The Challenge

What are you going to do about it?

I hear her words, her implied words, every day.

What are you going to do about it?

The Challenge had been handed down.

What was I going to do?

I work best (and I believe all athletes do) when I set my own goals. I talk to my Coach, and we figure out a plan to get me there.

I set really big goals. I don't know how long some of them will take, but I own them. They're mine. 

No one has to believe in my goals, except me.

When it comes time to go after them, and I run into an obstacle, it's up to me to figure out what I'm going to do.

How am I going to handle it?

Most of the time, the obstacles are "fear"....plain and simple. I have to ask myself, "Are you going to let fear decide the outcome of this race?"

The fear of going too hard....

The fear of getting tired....

FEAR. Unfounded fear and nothing more.

Sometimes, the answer has been "yes". 

After my last race, which was a solid performance-not my best-not my worst, I spent the last two weeks going over my plan for my Peak race (in about 2 weeks).

I took an honest look at my training and racing. I've been slacking off in my swims. I've been taking it easy, knowing that even if I go easy, I can still swim faster than most women in my AG.

I've been afraid to go all in on the bike because I wanted to save something for the run.

But Coach isn't training me to hold back or to "need" to save something for the run. She's training me to go ALL IN for each event.

After our last talk, she said, "What if you are at the top of your ability in the run?"

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? You have goals to hit.

It took some time, but I realized what she was trying to tell me.

This is about me and about me being willing to trust what I can do; doing what I do in training every day. Go out there and suffer, eat pain....because that's what the oly is about.

So, what am I going to do about it? I'm going to control the race instead of letting it happen to me. I'm going to own my actions and willingness to go where I haven't before.

I'm ok with being afraid, but I'm not going to let it decide the outcome of my race.

As Coach says, "It won't be easy, but it will be simple."

Reconciliation

In my last post, I mentioned that Liz and I had a lengthy discussion about me and my abilities. Well, lengthy for "us". We're both rather succinct-types.

At some point, you've probably heard the expression "Train to your weakness. Race to your strengths."

I fully believe that quote, but I'm not doing it. I'm training and racing to my weakness: running.

Of course, I never intentionally did this. On race day, I'm so focused on trying to the make the run "special" that I'm losing out on the fact that I'm not swimming and biking to the best of my abilities. When I swim or bike "just average", I'll still be 1st or 2nd. But it's not my best effort, and that's not good enough for me. 

One of the things that Liz said to me was, "If you are waiting for something magical to happen on the run. It's probably not going to happen. What you are running, that could be the top of your ability. Your strengths are the swim and bike. There is NOTHING wrong with that. What we are going to do is take the top of your run ability and have you run that for longer and longer distances."  The reality was that I wanted her to say, "You'll get there. Just keep working at it." Instead, she told me what I needed to hear, not what I wanted. I wanted to hear that one day, I'll be able to run a 23 min 5k.

But how many people can swim a 21 min 1500m? Well, I can.

How many people (women in my AG) can hold over 200 watts in a race? Well, I can.

To do this in a race means that I have to be fearless. I have to do my best on the swim and bike and not be concerned about my run. I need to swim and bike without fear of what will happen on the run. I can swim and bike and be ahead of the pack by minutes not just seconds.

To be my best, I really have to Race to my Strengths.

Relentless: Havasu Race Report

Last month, I didn't go into all the details of what happened leading up to my race. I did this because it doesn't matter. Nothing that happens TO you, matters.

What matters is how you handle it.

I debated whether or not to write about everything because everyone has a story. Then I thought, "Everyone has a story."

We are all dealing with sick children keeping us up in the middle of the night. We're all dealing with the loss of a relative. We're all dealing with problems at work.

We all have last minute crises.

Yet we still manage to make amazing happen.

This is important because I'm not always sure what I want to share. Not because I have anything very personal to say, but because it's life.

Sometimes I *do* tell stories because they're good stories, and they remind people that we all have problems that we are dealing with.

These stories can sometimes affect our race times.

And....

We are judged by our numbers:

Did she podium?
What was her speed?
What was her pace?
Where did she finish?

