Sponsors!!

It is hard to believe my first triathlon of the season is only 3 more days away….I am anxious, excited, and nervous! These are the “good” pre-race jitters though. Before I talk more about my racing and daily activities, I would first like to introduce some new sponsors for 2009.

I am very excited to be working with Pamela’s Products in 2009! Pamela’s makes a bunch of yummy gluten free cookies and baked products. I have been using their cookies for fuel during my bike rides

In previous blog posts I mentioned some of my “diet” restrictions and I am happy to announce that we finally have a bit of concrete evidence of what is going on with me. I have been following a gluten free diet for a few months along with other diet restrictions and have been feeling great; I never thought the problem was gluten though (we thought it was fructose and yeast) as I had been tested for Celiac 4 years ago and it came back clean. Low and behold with further testing we found out I have an allergy to gliadin (wheat gluten). Right now I am in the process of having other food allergies tested. Kudo’s to Megan, my wonderful nutritionist who has kept me “healthy” and happy. I will keep you posted on my “food” adventures.

I am also happy to be promoting Justin’s Nut Butter at Oceanside 70.3 this weekend. Justin’s makes a variety of nut butters in different flavors that are surprise, Gluten free! And taste awesome. If you have not tried Justin’s Nut Butter, I advise you do or get a hold of me for some yummy samples.

Also, my wonderful wheel sponsor Rol Wheels. Huge thanks to Sean who has gone out of his way to ensure I have some of the fastest wheels for Oceanside!! I am really proud and honored to be riding Rol Wheels this weekend!!

Finally, I just received word that I was accepted to the Brooks Inspire Daily program. I love Brooks’s running shoes and have run in Adrenalines for over two years now. With my wide feet and low arch, Brook s makes the perfect shoe for me!! I am excited to collaborate with Brooks this year and promote some of their new products.

Back to Oceanside 70.3….Gregory and I leave Thursday morning for California. I have a lot of packing to do still!! Within 24 hours, Gregory will have an athlete tracker system up and running so that you can watch me survive the swim and hammer the bike and run on Saturday. I will post it here when it is ready.

Train hard!!

I am LEGAL!

Ok, so swimming a 1000 meters under 2 minutes seems pretty lame to me (that was an obvious typo to see who would catch on to my stealth “try to pretend I am a fast swimmer lingo” ) when I just found out the other day immigration is letting me stay for another 3 YEARS!!!

Immigration not only surprised me by being 3-5 months early on their decision, but on the outcome!! What a relief; I cannot say how many bricks were on my shoulders, but let me tell you it was a lot! And to make this moment more perfect, we received notice on Gregory’s birthday.
Now, this means we get to go to France this year!! Yeaaaahhhhh….croissants here I come (screw the gluten allergy, this is worth it!)

Happy birthday Gregory!! Gregory’s birthday was on Tuesday and his best friend from Chicago flew into town over the weekend and partook in a bunch of fun. The boys went skiing, to Denver, visited museums, ate a lot and had time to “Catch Up”

I made dessert for Gregory’s birthday consisting of a lot of chocolate cupcakes and berry tart. I must admit, the “tart” part of the ordeal is fairly involved, but I succeeded in making something edible. We had Wolfgang (recent b-day boy as well) and Leslie over to partake in the sugar fest which was a lot of fun! Good food and good company; I could not ask for more.

As for training…I can imagine myself living the rest of my life watching ER re-runs and Grey’s Anatomy??..you see, when you taper not only does your body give-up and deteriorate(regenerate, but it does not feel like it!) to the “sluggish, lazy I “don’t want to move” state; the brain does likewise. Try as I might to focus, get those work hours in, all I can think of is “Carter Is back on ER…” So there you have it taper has made me a TV obsessed freak!! Although we do not own a TV, but you would be amazed at what you can have streamed over your computer/internet.

T o make this TV addiction worse is the fact that we are “snowed in” today!! I mean the nerve of the weather Gods to impact our “lovely” climate with snow; this is absurd! How are we going to get our bike rides in and sun-tans?? You know tanning is an art??? So, I spent today working…other than my “wimpy” one-a-day taper workout my day was spent at the computer..then I caved. There was a new “House” episode…I watched it, then I went to my NetFlix Survivor episodes…I am doomed, please help me!! LOL.

Cheers!! The bike has been shipped to Oceanside..this race is becoming more real to me every day.

Nemo had some "spunk" today!

Ever since I returned from Austin, my swim has changed…for the better actually!! I am not sure what it was, the ability to exert myself more at sea level that translated to a more “swim like” form/feel, or the drills I had been working on; regardless something clicked.

