Friday, November 7, 2008

15 days out!!

Thank you guys so much for your thoughts on my family...and my dad!! I usually just post about my training, but I know that gets old after a while--I usually blog in "numbers" you know, how many miles I ran, how fast etc. I usually write about that so I can look back on it and see my progress....but I also know blogs with just numbers tend to get boring...so, I like to add in what I call the "psychosocial model" of training (the counselor in me =0). Meaning taking a look at my training as a whole, who influences me while I train and my daily life directly affects my training, so why not add in some social stories along with the numbers! My dad's email affected me because i've always been an athlete and i've always had super supportive parents and their support has made me succeed when I thought it was least possible. Like the time my sister drove up from college to watch me play varsity soccer for the first time...and I sat on the bench the whole time...I was so....mad! That next year I decided to drop soccer all together and focus on tennis...all kinds of little "athletic" decisions have always been mine and I love getting those messages from my dad because even though he doesn't live close to me, he's always supportive!

SO! What's up on my end, well, with a rather low work week...we're in the middle of switching contracts so before my new clients start, i've had sort of a lull at work...which made for a good week of relaxing and doing some training. Fortunately, I got to vote after standing in line for SIX hours on Monday. San Diego only has ONE place to vote early and I was *so* afraid that the lines for the polls would be super busy Tuesday, so I waited. And you know, when you've already waited two hours you're like "how much longer can it be?" WAY longer. I definitely would have been better off just voting near my house, I know that now! I won't get too political on here, but Dave and I went to an election return party and left extremely excited, relieved and elated!

It's crunch time for me to get organized before Ironman, trying to tie everything together for my health, my race plan, my bike. That sort of thing...so I talked to Amanda for a while on Wednesday as I did some retail therapy, I literally called her as I was sifting through Banana Republic, seems my wardrobe has gotten frumpy while training **shudder**. We chatted, she offered opinions, I counter offered =0, and so I have done some stuff this week to get ready such as:

1. Beg, plead, bribe-with-frozen-yogurt Beth and James to let me borrow their rear disc wheel for Ironman...well, I didn't really have to beg, but Beth will be for sure getting some frozen yogurt and i'll figure out something for James..possibly a rare breed of beer if I can find a kind he hasn't had!!! This is a disc..and it's super fast and i'm not going to lie, I am THRILLED to be using one for the *first* time ever racing....it helps with speed and aerodynamics and makes that really cool "woosh, woosh" sound. STOKED! Huge huge thank you to my "sponsors", Beth and James. I should mention that this is Beth's first full year racing triathlons and I can't think of a race where she didn't podium finish!! She is training for the Las Vegas marathon and her goal is around 3:10, but i'll bet she goes faster!! James ...just rocked the Xterra World Championships in Maui a few weeks ago and finished FIRST in his age group and SECOND OVERALL Amateur athlete.....these two are *not* to be messed with. So, let's *hope hope hope* that this wheel, which sits in a VERY fast apartment will bring me good luck. I'll also be learning how to change a tubular tire for the first time ever. I'm not even going to get into that on a blog, but basically I ride on clinchers, one type of tire and I have to learn how to change the disc since it's different. Woosh Woosh.

2. MASSAGE! I finally scheduled one. Ok, so i'm in the rare among my athlete friends I don't "have" a massage therapist. I have friends who have regular massages......sports massages, but regular ones. The last massage I had was with Dave for our anniversary so it counts, but that was in September and apparently um, not quite still "active." It's critical in my preparation to make sure all my muscle kinks are worked out and i'm ready to roll. So, next Wednesday i'm meeting with my friends massage therapist =0, and i'll be all smoothed out.

3. Fixing up my bike: I usually have 3 water bottle cages, but for Ironman i'm switching it up. I'll have one water bottle cage on the downtube for my carbo pro 1200, and then a front one that will hold all my water for drinking here is a picture of that kind of set up:
Oh look who it is!! It's Amanda!! My coach =0, hopefully she won't mind me cutting and pasting an awesome picture of her----being super fast and all, I figured who better to model the aero drink than my coach =0.. And, er, um, i'm not sure who took the picture, but credit to whomever took it------you can see the aero drink in beteween the front handlebars.

And of course, i'll need bike maintenance, making sure it's working well and all that.

So...that's just some randomness from getting things in order....i'm headed out for a 4.5 hour ride today followed by a 2 hour run. It's supposed to be more mentally hard than physically and I can see what Amanda meant by that already. I'm done, I feel like i'm ready--not physically, in that sense, i'm worn....but, I know all my hard work has been done, so to pull myself out and do this *one* last hard work out is going to be more mentally trying. But guess what? It has to be done and guess who i'm dragging out to run two hours with me? Yup, Dave....he'll be done with a quick procedure he had to go perform this morning and will be ready to rock with me. Then, tomorrow AND Monday are OFF days....WAHOO!!

Over and out.....

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are doing so well mer! Can't wait to see you in AZ! Good luck!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey sweetie! You're doing great and your race is almost here! I know that you're going to do awesome! Love you!

Dave!

(See...I do know how to leave a comment on here! :) )

Unknown said...

Hey Mer! i'm happily all caught up on your blog - finally!! I LOVE reading it all! And your dad's email was so sweet! Can't believe the big race is so close...it tires me out reading all this! How do you do it? Love, Jill

Anonymous said...

Stumbled onto your blog through Amanda Lovato's blog. I too am doing IMAZ. Good luck :) I read your last post that mentioned a disc wheel for IMAZ. I have biked the B-line a lot, one complaint many people have is wind on the B-line...so just a friendly heads up on the wheel selection. Most people choose a less aggressive set-up due to the cross-winds that can occur. Again good luck!

Lauren said...

Wait - is it really only 15 days away?! You have worked SO hard and everyone is so proud of you. Is there anything that you put your mind to that you can't do (okay, besides that statistics class in college - that was allll professor and not you :0. Love you! Lauren

Mer! said...

Hey guys! Thanks for all your comments!! Jill, I can't believe you re-read the blog, so cute....Lauren--statistics/accounting/anything mathematically related you know i'm no good for...but thankfully triathlon seems to have less math =0.

Regarding my wheel choice for AZ---I am bringing both my regular race wheels in case it is windy...I have the disc wheel with me in the hopes that if it's not too windy, i'll use it! Thanks for the advice!!

Jennifer Yake Neuschwander said...

Mer,
I'm going to roll a disk too. I've been in a few side gusts and haven't fallen off yet. As long as there are no large buses to go swooshing along side us I think we will be alright.