Gearing up for some serious Ironman training!

So it's been about a month since my disastrous race in Santa Rosa. Meanwhile, I took some time to evaluate where I am and where I want/need to be in order to have an awesome race at Soma half and Ironman AZ. I have a lot of work to do and am ready to get going. Here are some of the things I've been doing.

1) I met with Jen Koslo from Koslo's Nutrition Solutions and evaluated my diet. I am eating more frequently and adding protein. I am far from a meat lover, so protein is my biggest deficit and I also found out I am eating TOO MANY carbs... WHAT!?!??! I've always thought I need tons and tons of carbs but I found out I'm overdoing it to the point where it is actually hurting my weight. Things are starting to get better now and I am feeling good. I just need to control myself... which is so hard when I am ALWAYS so hungry! I also wasn't refueling with the right foods as well, so I now chug two cups of chocolate soymilk after my workouts :) yum!!!!!!! Jen is awesome and I highly recommend seeing her if you have any questions about your nutrition or diet. She's affordable and has a very flexible schedule.

2) I saw Bill Egan for my first ever TT bike fit! I have never felt right on my bike, so after talking to fellow cyclists and triathletes I was talked into doing it. In fact I've been so uncomfortable on my bike that it's really been hurting my long rides. My neck hurt, my crotch hurt.. well you get the idea. I spent about and hour and a half at Bill's house last night, tweaking things so they are jjjuuusssttt right, and I'm really excited to see how if feels on my ride tomorrow! The good news is he said I was an easy fix. My bike is the right size for me and I have good form. I was also sitting WAY too low, which he said hurt me A LOT! However, no long ride this weekend because I need to ease into the new position.... darn it!

3) I am starting to strength train seriously two times a week. I realize that this is KEY to injury prevention and really need to get on it. No more slacking! So light lifting and core exercises are part of my schedule two times a week for a total of 2 hours a week now.

4) Instead of working two jobs, I am now working only 1 job, which is awesome. I was beginning to feel so incredibly tired all the time and it just wasn't good. I am no longer working as a personal trainer. It was wearing me out being in the gym so much since I am already training 15-20 hrs a week for Ironman on my own.. that's like a part time job itself!! So I am now working at a local Chiropractor's office here in Ahwatukee, who is also a fellow triathlete. I feel at home here and challenged, which is good. I am happy :)

So my goals right now include:

1) Get down to race weight. Lose about 6 pounds.

2) Get stronger by adding light lifting and core training twice a week.

3) Get out there on my bike, swim more and stay focused.

4) Keep my nutrition on track, stay motivated to eat right.

If I stick to these goals I feel like I will be in good shape for IMAZ. I'm feeling pretty motivated now, so I think I'll go swim!

XOXO
Cori

Barb's Race - a total disaster

My first half Ironman back since my injury didn't go as planned, mostly because of outside influences. Here is my sad race report.

I got sick during Barb's race and couldn't finish. I couldn't even
breathe on the run and felt so insanely nauseous my stomach felt like there were needles inside. which has never ever happened to me
before. This past week was so unbearably emotional for me that I think I cried myself to a state of dehydration. After that emotional week, for reasons I will leave out for the time being, Brian and I left in the car for LA to pick up Hannah, my dog, who flew to LA
on Pet Airways, on the way to the race in Santa Rosa. I was excited to get my dog back since my parents had been watching her in Chicago for the past two months and excited to race since I've been out for so long, but shortly was stressed out again when I found out the person who was supposed to watch Hannah during the race was no longer coming to Santa Rosa. We didn't know anyone else who was going to be at the race who could watch her, so I had to stress out again and try to find a
random dog sitter to watch Hannah during the race. Of course our hotel didn't have internet, so my mom googled pet sitters in Santa Rosa and texted me their phone numbers. Eventually I found Fetch Pet Care, and a sitter picked Hannah up from the hotel Friday night and watched her at her house
while we did the race! I was so nervous the whole time because she was
with a stranger. I didn't eat my normal foods. Adam forgot his wetsuit
for the full Vineman so I let him use mine, and then had to stress out
about getting it out of transition before my swim started. I was not
in the right mindset to race at all, I didn't even want to start the
race. My goggles broke during the swim, my elbow pad broke on the
bike, my neck and back hurt so bad the whole bike because of my new aero
helmet I'm not quite used to yet. Actually the whole time on the bike
I was thinking I didn't want to be on the bike at all, and when I got
on the run I felt like I was going to die. I got through the first 9
mile loop and had to keep stopping because I couldn't breathe and my
stomach was so nauseous. The second loop started by running through
transition and there was nothing that could make me go back out there
and finish that 4.4 mile second loop. I felt so bad. In my mind I was done. I took my chip off
and handed it in, went straight to the shuttle and sat in the back
seat of the school bus curled up in a ball feeling so sick and shivering cold. I went and got the car which
was back at the start and drove straight to get Hannah back from the sitter. I took
her back to the race to watch Brian and Adam do the marathon and sat
there feeling like total crap.

