Normal is Overrated

I've spent a lot of my life wishing I were more normal.  There are things that I wish I could change about myself to fit the "normal" box.  But, you know what?  Normal is overrated.  I've known this for a while, but over the weekend, training with the Ironteam, I realized that none of us is "normal," nor should we want to be.

On Friday night I was feeling a little off.  I had a slight fever, I had a headache and my dinner wasn't sitting well in my stomach.  I took some Tylenol PM hoping to help the headache and get rid of the fever by morning.  I woke up early to get ready for the day's bike ride with the team - 60 miles.  It would be my longest ride yet.  I had actually been excited about this ride all week (I know, me, excited about a bike ride? Who am I??).  I ate my banana and peanut butter and as I was eating my oatmeal I started to feel queasy.  I could feel the food I had just eaten gurgling around.  Ugh.  So, I took some Immodium (hoping that would prevent any unnecessary pit stops) and some Dayquil.  I prayed I'd feel better by the time I got to Santa Monica.

I still felt crummy when I got there, but I wanted to ride.  I told Coach Brad how I was feeling (and reassured him that this was not an anxiety attack - I do know the difference between anxiety and actually feeling sick) and told him that I still wanted to ride.  He gave me a modified course, cutting out most of the climbing.  I was disappointed.  I asked him if I could just start doing the climbs and if I felt bad part way through not do them anymore.  His answer?  Nope. So, I set out with the other two members of the injured/infirmed list to do an out and back to Kanan (about 17 miles north on PCH).  I was to reassess how I was feeling when I got back, and if I was feeling okay do an Amalfi loop and golf course loop.  I was sure I'd be able to do at least that.

A pic from a recent ride (not Saturday's), similar weather (photo by Cecy Cazares, teammate extraordinaire)

I was doing pretty good on the way North, averaging about 17mph on the flats, which has been my goal for a while.  I was consistently hitting it.  Yay!  And, I decided on the couple of climbs on PCH to push a little harder and see if I could go just 1 mph faster than the last time.  And, for the most part I did.  And, I didn't ride the brakes at all on the descents.  I'm still not pedaling on them, but my braking has become less and less.  I think the key for me is to not look at my watch so I won't see how fast I'm going.  Once I know how fast I'm gong I freak out a little.

I got up to Kanan, to our SAG stop, and my stomach was a little grumbly, I rested there for a bit hoping it would settle.  I knew I could make it back to the start.  I rearranged my bottles and headed south on PCH.  I tried eating my honey stinger waffle, but my body was NOT having any of it.  I pulled over and rearranged my bottles again so my front, and most accessible one would be Heed/CarboPro/Endurolytes combination, knowing I still needed calories.  I got to the top of one hill and Rommel, one of our teammates and roving SAG for the day was there.  I stopped at his truck for a minute to collect myself.  I wasn't feeling great.  I decided to keep going though.

I got back to Ocean and San Vicente at the same time as Holly, one of my teammates, also on the injured/infirmed list, and told Coach Erin my time/distance (35 miles in 2hrs 20 mins).  I knew that I didn't have an Amalfi loop in me.  I didn't want to go for it and burn out, knowing I had a 13.1 mile run the next day.  So, I prepped for my 30 minute transition run and got in 2.87 miles, not bad for feeling sick.

After practice I headed home, napped, woke up, ate some matzo ball soup and then went back to sleep.  I woke up on Sunday feeling marginally better than Saturday.  So I got myself ready and headed back out to Santa Monica for a 13.1 mile run with the team.  It rained the whole way.  Coach Brad told me the day before to ease off my usual pace and take it easy.  So, I did just that.  I ran about 12:00/mile, instead of 10-10:30 that I usually shoot for.  I wound up running almost the entire run with my teammate Kristy.  It was nice to run with someone and it helped the miles to go by faster.  I finished 13.1, hilly, wet, windy miles (while still feeling sick) in just over 2:35.  I'll take it (thank god it wasn't 2:45, my time for basically every 1/2 marathon I ran last year, I might've screamed).

13.1 in the rain (photo by Paiwei Wei - our fantastic photo captain!)

It was very wet, my hair looks like i just took a shower, nope, just running in the rain :) (photo by Pai)

After practice I warmed up a bit and then went and got in a swim.  We were supposed to do 3,000 yards.  I did not have that in me.  I did somewhere around 2,500 yards (maybe as few as 2,000), I lost count a couple times.  And, then I headed home for a hot shower and snuggle time with the pup.  All in all a pretty damn fine weekend.  And, considering I was feeling under the weather the whole time, I'm pretty darn impressed with all that I did.

