NJ State Triathlon - Pre-Race Fun

I decided to make this a two part story...the reason being is I had such a great time before the race and finally had the opportunity to watch the race that I usually do - from the sprint perspective. This year CGI NJ State Triathlon was split into 2 days - Sat was the sprint race and Sun was the Olympic. There are about 3,000 people that do this race and it is quite hectic and a long day for those of us that do the Olympic when in the same day. Last year, I don't think my wave started till 9:30 or so and we had to be out of transition by 7am...so that was pretty much long and tiring.

Friday - Package Pick-up, Pre-Race Dinner #1 and Sleepover....
Nicole offered her home to Christine on Wed when we went swimming (see last post) and running, so of course, I get jealous (I mean what about me, I'm still coming to watch and part of the group!!). So we were going to sleep over Nicole's then get up for the race. I should note the temperature at this point - it is going to be 110 degrees on Sat with humidity...

I have hydrated all week with electrolyte drinks and water - I feel like I am going to grow a hump (you know a camel???) - Anyway, I have been still nursing the calf cramp from last Sunday's 9 mile run, it won't go away, trigger point foam roller, stretching, nothing. So I decide to take Fri and Sat off, it can't hurt and maybe it will go away...maybe...

3:30pm I am packing up work, can't deal, and meet Nicole at Mercer County Park to pick up mine and Christine's packet and then back home to make the most awesome salad....

Blueberry, Apricot, Gorgonzola, Asparagus Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Sliced Apricots
Blueberries (1/2 container)
1 bunch of asparagus, rinsed
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Springmix
Cherry Tomatoes
1/2 Vidalia Onion

Toss asparagus with olive oil and sea salt - grill on medium meat for about 15 min - turning consistently. When cool chop up in smaller bite-able pieces.
Axl got some asparagus too...
Chop apricots (I left the skins on)
Chop onions
Toss together with blueberries and spring mix

Vinaigrette
Dijon mustard
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
5-6 blueberries
Agave Syrup

Add 1:1 ratio of Olive oil to balsamic, mix in a few squirts of dijon mustard, a couple drops of agave and mash some blueberries. Whisk or use a salad dressing spin thing...
I add the gorgonzola separate.
...and then as I was saying about me hydrating - I also had this craving for a "New Dew" that I had at True Foods in Phoenix last week...
here is a picture of it at the restaurant with a tuna edamame salad
So here is what I did to re-create. I bought a container (1/2 honeydew) already chopped...
I blended 3 cups of water in my food processor. Strained the mix, added some agave, 2 juiced limes and some mint...
OMG - so friekin good....but it only made two cups so I didn't share :)
Then I left for Nicole's with some movies, my spectator outfit (a new Lululemon top...) and PJs, an air mattress and my salad.

Nicole made a nice spread. We had some grilled chicken with a spicy marinade from the Islands...
and then some lemon parsely pasta (see prior pre-race posts for recipe) and an awesome fruit salad.
Oh yeah, and I had a beer - cause I wasn't racing ...and I knew that would happen tomorrow after the race...lol

We didn't get to bed till late, since we were busy talking about tomorrow and the race.

5:30am Wake up!!

I left them to go to the park while I went to Starbucks and got my camera ready, I would be their paparazzi as you will see below!!LOL

So I met up with them as they were getting the numbers on...


Found Bill and went to the starting line to watch...(BTW - Bill is doing the Olympic with me, so we were there for heckling purposes...), I was getting nervous for them. Now I know how my mom and dad and Mike feel everyime they see me get in that water.

The girls were off...
me being the paparazzi - I got shots everywhere...
coming off the swim....



getting on the bike
I was a crazy person, I would update twitter and facebook so our friends could track them...I would take a pic on the iPhone to upload and then the next on my camera...I am still laughing, I think I was overwhelmed with emotion...
while waiting at the last 400 m to the finish watching people pass, I started being "that spectator" you know the one that yells at everyone with the quotes "you got it!", "nice job, looking good, almost done, just around that corner", "give it all you got", "sprint it out, the finish is right around the corner." I couldn't believe this was coming out of my mouth. I didn't get any "F - U" but I think most were happy, I could see it in their eyes, I got alot of "thanks" from the 60 and above crowd, a couple smiles from the ladies. This was my part of the race that I really needed that last piece of positive enforcement...I felt all good, I saw Christine and ran across to catch her at the finish. I was crazy excited!! They both finished a great race.