I've never had a bad race yet, but I guess it happens to everyone once
in a while. As a positive, I am more motivated to crush the next race
I do and be more emotionally stable and.... dog-less of course! This
was all just a situation from hell.

So no I didn't finish in 8:15 or whatever the time says on the
website, I actually didn't finish at all. But after all this family
stuff blows over and everything is ok, I will be ok.

Cori

Chino Valley Sprint Triathlon

First and foremost, the biggest thing I learned from this race was why I do triathlon... because it's fun! Yes, winning is great, beating personal best times is great, but all in all doing a triathlon really is one of the most fun things to do! So even if I sucked royally and never won any awards I would still race, just because it's so fun! The atmosphere at a triathlon, or any endurance event really, is amazing. I guess you have to be a little crazy to do what we do, and to be surrounded by people that have the same passion as you is just awesome! When I'm at a race I feel like I fit in, like I'm where I'm supposed to be and around the right crowd of people. It's like that cheesy song we used to sing in chorus in middle school, "Place in this World."

So Saturday was my 24th birthday. I really am not that excited about turning 24, but oh well, life goes on! Brian bought me a new aero helmet for my birthday, its pretty awesome - pink, black and white - totally Michellie Jones style. I love it! I've spent the past three weekends training up in Prescott, which is about 2 hours north of Phoenix, and spent my birthday up there too. In the morning I went for a 3 hour bike ride down to Skull Valley. It was a VERY challenging 3,000 ft climb and hot on top of it! A nice 30 min run topped off the day and I was spent! Dinner at Olive Garden was yummy as always and I watched Deep Impact (I know kind of lame but its one of my favorites) before bed!

Sunday was the morning of Chino Valley Sprint Triathlon. Chino Valley is about 20 minutes from Prescott. Getting up at 4:30 was a little hard, but I managed to roll out at 4:40 to eat my usual cereal and almond milk breakfast. This was only my second tri of the year and man was I nervous! I honestly don't remember being that nervous since before Ironman in November! The only thing on my mind was don't crash, don't crash, don't crash over and over and over! I almost drove myself crazy! Since the crash on the ride to Tucson I've been a little obsessive about crashing on the bike and it's been hurting my mentality pretty bad! To top it off, as soon as I racked my bike I went to pump up my tires and broke off the knob on the stem of the tube on the rear tire. Oh great, I thought, and I started freaking out a little. I think Brian noticed because he changed my tire without complaing at all (very rare) and I was really, REALLY thankful for that. The swim was a time trial start in a 25 yard pool. I was about the 120th person to start, and there was 20 seconds between each person, so I had a while to continue my anxiety about the bike course while everyone else started swimming in front of me. When it was my turn I kicked off the wall and swam pretty well (for me). I had good luck there wasn't many slow swimmers in front of me to crawl over in the pool, but I was so nervous it was a little hard to breathe. After the 300 yard pool swim I ran out to the transition area to grab my bike. Shoes on, sun glasses on, helmet on...... helmet on...... come on you stupid helmet!!!! I couldn't get the strap of my new helmet down over my ear to clip!!! Nerves, nerves nerves!!! Finally I got it on and grabbed my bike, ran to the bike mounting area, but had trouble getting my foot clipped in to get started because I was so shaky. I just couldn't calm down! When I got through all the turns in transition and finally out to the HILLY bike course, it felt like all my worries were flying away. I felt really great flying down the hills and pushing back up them. I started having fun and remembering why triathlon is so fun! I was still a little hesitant around corners and down huge hills, but much better then I anticipated. I started telling people "good job" as I blew by them on the bike and a smile started to form across my face! After finishing the two-loop 15 mile bike course I put my shoes on as quickly as possible, I grabbed my viser and race belt and ran out of transition while putting them both on. The run course was tough.. my legs felt heavy and I still felt the little extra weight I still have from being injured. I feel like I could have pushed myself a little harder on the run, but with being 5 lbs over my race weight on my head, I just couldn't give it max effort. I finished in 1 hour and 13 minutes. Second place overall, and 7 minutes faster then my time in 2007! I'm happy with my performance, especially since it's only my second race this year since my injury, but losing first place by 3o seconds still sucks when I knew I could have gone faster on the run, and the bike if I wasn't such a spaz!!!!!!!