I know that some of you only want my end results, so that you can compare them to your own.

That's ok with me.

It has taken me awhile to separate the two ideas of  results versus process.

One of the things I love about Liz is that she never asks, "Where did you finish? Did you podium?" She always asks, "How did you feel about your race?"

That has helped me breakdown the events and look at them with a critical eye. Instead of grouping the entire race together and labeling it as good or bad based on my finish time.

There is a reason that I am talking about this today.

Yes. I had life happening right before the race, including not having a hotel room (even though I paid for one and had the reservation made months in advance) the night before the race.

At 8pm Friday night, there I was with my race gear and bike, trying to find a parking lot that I thought would be adequately safe for me to sleep in. I sat in my truck, eating a takeaway pizza from Havasu Pizza. (GO THERE if you visit. The owner is an absolute wonderful man. He introduced me to his entire family and told me about his business).

The next morning, I was up early (time difference and all) and felt fairly good. I had stopped at Safeway the night before and picked up a giant muffin, a couple of bananas and bottles of water to drink and to mix my infinit race morning.

When I got to the race sight, it's pitch black. I'm not used to doing early season races and didn't bring a head lamp.

I racked my bike and met some really awesome women in transition. One of them will be doing Marquee next month. We're in the same AG. Typically, she does 70.3's. Havasu was only her 2nd Olympic distance race ever. As bad as I am with names, I remember her name which came in handy later in the day.

I was doing the sprint.

I did a swim warmup and felt pretty good. The swim is super short (500m).

I had heard Havasu is a really hilly bike, but what does that mean? Is it hilly for someone from Tempe? Or is it hilly for someone from CO? Two very different definitions of "hilly".

Prior to leaving, I made the decision to swap out my cassettes in favor of my 12-27.

When I was in transition, I checked out my bike completely. I wanted to have taken every opportunity to make this my best chance of having a good race.

The bike was mechanically fine....even though, Wed night I had a major mechanical failure and had to perform emergency "surgery" on the bike to get it back to working condition. It was bad enough that I almost missed the race entirely. I missed my travel arrangements for Wed, however.

Mechanically fine, yes, but the power meter and garmin were failing to calibrate correctly. There isn't much I could do at this point. I just knew that I was going to check my numbers during the race. If power didn't seem to be matching my effort, I was going to race by effort alone.

The swim

Pretty uneventful. I felt really good. I knew I could swim in 7 minutes.

When I exited the water, something was wrong with my garmin. The time was wrong. It didn't match my effort out there.

I didn't think much about it because overall I felt pretty good about my swim. Not my best, not my worst but a solid swim.

I looked at my garmin. The screen seemed to be frozen. I tried hitting the lap button....nothing.
Ok...well, let's get out of here.

As I was leaving transition, I heard the RD say, "the women coming out of the water now are our 10 minute swimmer."

AH! A guideline.....with the long run, in the sand into transition....minus a couple of minutes....Yes....I probably nailed my 7 minute swim.

Feeling pretty good about that I ran off on the bike.

I realized immediately that it was a GREAT move to switch my cassettes. This course is going to be quite a bit more hilly than I had realized. Steep uphills, steep downhills, sharp turns with gravel on the roads and then toward the end a very nice rolling hill road to the finish.

I glanced at my power meter as I was going up a huge hill: it read 154 watts. Definitely wrong. I was going to ride by effort.

Since this was a sprint, I knew that I had to get to the point of my legs feeling a bit like jelly. That should be a bit over threshold and where I wanted to hold my power.

There was a woman ahead of me that I wanted to track down. I knew I was either in 1st or 2nd place because I hadn't seen any other woman. I wasn't focused on where I was in the placings, but I like to see women and use them to get me fired up competitively.

This woman was very strong on the bike. For awhile, we yo-yo-ed. I realized she was just plain better than me on the bike. She must have been able to tell that I was giving it everything because she pulled up along side of me and said, "There are two women ahead of us. Let's go get them."

She took off.

Normally, this will get me going.

Today, I was already giving it everything I had. I was going as hard as I could, and I simply couldn't keep up with her. (She finished :24 ahead of me).