And no, this is not one of those I went from 1:20 min per 100 meters to 1:10….I can’t even swim that fast in my dreams!! Honestly, the triathlon “race” for me is the bike and run…so don’t laugh when I list my swim times (for the benefit of my ego, I use the “I don’t do flip turns excuse”).

I have been feeling smooth and strong in the pool coming in constantly at 2 min per 100 meters; no matter if the interval is fast or slow, it is a 2 minute pace for me…100 meters, 200 meters…….500 meters.. Ahhh, another perk of endurance! The problem is when I try to go fast, I tense up, worry, my form goes to crap and I might end up slower than if I had considered it an “easy interval”…oh, and Wolfgang says I “can’t kick worth s#*T”…no wonder my times in a wetsuit are ummm 10-15 seconds per 100 meter faster!! LOL!

Today I think I was too tired to care…we had to do 100’s on the 2 min….I was tired and all I cared about was getting it done with good form. I focused on the hips and pull…low and behold I hit the wall at 1:55!!!...three times!! Then 1:57….for a few more….now folks, this is progress!! This will keep me coming back for more!!

Honestly up until a month ago I dreaded going swimming because it hurt, made me tired and I was not improving. I was honestly getting depressed about the whole darn thing…turns out swimming only works when you want to swim and can relax!! Volume in swimming pays off when you have the correct form (which I did not!!)

I love the “off” season because it means I don’t have to swim, and I don’t! Yet, I still do casual runs/bikes…but honestly, I will take a month completely off of swimming. During that time whatever little upper body strength/muscle I had built withers away, the coordination goes to crap and I am like a cat in the water when I return…Wolfgang probably bangs his head till it hurts when I return from an off season!....and he should!!

So, my math tells me it has taken 2.5 months to build up to a “respectable” swim fitness for me (this is strictly based upon me as I know it is ridiculously slow to others)….hmmm, 1 month off and 2.5 months to build back to normalcy… I think I will never ever take another swim “off season”

All of this aside I am finally beginning to enjoy the swimming again, which really helps with those early morning wake-ups!!

Keep swimming Nemo!!

The Final Stretch

This is the final week of training for Oceanside…one more week of “can I do this?”…”I just did this” and “I really, really hurt!.”

What has gotten me this far…my friends (thank you ladies, you know who you are!) my husband who is my biggest supporter and fan, and myself…no I am not cocky, but somewhere along the line someone has got to do the work!

You are probably thinking “what the hell sort of program is she on that she talks about it like she is going to war??” the answer is “Wolfgang’s program” …Wolfgang is a great man, but, his programs sometimes make you want to cry. At times when you think you have had all you can handle, he will pile on a little bit more (because he knows you can handle it and it will make you a better person).

Let me backtrack for a bit; Oceanside was never meant to be an “A” race nor even “get you nervous race” it was supposed to be a fitness check for Ironman Nice. Reality Check!! If I don’t get my Visa renewed, there is no travelling to Nice (I am a Canuck, remember?)! So we (Gregory and I) followed the rules and applied for a Visa renewal for me…but, the Visa Gods are unmerciful…long story short, in order for me to renew with no hiccups I had to apply internally. This means a good 3-5 month wait period for an answer in which I cannot travel out of the country. So, obviously IM Nice was out of the question.

What is one to do?? Well, to put it bluntly, I either get a Kona slot at Oceanside or a roll down to another IM. In order to do this, I need to “RACE!!”…no “fitness check” here, it is going to be an all out brawl, fight till the end, race till your eyes bleed effort…yet, I had not yet trained for such efforts until 3 weeks ago (IM training is a 180 degree difference than ½ Ironman training)

So what is one to do?? Let’s rephrase this, what is a coach to do?? He prescribes the “intensity medicine” and let me tell you the side effects really, really suck. Have you ever had a numb butt?? Or legs that feel like they might fall off- in the middle of a workout??!!!

There is a reason I left track and field, cross country, or any sort of fast running behind me…because I hated it!!

I can handle the bike intensity, because I like the bike. I can hold on for dear life in the pool because I know if I pass out Wolfgang will be the one diving in to pull my non-fish-like body out. However, with running I know I have no excuse. I know what it is like to reach those levels of “being fast” and how much it hurt! I just don’t want to…

So the past 3 have been about remembering how to “hurt” and let me tell you it is not pleasant. But, over the 3 weeks, I have noticed my hips opening up, my stride getting longer…I actually feel like I can run sometimes…hmmm sometimes….

All of this being said, I am embracing the experience, because come rain or shine on race day, I know that Wolfgang and I have given it the best shot we can to get me to where I want to be. I am still working on the mental prep (which is a whole different blog entry) but I know physically I will be ready.

