Raleigh 70.3

I kind of missed a lot of updating the past few weeks. But a lot did happen – we went to Bermuda for our 10 year anniversary which was awesome. I turned 35 (35!! I still can’t believe it). And this past weekend I did a relay at the Raleigh 70.3. Since I’m old now and can’t remember things, I will talk about the latest adventure since it’s still fresh in my mind.

I knew after last year I didn’t want to do the entire race again. I am not a long course athlete. Yes, I can do well at the distance, if I train properly, but I honestly don’t like ‘going long.’ I am happy doing sprints and Olympics and know myself well enough that I would not have enjoyed (again) the training involved.  Not to mention Logan is so, so fun and I mostly want to hang out with him when I do have spare time.  I luckily had some friends who were also not wanting to do the entire race (because they would be doing Eagleman next weekend) so bam, the One Step Beyond Babes were born. Back when we signed up I had good intentions of getting in really good half marathon shape and throwing down an awesome time, but blah blah blah, training for this went on the back burner and my longest run since the Myrtle Beach Half in February, was 11 miles.  Woopsy.

But let me tell you, doing a relay is where it’s at! You get all the hoopla without all the pain. And put yourself on a fast swim-bike relay team and you end up on the run course with lots of other athletes.  Alysia (swimmer) broke 30min and Mary (biker) had the fastest bike of all females in the race. Boom. Sorry guys, I really hope to break 1:50 but will be super happy with a 1:40.  Because although I’m a runner, I can have some spectacular meltdowns at the longer distances. And I knew I was under prepared for this so just didn’t know what would happen. Two things that were going to help me: 1) they changed the run course from last year so we wouldn’t have any BIG hills, just some smaller rollers that would be repeated, 2) the weather was about 1,000x better this year, topping out at 79 degrees with much lower humidity (90s and humid last year). It was a bit windy which made the run nicer, but apparently the bike much harder this year.

I also was experimenting a bit with my nutrition as I have had some trouble all year with my stomach and longer runs. I made sure to get enough calories the morning of in the form of two Honey Stinger waffles and a gel and then ate Sport Beans throughout the race. It worked! No bathroom troubles during or after which is huge for me. I was a bit hungry before I started but I guess I can deal with that if it means I don’t have to deal with bathroom issues.

When I got the chip from Mary I was determined, DETERMINED, not to go off at a pace that was in any way, shape, or form, uncomfortable.  Many of the guys that started off with me (who were doing the entire race) were running much faster than I wanted to. I stuck to my plan. And I saw most of them later on in the course :)  The run this year was two out and backs, run RIGHT by the finish line sort of deals.  Crowd support was awesome again and I knew so many people out there which kept it all interesting.  I stayed steady-eddie for the entire first lap and assessed the situation – I don’t feel bad at all. I had less than 1hr to go and figured I could start picking it up.  The first part of the second lap was definitely the hardest for probably everybody – it was now a little hotter and the hills seemed a little harder the second time.  My attempt to pick it up actually meant I stayed at the same pace, but compared to other splits I’ve seen, this was good. I hit the final turn around and now it was more of a net downhill which is how every race should end I believe. I didn’t have any ‘uh-oh’ moments except until I got to around 11.5 and I started to feel the distance in me (or probably my body was asking, wait, aren’t we done yet?!) I ended up splitting a 1:36:28 which I was very happy with.  Okay, I realize that this is way off my pr but in my current shape this is awesome.  So ahem to the person who looked at me and told me that was slow.

My relay finished 2^nd in the relay division (but of course 1^st for all females!) and my friend Kari absolutely nailed her race which made the day even better.  

I definitely feel like I win the pace-consistency award

The best babysitter ever brought Logan down again to cheer us on. It was awesome seeing him on both loops. I like this picture because of how cute the two of them look pointing at me. Please excuse my impression of a starving child.

My besties. Swim relay teammate Alysia and super fast girl Kari.