These two are rockstars and did great despite the ridiculous heat...


Back to my house for pool, bubba burgers (low fat), fruit, and a pasta salad....

Taper Week before the Olympic

I am now closing in on my 13th weekend of HIM training out of 20...wow!! I had a pretty tough two work weeks including traveling to Phoenix and Houston and managed to follow the majority of my plan including long bike on Sat after flying in and getting home at 2am the night before followed by a wonderful 63rd birthday dinner for my mom's birthday.
...where we were able to open a bottle of Chianti that Mike and I bought for them when we went to Castello de Meleto in Italy back in 2007 which was their reserve 2003

...t was amazing - so glad we waited!!
Sunday morning I woke up at 9:30 to ridiculous heat and did my long swim and long run before leaving for another flight. I have to say I was glad Mike made me bring my fuel belt for the 90 min run (last 2 miles was a run/walk due to calf cramp.
oh yeah! And it made it all worth it because I went to Lululemon in Phoenix and bought the Totally-Tote-Tastic-Tote (I snagged the idea from the California Training blog) - I love it!!!!!

I was tired, Monday was a 13 hour work day so it didn't seem like a good day off, I flew home on Tuesday and physically and mentally was drained. Plus, I still had a calf cramp from Sunday and a groin pain. So I did a yoga tape, my trigger point which is great, watched some TiVo'd True Blood, a glass of wine and dinner, and went to bed.

Wednesday - Christine, Nicole and I went to Marlton Lakes and did a 1/2 mile open water swim...

followed by a 3mile easy pace run

followed by water ice :)

Thursday - I went on a nice flat ride for an hour. I averaged about 19 -20 but it was fabulous with the wind. I came home and made an awesome dinner of Wild Red Sockeye Salmon and Quinoa with Kale, Garlic and Portabellos - this is my 20 min meal (move over Rachel Ray and your EVOO...)
Recipe for Salmon (remember I am Italian - we don't measure)
skin side down on foil, turn on grill to medium heat.
Brush salmon with grapeseed oil (cuts the fishy flavor nicely), balsamic vinegar, and sliced garlic and seasoning of red pepper flakes, garlic and parsely.
Put on the grill until cooked through...

Recipe for Kale, Garlic, and Portabellos

1/2 bunch of kale washed, veined and chopped
1/2 pack of portabello mushrooms
8 cloves of garlic
lemon juice
red pepper
white vinegar
Olive oil
salt/pepper
quinoa

Boil 1/2 cup rinsed quinoa with 1 cup water
once it comes to a boil put on simmer for about 10-15 min

In the meantime, sautee olive oil, garlic and mushrooms on medium heat.
Once softened, add kale, some lemon juice, and red pepper, cover and let it steam.

Use a medium size bowel, mix mushroom/garlic/kale with quinoa, add a little white vinegar, salt and pepper and some parm cheese (if you want)

Eat with the salmon - Delish!!!

And I almost forgot - I had a DogFish Head Palo Santo Marron with notes of vanilla and caramel...yummy... I had that as my dessert.


Tomorrow is race pickup and for the first time I will be a spectator on Sat at the NJ State Sprint to cheer on Christine and Nicole! I will be racing on Sunday with my friend Bill in the Olympic race!! Stay tuned for Pre-Race news and Post-Race Report!!!

Thoughts from the Trainer

So I had an incredible week so far...
Monday - Long Run (postponed from Sunday) - 80 minutes but i needed to walk about 10 minutes since it was ungodly hot and humid and I did NOT bring enough water.

