Check back later

I have been awake for 16+ hours, fighting a bit of a head cold/allergies, and just want to konk out. Check back tomorrow for some adventures from NoCal.

Thursday Thoughts

I was talking to Molly earlier this week about my superstitions with food pre-race. I have to have ravioli the night before the race and toast the morning of the race. Do you have any food superstitions before your events?

Happenings at the Gym

Today I went to the gym as I do every Wednesday. Wednesday is core class so I incorporated it with a 30 minute run on the treadmill (it was raining outside). I have been going to this gym, a national-chain, high-profile gym, for five years now and have pretty much been able to stay in the background. There's usually only one person who talks to me there, besides Dave, and it's a guy who I went to high school with who works at the gym. Today, though, I must have been wearing a sign that said "TALK TO ME!!!" It started when I walked in and the front desk guy noticed I was wearing a Chicago Marathon jacket. He asked me if I was doing the Columbus Marathon this weekend and I began telling him about the marathon I am running this weekend. Then during and after my workout I had lots of other people talk to me. I think it may have had something to do with the fact I was wearing tiny, spandex running shorts. :)

I also saw some things at the gym today that really bothered me. The first was a personal training session with a male personal trainer and a female pupil. (That's how they do it at my gym--so shady!) Anyway, the girl was doing standing shoulder presses and they were all wrong. First of all she was walking around. She should have had her feet planted with her knees slightly bent. Secondly, the weight was too heavy for her. She couldn't get her arms straight and she was arching her back to get the weight up. She was asking to get injured. And what was the personal trainer doing while he should have been helping her? He was watching ESPN. Seriously. I believe personal training is somewhere in $150/hour range. There should probably be some PERSONAL training in that charge. Give me a break!

The second thing I saw that wasn't so shady as something that just really bothered me happened in another personal training session. One of the female trainers was working with an overweight woman. The woman was doing good work but really being challenged. The last part of the session was on the treadmill right beside me. The trainer had her walking on the 'mill with the incline at a pretty good percentage. It was all the overweight woman could handle. The trainer had her stop. The thing that bothered me about this was that the trainer had her stop. I wish she had changed the workout to keep the woman moving and finish the workout on a high note.

Ah, just another day at the gym.

Did somebody say hockey?

You guys are going to hate me. Being that I am racing this weekend and then have to take the next two to three weeks off, I just don't have a whole lot to talk about regarding my running and Ironman training. Today's topic has nothing to do with either.

For those of you new to the blog, and I know there's quite a few of you, I live in Columbus, Ohio. Cow Town, USA. Columbus is also College Town, USA with the largest university in the US right downtown. Our world revolves around the university and especially Ohio State football. The world shuts down on Saturdays to watch the game. You may laugh, but I remember in 2002 when we made the national championship game, high school basketball games were rearranged so that people could watch the game. Yes, that's how serious we are about our Buckeyes. And being that I am alumni and lived here my whole life, I LOVE IT!!!

But, we have two emerging sports in Central Ohio that are doing great and no one knows about. The first is our professional soccer team, the Columbus Crew. Last year our team won the MLS Cup and this year we have clinched a spot in the playoffs yet again. And being that my company has worked with The Crew many times this year, I cannot say enough good things about this organization. They are grade "A" and are very good to their fans. I am now a fan for life.

Another team gaining respect in town is the Columbus Blue Jackets, our professional hockey team. I have to admit, for a while I was quite skeptical. I grew up a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Mario Lemieux. But, they kept getting better and better and last year we finally made it to the playoffs. This year we are in first place (for now) and 4-1 overall. Tonight I attended my first regular season game. We were in the second to last row, but we were center ice and could see all the plays open up. Jackets won 2-1 with two awesome goals in the second period. Frankly, the score should have been 6-1 as we had three pucks hit the posts and one goal that went in but I guess the referees had already blown the whistle. What a crock! I had a lot of fun. I hope to go again sometime in the next ten years. :)

Horrible, Too True Nightmare

It's no secret that I am horribly, horribly scare of bridges. No, no; it's a phobia. I freeze up. My heart races. I sweat. I think I will die. Seriously, it's bad.

In four days I leave for San Francisco and they kinda have a very famous, very big bridge there. Dave says I HAVE TO go across it. I vehemently say no. NO!!!! Not walking, not riding. NO!!! Molly, do not let Dave talk you into this. Just say NO!!!

Last night I had a dream, nay, a nightmare. I was being forced to go across the Golden Gate bridge. It was awful. I woke up in full panic.

Seriously, I'm not crossing that bridge.

Miscellany for Sunday

A little miscellany today...

