Nancy Toby: Run Big!

Ack! How did it already get to be the last day of January!? That month flew by!

This is my best news of the month: I'm doing very well hitting my consistency goals (in which I'm working towards a modest, attainable minimum level of training for 42/44 weeks in each discipline):

• SWIM: Weekly swim goal (1500m+) met: 3/4 wks
• BIKE: Weekly bike goal (20M+) met: 4/4 wks
• RUN: Weekly run goal (10M+) met: 4/4 wks
• NUTRITION: Weekly food log goal (5d+) met: 4/4 wks

I was also trying on for size a standard monthly target:

• SWIM: 15,000 m per month tentative goal; did 9,500 m in January (63%) (4700 m in December, more than double)
  
• BIKE: 200 miles per month tentative goal; did 167.8 miles/270 km in January (83%) including 3 rides over 25 miles (44.4 miles in December, nearly four times as much)
  
• RUN: 100 miles per month tentative goal; did 67.7 miles/109 km in January (67%) including 2 runs over 10 miles (64 miles in December, 5% more)
  
• CORE: 1500 crunches per month tentative goal; did 2000 in January (133%) (2350 in December, down 15%)

Conclusions for January:

• I'm doing okay at ramping up my swim and bike distances, but I haven't yet gotten up to the volume that I'd like in those disciplines. It will come. I'll keep those targets the same for the short month of February. I've got the bike trainer and pool situation sorted out for weekdays and weekends, so I should be able to get cycling and swimming done wherever I am.
  
• I think 60 - 80 miles per month running is probably a good level to maintain my running base. I'm going to decrease the running monthly target to 80 miles per month. I need to focus more time and effort on my limiters - nutrition/body composition, core strength, swimming, and biking (probably in that order).
  
• The Goofy Challenge was fun, and while it did interrupt my training in swimming and cycling slightly this month, it was well worth the experience completing the inaugural event.
• Nutrition is the fourth discipline. Keep your attention on it.

I went back and snapped a photo of the snowdrops I saw yesterday, just because "LouBob" said that it wasn't fair. It's true, it has been an unusually mild winter for us!

The daylight seems to be increasing already, too. Sunset is now at 5:29 PM, 32 minutes later than it was on the first of the year. At the end of February sunset will be after 6:00 PM, so there may even be time, once again, to run outside in the evening after my husband comes home from work!

I'm sure glad I don't live any further north than this (location: W077 06, N38 52). I grew up in Illinois and lived for five years in New Hampshire, and I don't miss the winters in either place!

Just arrived! It only allowed one line of text, so the HM (half marathon) and M (marathon) notations are a little cryptic if you don't know what it's all about, but I like the photo.

I saw my first snowdrop flowers blooming today. It was 65*F outside, do you believe it? So that mandated another trip to the park. Compare the photos below of my big grown-up toddler girls to the photo of two babies playing on the same equipment last April!

Done! The longest swim for me ever: 2550 meters. Yep, that's right, EVER. Except maybe at Eagleman last June I was probably far enough off course to have swum that far, but it wasn't on purpose - in theory that course was only 1931 meters long.

My swim coach Yurtie from Australia sent me a workout that I've been scared of tackling for a week and a half now, and put off and put off, but today I finally did it to the letter (except when I forgot my lap count and did one extra):

• 250 m freestyle, 30 sec rest
• 150 m freestyle, 30 sec rest
• 100 m freestyle, 30 sec rest
• 50 m freestyle, 30 sec rest
• Repeat above
• 200 m kicking with fins
• 800 m straight freestyle (this took me 27:41)
• 100 m breaststroke
• 4 x (25 m slow, 25 m fast) (fastest 25 m was 38.83)
• 100 m cooldown

I couldn't stand the thought of attempting what passes for "speedwork" with me after that long 800m swim, but I did my best to get it done. I'm glad I didn't add it all up beforehand or it would have seemed even tougher than it was.

At one point I thought, "Jeez, I haven't done any breaststroke yet at all today! And last year at this time I would have done about 75% breaststroke!"

But mostly I thought, "My swimming sucks." The whole workout took me an hour and forty minutes. That's a long time to have "My swimming sucks" stuck in your head. One of my new goals for the year is to get up to 20 laps completed before the "my swimming sucks" thoughts start taking over my brain.

Somebody in the little nasty pool locker room had left a shower running full blast on HOT and apparently walked out and it was nearly impossible to breathe in there! Plus somebody, probably the same person, had left a plugged-in blow dryer sitting inside the sink with a big wad of hair. Gross.

But not as gross as the pool, which was so cloudy that I could hardly see the bottom 4 feet away from my nose. I tried to tell myself it was just good practice for swimming blind in the murky Choptank River next June.

Note to self: Next time bring a snack or mix up some Gatorade for anything over an hour swim!

Here's a real success story for the international running community as well as for enlightened thought in the Muslim world - women participating in a marathon (plus a separate 10K and 5K) in Lahore, Pakistan yesterday, in part to raise money for earthquake victims. This despite violent protests against their participation in which more than 400 people were arrested.

Results aren't yet posted on the race website. The site included a history of marathoning there which talks about Roberta Gibb running the Boston Marathon for the first time in 1966. Finally, after 40 years, those freedoms have reached Pakistani women, too.

Take a moment to go check in now with our friend PuddyRat, the Ironman Dreamer. She's had one of the toughest days you can imagine. Our hearts go out to her.

And if you have another moment, stop in with our friend IronAyla, who is also having some sad and challenging times.

Best wishes and kind thoughts to you all.

No, none for me today. I'm taking a day off from everything except core work. I should be swimming, but I'm not. Tomorrow. For sure.

But Sooz asked in a comment about standard track markings and distances. There's a pretty good explanation here with photos.

I don't really know about all the track markings, myself. The track I usually use (pictured, a couple of weeks ago) is an unmarked asphalt-paved quarter-mile track behind our local small-town high school. I don't think the school has a track team - if they do, they probably train at the fancy rubberized track at the nearby larger town. This track seems to be only used by recreational walkers and joggers. I've only seen high-school aged people there once or twice. I use it usually once or twice per week.

The biggest advantage of this track is that it's one block away from our house. So even if weather is bad, I'm feeling unmotivated and lazy, as long as it's not a blizzard or a blinding rainstorm, I have no excuses for not getting myself out there for a few laps.

I used to loathe track running. Now I tend to use it for nearly everything under 3-4 miles. It sure beats the treadmill at the health club any day! What makes the difference for me is paying close attention to my split times for each lap around the track. I log my times fairly carefully (as well as recording them on this blog often) and compare my times for various distances from one season to the next. Now I find it fairly interesting and informative about my running progress.

One of the best parts of track running is when you can just turn your mind completely to other things and not think about running at all, just do it. That makes the time pass quickly. Many, many times I have wished that my swimming would get to that point, where I could just complete stroke after stroke automatically and effortlessly - but I'm a long way from that. When I'm in the pool I'm concentrating on the stroke itself all the time, one after the other, and constantly tweaking it.

Whose idea was it to procrastinate on my last 3.5 miles that I was due to complete this week and put it off until Saturday afternoon, after my massive (for me) 29.2-mile bike ride?

Oh, yeah, mine. Duh.

Plus Mean Linae is making me do a 5K time trial. What a creep. I'll fix her! I'll do it on a day I can barely put one foot in front of the other!

12.5 times around the track. That's WAY MORE than a 5K. That's 3.125 miles instead of 3.107 - I ran a whole extra 28 meters!

Splits of 11:21, 11:33, 11:38 (fading really fast), and 1:29 gave me a 5K finishing time of 36:03.

THEN I still had another lap and a half to finish up to make my 3.5 miles. Groan.

Totally unrelated to anything . . . .

Don't you think these interior paint jobs are pretty cool? Not that I'm re-doing my own living room that way, mind you. But maybe *jeanne* can consider it for the Pooh room.

WHOOPS! Sorry, didn't mean to link to the nasty stuff that link was changed to show LATER... THOSE JERKS!!

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Update: It looks like they've re-posted the painted room photos here, but click at your own risk in case they change it to something nasty again!!

Lewis Gordon Pugh has now completed long distance swims in the five oceans of the world. Including Antarctica.

More power to him!

But count me out! Under 78*F water temperature and I'm crying like a little baby for my wetsuit.

I have one major problem with my wonderful bike, Buttercup.

I'm too old for her.

Don't laugh if you're reading this and you're under the age of 45. Your time will come, I swear it, with God as my witness.

I'm too stiff and my hips are no longer flexible enough to swing my leg to the rear and up to dismount her properly. Especially with the added height of the bottle cages just behind the seat.

(If you're older than 48 and actually still bicycle and don't have this problem, just close out this window in your computer and move right along. I don't want to hear your smartass comments. Uh, it's that little x in the upper right corner, techno-whiz.)

Getting on I do okay, even though I've never managed this maneuver. Actually, I've never even attempted it. Age has given me a teensy bit of wisdom.

It's the getting off part that's terrible, especially after a hard ride when my legs are tired and my back hurts. I have been forced to do this stupid-looking awkward maneuver where I tip the bike over and step off over the top tube -- which makes me feel like a conspicuous dumbass old fart every time I do it, especially when it occurs in the transition zone in a triathlon when skinnyfast triathletes are zooming past me on both sides and cursing my slowness under their breath.

BUT! I've learned a new way to dismount that I can do. If I turn and face Buttercup, I can swing my leg far enough up to the side that it manages to get over okay. It just seems to work better in that direction. Maybe I retained that from dismounting horses for many years, who knows?

I do have to consciously remember to dump all the water bottles out of the rear bottle carriers before I reach T2 in any triathlon. That extra inch or two of water bottle height could spell my downfall one day, quite literally.