Tuesday - Bike for 1 hour and 30 min with 5x5 min Hill intervals and 5 min recovery (from the trainer) - AGAIN RIDICULOUSLY HOT - us in NJ were reaching record breaking temps

Wednesday - HOT - so decided to do the run in the morning and the swim in the pm. I did a run for 40 min that included12 x 1 min in Z5+ and it was in Z5+ and 1 min recovery. Then in the early evening I did a 2500 m swim workout

• 350 wu
• 8x25 drills (fingertip, r/l, dps)
• 9x75 hard with 45 s rest
• 8x25 all out sprints with 20 s rest
• 8x25 kick
• 350 cool down

Thursday - Brick - went on the group ride for 25 miles sockless - we averaged about 18 with some sick hills and then did about 3.4 miles in 28 minutes (awesome for me).

Friday - Swim about 2100 meters

• 350 wu
• 8x25 drills
• 5x200 intervals with 20 s rest (moderately hard)
• 4x50 sprints with 20 s rest
• 350 c/d
  

Sat....so I had all these wonderful plans, I was meeting my friend Susan for a 50 mile loop and was very excited but the weather called for thunderstorms and rain so that was post-poned till next weekend and here I was stuck on the trainer for 3 mf hours...

1. 8:30am - get up make myself cottage cheese and 1 slice of smart carb bread with pb and apple butter
2. 9am - switch my tires, change into tri suit, fill my bottles, clean up
3. 9:45 - it begins with the finishing of an episode of Pretty Little Liars...I know I can't believe I watch it either..
4. 10:15 - Start a Treme episode - I love this the music gets me going and I was zoning.
   
5. 11:15 - I am bored!!!! But I keep on going, I start some visualization - I have Olympic in 2 weeks and in 9 weeks I will be doing my first 1/2 ironman
6. 11:30 - Christine calls - we talk about the long run tomorrow (still on my trainer), and next week doing a swim at Marlton Lake and a long run (well me long run, her for part).
7. 11:35 - Next episode of Treme - I love the music did I say that?? I love Nawleans! Makes me want to go see my bro...
8. 12:15 - Fall of trainer....have no clue, maybe not set up right...
9. 12:20 - Back on trainer - been taking about 3 Gu Chomps, 1 water bottle done, sweat is on the floor nice...
10. 12:30 - Crap this is going to be the most difficult mentally challenging 15 min.. I want to scream, what do I watch!!!
    
11. 12:35 - I decide on the Hills 100th episode - what is Kristin doing now? Will she hook up with Brody...Guilty pleasure
12. 12:45 - I am friekin' done!!!!!

Now on for work, and then blog, work again and then get to go hang with Tanya tonight for her belated birthday - I hope she loves her present!!!!

Parvin State Race Report

PRE-RACE WEEK

So since I have been training for the half-ironman, I have been putting in way more hours than last year at the same time. I had a very heavy week the week prior to the Parvin Sprint on June 20.

The good part is I needed a recovery week and I had a lot of actual "work" to do for you know, my real job...I took a Sunday off, then my usual Monday off. On Tuesday, I resumed with the usual swim in the am and bike in the pm on the trainer (if you wonder why I do a lot of trainer rides it is due to my workload and sometimes not able to leave the house and set out the time that is required for riding and the prep and drive time).

On Wednesday I got a BONUS - my friend Bill stops that evening (I love having friends in this sport) and drops off some demo beauties ZIPPs!!!! How cool was this, I would actually know what it feels like to have $2500 wheels on my $1000 bike LOL!!

So I ran 7 miles on Wed, Thursday I did a bike on the trainer for an hour and half (again work was kicking my butt) and then Friday I had too much to do. I was trying to get ready for my meeting in Napa,errands and pre-race package pick-up.

NIGHT BEFORE

I made my usual pre-race dinner which consists of a chicken on the grill, some pasta and veggies.
I made some jerk chicken (sauce from whole foods... it was delish!) on the grill, my lemon spaghetti...

Recipe for Lemon Spaghetti
1 pound of spaghetti
3 lemons
olive oil
locatelli cheese
fresh italian parsely

I pretty much use the juicer and do 3 lemons, add same amount of olive oil, some salt and pepper, about 1/4 cup of locatelli cheese, and 1/4-1/2 bunch of italian parsely chopped. Mix that.

boil spaghetti in salted water. Drain but save 2 scoopfuls of spaghetti water. Then add the lemon mix and serve!! Voila - you can check out Giada's actual recipe on-line.