At this point, I believe that I am in 4th place (based on what she had said). I was thrilled. I know the competition at this race is tough, and I am giving it everything I have. I am breathing incredibly hard. My legs are shaking. I can't give another inch.

4th place sounds pretty damn good at this point.

This also why placings, paces and times aren't important. I averaged 17.8 mph on tough hills, and that was everything I had.

For the most part, I was happy with my bike effort.

When I got to the run, The first half a mile and the last quarter of a mile are in sand. I really really struggle in sand.

Mentally, this start took a toll on me.

Then, there was the stupid steep, straight up hill, that everyone just plain walked. This run course is uphill out and downhill on the return. The website says it's flat and fast....don't believe it.

This was a tough run for me. My pacing plan itself was out the window. Again, I used effort. My goal was to increase my effort every mile. It might not reflect so much in pace, but I would call it a success if I felt like I was working harder.

Interestingly, even though I wasn't breaking any speed records on the run, I noticed that I wasn't really seeing ANYONE on the run.

When I hit the turnaround, I started seeing many many many people. That told me that everyone struggled on the bike course and are struggling on the run.

JUST LIKE ME.

I'm not out of shape. I'm not going slower than everyone else. EVERYONE is struggling out here.

Somehow that made me feel really good about what I was doing. I really was doing my best. It might not be my best speeds or times, but I was physically doing what I could.

I ran....stumbled through the sand once last time and head to the finish line.

With my garmin troubles, I had no idea what my times were. I grabbed water and went to check results.

I came in 3rd. No one was more shocked than me. I was racing "blind". I had no idea how fast, how hard or how long I had been out there. I knew Mr. Tea and Liz were going to ask me questions, and I wouldn't be able to answer them. I sent them both, quick messages telling them that I don't have accurate garmin data but somehow I pulled a 3rd place out of my ass.

Over the years, I've changed my opinion of awards ceremonies.

The first few times, I was geeked up to go.
Then, I stopped going.

Now, I think it's important to go to the awards ceremonies because (IMO) it's disrespectful to the Race and all participants if you don't go.

Unfortunately, I had to get back to Vegas. The awards ceremony wasn't for a few hours. I couldn't wait for it.

Since my car was packed up and ready to go, I jumped in and head back to Vegas.

I realized that I was going the wrong direction and saw the race going on right next to me.

I started calculating. If 45-49 women started at 8am.....it's 10:48 now......that would be 2:48....if you aren't very experienced at the olympic...and this is a tough course.....Laura (the woman from transition) should be running by anytime.

I looked over and right next to my truck is Laura....running. She has about 1.5-2 miles left.

I opened my window and yelled out to her. Of course, she did not recognize me at first. Then, I saw her smile and wave.

Officially, my first successful race is in the books.

Liz and I had a pretty lengthy discussion about the race today. I'll probably write about that later in the week because there was some pretty enlightening things in there.


My next race is my first peak race of the year. Marquee, olympic distance in April done at the same venue as SOMA 70.3 last year (Tempe).

Based on the conversation that Liz and I had today, I need to get my head wrapped around and fully committed to a slightly different approach to racing. One that will really help me in the long run (pun intended).

So. Here. We. Go.

It's time to EAT SOME PAIN.

There's only one direction to go

Those of you who are friends, already know this. The rest of you are probably new to my blog.

Over the past year, I have been recruited no fewer than 9 times for other companies, at a salary quite a bit more than what I am currently making.

Every single time, I say, "No, thanks".

It's funny how life works isn't it?

When I was growing up, my goal in life wasn't to be the world's greatest suit salesperson. For years, I worked in corporate America.

I worked in financial services for over 10 years. I worked at a bank and then Merrill Lynch and Charles Schwab.

During the start up internet boom, I made the jump to start up tech companies. I worked at one that is still around but very very small and another went out of business entirely.

After the start up bust, I moved to another high tech company, completely different product/service offering than I had been doing.

