Does anyone have water wings I can borrow??

I need help!! I need to borrow someones arms, legs and core for tomorrow. I promise I will not do too much damage...please, someone, help me!!

...I have considered showing up to swim practice with "water wings"

Fact is that I look like a "pretty" swimmer above water, but I am useless under water. Yes, that is right, I pull NOTHING!! zip zadda...nothing!! So, my mission before I head to France is to milk my masters sessions and instructors knowledge for advice and help regarding my swimming "pull". It has been one week and I almost drowned in the pool this morning!!

You know those broad shoulders and muslces swimmers have?? Not to mention their amazing upper body flexibility?? (I am married to one and will be eternally jealous!) well, I don't have them...and it sucks!! So after one week of focusing on "pulling" I am down right exhausted, a lot slower than I started out a week ago and just plain beat up.

So I tried the "merci" card this morning with Wolfgang. It went something like this:

Erin: My arms hurt, I swim lopsided and my right side hurts.

Wolfgang: hmmm, it shouldn't hurt and you should be stretching.

Erin: I did stretch yesterday and (this is condensed) it really isn't an "injury" pain.

Wolfgang: Well then, that is fine. ( aka suck it up!!) but you should stretch more (surprise!!)..and a bunch of other stuff indicating what I need to work on..

Erin (in the nicest, pleading voice I can do): I don't know...should I do Masters tomorrow? it will be three days in a row. (aka...please, please don't make me swim tomorrow!!)

Wolfgang: Yes, why not??

Erin: ok...(in head...Sh#t, Sh*t, Sh!t!!!...I can't feel my arms today, how the heck am I going to get through another early morning masters when my arms are like overcooked noodles??!!!)...

I have resolved to show up at practice with the "most" help I can use. Don't hear me wrong, I always show up with the "goods"; pull bouy, fins, paddles etc...but I never use them until I am told...not tomorrow!! I am going for a full fledged "CHEAT" practice!

Wish me luck!! ...they might want to put a life gaurd on deck for Masters tommorrow morning!

My Mojo is Back!!

Yup, that’s right, I have my mojo back!! It took a few weeks, but I got my “beast” back onto the road! It might have something to do with this event in a about ummmm, 2 months!!


LA MARMOTTE!!




And no, those peaks are not “hills” they are mountain passes. This is an event I watched last year while in the French Alpes and decided that “one day” I was going to do it. Who knew “one day” would be the next year?? Honestly, this is like a “first Ironman” where you don’t know if you will finish, but will sure as heck enjoy it and train your arss off.


What better fashion to kick off my bike training by taking a “short” ride up to Ward. For some reason in my head I thought my ride would be shorter than what it was (turns out I forgot Gregory usually picks me up at the top because he is scared of what sort of trouble I can get into descending) So, when I got to Ward and inhaled a “Ward famous cookie” and then looked at my watch, it was a “HOLY CRAP” moment…how was I going to get down and back to work in time for some of my appts?? I bravely white knuckled my way down the mountain and was tempted to stop at Wolfgang’s and bribe him with a cookie to drive me home, but my legs didn’t feel like climbing even that little hill to his place. So I descended and called Gregory to pick me up. I ate Wolfgang’s cookie while waiting for Gregory, Sorry Wolfgang!


It was a perfect ride, one in which I didn’t look at my watch, nor counted down the minutes for it to be done. Yes folks, I have my mojo back!


Fast forward to today; I was on a mission!! To make myself hurt so bad that my eyeballs bleed or loose my breakfast…or both. It was Mission: “Obtain Max HR on bike”…so I did the Haystack Time Trial; 16.5 miles of pure red-lining. It hurt so bad, but felt sooo good!! It was the one time where I could “blow my load” and not get yelled at for it. I cranked out some quality miles and didn’t even get mad at the headwind portions! (Turns out, when you are seeing spots and fighting back breakfast, wind doesn’t seem to matter!). So it was a good ride! What made it even more fun was having Megan racing as well!!


Megan actually got me to do this race when she mentioned it during one of my nutrition appts. with her. Megan is a fierce competitor; and even though she hasn’t raced in a long time (once a World Duathlon Champ) and this was her first “bike time trial” she pulled out a kick-ass time!!! Funny how she thinks she is “out of shape”….I am scared to see her in shape! The most fun though was getting to hang out with Megan before and after with her funny and chill personality. To hear more about the Time Trial and adventures from my husband’s point of view, you can view his blog (www.pyrasports.com/gregory), which, has not been updated for approx 6 months…maybe he has his mojo back too??

