Bump In The Road - Sleepless in Seattle

In my last post I asked, "How am I doing?"  Up until March 24th I was doing pretty well.  I had been meeting my stated goals of swimming and running 2-3 times a week.  I had structured swim workouts and some help from a friend who's also a coach.  My running wasn't particularly fast, but I had gotten a few 6 mile runs in. Cycling was taking care of itself although I wasn't satisfied with my pace.  However part of that is because there are parts of my group rides that are slow.  I try to make up for it when the group splits up.

I went on vacation on March 23rd.  Start with a couple of days in Seattle, followed by ferry to Victoria for Grand Pacific Open chess tournament over the weekend. Back to Seattle Monday night and dead eye (red eye) back home.   I was really looking forward to the weekend in Victoria where there are beautiful places to run, and a 25 meter pool in the health club attached to the hotel.  I was really pumped up knowing I was going up there with a good running base.  For the first time ever, I'd really be able to enjoy some nice long runs in Beacon Hill Park. There's a beautiful path that overlooks James Bay.  Previous visits I've spent a lot of time walking there and taking lots of pictures. This time I was ready for some serious running.  Though I wouldn't have minded an opportunity to ride with those guys in the picture below. 

It's beautiful place to run and there's even a statue honoring Terry Fox, the Canadian runner who was trying to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.  Sadly he was not able to complete the journey due to his cancer coming back.

I even had looked into possible group runs.  I think I packed almost many workout clothes as regular clothes.  When I discussed my plans friends were asking "Aren't you going there for a chess tournament?" Yes I was playing in a chess tournament, but the schedule is such that there's lots of time to do non-chess stuff like swimming and running.  Did I mention shopping?  Spring sales at The Running Room and MEC (Mountain Equipment Coop - Canada's REI) in addition to the US dollar makes shopping in Canada a sport of its own. 

*Sigh* Sometimes the best intentions get waylaid by unforeseen events.  You've heard of the movie, "Sleepless in Seattle"? That's what my Thursday became.  The day started out nicely. Did a tour of a couple of Washington State wineries tasting rooms, Snoqualmie Falls and ending with Boehm's Chocolate.  That's probably the best chocolate I've had anywhere.  All handmade right there at the store.  Wine and chocolate! My favorite two food groups.  :-)

Snoqualmie Falls

 

Chocolate!!!

I should have quit when I was ahead.  However I did want to go out for dinner on my last night in Seattle, unlike the first night when I noshed on munchies and had wine at the hotel happy hour, went back to my room and fell asleep at 9:00 pm.  Hindsight is 20/20. One of the people I met at happy hour and I decided to skip the usually overpriced and not so great food at the hotel restaurant and venture out about town.  Ended out a place called Von's 1000 Spirits.  They make their own sourdough pasta right on the premises. This was a new one for me.  We split a beet salad and an order of sourdough pasta Mac & Cheese.  This was not your Kraft Mac & Cheese out of a package.  This was to die for! Even though we split the dish, I knew I'd need a few runs to burn that off.

Okay, once again I've turned my triathlon blog into a travel blog.  You're probably wondering where this is all going.  What's the bump in the road that I referenced in my title? To make a long story short, on the walk back to the hotel we were waiting at a light to cross the street.  Out of nowhere a woman comes up and tries to grab my purse off my shoulder.  I'm holding on for dear life.  In the melee, my phone goes flying out of my purse, I get knocked to the sidewalk, but manage to push her away, grab my phone and hold on to my purse.  She runs off, but several witnesses chase her down.  Really all I wanted to do was go back to my hotel and not be bothered since I didn't lose anything.  However when I stood up, I hurt like hell and sat right back down on the sidewalk. 

God bless all the people who helped me out.  There were the people from Benaroya Hall where the Seattle Symphony was performing that evening, who brought me a wheelchair and got me out of the cold. There were people who called the police and others who were able to identify the suspect.  Then there was my dinner companion, who I'd only met a few hours ago at happy hour, who took me to the hospital, stayed with me for the almost 3 hour stay in the ER and got me back to the hotel at the ungodly hour of 1:00 am. 

I didn't get much sleep that night. Hard to sleep when one's back is screaming "What the hell happened?" I did make it to the ferry on Friday, and got to Victoria.  The people from Victoria Clipper Ferry were very helpful in getting me off the boat, gathering my luggage and getting me through immigration and customs.  One of the organizers from the tournament met me at the ferry and helped me get to the hotel.  The hotel is a 5 minute walk from the ferry, which I usually have no trouble doing even hauling suitcases.  That was not the case.

