Week 33

This week proved to be challenging on an emotional level. I dealt with a minor health issue, found out more work would be added to my plate at work, had the possibility of my life changing forever, wished relationships could be easy, hoped my settlement from my accident would come through, stressed about my fundraising, and every time I looked to the right on my blog saw my race day was creeping ever closer. Sigh. A lot in the way of anxiety happened this week.

Monday
Had my minor medical procedure. Held back tears in the doctor's office but was ok in the end. Went home and went to bed.

Tuesday
Did one hour of core plus some stretching. A morning phone call at work made me happy. Was exhausted the whole day. Came home and watched Undeclared til bed.

Wednesday
Dragged myself out of bed and ran for an hour along Crissy Field. Felt better. Learned at work that I'd probably be getting MORE work. Stressed about projects. Felt tired. Decided I needed a Peanut Butter M&M intervention. Went home. Went to bed early but checked my email right before bed and got the miracle donation. Faith in humanity restored for the moment.

Thursday
Did an hour of core and then stretching. Was disappointed as usual early in the day. Tried to save someone's world. Disappointment slightly lifted a bit later. Life changing moment did not happen. Bought some used bike gear. Came home exhausted and watched more Undeclared.

Friday
Woke up at 4am, couldn't get back to sleep, finally did and then woke up at 8am and felt like crap. Was super tired. Finished the work projects, cleaned my desk. Left work early. Bought sports nutrition. Came home and even tho I was so tired ended up staying awake very late watching 1900 House.

Saturday
Woke up a 4:45am Got ready for an 80 mile ride up in Napa. Expected it to be warm and sunny but turned out to be cold, windy and rainy. Was not prepared. Grumbled the whole way. Did not want to do 80 miles, got talked into 75. Did it but hated it. Came home. Got ready for dinner. Had fun though blindsided by surprise information. Tried to deal. Came home. Watched a movie and fell asleep. Went to bed. Had anxiety dreams.

I'm smiling on the inside

Sunday
Woke up. Met Yi for a 12 mile run. Run was good. Couldn't get home because of Carnivale. All roads leading to my house were blocked by festival and/or parade. Took 2 hours but not before I broke down sobbing in front of the traffic cop. Came home. Showered. Emotionally and physically exhausted, sobbed for an hour in bed...then on the phone to best friend. Then on the couch. Watched the movie that I fell asleep to the night before. Typed blog.

Mid Week Post!

Hi People!

I am so excited to report that I have official race photos from Wildflower and UVAS to post and that through the miracles of the world, I have received an incredibly generous donation from an amazing man.

One of my teammates from the cycle team is an oncology nurse practitioner and Jim has been her patient for about a year after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Katie writes:

"He's in his fifties, and has metastatic lung cancer. His disease is incurable, but he's been responding to his chemo treatments, which has allowed him to keep living his life! He's incredibly passionate about music, and actually plays in a band. He's married to the love of his life, and has two kids, Sarah and Paul, who are in high school and he adores them. Despite Jim's cancer diagnosis, he always has a big grin on his face, and is very upbeat and kind."

Jim wrote me this morning to thank me for being awesome. (I know, it really comes easy to me ;) Jim told me a bit about himself and below Jim writes:

"I'm telling you all this in hopes that it will help you go that extra mile. Cancer Really Does Suck, and it has affected my family and friends in many different ways. But it has never and will never get me down because I truly have a wonderful life. It's people like you and Katie that truly inspire me. I am very grateful to know that there are people like you and Katie, and your teams, doing what you do to fight cancer."

Wow. Forget about me being awesome. Jim is the hero here. How easy it is to forget when our lives are getting us down, when training gets hard, when you don't want to get out of bed...how truly lucky we all are to be alive. I'll be racing in honor of Jim's awesomeness on July 20. That's for sure.

Thanks to Jim's generosity I have just $700 to reach my goal of $8000. Are you waiting to donate? Don't wait any longer, the time is now!

Check out my photos from race day!

Wildflower 2008

Braden was right, that IS my body in that suit!

On the ride looking like a pro!

Second shot is all smiles

Even tho I was ready to have um, GI issues, I'm still happy!

Finishing 8 hours and 9 minutes later


UVAS 2008

Hez and Yi on the run

Of course we had time to stop for a quick pose!

