I RAN with (or behind) Mark Allen!

Ok so I was a bit behind the pro but hey-I was on the same beach!! We ran with HR monitors and I was trying to keep my HR below 132, which for me is very frustrating as this slows me down to a snail's pace. In metaphorical fashion, I was in the middle of the pack as usual. But what Mark basically teaches in training is to train mostly in your ""aerobic zone" and only do very little speed work to get faster nearer the race. Now this is the simplified version but if you hear him talk, it is very convincing. I mean 6 Hawaii Ironman wins-can you argue with that? I like to think that my svelte young feeling body could tolerate a higher HR than that because for heaven's sake, I am running 12 min miles at that pace. Supposedly your body learns to utilize fat burning and you eventually get faster. This is how I trained for the last IM but I think my "middle age" was not factored in. So I am a Mark Allen groupie now and think I will use his coaching for IMCDA.

Sunday of the conference was a mix of talks from Mark: Nutrition, weight training. Stuff I basically knew already with some tweaks of info I didn't know.
Then Brant Secundo: ceremonies and Huichol Indian rituals and info. Very good. His website is: http://www.shamanism.com/ for those that wanted to know more info.

I realize the value of a balanced life in training for Ironman is essential. Something I already believed but obtained some tools to utilize a bit more. Secretly, I want to win my age group one of these days at one of these big races. Someone asked me last night why that is so important to me. I have to ponder this. Maybe cause I was always one of the slower swimmers on the swim team. Maybe cause I never got the approval from my parents I wanted. Maybe I always wanted to be one of those athletes in high school. Who knows? I don't think I have a particularly competitive spirit with other people ie; "Man I really want to beat her!" It is just this inner drive to win at something. Be the best athlete..well in my age group anyway. I may have to wait for my 60s or 70s-who knows?

So I am doing my darnedest to make this a reality. If it takes me balancing more, then I shall. If it takes training more, or less, slower, I will.

In the end, it is all about the journey, really..

Danced with the Greatest Triathlete of all Time..

Yep. I danced with Mark Allen. Oh sure, it was a Huichol Indian Deer Dance around a fire with 50 other people but yep I can say I danced with the man! The conference so far is fabulous. We spent yesterday in sessions alternating between Brant Secundo-(Shaman) and Mark Allen all day. The interweaving of spirituality and training was beautifully done, in my opinion. It was also fun! We did do some dancing, ceremonies and exercises on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen here in California. We are about 15 miles south of Santa Cruz in a very nice condo a stone's throw from the beach. Hartley and I went for a very long walk yesterday AM before the conference and got locked out of our condo for about an hour. A very minor blip in the scheme of things but it does seem like there is an annoying negative force following us this trip..
However the positives have FAR outweighed the negative so far..


Mark (yes I met him and am on a first name basis now-:)) delivered a talk on heart zone training yesterday. I knew about Maffetone training but this is the first time I have heard it explained clearly and why it works. Then he told his story of how he lost IM in Kona several times. When he started training like this he started winning. He proceeded to win 5 IM World Championships in a row, took a year off, then in one of the most amazing and inspiring stories I have heard, he told of his win in 1995, against all odds at age 37. This is where his Shamanism practice came in. He called on the island for help at the last half of the marathon and he shifted into some other reality where he caught the leader and won. I was in tears at the end of that story. And if you met this guy, this exceptional athlete, you would think he was just one of us. He is very humble, approachable, and sweet. He is 50 years old now, hasn't raced in 20 years and loves his life still. The combination of shamanism practice and right training helped him win that last race.

OK-I am inspired! Now I will go out and win at Kona-well not yet but damn after that talk I feel like I really could do anything I set my mind to. And may start using some of the exercises we are learning from Brant, who has a story of his own that is fascinating.

So today I am going to ask Mark about his online training program. I may use his approach for IMCDA..I like the idea of training with someone who has won Ironman Hawaii. Yesterday, some man asked him about some other program that contradicted Allen's HR training. Mark humbly said-"Well, he hasn't won Ironman Hawaii has he?" Subject over..

Workshop weekend..

I sit here in the Phoenix airport where H & I missed our connection to San Jose. We were stuck on the runway at ABQ because of "weather delays" in Phoenix-"Don't worry about your connection-all the flights are running behind" Well, we landed here and there was no rain, not even any turbulence and it appears that our flight was the only one with the "weather issues". Now I feel distrusting of this reason for missing my flight. Like the airlines are plotting just to keep their profits up in some way. At any rate, we are stuck here for 3 extra hours. We should be on the road to our condo near Santa Cruz, California as I write this. OK-now breathe! Now the clouds really do look dark and thunder is predicted so who knows when we will get to face California rush hour traffic at this rate. To top it off, there is a bird flying around our heads here in the terminal-a bird-no kidding. Hartley says this is a bad sign-is it? He seems to like us alot because we have been eating sandwiches and have crumbs I guess. Not a normal sight in an airport in my experience.

The good new is we are going to a great conference this weekend on the beach in CA with none other than Mark Allen-yep the Mark Allen-famous triathlete extraordinaire. He is doing a workshop with a Shaman called "Fit Body, Fit Soul, a Visionary Way to Health, Balance and Well-Being". We rented a very nice (we hope) condo on the beach to enjoy the great Mother Ocean while we are taking in education and spirituality. This workshop is something we know nothing about so should be interesting. We were told to bring pocket knives and hiking shoes. Some kind of art/self exploration exercise, I guess. I am just hoping this will make me a really fast triathlete and secretly make Hartley want to do an Ironman. He is still injured from Soma so not looking good at the moment. Guess i will be running on the beach alone this weekend-bummer.

Looking forward to the weekend-OK now we have only 2 hours to wait..then California rush hour on Friday in a rental car for 2 hours. That should be fun!

On a brighter note..

Here is my granddaughter Lane, making a snow man on Thanksgiving here in ABQ.

In honor of Sara..

Today would have been my oldest sister's birthday. She would have been 58. Sad because she died so young-52 years old of Multiple Sclerosis. It was a sad day in December when I got the news while traveling around the country of Chile over the holidays. It was sudden, she had been doing pretty well but got an infection and in one 24 hour period, she was gone. Traumatic moment for me that day of the phone call, in a foreign country, shocked beyond belief. We got home on New Years Eve, 2001. Wasn't 2001 sad enough? There were 300 people at the funeral-it was surreal-this is my sister's funeral? I think of the daughters Sara left behind and how cruel it is that they don't have their mom anymore. I think wasn't it just yesterday when Sara was taking care of me as a kid and we were creating plays to perform for the neighborhood? Losing a sibling is up there with losing parents, only closer to home. I remember calling her on her last birthday alive. I remember where I was, what we said and that is a gift. Amazing really after all those birthdays all those years. And the thing I am most grateful for is that the last words I said to her on the phone on December 23rd, 2001 were "I love you".
Happy Birthday sis..

Think I will go and tell my loved ones and friends I love them again today..you never know..