So all those runs I planned on were replaced by frequent naps, a massage and some gentle swimming in the 25 meter pool.  At least my swimsuit got used.  All the running and gym clothes remained unpacked.  By Monday I was able to do some easy walking around town where I did indulge in retail therapy.  The ferry ride back to Seattle was beautiful, however the plane flights were painful.  First flight was a case of "good news, bad news".  The good news is, I got an upgrade to first class.  The bad news, last row in first class against the wall where the seat doesn't recline.  That sucks when one wants to recline the seat and try to sleep.  The second flight was worse.  No upgrade, lousy seat with no legroom, and a broken seat that wouldn't recline either. 

So where does all of this leave me?  The back is still hurting, though it's getting somewhat better. I have my good days and my bad days.  My training has been totally trashed.  I've managed to do some swimming since I've gotten home. Actually the swimming has gone pretty well.  I've been out on my bike once.  The back actually seems to hurt less when I'm riding on the aero-bars.  Mother nature has been a royal pain in the ass.  Winter didn't seem to get the memo about it being spring.  Tuesday it was 23 degrees in the morning with 9 degree wind chill factor.  It's been raining a lot.  Maybe I brought the weather back from Seattle.  Though I think it rained less out there than it has here since I got back.  The big question mark is running. I haven't given that a try yet.  I want to give that a little longer.

I have my first race in two weeks.  St. Anthony's.  Yes, the very race I want to redeem myself from the horror show of 2009.  Despite this setback, I'll still probably do better than I did in 2009.  However I may have to adjust my expectations for this particular race.  Looking at previous years results in my age group, I felt I had an excellent chance of placing in top 5.  2nd - 5th looked quite doable since those times were over 3 hours.  I'm not sure this is still a realistic goal.  However no matter how I feel in two weeks, I'll be there.  I have non-refundable plane ticket and hotel room. I've paid to have my bike send down there.  One day at a time.

Stay tuned....

What's next?

As I looked back on the last two years since I rejoined the ranks of triathletes, I realized that despite my run and swim "training" (I use the term lightly) I did pretty damn well.  The question I had to ask myself was; "Could I do better?" Hmmm, eight age group firsts and one second isn't too shabby.  Really? Can I do better than that? Oh yeah, don't be one of the last swimmers in my age group, and don't let that woman you chased down on the bike pass you on the run at West Point Triathlon.  No problem! Just swim and run faster, and the bike will take care of itself.  It always does.

Although I'm not one to make New Years Resolutions, I do like to set some goals for myself.

• Swim more.
• Run more.
• Bike better.
• Lose the holiday pounds. 

Those are the little goals that are a little too general and vague.  I needed to clarify them more:

Swim more.

• 2 to 3 times a week.
• Increase my yardage.
• Be more specific about workouts.
• Work on my technique.

Run more.

• 2 to 3 times a week.
• Increase my mileage.
• Work on improving speed, with more structured workouts.
• Jun a running club.

Bike better.

• Knock off the junk miles.
• Work on pedaling technique and cadence.
• Ditch the group if necessary for speed work.

Lose the holiday pounds.(5 pounds)

• Be more diligent about tracking food.
• Find the right balance between carbs, proteins and fat.
• Cut back on the sweets.
• Let the increased mileage do its thing to my metabolism.

Those are my training goals, but what about racing?

4/24: St. Anthony's Olympic distance. St. Petersburg, FL
6/26: Sleepy Hollow Sprint Triathlon, Sleepy Hollow, NY
8/13: USAT Age Group National Championships, Omaha, NE
9/25: Westchester Triathlon, Rye NY
11/13 National Aquabike Championships, Miami, FL **

** I've been thinking about a 70.3, but that would totally depend on what I actually can do with my running.  I also don't know which one I would do. If I go for the 70.3 then I'd skip the aquabike, unless I find a race that's far enough away from the aquabike.

Next post: How am I doing?

Revisting the Scene of The Crime....St. A's 2009

In my last post I had written a summary of the last year and a half of my triathlon comeback.  I ended the post by writing the following:  "2016?  I'm looking to expand my horizons beyond the northeast.  Time to see if this big fish in the little pond can go swim/bike/run with the big fish in the big lakes.  First order of business is to revisit the scene of the crime.  The crime being my pathetic exit from triathlon with my sad performance at St. Anthony's Triathlon in 2009."