Hez and Yi bringing it home 2 hours and 22 minutes later

Week 31 & 32: Hez Does a Fundraiser and UVAS

Week 31:
Yes, a two week lapse. I didn't write anything about last week mostly because nothing happened in the way of training. It took me a long time to recover from Wildflower. I was plagued with stomach issues for almost 10 days afterwards, only being able to eat cereal (granted rice cereal and almond milk, but whatever). I was also extremely exhausted. I ended up having to take Monday off because I couldn't move from my couch. Tuesday was pretty much a waste too as I just stared at my monitor. Who knew that exerting yourself for 8 hours and 9 minutes would be such an energy suck?

Hez and Deb at Renee's Eyelash/Moustache Fundraiser

On the Wednesday after Wildlflower Deb and I had our fundraiser at Elixir Bar in San Francisco. The owner allows regular people to come in on a Wednesday night and bartend. At the end of the night you get to keep your tips and the bar will donate them to the charity of your choice. Yay Elixir! Now, only if we could get them to donate like 5% of the bar, too.

The night started off at 8pm for Deb and I. Our friends Lindsay and Misty were on hand to help us too. We all had fabulous shirts made that said, CANCER SUCKS on the front and then our names on the back. Eddie, the extremely nice and patient (actual) bartender, "trained" us an hour before our official start time of 9pm. Basically the training was: "every beer we serve has it's own special glass." SHIT! Luckily, I was a bartender in Boston AND I drink a lot of beer so this wasn't too stressy for me. During this time Eddie kept reminding us that we make our money from the tips so don't forget to keep reminding people to tip well. He also said most charities make about $300. Deb and I kinda looked at each other because, dude, we need like $3,000. Hahaha.

Hez and Deb at Elixir

The night was amazing. The first hour we were totally slammed and Deb and I were running around crazy taking orders, filling them and then having Eddie ring them up. People were throwing money at us. Eddie just kept saying, you guys are doing great! You have so much money! I myself took a $50 tip and Deb took $100! It was so great to be bartending again. I really miss it. Though, I coulda killed Rick for ordering a cosmo and a Maker's Mark manhattan...I am so rusty!

Misty pouring shots like pro!

So many people came to support us. Some of our teammates came right from the track workout ready to drink and tip. So many friends came too and it just goes to remind me what awesome people I know and how willing they are to support me and my cause.

All in all we grossed almost $1000 in tips. TIPS, people! Misty told me later that Eddie had commented to her that he had never seen anything like it! Amazing. Unfortunately, we had to tip out Eddie and the barback (which is only fair, that is their normal shift) so Deb and I took home $666. I laugh that maybe they finagled that final total since I had a discussion about metal with the barback and I saw Eddie rocking out to my iPod mix that included Iron Maiden. Heee!

I am one more step closer to my goal of $8000. I have about $2000 more to go. If you haven't donated yet, now is your chance! Go here.

That Saturday I did my first workout since Wildflower. The group was doing a 60 mile ride, which I think was a bit excessive for people recovering from the race, so I planned on cutting it short. Turns out I didn't really have a choice as my body was just losing it. Tired, headachey, nauseous and crampy. Deb, the great friend she is, turned around with me and we did about 32 miles. I went home, ate, slept for 2.5 hours. Ate. And then slept another 1o hours! Holy crap!

Week 32:
All I did this week was swim twice. I wanted to get in as much swimming as possible (which I guess means twice!) as I am having a procedure that will keep me out of the water for 3 weeks! Talk about anxiety promoting. I also was racing UVAS this Sunday, which is a cute, little race of a .75 mile swim, 16 mile bike and 5 mile run.

At the pool: no more russian lifeguard? Didn't see him either day. My swims weren't all that great as I was kinda bored with the back and forth and didn't really stick to the workouts. I did, kind of, but ended up shortening them both days.

UVAS: On Saturday a bunch of us drove down to Morgan Hill, which is just south of San Jose and checked into the Comfort Inn. It was really hot down there, but I love it so it didn't matter. Yi and I picked up our race packets and then got to the business of setting up our stuff and putting our numbers on our bikes and helmets. I was number 33, which is one of my lucky numbers! Then the 15 of us Ironteamers went to Mama Mia's for a pre race dinner.

Now, can I talk about how difficult it is to go to an Italian restaurant when you are not supposed to be eating wheat and dairy? I was drolling all over the yummy sounding pasta dishes but ordered the pork chops and mashed potatoes, though, technically, I shouldn't be eating potatoes either (gluten). But I just couldn't do the salmon and rice. PLUS, after my G.I. issues at Wildflower, I really wanted to lock it down and do this race wheat free to see if it made a difference.