Today is the last day of Canada goose hunting season in Maryland, and also the end of duck season. Yay! I don't particularly object to people hunting geese as long as they eat them, since they are certainly abundant here, but I get uneasy when I'm cycling along alone down country backroads and I hear lots of gunfire fairly close by. That makes me quite nervous.

I'm glad that my bike Buttercup is day-glo yellow.

My plan was to get in another swim this weekend, but now it will have to wait until tomorrow. We had the luxury of another unseasonably warm January day (35*F - 48*F, sunny, wind 5-8 mph) so today was much better suited for another bike ride down the peninsula! It's important to take advantage of these nice winter days when they happen!

So I did 29.2 miles, averaging 16.2 mph, done before noon. That's 0.6 mph better than my last ~30-mile ride 2 weeks ago, so I think the slight adjustment I made in increasing my seat height and shortening my aerobar length helped a lot. My knees no longer hit my elbows and I get a more complete leg extension.

I was finally able to try out my hot new Sidi bike shoes, since I finally put new cleats on them, and they were incredibly comfortable! They have a strange ratchet mechanism and release, which snugs down nicely on my foot and feels comfortable while pedaling, but I always forget how to release it and have to spend a little while figuring it out again. I need to get that part memorized before I frantically try to get them off during any triathlons!

My lower back muscular endurance and getting my neck and shoulders accustomed to aero position still seems to be my limiting factor on the bike. I could keep pedaling, but the knives in my lower back and the crick-that-won't-stop in my neck induce me to call it a day.

I still need to get in another 3.5 miles running this week, which will have to happen late this afternoon when my husband gets home from his flying lesson. It might be a little hard to boot myself out the door then, if it didn't promise to be a spring-like 55*F by then!

Put in a few miles at the track today at a 10:50 to 10:58 minute per mile pace. I was wondering if today might be a good day to try a few quarter-mile repeats. It wasn't. I almost blew chow after the first one. That was so much fun I walked a while and then tried another. That was enough to make me decide that I'd had quite enough! They both came in at 2:11. Not at my PR for a lap around the track (2:06) but close enough for today. I wonder if I'll be able to run a sub-9:00 mile this year? Ever? Ah, no, it's not a concrete goal, because I'd have to actually train for it if it were a concrete goal, right?

Flatman sent this to me. He thinks my Incentive Plan is not a great idea, and this will be the result. Heh. I think that 5AM alarm is more likely to kill me first!

Anyway, it's not the last Big Mac you eat that kills you, it's the preceding 300 Big Macs. . . .

I made it to Frostbite Falls this morning! 1500 meters in the pool put me over the top of my 6000 meter swimming distance goal to make it there for a 6950 meter total so far for the year.

I'm tempted to insert something self-deprecating here about how that was just a small goal, I swam it very slowly, most "real swimmers" can do that distance in one or two swims, but HEY! Cut it out! That was my goal that I set back in December to make sure that I averaged a minimum of 1500 meters per week in the pool for the month of January, and I DID IT! So there!

I'll throw a few logs on the fire and toast some marshmallows and heat up the Maryland crab cakes that I brought to share. How soon will you be arriving?

I think I need a reward if I'm able to make it into the gym before 6:15. So far that's about the earliest I've managed, which means that even though I get up at 5AM, I dawdle around and drink my coffee and don't get my ASS in gear for a while. Now Bolder recommends a half-pound bar of chocolate, eaten in one sitting, as an incentive. While that does hold certain attractions, I'm not usually hungry for chocolate first thing in the morning.

So this is going to be my incentive. The first time I manage to get into the health club and onto the treadmill or into the pool before their clock reads 5:45AM, I get a treat. My reward will be to stop at McDonalds for one of these on the way home. I love their sausage and egg biscuits, but I don't often allow myself to get them. 500 calories and 32 grams of fat apiece -- that's precisely why they're so yummy.

I'll let you know if it happens.

One of my favorite websites, www.marathonguide.com, released its summary of statistics for the 2005 year in marathons. It's got a lot of detail - naturally, I checked the stats to see where I fit in the big picture.

I finished (6:33) the biggest marathon in the USA in 2005, the ING New York City Marathon, with 36,872 finishers. It seemed that Staten Island would float away from all that pre-race pee.

Baltimore Marathon, where I (5:59) was one of 2410 finishers, didn't make the list of the biggest 25 marathons in the country (3249 finishers and up). The closest big race to us, Marine Corps Marathon (19,110 finishers), moved up one place to 5th largest marathon.

Overall, men's finishing times averaged 4:32, while women marathon finishers averaged 5:06. I'm still much slower at the marathon distance than the average finish in my age group (women 45-49), which was 5:11, but as I age up in another year I hope to get much closer to the average time (overall and in my age group). In the 50-54 age group, average women's finish time was 5:31. There's still hope for me to catch up with the middle of the pack - just give me time!

Three items that caught my eye in my web-browsing today:

Xenical (that fat-absorption-blocking drug) may soon be available over the counter. Jeez, I wish I had stock in GlaxoSmithKline. Users have reported an average of 5.2 to 6.2 pounds weight loss over 6 months. I'm not sure that I would be crazy about "excess gas and uncontrollable bowel movements" along with that, however.

Did you know that in the US, if something is labeled ZERO percent trans fats, it can have up to 0.5 grams per serving? That's just plain old misleading, especially for those of us for whom a serving means the whole entire container.

And tofuburgers don't benefit your health, either. Good thing, because they taste like crap.

The YMCA, of which I'm a brand new member, just telephoned me to today to tell me that I WON A PRIZE! Woo, I'm thinking! A custom-installed 50m lap pool? A new treadmill? A leftover sweatshirt?

Nope. A "fitness assessment".

Is it just the natural skeptic in me that tends to believe that everyone who signed in at their open house on Saturday got a phone call that they WON BIG and got a fitness assessment?

I'm reasonably certain that it doesn't include a VO2max measurement or underwater weighing or a blood lipids profile, and might possibly involve those humiliating body fat calipers, and would most likely focus on a tour of their weight machines, so I think I'm probably going to skip it. I think my usual mile repeats around the track and 200m swim times tell me just how fit (or unfit) I am right now.

I love maps. I'm going to keep checking on the national flu map this spring and waiting for the day it turns all green. Since my preemie girls are still extremely small for their age and haven't been exposed to many bugs, and suffered miserably from their last round of colds, we don't want to take them to the YMCA day care until flu season is over. Even if it is free. Call me overprotective, tending sick kids for two weeks straight is a lot tougher than one swim workout! The last time that they both got sick they didn't even touch any other kids, they just climbed on the baby rides at the mall and that did them in, one after the other.

At least we're not underneath the purple stuff! Or worse yet, the blue or yellow stuff!!

Clean as a whistle, apparently. Because I can seem to absorb calories from the air and water, just like this lady. Yeah, absorbing "cosmic energy as a source of nutrients", that's me all over, "feeding on original energy the way minerals, plants, and plankton do."

That and the Angus beef burger I grilled last night and had with crusty Italian garlic bread. Yum!

I don't think I've started photosynthesizing yet, but that's probably next for someone with a metabolism as efficient as mine. Tanita craves big numbers, it seems.

This morning I was cursing again. I brought with me over the weekend my cycling jacket, technical top, tights, shorts, socks, booties, extra spindle, etc., -- everything except my cycling shoes. Again. Gack! I even had my wonderful new cycling shoes with me, and new cleats also, but I hadn't mounted the cleats yet and I didn't have the all-important proper screws to affix the cleats to the shoes.

So instead of trying to find some suitable hardware at the Local Bike Shop or hardware store early on a Sunday morning, I rode our old clunker $150 Walmart Mongoose bike with platform pedals around the backroads. It was about 40*F and windy - maybe too cold for Bolder, but just fine with me.

Now that was weird. I've been riding with clipless pedals for about a year straight now. Today I'd lift my foot up off the platform pedal and instantaneously have a startled reaction - something's wrong! My cleat just let go! Oh, yeah, duh, I'm not using cleats.

It was sort of fun pedaling s-l-o-w-l-y around the rutted gravelly backroads and over grass and sand where I would never ride Buttercup. Even so, I definitely will get the cleats mounted on the other pair of cycling shoes this coming week so that I'm fully prepared wherever I am.

I saw a few Eastern Bluebirds today on my ride. I didn't realize until recently that they stayed around here all winter!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

This was intended to help combat comment spam.

But then, guess what? I REMOVED IT!! Making that change stripped off every comment ever made on this blog! I guess I'd better read the fine print on the auto-install feature before I try that again!! Good thing they prompted me for a backup of the template, eh?

I finally went over and joined the local eastern shore YMCA (10 miles from our weekend place) so that I have a place to swim in the winter on the weekends (and I'll just use that crappy 3-lane pool near our townhouse on weekdays). They have two 5-lane 25m pools - one warm (87*F, pictured) and one cool (82*F). I'm going to think I'm in heaven.

Even BETTER than that - they have free regular child care during workouts, but best of all, they have PARENT'S NIGHT OUT. Four golden hours, 6PM-10PM, once per month. FREE with a family membership. WOO HOO!!!!! My kind of place!! Actually, we'll probably wait until after cold/flu season is over, but after that I'm hoping that my girls will be regular attendees. That and Mom's Afternoon Out and Mom's Morning Out, too! Yeah, baby!!!

For a while this afternoon I watched the kid's swim meet. It was fun - the little girls swimming along, struggling and doing their very best with their heads out of the water Tarzan-style, and occasionally stopping to hang on the lane dividers to catch a breath. I can definitely relate!

I don't know if they're really odd or not, but here are a few somewhat atypical things about me, in response to Kewl Nitrox's tag. I can't think of any real superstitions or obsessive-compulsive-type behaviors or weird habits that I practice, can you?