So what was so criminal about St. Anthony's in 2009? You've heard the expression "pouring good money after bad"?  Going to St. Anthony's that year was a classic example of that.  I was supposed to do St. Anthony's in 2008.  I wasn't doing it with Team in Training. I had signed up on my own with the idea that it would motivate me to get back to swim, bike, run as opposed to long walks during marathons.  I wasn't ready for various reasons, so I paid to defer my entry to 2009.  March of 2009 came and I had not been in the pool, I had not been running, and had only been on the bike a couple of times.  A person with half a brain would have said to herself. "Okay you paid $75 to defer your entry to this year.  It's a month before the race and you haven't done any swimming or running.  Just eat the $75 and be done with it. Why spend money on hotel, airfare, food, car, etc. just to justify spending $75 to defer your entry?  Can you really do an Olympic distance race with barely any training?"

I do have a full brain, however the prudent half of the brain was shouted down by the "what the hell, go for it" half of the brain.  So to justify paying to have my entry deferred to 2009, I spent $100 to go to the pool maybe 3 - 4 times before the race.  I also bought a plane ticket, rented a car, booked a hotel room, and paid TriBike Transport to ship my bike to Florida.  (That was the best money spent for that trip! I loved not having to schlep a bike case through airports and worrying about whether or not my bike would arrive on the same plane as me.)  Let's not forget about food and gas.  I don't recall how much I paid for all of that, but I'd guess probably around $1,200. That's not counting the money I probably spent at the expo buying stuff I didn't need.  All of that to justify the $75 deferral fee.  It's true there are worse places than St. Petersburg, Florida to spend a long weekend.  On the other hand, I could have saved that money and gone somewhere even better, and saved myself the angst of doing a race that I wasn't physically or mentally prepared to do.

The only reason I was able to finish the race was because the swim got completely canceled.  The day before when I went in the water, I couldn't swim much more then  200 yards before I was gasping for air.  The waves were high and I was struggling to make any progress.  I got out of the water that day and thought I would have my first DNF on Sunday when they have to save me from drowning in the rough water.  Thankfully the race organizers thought it wise to cancel the swim due to the rough water.  I was relieved that they weren't replacing the swim with an extra run before the bike. Instead the race went off with a time trail start on the bike. Every two seconds they would send a person out on the bike.  However it was done in number order and with a number like 3099 it was going to be a long time before I got on the course.  I can't remember how long it was before I got to go.  However I spent a long time out on the course for just biking and "running".  I averaged 14.1 mph on the bike, and walked a 16:40 pace and completed the race in 3:35:01. I finished 31st out of 33 women in the 55-59 age group. I had just turned 55.  Quite a comedown from 2005 when I finished 3rd out of 35 in my age group (F50-54) with a time of 2:43:10.

I had fun over the weekend hanging out with friends. The race sucked though I did enjoy walking with a guy in the 75-79M age group.  We talked about races we had both done, and places we had traveled.  However I would have rather been talking about this stuff over a nice meal and a glass of wine, not during a slow walk in a triathlon. 

After that race, I decided I was done with triathlon.  I was too damn competitive to be satisfied with back of the pack results.  I had given up on ever being able to run again, and felt I was too young to be reduced to walking the run course.  I thought I'd be in my 70s or 80s before I'd have walk the run portion.  Never thought it would happen in my mid 50s. I would now refer to myself as a former triathlete. I'd concentrate on Tae Kwon Do, working towards my Black Belt, and maybe do some bicycling.  Little did I know that 7 months later, my world would be turned upside down with a tumble down my stairs resulting in a broken ankle.  The black belt would have to wait a year and bicycling would have to have to wait two years.  Triathlon?  Not even on the radar. It was only a scheduling conflict between Tae Kwon Do and Team in Training that brought triathlon back into the picture.

Seven years later I'm returning to the scene of the crime to make my peace with St. Anthony's.  Call it the seven year itch, or revenge of the tri-geek, but a new attitude about swimming and running is going make things a lot better this time around. Stay tuned.

Catching Up!

I truly suck at trying to keep this up to date.  My last post was in July of 2015 where I was trying to review my comeback season of 2014.  Here it is February of 2016, and I didn't even finish reviewing 2014, much less write anything about 2015. So here it all is in a nutshell.

Rest of 2014

Westchester Triathlon: Good swim, crashed on the bike, made sure the bike was functioning somewhat, finished the bike course, ran most of the 10K before the endorphins wore off and shuffled the last mile and finished in 3:09.  A rather painful finish!

As soon as crossed the finish line I was immediately dragged into the medical tent. (First time for everything. Hopefully the last time.) That's what happens when one of your Team in Training coaches is charge of the medical tent. Still won my age group. Then again the other person in my age group, got pulled after the bike leg because she way over the cut off time.