Yi and I totally crashed at 8:30pm and then woke up at 4:45am. Got ready, loaded our cars up and waited for 6am to roll around when the team was gathering. Then we all caravan'd to the race. In all the emails I got from the race oragnizers, my age wave was set to start at 8:05am. But when I got to transition that had changed to 7:40am! Whoa! That is a big time change and it kinda freaked me out. What made me happy, though, was that now all us girls were gonna be together and not split up.

Swim
Got to the business of setting up transition and then got my wetsuit on. The swim course took us around a little peninsula in the UVAS reservoir and that kinda freaked me out. When I swim in water like that I don't want to be anywhere near land or weeds. But I managed. I meant to use my tempo trainer but left it at transition by accident. This race was a water start, which I had never done before. We were all kinda in the water up to our chest and then started from there. I will say, for a tiny 700 person race, the swim start was the most vicious! I kept getting swum up on, and my feet kept getting touched and grabbed and people kept swimming 5 inches from me. People, there is a WHOLE LAKE. Move over! Finally, I settled in and actually was able to draft most of the time. The night before I had envisioned a 25 minute swim and I ended up with a 26:30! Yeah! I didn't dilly-dally either. Just head down and swimswimswim.

Bike
Mike, the coach from the South Bay team helped me rip my wetsuit off (very difficult, learned some things not to do for Ironman) and I was out of transition in a blistering 4 minutes and 45 seconds. I am never that fast and I contribute it to the fact that I chose not to wrestle my bike gloves over wet hands. Hopped on the bike and didn't slow down once. The course was so fast! My heart rate was out of control and I spent about 15 minutes trying to talk it down. Finally I could settle in and enjoy the route that took us around the reservoir. No major hills so that was good. I also employed a new tactic of GasX and Immodium AD. I strategically popped a GasX at the first sign of discomfort and then took one more for the road a bit later. I planned to take an Immodium half way through the bike to deter any possible G.I. issues on the run. Of course I didn't realize that the Immodium was not in an easily "pop out of the foil" wrapper but rather the kind where you have to peel off a paper backing and then pop it out of the foil. Not so easy with one hand while you are biking a course at 20mph. So I moistened the paper with my tongue and then was able to chew out the tablet....or half of it. Oy. Later on I decided to take the second one and was able to get the tablet out like a pro but then it accidentally broke in half and I watched the other part of it fall on the ground. Hahaha. Not so pro. About a mile before the bike finish I ate a gel so I could have some calories for the run. Zipped into transition, dismounted and got ready for the run. My average bike speed on this course turned out to be 17.2 mph. That is a first for me!

Run
I made it out of transition in 1 minute and 43 seconds! Wow! Hit the run course and tried to settle in. I was curious where my teammates were as I hadn't seen Yi or Renee the entire race so far. I figured Renee would pass me on the run since she is a lot faster. Immediately I realized my GasX and Immodium were not gonna work. Ugh. Though, unlike the Wildflower run, I was more uncomfortable NOT running. So I had to keep going. That plus there weren't any bathrooms on the course! I also kept thinking the turn around was at mile 1.5 (der) but it was really at mile 2.5. Silly me. I saw the fast guys on our team coming back from the turnaround and was excited that I wasn't that far behind them. Then Renee passed me. Then Nicole caught up with me and I ran her pace for a while until the turn around where the faster pace was effecting my poopiness. After we turned around I saw Yi! Yay! I kept running and then at some point I realized she wasn't too far behind me so I slowed down (aka stopped) and let her catch up. We ran the rest of the way together and even stopped to pose for the course photographer. Heeee! All in all I finished the race in 2 hours and 22 minutes. A lot faster than I thought I was gonna!

Jesus, I mean Mike Kyle and Hez in transition after the race

Weeks ahead (and when I say weeks I mean only 8!)
I have just 60 days left til my race. That is slightly more than 8 weeks! I can't believe it is just around the corner. In some ways 2 months is a long time but in others it is soooo short! We are also entering the Sexy Phase of training. Apparently we are all gonna drop about another 5-10lbs. I ended up gaining some weight these last 2 months but my body fat percentage went down so clearly I gained that weight in muscle. In June I'll be participating in our 3/4 Ironman Weekend up in Clearlake. That will be a workout consisting of 3/4 of the Ironman distance. Helloooo! That means a 19 mile run! The most I have done is 13! Yikes! After that I'll be doing the Folsom Lake swim, which is a 2.5 mile swim in a lake without a wetsuit. I want to make sure I can swim 2.4 miles! So scary!

Week 30: Wildflower Long Course Completed? Check.