Local Tri Weekend

The Gaal’s had a solid weekend with Marty and I both bringing home the ‘W’ at two different triathlons, and Junior Awesome high fiving everyone along the way.  Marty proved at the TOA sprint that he’s not all washed up and old and won wire-to-wire.  Logan and I had a lot of fun cheering him on and listening to the announcer exclaim, “Here comes big Marty Gaal!  Old guy still got it!” I had originally thought I would also do this race and we even had an early morning babysitter lined up but this particular sprint is a bit hard and my undertrained self knew I wouldn’t have any fun suffering through it. Instead I opted for the Girls Run the World triathlon the next morning. This was a 250yd pool swim, 10mile bike, 2mile run. PERFECT!

The 7am start meant a very early wake-up. No matter, Marty and Logan still made it there to cheer me on when I got out of the swim.  The long run to transition made my sensitive footsies hurt, but I forgot about them once on the bike.  Mostly I tried to keep the snot off my face as my nose was extremely runny in the cool morning air and push as hard as I could.  I was most surprised at myself with how well I actually biked considering the hilly terrain and my lack of biking. I was in first place heading out on the run and tempo-d that through more hills.  Getting the overall win was fun, more so since my two favorite boys were there to see it.

And now, random pictures.

Trying to eat his piggies

Logan got his 2nd haircut last week

The end result

Riding his 'bike'

Enjoying his first Loco-Pop at a Durham Bulls game

I got some good schwag from the race I won

Jade and Logan hung out at the triathlon while their momma's raced

Jade trying to kiss Logan

They give stickers out at Trader Joe's and you never know where they will end up

Kari high fiving Logan on her way to an overall win

That's my Marty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Egg Hunt

Logan's daycare held an Easter Egg hunt today for all the classes.  First, I prepped him with a little bit of competitive attitude leading up to it.

Grandma helped by getting him a very cute Easter Basket.

The morning was a little chilly (wtf spring) so Logan had to wear some long sleeves under his 'I can rock a pink shirt' and a Marty hat. Also, apparently this is his new stance when I ask him if I can take his picture.

Marty, his dad who was in town, and myself all went to help stuff eggs.  Marty wasn't happy with where the eggs were hidden (they weren't) so he went around the playground and tried to make it a little more difficult.

And they're off. Logan picked up the gist very quickly (although he definitely didn't realize there was anything IN the eggs until later that night when I opened one).

 Contemplating the Easter bunny.  At least he wasn't screaming and crying and trying to crawl into the teacher's lap like some of his classmates.

Ultra-CRAZY

This past weekend I accompanied some friends to a 50K ultra trail marathon over in western North Carolina. 50K = 31 miles of ‘running’

It is cray-cray (this is word the kids used to use 2 years ago so it is now hitting us mainstream old people. It means crazy).

The ultra runners are not all bearded and stinky as I previously thought.  There were actually some pretty cute ones Heather and I surprisingly pointed out to each other. But the whole thing was a bit ridiculous in my opinion.  It was mostly due in part to the fact that it rained all day on the day of the marathon and apparently had rained a ton beforehand so the trails were a sopping, muddy mess.  And they were extremely hilly so this particular ultra was more of a hike than a run.  Our two friends who did it said they are not all like this. Our one friend, who is a pretty dang good runner (and did the 50 MILE here last year) stopped after the first 16 mile loop this year.  It was a different course and he said he didn’t feel like torturing himself on this very slow hike.  It took him 4 hours to cover 16 miles.

That is complex math (carry the 2...), but I believe that means he was covering 4miles in 1hr. See? Cray-cray.

Although the aid stations are well stocked with much more than you can really think is necessary (bacon? PBR? Really?), the fans are few and far between. Pretty much non-existent.  Again, the weather sure didn’t help at all, but when we went to see our other friend finish (and she was the 4^th female) not a person at the finish line.  Despite all this, we had a great time and it was fun to get away with some friends to the mountains.