• I have an unconscious tendency not to screw down jar lids, but instead just set them on top of the jar. It drives my husband nuts.
• I didn't do anything at all athletic until my mid-20s when I started running the first time. I rode and showed horses for years before that, but really didn't get much exercise from it. That's it. It bugs me when people claim that they were never athletic, when actually they did organized athletics for years and years.
• I'm shy, though I can hide it well. I usually hate meeting new people. I hate making phone calls to people I don't know well. "Small talk" drives me nuts. I used to loathe professional-type cocktail parties when I was supposed to be networking. Job interviews are the worst form of hell. The Internet was made for folks like me.
• I've been somewhere between an agnostic and an atheist for over thirty years now. I think any omnipotent God worth His salt wouldn't be so insecure that He wants people fawning over Him and telling Him how marvelous He is all the time, and if He designed the universe correctly in the first place He would have no need to resort to supernatural magic tricks (aka miracles) to make His point. That said, there is something psychologically reassuring about familiar rituals.
• Along with that, I'm a huge skeptic about nearly everything. Show me the data.
• I'm impulsive and make decisions very quickly - sometimes to my detriment. This trait has cost me a huge amount of money - for example, when I bought a house that I had to move out of about six months later when I took a new job in another part of the country.
• I have a great sense of direction and can read and remember a map quickly. It took me a long time to realize that not everybody does this.
• Until I was about 35 I was convinced I didn't want kids. For another decade I was convinced that I wouldn't have kids even though I wanted to. Through modern science, at age 45 I had triplets - one kid on 5/9/03 and another two kids on 6/1/03.
• I'm a packrat, a lousy housekeeper, and have a tendency to be sloppy. Most of the time that really doesn't bother me.
• My hands are double-jointed.
• I believe that there is no such thing as a too-big dog, a too-fat cat, or a too-sweet dessert.

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Update: I also asked my husband about this. He says I go through museums too fast and don't look at everything. I said that I really do look at everything, I just visually scan very fast and read very fast so I don't have to take as long looking at exhibits as most people. He also said that I'm intimidated by car mechanics. I said I'm not intimidated, I just loathe car mechanics with a passion. Okay, it's pathological avoidance. In my defense, I hate tradespeople who try to gouge me and take advantage of me, and that's happened to me far too many times with car mechanics.

Yesterday I did speedwork on the local track - that is, what passes for speedwork at my fitness level, mile repeats at my 5K pace. It was a very unseasonably warm day again (it doesn't look like the Chesapeake will freeze over this winter!) and there were lots of walkers out on the track. They were all going counter-clockwise, so unwisely, I ran all my laps counter-clockwise also. Plus I had to run back and forth around them since nobody seemed to agree on what side of the track to walk on, or whether to just walk several people abreast on the track and block the whole damn thing. So I ended the day taking Advil for a sore knee and a pulled muscle in my left leg.

I needed at least 7 miles to finish up my goal for 10 miles running per week, though, so it was back out again this morning. Down around my favorite neighborhood in Martingham (where I'd love to buy a house one day) and back for 7.3 LSD miles in the logbook. Fortunately I wasn't still sore enough to affect my gait.

Back on the blog, I had to turn on comment verification again, despite Boulder's many appeals to the contrary. 3 or 4 spam comments accumulating per day were really starting to annoy me.

Kewl Nitrox tagged me to post 5 strange facts about myself, but I'm having a tough time thinking up 5. I'm pretty non-strange, I think! Any ideas for me, anyone? I'll work on it.

I'm still debating about those spring marathons. Some folks say yes, some folks say no freakin' way. Flip, flop, flip, flop. Oh well. I can always test my long distance running fitness at the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in April, but I'm going to have to work really, really hard to break that PR set last April on a cold, windy day.

Off now to our local eastern shore YMCA for their open house to join up so that I can swim in a better pool on the weekends!

For those who are looking for it, the unofficial Goofy Results are now posted here. Thanks again, Joe! And RobbyB!

My emphases in this macro cycle (#2 of 5 training cycles leading up to Ironman Florida) are to work on improving my swimming performance as well as boosting my core strength. Naturally that involves putting in more sessions at the pool than I was previously, and doing lots of crunches and other torso-strengthening exercises.

Holly and I just signed up for a Swim Technique Clinic in February. That should help! I'll work for the next month ramping up my distances and swim endurance and general comfort level in the water, and then the clinic should help improve my biomechanical efficiency, I expect. What's more, is they will take an underwater swimming video of us and give us the footage on CD, so hopefully I will be able to email those files down to Yurtie in Australia for him to critique, too. That will save me a lot of messing around with the camcorder and video files, etc. But Flatman, I seriously doubt I'll permit those swimming-porn images to be posted on the Internet. Sorry. Maybe Holly will?

After that I need to continue working with a live swim coach periodically, or attend one of the local weekly stroke clinics, or get together with a Master's swimming group regularly for a few months. I know that optimally I would be swimming 3 or 4 days per week, but with my two little time commitments I doubt if I'll be getting in the water with that frequency very often. (Unless I can count laps chasing my girls across the baby pool next summer).

I'd also really like to find some different pools to swim in - though the little 3-lane one at the club is the closest one to our townhouse right now. I sure would love to find a 50-meter pool with a lap swim that's not super-crowded. But then everything will change in June after our local outdoor pools open for the summer, but unfortunately not in time to get me ready for the Columbia Olympic-distance triathlon and Eagleman half Ironman.

Meanwhile . . . in other disciplines, I'm still maintaining my running base with 10 or more miles per week, doing some baseline time on the trainer, and getting outside on the road on Buttercup whenever the weather and the baby-minding situation favors it. I'm starting to think that (with the babies around) I'd be able to run more consistently if I bought a treadmill, but the cost and the space requirement in the house is still putting me off of that idea.

My Performance Bike order arrived this morning before 11:30AM. Incredible! I just ordered it online yesterday!! Now that's service!!

The pink jersey is a lot brighter than the online photo - I think Dawn would approve.

New shiny gear cassettes sure are purty. I hope they work as well as they look.

I had a difficult time managing my Inner Whiner today. She was loud, persistent, and obnoxious.

First thing when I woke up: "I don't wanna get out of bed! Nobody should have to get up before 5AM just to exercise!"

Response: Shut up. Millions of people get up before 5AM to go clean other people's toilets and flip hamburgers and drive taxis and even worse jobs. And you're complaining about getting to go to a swimming pool?

At the gym: "It's too crowded. All the treadmills are full. Stupid resolutionists. I don't wanna wait for one."

Response: Then get your fat butt on the exercycle and start pedaling. You haven't finished even twenty miles for the week. Not to mention you haven't run a step all week. You've got nothing to complain about.

In the pool: "2000 meters is way too much. I've got water up my nose. I can't breathe right. I'm coughing. I don't wanna do it. My shoulders ache."

Response: Your choice. You want to repeat that horrible Eagleman 1.2-mile swimming debacle you had last year? Or do you want to be prepared and feel comfortable and competent in the water?

In the pool: "Oh, yeah, that. But that's still four months away. And my shoulders still ache."

Response: Okay, okay, I'm sick of listening to you. It's true the shoulders ache, which might have something to do with the fact that you actually managed to get your sorry carcass into the water for two whole swims this week, which is more than double what you usually do, and you're not conditioned to do much swim distance yet. We'll cut it a little short since we're out of time with all your whining. But don't forget that we've got 3862 meters to do at one crack at Ironman Florida in November. Yeah, we're talking 78 laps. So you've got nothing to complain about yet. Nothing. Shut up and keep swimming until I tell you to stop.

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Does anyone have any better tips for dealing with that miserable nincompoop in my head? I don't want to start stalking around the gym talking to myself like Holly does.

Since Disney/EMMI didn't do it, fast runner and TRI-DRS member, Joe Bator (1:26 2006 Disney half, 3:26 2006 Disney marathon, 19th place overall Goofy) compiled the overall results for the Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World in 2006 and shared them with me. Thanks, Joe!!

My chip time total of 9:52:24 for 39.3 miles put me in 2169th place out of 2315 finishers (93%), 966th/1069 women (90%), and 158th/177 in my age group (89%), which is right about where I usually rank in marathons.

Jeanne's chip time total of 8:17:04 for 39.3 miles put her in 1539th place out of 2315 finishers (66%), 578th/1069 women (54%), and 55th/117 in her age group (47%).

Not that we were actually racing or anything. It's just nice to know!

---

Note: If he puts his compilation of the results online, I'll be sure to post a link here.

You would think I'm tapering! My credit card seems to be burning a hole in the Internet!

Unfortunately I didn't delete the sale email from Performance Bike quickly enough, and things started catching my eye. Arrrgh! They got me!!! But they have good stuff on sale!!

First was this nice women's technical bike jersey for $25. I deliberated over the purple until I realized that I already have a long-sleeved purple bike jersey. I know it's not as neon-bright as Dawn prefers, but it proves I don't have a total prejudice against pink.

Then I realized I *really* need a new cassette with an easier granny gear (12/27) for Buttercup for the Columbia Triathlon (Olympic distance) this coming May. It's much hillier than anything I usually ride on. Those hills killed me last year, and I'd really prefer to get up them a little more quickly and easily this year without burning out my quads. Yeah, yeah, I'll go find some hills to ride on later this spring, too. I hear training helps.

I bought the Ultegra model on sale ($65) rather than the Dura-Ace, in order to save $45. I hope I don't regret not spending enough! But I'll only use it for the one triathlon this year and then go back to my usual 11/23 cassette.

To go with the new cassette, I need the tools to swap it out with. I already have one wrench for it, I just needed the whip tool to take it off and on, but I thought I'd get a couple extra toys along with it. $15 for the set.

















And then just so I wouldn't be the only one in the household to get new stuff, I pre-ordered the Lady and the Tramp 50th anniversary DVD from Disney for the girls. I think it was one of the first films I ever saw in a theater, although it was probably a considerable period of time after the 1955 release (seeing as I wasn't born yet then). I remember after that I had a little porcelain cocker spaniel figurine after that I treasured.