So then it was about the checklist - I don't really have an actual checklist but the mental checklist.

• Goggles
• Swim cap (race pack)
• Race belt and number already attached
• Running shoes - Zoot Tempo 2.0
• Bike shoes - my cool specialized tri shoes....awesome since I wanted to go sockless...
• Helmet
  
• Bike
• Body Glide
• Gu - 3 packs - just in case (only use 2)
• Lara Bar (just in case)
• Bike kit - tube, CO2 cartridge, bike levers, etc.
• socks (just in case)
• T-shirt for after race on way home
  
• Phone
• Camera

Got it...need a tri bag though...but that will be next purchase.
RACE DAY

Nicole and I left at 6am to get there around 7 (meaning 7:15am) - this is a small race so no major rules of closing transition etc. Christine was meeting us since she was a little closer.


We are late as usual so had to put my bike on the sand...which meant a pain in the ass because - sand...(add it to the list, I need a bucket for my feet). I took an orange vanilla roctane gu before the swim and got ready for the 77 degree water (last year was in the low 60s).
We really need to prepare in the water but we still have the newbie nerves. We get in the water and wait for our wave to be called. Nicole goes first then Christine and I.

Swim (9:46 - 231/311 - NOT my strong suit)
As I was swimming, I tried to do every 3 strokes for a breath. I really was feeling okay, I know I should have pushed it harder, but I still feel the newbie nerves (I know it's 3 years...grow up Heather). I swam and then stopped looked around got my bearings and moved along. So my downfall was when I swam in, I started getting a little out of breath, a little anxiety, then I started swimming again, I just wanted to get out of the nasty water, the sun was in my eyes...So then I start seeing people standing up, big mistake - SWIM TILL YOU CAN'T ANYMORE!!!
I wasted energy and time getting out of the water. Anyway, bottom line I did 2 1/4 minutes faster than last year!

Transition 1 (2:15)
What a cluster f$%k....I get out on the sand, can't get the sand off, I am panicking, how am I going to do this without socks? Then I see a bucket and no bike, so I move over dunk the feet, get the shoes, the helmet and move along...

Bike (37:49 19.0mph and 146/311)
Felt great. I still think I need to practice with my shifting, but I was passing like no-ones business. I came across a couple age groupers but we were head to head back and forth...so we kept that on, which helped me move along. I thought I was faster than last year with my fancy wheels, but I was 20 seconds slower...Still good, I need to shift more frequently though.

Transition 2 (2:14 - there is NO reason why this needs to be that long)
Switch to bike shoes, almost forget helmet (use the dude's bucket again) and then grab a gu and run.

Run (26:40, 8:40 min/mile and 205/311)
I ALWAYS get a cramp from the bike to run and I knew it was coming so I stopped at a tree, stretched the calve and moved along. So for some reason, I always make a friend on the run. This time an older gentleman, we would pass each other back and forth, then I said hello and told him if we were still together at the end we would sprint it in. AND we did...people were cheering "pass her" "beat him" - it was soo much fun! The best part was I didn't realize how fast I was going, to think if I didn't tie my shoes or didn't stretch the calves. I did 9:51 min/mile last year and this year was 8:40 min/mile - that's a helluva difference!


My total time was 1:18:52, that is a little more than a 6 min difference over last year. So as much as I planned on placing, I still had my own PR and I feel good about that!

And not to mention, my dad showed up for the end of my run! And...Bill had yuengling beers for us after we crossed the line!

My First Long Ride and Other News

I want to recap on what I was supposed to do last week and what I actually did...

Last week's plan went like this

Monday - Off day
Tuesday - Swim at 8am (1950meter - speed intervals) and Bike on trainer 1:10 (9x1min Z5)
Wednesday - Strength training and Run Speed Intervals or track workout (50-60 min)
Thursday - Run 50 minute @Z2 then Bike for 1:30 @Z2 (think I may do the Group ride for this)
Friday - Strength training (plyos/core) and Swim 2000 m (drills/intervals)
Sat - Bike 2 hours and 30 minute run (BRICK)
Sun - Swim Time Trial (w/up, then 1650 TT, c/d) and then 1 hour Run

Here's what really happened...it was a hard week of work and I accomplished alot which makes me think that even though I work from home, I do work alot of hours and still am able to fit in training and fun!!