Well, the fire is lit inside of me to train and race fast! I'm just more motivated to get out there in the heat and train, and am also excited to get out there and race Barb's race on August 1 all out! I'm going to work on my bike fear by biking more and hopefully be ready to let it all out at the race!

XOXO
Cori

Tour to Tucson and Sponsor Pics

Lately I have been starting to feel really good! My leg has not bothered me in a couple weeks and I am starting to pick up the training and get in Ironman mindset! HOWEVER, last weekend I decided to ride 118 miles from Phoenix to Tucson with a group of about 30 people. Some I knew and some I didn't, but I figured what the heck, it's an adventure and it'll be fun right. WELLLLL, yes and no. Overall I had a great time. It was H-O-T, but there was good company and we were all suffering together. The course started at Lifetime Fitness in Tempe and was broken into 5 legs, which makes for 4 stops along the way to rest, potty, eat or whatever else you need to do to get your mind back in the game. The only unfortunate insident of course involved me. About 22 miles into the ride, after our first stop in Queen Creek, the person drafting me from behind was riding with his front wheel next to my back wheel. DRAFTING RULE #1 DONT DO THIS!!! Anyway, I reached down to get my water bottle and the guy clipped my wheel and I went crashing down at 21 mph. It was not fun. I was scraped up and in shock. Initially I was freaked out because I really just didn't want to get injured again... I mean come on I just got back into it from an injury!!! So I kept my cool when I got up until I got in the car with our SAG guy who drove me to WAL-MART and I kind of broke down a tad. Not much though. At Wal-Mart everyone was checking out my bike to make sure it was ok. My wheel was bent and spinning very wobbly, but I decided I was going to tough it out and push that thing all the way to Tucson like my life depended on it. There was no way I was going to sit in the car for another 6 hours while everyone else got to bike! AND I didnt have any broken bones right!!! So it took a lot of energy, probably twice as much energy, to push a bike that wanted to wobble side to side straight to Tucson. Man on man was it tough, and at times people were passing me not even pedaling, but I made it and even did a 10 minute run when we got to the Westin La Paloma in Tucson. I felt great, exept my scrapes hurt really bad! The next morning I woke up and felt like I got hit by a truck. I had whiplash and the left side of my body was throbbing, but I got up and ran 90 minutes anyway... and I had a GREAT run... go figure. I'm still confused. This week has been great though, since it is a recovery week thank God! I've stayed out of the pool until today in order to let my skin heal a bit and have been doing light biking and running, but I feel really great! I know... what the heck?!?!?!

So if you're looking for a great ride from Phoenix to Tucson, here's the course in detail

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/az/tempe/423124413339628444

This weekend I'm going to Flagstaff to train and get out of the heat. I can't wait!