Treasure Island Triathlon, New Jersey: Rented a house Jersey Shore with a bunch of my Team in Training buddies.  Party time with a sprint triathlon thrown for good measure.  Day before race I could barely lift my arm while swimming.  Shoulder pain from the crash two weeks earlier.  Thanks to the magic hands of our in-house PT, I was good to go.  Survived the swim, kicked butt on a 4 loop closed bike course (no cars!), and held on for dear life during the run, and won my age group by a couple of minutes.  Could have won the aquabike division if I opted for that instead.  Coulda, shoulda, woulda.

2015

June 7: America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, Lake Tahoe, CA.   Spent all spring putting in lots of miles on the bike in order to do the 100 miles.  Not much swim and running during that time.  But I had a great ride! 6:35 ride time

June 14: Sleepy Hollow Sprint Triathlon: A week later I do the triathlon with very little swim and run training. I was slower than the year before, but not a problem, still won my age group.  Beat some of the same women as last year.

June 27: Islandman Triathlon, Avalon, NJ: This was kind of a homecoming for me. Our family would spend a week there at the beach. I had not been down there since the first anniversary of my dad's sudden passing in Stone Harbor which is next town over.  The race was supposed to be 1/3 mile ocean swim, 12 mile bike and 5K run. However when the ocean looked like this:

The swim got replaced by a .8 mile run.  Oh joy! Just what I needed was an extra run to start off the race.  However I managed to chase down all the women in my age group on the bike, and somehow held them all off on the second run.  Still haven't done a triathlon with an ocean swim, but won age group for the first time ever in a duathlon. Generally I avoid duathlons because I have to run twice.

August 15, Timberman Sprint, Guilford NH: I had not done this race in 10 years.  Always loved this race.  Very competitive.  Nice swim, 14 mile hilly bike course, and a short 5K run. It definitely plays to my strengths.  I had slight mishap on the bike. I dropped my chain, tried to pedal it back on, lost my balance and toppled over.  Only thing injured was my pride as I was in the midst of trying pass a group of riders, who then proceeded to pass me as I lay on the pavement.  "Stuff" happens. Won my age group, but was shocked how I won it.  2nd place was 20 minutes behind me.  Twenty minutes is an eternity in a sprint.

September 13, Toughman Aquabike.  USAT National Aquabike Championship, Croton, NY
This was my A race.  I had looked at the results from last year's race in Ohio, and felt I could beat the winning time in my age group which was little over 4 hours.  But there's always the questions that linger.  How many in the age group? Will more East Coast people come? How do the courses compare? I knew this course was going to be hilly which for me is good.  I didn't feel I did as much hill training as I should have, but bike mileage was solid.  I felt good about my swimming.  I spent a lot of time doing open water swims over the summer.  The swim was not easy.  The Hudson River can be rather gnarly when it wants to be.  Fortunately the currents weren't too bad.  I loved the bike course due to it being totally closed to cars.  Not an easy course though.  A big climb up an 8% grade early on.  Since it's two loops, got to climb that sucker twice.  However coming down that same hill was rather scary.  I hit my time goal of under 4:00 with a time of 3:56. Yes it was good enough for the win. National Champion!  Even got a National Champion tri-top.  I don't think I'll wear it in any races.  Don't want to have the proverbial bulls-eye on my back, especially if I choose to go to this year's Aquabike National Championships.



September 27, Westchester Triathlon, Rye, NY:  I stayed upright on the bike, and shocked myself on the run by doing it in just over an hour.  I still can't figure out how I struggle to run sub 12:00 miles in training, but go into a triathlon and knock out sub 10:00 miles.  I guess it's a combination of adrenaline, the competitive fire within and perhaps I need a bike ride as a warm up.  Maybe I should do all my runs as a brick.  I did break 3:00 hours which was one of my goals. 

A year later I'm looking a lot happier as I cross the finish line.  Staying upright on the bike helps a lot.  And yes, with it came another age group win. 

So the first two years of my comeback have resulted in eight 1st place age group wins, and one 2nd place.  I guess getting old isn't such a bad thing.

2016?  I'm looking to expand my horizons beyond the northeast.  Time to see if this big fish in the little pond can go swim/bike/run with the big fish in the big lakes.  First order of business is to revisit the scene of the crime.  The crime being my pathetic exit from triathlon with my sad performance at St. Anthony's Triathlon in 2009. That's a whole other post, which I promise won't come in another six months.

Catching Up on 2014 - Part 1

I had all these wonderful intentions of reviving my blog as I revived my triathlon career last season.  I managed one detailed report from my 1st race of last season.  I wrote a very detailed report of a small race I did in New Hampshire, but half the text vanished into the Internet's version of a back hole.  Hours of writing....poof!!! Gone.  Instead my followers (do they actually exist?) got treated to a travel piece accompanied by lots of photographs from my Alaska trip.  Did I ever tell you in my dream life I'd be a widely read travel blogger who gets free trips to write about?  Wishful thinking.  Just about as likely to happen as winning my age group at ITU Age Group World Championships. 