At every single job, I was frustrated. I felt like I was working well beneath my abilities. I absorbed every bit of information that I could, but still, I couldn't get ahead. No matter what I did, I was never selected for the big projects. I was always passed over by men. (The company that I worked did a ton of work with the military. I had engineers at the Pentagon and in the Towers during 9.11. This company was very old school and only had about 30% women on staff, and those women were primarily in HR).

The straw at the last company was finding out that a guy with a high school diploma and less experience was making the same amount of money that I was. To pour salt on the wound....I hired this guy. I had 10 years experience and an MBA.

When I found out, I left within a few months with no job lined up.

I look back now, 11 years later and realize that everything I went through was to put me where I am today.....at the helm of a company that has been growing at over +150% for the past few years.

At the time, I didn't know it. I never saw myself as a business owner or entrepreneur.

When I worked at those other companies, I had no idea how valuable those experiences would be in building my own company. In those positions, I'd learned about handling and investing money. I learned how to write code. I learned how to manage projects. I learned how to deal with difficult situations. I learned how to talk to engineers (which is an art form in itself).

Most importantly, I learned where my strengths and weaknesses were. I had strengths that were suffocated under job titles, and I had weaknesses that were hidden under job titles.

They both became exposed when we started this company. I wouldn't have it any other way. I know what I'm good at. I know what I'm BRILLIANT at. I know where I need to hire people to handle those things that I'm not at all good at.

Where you are now isn't where you will end up. It's a small piece of the pie. If you have BIG dreams and want to make them real, that means taking BIG risks. Not everyone is comfortable doing that.

The way I saw it, when I left the other company, I had hit rock bottom. I was an emotional mess.

BUT.....when you are at the bottom, there's only one direction you can go.

I had a level of desperation that I had never felt before. I was going to make this new company work and blow away everyone. I have a survival mechanism that if it could be tested....it would probably be off the charts.

I haven't felt that level of desperation again.....until now.....in a different way.

It's not a chip on my shoulder. It's a matter of wanting something so bad, you're willing to do things that few other people are willing to do.

Like my job, I look back now,10 years after starting triathlon and realize that every thing that I've gone through has put me where I am today, heading to the starting line of the AG National Championship.

THAT'S how I feel about qualifying for the AG World Championships.

Hula girls & panties

Oh, people, my people.

SO MUCH is going on in the Land of Ch.

Roughly a month ago, I had my first race of the year. Here I am packing up for race #2.

Heading to Arizona this time. My last visit to CA took me to Palm Springs, Joshua Tree National Forest, San Bernadino, Oceanside and back to Palm Springs. That was just California. I hit up St George, UT. (For the life of me, I can't understand WHY they have an IM there. Very disappointing). Of course Vegas.

This time when I go to Vegas, though, I'm spending a few days there. I GUARANTEE the panty story will be even better this time. Some people travel with this:

I travel with this:

Makes you kinda want to be me, doesn't it?

Wildflowers

Thanks to Tracie for the image

I'm a no BS person.

I don't like sugar coating.

I can spot a brown nose a mile away.

I expect ^^this^^ same attitude from my friends. If you ask me if you look fat in those jeans....well....I'm going to tell you. If you ask for advice on your swim, I'm going to give it to you.

The minute you come back with an excuse, I won't ever answer your question again because I know you don't want honesty. You want someone to agree with you. It's the ultimate poser.

That attitude is what my friends like most about me (well besides my dark, perverted, self-deprecating sense of humor....and striking good looks....oh and don't forget my charismatic personality).

Making improvements isn't about having people agree with you. Making improvements means listening to feedback, honestly, from people you trust. People who only want the best for you. These people are not trying to tear you down. These friends want you to improve. They want nothing but for you to be successful and reach your goals.

Trust me. There are plenty of ass kissers out there. Just look at FB when someone says they are planning on X number of IM races. There will be 100 "YOU GO!" Comments. The ONE person that says, "Hey...hold up....I don't think that's a good idea," is ignored or attacked by the person doing X number of IM races.

So much for listening to honest feedback.

We simply don't get better staying in our own little comfort zone. We will keep making the same mistakes over and over and wonder why we aren't getting better.

