Baby I'm Back!

It has been such a long time since my last blog post and so much has happened since then. The biggest things that have happened are trips to NJ and CO, training increases, and a NEW job. Yes, many people thought that this day would never happen, but I am currently working at Lululemon Athletica! It is an awesome job that is really involved in the community and therefore I do not get in trouble when I have to take time off for races, etc. Everyone is really supportive and I am excited to keep on getting closer with the people that work there.

4 weeks ago I went back home to New Jersey. I was bummed that we wouldn't be able to go to my beach house because my trip was so short (4 days), but I had a great time and some much needed rest. I also got a good deal of heat training done since San Diego doesn't seem to want a summer this year. One great thing about being in NJ was that I was able to train with Yasi. Yasi is a couple years older than me and just joined Breakaway with Chris being her coach. We are very similar in our Type A - "must get everything done" attitude, so doing a track workout with her was perfect. I woke up at 4:30 to get down to West Windsor in time to do the 6:20 track session. After we finished that, it was a huge gab fest and me trying to convince her to come out to San Diego. She coaches lacrosse and played field hockey (helloooooooooooo, I used to coach at Cathedral Catholic and could totally hook her up with a job!) AND she works at Lululemon in Princeton, so she can just transfer! Yasi is really fast and really committed and REALLY needs to get out to sD!! ok.. enough with that rant!! :)

A week after I came back from NJ, I headed out to Denver, Colorado with Liz to do a sprint race, train, and sherpa Liz and Hallie at Boulder 70.3. A day after we got to Denver was the Tri for the Cure sprint. Liz and I raced this as "elite" because the only qualifications were that you finished top 3 in your age group in the last 3 years. The swim was hell because the altitude really got to me and it was scary not being able to breathe. For some sick reason I didn't think that altitude would effect my swim, but it definitely did. I think I came out of the water 3rd, but I was absolutely drained. The bike was fine, a little hilly, but the 11.4 miles went by pretty fast. I came off the bike in the same position, 3rd. Since we were the first wave, there were a lot of obviously a lot of people lined up to get into the swim. As I was running into T2 with my bike, there were still lots of people lined up. They were blocking my rack and so I stood around like a fool trying to figure where the hell my rack was. When I finally found it, I was still in 3rd, but the 4th place girl was closing in close on the run. That was honestly the hardest 5k of my life because it was hard to breathe and it was just so hot. I gave up two spots on the run so I finished 5th overall.

Later that week Liz and I went with her parents up to Vail. We stopped in Breckenridge to go alpine sliding and thankfully we did because we had planned to ride from Breck to Vail. We decided to just run that day because it was raining... and also freaking freezing! We had no idea that it would be so cold because it was hott as hell in Denver, so we were totally unprepared. As we were driving up to Vail, we see people slowly adding more layers. It started with people just wearing arm warmers and ended with people in full blown face masks, pants, thick jackets, etc. We bought some jackets in Vail and rode back to Breckenridge the next day. Hills at 10,000 feet of elevation are a lot harder than at sea level!! I thought I was going to die of my heart palpitating, but thankfully we made it.

Boulder 70.3 had a beautiful course, but the heat and elevation would probably be the two factors to make me not want to race. Hallie was hilarious when she got out of the water after only one short swim before the 70.3, yellling "that was f***ing hard!!!" Besides her tough swim, Hallie went on to break 6 hours and set a new PR for herself..you go girl!!! The next week, she broke another PR at AFC Half Marathon! Seeing Hallie accomplish two HUGE goals in such a small amount of time was really inspiring and she told me that she just never believed that she would be able to do it before. Soo, I get Phyllis aka Felicity is right: you have to believe in yourself!! Liz got 6th in our AG and had a solid race. It was only her second half Ironman distance, which is hard to believe since she killed St. George, but she stayed strong the whole race and even when things got tough on the run, she kept going. That was motivating for me because I know that I give up too easily mentally while racing, but Liz continuing to run and move forward even when she wasn't having the best run and refusing to walk was the bomb dot com. Yahoo, sister! I wanted to walk and I only had a 2 hour run that day... not the bike or the swim!

So now I'm 8 weeks away from Kona and I FINALLY feel like I am going to be racing there. It isn't just some far away event that I keep talking about, but is never actually happening. Phyllis has increased my training and I love it. Long training days are always fun for me and I enjoy lots of hours and miles in the saddle. I am so happy to be riding with Kathy again and eager to ride with Kebby this weekend. Surf Town Triathlon is also this weekend, let's hope I don't end up eating sand again trying to get out of the water!!

One last note: my first training partner on Breakaway, Richard, has relocated to China for the next 6 months. Chard and I trained for Vineman together (my first half, his second) and IM St. George. I will miss you, buddy!!!! Remember to take lots of pictures and train for CdA!!!!!!!!!!!