Allez France!

Soooo, about that waiting one week to post again…hmmm, sorry! This week has been busy and seemed to fly by!!

Good news is that my bike is unpacked and assembled; I even rode it a few times! We had a mini snow-storm so I eased back into the bike riding on the trainer with a few episodes of survivor. Next week, I might venture to the pavement.

As mentioned previously, I am sorting out a number of things to give my season, yet another “kick start in the right direction”. Honestly, it feels like I am getting another chance to make the most of the training/racing year because it is still so early!! How cool is that??

And the kicker…I am going to be spending 9 weeks in the French Alpes!! Time to grow some quads and toughen up! Two major events/races while I will be frolicking in the mountains; the first one is La Marmotte, a bike race that takes you over three summits and is a whole day event. The second is the Alpe D’Huez long course triathlon. I hope to come back to the states with some stellar climbing skills so I can rock the rollers in Wisconsin!

Note to Self: Change out crankset! ….last year I made the mistake of riding in the Alpes with a 42 as my smallest!! Lots of grinding!

Now, as for the “issues” I have already started to address to turn this season around and be the strongest I can be:
1. Nutrition: Getting enough calories and carbohydrates. It was very apparent to me in hind-site due to me not paying proper attention to my nutrition and the restricted diet, that I was low on energy/glycogen in the muscles. Megan, once again is coming to the rescue and making sure I am on a “plan” to keep me “topped off” and energized for my training/racing.
2. Allergies/My Health: This past week I feel like I spent more time at the doctors/allergist/nutritionist than I did at my desk! I wanted to do a thorough check-up to make sure I am healthy before I start training again for the basic reason that a training block can take a lot out of you. I am A-ok for the most part; I did find out I have an egg allergy and am waiting on the final panel of food allergy test results to come back next week. Good news is that I should be able to eat eggs in small quantities (like Pamela’s cookies!!!) and use egg replacement while cooking…just no more omelets for me.
3. Training with My HR Monitor: I haven’t used my HR monitor nearly as much as I should have. My easy days were not easy enough and my hard days, not hard enough. The HR monitor is going to be strapped to me for every running/biking workout. Enough said.
4. Rest Days: Rest days do not mean “catching up” on everything you fell behind on during the week, and on top of that doing a recovery run/bike/swim. I need to make my “off” days “off” …and yes, that means sitting still, a thing called “rest”
5. Keeping The Head Screwed On Straight and Enjoying: Let’s face it, triathlon is not my job, and I don’t think I would want it to be. But, I do take everything I invest time into seriously, like training! So when things don’t go as planned, I get a little caught up in it and tend to “question” everything. Thank goodness I have a husband who keeps me grounded!! I had an off day at Oceanside, but I am YOUNG!! I need to remind myself to be patient, go with the flow and only train/race if I enjoy it! So, a goal for the next few months is to make sure training doesn’t get the best of me…I want to get the best of it!

OK, enough about training and racing. I want to talk about my work! Since I will be in Europe for an extended period of time, the next few weeks will be spent on finding “clients” and beefing up the project –list so I will have enough work to keep me busy. If anyone knows of or needs a website update/rebranding, or a “from scratch” site, I am your lady! I am constructing a portfolio of my work which should be ready soon.

Alright, time to enjoy the rest of the day…hard to believe there was a snowstorm Fri/Sat and now the sun is shining, everything is almost melted and we are going to hit the 70’s and 80’s this week! HOLY MOLY!!

The Aftermath...

So the past week I have “fallen off the wagon” and enjoyed every bit of it!! I am trying to climb back on the wagon, but it might take some time!

Saturday night after the race, I found myself enjoying the Company of Team Timex (their hotel was one mile away from ours) nacho’s and some mmmm, mmmm good martini’s!!! Let’s say I slept very well that night. One of the highlights of the night was reconnecting with one of my previous track/cross country team mates from back in the day at U of A. Kyle Marcotte is an awesome athlete and a really nice guy!!....I think I even caught myself reverting to the “eh” during our conversations!