Monday - Off day - CHECK!
Tuesday - Swim at 8am (1950meter - speed intervals) and Bike on trainer 1:10 (9x1min Z5) - CHECK! + YOGA
Wednesday - Strength training and Run Speed Intervals or track workout (50-60 min) CHECK!
Thursday - Bike for 1:30 @Z2 (OKAY NO EXTRA RUN - but I did the group ride on Thursday and had to make it back to work that night - so I clocked in another 26 miles and Nicole and I met a new friend - Susan!)
Friday - Strength training (plyos/core) and Swim 2000 m (drills/intervals) CHECK! plus Theresa and I got our hair done

and mom did too - Theresa and Mommy look so cute here...


and then me and mom..


AND a nice dinner that grandpop planned since my Aunt Noreen was home (she's a former Hawaii Ironman - way before it got cool). That's aunt Noreen on the bottom row - she now lives in Bend, OR and is still extremely active. My uncle Glenn (not here) just placed in a 13 mile trail race in Bend - so they are my resources - both former Ironmen...

also in the pic to the left is Vanessa (who just agreed to play a soccer tournament the next day), me (the 50 miler the next day), Lauren (who has the little kiddies, former champion beerathlete with me, and studying nursing...man that is a superwoman), their mom (Aunt Deb), Aunt Jenai, my mom, then Aunt Noreen, Leah, my lovely sister (who just got a part in Music Man :0) and then Ava.


Followed by Grandpop's boys - Uncle Paul, my Dad, GPop (the original Onion), Uncle Carmen, Uncle Richard and Phil (finally turning 21...)

Sat - Bike 2 hours and 30 minute run (BRICK) - Okay so this didn't happen either - so instead I managed to do my first ever 50 miler ride for a charity - So DOUBLE CHECK!!
Sun - Swim Time Trial (w/up, then 1650 TT, c/d) and then 1 hour Run - little pooped so I did the swim not as time trial and then 50 minute run on "dreadmill" since it looked like it was going to pour... CHECK! and post-birthday dinner for Mike at my parents...spaghetti and meatballs - I needed it by then..



All in all it was about 13.4 hours versus the 11.2 I was supposed to do (including strength and power yoga)

So - about my ride...

We did the Anchorhouse - Cory's Ride on Sat. It was a 50 mile loop - Nicole, Susan and I stayed together so "no man is left behind."

Always make sure you have sunscreen: this picture cracks me up!!

We get there and they say the ride is not marked - so here is your map...so never fear team - Captain Heather (who loves directions and maps will handle the paper - I didn't tell them I can't walk and chew gum at the same time.. I think they may have been worried of me taking my eyes off the road then.). So we decided to role like this. I yelled the street name and the mile we needed to turn and Nicole and Susan kept tabs on their computer.
Lots of turns and lots of hills (for NJ standards) some with little recovery - my favorite!

Sidebar: I don't know what I love hills but I do - I decided a while back to embrace the big ass and thighs that I was genetically un-blessed with.. and decide that that was where my power and extra reserves would come from and since then realized that me and hills are friends.

So we met up at the 1/2 way point with gatorade, water and fruit, it was getting hot. I then realized I need to have another water bottle on my bike.

We moved on, and the last half we met up with a couple of gentleman that allowed us to do some drafting...what fun...and then we left them behind. We later took another gu stop for a min and they caught up for awhile we drafted and we moved on.

It was nice to see that our state of NJ, contrary to popular belief, is NOT overrun by malls and developments and in fact has a fair amount of farm land!! Hail to the horses, cows and veggies!!

We got back and had a great post-ride lunch spread including Riverhorse Brewery!!

I did crash on the couch that night...and perked back up for Sunday's long ride.

Monday - was a well-needed rest day...



Until next time - plan to post some of my favorite recipes and food...