When I left off last season I was sweating about doing the West Point Triathlon and what time I'd leave the house.  Neurotic old tri-geek left early.  The short version of my West Point race report: In my age group I got trashed in the swim.  I roared back and passed them all on the bike, but reverting to an old pattern, I got caught on the run.  So 2nd place in F60-64. I was satisfied since that has always been a very competitive race.  I finally got to meet the other Polly who does triathlons.  She finished 3rd and did stay for the award ceremony.

Labor Day Weekend I did a road trip with my sister and did another small race in New Hampshire.  The Circle Triathlon.  Nice course with a serious badass climb on the bike course.  The one thing that stuck out about this race was playing cat and mouse with this one kid on the bike course.  I was getting kind of annoyed because he's riding a plain old bike with no bike shoes or toe clips.  I couldn't get rid of him. (The inner bike snob in me was showing.)  I'd pass him and then he'd pass me.  Every time he passed me he give me a look, and when I passed him I'd give him a look.  We came into transition together and after that I never saw him again.  When I looked at the results I'm thinking how did he have those crazy fast transition times.  Turns out he did the entire race including the swim in Vibram 5 toed shoes.  He's a really fast runner, and I should point out about 45 years younger.  No age group awards in that race either.  I can't remember where I finished overall.

A Letter to My Neglected Road Bike

Dear Ms. Light,

I know you've been wondering where I've been the last 3 weeks.  All those Tuesday and Thursday mornings you waited, expecting me to pump up your tires and take you out the back door for the Unemployment Ride.  Instead I'd grab a small gym bag with Tae Kwon Do gear and leave without you.  Then there were those Saturdays and Sundays that I was not working that you would wait patiently for me.  However I'd stumble by you at 9:30 am having just gotten up, and brought in the newspapers.  Later on you might see me with the gym bag, or on some days you'd see me peeling off layers of snow covered garments. You're probably thinking to yourself, "There she goes again, ditching me for another sport."

No, no it's nothing like that at all. Yes, I'm doing Tae Kwon Do and I'll be testing for my next Black Belt in November.  But I've not given up cycling.  After all I'm planning to do the Lake Tahoe Century with Team in Training again.  I can't be neglecting my cycle training when I'm planning to ride 100 miles on June 7th. So what's the deal with all those missed mornings?  You're also probably wondering why you see me taking cycling clothing out of the washer and taking it upstairs to dry.

I have a confession to make.  I've been seeing another bike. Yes, I admit it! I've been cheating on you. No, I have not been going out with Blue Bayou. Winter is not the time to be cruising around on my tri-bike.  That will come later.   You've never seen the bike or the people I've been riding with.  This brutal winter weather has caused me to go over to the dark side.  Yes, I've been hanging out with the beautiful people in their cute tank tops and colorful tights.  Yes, those type of people that I see going in and out of Soul Cycle in Greenwich, CT  Yes, those people that Lisa and I make fun of while she's massaging the hell out of my cranky joints.  However I'm not at Soul Cycle in Greenwich. I'm at Flywheel Sports in Scarsdale.

Rest assured I've had not totally gone to the dark side.  No cutesy tops and tights for me.  Regular cycling shorts and a run or tri top.  Also I do compete in class by having my stats show up on the torq board.  I've yet to have the top score yet.  The best I've done so far is 2nd.  It's all about power and there are bigger and younger women who take these classes.  Just maybe before this temporary affair is done, I'll be able to beat all the ladies.  I wonder how they'd do outside in the cold?

Dearest Ms. Light, bear with me.  Once Mother Nature stops being such a witch you and I will be together again.  We'll go out with the boys and cruise up Rte. 22. We'll go climb some hills and hang with the pack.  Understand that I need to hang out with Fly so that I can be ready for the peloton.  You wouldn't want me to embarrass myself by getting spit off the back before the Kensico Dam because I wasn't doing any training?  Fly will never be as dear to me as you are.  She doesn't know that I will be ditching her as soon as Mother Nature allows me to. 

Enjoy the warmth of the house while you can.  Sooner or later I'll be looking for you to join me on the road again.

Love,

Your roadie girl Polly

Big Oops! & a few random pre-race ramblings

I was looking back at the last post I made and noticed 1/2 of it vanished into thin air.  Either I'm getting senile and didn't really write up the race report portion of my post, or it went to the great Internet trash bin.  I know I did write it, but it's gone. Maybe I'll get to rewriting it, but then again probably not.  Tomorrow is another day and another race.

