I need you to sleep.

Ok, it's time to talk; we have 9 days to go.  I need you to sleep.  No more all nighters, or broken nights.  Last night was a no go for me.  I realize that you were only up for about 20 minutes and seemed to enjoy our brief 2 am cuddle session, but I was up for over an hour.  See, I'm getting old.  It takes me a while to fall back asleep.  We had a lovely family fun run planned for 6:30am that had to be cancelled due to lack of sleep.  If you wanted to party in the early morning hours, you should have done that from the get go.  You spoiled us and your parents don't know what you need or want in the middle of the night and don't know how to function on little sleep.  Because of your all nighter last weekend, I know I fell asleep on my bike last Sunday.  In fact I think that's why my ride was quicker than usual, I was too tired to worry about falling.  I asked your father to put me up in a hotel from now til race day and he's refusing to finance that request.  We are both consuming too much coffee, it's becoming unhealthy.  Part of tapering is resting up for the big race, I can't rest if I'm not sleeping.  I asked the race director and there is no handicap for living with a small tyrant, I mean child.  So whatever is going on, it needs to stop.  I need you to sleep, we only have 9 more days.

Slept through a 3 mile training run and 45 min pool workout.

Taper time!

So I've made it to the taper.  With 10 days to go, I don't have much to do but sit around and perseverate about all that I've done.  That said the taper came at right time, last weekend included an ugly 12 mile run and a sweet and fast (at least for me it was fast) 55 mile bike.  So I know I'm ready.  The goal of a taper is to lay low until the race and rest the muscles but it's a fine balance of being cautious of doing too much and not enough.  Here's the problem I personally feel that training for a 70.3 requires too much all the time.  There is always a workout to be done and even when you look at how people taper for these events it seems like a lot.  It doesn't help that I went off the grid with my training 5 or 6 weeks ago and have been doing a hybrid of about 3 different training plans and they all have different suggestions for the taper.  So at this point here's my tentative line up:

Today: 60mins on trainer
Thurs: 45 min swim and 5 mile run
Fri: 45 min swim and 4 mile run
Sat: 40 mile bike
Sun: 10 mile run
Mon: nothing
Tues: 30 min swim and 60 trainer
Wed: 3 mile run
Thurs:  30 min swim and 60 min trainer
Fri: 3 mile run
Sat: plans are still up in the air....thinking maybe a very easy swim/bike combo before the expo
Sun: RACE DAY!!!

Other things that need to happen over the next few days include:
1.  Bike back to shop for squeaky brakes, a tune up and new handlebar tape.
2.  start to think about and organize what is going in the transition bags
3.  talk with Joe about where he'll be on the course
4.  research more the shuttles and where I need to be when come race day
5.  contact The Miriam and let them know about my approx arrival time post race

Trained for 60 mins on bike

We're back!

Not by choice but we are back to morning runs!  Likely a 1 time appearance but we were out there before breakfast just like old times.  The kid was up at 5:45am (yes, I ordered blackout curtains this morning to stop this from becoming a regular occurrence) and I know many of the books say to leave them in bed til the real wake up time..but that doesn't work over at 3 Oliver so we were all up at 5:45.  Given the weather report for today, I had planned from the get go to get out there early with him so with all 3 of us awake it was a perfect opportunity for a family fun run.  Too bad that Joe seems to have forgotten that we used to be morning runners and was not so keen on the idea.  It only took a little pouting and foot stomping for him to join us.  Before the kid's arrival we almost exclusively ran in the morning and like everything else in life that has changed drastically; Joe rides to work during the week and occasionally runs at lunch and I go out with the kid mid day most days.  I rarely run with other people other than the kid and when I do I hold on the to the stroller.  Lets be honest, no one really wants to push an additional 46lbs on a run....but on a family fun run we get to split the load!  Man, there is nothing better than running 1.5 miles with the stoller and then passing it on to run the rest solo.  Not that I want to get up at 5:45 every morning but the occasional morning run might need to be built into our schedule more often.

Ran 3 miles and swam for 45 mins. 

Team Macedo debuts at Will Speck

Team Macedo made it's race debut today at Will Speck.  Yep, first race with all 3 of us and we made it through with a respectable time.  I headed out early to get in a few miles before the race and Joe was on baby and registration duty.  There was a few moments of doubt when I had made it back to the starting line up before the race and Joe was no where to be found.  Have no fear, he made with...race numbers for both of us as well as the kid in the stroller.  We started in the back of the pack and had it not been Father's Day I wouldn't have stayed with them.  Started to take off and was consumed with guilt, turned around and ran with Joe who was behind the stroller.  I tried to get him to pass the stroller to me so we could move a bit quicker and he refused.  I rolled my eyes and kept my mouth shut...fine we'll do it your way.  After the first uphill we started to pick people off, finally the old man was going to kick it into a quicker gear.  I looked at my garmin and groaned a bit about our pace but again kept my mouth shut.  I got the sorry sucker to agree to this on Father's Day and that should have been enough.  We moved along and kept picking off other runners, chatting and laughing for most of it.  Before too long we were back at the track for the Olympic finish and victory celebration.  Joe and Miles were the first stroller team to finish (unofficially)!  No time to celebrate, I left the 2 of them to sign autographs and went off to finish my long run.   Great way to celebrate Father's Day!!  The best gift of all was the 3 hour nap that followed that ALL of us participated in!