Is anyone else getting psyched about the Torino Winter Olympic Games coming up in three-and-a-half weeks? I am! The flame was passed through Venice yesterday.

Time arrived yesterday at our house with Bode Miller on the cover. Can't wait to watch that bad boy tear up those slopes!

"Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: "Men feared witches and burnt women."

"The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk.

"Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.

"Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment's notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars?

"It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same."

-- Al Gore, January 16, 2006

For those who just can't get enough....

I realized from some of the comments I received that I haven't posted my overall 2006 Training Plan. I'm the planningest person I know! Part of the reason I haven't posted about it here is that I have it all written out on my household calendars and entered on my spreadsheets and I just didn't take the time to type it in the old blog.

That's not to say that I have a fixed workout assigned to every day and do it on the exact day and the exact distance described. That doesn't work well for my temperament and my lifestyle right now. Flexibility and working towards general weekly and monthly targets works much better for me in practice, as well as helping to keep it fun for this recreational athlete and has seemed to prevent any athletic injuries (knock on wood, since I came back from a metatarsal stress fracture in 2002). I might also mention that I don't work with a coach telling me what to do in my workouts - one reason is that I never take kindly to being told what to do, and another is that I have a PhD in exercise physiology, sports nutrition, and sports biomechanics. I do have a highly experienced swimmer in Australia, Yurtie, advising me on my swim training right now.

I frequently use races for their training mileage value as well, since otherwise I do all my workouts by myself and I find it a lot more fun to go the distance during races than slogging it out alone. For example, I used the Baltimore Marathon as my final long run before the New York City Marathon three weeks later, but previous to that I had a series of progressively increasing long slow distance runs, as well as numerous shorter runs and track workouts. (I'm not saying that worked out great for my marathon performance at New York, but that was my approach. Live and learn.)

I establish concrete targets in advance for each month and more recently each week and then work out with those targets in mind, incorporating some flexibility from day to day for weather, family demands, and "listening to my body". Most of the time I do a reasonable job of getting close to the targets that way, although it's true that I am a slacker at heart and I usually set my targets at levels such that I almost never hit them at 100%. (I also make a set of written advance performance goals before each race, and achieve them at a reasonable frequency, and then use them in adjusting my training as it progresses).

I've changed some things this year to improve my adherence to the overall plan, in particular focusing on concrete weekly minimum targets (rather than emphasizing monthly goals) to ensure training consistency (see the right sidebar), in order to help improve my compliance and my performance result.

My training in 2006 will generally incorporate a minimum of 6 key workouts per week, at least 2 in each discipline (swim, bike, run). I've got the distances for the longer of the 2 workouts in each discipline each week already written out for 42 out of 52 weeks in my paper calendar, and 5 months marked out on 2 big laminated wall calendars (see photo). One workout will be shorter and focused on technique, strength, or speed, and the longer workout (blocked out on the calendar) will be focused on muscular and cardiovascular endurance.

Right now I'm in the 2nd of 5 macro cycles leading up to my two "A" races of the year, Eagleman Half Ironman in June and Ironman Florida in November. The distances that I've blocked out in my plans progressively increase within each macro, and then back off at the end of each macro to provide some recovery and recuperation. The other races on the schedule are all "B" and "C" races that I hope to complete without major interruptions to the overall training scheme.

My question about the spring marathon(s) is whether I can complete them effectively as "B" or "C" races while still not making extensive alterations in my overall training scheme. For example, it's true that since I considered it a "B" race I didn't do much specific distance training in preparation for the Goofy Challenge, (although I was reasonably sure my base of 2.5 marathons plus 2 other races for 3 PRs in the previous 12 weeks, not to mention my innate stubbornness, would carry me to the finish line). I'm still working with the numbers on the calendar to see whether I think these spring marathons are possible. Thanks for all your positive feedback and suggestions, folks!!

And remember . . . just because someone is slower than most, it doesn't mean they're not working hard.

... entering the 45th Annual Washington's Birthday Marathon in Greenbelt, Maryland on February 19th, in 5 weeks, as my 10th marathon. After 3 PRs in late 2005 at distances from 5K to the half marathon, I'd like to see what I can do if I push myself on a standalone marathon.

Here's the Gmaps course map that I made from the race map. (Now corrected with elevations, but you have to scroll way to the right to see them. Wicked hill right at the end of the course.)

Pros:

• Maintain my long, slow distance running base
• Keep a focus to my run training
• Small, local, stay-at-home race
• 10:30AM start time
• Make a marathon PR attempt with no overnight travel
• Good race reputation for a very small event
• The entry fee is cheap enough that I don't mind cutting it short as a training run and DNFing if I choose to

Cons:

• 3 loop course may be boring
• Hilly course may keep time slow
• Weather can be terrible
• May disrupt some bike and swim training
• Preparation and recovery may compromise training
• Possibility of injury
• I'll be one of the last straggler finishers (based on previous results) even if I PR
• May choose to DNF if not on pace after 2nd loop (and just get a ~19 mile supported workout)

If I choose to DNF and just use it as a long workout, that could still serve me well as a long run launching pad for a PR attempt at the Lower Potomac River Marathon (flat, scenic course) on March 12th, just 3 weeks later.

What do you all think? Recommendations?

A 2006 Mickey (marathon) and Donald (half marathon) set for sale on eBay. Bidding is up to $81.99 today.

I hate that.

Also a couple of 2006 Mickies for sale by one person. Perhaps a medal thief working the finishing corrals?

But I didn't see any Goofies for sale. Yet.

Here's the pool I've been swimming in this winter (when I manage to get my butt to the pool). It's at the Skyline Sport & Health Club on Leesburg Pike in Falls Church, Virginia. It's often crowded, has only 3 lanes, and one of the lanes (as you see) has the ramp in it most of the time and is usually occupied people doing some type of exercises in the water. When classes are going there is only one lap lane open. Today the water was cloudy and it looked like shreds of toilet paper were laying on the bottom. Yuck!

Today was quiet because (as I forgot) it's a holiday. So I had the pool all to myself between 0630 and nearly 0700.

I managed 1850 meters. I thought that was a pretty darned good distance, except when I came home my husband told me I should have swum 2 more meters to make it an even nautical mile. Sheesh! 1.15 statute miles isn't enough!?

It felt VERY sluggish and VERY stiff. I swam 500m in 18:12. My fastest length (25m) was 39.2 seconds. I know I can do much better once I get back into the routine, but I have to sputter and flail and drink a lot of that murky pool water *gag* first, before it feels comfortable again.

But it all became a little more clear when a man came into my lane to share it, who walked with crutches and had a twisted club foot, which dragged behind him as he dog-paddled along. I'm not sure that I would have as much tenacity as he demonstrated. He called my swimming "fast". Thank you, Mr. Tenacious, for adjusting my perspective today.

I'm just posting these so that Bolder and Susan can feel good about themselves. And that's not my Haagen Dazs.

At the end of the day we went to dinner in the bar at the yacht club. Here are Catherine (in her Little Big Dogs Flight Squadron jacket) and her Daddy sharing an intimate moment discussing her dinner roll. Which was about ten minutes before both girls went nuts and Mom got to escort them both (with prejudice) out to the car where they could be strapped in their carseats and couldn't cause further disruption.

Here's a selection of photos from my bike ride around the Bay Hundred peninsula in Talbot County, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay on an unseasonably warm January day. No hills of any description!

There's something I don't understand.

I see a lot of people - recreational runners and triathletes, who are supposedly doing it for the fun and health benefits - who are disappointed after many of their races. They're mad at themselves, angry at the race they ran, disgusted at the time on the clock at the finish line - you get the picture. They stomp around and feel badly and talk about how "slow" they were and generally have a miserable day. Regardless of any objective measure of their performance - they complain and generally project a negative, sour attitude after the event. They usually manage to make it miserable for everyone around them, as well.

I have a hard time understanding that attitude. What's the point? It's not like most of us are running an Olympic qualifying race and just missed out by two seconds. Most of us aren't relying on the race results to pay the rent, either. Injuries are certainly annoying and aggravating, but most of the time that's not the problem with these folks.

Sometimes the people are fishing for compliments and reassurances that they're really not "slow" and that they're really athletes after all. Because being "slow" would mean that they're worthless people, I suppose?

Sometimes they're competitive types who aren't happy with anything less than first place overall. And even then they have to fault their own performance.

And sure, sometimes after a long hard event, you're just physically and emotionally exhausted, and need some time to recover and regroup.

But sometimes - most of the time, I think - these sourpusses are just determined to immerse themselves in self-pity and have a bad day. Frankly, to me, it often seems like plain old bad sportsmanship.

I just don't get it. Being a recreational athlete means - to me - that it's supposed to be FUN!!! If you don't enjoy it, why not pick a different activity that you do enjoy?

I can't remember any recent race where I was truly upset or mad at myself or sad afterward. Instead, I usually find myself exhilarated at the end, regardless of what the clock says. I did it! Every race has its own moments of fun and inspiration and teaches me lessons for the next one.

So what's the deal? Maybe some of my readers can help explain it to me? There must be some kind of personal payoff to this behavior, because lots of people seem to indulge in it quite frequently, but I don't understand what benefit they get out of it. It sure isn't fun to be around!

Are you a race sourpuss?

They're up! Here are a couple (I was high-fiving everyone on Main Street U.S.A.):


A couple more are here. And here's one from the 5K finish afterwards, jogging it in:

After taking THREE whole days completely off this week (woo, that was great!) I'm back at it! I'm hoping that I can roll right back into training now without experiencing that typical post-event slump that occurs so often with big races. Amazingly enough, I don't seem to have any lingering aches or pains from the 42 miles at Disney World, which takes me completely by surprise. I suppose doing them at a very comfortable pace using run:walk intervals is responsible, along with the 30+ minutes cooling down in the swimming pool for recovery each day. Maybe that mai tai on Friday and the Maui Rita on Saturday helped me sleep better too - which actually was important performance-wise, since every extra minute of sleep was golden!