This week I was tapering in preparation for Wildflower 2008. Last year, this was my event that I trained for and unfortunately did not finish the course because they start the old ladies last giving us the least amount of time to finish. ANYWAYS, tapering. Which for me meant only swimming twice for the whole week and then trying to get all my camping stuff together. Race report below:

Friday
Woke up early to pack all my stuff in my car and head over to Yi's. We wanted to be on the road early to avoid traffic. We headed out at 8am for our 3-4 hour drive. Had a quick stop over in Soledad for lunch and made it to Lake San Antonio around 11:30am. Coach Ted arrived earlier in the week and had kindly set our tents up for us. All we had to do was set up inside our tents and then we were off to pick up our registration packets at the Expo. Came back to camp, had a great dinner cooked for us by Susan. Then I hit the sack around 8:30 after taking a Tylenol PM (the stuff is amazing).

Saturday
Woke up at 5am and started moving about, getting dressed, making oatmeal and making a spare peanut butter sandwich for my 2 hour wait at transition. The night before I had been trying to visualize my transition set up and also my race but I kept falling asleep during the swim! I did, however, keep telling myself that I would do the swim in 45 minutes, which would be 10 minutes faster than last year. Packed all my stuff up and we rode our bikes down to the transition area and began setting up. What was really important about this day was to remain calm. I had been telling myself over and over again that it is just a training day. Yes, I wanted to make the certain cut off times and yes I wanted to complete it, but I also wanted to stay relaxed. The great news was, it worked! I really wasn't nervous at all despite the 8 trips to the bathroom!


Swim
At 9:20am my age wave started and I waded slowly into the water and started to swim. The water was a balmy 65 degrees (balmy compared to our 50 degree bay). Typically in an open water swim I freak out in the first 15 minutes and then once that is over I start the business of swimming. For this race I decided to use my tempo trainer which I use in the pool to regulate my stroke. It's kind of like a metronome for swimming. I hoped that if I started to panic, that I would be able to focus in on the tempo and get my breathing under control. It worked! I actually SWAM this course. Usually, I swim for a bit and then do some water running and then swim some more and do some doggy paddling. This time I was able to keep my head down and just go, once I even counted up to 100 strokes before I had to stop for a breather. Once I rounded the corner to come back to shore, I looked at my watch and saw that it said 30 minutes had passed. Last year I swam this course in 55 minutes and was pretty sure I could do better. However, when I looked at my watch and realized I was just slightly more than half way at 30 minutes I was a little worried. The thing about doing these kind of endurance things is that, I can't do any kind of math while I am in the process. Looking at my watch, I thought that 55 minutes was 10 minutes away from 30 minutes. I was really disappointed until about 5 minutes later while I realized, hey wait! It's TWENTY-FIVE minutes away! At that point I knew I'd set a PR for this swim course and I started swimming my ass off. I started to panic, too, with all the fast swimming and stuff but I made it and pulled myself out of the water at 44 minutes!

Bike
I ran up to transition and got ready for the bike. I hustled as best I could as one of the things I wanted to work on was my transition times. Last year I spent almost 10 minutes in T1. This year? 5:54! I hit the bike course and immediately recognized Mika from the spring team last year. MIKA! I yelled as we peddled up Beach Hill. Last year we were on the bike at the same time too...or rather, last year she passed me on Beach Hill...and this year was no different. We chatted briefly and then she was gone. I told myself that I wanted to take it easy on the hills, since the most challenging part of this course is Nasty Grade, a 4 mile incline that starts at mile 42, is only made more difficult if you push yourself too early on the course. At the top of Beach Hill I realized I had strained my lower back a bit (related to my bike accident in September) and I spent the whole ride with a stiff and aching back. Trying to take it easy at the next hill at mile 4 I dropped my chain, replaced it but then had to run to the top of the hill for an easier start. That is when Renee from my team rode by me and I caught up with her. We leap frogged each other the whole course and I believe that really helped to make the ride so easy.