Most people reading this are going to agree. Others are going to say, "RIGHT ON" but deep inside they don't really agree because acknowledging that they do something wrong is uncomfortable. I won't disagree that staying in your little snuggly box of comfort is much much easier.

If you want to stay the same person your entire life, go for it. Enjoy those 4 walls.

The rest of us are going to go on accomplish great and wonderful things.


We annoy everyone who wants pretty, clean, neat and organized.

We do what we want. We grow strong. We're always around. We're the wildflowers.

Feeling Groovy

Age Group Nationals.

I remember on Thanksgiving, finding out that I had qualified for Nationals. I had just PR'd my Turkey Trot run.

I think you all remember the shock. I had to read the email 3 times before I finally sent it to Coach and asked, "What does this mean?"

She responded with, "SOMEONE'S GOING TO MILWAUKEE!!!!"

I was overwhelmed with emotion. This was something that I'd wanted since I started triathlon. For many people, they qualify every year. It's no big deal.

Me?

I'm not that person. I kept insisting there was a mistake. Last year, I had set a *goal* of getting to Nationals in 2 years. This upcoming April race, my peak race, was going to be to find out how far off I am.

In receiving that qualification email, everything changed.

I started looking at these early season races as my "test" races. Hopefully, getting out of them, things that were going to help me at Nationals.

I talked to Liz. We decided that I would compete at both the Olympic and the Sprint races at Nationals.

This was the period of time, during my off season, that I started making many other changes as well. If you remember, I was deathly ill. I was out of commission for weeks. Those weeks were the best thing that could happen to me because I was able to see clearly, things that were holding me back.

Most importantly, I started to see myself differently. Instead of seeing myself as "lucky" to make it to Nationals or that "something happened" to get me there. I saw myself as someone who worked her ass off last year and deserved to be there. 

No one accidentally qualifies for Nationals. I wasn't going to hold myself to a different set of standards than I hold other people to.

My goals changed. I wanted to qualify for Team US and compete at World Championship in 2016 in not just one race but in both the Olympic and the sprint.

I know that qualifying at the Olympic is a long shot. I know that I have to have my best race ever, and that still might not be enough to get there. I know that to qualify at the Sprint the day after racing the oly, well....that's going to be very tough.

But, I'm going to train like an underdog and like I CAN do it. Every time, I'm doing an interval, I give it every thing I have. I recover and fuel and sleep and train hard.

I am NOT going to be outworked.

As I have been progressing through the workouts, I've found new limits.

Only to blow through them the next week. My power on the bike, exploded. My swim times dropped exponentially....ok...maybe not exponentially. I've put more energy into my run than I ever have. I've found a problem with my form. How long have I been running that way? I don't know, but I'm fixing it. When people tell me things I listen very very closely to their feedback.

Getting feedback isn't personal. It's about doing what I have to do to reach my next goal.

Or as my favorite quote goes, "You are never given a wish without also being given the ability to make it true." -----Richard Bach.

Life with a side of triathlon

February was a tough month for me.

All of the stress came to a head yesterday. You know when you go through a stressful time and then it lets up but you have that period of time where your body let's it all go? The exhaustion of it all just hits you because you don't have to hold it all in anymore.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but it's how I feel. That's how I felt Friday and today.

Friday's swim was tough. I had strength training later in the day. Today, I had to get up at 5am in order to get my bike done and then have time to get to masters.

I woke up this morning. It was dark. It felt really really early, and I thought, "I hope I get to sleep for a couple of more hours."

I looked at the clock. It was 4:57. In three minutes the alarm would be going off. I got out of bed.

The night before, I packed up everything I would need for my ride. All my bottles were ready to go. My garmin was sitting, ready to go. EVERYTHING was ready to go....except me.

I struggled through the ride. My legs were tired from the last three days of workouts. I was tired from having to be up at 5. I had a good breakfast. I was fueling correctly. The intervals were still hard. I think I did the first hour mostly asleep. The 2nd hour, I started to wake up a bit, but my body was not at all happy about doing that workout. The intervals that should not have felt so hard....they felt STUPID hard.

The ride was a straight up grind. 5 minute intervals at 95%, with 1 minute rest between intervals. I put my head down and just pedal. 5 minutes felt like 30 minutes. 1 minute felt like a 15 second rest.