Yeah, I feel great! Nobody is more surprised at that than me! Believe me, if I felt rotten, which would be completely understandable considering the far-too-little training I did for last weekend's event, I'd be complaining about it here at great length, but no - everything is goooood!

The weather here helped prompt me to get back out there working out - we were very fortunate to get a completely unseasonable 60*F sunny day here today. Hooray! I took Buttercup out for 31 miles and we had a Most Excellent Ride! I also took the teensy camera along and took some photos on the way. I can't post them until I'm back at my usual computer on Sunday, so I'll share my typical bike ride route with you all then.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Just wanted to send out a big GOOD LUCK to Ellie on Sunday for the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon!

You too, Commodore! Go go go!

And good luck to everyone else running, too!!

I don't see any way to watch you via real-time results, though. :-(

Jeanne and I were featured in a column by Lani Teshima at Mouse Planet! Which, by the way, is a great online resource for anyone planning on visiting The Mouse.

Is anyone doing the half marathon coming up on September 17th at Disneyland in Anaheim? The medal for that (which we saw at the Expo) looked as fabulous as the WDW medals - a big heavy gold Cinderella's castle! Or in Florida, there's the Minnie 15K on May 7th.

As for me, I probably won't repeat this race (I don't like to repeat most races except the local ones that are easy to get to), but I may go down to Orlando for their Olympic or half Ironman triathlon one of these days when the girls are older.

Oldman got me on this one.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Apple orchard counter staff ($1.50/hour - I lasted one day), ranch hand ($250/month plus room and board), state horse specialist, university assistant professor
Four movies you could watch over and over: Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, Singing in the Rain.... I think that's it. I never watch movies more than once. (Why? I've already seen it!)
Four places you’ve lived: Oak Park, Illinois; Farmington, New Hampshire; Springer, New Mexico; Honolulu, Hawaii.
Four TV shows you love to watch: Survivor, CSI, Without A Trace, that's it that are still being broadcast.
Four places you’ve been on vacation: Kangaroo Island, Australia; Prague, Czech Republic; Kihei, Maui; Fiskebackskill, Sweden.
Four websites you visit daily: my.yahoo.com; http://www.bloglines.com/; nancytoby.blogspot.com; http://www.snopes.com/
Four of your favorite foods: ice cream; lasagna; most desserts, most candy.
Four places you’d rather be: St. Michaels, Maryland; Duck, North Carolina; Maui; Paris.
Four albums you can’t live without: None. Can't live without? Get real. There's a whole lot of stuff I can live without.
Four vehicles I've owned: 1971 Ford Maverick; 1975 Ford F100 pickup; 1989 Dodge Dakota; 1996 Plymouth Breeze.

Body: My legs can actually hold up to 42.4 miles in 2 days (who knew?) at a 14:58 minutes per mile average pace without injury, undue soreness, or major pain if I pace, recover, and refuel sensibly. I did experience some significant ankle swelling about 36 hours post-marathon, even though I tried to keep ibuprofen intake low. Fresh shoes a size bigger than normal were a lifesaver on the second day.

Recovery: As much as I dislike icing my feet, it works to cut the inflammation. Plus a 30-60 minute soak in a warm-to-cool swimming pool does wonders for recuperation.

Races: The crowded races with lots of spectators are fun on occasion, but they can also be distracting and annoying, and certainly don’t do anything for my speed. I found the quiet wooded areas of the marathon course to be a peaceful respite.

Hydration/electrolytes: Seemed to be right on target for these races – I think I’ve got that aspect well-calibrated for my physiology under moderate weather conditions, as long as water stops are plentiful. I was very well-hydrated (3 or 4 pit stops during the marathon) but didn’t have any low-sodium problems like finger swelling or dizziness. Note to self - as long as I'm not overheated at any time, just two Imodium work great.

Gel: I like my home brew better than any commercial gel I’ve tried. But I need to use a better fuel belt for my homemade gel or carry commercial packets for marathons. One large flask doesn’t work well while running. Plus if I lose it (like I did just before the marathon start) I’m toast.

Pace/training: I can currently finish a marathon (in moderate weather) well under 7 hours, even though the only workout over 13.1 miles in the previous 9 weeks was 16.2 miles the day before. 15 min/mile is a sustainable long distance jog:walk pace for me under most conditions, even while fatigued and sleep-deprived, especially if I do 5:1 jog:walk intervals from the very start. ~6:30 may be my approximate worst-case scenario time in a flat Ironman run under moderate weather without injuries.

Guinness. Sure tastes great toward the end of a marathon. The Maui Rita I had the night before the marathon, and the delicious mai tai I had the night before the half marathon, didn't seem to hurt any, either (not to mention the huge steaks I ate each night, too), although I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to others.

Marathon plan: Do 5:1 jog:walk intervals most of the way, except walk through the water stops and photo ops. If I feel strong, stick with intervals and only start running continuously after Mile 18 of the marathon. IF I don't feel strong, try to fight off walking continuously in the marathon long enough to make the finish line by the cutoff, and collect my Goofy medal. Stay ahead of your 6:50 minimum pace chart to beat the 7:00 deadline.

Marathon report: The night before the marathon was filled with trepidation. Could I do it? Could I actually finish this entire 42.4-mile journey? I was already tired and a little sore from the 16.2 miles I had done that day. Although it would be my 9th marathon, I’d never done a marathon yet where I’d run a step the previous day. In fact, all my 8 previous marathons had been preceded by a full 3-week taper. But, on the other hand, I was just tired. Nothing was terribly sore or hurting badly, other than a couple small blisters in the usual place on my little toe. I cut off the worried thinking by telling myself I’d just get myself to the starting line, and let the rest of the day take care of itself. Then I was asleep before my roommate Jeanne even turned out the light.

Sunday morning was the same routine as Saturday, only a little slower and stiffer. Up at 3, monorail to the race starting area at 4. Staying at the Polynesian Resort on the monorail line was worth every penny of avoiding bus and driving hassles, because we needed every extra minute of sleep for the Goofy Challenge. We actually could have left at 5 and still made the race start just fine, probably. It seemed less stressful and easier doing it the second day, since we knew where everything was. It also helped that the temperatures were somewhat more comfortable than the previous morning due to the absence of wind chill: Low temperature 34*F at 5:11AM, high temperature 66*F at 3:41PM, average wind 2.7 mph.

In the starting corrals, I realized with horror that I had lost my gel flask which had been clipped to my belt. I was relying on it to maintain my energy throughout the race. Fortunately Jeanne saved me from abject panic by giving me three of her gel packets, which were enough to get me through most of the race.

The race went off as scheduled at 6AM in the dark with fireworks and a sendoff from Mickey and Minnie. I was in the blue start which looped around the Epcot parking lot and entered the World Showcase near the United Kingdom and in the dark with everything lit up beautifully we ran past France, Morocco, Japan, the USA, and exited after Italy. Shortly thereafter we had a smooth merge with the runners from the red start, went back past our original starting area, and were headed off on a 6-mile run on concrete highways.

Once again I employed a 5:1 jog:walk schedule and my pace along the highway stretches was almost identical to the previous day. I hit the ten mile mark a scant 14 seconds later than on the previous day. So far, so good! As long as I could stay ahead of my pace chart.

We ran through the Magic Kingdom with the same good spirits and the same route as yesterday. This time I stopped at a couple different locations for photos, including one with Mrs. Incredible, and again positioned myself on the left side away from other runners when exiting Cinderella’s castle, hoping for a good official photo.

The next two miles were a difficult stretch both days, with runners squeezed into one lane and lines of walkers barricading the path for those behind them. Again, I tried to stay relaxed and walk when I had to and passed when I was able. A lot of the time I jogged along the side of the road in the grass just to avoid the other runners and to use the forgiving sandy surface.

At the 13.1-mile halfway point I knew I was on a good pace to finish – only 39 seconds slower than my finish time the previous day. I felt reasonably comfortable. This was the beginning of a very quiet section of the course that I expected not to like but actually enjoyed – it was a less-developed, quiet road through the woods which would have been nice for a solo jog. The only less-desirable feature was the smell emanating from the Disney sewage plant, but that didn’t last long.

At mile 16 we seemed to enter the Animal Kingdom, but we ran on backstage service roads for quite a long ways before we entered the park areas. The section through the park seemed very short, was a bit rolling, and included a view of Mount Everest under construction and a huge dinosaur next to the route. I had never been in the park before, and had hoped to see some of the animals, but alas, we were soon routed outside into the parking lot areas.

Then we were out on Osceola Parkway for the least fun part of the course. Four miles of running along concrete highways, sometimes steeply cambered. At least they were reasonably wide and fairly non-hilly, so it was just a long slog. It would have been quite miserable if it had been any hotter. I was getting fatigued. At times I wondered if I could finish. My internal dialogue went like this:

“I can’t possibly make it another 6 or 7 miles to the finish.”

“Can you make it to the next mile marker?”

“Well, yeah, I think I can maybe go just that far.”

“Then get going already!”

Keeping after myself in that fashion repeatedly, time and time again, I was able to maintain the 5:1 jog:walk intervals most of the way over the long highway stretch until the turn into the MGM studios at mile 22.5. At that point there was a red carpet laid on the road which felt wonderfully soft underfoot, and both sides of the road had throngs of spectators to cheer us on. It gave me a psychological boost, but at that point my old body had just run out of energy.