XOXO
Cori

Endurance Princess on the Move

Yep, it's been a while since my last post, but I promise I have lots of acceptable excuses :)

First off, I am back in Arizona and loving the heat and sunshine like I've never seen the sun or felt the heat before! It's amazing, when I look at the weather each morning the five day forcast shows the same little cartoon picture of a sun every day with temps differing from maybe 1 or 2 degrees. What?! No rain, no isolated t-storms, no windy, nothing but sun and more sun. Which seriously is fine by me for, um, eternity! After last winter I'm down for living in Pleasantville for a loooooong time!

That being said about the weather, training has been going great here so far. The best part is that I don't have to freak out about if it is going to be tornado-ing on Saturday and having to move my long ride to another day and mess up my entire week of workouts! I am a woman of routine... and I like it that way! I've been covering the hills of Ahwatukee at least three times a week in the early morning on my bike, running my old favorite courses and swimming OUTDOORS (can you tell I'm super excited about that!) at Lifetime on my own and with a masters group in the early AM. The only thing that sucks is that I have to wake up super early, I'm talking 4 a.m., in order to get my entire workout done before I start to bake in the sun. In reality, I'm always finishing my workouts baking, but in my mind all I think about are those horrible -20 degree temps of Chicago winters, and the hives I would get from running 10 minutes out there, and I fully embrace the desert heat and let myself cook. Last weekend I rode 72 miles around Ahwatukee and ran 40 minutes on Saturday, then ran 90 minutes on Sunday. Today I rode 77 miles with a group around South Mountain to San Juan trail and ran 40 minutes. Tomorrow I'm meeting a group at, you guessed it, 5 a.m. for a 100 minute run. My legs are feeling the increased training, but I LOVE IT.

As athletes we are always looking for the next new thing that will give us an edge, whether it is a new toy, like a new garmin or ipod, a new bike, race wheels, cycling or running shoes, it's always something. I think that mentality gets even worse when you have an injury. At least with me, I find myself willing to try anything and everything in order to keep myself healthy now and never have to deal with what I went though the first half of this year EVER AGAIN. So, I've been seeing more and more people with compression socks at races and on their blogs and I finally broke down and decided to give them a try. So Friday after work I stopped by Sole Sports in Chandler and picked up a pair of running 02 compression sportsocks. Now, I have no idea when or how long I am supposed to wear these things, I just have it in my head that these magic socks will help me stay healthy. So, basically I've been living in the things since I bought them, exept for when I work out because they would leave some nasty tan lines! The package did not come with any "instructions" as to when to wear them, so I will have to do more research on that. For now though, I will let the magic feed my mentality at least :)~

I started work at Fitness Factory Arizona in Gilbert on Thursday, and I see a lot of potential in what I can do there and offer them. I will write more about all this (exciting!!!) when I figure things out more, but everything is in the works and I am getting really excited about all the possibilities. I can say, though, that this facility is much better then I ever imagined! I mean, all the machines are brand spankin' new. The treadmills have ipod docs with mini screens so you can watch movies or videos or whatever's on your ipod while you work out. They also have usb ports where you can plug your usb drive in and the treadmill will put the info from your workout onto your usb drive and then you can update your workouts on your computer at home! Wow, talk about technology. I haven't seen treadmills like this before, but I am really excited about them even though I hardly ever run indoors. Anyway, I will be personal training and teaching group exercise classes like spinning and boot camp (and more) and I also plan on starting group runs, group rides and even possibly a triathlon training program for an upcoming Olympic or sprint distance race. The possibilities are endless, as are my ideas and motivation. Very, VERY excited!

Since I've been in AZ I've been embracing things about living here that I have missed sooooo dearly! Here are a few examples of my favorite things:

1) Whole Foods gives you free bags of ice to keep frozen products cold on your drive home. SWEEEEEEEET. By the way, Stonybrook Farm frozen yogurt, minty chocolate chip and cookies and cream... Awesome.

2)Qdoba is wonderful. Grilled veggie naked burrito with lots of guacamole. Heaven!

3) Jumping in the pool after a hot run is amazing.