My comeback so far has consisted of two sprint races on a pretty small scale.  The Sleepy Hollow Sprint Triathlon had a few hundred racers.  The Marshmallow Man Sprint triathlon had 34 individuals and 5 relay teams.  Now it's time to hit the major leagues.  West Point Triathlon is the big leagues.  We'll see it goes.

I think I last did it in 2004,  It was lot different back then. It was still very laid back, and reasonable entry fee. Now it's become one of the big boys.  USAT sanctioning and an entry fee that's about double of what paid in '03 and '04.  Triathlon boom strikes again.  I won or placed high in my age group back then.  Not sure how I'll do now that my running has slowed down considerably.  This is just another step towards my Olympic distance comeback in September.

I need to go to bed.  It's about an hour's drive and I can't decided whether I'm going to be totally neurotic and get there before 6:00 am and stand around for 3 hours waiting my wave to be called.  I'm in the 9th of 11 waves.  Race goes off at 8:30. I don't hit the water until 09:10.  Practicing my military time.

Another Trip, Another Race - Blogger Meet Twitter

Wow where did July go?  On July 3rd, I reported on the first race of my triathlon comeback. Suddenly it's August 10th, and I haven't written another word.  Did people think I took my Sleepy Hollow Sprint Triathlon gold medal, and ran?  Or perhaps decided this triathlon thing was not such a good idea after all?  Au contraire!  The fact of the matter is, I think I'm becoming a full-fledged tri-geek again.  However before I could even think about starting my Jardin Westchester Triathlon training there was something called vacation I needed to attend to. Two and half weeks in Alaska!

Bike training was not going to be an issue since for 6 days I would be on a bike tour.  Running and swimming on the other hand.....I had great intentions in terms of doing a little swimming and running on the trip.  I brought a bathing suit, cap and goggles.  I also brought running shoes.  The swimming gear never came out of the suitcase.  The running shoes got used for walking.  My hiking boots got more use then my running shoes.

The biking was everything one might expect in a place like Alaska.  Incredible views, long climbs, headwinds, screaming downhills, rain and run ins with the "official state bird" (mosquito!)

Cresting the top of Thompson Pass.  

That was followed by a screaming descent into Keystone Canyon. I hit 45 mph!

Then there was the matter of rain.

a. Get wet and stay in the headwind

or

b. Get wet and sit on a tall rider's wheel and get muddy.

I chose b.

No matter where we were riding there was always amazing views and scenery. This was taken at Sheep Mountain Lodge.  Beautiful place in the middle of nowhere.  Although a few days after we left a big bike race would be starting there.  The Fireweed 400.  Various distances are contested.  The 400 mile option being the longest.  I did not do 400 miles, but I did end out with around 260 miles for the 5 days of riding.

The 6 day bike tour was followed by some amazing trips to Seward, Spencer Glacier and Denali National Park.  Yes, Denali is a totally amazing place.  I was fortunate to be part of the 30% who actually see Mt. McKinley on their visit to the park.

 The clouds are starting to roll back in.

Close encounters with bears.  Fortunately we're in a bus.

Don't mess with momma grizzly and her cubs!

Okay so I had to throw in some Alaska pictures and pretend this a travel blog.  I just had to show off some my travel pictures.  At least I didn't try to post all 2,000+ pictures.  Anyway that was the first part of July.  I got back from that trip on a Tuesday. By Thursday I was already thinking about my trip to New Hampshire to take pictures at Camp Onaway.  This was my second summer going up there to take pictures of the campers and staff for their "yearbook".  It's not a paid photo gig.  However being able to spend almost week on Newfound Lake, hang out at the camp I attended as a kid and spend time with my sister is not such a bad deal.  Not to mention, amazing sunsets! This shot was done on my iPhone.  The pictures taken with the real camera are on the other computer.

While looking at the triathlon calendar I happened to find a race in New Hampshire. I wasn't looking for a race to do necessarily.  I was checking on a race in New Hampshire that I'm planning to do over Labor Day weekend.  Other races in New Hampshire showed up and one of them happened to be  on the day I was planning to head back home.  So I decided I would do the Marshmallow Triathlon in Laconia, NH.  Sprint distance with a 1/4 mile swim, 14 mile bike and 5K run.  These are distances that are little more to my liking as opposed to the way too short bike leg of Sleepy Hollow.

I guess the old neurotic tri-geek decided to make an appearance as I left at 5:30 am for a race that was 40 minutes away and wasn't starting packet pick up until 6:30.  That's kind of typical for me when I'm going to a new location.  I have to factor in getting lost.  GPS makes it less likely I'd get lost, but I still manged to get lost using GPS.  I was the first one there.  When I arrived there was nothing resembling a transition area.  One of the race organizers said the equipment guy thought the race was the next day, so the racks and such were not there yet.  He was called, so the racks were coming, but a little late.