However, as you may imagine, I will never ever ever be doing an ultra marathon.

Now get out of here and read the best race report you will ever read.

Training

I realized that there are a couple of races in the not so distant future that are on my probably-going-to-do list and if I wanted to actually do these I may just need to do some ‘real’ training. Like now. I swam Monday morning, although I didn't quite make it to Masters, but still did a Marty workout that consisted of 8x200 with a moderate 50 within each one.  I did my short run in the evening, with drills even! (Logan tried some out, too).  I rode the trainer yesterday evening – in our bedroom which actually really sucks because we only have super basic cable up there, so my viewing options consisted of the local news, every terrible judge show, Maury Povich or BBC news. I settled on BBC, then finished with America’s Funniest Home Videos.  Yargh. And then. THEN! I made it to Master’s this mornings, like only 5 min late – but that was the 5min I always stand on the edge trying to get myself into the cold water. 

Part of my motivation problem is I’ve been doing this for so long.  I know some people who are fairly new to triathlon and they are really fired up. Waking early every day, getting in tons of bike miles – that is awesome. But I did my first triathlon at 8. And got back into the sport (post high school/college) at 21. I’m turning 35 (what what?! I am HOW OLD?!) so that is quite a long time in this sport, and I just can’t get up for everything all the time. There are so many other things to do and I just can’t keep myself focused to be hardcore this year.  And that’s ok. And it is sometimes comical to see the same thing over and over – a lot has actually not changed since I got into the sport. For example, I happened into the Slowtwitch forum (a place it’s really better to just stay out of) and went into a thread that totally devolved into people belittling each other – just like it was 14 years ago. Same topics, different assholes.

But where would I be without this sport? I love it, I really do – I have met so many awesome people throughout the years - some of whom are my very closest friends.  This is just not the year that I’m going to be singularly focused on some arbitrary goal.  Although sometimes I do think about really trying to run fast again.  That could be fun.

Weekend Bust

We were driving to dinner on Wednesday with a quick detour to Inside-Out Sports so I could verify I did in fact get the right size running shoes when Logan started saying “Boo-boo. Boo-boo.” I wasn’t sure what exactly he was saying at the time and asked him, “Logan, did you  poo-poo?” which he indignantly replied, “No poo-poo!”  Upon parking at the store he vomited all over himself and the car seat. We then determined that he may have been telling us his belly had a boo-boo. Marty took over the cleaning part while I ran in to try on some other shoes.  When I returned, Logan had been stripped down to his diaper and Marty was handling all the barf covered clothes with only a mild look of disdain.  Fast forward a bit: more vomit, diarrhea, and lots of movies later, Logan seemed to be back to normal pretty quickly when it was all said and done. Although he didn’t have much of an appetite for several days (the kid honestly doesn’t have the biggest appetite to begin with).

Marty and I thought we had dodged a bullet and congratulated ourselves with how we handled it all.  Pat on the back here, hose it all off there, never gonna get rid of the pukey stink in the car seat, though! Febreze for the rest of our life.

We even jokey-joked with a fellow parent at the park on Friday evening about the incident and how surely we would’ve gotten it by now if we were going to get it.  Right? Right? (oh you all know the answer to THAT question!)

Poor Marty was scheduled to run a marathon Saturday morning near Richmond, and unbeknownst to me was battling his own stomach demons before he left the house prior to 5am.  It was around this time I woke up and thought, “something ain’t right.” 

Several hours of hell ensued. You all can infer whatever you want here and it would probably be correct.

I sent out an all-points bulletin to friends and babysitters because I was not in a place to be taking care of a child at this point. Unfortunately, no help was available so Logan watched copious amounts of tv and was fed whatever was within reach.  I could barely get off the couch to make it to the bathroom.  Marty raced home after his DNF and seemed to have a lesser version of the sickness than I had (although when push comes to shove he may think that I just don’t deal with it as well – I call bs and he’d better watch his mouth next time! I am a delicate flower).  But thank goodness that his immune system is stronger or his stomach is like steel (this is my theory) because he was able to get Logan out of the house to burn some energy off while I continued to lay on the couch and not move.

