Keep On Keeping On…

I’ve been on a 2-day meeting with Corporate this week that I’ve been attending remotely.  8-hour days on the phone for conference calls = mind-numbing.

Thankfully my friends are starting to roll into town for the USDAA Nationals (agility).  Last night I went to dinner under the stars at a fancy resort with my agility teacher, a classmate and her friend.  Nice rare carne asada and a cactus margarita = happy Molly.

DC Rainmaker posted his video from the last few finishers, near midnight, at IM Florida this past Saturday.  If you aren’t touched by this, you are a heartless troll.

Taper Sluggishness

It’s contagious.

Thank You

As I look back on the incredible year leading up to Ironman Arizona, I can’t help but feel so SO grateful.  I have a wonderful cadre of tri friends and training buddies who got me to this point.  The support, the gentle nudges, the sometimes violent pushes, the flexible scheduling, the eagerness to join on training sessions, the coaching, the laughter and tears…it is simply overwhelming.

To my friends, I say: You made my year.  I’ll never forget it.

2 weeks to go

and I can’t wait!!!!  Being here, getting to train on the course, cheering for friends online yesterday at IM Florida and B2B – it all has me very excited about what is to come!

I wrapped up the first taper week today with a long run and easy swim.  I chose to do a loop of the IM AZ marathon course as part of my run to refresh my memory of how it felt (it’s similar to the SOMA course I did a few years ago).  My legs were a little sluggish to start but after a warmup I felt quite good (thank heavens, since my run earlier in the week had me worried!).  The Race for Maggie’s Place 5K/9K and DCB Adventures Arizona Open Water Swim were both going on at Tempe Town Lake today, which meant…lots and lots of eye candy!  Take the fast runners from the running race, who merged into my route right as I had to pick up my pace/heart rate, and then add all the IM AZ triathletes doing the swim but going for their long run first, and I had plenty of pace booty to keep me going.

From here on, my training volume is dialed back even more and the rest should truly start setting in.  Panic, strange leg pains, unexpected bouts of tears…I expect all these things should make an appearance at some point in the week.  If knowing is half the battle, then I’m all set!

Training totals for week 46 (November 2-8):
Swim: ~5760 yards
Bike: 97.8 miles
Run: 18.3 miles
Total time: 11.3 hours

And the fun continues…

One little taper day in a nutshell:

5:45 am: Give up trying to sleep with panting anxious puppy standing bedside wondering WHEN IS IT TIME TO DO MORE AGILITY????

6:00 am: Alarm goes off.  I’m already up, dressed, and eating breakfast.

6:45 am: Load the dogs up and head to the agility trial.

8:15 am: Run Stanley in Novice Jumpers.  Nice run but he knocked a bar, no Q.

9:45 am: Run Max in Excellent Jumpers.  Brilliant run but he popped out of a weave pole, no Q.

10:00 am: Our camp is broken down and loaded in the car and we’re on the way back to the house.

10:45 am: Head out for a ride on my race course!!!  It was a beautiful day here and I really enjoyed the ride.

On race day we get to ride in the freshly paved road – sooo purty looking!

I felt pretty good cruising south on the Beeline during my first loop

Just in case you didn’t know – it’s coming soon!!!

3:00 pm: Collapse on couch, catch up on emails and status of friends racing today, drink chocolate milk, pet hyper dogs.

4:30 pm: Get off couch and consider showering.  Roll out sore glutes and notice bloodshot eyes (biking/wind) in mirror.

5:15 pm: Take dogs down to Tempe Beach Park to size up future Ironman transition/swim/finish area. 

I hope the water is that calm on race morning!  The start is just on the other side of (nearly under) the Mill Avenue bridge in the background.

5:30 pm: Watch pretty sunset colors from the Mill Ave bridge.

5:35 pm: Run for the car with terrified dogs as idiotic ASU pregame fireworks go off over our heads and send Max and Stanley into a panic.

6:00 pm: Dinner leftovers at home, dogs still sitting on my feet panting.

7:00 pm: Power goes out.  For blocks all around.  Can not locate flashlight or candles as I hunt around the house by cellphone light.  Write blog post before computer battery dies, wonder if anything will come back on before the game I want to watch tonight is over, seriously consider “rescuing” the beers from the fridge. 

8:00 pm: Go to bed.

8:01 pm: The power comes back on.

8:15 pm: Take silly picture of dogs with their ribbons from the weekend.  Yes, it turns out the preliminary results posted were incorrect and Stanley actually took 3rd in his class.  Who cares, he still rocked it!

Remainder of evening: TV, hockey, sleep.  Last big day tomorrow before the “real” super-duper let’s cut way back on volume taper sets in.

Well. If *that’s* how this trip is going to go…

I have nothing to worry about!

Max had a nail-biter of a qualifying run in Excellent Standard and followed it up with a lovely easy Excellent Jumpers Q (during which I might or might not have shouted “SHUT UP STANLEY” at a crate on the other side of the field with the loud screaming coming out of it…right in the middle of Max’s Jumpers run). That makes double-Q #13 towards his MACH2 AND he picked up about 25 speed points!

Stanley did great for his first time in the Novice Standard ring, showing speed under control and great contacts! The teeter snuck up on him though and he had a flyoff (not realizing it was a teeter when he flew to the top) so we didn’t qualify. But I’m not complaining at all – for the first time running a big boy course, it was fantastic.

In Novice Jumpers for the first time as well, he zipped around the course for a clean run, his first AKC agility leg and 1st place in his class!

I certainly didn’t expect to come home with 3 out of 4 qualifying runs! Yay, boys! Max knows the day is done and has gone right to sleep. Stanley is still wired and a little fried and doesn’t know what to do with himself, so he’s sitting on me, panting and staring. GO TO SLEEP, STANLEY!

The Dog Days of Taper

Still here, still working and trying to wrap up projects before my mind disappears into the abyss of Ironman countdown.  I made it down the road to the tri shop (we’re so lucky, there are 2 of them within 2 miles of us) to buy some spare tubes for Saturday’s long ride.  I made it out for a completely craptastic run (hell-o, elevation and heat!) that was about par for my first run of any visit to Arizona before my body has acclimated.  Otherwise it’s just been me at home working and hanging with the mutts.  And hosing them off when they walk in the house and I discover one of them has managed to get poop on his back (I’m looking at YOU, Stanley).

They keep dragging me outside to play fetch with them.

Holy flying hairballs

Stan takes any opportunity to mug for the camera

That’s it? *sad face*  Need more fetch please.

I trimmed Max’s bangs so he can see clearly again – that will be useful at the agility trial tomorrow :)

Please tug with me some more?

Tomorrow we do our first AKC agility trial in, oh, about 1 YEAR!  This should be interesting…I need to remember we’re doing this for FUN.