None of what I did this weekend was "normal."  Six months ago had I woken up and felt the way I did on Sunday I would have stayed home and in bed all day, and probably the next day too.  I would've let myself be sick.  But, now, with the encouragement of the Ironteam, I get myself up and get going.  I work through it.  Had I been very very sick, I obviously wouldn't have done all these things.  I think I just had a little bug.  Actually, I STILL have a headache.  But, for the most part feeling better (stomach is still a little queasy).  Thankfully its Monday, so a light day on the schedule.

Like I said, normal is overrated.  None of my teammates, coaches, mentors or captains on the Ironteam are normal.  They are all extraordinary.  Thank you for helping me realize that normal is not where I want to be, extraordinary is where I want to be.

Top of Inspiration Pint, a tough, fun run (not this past weekend).  This girl, she's extraordinary.  (photo by Cecy)

Five Facts for Friday

I have had nothing interesting to post at all this week.  Not that what I normally post is the most interesting read out there.  But, I've had even less than that this week.  So, I'm gonna give you five facts for Friday.  Here you go.

1.  When I was little, like 4 or 5, I met Mr. Rogers and cried.  True story.

2.  I hate mushrooms and blueberries.  Blech.

3.  I've never had a best friend, not even when I was little.  I have a few very close friends and a couple I would call my best friends.  But, I've never had a single person I would call a best friend.  This doesn't bother me.  Never has.

4.  I have a fascination with the number 5.  And even numbers.  Weird, I know.

5.  I am a voracious reader.  And, I read really fast.  I finished all three Hunger Games books in 4 days, around work and ironman training (it was a recovery week, so lighter workouts made this a bit easier).

Taking the Good with the Bad

In life you have to accept that sometimes things will seem to be going great and sometimes things will start going to crap.  It is what it is.  It's how you deal with it that counts.  The same holds true in training for an ironman (or marathon, or any endurance event).  You'll have lots of great workouts and lots of crappy ones.  Sometimes you'll have both in one week.  The past few weeks things have been going exceptionally well for me, for the most part.

Last week I had an awesome run on Tuesday.  I did hill repeats and totally rocked them.  And, I had a really hard, but good trainer ride on Wednesday.  But, then Thursday I had a crappy swim.  I had a headache the whole time (not from being dehydrated, but because I kinked my neck earlier in the day).  Then the next day I had another not great swim.  But, I moved on from it.  Then came Saturday.  I woke up early and laid in bed for a few minutes being nervous.  This would be my longest ride yet, minimum of 56 miles or four hours, whichever came second.

I got to Ocean and San Vicente and was ready to go.  I knew this would be a challenging day for me, even though there weren't any additional hills added in - just north on PCH for two hours and then turn around and come back.  I knew that to make the 56 mile minimum I needed to get at least 28 miles north.  We started and I was feeling good.  I lost the pack pretty quickly, I'm not super fast.

I was moving at what felt like a pretty good pace, and when I looked down at my watch I saw that I was going close to 20 mph.  Whoa!  Slow down.  I needed to average 15 and go for 17 on the flats, but I didn't want to go 20 and burn out before I got back.  My coach had me set a speed and cadence alarm on my watch so that anytime I dipped under 15 mph or 90 cadence it would beep at me.  This was super helpful because I wasn't staring at my watch the whole time and I kept my speed and cadence up.  It was only really annoying when going uphill, cause clearly I'm not going 15 mph uphill.

I got to the SAG stop at mile 21 in about 1:20 (quick for me - especially since there are a couple of uphills).  I switched out two of my bottles, one that I had drained and a second one that I had partially drained.  Coach Brad told myself and the others there to turn around at 1:50, not 2 hours, as we had a big tailwind heading north.  Aha!  That's why when my speeds hit 20 mph it didn't feel that hard.  I continued on and was determined to hit 28 before I turned around, hoping it would be at 1:50.  And, I did!  Right at 1:50 I was at 28 miles.

I had been keeping my nutrition and hydration right on track and was feeling strong.  On the way back I definitely felt that headwind.  And my watch beeped at me a lot at that point, cause I was hovering around 13-14 mph.  I stopped once to rearrange all my bottles, cause I still haven't figured out how to reach the rear ones when I'm moving.  Actually, the only one I've been able to reach while moving is the one in the front, I haven't been able to get the one that is on the bar under the seat, perpendicular to it.  I've really got to work on that.