All in all, the two hours went by very quickly. Liz sets up workouts that keep me engaged and not thinking about the total time. Instead, I usually have to be 100% in the moment of the current interval.

When I lose focus even for a second, my cadence drops; my power drops, and when I'm tired, that's not easy to make up. It's much easier to just focus on the task at hand.

I finished the ride and knew that I had 30 minutes that I could eat more and get ready to swim.

I keep my swim bag packed and in my car at all times. I grabbed a recovery drink and some water and laid on the couch for a minute.

I love Saturday morning masters. The session in general tends to be longer. The people are awesome.

BUT. I'm tired. How did I ever get to the pool before I started doing masters? How did I do it? Oh. I know. I skipped workouts or I cut them short.

I grabbed my two bottles of water and infinit and head out the door.

I got to the pool 15 minutes early. Under normal circumstances, I'll jump in and start warming up. Today, I sat on the edge of the pool and waited for Coach.

Then, I heard, "Tea! Tea!"

I looked up and smiled, it was Michael. If I ever needed to see him, today was the day. Masters always flows better when you get to swim with your regular people.

The set was brutal. 4000-4400 yards of 10 x 100's and 16 x  50's done FAST and at sprint pace alternating stroke and free.

Before we started, I noticed a guy (not a masters swimmer) show up in the lane next to me. I noticed him because everything he owned had an M-dot on it. When I see triathletes, I want to see how fast they are. I watch their form. They're my people. I get my assed kicked by swimmers.

But a triathlete? My odds are good.

We started the set.

When I was on my 4th 50, Coach stop me and asked me what my slowest and fastest 50's were. I knew I was about to get busted. I told him my slowest.

He gave me the look.

You know THE LOOK.

And he said, "Every interval within 2 seconds Tea. Do it. I know you can do 31 seconds. Put it together, Tea!"

I could have said, "I just did a 2 hour bike. Cut me some slack."

Or I could have said, "You know. I've already done 10 hours of training for the week."

Or I could have said, "I'm really not feeling this today."

But I didn't. He said, "GO", and I took off. My arms and back were burning. A thought came to me.

I DON'T STOP WHEN I'M TIRED. 

I STOP WHEN I'M DONE.

Then I saw Mr. M-Dot. He was doing 50's too. I could catch him. He hit the wall. I hit the wall. When I flipped, I knew I had him.

With all due respect, M-Dot, there is NO FUCKING WAY YOU ARE BEATING ME.

I *did* beat him.

And Coach gave me a high five. Walking away, he said, "32 seconds. PERFECT. Now 9 more just like that."

I suffered through the rest of the set, just like everyone else at masters.

A few more kick sets and then a longer pull, and we were done.

We were all holding onto the wall completely spent, smiling, spent, laughing and shaking our heads at the insanity of the workout.

Two hour bike, 4000 yards later. I was done.

I packed up my stuff. I was exhausted and still smiling. These are my people.

That last kick

In triathlon, training is a process. That's how it is for all sports.

One of the coolest parts to having a Coach is seeing the process. I'm not a Coach. I have NO desire to be a Coach. I don't know know how or why Liz does the things she does. Honestly, I don't have time or energy to talk to her about it. In other words, I don't really care because it works.

I don't know what is coming down the path, but I can see where we've been and why she's done the things she's done.

She also manages to attack my biggest issue at that time. It's all very logical, but I could never do it on my own.

Last year (as you know) was all mental work, getting to know each and building a foundation. This pre-season, she started to push my limits and get me stronger.

Each step builds upon the previous stage.

Now, in my opinion, we have been working on "that last kick". By this I mean, pushing hard when fatigued.

Once again, I've never done that before. When I got fatigued, my goal was to just NOT SLOW DOWN.

Obviously, we have been building upon this for about a month now. We have worked up to the intervals that I'm doing now. In 2 weeks, those intervals will even be harder.

In the past when I did an interval, it was run or ride for a certain distance/period of time then rest. Those are fine for less experienced athletes or even those coming back after being out of the sport for awhile.

