16 September 2006

It's official.

September 16, 2006

Dear Ford Ironman Kokua Crew Volunteer,

Let me first personally thank you for volunteering for the Transition Area at this year's Ford Ironman World Championship. It's people like you who make the Ford Ironman the world-class event that it is! You have signed up online and we are currently making assignments. There is nothing more for you to do except to arrive safely in Kona (if you aren't here
already) and pick up your volunteer packet at the Expo on Wednesday, October 18th or Thursday, October 19th between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. You will receive your assignments then. Be sure to pick up your packet on one of those days, or ask a friend to do it for you. If you should have any questions, please e-mail Mike McCurdy at kona-transition@imhawaii.com
or during race week please stop by the race office in King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel or call the race office anytime at (808) 329-0063.

Aloha,
Steve Troute
Transition Director

I'll be volunteering in the transition area for IM Kona. I'm almost as excited as an athlete. This is it, the best of the best race here. I can't wait. I'll take lots of photos cuz all the big names will be there.

I'm in a rut.

It's a good rut, but a rut nonetheless.

I get up in the morning, workout, go to work, come home, go to sleep. Repeat as necessary.
Unfortunately, as necessary is becoming more and more often. I need to do something to shake things up but I'm not sure what. As I said, it's a good rut, things are getting done, I just need a little excitement.

Tomorrow is my race. I was so looking forward to this race since I conquered the swim on my last one, that I am depressed that it's a run-bike-run. I don't want to swim with box jelly but I don't want to run that much either. Oh well, get over it. My next tri is in 3 weeks and that swim will definitely happen as it's in semi-sheltered lagoons.




There are 4 lagoons like this one. So you run into the lagoon, swim 3 strokes, run out to the next one. It's hard but it's quite fun. Also, you go off in age groups because the lagoons are too small to hold many people at once. So there is only 5-10 people at a time swimming with you.

I've never done this one and I'm really looking forward to it. Women of a certain age do this in sundresses and cruiser bikes, it's quite amusing.




So there's that one then 1 more in early November and that's it for the year. Then my Honu 70.3 training begins in earnest and I start signing up for next year.

The tri "season" starts here in April so I want to get a few in before the big show. I'm also going to do the metric century ride and a couple of other races. It will be a busy year.

Maybe that's the problem. I kind of feel like I'm in a holding pattern. I have to keep training because there is still a few more races to do. I don't want to make any great changes in my routine because I want to do well in the upcoming races. So even though I'm doing speedwork and hills and varying my workouts I feel like I'm treading water. I'm ready to be into November and start my serious program.

I don't want to change things up too much because I'm doing pretty good and the Ko Olina and Haleiwa tris are small, I may be able to place in my age group :)

Okay, enough rambling today. I'm going on a leisurely bike ride through a neighborhood that is having a community garage sale. I'm just going to ride through and see what I may find.

Have a great weekend.

13 September 2006

Jelly fish update.

They have changed Sunday's tri from a tri to a run-bike-run. That's good, I was not looking forward to swimming with the box jelly. That's bad because for my running sucks.

Running was always my thing. In jr. high I was breaking school records. I love to run. After my knee surgery and once I reached adulthood, I was never that fast again but I still love it and it's my favorite part of the tri. Early last year I was racing almost every weekend and really doing good. In April '05 I did a 10k on Sat. at 1:10 and a 10k on Sun at 1:08. I was doing well. Then I went through my twisting both ankles thing and was off running for quite awhile. BUT, my running lately really, really sucked. It was hard and painful and incredibly tiring and I dreaded it. Because of that I haven't run as much as I should.

So Sunday as I was doing my brick I realized that I'm not as light on my feet as I used to be. So I started working on lifting my foot before it hit the ground. I was having trouble doing this so did a little self-analysis and realized my entire body was tense. It slowly started to dawn on me. Every part of my body was tense; my shoulders, my arms, my neck, my legs, my hips, everything. I immediately started trying to relax everything and get my old running form back. But then my run was over.

Since my tri is now a run-bike-run, I decided I needed to get a little more running in this week since I suck so bad. I head out for a short 3 miles this morning and immediately started with the relaxing stuff. Wow, what a difference. I ran stronger and faster than I have in a long time. I felt good the whole time. I'm doing the 5/1 run/walk and I wasn't looking at my watch the entire 5 minutes waiting for it to buzz. I felt like the old me.