The ride itself was uneventful and not difficult at all. A year ago I couldn't say that as I found it to be one of the most challenging rides I had ever done. However, after spending the summer on the TnT cycle team and doing all those crazy rides with them, this 56 miles was now a piece of cake. The night before Mike Kyle, an awesome teammate, told me that when I passed him on the bike that I had to tell him a joke. I was like, awww Mike! I'm not gonna catch up to you, you're way faster than me and you are leaving about 20 minutes before I am! But as I was approaching Nasty Grade, who do I see on the side of the road? Mike Kyle! I didn't have a joke but was so impressed with him because he had stopped to help a fellow rider with a flat. He caught up to me after that and we rode together for a bit before he pulled ahead up the hill. I was whizzing down the backside of Nasty Grade and hitting the flat when someone yelled my name. It was Deb! She wasn't doing so hot, feeling nauseous and having GI issues. I slowed down so she could catch up to me and I could see if she needed anything. Then this woman passed me in an Ironteam jersey and said, You're not faster than me. I was like, huh? I had originally passed her and then slowed down when I saw Deb and, as it happens a lot in these races, people get bitchy. She was basically telling me that I had no right to pass her because clearly I wasn't fast enough to stay in front of her. Well, eff that! And after I made sure Deb was ok, I was like, OH NO SHE DINT!, and I took off and left her in the dust never to see her again. So you know what Ironteamer from some other team? I AM FASTER THAN YOU. Then I whizzed by Jesus, I mean Mike Kyle who was again helping someone on the side of the road and said, Deb is behind me and she doesn't feel good! Turns out, Mike waited for Deb and rode in with her and then went with her on the run. What a guy! Last year I did the bike course in 4:50, this year I did it in 4:06.

Run
The whole last part of the bike I had been repeating my mantra of: shoes, run belt, visor to make sure that my transition ran smoothly. Headed out on the run in 4 minutes! Whooo! Started running and was like oh, I have about a million tiny stones in my shoes from when I came out of the swim and just put my socks on. I stopped and turned my socks inside out and then kept going. Then the hell started. The run course is 13.1 miles and about 10 miles of trail and rolling hills. Hills so steep you can't really run up them and then so gravely you can't run down them. About an hour and 15 minutes later I looked at my watch and I had only gone 3 miles. Shit. I have to pick it up. The course closed at 5:30pm and I started the run at 2:20pm. I had slightly over 3 hours to do it and had almost wasted half the time and had not gone half the distance. I started speed walking like a maniac. Hahaha. What was really disappointing is that I wasn't really tired, my legs weren't hurting but every time I tried to run I got the worst intestinal distress. At that point not "urgent" but I realized that some point I'd need a bathroom. Luckily I knew there were porta-potties all over the place. At mile 6 we ran through our camp ground and there was Heidi, Tessa, and Susan all cheering me on...then I detoured for the bathroom! I realized that I needed to run as much as I could for as long as I could after that "elimination" to make up for the time I lost early on. Mile 7 I rounded a corner leaving the campsite and this older woman and her husband were cheering and she yelled, Go on! You're doing great! You're a good girl! ...and inexplicably I started sobbing. I ran all the way to mile 8 and then had to walk. Hit the bathroom again and then finally got dumped out onto the road. No more trail! Headed down a 3/4 mile long descent into the "pit." As I was running down, there was Yi walking up the other side! We hoped that she would super slow and I would walk super fast and we'd catch each other but it didn't happen. At mile 10.5 I was walking up from the pit, I looked at my watch and saw that I only had about 25 minutes to make it to the finish line. I was really worried at this point, realizing that I probably wasn't gonna make it. But then I said to myself, you have to! You have to make it! So I buckled down and ran the best I could. On a good day I can barely run 3 miles in 35 minutes but I knew the last mile was a descent into the finish line so I thought it was possible. I rounded a corner and I heard the announcer who was stationed there say my name! That gives you such a push! Then all of a sudden I was at the top of Lynch Hill which meant I only had one mile to go. I looked at my GPS and realized that it was a mile behind. I looked at my watch and realized I had about 10 minutes to get to the finish line. You bet I started booking! I flew down Lynch Hill running a 7:40 minute mile which is just ridiculous. I was passing people left and right. I dumped out into the shoot and saw the official time clock indicating that I had about 36 seconds to get to the finish line. I started hauling ass. I heard my name being yelled by teammates in the stands and I heard the announcer saying Heather Aronson from San Francisco! I crossed the finish line and yelled FUUUUUCK!!!! as the volunteer handed me a wet towel and put the medal around my neck.

Hez coming in strong, looking skinny and like she is dying

Then it was over. 8 hours and 9 minutes and here I was at the finish line with no one around. I wandered around the finishers corral and then I saw Kristi walking towards me. She asked if I just finished and all I could do was nod and then I burst into tears. Hahahaha. She hugged me and then there was Renee who had finished a bit earlier because she passed me on the run course. We decided to go stand in the lake to cool off, to cool our burning feet and to help reduce the swelling of our muscles. On the way down there I was telling her my nail biting, race finish story and how I only had 36 seconds before the course officially closed at 5:30pm. She looked at me and said, Dude. the course closed at 5:45pm.

*blink blink*