What I learned from traditional intervals is that if I just get through that interval, I can rest. They didn't teach me how to excel when I'm fatigued.

They taught me the mentality of survival. That really hurt me in races when I needed that last kick.

Liz does intervals differently.

Yesterday, I was looking at my intervals and had a question about them. I was going to do them one way when I thought to myself, "This is Liz we're talking about. I think she wants me to do them this way....which is sick."

Sure enough, She confirmed that she didn't want me to do hard intervals; she wanted me to do the sick intervals.

Liz does building intervals. Maybe 1 minute at 110%, 1 minute at 120%, 30 secs at 130%.  Then rest. (I think we did that workout a few weeks back).

Yesterday, my intervals were 1:30 @ 100-110%, 1:30 120-130% then rest.

The first 1:30 isn't bad. Although, I can't really believe that I'm saying that now. A month ago, that was really difficult.

The gift of these workouts is that they don't let up. There is no "Just get through this time and then you can rest."  You get through the first bit and the second bit is harder.

I know they are only going to get harder as I head into my peak weeks....I looked at next week's workouts and they ramp up quite a bit. (I always look 1 week ahead, so I know how to plan out my day. If I have a 3 hour workout, I know I need to have a window of recovery before I get back to work.)

This is how the puzzle works. Last year, we worked on the mental side. I couldn't do these workouts without that foundation.

One of the biggest changes that I made was based on an article that Liz sent her athletes. (She sends us lengthy emails every week and attaches articles or current research). She is fully committed to helping athletes succeed.

The article that made the biggest impact was about the type of language we use as self speak. I wrote about this last year, but here's the quick synopsis.

If you say, "Don't slow down".....research shows that you will slow down.

However, if you say, "Hold your pace" or "Pick up your pace".....research shows that you will hold your pace or speed up.

Remove the "negative" language for positive results.

These are the little things that separate the people who reach their goals and the ones that flounder around. I know. I was a flounder for a long time.

I had 8 intervals yesterday. At 3, I was really starting to feel it. I had 5 left to go. During my recovery (3 min), I recovered. I didn't think of the next interval. I needed the mental and physical break. These intervals take an enormous amount of energy.

When the last 5 intervals hit, there was a lot of "hold it! hold it! hold it!"

Because I've learned that if I said, "Don't give up", I would have given up.

When interval 8 hit, it was "LAST SET, BEST SET." over and over and over.

I did every single damn interval stronger than the previous.

When the mind and the body come together, connect like that, it's a beautiful thing.

I have been doing it over and over and over. I don't even have to think about it now. It happens on its own.

Repeated behavior becomes a habit, so natural that we don't even have to think about. It just happens.

It's not magic. It's a change of behavior.

I ♥ these people

Me: Michael, I can't do this right now.

Michael: It's ok. Let's back off for a minute. You've got this. I know you're tired.

Andrew: What's up?

Me: I'm just tired. I'm struggling to hit the intervals. I raced this weekend. These 500's are doing me in. My entire body is sore.

Coach Andrew: This is how you are supposed to feel. You ARE hitting the intervals. I don't care that you are struggling to hit them. You ARE hitting them. I know you're tired. This is what Liz wants you to do. This is how you get stronger, Tea.


These are the people I get to train with. Michael is a much better swimmer than I am. I'm the better cyclist. Together we make great training partners.

Andrew is my swim Coach. He is constantly pushing me to be better than I am. He is always yelling out my splits. He stands at the end of my lane. At the end of my intervals, he asks, "What did you do right? What did you do wrong? How did you fix it mid-interval? What's your heartrate? What's your pace? DON'T LOOK AT THE CLOCK. What's your pace?"

Even just a couple of years back, I didn't have THIS much support.

It's everywhere. From Mr. Tea making me a week's worth of food to getting random "Good Luck!" text messages.

I've never really been one to have haters like I hear other athletes talk about. For a short time, I had one or two "runners" (who did A single triathlon), give me quite a bit of shit about my run speed. But I cut them out of my life. Nevermind the fact, that triathlon is about being the best triathlete, not runner.