I was definitely not feeling tired at all.  I was feeling good.  I kept pushing.  I kept glancing at my watch because I REALLY wanted to finish the 56 in under 4 hours.  I was on pace to do close to 60.  I got up the last hill to Ocean and San Vicente and I still had 10 minutes to spare, and I was just over 56 miles!  So, I kept riding, although slower, since we had a 30 minute run after.  At four hours I returned to our meeting spot and hit stop on my watch.  57.5 miles!  Not quite the 60 that I wanted, but still, AMAZING.

The last time we had a four hour ride with a 56 mile minimum I only got through 43 miles in four hours.  HUGE improvement.  This time the four hours definitely didn't feel like four hours, it felt like less.  I am still a little slow and would like to get faster, but it will come with time.  I am gaining confidence in leaps and bounds on the bike and I could not be more excited.  I never got off the bike and walked it, which I have in the past.  And, I didn't ride the brakes down every single hill this time (that definitely sped me up).  The best part?  I wasn't totally terrified going down hill.  Next, pedaling on the down hill.  But, one step at a time.

This was a truly incredible ride for me.  And then the next day I had a pretty good run too.  We did this run that our coach called Amalfi double jeopardy.  For those of you who don't know, Amalfi is a big hill in Santa Monica, so we ran up it and made a loop almost all the way to where we started and then turned around and went back the way we came, uphill both ways.  It was challenging, but fun.  Although, I did almost get lost at one point.  So, I just stopped and waited for the next one of my teammates to get to where I was so I didn't go down a random street.

That afternoon I was still riding a big high from the weekend and I headed to the pool.  And, another crappy swim.  Swimming was just NOT my thing last week.  But, you can't win 'em all, right?  Like I said, you have to take the good with the bad.  And, man, my good totally surpasses my bad in every possible way this week.

To finish on a positive note, I went to a track workout on Tuesday night, and loved it.  I ran hard and it felt good.  We had to run 1.2 miles timed.  And, when I looked at my data after I uploaded it, I found out I ran an 8:43 mile.  It was hard, and maybe I could've gone a hair harder, but it was good.  No, it's not the fastest mile ever, but it's fast for me.  At the end of that 1.2 I felt like I was going to throw up.  Apparently that means I did it right.  The thing that is so great about that is 2.5 years ago, my first timed mile with Team in Training was 12:30.  And a little over a year ago my timed mile was 9:45.  Yay for improvements!

We're in a recovery week now, and I'm enjoying it.  It's supposed to rain this weekend, which does make me nervous.  Me + bike + rain could spell disaster.  But, I'll have to do it eventually, if it rains on race day I'll have no choice but to keep going.  So, that's what I'll do this weekend, keep going.

Please consider supporting me as I continue on this journey.  Your donations are 100% tax deductible.  And if you donate at least $15 you can sponsor a mile.  I'll be carrying the list with me throughout my race and will dedicate the mile you pick to you, or the person of your choosing.  Thank you!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/vinefirn13/ewallersco

Thanks!

Drinking the Kool-Aid

I realized over the weekend I've drunk the IronTEAM Kool-aid.  It's crazy how much I enjoy being with these people that just a few months ago were perfect strangers.  Now, they feel like a second family.

I might still be riding a high from completing Desert Tri.  I also still might be giddy about how great last weekend's 4 hour ride went, and it was awesome for me (more on this in a separate post tomorrow).  But, I know that even when things are not going well in training, when I have tough rides or runs where I just want to stop or swims where I just can't think of going one more lap in the pool, I still can't imagine not being a part of this incredible team.

We go through a lot together - and it's only going to be more and more as time goes on.  They don't mind when you show up wearing all spandex, hell, they're all wearing all spandex too.  (Side note - as one teammate put it after Desert Tri - "I never thought I could have so much fun in spandex."  It's a little ridiculous how much of it there is in my dresser now, but that's beside the point.)  We are all going through the same things.  

We celebrate the great days that people have and commiserate over the bad ones that others experience - usually both happen the same day, and everyone experiences both.  We talk about spending crazy money on fancy watches and new bikes.  We chat about what our nutrition is like for a long workout (seriously, adding tasteless carbs to a beverage is NOT something I ever thought I would do - and now I do, thank you Carbo Pro).  We finish a workout and the first thing we all do is go for our recovery drinks (thank you coaches for drilling that in to our heads).  You're a sweaty, salty mess at the end of a workout, and you'll still get hugs all the way around for a job well done, even if you feel like it was a failure of some kind.

