Monday, April 28, 2014

Swim Meet Again!

While at Summit one of the other Luna Chix who is a swim coach mentioned Master's Swimming Nationals. I had no idea about this. I looked into this and found there was a meet near me coming up. I signed up for it. 200 Free, 50 Free, 100 Free and 200 Back. Might as well see if I have any speed anymore. I had to give seed times so I looked at the times of my HS swimmers and tried to use them. Though stupid me didn't switch them to METERS! When I signed up I had the oh this will be fun. By this past Friday I was thinking OMG what did I decide to do?! I haven't done a meet in over 10 years!

Got up early and decided not to walk to the meet but to drive with the pouring rain. I got in and did a long warm up 600 meters. Had to test out the blocks too. After a couple failed back starts I figured oh well- go with it. My first event was the first event of the meet 200 free. I wasn't seeded first which was my biggest fear. I came in just about what I should have with my seed time changed to meters. 2:47. Enough to get me 2nd place in my age group.




There was a long time till my next race 50 free. This was always my favorite. Figure go in see what you have for about 30 seconds. Again my seed time would have been spot on in yards... D'OH! 33:24. Good enough for 3rd in my age group. Quick cool down/warm up and back at it with 100 free. 1:15.28. Eh not my best. I under estimated how few heats of each event there would be. But good enough for 2nd in my age group. Then a big break to cool down and warm up. I actually found myself wishing I had signed up for the 400- what the heck is wrong with me?! Oh that's right I'm an endurance athlete now!

I was seeded first in the 200 back. Stupid forgetting to change things to meters! I figured I'd give it all I had left. Though somewhere in here I told D I might just scratch and go home. But he uttered the words well I don't know how you quit at something like this. URGH he said quit! I am not going to quit. I will give it what I have. I hopped in and hoped to just stay with the rest of the women. I was out in front at the first 100. Then my tired kicked in. And the girl in the lane next to me pulled out a 3:10. I got second in my heat with a 3:16 but good enough for 1st in my age group.

My sprint is not what it used to be! WOAH! But it was fun to be back in my old element. A place where the whole competition and the people all made sense to me. Kinda nice to be back- not nearly as fast as I wanted but fun! Now onto the 5k tomorrow!!!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Gotta Change to see Change

In my last post I talked about Summit. While at the event I sat down with one of the Luna Pro athletes to discuss my tri season and some other things. After a whole discussion I got up the gumption to ask "will you consider taking on an athlete?" Long story short- I have a new coach! I am excited and feel like I have a new focus to my training! She is pushing me! I needed someone to do that! I can't wait to see what it becomes!



Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Luna Summit- The Kick Start to My Season

As you can probably tell by the lack of blogs and the most recent post. I was looking for some motivation to get going this season. I had been to Team Luna Chix summit 2 years ago. For those of you that don't know I am a Boston Run Team member of Team Luna Chix. We are the ambassadors of the brand, coach women to get out there and run, and raise money for the Breast Cancer Fund. Every year Luna hosts us in Berkley CA for their summit. We fly out there and spend the weekend with the Pro and sponsored athletes and get to train right along side them for the weekend.



I have a lot of friends on twitter and such that are athletes that train and race. But this was having all of them in one place. The food was all up to dietary restrictions, the talk was all about training and racing and the fun was focused on being active. I landed Friday and scooted out to the hotel. Upon check in we received our Team Luna Chix kits- running shirt, running singlet, running shorts, socks, running jacket, long sleeve shirt and arm sleeves. We even received a special Luna charm and road ID gift card.

We rushed to change so we could join the run with the pros on Friday afternoon. I was so looking forward to that after being stuck on a plane for 6+hours. It started to drizzle and get windy as we ran around the Marina but we got in a good 3.6mi run. I ran and chatted with one of the new sponsored athletes and some team members from other towns. Got to meet Kara, one of the new Luna Sponsored athletes and chatted tri. After the run it was time to get ready for Friday night at Clif. They had an 80s party planned this year. It was awesome how ALL out everyone went with their 80s costumes. Here are some of the pictures:

After a night filled with dancing and fun after getting up at 4am for my flight I slept hard. Got up early with my room mate for the trip and Boston Run Teammate Lisa and hit up strength training class. We learned from Luna Pro Suzie Snyder, about different circuits with mostly body weight. And even ended with a quick HIIT circuit. I can't wait to get a hold of the notes and pictures for this one!