At about that point the intervals broke down and I mostly walked through the MGM area and only jogged for brief spurts when I could. Just keep going, one foot in front of the other . . . out of the MGM area and onto a long narrower sidewalk through the Boardwalk and Yacht Club and Beach Club areas.

Back into Epcot on the same route we had taken hours earlier that morning and I was delighted to find Linae and her friends Molly and Keri outside the Rose and Crown pub! Better yet, Linae had a Guinness that she offered me, and I gratefully accepted and swilled down. That was nectar of the Gods and was sufficient to improve my morale to get me to the finish line.

That gospel choir nailed me again at the end of the full. Just when I was about to DIE from exhaustion, I came around the corner at 26.1 miles, and they began a full-throated chorus belting out "Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!" and sure enough, it hit my feelings so precisely that they got me wiping my eyes again. I gave the singers a double thumbs-up, and proceeded around the corner.

I crossed the finish line triumphantly, and collected my Mickey medal and finally encountered the Holy Grail - I received the priceless Goofy medal that I had sought for so very long.

Full marathon result:
10 Mile chip time 2:24:37
Half chip time 3:13:56
20 Mile chip time 5:00:54
Finish chip time 6:37:49
Pace: 15:10
Overall: 9414/10131 (92%)
Gender: 4486/5024 (89%)
Division (women 45-49): 492/586 (83%)

5K plan: Keep walking, eat, and stay warm until the start of the 5K. Walk it or do short jogging intervals during the race.

5K report: My preparation plan for the 5K failed miserably. I did rehydrate and ate a bit of post-race food immediately after my finish, but then I exited the finishing corrals where no more food or drink was available except for purchase (and I hadn’t carried money). Despite wrapping myself in a mylar blanket and sitting in the sun, two hours standing around in ~30-40*F wind chill in wet clothes in a huge crowd, plus an unexplained 20-minute starting delay, ensured that I was thoroughly hypothermic at the beginning of the race. My muscles were locking up. I was not happy about the delay, but finally we got going (very stiffly, on my part).

The 5K combined one of the ugliest first halves ever (backstage parking lots and delivery areas) with one of the prettiest second halves imaginable (around the world at Epcot), plus one of the most crowded race courses filled with people possessing not a shred of running etiquette. I jogged when I could avoid the logjams, tried to be nice to the kids when it got crowded, took some photos, and walked a great deal, just trying to stay loose.

5K result: Unofficial time 42:43. It was an untimed, unscored race. The rubber Chicken Little medal is unique and a very cute addition to my collection.

Recovery plan: Ice feet, alternate hot and cold water on legs, rehydrate and refuel.

I went back to the hotel room via the monorail and promptly iced my feet for 3 five-minute periods, which was all I could stand. Then I went to the outdoor pool, which, unlike the air, was nicely warm. I stood in the pool for about 45 minutes, until I started feeling chilled, and then swam for ten minutes. Unfortunately there was no hot tub. Shortly after I returned to the room, Linae and Molly arrived and we went to dinner, so I didn’t complete my plan of alternating hot and cold treatments on my leg muscles. Before dinner we watched a fun little hula show and I drank a potent Maui Rita and then ate a huge slab of luscious prime rib in order to “refuel”.

The night before the marathon I was filled with trepidation. Could I do it? Could I actually finish this entire 42.4-mile journey? I was already tired and a little sore from the 16.2 miles I had done that day. Although it would be my 9th marathon, I’d never done a marathon yet where I’d run a step the previous day. In fact, all my 8 previous marathons had been preceded by a full 3-week taper. But, on the other hand, I was just tired. Nothing was terribly sore or hurting badly, other than a couple small blisters in the usual place on my little toe. I forced my mind to cut off the worried thinking by telling myself I’d just get myself to the starting line, and let the rest of the day take care of itself. Then I was asleep before my roommate Jeanne even turned out the light.

Half marathon run plan: Take it slow. Save all your energy for the marathon tomorrow. Do 5:1 jog:walk intervals most of the way, except walk through the water stops and photo ops. Stay ahead of your 3:23 minimum pace chart to beat the 3:30 deadline. Stay ahead of hydration, electrolyte, and energy needs.

Half marathon report: Low temperature 40*F at 8:01AM (wind chill ~28*F), high temperature 54*F at 3:49PM (wind chill ~45*F), average wind 9.8 mph. In other words, it was darned COLD at the start. My roomie Jeanne and I got up at 3AM, headed to the monorail at 4AM, arrived on site in the Epcot parking lots by 4:30AM, then stood around and shivered despite wearing lots of throwaway layers amid the enormous crowds gathered for the start.

We started promptly at 6AM with a fireworks sendoff by Donald, Daisy, and Goofy. My first mile was slowed by the crowds and congestion as well as taking a run to the edge of the woods to pee, and since I warmed up once I began running, I discarded the garbage bag I had worn for warmth. Then I settled into an easy routine of 5 minutes jogging and 1 minute walking. Or so I estimated – I hadn’t counted on it being too dark to see my watch for the first 80 minute of the race! So I just picked landmarks that I guessed were about a half mile away, jogged at a comfortable pace to them, and then walked 50-60 steps. That way I covered 4 miles of concrete highways leading to the Magic Kingdom at a steady 13:40-13:50 pace.

This year was a new course for the half marathon (which I had done once before), now an out-and-back with the Magic Kingdom at mile 5-6. When it was light enough to read my watch I realized I was already a comfortable 7-8 minutes ahead of my pace chart, and I could relax and take my time in the Magic Kingdom, as planned.

Stop for a quick photo with Chip and Dale and then head up Main Street USA toward Cinderella’s castle. It’s one of the most fun routes to run in all the races I’ve done, filled with cheering spectators on one half and a stream of runners on the other. Around the corner toward Tomorrowland – past Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and then a quick photo with Lilo and Stitch. Then looping back through Fantasyland and out the front of Cinderella’s castle, being careful to stay to stay out of the main crowd to the left for the race photographers.

Then we headed out through Adventureland, just missing a photo op with Goofy, but I stopped for the Country Music Jamboree Bears and got a shot with them. Past the waving engineers of the Walt Disney World Railroad and back out through the backstage areas for the return trip down the concrete highways.

I put in another 4 miles at a steady pace, keeping solid 5:1 jog:walk intervals, never pushing myself. I still had a lot of miles to cover. I kept reminding myself to keep it in a very comfortable zone and take many more walk breaks than I really felt that I needed. I also made a point of walking through the water stops, hydrating well, and taking my salt capsules and a swig out of my gel flask regularly on schedule, so that I’d never get close to experiencing a deficit.

The course was quite crowded the entire way and I’d often get blocked by lines of walkers stretching across the roadway. I made a point of stopping instead of burning energy veering around the walking roadblocks, and tried to take it in good humor instead of getting annoyed as I usually would in races.

The final mile of the half marathon course was a fun stretch through Epcot, up to the World Showcase Lagoon, around a Christmas tree and back out. I slowed in this stretch to take quite a few photos since I knew I was comfortably ahead of my cutoff pace.

My finish line pictures don't *usually* include tears running down my face, but they got me twice this weekend, just when I was exhausted. About 1/10 of a mile before the finish line we went through a backstage area where a huge ~40 woman gospel choir was singing their brains out and sounding just fabulous. When I came through at the end of the half marathon they were doing a wonderful version of "America the Beautiful" and for some reason that song (I don't know what it is about purple mountain majesties and fruited plains) got me all choked up. Everybody else around me is just running along and I'm wiping away tears.

Just before the finish line I spotted my friend Linae - I stopped to find out her finishing time. She held up her fingers to convey the time for her massive PR, and I shouted for joy! Then off to my own finish line.

Even though I tried to stay as slow and comfortable as I could throughout the course (though without walking continuously for extensive stretches), I still finished the half marathon well ahead of the deadline, with over 15 minutes to spare. I collected my Donald medal at the finish line, wrapped up in a mylar blanket quickly against the cold breeze, and at the Goofy tent I exchanged my orange Goofy wristband for a blue one for the second day.

Half marathon result:
10 mile chip time: 2:24:15
Finish chip time: 3:14:35
Pace: 14:50
Overall: 9593/13236 (72%)
Gender: 5550/7269 (76%)
Division (women 45-49): 566/789 (71%)

The overall plan: The priority was getting the Goofy medal. I planned to take it all at an easy pace, have fun, and be absolutely certain to finish by the 16 minute per mile deadline each day, preferably uninjured and feeling good. Treat it as a 42.4-mile ultramarathon with one very, very long rest stop between the half marathon and the marathon. My strategy on course was to drink lots of water and Powerade, take electrolyte capsules about every 3 miles and energy gel every 4 miles, and stay well within my comfort zone.

The overall result: I did it! 42.4 miles to earn 4 beautiful medals in 2 days. Total time: 10:35:07 for an average pace of 14:58 minutes per mile for 42.4 miles. Plus I had tons of fun!

Here are links to the results, if you need to look anyone up:

Half Marathon Results - Saturday, January 7, 2006

Marathon Results - Sunday, January 8, 2006

I don't believe that they are planning to produce any compilation of Goofy results, since they are not making any awards for Goofies other than the medal.

My results:

Half marathon:
NANCY TOBY Bib #22590 ARLINGTON, VA - USA Age 48 F
START 6:10:32 AM EST
10 Mile 2:24:15 chip time
FINISH Chip Time: 3:14:35
FINISH Clock Time: 3:23:35
Pace: 14:50
Placement
Overall: 9593/13236 (72%)
Gender: 5550/7269 (76%)
Division: 566/789 (71%)

Full marathon:
NANCY TOBY Bib #9149 ARLINGTON, VA - USA Age 48 F
START 6:06:34 AM EST
10 Mile 2:24:37 chip time
Half 3:13:56 chip time
20 Mile 5:00:54 chip time
FINISH Chip time 6:37:49
FINISH Clock time: 6:45:35
Pace: 15:10
Placement
Overall: 9414/10131 (92%)
Gender: 4486/5024 (89%)
Division: 492/586 (83%)

Epcot in the morning darkness (Mile 2.5-3.0):

Nearly the same view as in the 5K the previous day:

Ghost runners approaching France:

Ghost runners in Japan:

An American Christmas tree:

Runners approaching the Magic Kingdom past a peaceful pond (Mile 10):

The obligatory Cinderella's castle self-portrait, again:

With Mike Wazowski of Monsters, Inc. (or perhaps a close relation of his?) Correction! Karen's son correctly identified him as a scientist character, Pleckly, from Lilo and Stitch. This is the only image of him that I've been able to find online, though.