I guess this brings me to the point of this blog entry…have you ever had someone throw a wrench into your plans such that you had to totally change them? How did you respond? How would you respond? I am embracing this opportunity to see how “good” I can be. But with this come discipline, locking out all those negative thoughts and the what if’s. I am throwing my eggs into one basket (race wise because I work, have a life and am happy outside of training). Who knows what will happen on race day, but for the time being I have 6 days of hard work left to say that I am “ready” and “I gave it all I had”…training wise, race day will tell a whole different story…….

The 3 Don'ts

I really wanted to have an inspirational or funny intro line to this blog entry, but I don’t….This week has been challenging in a number of ways, but instead of bitching and moaning, I thought I would write about how I work through “my” challenges. I like to call it the 3 Don’ts: Don’t dwell, Don’t compare, and Don’t give up.

#1 Don’t dwell: When life gives you a swift kick in the arss, or you experience a setback, don’t dwell on it!! Dwelling on the negative will only start a viscous cycle of counterproductive thoughts when things don’t go your way! There comes a point where you should analyze a situation, what happened, how it could have been changed for the better, but you can’t go back in time. So, learn for the next challenge and don’t get your panties in a bunch over something you cannot change.

#2 Don’t compare: How many times do you look around you and think “I wish I had his/her body, athletic talent, nice bike, career, success, and whatever they have on their dinner plate??” Honestly, I am a really bad at this but I am slowly learning that Instead of focusing on what you “don’t have” it is better to focus on what you “have” and how to improve upon that. I must say, this is a hard rule to follow, especially when you live in Boulder and everyone around you is fit, happy, healthy and you might be having a really crappy day…but you don’t walk in anybody’s else’s shoes than your own, so don’t compare your Nike’s to someone’s Asics…they are a totally different brand, with not the same history nor makeup.

#3 Don’t give up: Enough said…giving up is failing to recognize your own talents. This does not pertain to training through injury, or some physical limitation you cannot help. This applies to those days when you think you “can’t” do it, whether it is a workout, a project, a relationship etc… There are going to be moments in your life when some of the simplest things may seem impossible, but if you fight your way through those obstacles, it makes you a much stronger person in the long run. Adversity builds character!

So, this week I have been working on my 3 Don’ts!

Part of this week for me was dealing with some GI issues….I know, not what you wanted to hear about, so I won’t go into detail. However, I did want to give a general overview of my diet, as I am asked frequently “what can you eat”. Basically, I cannot have fructose..unless it is naturally occurring or processed in such a manner that the amount of glucose in the food equals or is more than the amount of fructose in it (in other words, no fruit, fruit juices, processed cookies, candies, and lots of stuff that tastes good:) I also have to restrict any foods that will feed “yeast” as my GI tract is damaged from years of imbalance and is most likely in a condition termed “leaky gut”. So this pretty much shaves down the foods I can have to the “basics”….I am pretty much on the “paleo diet” minus the fruit. Our fridge is always stocked with veggies to be steamed and fish/meat

I know it sounds bad, but most likely things will clear up depending on how fast my GI “heals” allowing me to reincorporate a lot of foods into my diet. One of the biggest problems that my nutritionist and I work on is getting enough “calories” while training while not upsetting my GI. I can have “sugar” while riding/running as long as it is right before or after where the calories will be burned before they reach the digestive tract where they wreak havoc; a rice krispy treat Is one of my favorite bike ride snacks!

Another staple in my diet is spreading any Nut Butter (Justin’s Almond Nut Butter is my Favorite) on a brown rice tortilla which I can eat right before or after a workout. Finally, a high energy food that I cannot get enough of is “Nutty Powerbars”

1 ¼ cup sunflower butter
1/3 cup rice syrup
½ tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1 box Perky’s “Nutty Flax” Cereal (@4.5 cups)
1.5 cups puffed rice cereal

You just heat the syrup and nut butter in a pan, stir the cereal(s) in and press into a casserole dish or pan and let cool. Very yummy!

An easy dinner dish that I make and Gregory really likes is a casserole…I call it “Erin’s casserole”

…since I always make it on a whim, and the ingredients/measurements depend on the day and what is in the fridge, so on any particular day I:

1. Cook and macaroni like brown rice pasta and let cool, set aside.
2. Cook ground beef or chicken (I strain and rinse the beef with hot water after cooking to get rid of the fat) and set aside.
3. Sautee an onion, mushrooms, green/red/yellow peppers with a bit of oil, garlic and basil.
4. Add the cooked beef/chicken and 2 cans of diced tomatoes with more basil, oregano and salt and pepper.
5. Add a can of corn and ½ a bag of frozen peas. Let simmer
6. Layer mixture into a casserole dish and add a light layer of mozzarella cheese when the dish is ½ full, keep filling and then top with more cheese.
7. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hr, remove foil and let brown for 15 minutes.
8. Serve and enjoy!

Train Hard!