Finally we got some breakfast and had some great talks from Luna about product plans and nutrition advice. I then went to the sports nutrition clinic. More on this one another time! Taught by Sarah Jane from Self Magazine

Following the clinic we went into our sport specific talks. Since I am on the run team we had a run clinic. Ours was with former Ironman and Luna Pro Terra Castro. She is now a Luna Sponsored athlete and a coach for cross country and triathlon. She taught us all about the skills we can offer to participants of the Luna runs. And what we all needed to realize that after years of running we can offer our tricks of the trade. What we do that helps us with running. Then we headed to the track. I have never done a real LEGIT track workout. I know I know- I should! It was awesome. I even chatted with http://kineticfix.com/ about her upcoming Tri as we did the warm up. Come to find out she works with Sweat Pink- small world!?

As we got going on the track workout- I looked at what my 400 times should be and pushed myself up to the group that was running the sub 25min 5k'ers. Why not right?! I am close! I was happy my 400 times were way faster than the 2min I was supposed to do. Terra and the other Pro Luna members were cheering us all on. The 19 min 5k girls were flying with me bringing up the rear but it felt great to push. I haven't done much out of my comfort zone in a while. I even got a motherly talking to from Suzie about how one of my runs a week should be a track workout. The motherly talk even included the stink eye! haha :)

It was so nice to be in an supportive atmosphere to attempt something outside my comfort zone. I am not usually one for the "yaya sisterhood traveling pants" of women's events. I am an engineer. I work with mostly men. I am generally the only women in my meetings at work. I went to a school that was 80% male and I was sometimes the only woman in my class. I have gotten used to having that testosterone around. Don't get me wrong I am not afraid of it. But it was kind of nice to be in a place where you could put your guard down a bit. I am not one that needs an all women's gym to get the job done. But it was nice when I went to push myself at the track to have a supportive group of women who went "Sure go for it!"


Saturday night we heard the stories of the pros and sponsored athletes and some of the team members from across the country. We got a great talk from the president of the Breast Cancer Fund.


Sunday was back to the training. I got up early to do a 3 hour ride through the hills. I was so excited to get out on the bike. I hadn't been out in sun and on the bike since the fall. I found a new friend on the Seattle Tri team. She is a swim coach too. So we rode talked swim coaching, tri racing, and everything in between. I really enjoyed the views. I even got to talk with the Luna Pro Katerina Nash, who was leading our group. I talked to her about her season her plans for this year and even tried to convince her to hire me as her gopher or chef so I didn't have to go home!


The weekend was like taking all my friends from twitter and blog universe and putting them all in a room to hang out and train together. It was really awesome to have like minded people to train with and talk with. To sit down to eat a meal and not have people asking why you aren't eating something but rather see what other people's dietary restrictions were to maybe better understand your own digestion issues. I decided this year when I was going to go to Summit I was going to make the best of every moment of it. I was going to talk to every Pro I could. I was going to listen to other people's stories and tell my stories. I have never been in an environment that I so quickly felt completely accepted and welcomed. This was truly being in my element. It was being put in that bubble for a little while surrounded by athletes and people that think and train like you. No one who thinks you are crazy for wanting to do extra miles after a track workout. They just go "I think I'll join you!"







Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Been a while....LOOOOONG WINTER!

So its been a while... I honestly think I needed a little break. I trained. I raced a bit. In February I ran Hyannis Half Marathon, not one of the races I enjoy. But my run team had to be there to volunteer so I didn't want to just drive down and head home. I decided I would run with a team mate and help her through her second half marathon. I have to say running and coaching her along- though my muscles were super sore the next day- was one of the most rewarding things I have done in a while. I really enjoyed helping someone else have a good race.

In March I decided to set some goals to keep myself going. We had a rough winter up here and I needed something! I wanted to keep up my cardio, up the lifting, get into yoga, get myself off my candy kick and eat better. I downloaded an e-book http://leansecrets.com/ It was full of some good tips, recipes and the thing I took most from it was the lifting routines. I needed something new. I had been using what my personal trainer gave me 5 years ago. They were a great mix of cardio and lifting. Really helped get me back in the gym with a focus.

I was pretty good at getting the lift 2-3 days a week for March. I got in yoga most weeks. And I cut out the candy successfully. It has gotten me to the start of training for tri season with a bit more focus. I did my winter computrainer classes and as always the hard work paid off.

This past weekend was the kick off to tri season here- The Multisport Expo. Got to see all the friends and the race directors. Had a great time! I was sick with a fever/cold last week so it gave me that kick in the pants to get going. We even came home and hit the bikes in the gym for an hour and 15. Sunday was cold and rainy again so I had to hit the treadmill. I am hoping that was the last of it.

Yesterday finally brought spring warm temps. I got out for a 4 mile run! It felt like I could run forever. I think my mojo is coming back. I had a 5k PR in March 25:59. I cut 6 min off the course from the last time I ran in 2012 it running with Alex at Hyannis 2:11.22. I am ready to start talking season plans. Start figuring out some goals. And even mark complete on some of the goals from last year.... Here we go! Bring it on!