How incredible!!!

After that, unfortunately I must have hit the switch on my camera which makes it start taking little movies instead of photos! So that's the end of these that I can post on my blog! Hopefully the official race photos will include some nice ones too.

The start:

Chicken Little (upper left) starting the race, confetti in the air:

Running through China (in Epcot):

The view from across the lake at Epcot, toward Spaceship Earth:

Frozen self-portrait before the race, wrapped in my New York City Marathon mylar blanket:

The start (while running)! Mile 0.

Entering the Magic Kingdom, where it's still Christmastime (Mile 5.5):

Main Street U.S.A., filled with cheering spectators and runners:

In front of Cinderella's castle (Mile 5.6):

Stitch, blur, and Lilo (Mile 5.7):

A manic moment - or perhaps a "separated at birth" shot?

A short loop inside Epcot (Mile 12.5):

Exiting Epcot with my fellow runners (Mile 12.9):

The finish line!!!! 13.1 miles.

Self-portrait with the Donald medal:

*photography by jeanne*

Just got home, with a lot to catch up on, but I DID IT! 42.4 miles in 2 days - a half marathon and a 5K on Saturday, and a marathon on Sunday. Here's an overview of my medal collection, just for starters. Lots of photos and details to follow soon.

NANCY TOBY, 06:37:48 (chiptime) @ Final time (unofficial):
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

NANCY TOBY, 05:00:54 (chiptime) @ 20 Mile:
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

NANCY TOBY, 03:13:56 (chiptime) @ Halfway:
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

NANCY TOBY, 02:24:37 (chiptime) @ 10 Mile:
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

NANCY TOBY, 00:07:45 (chiptime) @ Start time (5:58:49)
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

NANCY TOBY, 03:14:34 (chiptime) @ Final time (unofficial):
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

NANCY TOBY, 02:24:15 (chiptime) @ 10 Mile:
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

NANCY TOBY, 00:09:00 (chiptime) @ Start time (6:01:32)
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts LLC

Who signed me up for this 42.4-miles-in-one-weekend nonsense again?

Linae? *jeanne*?

And who decided not to train enough for it?

Oh, yeah, I remember now. I did it to myself. I have no one to blame.

This is a "get to do", not a "have to do". I'll be reminding myself of that at mile 22 on Sunday.

I'm still packing. And doing my best to prime my digestive tract for the races by having some exquisite Thai panang beef curry for lunch. Yum!

Yep, I think the new teensy digital camera is repaired correctly and it's ready to get Goofy pics - at least, it got my Goofy girls all right:

Just a note of appreciation to my fellow tri-bloggers and readers who have left me such kind and encouraging comments on my way to the Goofy Challenge. I really do think about you all when I'm out on the course and I feel like I take your positive energy with me along the way!

I'm posting about my pace plan for the Goofy Challenge again, mostly because I want to solidify it in my brain and commit to it, so that I don't go out too fast in the half marathon, thereby causing the second half of the marathon to be a sufferfest. Last-minute pace revisions, or "winging it" in the middle of the race are often a recipe for disaster!

Here's my "finish today" pacechart that I will use to stay ahead of the cutoffs both for the half and the full marathons. The "gel" notation is when I need to remind myself to take a swig out of my gel flask; the "elyte" notation is when I take salt capsules. Otherwise I just drink water at the aid stations.

1 0:15 15:30
2 0:31 15:30
3 0:46 15:30 ELYTE
4 1:02 15:30 GEL
5 1:17 15:30
6 1:33 15:30 ELYTE
7 1:48 15:30
8 2:04 15:30 GEL
9 2:19 15:30 ELYTE
10 2:35 15:30
11 2:50 15:30
12 3:06 15:30 GEL
13 3:21 15:30 ELYTE
13.1 3:23 03:55
14 3:37 15:45
15 3:53 15:45 ELYTE
16 4:08 15:45 GEL
17 4:24 15:45
18 4:40 15:45 ELYTE
19 4:56 15:45
20 5:11 15:45 GEL
21 5:27 15:45 ELYTE
22 5:43 15:45
23 5:59 15:45
24 6:14 15:45 ELYTE
25 6:30 15:45
26 6:46 15:45
26.2 6:50 03:55

If it's very cold on Saturday I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be very tempted to run a bit faster than I intended too - and I'm afraid my legs will pay the price the next day! So I've already printed out this minimum pace chart (just what I need to keep ahead of the cutoffs) and put it on my waistpack so I'm ready to go. My plan is to do 5:1s run:walk intervals most of the way, except walk through the water stops and photo ops. (There are no significant hills on the course except one overpass).

• IF I feel strong, I won't drop the intervals and start running continuously until after Mile 18 of the marathon (after exiting the Animal Kingdom Park).
• IF I don't feel strong (more likely, considering my current lack of long-distance training), I'll try to fight off walking continuously in the marathon long enough to make the finish line by the cutoff, and collect my Goofy medal!

If you're watching along from home, I hope to be no more than a few minutes ahead of this pace. If I'm more than 20 minutes ahead of the pace during the half marathon on Saturday (running my typical standalone half marathon pace), I may well be hard up against the pace chart numbers and the cutoffs on Sunday! But remember that the times that they email out will probably include 15 minutes or so for getting through the crowd to the starting line, so the times may look much slower than the pace I'm actually going.

(That's my nametag graphic above)
Latest Goofy weekend forecast for Orlando:
Friday: High 58°F, Low 37°F
Saturday: High 56°F, Low 35°F
Sunday: High 65°F, Low 46°F

I'm starting to lay out my clothes for the COLD run at Disney.
Here's what I'm taking for the run (TWO copies of nearly everything!)

2 pr running tights (also running shorts for Day 2 if the forecast remains at 65)
2 Coolmax sleeveless tops (for a bottom layer to strip to if I become hot)
2 medium-weight technical long-sleeved shirts (that may get tied around my waist if I get too hot)
1 throwaway long-sleeved cotton tshirt (probably for an extra layer for Day1 and/or to put in gear check to wear after the half marathon and before the 5K)
1 technical cycling vest (that I always use for running - lots of pockets, zipper opens at the bottom so I can open the whole front if I get too hot)
1 earband (pulls down around my neck when I'm too hot)
2 pairs throwaway cotton gloves
2 pairs Coolmax socks
2 jogbras
2 pairs broken-in running shoes
2 industrial-sized garbage bags (heavyweight, worked great at NYCM for discreet peeing even out in the open)
2 full gel flasks
Waistpack with SPF 15 lip balm, eye drops, Tylenol, etc., already stowed
Sunblock (yes, Holly!)

I *did* get my teensy new digital camera back from repair, so that and my cell phone are re-charging as I type!
And yes, I'm packing the Goofy hat, although I doubt I'll bring it to the races.
I still have to print out my nametags and pace charts and laminate them with clear packing tape.
I don't think I'm going to bother bringing my laptop along, too much to carry - so I won't be able to post photos until late Monday night (January 9th). If you want, you can sign up online to get my official results before I do!

I get pretty hot once I'm running - the cold helps my performance quite a bit. If it's full sun on Sunday and 65, that will be pretty hot for me - I'll be stripping down to just the sleeveless Coolmax, probably. Unfortunately this is the weather where 10 degrees can make a huge difference in what I wear! A little hotter or a little colder and I can dress more appropriately from the start! I'll have to check the forecasts again carefully on TV the night before.

"Ironman is a volume game. Anyone that tells you otherwise is most often trying to sell you something. In an over-scheduled society there will always be a profitable niche available for those teaching how to perform with less. You can become decent (better than you ever thought possible) but you will never fully tap your potential. Not the most popular message to some but a fact of life at the top level."

Derek, husband of Dianne who visited us last summer, and multiple Ironman, was kind enough to offer some training advice to me, based on his review of my preliminary plans. I thought his advice was so fabulous and to-the-point that I asked him if it was all right to share it with all of you, and he kindly agreed.

"I think you're clearly on the right track with what you've put together, and by even making a plan you are way past many of your fellow competitors. I have some comments / suggestions on it; please accept them as just that; suggestions, bearing in mind that I am making them with no knowledge of your goals or current skills."

"Swimming 2 days per week is enough to maintain your current skill level, but won't really help you to improve. At this point I would look at bumping that up to 3 times per week (initially at 40 mins per workout) Eventually you'll want to get to at least one workout per week where you are swimming 1.5 miles or more (e.g. w/u, 800 yds skills drills, 4 x 600 yds endurance, c/d) and your swim hours will naturally increase, but now is a great time to focus on the roll, breathing, and body position to get your swimming as efficient as possible, and you don't need long workouts for that training. More and short are in fact better!"

"Cycling is the biggest part of an Ironman, but most people don't realize that it isn't the cycling strength that will make or break your race, it is the nutrition and hydration required to support the cycling. Most of my cycling workouts are 60 minute to 120 minute ones, where I do some pedaling drills, but mostly I work on leg speed. Very little resistance, and fast fast cadence. Gosh, just like the pros ride in the Tour de France. If I have a four bike workout week, I'll probably do 2 speed sets (at 90 to 120 minutes), one hills set (another 90 minutes or so) and then one long ride (100+ km) where the object of the ride is more to practice taking in food and water and gels and sport drink or to survive riding 8 hours in a monsoon. The long rides aren't really about building bike strength at all. So, start with short sets where you are trying to get to 90 or faster cadence, and after a couple of months, start to add in the long weekend rides once the weather gets better and you can safely get outside for 3 or 4 hours. Another trick is to only ride in your little (or maybe middle) front chain ring until you've got 600 miles of training in. That will force you to ride with that faster cadence / lower resistance."