As you can see from the pics above, I did acquire a number of "war wounds from the race!"

Gregory and I decided to take my poor beat up body and down-in-the-dumps self to La Jolla on Sunday after the race. It was just the right medicine for me! A stroll along the cove, a great brunch with wine!! And a trip to the candy store (See pic…perfect post race recovery). Then we were off to Carlsbad to meet with Stacey, Eric, and the rest of the family who were awesome hosts. We stayed with them our first night in CA and they were gracious enough to store my bike box and other necessities until the storm settled. That visit lead to more wine consumption; not a bad Sunday!!

onday was the worst “body-wise” as I was super sore!! The day consisted of washing laundry at the hotel (I did not want my race stuff to get up and walk away on it’s own!) and relocating to L.A. as we had work-related appt’s scheduled at UCLA through the week. But, I am not writing to talk about work, so I will mention some of the cool things I got to do.

1. Walk/Shuffle along Venice Beach: Awesome! Absolutely awesome. And the local coffee shop that made me a Latte with the strength to fuel a rocket made my day!
2. The UCLA Gift Store: Thankfully Gregory took away all my money before I entered the store. I found 25 cents in my pocket and bought a See’s Candy Sucker.
3. Malibu: Dukes has some great drinks!! We were able to have dinner with a great friend at their place overlooking the ocean. What an unreal experience!!
4. 3rd Street: Fun atmosphere…pretty much an upscale Pearl Street but with more silicone and designer labels.
5. Hollywood/Beverly Hills etc..: Cool to look at but wwaaaaayyy to much money for my taste!
6. Time with the Hubby: This made my week! It has been a long time since I have had time with Gregory without training getting in the way. It opened my eyes a bunch to what is MOST important to me and how good I have it. I have a husband that supports me 100% no matter what the outcome.

We flew back to beautiful Boulder on Thursday and caught up on the work, laundry, unpacking etc… and all I could think about is “what a roller coaster” The reality sinks in of what you just did, the time preparing for it and the outcome. I don’t have to say much when people ask me how it went as tears often well up in my eyes. It is such a disappointment for me, but such a wonderful stepping stone for me to move up on. Oceanside will be a landmark in my journey to obtain the goals I want in triathlon. I have a list of things I need to address before I move on to the next race/challenge and things I need to owe up to as to why this race did not go as planned…that will be my next blog entry!

One thing throughout this that is consistent and I owe huge thanks too is my coach. Wolfgang knows me and when I met with him on Friday to discuss the race, not much had to be said. I said it sucked and he said it sucked…well, not all of it. The bike was atrocious!! Given my ability and training we both agreed that I was behind my capable time by 15-20 minutes!! That is just sad, and embarrassing on my part. Good news is that my swim was solid and the run was solid; the run was still VERY slow but solid considering the bike and how my legs felt. Most important to me out of our whole conversation is that my coach was disappointed, which means he really believes I can do it..that is huge to me, because you always have people who will BS you and tell you that you are good and can reach such and such goals without ever knowing you. Wolfgang will never do that, he will give it to you straight, and I can deal with that. He is the first one to compliment me when I am doing well (gasp!! Wolfgang gives out compliments…no way!!) and tell me when I am doing really bad…and that is what I consider a good coach.

So why was I a mess after weeks and weeks of solid training and proper training…it comes down to me and not paying attention to my body as well as many issues I was not aware off throughout my training and the race. This is a whole different issue that I would like to address in another post (don’t worry; I won’t wait a week to post it!). But in the mean time, shouts out to my friends checking in on me and following the athlete tracker. I really appreciate your emails!!! Also, to my local gals who are helping piece me back together although they might not know it; thanks Kristin, Heather, Jenni and Laura.

Oceanside 70.3

What happened? I am asking myself that exact same question….yesterday was a tough day in the office for me; one that I will learn and grow from.

My goals: place top 5 in AG and go sub 5 hrs (a goal that I thought was reasonable considering my training and “perceived” fitness)

Reality: I placed 12 in AG and went 5:21

The funny thing in all of this is I have no “excuses”, no mechanicals, no injuries, just myself to owe up to. It just wasn’t my day. Don’t get me wrong, I gave it all I had, it just wasn’t enough.
I think the theme of the day was “I thought that I was doing well” and then I looked at the results!

