If you want to track me on Saturday...

To track my progress on Saturday you can do it on www.ironman.com:

"48 hours before the race start, you will see links for the Athlete Tracker in "The Latest" box on the home page of Ironman.com. You can also access the coverage by navigating to "Events", then choosing the race you are interested in. "

I'm doing Ford Ironman California 70.3

5 Days to Go!!!

Which means I'm in full on taper mode.

This weekend was GREAT! I can really see all my hard work starting to pay off and all the work I've been doing with my nutrition.

This weekend:

On Saturday, I left from my house and did the Old La Honda Loop (46 miles -- 3,800' of climbing) in 3 hours. It felt great! I did Old La Honda (3.4 mile climb, steady 7% grade) at 7 MPH and kept my heartrate below 140. That's good! Most people are huffing and puffing to get up that thing. I took it nice and steady and didn't even have to stop at the top. I took the immediate left on Skyline and kept on climbing. The other nice highlight was looking down while I was on the flats. I was doing 20 mph and my heart rate was 123 (that's zone 1). Nice! I felt like I was ready to go qualify for Hawaii...and then I reminded myself that I'd have to do the Ironman under 10:50 (that's 10 hours and 50 minutes for 140 miles) and decided that I was crazy ;-)

Sunday, Shaun and I got up and drove to San Francisco to meet my training group. We did a 20 minute swim in the bay (water temp 54*-I did 1/2 mile in 11 minutes) and then we ran 7 miles up the coast towards the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact, we turned around right at the bridge. It was a low heart rate run but I was supposed to do 10 minutes of race pace (Read:really fast) running. One of my 1 minute intervals I got up to a 6:18 minute mile pace-Nice!

After the run, we had brunch with my training group and then drove home. I took my bike in to get it serviced and to get new tires. The guy who sold it to me (who is a total sweetheart) did a diagnostic of my bike. He felt my rims and said "My god, you've put 6-7,000 miles on this bike!" He checked everything else and all I need right now are new tires. I will need a new chain before the Ironman and possibly a new wheel hub...but we'll see.

I then went on and did productive functioning adult things (like grocery shop, cook, etc-ya know the things I have to do, but can't find the time to do) and Shaun took a 3 hour nap.

I was having issues falling asleep last night and it didn't happen until 10:30 and I still woke up at 4:45 ready to go.

Yes, yes, I am tapering.

Wow it's almost been a month...

Since I last posted. I suck.

Well I have my first race next Saturday and I'm SCARED! I hurt my shoulder 2 weeks ago and haven't been in the pool since. I've been going to physical therapy and doing everything else but no swimming. So the one thing that I'm usually NOT worried about, I'm worried about now. GREAT. I get to try swimming this weekend and see how it goes....but if it hurts I have to stop immediately. Nice.

But things, overall are going really well. Shaun and I have a schedule figured out now, so we actually see each other-how nice! And I'm still working out like a fiend. Now I just have 2-3 extra hours of physical therapy every week. Which is good for me, but is still more time suckage.

Okay, this entry is boring, so I'll stop now.... :)

Something Changed

I'm feeling GREAT! I haven't felt great since about October. It's been a struggle and I've felt like I have had some good days but these last few months have been hard. This struggle has unfortunately coincided with the start of my Ironman training. I have definitely felt like my training has been going well but I have been in a funk. The funk was making me (and Shaun I think) really question my training. I was always tired, sort of depressed, and not feeling like me.

I didn't want to give up though. I committed to this and I was going to do it. But I was finding it really hard.

Then, something changed.....

I.FEEL.GREAT. So wonderful. I feel like the "old Chelsea" the one that made me want to train and tackle this huge task. I can't tell you how awesome this is. There is not a question in my mind that I can do this.

I can do this.

I will do this.