"Running is the sport that will get you hurt in your training. As such, I'm partial to the less is more running theory, and would rather gain the aerobic fitness from the fast spin sets on the bike, not where the impact of running is ripping my muscles apart. You still need to do some long runs, and brick workouts are excellent too; there is nothing like a 30 minute run after a 60 mile bike ride to make you appreciate the bike!"

"I don't see weights / core on your sheet, although you do note core training as a part of your macrocycle #2. Follow Joe Friel's plan (from the Triathlete's Training Bible) for 2 workouts a week, and add in one big core set, or several smaller (daily?) sets. You'll see from Friel's book he really only gets you to do a leg press, seated row, knee lift/hamstring curl, and lat pulldown (+ core) So a couple of 40 minute sets are fine for that."

Then he had some commentary on a fabulous training spreadsheet that he set up for me, which I'm omitting because IT'S MY SECRET WEAPON TO BEAT ELLIE. ;-)

"Two other suggestions. One would be to take the week after the Steelman Half almost right off - (just core and swimming skills workouts) You won't lose your fitness, and the week off will do a lot to prevent burnout and allow some additional rest and recovery for your muscles. The second would be to then go down to Florida for the week after that and do an Ironcamp where you swim, bike, and run on the actual course. Take the week off work (so you have lots of recovery time) and over 6 days do 3 swims (at least one of which is over the whole 2.4 mile course ie 2 laps), 2 runs (do at least one full loop of the run course ie 13.1 miles) 3 weights sets, and 4 rides (full course, 100 miles, 60 miles, & 2 hours high cadence) You're at 12 weeks out then, which is a great time to do that type of high intensity week, and you'll "know" the course for November."

"Hope this helps, or at least gives you some useful ideas."

Yurtie, the wonderful Australian guy who volunteered to coach me this year, who btw is going to do a 15-freaking-kilometer swim soon (yep, all at once!) asked me to send him a video.

Of me swimming.

In my swimsuit, presumably.

"One length from the side, one from behind and one from in front. The behind and in front only need to be for about half a length."

Do you actually mean moving pictures OF MY BUTT IN THE WATER? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING, MAN!?!?

Gack. I am not going to like this. I think I would rather put out my eyes with a rusty coathanger than see my actual rear end swimming along on video.

I can tell him right now that it's not going to look anything like this.

I just started my fourth blog. This is getting silly! But Ellie inspired me with her Across the Nation blog (it's her fault!), so I decided to set out from San Diego on a virtual cycling trip across the USA. I hope to make it to the Atlantic by the end of the year. Why don't you ride along? Maybe I can even "visit" some of you along the way -- if you live on the shortest route cross-country, that is, or you're willing to "ride" to "meet" me!

Got up early this morning - in part to get myself ready for those godawful 3AM wakeup calls that I'll be facing this weekend at Disneyworld for the 6AM race start times on Saturday and Sunday.

Over to the pool, where I started off slow. There were two people already splitting each lane, so the nice lady in the lane usually used for water aerobics invited me to swim laps in there. I warmed up for a few laps and then a half-lane opened up and I moved over.

I was having a nice swim - still getting comfortable in the water again after taking a long time off. My new mental image of balanced, effortless swimming is the water strider bug. I feel like that when I'm not fighting the water, but instead just gliding along with relatively little effort in a balanced fashion. Water strider bugs "live on the surface of quiet waters and dart about with great rapidity." Heh, water striders are predators on other insects, too. Cool. My kind of bug.

Then Eggbeater Man joined my lane. "Splitting" the lane is a huge euphemism when you're dealing with Eggbeater Man. It means I hug the lane rope and he swims wherever the heck he wants, in his splashing, thrashing, contorted style, kicking the water all the way up to the ceiling. While swimming, I could HEAR his uneven lopsided kick every time he smacked the water with his foot. He made direct contact with me somewhere between one to four times per lap. At one point I was hugging the lane divider and he STILL managed to grab the INSIDE of my ankle. It gave me the creeps, but I figured it's all good practice for those washing-machine open water swim starts.

Fortunately, though it nearly exhausted me just watching him, I was able to outlast him. He got out of the pool in just a few laps, while I continued on to finish up 1700m for a good day's workout.

You think you have a strong core? My daughter Catherine watches TV like this for an hour at a time - suspended in between her elbows and chest on the couch (on the left) and her knees on the trunk coffee table (on the right). Somehow I think if I could do that, I wouldn't have any trouble at all with aerobars.

Elisabeth in the background is, as always, in charge of the DVD cases. She's obsessed with them. She turns them over and over and opens and closes them and "reads" them. Catherine steals them away from her when she wants to make Elisabeth cry.

To ensure training consistency, I'm thinking about setting a standard aspirational monthly target for myself in addition to my standard weekly target. The monthly target will factor in a lot more distance, to add in some very Long Slow Distance swims, bikes, and runs at some time during the month, but I can be flexible about exactly when.

This is what I'm thinking right now, but I want to try it out for a couple of months before I set it in concrete. Consider this my January Draft Version to try on for size:

Swimming: 1500 m per week, 15,000 m per month
Cycling: 20 miles per week, 200 miles per month
Running: 10 miles per week, 100 miles per month
Crunches/core work: 1500 per month

For comparison, in 2005, I did in an average month:
Swimming: 4375 m/month
Cycling: 72 miles/month
Running: 60 miles/month
Crunches: 585/month

I'll see how that goes, since January and February are the months that I'm most likely to miss workouts due to inclement weather. Of course, February will also be the hardest to hit, since it's the shortest month. Yes, it's a huge increase in training volume for me to hit those targets, but that's exactly what I have to do to become an Ironman! Aim high!

My 2005 totals:

• Swimming: 57,429 yards/35.5 miles/52,510 m/52.5 km (2004 total: 4350 yards. 13 times as much).
• Cycling: 869 miles/1399 km (2004 total: 121 miles. 7 times as much).
• Running: 724 miles/1165 km (2004 total: 837, 13% less).
• Crunches: 7030 (didn't track in 2004).

Events: 24
5Ks: 5 @ 30:28 (PR) to 40:19
10Ks: 2 @ 1:04 (PR) to 1:14
15K: 1 @ 1:51 (my first)
10M: 3 @ 1:52 (PR) to 2:01
Half marathon: 3 @ 2:37 (PR) to 2:49, 1 DNS
25K: 1 @ 3:25 (my first)
Marathon: 2 @ 5:59 to 6:33
Cycling metric century: 1 DNF, 1 DNS (my first two)
Duathlon (5K-30K-5K): 1 @ 2:27
Triathlon, sprint: 1
Triathlon, Olympic: 1 @ 4:06 (my first)
Triathlon, half Ironman: 1 @ 8:50 (my first)

I think that's not bad for laying a multisport base in 2005 and doing my first regular swimming and cycling since before I had my triplets in 2003. The running mileage was off a little from the previous year, but that's okay, probably close to what I'll do in 2006. I'll need to do at least triple the swimming and double the cycling distances before November of 2006. I'm going to be doing far fewer events in 2006 - probably less than ten. All in all, a pretty good year!

I lost about 5 days of workout records just before Christmas, so these are approximate tallies for my erratic month.

Swim goal, 9000 meters (6+ workouts of 1500m+): Done 4700 m, 52%, F.
Bike goal, 80 miles: Done 44.4 miles, 55%, F.
Run and walk goal, 80 miles: Done 64 miles, 80%, B.
Crunches goal, 1300: Done 2350, 180%, A.
Weight loss goal, 3.0 pounds. Nope. 0%. F.
Events goal 1, December 3, finish one half marathon. Done, and set PR of 2:37:46. 100%, A.
Events goal 2, December 10-20, finish at least one long run of 18+ miles in preparation for the Goofy Challenge in January. Not done. 0%, F.

Overall score for December: 58%. F. Oh well....

I should be posting today a progress report on my December 2005 goals. Problem is, I don't have all my workout records with me right now. I know that I didn't make a couple of my goals - the weight loss and the long run, for sure. I'll give a definite report in a couple of days, along with my 2005 year-end totals, when I have my spreadsheet in front of me.

My emphasis now is going to shift towards weekly goals (to ensure consistency) and goals for each of four remaining 8-to-13-week macro cycles in my preparations for Ironman Florida. I may still post monthly summaries as well. Or not. But somehow it seems natural to keep track of things on a monthly basis, because, well, the entire rest of the universe does it that way.

What a great way to start the year! I took Buttercup out for a ride to Knapp's Narrows and back for my usual 26.4-mile jaunt. It was about 45 degrees and windy - I had another hard ride against the wind on the way back, but today's average was 15.2 mph, slightly better than I did a few days ago. At one point with the wind at my back I got up to 23.0 mph, which is quite a brisk pace for me on the flats! It felt pretty comfortable the whole way but I would have been icy if it had been much colder. Yay, my back held out most of the way, only one or two jabs of the ice pick in my longissimus when I stayed down in the aerobars without stretching too long!

Wheee, Buttercup and I have sure come a long way since my early rides on her when I first bought her last year. Maybe 2006 is The Year of the Cyclist? If I make as much progress in 2006 as I made cycling in 2005, and I log the mileage that I have planned, I'll be on my way!

What the heck, why shilly-shally around -- let's make it happen, girl!!! You and me on the road, Buttercup, in 2006 - the Year of the Cyclist.