I love the charm and simplicity of small hometown races.  One of my favorite ones was the Dutchess County triathlon in Hopewell Junction, New York that was held back in the 1980s.  It was sponsored by the local chapter of the Sons of Italy.  It was held at the town park and the swim was in this tiny lake.  It was advertized as a 1/4 mile swim, but probably more like 1/8 because I always had these ridiculously fast swim times.

I'm not quite sure what happened here, but I seem to have lost 1/2 of this post.  I did write about how the race went.  It was rather detailed, but since I have another race tomorrow I don't have the inclination to rewrite the report at this point.  So here's the Twitter version. 

Time: 1:30:49 5th woman overall out of 21. 14th overall out of 34. No age group awards. #smallrace.

I'm Backkkkkkkkkk!!! - Sleepy Hollow Sprint Triathlon Race Report

I wasn't quite as diligent as I would have liked to been chronicling my comeback.  I made it through the C25K app and got myself to a point that I could cover 3 miles, albeit slow but no walking breaks.

The night before the race, I posted the following on Facebook.

Hard to believe my triathlon comeback is almost upon me. Yeh, my heart rate went up a little as I packed my transition bag tonight. Everything is packed away. Checking my list, once, twice. Everything is nice.

The old tri-geek in me wonders if she can relive the glory days of age group wins. The comeback kid here tries to tell the old tri-geek to shut up and enjoy the moment when she crosses the finish line, and then enjoy the moments of my totally awesome TNT teammates crossing their first finish line. Tomorrow is going to be amazing no matter what happens.

It's been 9 years since that last age group win. Yeh, true I'm the "youngster" in F60-64, but who knows how this recent graduate of C25K will do on the run. Can I hold off some speedy 60 year old that still run 8 minute miles?

No point losing sleep over it. Although I may lose sleep anyway, because that never changes the night before a race.

I guess i should hit the sack.

Sunday June 29th I walked into the water and began my race.  I was on my way to being a triathlete again.  My approach to the day was very different then that of my last serious race in 2005.  How different was it?  Let me put to you this way, I wasn't the crazy one who had to be the first on line to pick up her packet on race morning.

I got my packet, got body marked and headed to the transition area to set up.  I kind of had to give myself a little refresher course on what all the numbers were for and where to put the timing chip.  The next thing was laying out my transition area.  I used to be one of these people who brought everything, but the kitchen sink into transition.  I decided I needed a picture of it. Much simpler then the past, but a little messy.

Let's make this official.  We need a picture of me in transition. Note I don't have my wetsuit on or anything.  Smile!

It's almost 7:30.  I haven't put on my wetsuit, I haven't check the various entry and exit points of transition.  However I did manage to see where my rack was in relation to everything else and I had my bright purple bandana to make my spot stand out.  I didn't get time to do the walk through because it was time to do another team photo.  This crew loves pictures.  If we can't get someone to take the picture we've mastered the art of doing large group selfies.

One of the great things about this race is the women are in the earliest waves.  Not only that, the oldest women go first.  The first wave was 45+ women.  The first men's wave would be 9 minutes after mine.  I figure I would be safe from getting run over by alpha males.  Also being in the first wave I would have a wide open bike course to do my thing.

Our wave was not gigantic.  There was plenty of room, but some how I managed to find myself sandwiched between two women.  One of them kept smacking me in the head every stroke.  I did get away from them and got into clear space. The swim was point to point.  It was a very calm day so the current didn't play any part in the swim.  It was like swimming in a lake.  The only thing that was a little confusing was where we would turn right to go into shore.  All the buoys were the same color.  Many races I've done, the last set of buoys have been a different color. That way it's easy to tell when you're getting to the end.  I did a lot of sighting to stay on course and also figure out when to turn.  As I get closer to the turn I did start to see women in red and pink caps pass me.  They were from the next two waves.  Although I'm a decent swimmer there are plenty of women who swim much faster then me.  My mission is to blow by them on the bike.

T1 has a long run from the beach up to the transition area.  I have run up a ramp and then a set of stairs, and then across to park.  By the time I get to my spot in the transition area I have the wetsuit down to my waist.  From there my transition goes all to hell.  I had a lot of trouble getting out of my wetsuit.  That's been a constant battle for me since we started the open water swim training.  It seems like in 10 years my body has completely changed shape.  Although I weigh less, "stuff" has moved.  I thought updating my wetsuit collection would help, but even in practice I was still having trouble pulling my monster calves out of the legs.  I manage to get the right leg free, but the left leg is giving me problems.  The timing chip is huge and keeps catching on the wetsuit.  I finally sit on the ground, take the chip off, pull my leg out, and put the chip back on.  I made sure the chip was close by.  That's all I needed to do was misplace it.  How to totally screw up a race.