• Watching Ironman yesterday scared the devil right out of me. People looked like HELL crossing the finish line. Louisville has the possibility to be as warm as Hawaii. Yikes!!
• Generally I don't get involved in politics (yeah right) but seriously, Ohioans, we have a big scheme on our hands with Issue 3. Do your homework. This article is an editorial, but it sheds some light on the things the casino companies are hiding.
• I've been filling out some sponsorship applications and going back through my last couple years of racing results. Holy wow have I made improvements in the last year! Seriously, I was bad.
• I hate to shop. :) I spent an hour and a half in one store today, tried on several, several things and walked away with nothing. I love how fast I've gotten, but my body has totally changed into total athlete. Clothes look horrible on me now. Damn you Anthropologie.
• Last week before the marathon!!!

Log on

No new blog post today. I'm watching Ironman today. You should be too. I have even tried pausing it while we are working our wedding tonight.

See ya tomorrow.

Kick Some Kona Butt!!!

Good luck to all the athletes racing in Kona tomorrow. A special shout out goes to Marit and Bree. Kick some major a$$!!! Dave and I plan on following along as much as we can tomorrow, but we do have a wedding (and there is also college football). Next year, I'll be there. Ha ha ha!!! :)

Thursday Thoughts

Ugh, it's been a week of painting. The room is a burgundy color which means layers and layers of paint. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow. In the mean time, it's chores I don't enjoy.

What are the chores you despise doing and why?

Feeling a Little Bloated or Swollen

It's been 6 weeks since I broke my finger and it is starting to feel better. I can finally bend it and can almost get it into a fist. It's still super-sore, but definitely better. I have to wear the tape for one more week and will probably wear it through the marathon just for protection. Today I tried on my wedding rings just to see. Luckily I was not wearing my rings when I fell and did not have to have them cut off. But I've been worried if they'd ever fit again.



I'm hoping I'm still really swollen. I'm going to wait several months and then make a decision if I need to get my rings resized.

I really did some good damage when I took this spill.

Total Destruction of my House

I might have mentioned previously that Dave came home from Yellowstone with thoughts about how he wanted to redo our master bedroom. I have tried to lay low and let it blow over, but he keeps persisting!! He cleaned out his half of the closet and put his dresser in there, which of course meant I had to clean out my half of the closet. Then he decided he wanted to paint the rest of the walls (we had one accent wall and hadn't painted the other ones). Instead of having an accent wall, all the walls would be the same, BURGUNDY! color as the one wall. Again, I laid low, didn't help and watched as my bedroom began looking like a cave. This past weekend we made a trip to Homegoods and that's when things took a serious turn. After dropping a whopping $500!!! we came home with a new set of awesome chairs and a set of new bedside lamps. Game on! Of course, the stuff is sitting in my living room right now. Or maybe I should call that my storage closet--bikes, photo booths, chairs, ugly couches. The only thing I like in my living room is my HDTV. Anyway, Dave and I are now working collectively on finishing the painting. We have 12 foot tall ceilings so it takes A LOT of work. Hopefully we'll have it all done by the end of the week and will have the chairs and my dresser in place. I'll post pictures when there is more progress.

I'm Feeling Fast (and my legs are fried)

I did the hardest run of my life this weekend, races not included. Coach had a LONG interval workout on the agenda that was 15 to 30 seconds faster than race pace. I thought my lungs were going to explode. I kept telling myself, "Meredith, if you want to achieve X:XX in the marathon" (seriously, I'm no longer talking about my goals on the blog) "then you have to be able to do this run." And, "Meredith, Ironmen work hard!!!" It worked. I killed this run! First interval, 7:19 average: second interval, 7:12 average. I remember when those paces were full-out sprints.

One more key workout to go and then I'll be shutting it down. Taper time!!!

Don't Tell Anyone

Ssshhhh! I've got a secret to tell. This biking stuff...it isn't so bad. Ssshhh! Don't tell anybody! Especially not Coach. I've been riding now twice a week, with most rides being between 30 minutes and an hour. The soreness is going away. I've been able to increase my RPMs comfortably. And my mileage is coming up. I think the thing I like most about it is it's a nice respite from running. Marathon training has been extreme and I'm ready for a break.

Speaking of break, after the marathon Coach is making me take a mandatory 2-3 week, absolutely no working out, break before Ironman training begins. I think I might die during that time.