I realized what was wrong. I am still so worried and scared about twisting my ankle again that I was holding myself super tense against a possible injury. It's good to be careful but that was ridiculous. By being so tense I was hitting the ground pretty hard (a sure way to twist an ankle) and my foot was on the ground longer than necessary. Once I relaxed my turnover increased and my feet were not on the ground that long. Whew, glad that mystery is solved.

I'm still slow, I did the 3 miles in 40 minutes, but it felt so much better. I can't wait to run again. I now have faith again that I can get back to a 1:08 10k.

So a very successful morning.

12 September 2006

Odds and ends

This beginning has nothing to do with triathlon or training or anything like that so you may want to skip down. I just need to get some of this stuff out of my head.

The Path to 9/11:

I watched this show and really enjoyed it. It laid out events in such a clear timeline it all made sense. When you are living through these things you don't always see the big picture. A classic case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. I did come away with a couple of things resounding in my brain.

First, if there is anyone who thinks we can negotiate with Al-Qeada or any of the Islamofacists you're freaking crazy. Those people want us dead or Muslim and there is no middle ground. From their point of view, it's us or them.

Second, if you don't think we are already in World War III, you're freaking crazy. These people are not going to stop until the entire world is on fire. Their stated goal is to create a situation where the famed 12th Imam will return and the Caliphate will be reestablished. That is their goal and as long as the US exists it ain't gonna happen.

Third, how the heck did those people in charge in our government get there??? What a giant clusterf**k. No one wants to take responsibility for making a decision. How did they get into positions of power without being able to make a decision??? The leader of the Northern Alliance had a great line, "Are there any men left in Washington, D.C.??" Apparently not. (Note: this is not a condemnation of the Clinton administration (although they deserve it) the Bush administration has it's faults too). These people were so busy playing CYA that no one had the balls to stand up and speak up.

Fourth, isn't' it ironic that the guy speaking up the most about a possible terrorist attack in the US is killed in the WTC???

Fifth, does anyone still wonder why it's necessary for the government to do things the general public doesn't need to know about. When it appears on the front page of that rag, the new york times, our enemies can see it too.

Sixth, I think it's quite possible that Usama will never be caught. At this point, if he is captured and/or killed by the US he will become the biggest martyr ever. We should just contain him in the mountains of Afghanistan/Pakistan and effectively neutralize him.

Finally, thank god there are Americans like those on Flight 93. Those are the kind of people that make me proud to say I am an American!!!

Training:

Wow, things are not going so well this week. Last week I felt like I was getting a head cold but thought I had shook it off. Apparently not. This week I've felt tired and dragged out and this morning I feel like the head cold is reappearing.

On the jellyfish front, rumor has it they are going to make the race a bike-run-bike. But, no official word has been given yet so I don't know what's going to happen. Ugh!!!! I just hope I'll be up to race on Sunday.

Okay, that's it. I have much more I want to write about I just don't really have the energy right now. Maybe later.

11 September 2006

NEVER FORGET!

September 11, 2001.

As with most people, this is a day that changed my life. I remember I had gotten up early to do something that seemed important at the time. I walked out and turned on the news as I do every morning. There were images of the 2 towers burning on the TV and I thought to myself, "Jeez, they are playing Die Hard awfully early." I then proceeded to change the channel and could not understand why Die Hard was playing on every channel, huh??? Finally I hit CNN and realized this was not a movie. I stood there listening to the news folks with my mouth hanging open. Then of course, all the other info came in, the Pentagon, Flight 93, etc. Wow!!
I remember waking my husband up saying we'd been attacked.

In stunned silence and disbelief I got ready for work and headed off. When I got to work we all sat around talking and listening to the radio. Our lab was located near Honolulu Airport and it was bizarre how quiet the skies were. It would be like that for a couple of days and when we heard the first plane we totally freaked out. Then the first planes we saw were military and that really scared us. Later than day when the first commercial plane took off, we actually cheered and felt like things were getting back to normal.

The country was a different place after that. Things changed. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people have forgotten that these people want to kill us. For no other reason than we exist. It's very similar to the Nazis. Follow me here. Hitler convinced the German people that the Jews were the source of all their problems. Well, Isalmic leaders have convinced their people that Americans and Israelis are the source of all their problems. Once we are gone the 12th Imam can come and things will be great.

If you did not watch "The Path to 9/11" last night you missed out. This is a very complex problem with no easy solution and they did a good job trying to explain it.

Okay, I'm not going to get all political on you, just remember, they won't be happy until we are dead or Muslim.

One more note, it's not a war on terrorism. Terror is a tactic. It's a war on Islamofacism.

Okay, 'nuff said.

Conversation with Hubby

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