The Finish Line

It's unavoidable. I cry every, single time I watch this video of Ironman Louisville 2009. I don't know if it's because I was there or what, but it still makes me cry, especially when they announce the oldest finisher at age 72. Incredible. I hope I'm still able to swim, bike, run when I'm a senior citizen.


http://www.ironmanusalive.com/RaceVids/imlou/RaceVid-2009-LOU-low.wmv

By the way, someone needs to upload this to YouTube so it's more easily shared. As is the case with nearly all of the videos I post, I watch this when I need a little mental boost or as a reminder of why I'm doing this. Pretty sure I'm going to lose it when I hear those six words at the finish line.

Who's Your Daddy?

More motivation:



The background music is a song called "Who's Your Daddy." You can get it here. I wonder if I'll be convinced between now and August 29th, to purchase one of those goofy aerodynamic helmets? Hmmm...hope not.

Lawdy dawdy I likes to pawty...

I spent Wednesday through Friday in Austin, TX at SXSW (South by Southwest). Had a productive work week, came back with a lot of new ideas and heard SO MUCH great music. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are my new faves. If you haven't heard of them, check them out here. Also saw Ozomatli live on Wednesday night (thanks to my friend Pablo for making me go!). CRAAAAAZY! I took this crappy video of their performance. It can't possibly do them justice, but they were incredible. The sax/ clarinet player blew me away...he made the clarinet much, MUCH cooler than I ever did.



I was hoping to stay for Friday night, but the cost to change my flight was a bit steep and I knew I needed to get back for the weekend of training. I've been struggling with motivation lately - but mostly because it's springtime and this is when everyone comes out to play. I've also been more sore than ever in the past week from running (not jogging) the Tom King. I didn't do a damn thing while I was in Austin aside from take meetings and walk miles upon miles. Oh, and I also drank beer and margaritas and listened to some effing fantastic bands. It was awesome to have a few days off from training, but I did come to the realization that there are two VERY conflicting mes. There's GTK (Good Time Katie, a nickname I was given by the oh-so-charming Craig R) who likes to stay up all night long, and there's normal, disciplined, well-behaved Katie, who likes to get up before the crack of dawn to get her swim, bike and run on. These two people do not get along. At all. I am just going to have to suck it up and find a way to balance it all out because it just isn't possible for me to give up my social life. Here's to the next (less than) six months!

PR!

Tom King 1/2 marathon was yesterday. Everyone's been telling me how flat this course is so I was pumped to run yesterday in hopes that I would run the 1/2 in under two hours. I BARELY finished in under two and am totally excited about it, but seriously, the course was NOT easy. I have never been more sore in my entire life. I would blame it on the bike ride we had to do this morning, but I was this sore before Todd's class today. WTF?

Anyway, race was great. I beat my PR by 12.5 minutes which was really exciting. All of my buddies totally killed it as well - Johanna, Tilghman, Kathryn, Ross, etc. I bonked a little right around mile 10, but somehow managed to recover. That may have had to do with the fact that 8 miles was the furthest distance I'd run since Birmingham on V-Day. I don't think my poor leggos have completely recovered from that race, but I guess that's the point. We need to get used to running on very tired legs. UGH! I asked a friend of mine who did IM last year if this is how she felt the entire time and THANK YOU, LORD, she said no. I don't know if I would last another sixer feeling like this! :/

exhausted.

Nothing better describes how I'm currently feeling than this here istock photo.



This weekend was brutal. There will be weekends in the future that will be far worse. I'm looking forward to it more than you know.

Why can't I pee?

I have not yet mastered the art of taking a pee while in the act of swimming. Of course, I do my very best never to pee while in a public pool, but what about when I'm racing? Swimming always leaves me with the incredible urge to pee, but no matter how badly I need to go, it's impossible to make it happen when I'm actually swimming. I've wondered why for quite some time and have been checking around for some scientific explanation as to why it is impossible. Apparently, it is possible, it's just incredibly difficult. According to this blog, it's because you use your core muscles to stabilize and because there is so much external pressure on the body which makes it difficult to contract the bladder. Awesome. So I CAN learn to do this! I promise, all of you Excel-ers, that I won't be whizzing in your lane so don't be afraid to swim with me! I'll wait for Sunday swims at the lake! Kidding.

For those of you non-triathletes that may be disgusted by this post, bodily functions of all types are things that we must become very comfortable with - sometimes disturbing, but very necessary, as we need to understand what's happening when we put our bodies through this torture!

BRICK(S)!

Here's what's on tap for this week! I think this means that it is all real!



14 hours, 53 minutes. 10 minutes less than this week. 90 miles on the bike, 9,950M in the pool and 22.1 miles on the road. The Tom King half-marathon is on Saturday. I haven't ever done this race, but I've heard great things. I'm hoping to PR in this race and am shooting to run it in under two hours. We shall see! I haven't run more than 5 or 6 miles since Birmingham so it could be a challenge.

Road 45 miles today which was the farthest I've ever gone outside. I think this is where the milestones begin. Next week we have 50 miles and we'll start doing brick workouts. YIKES. I am going to need my beauty sleep. I sure didn't get it this weekend!