The swim in my mind was one of the best I have ever had, mentally and from a stamina standpoint…it still cost me 5 minutes from the leaders, but I am used to that. So, in that respect I am happy, but I still thought I would be a few minutes faster this time around with my training (and wetsuit!!). Time to start working harder in the pool!

The bike was the toughest ½ IM course I have done (I have done Buffalo Spring, Longhorn and Oceanside makes them seem like a walk in the park). The first 25 miles are great!! Flat and fast, I passed a few girls in my AG who got out of the water the same time as me. I knew I had to make up 10 minutes to catch some of the leaders in my AG, so I was pushing hard, but, of course so were they! Then we got to the Camp and things started to fall apart for me… I realized that I was climbing the hills strongly, but comfortably…no spunk in the legs to get up those suckers. So, in that respect I was not racing the back part of the course; my legs were not prepared to hammer, but my mind was! It was frustrating to want to get up those hills fast and furiously, but the legs wouldn’t! It is something that I definitely need to work on…nothing that a few weeks in the French Alpe’s won’t fix! I knew that my bike time would be slow so I worked on pushing the final 15 miles into transition at a good clip and told myself that I would have to really work in on the run….

I must say that the run was my favorite part of the day! The course was interesting (I did not prefer the running through sand though!!) and the volunteers really made it a party out there! Thanks! So, the run went as such…left, right, left, right…”.think, I have 13 miles left!”, “oh wait, I am not supposed to think, just push harder”, left, right, left, right…”hey, that volunteer is in a flowered, neon colored speedo, I wonder if Wolfgang would wear that?” “giggle to self”, left, right, left, right…”realize giggling is not a good idea when you are trying to go fast because it uses up more oxygen/energy”, left, right, left, right…and so that is how it went. I focused on keeping an extended stride and the fastest turnover I could, however, I knew that I was not hitting my sub 7:30’s; the bike had taken a toll. I was proud of myself though, because this is usually where I fall apart during a race; when I know I am not hitting my goals even though I am giving it all I have. I kept pushing through the run right to the finish…even through that damn sand-path! I am also very happy, because there were no “pit stops!” on the run!! Yeah! My diet is working!


So there you have it; my Oceanside experience! Am I disappointed, yes! Why? Because of the time I put into this race. I built it up huge in my head and trained my arss off for this race and to meet my goals and “I” let myself down by the basic fact that I could not perform on race day. However, I do believe that experiences like this build character and strength. I am sure that every Kona qualifier/winner has experienced similar set-backs. Right now I have a lot of thinking and soul searching to do; I cannot imagine getting back onto my bike this week, or next….I think I need a break. Frankly, this race has weighed on me emotionally for months and I am glad it is over! And there is something to be said when I look back and see the time invested and weigh my worth on a race result. Time to gain perspective!

Don’t worry though, I am not quitting! Far from it! I had originally planned to take a Lake Placid spot if I got it, but I didn’t. I had to reflect on the training, time investment and whether or not I would enjoy it or if I was just doing it for the “sake” of doing it. I could not do that for Lake Placid! I don’t want to have to jump back into training right away. So, my Chicago support system will be happy to know that I took a IM Wisconsin slot; plenty of time to take a break and then train. I heard through the grapevine that the CTC aid station theme is going to be Vegas this year and I would NOT miss that for the world! Wisconsin is where my heart/roots are and I came so close to that Kona slot last year, why not come back for more? IMWI is the one race that after yesterday’s disappointment I could truthfully say I would “want” to do regardless of any qualifications etc..because I have a ton of fun there. I realized yesterday as well, I need to get my “desire” back for training/racing, hence the break.

So the next few weeks will be all about what I “want” to do. I am also taking a “diet” break this week…yes, that is right, I am going to eat cake and ice cream and fruit (sorry Megan, but I think I earned this!). I had a DQ blizzard already!! It was the BEST thing I have eaten in a long time. Today it is going to be Carrot cake, yum!!

Finally, I wanted to thank all my friends and family for the support displayed to me through these past few months. I know it wasn’t easy dealing with me at times (Gregory is a saint) and I may not have said it enough, but thanks! Could not have done it without you! Also, thanks to Sean at Rol Wheels for the speedy wheels yesterday; they definitely helped a ton! And Eric Schafer for the aero helmet…I was a speedy sperm!