there are 3 women in my new age group (60-64) competing next week. So I guess if all I do is finish, then I should get no less than third place? In an Ironman brand 70.3, there is some honor in that-I'll take it!

Also, we have been asked to do an interview next weekend for "Ironman Live" TV, which means I think it will be accessed through Ironman.com next weekend during the race? The details are unknown I suppose until we get there but apparently the fact that 2 older married late in life Ironman triathletes must be interesting to someone! It should be fun..

We ran along the ocean this AM (is now Sunday). Starting at 6:30 was a good idea, because of the heat factor. Then we jumped into the ocean and swam 30 minutes. Really a great week of training for team Wess.
Well, then there were PANCAKES and Americana coffee (called a "long black" at one of the local restaurants as a reward. Yay!!

I miss my grand babies today. Hopefully can Skype with them soon.
We found a local bar to watch the Stoopid Bowl tomorrow morning (starts at 10/30 AM live here). Go Broncos!!