We swim, we bike, we run, over and over and over again.  We are training for events that are not just huge, but are things that very few people actually set out to start, all while fundraising.  From the subject line of one of our coaches emails "You are not normal" (we got this after a 4 hour bike ride followed by a hilly 30 minute run).  And you know, what, we're not normal, and we embrace it and each other.  

We're not normal and I love it.  I've clearly drunk the IronTEAM Kool-aid.

some of the team at the finish line at Desert Tri

These people, all of them, participants, mentors, captains, coaches, inspire me every single day, more than they will ever know and I am so grateful to have each and every one of them in my life.  Thank you IronTEAM.  Thank you.

Desert Tri Ironteam Style

I'm not even sure where to start describing this past weekend.  It was an incredible experience spent with some of the greatest people I know.  But, I'm gonna give it a shot, hopefully its not too long.  So, here's what went down.  (All pictures borrowed from my teammates, Marvin, Marisela (my mentor), Holly and Pai)

Got off work at a reasonable hour on Friday and rushed home to finish packing.  Melissa, my teammate, came by so we could carpool up to the desert together (and we were sharing a hotel room).  I didn't have enough time to run all the errands I needed to, so we had to drop the dog off at my parents house and stop for gas before we got out of LA.  And then when we got to the desert I needed to run to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for the next day.  I'm usually far more prepared than this, but I've been busy.  We got to the hotel around 10:30 and met up with two of our teammates, Dolly and Aaron, whose room we were sharing that night.  We all played triathlon chemistry and got our bottles ready for practice in the morning.  Yep, that's right, we had practice the day before the triathlon.  Cause that's how the Ironteam does things.  Some people rest the day before their first triathlon, not us.

The next morning we met the team at Lake Cahuilla, where the tri was going to be taking place, for a two hour ride (~30 miles) and six mile run, followed by lunch, packet pickup and then a swim in the lake.  Busy day!  Most people rest the day before their first triathlon, we did the entire distance the day before.

We set out on our ride just before 10am, and it was already quite warm out.  This wound up being a really good and fun ride for me.  I got my hydration right all day.  And I found some confidence on the bike, something I've been seriously lacking.  I also managed to successfully get my bottle in and out of the front cage every time, not something I'm always capable of doing.  And, I ate on the bike, also something I have not always been able to do successfully.  I spent most of the second half of the ride with a group of amazing women from the team, chatting, and enjoying the day.  It reminded me that cycling (and all of this), while it's hard work, should be fun.

Part of Saturday's ride

After the ride we had our 1 hour, 6 mile run.  In the middle of the day.  In the desert.  In the sun.  Ugh.  It was rough.  I was slow.  I walked, a lot.  I wound up run/walking most of the second loop with my teammate Erin.  It made it easier to have some company.  When we got done we all sat around and ate lunch, I had brought some strawberries that I got the night before at the market, and they were seriously amazing. (I had a picture of them, but my dumb phone deleted ALL of my pictures from the weekend, so sad, so I'm grabbing them from everyone else.)  Then we headed to the little expo and picked up our race packets.  While there I spotted a sale and got a new tri top for $30.  And, I shared a gigantic snowcone with Marisela, my mentor.  It was delicious, but SO big.  Major sugar crash later.

me, mari, melissa, tushar and dolly

little expo.

massive snow cone in the making

that's only a small part of the snow cone.  seriously the
thing was massive - and perfect on a hot day

After that we all headed down to the water, pulled on our wetsuits (no easy feat when you're all sweaty from 3+ hours of working out in the desert sun.  After a swim in the lake we headed back to the hotel to shower, change and head out to a team dinner.

team post Saturday swim

At dinner there was a game, "Sh*t Ironteam Staffers Say."  We had to guess which coach, captain or mentor said which thing.  I started just randomly filling in names after a while cause I couldn't figure a lot of them out.  And then, I wound up winning a prize, these fun socks, for getting the third most answers correct. How bout that?