Achy Breaky

I'm not a fan or tapering. Others talk about feeling bloated or like they need to train more. Tapering for me always makes me feel achy. And by achy, I mean my body hurts and I wonder what happened and how I will get to the start line. Right now my right hip is bothering me, which somehow is also causing a pin-pointed pain in my right inner thigh. My left achilles hurts. And of course, my finger is NEVER getting better (okay, that has nothing to do with running). Somehow in two weeks all the pain will go away and I'll feel nothing for 26 miles. I'm so excited!!!

The Plans are Set

It's two weeks until we leave for San Francisco and our plans are coming into place. We're staying with Molly. We're so thankful she's taking the crazies in for a weekend. She'll be just a few weeks away from her Ironman and will have tons of training to do. Dave's going to join her on an ocean swim. I'm going to watch from the sidelines. We've found a bar to watch the Buckeyes' game if we can't get the channel at the homestay. We'll be attending the expo on Friday and driving the course. Speaking of the course, I checked out the profile online today. Yikes!!! But, if I can conquer Boston, I can conquer this one.

Two weeks!!!!

Thursday Thoughts

I mentioned in August that I got a parking ticket and I was upset that I got it because I did pay for my parking I just couldn't read the parking spot number. The next week I started making some phone calls and it seemed like everything was going to be taken care of. I kept my cool; they kept theirs and I waited to hear the outcome. Unfortunately no one called back, so I decided to just pay the bill. When I sent in my check, I added a letter explaining the situation and who I had talked to. This morning I checked my PO Box and to my surprise I had received a letter back from Parking Solutions and to my utter shock, they sent my check back and told me the ticket had been voided. WOW!!! I am so impressed. Thanks Parking Solutions!!

What has been a good deed you have done or received recently?

September Totals

Wow!! September was HUGE!!! I can't believe it; I didn't miss a workout this month. This might be the first time since I started working with Coach a year ago that I haven't missed a workout in a month. September included two twenty milers and for the first time in six years, September did not include Reach the Beach. :( There was no swimming since the finger may be broken forever, but that gave me the opportunity to start working on my biking. And I also started attended a core class.

Swimming = 0 yards/meters
Biking = 60.24 miles
Running = 128.91 miles
Other = 3.25 hours

Surprisingly, this is not my biggest month of running. That would be in March 2006 when I was running nearly 50 miles a week every week.

Next month will be marathon time and then it's on to Ironman training.

Inquiring Crotches Want to Know

Today I returned the demo bike seat we've been testing out for the last week. Dave loves it and is ready to order is. I am a little more torn. There were things I liked about the ISM Adamo like it didn't hurt me in certain areas, it made it easier to stay in aero, and it didn't rub me in ways that would cause rashes. But there were certain things I didn't like, like it was slippery, I adjusted it like a hundred times and never found that sweet spot, and I thought it was really hard. Tomorrow I have an hour long ride and have my other seat on it. Tomorrow will really determine if I like what I have, decided on the other one, or keep looking.

For those of you out there, especially the women, who ride on the Adamo, what do you like about it that made you switch to it? If it's more personal that putting it in the comments, please send me an e-mail. I REALLY want to know.

The Finish Line has GOT to be around the corner.

You'd think after the last long run, my second 20 miler on Saturday, I'd be tapering for my marathon. But alas, this week looks ugly. Sure I don't have a super-long run (although there is a 12 miler on the schedule) but there is tons of speed work. Today I had short intervals, which were hilarious. I am still SOOOO sore from the 20 miler just two days ago. My hip flexors could barely lift my right leg up to turn it over. Even keeping my arms in the correct position was difficult. Come on, y'all know what I'm talking about--when your body hurts and you pull your arms up and out to take the pressure off yourself, yet you're only making things worse?

In addition to the running, I've got more biking. It's starting to become a theme. I can't wait for this swimming hiatus to be over!! I really should have gotten a new tattoo during this time. :)

Hopefully this will be the last week of hard workouts. I'm looking forward to the taper.

2010 Races

Bummer. If I had run the Homestretch 20 Miler race this morning (although it was pouring rain and I didn't get home from the wedding last night until 1:15am) and had run the same time as my training run yesterday, I would have won my age group. But, you learn more by pacing yourself and being in your own head, so I think I made the right choice.

Anyway, I'm trying to put together a race schedule for next year and all I have on it is Ironman Louisville on August 29th. I would like to have a half Ironman in early summer like mid June. Do you guys have a favorite race around that time? I'm looking for one that has a somewhat hilly bike course, one that I could swim in a no-sleeve wetsuit or no wetsuit at all. And I don't want to be swimming in the ocean and preferably would like to stay in the Midwest so I could drive to the race. I'm looking to compete but also simulate race conditions for Louisville. I'm also looking for other races like Olympics or sprints around the same time. Any ideas?