4) Golden Spoon frozen yogurt, nothing beats that once a week.

5) Seeing everyone I know outside working out at 5 a.m. along with me... you just don't get that anywhere else. I swear I see pretty close to 30 people, if not more, that I know each morning out there enjoying the outdoors and embracing a healthy lifestyle.

6) No bugs. I dont have smashed bugs down my sports bra after I get home from biking. Nice!

7) Bikes shops on every corner, running and tri stores galore! In IL I had to drive 45 minutes to the closest tri shop, and I only found one in the whole Chicago area that was really any good.

8) NO POT HOLES!!!!!!

There's so much more, but honestly I have to get to bed so I can get up at 4 for my long run tomorrow. It sounds crazy, but I'd rather have a yummy dinner and be going to bed at 9 and getting up for a nice long run friends with then doing anything else in the world with my Saturday night.

Party on... well in my dreams!

XOXO

Cori

Fox Trot 5K

I did the Fox Trot 5K today in Elgin. I wasn't planning on racing it, just running it, but of course I went a little faster then my training pace. I ran 6:42's and finished in 20:57 and first in my age group. I was 42nd overall and top 10 female! This was fun because I didn't even race I just ran at a little faster than training pace and felt great! I'm so happy my leg seems to be doing just fine! It was also my parents first race... they did the 2 mile walk... so that was really fun! Almost every single girl that beat me was under 15 years old. It was a big high school race, so there were a lot of families there and people celebrating Memorial Day. I saw my physical therapist Lindsay there who also ran the 5K, and Elizabeth's coach Jen, who ran the 10 mile race. (Of course we all know I wish I did the 10 mile race but I'm still playing it safe! I'm up to 8 miles running so all in time my friends!)

Happy Running!

XOXO

Cori

Mind over matter

So I lost my iPod somewhere in AZ. It's not in any of my bags, stuffed in any of my shoes or left at Lifetime Fitness (yes I had them check!). In addition to that sad, sad story, my old computer (aka. the tank) recently froze and is no longer functioning. This is bad because my iTunes is on that computer and hasn't been transfered to my new computer yet. So basically, the point of this little story is that I have been training sans iPod (or any music at all) for the past week. I forgot what it's like to hear the birds chirping and cars wooshing by and the nice, ever so kind honks of car horns while riding and running. But really this is probably a good thing because I feel really good that I have been able to push myself through 4 hour rides and lots of runs without music! The only time I've suffered was today. I felt really sleepy when I started my run this morning, and it took me about 30 minutes to really wake up. It was strange, I felt like I could fall asleep while running, and if I had my tunes I would have cranked up some Metallica and woken myself up... but no, no this was not the case today as I had no source of music. After a half hour though I felt great and got excited for breaking an hour of running for the first time since this injury started... and I did it! I ran for 1 hour and 5 minutes and danced my way back to my car because I was so freakin happy! Mind over matter people, mind over matter! I don't NEED music, I just want it :)


But don't go thinking I'm a music-free trainer now... because I want nothing more than that dang iPod back!!!!!!


One thing good: My weekend training went great! Long steady 4 hour ride yesterday followed by a 30 minute run. My first brick of the year because of my injury and I felt awesome! Today was my hour and 5 minute "long run" and I also felt pretty good! I did my strength exercises afterwards and stretched nicely as well! Tomorrow I'm doing the Fox Trot 5K in Elgin and then biking to the gym and swimming.

The weather in Chicago this weekend has been tempting to say the least. It is perfect temperatures for training, but very windy. I do have to say though that nothing, let me repeat that, NOTHING will ever make me forget those days of -20 degrees (NEGATIVE TWENTY) over the winter, breaking out in hives, putting on layers and layers of clothes, biking indoors ONLY for seven months, and not wanting to put even one finger in the pool because all I wanted was to be warm!!! I'm moving back to Arizona in 8 days and couldn't be more thrilled. It is my home, that is one thing I have figured out about myself, and although I learned that the hard way I am glad to know where I belong!

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! I know I'm happy because I can train again! YAY!!!


XOXO
Cori