The next morning I felt better. I was able to eat a tiny bit of oatmeal without any adverse side effects and was ready to get out of the house so we all went to cheer on the runners at the Tobacco Road full and half marathons, where I joked that we were only able to cheer for half of the participants since the other half were all wearing headphones.  Remember when these used to be banned in races?

I was still feeling pretty weak throughout the day and my appetite was mostly non-existent. We visited our local brewery and after 2 sips of beer and a few nachos I realized I had made a mistake. Nothing entered my stomach after that.  Nothing left my stomach immediately either, so at least there was that.

Kids stomach bugs – the gift that keeps on giving.

Florida Camp

I took one for the team last week (Team Gaal, that is).  For the past 9 (?) years we have run a training camp in Florida in late Feb/early Mar. Initially they were held in Clermont, before we moved them to the west coast of Florida.  I had attended all but the one right after Logan was born, until this year.  I didn’t miss ALL of it, just most of it. With the new job and being in finance, it is very difficult to miss the first week of the month since it’s month-end close (and I haven’t accrued enough vacation). Here was my schedule:

Friday Feb-28: work from home in the morning, drive down to Jacksonville with Marty and Logan.  This ~7hr drive turned into a 9hr nightmare because of a gigantic backup just before the Florida state line. And we were so close to my sisters. That was painful.

Saturday Mar-1: Drive from Jacksonville to Orlando with Marty and Logan. Drop Logan off at Marty’s sister’s house so he can spend the week with his cousins, Aunt/Uncle and grandma. Continue driving (with a brief awesome lunch with dear friends in downtown). I-4 is a bigger mess than I remember.  And does Tampa ever NOT have a traffic jam. Sheesh.  Made it to Treasure Island around 5:30pm

Sunday Mar-2: This was an awesome day. 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. We rode in the morning, did a short transition run after, and then swam in the ocean in the afternoon. We ate a delicious dinner and then played games.  I wish every day could be like this :)

Monday Mar-3: early morning flight back to Raleigh. I came home to ice and sleet. Yay.

Tuesday Mar-4 through Friday Mar-7: work, work, work

Friday Mar-7: flew back down, I did have to continue working when I got there, but at least the latter half of the day was in a beach house looking at the Gulf of Mexico

Saturday Mar-8: Armadillo Run 5K.  I managed to win this despite not being in very good run shape. It helps that the course was pancake flat. Drive to Orlando, pick up Junior Awesome, drive to Jacksonville.

Sunday Mar-9: drive with Marty and Logan back to NC

As one can deduce, I was there for the long drives to help Marty with a 2 year old, with a little bit of training sprinkled in. It wasn’t all bad – I got to see my sister and her extremely cute baby, sister-in-law and nieces (and Logan had a great time with them all week), and got to enjoy some sun and beach.  Up here during the week was not terrible (although the weather left a little to be desired). It really flew by and I completely forgot what it was like to have absolutely no ‘other’ obligations.  Even our dog was away having fun with the Honnold’s. Work was busy so the days went by quickly, and I managed to go out with my girlfriends twice during the week.

I am feeling slightly more motivated, however, this is probably in direct correlation to the fact that my wetsuit felt more snug than it should’ve when I put it on.

Logan seemed to do great at his cousin’s house and loved trying to do everything they did.  When we went to pick him up he was napping so we waited until he woke up. He did a complete double-take when he realized it was us and wouldn’t stop hugging Marty and me.  Then he was extremely clingy the rest of the day (and the next day). It broke my heart a little.  I hope in his little mind he wasn’t thinking we had abandoned him. 

Logan's first lollipop. It ended a major meltdown.

Marty multitasking at camp

Jelly smile with family

"Cheese!" with a mouth full of pb&j

Nailed It!