Week 20: East Coastin'

About once a year I make a work trip out to my company's headquarters in Stamford, CT. I always look forward to this because it gives me an opprotunity to make an extended trip to NYC to hang out with friends or to Rhode Island to visit family. This time, I extended my stay to visit my sister, Lauren, who has recently moved to Providence in order to take up a job at Brown University. I love traveling (even when it's for work) but it can be a little stressful when I'm trying to maintain a training regimen. Forunately, this trip was during a recovery week so I didn't need to get in any hard core workouts. I managed to get into a bootcamp class at my company's office. I absolutely loved it! It was only an hour long, but it was a really good workout. I need to find a class like that here (and then figure out a way to work it into my schedule).

Lauren is training for her first half marathon, the Providence Half Marathon on May 3rd. I'm really proud of her. Last year, she did the Tour de Cure which is a 60 mile bike ride to benefit the American Diabetes Association. She isn't on a team, she doens't have a coach, she just went out, bought herself a bike and trained with a friend. Amazing! She's also signed up to do her first triathlon in July. Lauren had her 7 mile training run scheduled for that Saturday, so we woke up early, laced up our shoes, and hit the streets of Providence. She tried out my run 9 minutes/walk 1 minute strategy. Peice of cake for the first 3 miles :) This was actually our first time running together ever! It was really fun, and Lauren was able to accomplish her longest run to date. When we returned home, we were greeted by Sugar Bear, Lauren's adorable little pug. The rest of our weekend was filled with wedding dress shopping, family visits (in Rhode Island & Massachusetts), mani/pedi, and of course a night out on the town.



Condition: So proud of my sister!

Week 19: Training Weekend - Wildflower Long Course...as a training day!

For the last 2 years, I have joined Team in Training with the ambition of crossing the finish line at the Wildflower Long Course race at Lake San Antonio. Wildflower is considered to be one of the most difficult half Ironman courses in the country. It is tradition that this course chew me up and spit me back out. I always manage to cross the finish line, but I walk away limping, nauseated, and relieved that it's over. Now that I'm on Ironteam, we do this course as a TRAINING DAY!

On Friday afternoon Tony pulled up to my place and we loaded all of my gear into his car. Did I mention that we have to camp for the training weekend? It's part of the Wildflower experience. We met up with Belilnda to begin our caravan down south. 4 hours later we pulled into the campground and greeted our teamates. At our team meeting that night Coach Dave gave us our timeline (wake up at 5 am, in the water by 7 am), outlined the course map (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run), and informed us that he brought us to training weekend fatigued for a reason, so we all had to make sure we had a Plan B & C. Plan B & C are your strategies for handling meltdown moments i.e. mechanical issues, dehydration, bonking, or mental fatigue aka "I'm so over this shit." I laid all of my things out the night before and hit the sack early to get as much sleep as possible. My mentor Joan offered to let me sleep in her Taj Mahal tent which had two airmatresses and could comfortably sleep 6. I was starting the weekend off right.

At 4:55 am I awoke to the sound of bagpipes. "Surely, this must be a dream," I thought. Joan woke up as well and noted that our alarm hadn't even gone off yet. The bagpipes then switched to the Rocky theme song and slowly got louder as it appeared that someone was walking through the campsite with a boombox. Apparently, this is one of the signature Ironteam traditions. No one appreciated the fact that they were woken up 5 minutes before their alarms went off, but no one over slept either. We all ate breakfast, packed up our gear, and drove down to the transition area in the dark. Our coaches wanted to simulate a race day, so we all had to register, get body marked, and pin race numbers.

At 7 am, we were in the lake waiting for the whistle. The swim was ok. The water temperature was about 62 degrees, and compared to last week's 56 degree water, it felt great. The only downside was the size of the buoys that marked the course, they were difficult to spot. I kept mistaking someone's red swim cap as a buoye in the distance. Aside from the occasional zig-zag in direction, the swim was ok.

Once I climbed out of the water it was back to transition to strip off the wetsuit and get ready for the 56 mile bike ride. The Wildflower Long Course bike ride is legendary. It starts off with a very steep hill climb that lasts for about a mile. It's a rough way to start a long ride, but since I knew it was there, I just relaxed and settled in. It's a beautiful rolling hill course that takes you along pastures, farms, and vineyards. Somewhere around mile 34, the course lives up to it's reputation. It's the beginning of "Nasty Grade" a nearly 5 mile hill that climbs 1,000 ft from start to finish. If that weren't daunting enough, the hill has a fake summit. That's when you climb to what you think is the top, the road turns and there's more climbing. It's very cruel. But since I knew the top of the hill was not in sight, I paced myself for the challenge. I really felt great for most of the ride.