I didn't eat a lot of my dinner, I was feeling a little off and had a small panic moment during dinner and food seemed very unappealing (I tend to get panic attacks surrounding food more than almost anything else, always have, especially if something upsets my stomach).  We headed back to the hotel and got ready for the next morning, including finishing packing our transition bags, more tri chemistry, and packing all of our stuff up since we would have to check out of the hotel when we left for the race in the morning.  I set the alarm for the unappealing hour of 4:20am.

I was startled awake when the hotel alarm went off, it took me what felt like an hour to turn it off.  It was only midnight, back to sleep.  Finally, a few short hours later we got up and ate breakfast (I'm back to bread, peanut butter and banana - and not enjoying it, must find a new pre-workout breakfast, I'm over oatmeal and bread/pb).  Then we headed down to Lake Cahuilla.  It was early, around sunrise when we got to the park, and we actually got a decent parking spot.  We headed over to transition, set up (I took a picture, again my phone deleted it), and got body markings (which, days later, still haven't completely come off).  After a quick five minute warm up jog with the team we put on our wetsuits (I also took a picture of this... alas, its gone) and headed down to the lake.

transition

Sunrise at Lake Cahuilla

After a quick warm up swim we got ready to go, my wave was at 7:39.  I stayed to the back, as I didn't want to get kicked or shoved, and I'm not trying to win.  I'm a strong swimmer, but I don't mind starting at the back.  I stayed with a teammate for a bit who was having a rough start and then I lost her.  I felt really bad, and kept trying to find her, but eventually had to give up and keep going.  I felt good for the entire swim, although my wetsuit, around my arms, feels a little tight/stiff.  I know it'll loosen up the more I wear it, but right now its a little weird feeling.

I got out of the water and headed to transition - where I apparently spent 8:45 minutes.  WHAT?!  What the heck was I doing?  Making tea?  Seriously.  I don't understand what the hell took me so long.  But, I finally got on the bike and got going.  I actually felt pretty strong most of the ride.  I felt like I had my nutrition and hydration down.  I did really well with getting the bottle in and out of the front cage, and I never felt scared (now I need to master getting the bottles in and out of the other cages, cause I had to stop to rearrange them when the front one was empty).  I was trying to average at least 15mph, but in the end wound up with a 14mph average.  Not fast, but WAY better than most of my previous rides.  I even managed to grab a bottle at the bottle exchange! I wasn't planning on it, but I needed some water, and my water was in the rear cage, so I went for it, and did so successfully!  Woo hoo!  And, I was able to eat food (Honey Stinger Waffles - yum!) on the bike without feeling sick, which is what has happened almost every other time.  I feel like I might have found a good combination (Heed plus Carbo Pro plus Endurolytes). Now to multiply that out by more hours.  Also, I realized my cadence is still not where it should be - I have now set a cadence alarm on my Garmin so whenever I drop below 90 I'll hear a beep and get back to where I should be.

I got back in to transition and it looked like practically every bike was back.  I was sitting on the ground finishing putting on sunblock and a girl down the rack from me said, "Congratulations! Isn't it awesome to be done?"  I looked at her and said, "I'm not done, I have to start my run now."  She looked at me slightly horrified.  I said I wasn't worried about it, I'm not training for this distance, I'm training for an ironman.  She looked impressed and wished me luck as I set out on my run.  (This time I only spent ~4 minutes in transition, better but still too long.)

It was so hot when the run started.  At the first aid station I took two cups of water and poured them over my head.  I ran, very slowly.  But, stuck to my interval as much as I could.  At every aid station I took a cup of water and poured one over my head, took a sip out of the other one and then dumped it over my head as well.  I took two peanut butter Gu's on the run (amazing!) and also kept up with my hydration.  I never felt dehydrated.  Score!

I FINALLY finished and when I crossed the finish line I could not have been happier.  I knew that I was now a triathlete.  But, about 10 seconds later I was happier than I could have imagined.  I looked up and saw everyone on the team who had already finished, and all the coaches standing there cheering for me.  I got so many hugs and high-fives.  I have never felt so supported and loved my a group of people who just a few months ago were strangers. It was incredible.  This is just one part of what makes this team so fantastic (another part is that we, collectively have raised more than $200,000 for LLS - that's enough for 2 research grants - TWO!).

the start of the hugs - with Coach Jason

Hug from Coach Erin and Ironbaby

We waited for the last of our teammates to come in and gave them a tunnel of love.  So amazing.  The support and love on this team is like nothing else.  After everyone was in we all headed to lunch at Chipotle and then home.  Such an incredible weekend and such a great way to finally officially call myself a triathlete.  Thanks team!

tunnel of love!