Miles trained today: 10.5

70.3 meet my family...

Today was one of those days where it wasn't going to fit.  It's the reason why I've quit the training plans  and have gone rogue.  This weekend includes the kid's first birthday as well as Father's Day.  For a while I toyed with racing on Father's Day, until Joe started to rub his eyes and run his hands through his hair.  It was a sign, it was in my best interest NOT to race.  So then what?  The training schedule calls for too much than can be managed and keep a happy household.  After a week of perserverating I decided to call it, the long ride wasn't going to happen.  This morning I sent Joe out for a ride to maintain his sanity and during nap time got in an hour on the trainer.  After the birthday party of birthday parties, I hit the trainer for another hour and followed it up with a run.  Not perfect but it's what worked for the fam. Tomorrow is another problem...I can run a 5k with the Hub and kid but really want to run the run course of the race.  He's put up with my training for how many months now?  So what I think will happen is 7 solo miles before the race.  Hey, it's not perfect but it's life with a young child.  It's the reason I've given up on the many training plans I've tried to follow and come up with my own.  I have a young child at home and sometimes things aren't going to go as planned.  I can't complain.  I can't change it.  I have to make it fit and be ok with it.

Trained 30 miles on the bike and 3 miles on the road.

You never know how it's going to go down.

So after a year of this, you'd think I'd be used to not getting done what was planned.  The kid plays games with me, he goes along and watches me get cocky then throws me a curve ball.  Today was one of those days.  He'd been napping like a champ for a while now, so when I put him down this morning I fully expected to get in my trainer workout.  After 20 minutes of listening him call for management I realized that this wasn't going to happen.  I started to freak a little, but decided to just grab him and take off for a run.  We got in a nice 3 miles and had little arguing about it.  Lets fast forward through the terrible afternoon that consisted of 2 hours at the pediatrician's office, 1 finger stick, 4 shots, 1 visit to the lab and 60 minutes of tears and to when he thankfully fell asleep.  I took a few minutes to gather myself, it was traumatic for all involved.  When I ran out of things to waste time on I took a gamble and got back on the trainer.  Surprisingly I got through that workout, a shower and this blog post...maybe I should have focused on yard work instead.  So regardless of how it happened I got it all in today and the bonus is tonight I can drink wine and not worry about having to finish that workout when we get home!

Trained 1:20 on the trainer and ran for 3 miles.

1 year, 90 mins, 526

I got a lot of numbers to discuss today so bear with me.

We survived our first year of parenting and I'm closing in on my first year of training with a baby.  Cheers all around, all 3 of us are still breathing and still laugh daily so something is going right!  It's been a wild ride and I'm happy to report that I'm foggy on many of the gory details - no sleep and poor nutrition will do that to you!  I'm also happy to  report that you can continue to race and train with a kid.  Things are different, very different, from how life used to be but both Joe and I still get out there on a regular basis.  This summer we have several tri's on the horizon, as well as the Rock and Roll half marathon, The Blessing of the Fleet.  My only question is, how many miles till the jogger needs to go in for a tune up?!?

The other big deal about reaching the 1 year mark is now the kid can stay at the Y daycare for up to 90 mins.  Until now I've been using him as an excuse to keep all swims to no more than 45 mins.  I was really jazzed about this when I was headed to the pool, about half way through my "longer" workout I started to curse the new rule.  It's not like the staff ever paid close attention to the timing, but I felt like "Hey, I only have 45 mins and that's not my fault".  Now there's really no excuse.  Swimming just seems to take FOREVER, it's hard to pass the time when there's nothing to look at beyond that black line at the bottom of the pool.  At least I can now play around with some different workouts, the ones I've been using are feeling a bit stale.  Thankfully the kid didn't seem to mind playing a little longer than usual, although I'm still waiting for the day where my swim in interrupted by a dirty diaper (they draw the line at cleaning the poop).

526 this is my bib number for Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island.  I got sick to my stomach and close to hyperventilating when I found my bib # and swim wave posted on the site.  All these birthday celebrations have acted as a nice distractor.  After a pretty kickass weekend of training I know I'm ready.  Again, my goal btw now and then is to avoid injury at all costs.  It's also to prepare my husband for the fact that he's going to find me celebrating a finish in the medical tent hooked up to a nice IV, gotta keep the expectations low!