It is tradition for me to blow up on the run. My heartrate gets too high, my spirit gets low, and I suffer to the finish line. This time was different. By the time I got to the first water stop at mile 4, I was feeling good enough to eat pretzels, 1/4 banana, some pringles, and some orange slices. I stuck to my run 9 minutes and walk 1 minute strategy. When I got to the hills, I ran 20 steps and walked 20 steps. This worked well for me, both physically and mentally.

So what was different from the past 2 years? Well, other than a more intense training regimen, I think I finally figured out my nutrition and electrolyte balance. I was able to consume about 1,200 calories on the bike and probably around 600 calories on the run. Yes, I know that this is a normal person's recommended daily intake, and I consumed this all before 3 pm. According to my Garmin, I burned 2,920 calories while riding my bike and 1,380 calories during my run. One of the benefits of training is refueling, and when you're that depleted, food never tasted so good!

Ironteam completed the entire long course on Saturday, but the other teams (East Bay, SF, Redwood/Wine Country) split the training into two days. It's Ironteam tradition to throw a big party at camp on Saturday night and then get up early to host a water stop for the rest of the athletes. A really important part of Ironteam is our honoree group. Many of them have experienced the common side effect of chemo, hair loss. In honor of our honorees the theme of our bonfire party was "Shave Your Head for LLS." We had about 8 men line up to have their heads shaved, but the hero of the night was Moddie. She said she would shave her head for $1,500 towards her fundraising. It took us about 20 minutes to raise the money...Moddie is now a beautiful baldy :)

Condition: Feeling good and happy to be sleeping in a real bed

Fundraising Update: I'm 41% of the way there! Click here to donate to the cause: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/louisir09/thylton

Week 18: "I...Wanna Rock & Roll All Night...And Party Everyday!"

It's ironic that our coach would make us sing this song during our progressive speed spin workout because it couldn't be farther from the truth. Most days, I can't wait to put my head to the pillow at night. And if you've read previous entries in my blog, you know that for me "partying" is synonomous with "crash and burn."

Saturday's workout was at Lake Del Valle in Livermore. The Lake was beautiful, but that didn't make up for the fact that it was freezing, a chilly 56 degrees! I was able to try out my new squid lid and my new botties, both are made of neoprene and help keep to insulate some body heat. I love the booties, but I wasn't a fan of the squid lid, probably because I bought a size too small. After an hour swim, we did a change of clothes and hopped on the trainers to start a brick workout.

60 minute progressive speed on the trainer + 30 minute trail run + 60 minute hill climb on the trainer + 30 minute trail run = A brick workout!

Condition: I'm a brick...house...

I'm 25% of the way to my fundraising Goal! Donate Here!

Week 17: Rest in Peace Henry

Dennis' father, Henry Guikema, passed away on Tuesday, March 3rd, which also happened to be his 65th Birthday. His visitiation and memorial service brought people together from all chapters of his life, but the one thing they all had in common was their great respect and love for a good man. Henry was an excellent trial lawyer who worked on behalf of the underdog, his children and grandchildren adored him, and he had many many friends. When Dennis and I announced our engagment to our families, Henry welcomed me into his family and jokingly said "My kid finally did something right!" Henry will be greatly missed by everyone, but especially by his family.

http://henryguikema.blogspot.com/

Week 16: Still Having Fun

Week 16 was a recovery week, woohoo! Our workouts were a little lighter than usual during the week, but Saturday was still a 3 discipline workout. We had a very special guest, one of our team honorees, Matt Rhodes (pictured above)! Matt is a stage 4 Hodgkins survivor. He's been cancer-free for 7 years, and he lives life to the fullest. He is training for the Wildflower Half Ironman race. Matt' superstar wife, Claire, joined our workout as well. We started the day with a beautiful 18 mile ride on the Paradise Loop in Tiburon. Our bike ride was followed by a 90 minute swim. We didn't actually swim the whole time becuase our coach taught us how to do flip turns. Check us out!



After play time in the pool, we did a 60-minute run in a Larkspur neighborhood. All in all, it was a really fun workout, followed by a team lunch. Burger and beer never tasted so good!

Condition: Dizzy