Every single day, I'm so thankful for everyone that helps me....right down to my bike shop people, who call me after a race to see how I did and find out if I had any problems. THEY CALL ME.

When I started triathlon, I was surrounded by triathletes, specifically Ironman triathletes. That's good and bad. In the beginning, it was good for me. Later, I found my "own" self. I realized that I don't want to be surrounded by triathletes (in general). Triathletes aren't bad people at all. They are incredibly supportive.

I need breaks. Think about it this way. I work 8-10 hours a day. I train (currently) 13 hours per week. Then, I also have to update my training log and provide feedback to Coach Liz. I have to plan food. I have to schedule all my normal appointments around training.

That's my max, right there. I don't want to spend anymore time talking about triathlon. I don't tell people I'm a triathlete. I'm not interested in following pro's, unless I know them personally. I recently went through my lists unfollowed all Coaches (except Coach Liz) and races (unless I am doing them this year). I have never set the dvr to record the IM World Championships. I don't follow Le Tour de Anything.

What I DO: take every opportunity to meet people with interests that are very different from my own.

When I am training, I'm surrounded by people who really care. Why they care is beyond me, but they really do seem to care and are invested in my success.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by how lucky I am to be surrounded by such great people.

Desert Triathlon Race Report: Maybe Not?

The gist of the report is that I was pretty happy with my effort overall. I got a flat on the bike.(Yes, I was prepared for a flat, but it's a long story...and this was a sprint...just trust me). I ended up having to walk the rest of the bike course which was very tough in the wind. With about a mile left, a course mechanic found me walking and helped. I was able to then ride back and finish the race. We had extremely high winds on the swim which meant an extremely strong current and the buoys were launched. I ended up swimming 950m in a pace of 1:20 instead of 500m.

Sadly, about 10 other people also got flats in on the course and 5 of them took a ride back to transition. (Mr. Tea filled me in on that tidbit at the finish). When I was packed up and leaving the race, I saw 3 people making the march up the hill with their bikes....also with flats.

It is hard to put in the training hours to have a race like that. My effort was really good. But, I really wanted to see what I could do on the bike. I also knew that I was set up to have a fantastic swim and had estimated my swim time to be about 6:00.

I didn't realize we had a problem on the swim until I spoke with Amanda and Chris W (Coach's husband) at the finish. (Amanda was 2nd place OA Elite on Sunday in the pouring rain). She said they were all counting on me and another person to be #1 and #2 getting out of the water. Then they saw the buoys taking off. She said the swim became chaos at that point with people just cutting the swim short. (Mr. Tea said several women got out of the water crying.) BTW: Only my wave was affected. We were the last wave to go. Winds had been going all morning, but they went bonkers for my swim start. When I got to shore, I had been maintaining the lead. So, when I saw about 15 other women getting out ahead of me, I knew something was weird.  The current was such that I couldn't really tell that I was chasing the buoy. (Me and the two women who were pacing right behind me....we all ended up swimming the same almost 1000m)

Here's my swim map from Strava.

Um. yeah.

And the bike data.

I wasn't going to accept a ride or a DNF for this race because I felt fantastic. The only thought I had after the bike was that even if they take my chip, I was still going to run.

Well, I didn't take a lift back to transition. So, there wasn't an issue.

The run:

Although I didn't follow the plan...I honestly just forgot about the plan. I wasn't upset at all. Sh*t happens. I started running, and I had forgotten about the details of my plan. Instead, I still picked up the pace and effort. However, the race became more of a run. What I did well was that I kept fueling when I was walking the bike. I had packed extra water and extra calories just in case. That ended up helping me on the run. 

That pretty much sums up the race. I ended up coming in 8th F45-49.

Nothing really spectacular about the race other than it was the FIRST of the year. 

I'm heading to AZ from 3/19-3/21 or thereabouts for my next race (another sprint). Then, my peak race is in AZ in April. 

Again, it was a race of mixed emotions. I felt fantastic. I was SO ready to race. I was disappointed that it went the way it did. Triathlon is complicated. Things are going to happen.

Give me a few weeks. I'll be ready for the next one.