Ran 3 miles and swam for 50 mins.

Killed it with the NBW women

Rarely during this training have I felt confident or ready for race day, today is very different.  I'm ready and for once feel like I've done all that I can and I will finish the race.  Last week I decided to put on my big girl pants and have the clip-less pedals put back on my phat whip.  I needed to get over myself, it's foolish to think about getting though this course without the pedals.  The anxiety was totally there this morning, I couldn't find my helmet for a few moments and almost had a party at the thought of having to skip my ride.  Too bad it wasn't really lost and I couldn't come up with another acceptable excuse.  I rolled up to the elementary school, unsure of what the ride would be like and quickly found myself among 40-50 other women cyclists of varying ability and experience.  We headed off in no time, I was somewhat familiar with the route as I have followed their markers on my own quite a bit.  Unsure of where I would fit, I positioned myself near the rear of the pack.  It didn't take long for me to realize that it was time to start passing people.  I'm a nervous chicken shit and ride my brakes on the downhills but was kicking some ass on every one of those never ending hills.  It became comical and people would joke as I'd move right pass them up the hills.  Seems as though those twice weekly hill workouts on the trainer are paying off. SO the part of the race I've been dreading the most, the hills on the bike, are turning out to be a secret strength.  I'm too cautious and slow on turns and down hills but for now that's ok.  Every single person who would power by me on the downhills I would catch rather easily on the straight away and then pass on the next uphill.  And as the miles ticked by I started to loose some of them.  The excitement about this discovery distracted me from the pedals, although I was too nervous to fiddle with my water or gu while moving.  Part of that I think was due to the increased speed.  It was fine today, but will lead to a DNF on race day.  The NBW women's group was a great addition to my training, I'd totally join them again and encourage other's to check them out.  It was very nice to ride with a group and not have to worry about where I was going or if I was lost.  The goal had been to get in another 55+ ride but my phat whip is in need of some service....I think the rear derailer is hitting the spokes or something on the wheel (kind of badass that I know what a derailer is and can use in in a sentence).  Also my brakes sound pretty terrible, hopefully an easy fix at the bike shop tomorrow.

I will add that to make up for the missed miles I headed to the pool this afternoon, only to find that someone had pooped in the pool.  Yep, pooped in the pool.  I'll let that clear til Monday and try not to think about it.

Miles trained today: 35

Liquid latex and duct tape

So lets talk about my new tri suit.  It's a two piece and not in a light color but that's where my positive spin on this outfit ends.  It's so friggin tight, if I wore some thing made out of liquid latex and duct tape it would seriously be less form fitting than what I bought.  When I showed Joe last night, he almost choked on his wine trying to hold in his laughter.  I brought an expert with me (thanks Kali!!) and even heard from the resident tri guy at the store...it's how these things are supposed to fit.  Let me tell you, it took a lot of balls to wear it around my neighborhood for our afternoon run today.  I was tempted to not wear it but felt like I need to give it a try and get used to not only riding in it but also running.  After wearing it for a bike/run brick I do really like it.  On the bike it's great, doesn't ride up anywhere and although I was a bit hesitant to go with shorts with a chamois I was really loving the extra padding.  After a transition that included a diaper change and quick meal for the kiddo, running in it was just as comfortable.  I did have my Sox hat pulled as far down on my forehead as possible to avoid eye contact with my neighbors who must have wondered if I'd lost it.  I did laugh at myself in this technical outfit that was paired with a Sox hat that's more grey than blue, mis-matched pink ankle socks and a baby in a stroller.  So at this point I'll look like the real deal out on the course, but I'm not sure I'll wear it around my neighborhood again!

Trained for an hour on the bike followed by a 30 min run.

Just over a month to go

Not much time left now; it's a matter of avoiding injury and anxiety management at this point.  There are still quite a few miles left to log in the training plan but distances aren't getting any longer at this point.  Joe was happy to hear that one, I think he's looking for support groups for spouses of triathletes.  This week I'm spending some time working out kinks related to accessories.  Going today to scope out some fashion solutions to address the what to wear question.  No light colors I can tell you that much, still have flash backs to the woman in the light silver onsie on the bike in front of me in all her glory.  Also trouble shooting my water bottle ejection issue.  My back cages don't securely hold the bottles and I'm sick of loosing them or rather sick of buying new ones.  The goal is to fix this problem and not fork over any more cash, we'll see how successful I am at this.  Also publicly pledging to practice changing a tire twice this week.  Learned a valuable lesson last week, (and not just that Melissa is a kinder nicer person than I am) KNOW HOW TO CHANGE YOUR TIRES!  Yes, I was the idiot with a flat and a flat repair kit and no idea how to use it.

Trained for 45 mins in the pool and heading off for a 60 min run when the kid wakes up.