Go TEAM!

greatest group of people you could ever want to train for an ironman with

If you want to know what Desert Tri was like, check out this super cool video made my my teammate Rommel, with a little help from Carlos, another one of our teammates.  It gives you an idea of the race.  Thank you Rommel!

Desert Triathlon 2012, Palm Desert, CA from Rommel Calderon on Vimeo.

Open Water Swim!

I haven't really updated this blog recently on my training, which is the whole point of it.  Whoops!  I've been doing all the standard workouts - swim, bike, run, repeat, repeat, repeat.  But, last weekend the IronTEAM had a practice I was really excited about - our first open water swim! (OWS)  I love swimming and being in the water, so naturally I was really excited to get in to the ocean.  I know lots of people are scared and really nervous/anxious about OWS, but not me.  I was excited.  Don't get me wrong, I have a healthy respect for the ocean, but it doesn't scare me.  Plus, I have already had enough anxiety on the bike to last me a lifetime, I don't need to be anxious about anything else.

I woke up early and headed to practice wearing tri shorts, a t-shirt (I still don't have a proper tri-top) and my running shoes (we had a run on the schedule after OWS).  Since its a recovery week the workout was going to be shorter.  Yay!  I had tried on my wetsuit (thank you Audrey!) a few weeks before so I knew it fit.  The first time I put it on it took me probably 30 minutes to get the damn thing on.  It felt like a workout in and of itself.  If you've never worn a full wetsuit, its weird.  It sort of feels like full-body spanx (girls, you know what spanx feels like, imagine it over your whole body).  The second time I tried it on I had gotten some tips and it only took 7 minutes! The thing that took the longest was zipping the damn thing up.

We met at the Venice Beach fishing pier and got ready to swim.  The ocean looked peaceful (not a lot of waves) and cold.  I got my wesuit on (and zipped with the help of Tara) and then we all jogged down the beach (a little less than a mile) to warm up.  Note to self, do not zip wetsuit all the way up if you have to jog, it makes it difficult.  The alumni, and experienced ocean swimmers, were separated from us newbies and they got in pretty quick.  We were given some safety instructions and then slowly got in the water, first time in up to our knees, splash your face, come back out.  Then we went back in and if we felt comfortable started swimming.  So, of course, I jumped on in and started swimming.

I had so much fun.  But, I will say that swimming in the ocean is hard.  Way harder than swimming in a pool.  It's weird not being able to see the bottom.  It's also really weird to be swimming and feel like you're going nowhere.  Not having any perspective (like the end of the pool) made it tough to judge how far I was going.  I didn't swim super hard, cause swimming in a wetsuit is tough too.  But, even with all of this, it was really fun.

On my second loop I got a little dizzy.  But then I just stopped.  That wetsuit is really bouyant.  I didn't have to tread water really at all, awesome.  I got dizzy again, so I stopped again.  And then I made it back to shore and when I got out of the water I was a little dizzy again.  I think it was from the waves, maybe.  It really wasn't that bad, just not something I'm used to.  I'm excited for our next OWS and next ocean swim!

After OWS we did an hour run.  Yay for another one of my comfort zones!  We did loops around the neighborhood with pickups part way through.  I kept a good pace the whole time and am ready to increase my interval again.

I have no pictures to share from OWS, as I was in the ocean.  But I did take a picture of this gigantic yatch hanging out just outside of the Marina.  It might not look gigantic in this picture, but I promise, it was HUGE, it had a helicopter on it.

So, on a running related note.  After my hill repeats a week ago last Tuesday (the Tuesday before OWS) I plugged my watch in to my computer and didnt look at my splits, which I normally would.  But, I had fallen twice and didn't really care.  But, when I looked at my splits I was pretty pleased.  We had to do three sets of three times up, first time easy, second time moderate, third time hard.  My first time up, moderate was at a 10:13, which is approximately my long run pace.  Then the second one was 9:07 and the third 8:15.  Each set got progressively faster.  I think this means I'm not running to my potential.  What's new?  I really need to work on that.

This weekend I have a long ride, run and open water swim on Saturday out in Palm Desert and then my first practice race, an international distance tri, Desert Tri, on Sunday.  Should be an interesting weekend!

As always, I'm still fundraising.  I'm almost 50% to my goal.  Can you help me get there before Sunday? Please... Pretty please...

http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/vinefirn13/ewallersco

Thanks!