A few weeks earlier at one of our group training sessions, I had forgotten socks.  I did the course ride with no socks. My feet felt fine so I figured I could do the bike leg with no socks.  I practiced that way a few more times and decided that would work well in the race.  I've always had difficulty putting socks on wet feet.  Waiting to put socks on in T2 would resolve that problem. Running without socks is a whole different story. Tried it once, and had blisters after about a mile.  Orthotics and bare feet are a lousy combination.

Having finally completed my transition it was time to get down to business on the bike.  Now I was ready for some serious fun.  The course starts off flat with a lot of turns.  I'm passing people and but at the same time, I'm making sure I take the turns carefully.  Cornering is not my strong suit, but with no pack to worry about, I can take the turns a little wider then I would in a bike race.  I was looking forward to getting to Rte 9 and climbing the hill.  One of my bike club teammates was working the intersection where we make the left turn for Rte 9.  I give him a shout, and he yells back, "Go Polly!"  Having done the course a number of times I had gotten a feel for how I wanted to take the hill.  The last training ride I had done on the course I tried to go close to race pace so that I could work out my gearing and how much I wanted sit or stand while climbing.  I do a combination, but I do like standing and stomping on the pedals.  I passed a lot of the 2nd and 3rd wave "fishies" who had passed me in the water or in transition.  I was keeping my eye out for 60 year old women, but didn't see any ahead of me.

I must admit I love the reactions I get when I pass younger women and they see the age on my calf.  I passed a 46 year old woman on Rte 117.  That part of 117 is a steady incline.  It's not steep, but it goes on for a few miles.  When I pass her I hear her say something to the affect of, "Oh my God, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be here. You're amazing." Hearing reactions like that just get me all pumped up.  I tend to push harder after hearing something like that.  It's not the first time I've heard things like that, but it's been a long time. 

On Rte 117 there's a U-turn where you turn to go back the other way.  You see people coming the other direction.  As I'm heading towards the turn around the woman who won the race had a big lead on the other women.  She's incredibly smooth and powerful.  Last year she had finished 2nd. This year her goal was to win the race.  I notice there aren't a whole lot of women coming back the other direction which means I'm pretty far ahead of a lot of people.  I know that's not going to last once I get to the run.  On the bike I try to pass as many people as I can, and try not to be passed by too many.  One woman passes me on a slight downhill.  I catch her on the next slight uphill.  However then the rest of the course is downhill, so she passes me for good.  No worries, she's 50 years old.  It's funny thinking that way.  It seems like such a short time ago I was a 50 year old worrying about 40 year olds passing me.  I guess because I haven't raced seriously since leaving the F50-54 age group I forgot what it was like thinking 40 was young.  I never raced in the F55-59 age group.

After I made the U turn I got to see what was going on in the other direction.  I saw a few of my Team in Training teammates going out.  I give a loud "Go Team" as I head back.  I have no way of knowing where anyone in my age group is in relation to me.  All I know is I'm having a good ride and I need to just keep pushing, because eventually I'm going to have to get off the bike and run.  I have no sense of my pace or time because the computer on my bike is not running, and my watch malfunctioned while trying to save the swim portion.  In the past that would have made me nuts, and had me obsessing about what pace I was doing.  It didn't matter.  I could tell where I was working hard and feeling the climbs, and when I was in hammer mode.

The last few miles of the bike course has some screaming downhills that are difficult to totally let loose on.  The roads are rough in spots and there are a couple of sharp turns.  Although I practiced the descents I didn't feel totally comfortable letting it all hang out.  No sitting on the aero-bars and flying.  I think I spent more time on the brakes.  However I wanted to get through the bike portion in one piece.  I certainly did not want to wipe out on the corner where John was standing.  It's bad form to scare the crap out of one's spouse by wiping out in front of him.

I got back to the park and dismounted.  Being the first TNT'er in I got a lot of cheers.  That got me me rather pumped up.  T2 was a lot smoother then T1.  I got the bike on the rack, took off my helmet and shoes.  Fumbled a little with the socks and running shoes, but not terribly.  Putting socks on dry feet was much easier.  I run hard out of T2.  Lot's more "Go Team" cheers and the coaches calling out "looking strong Polly!"  So much for taking it easy on the run.  All the cheering go me totally jacked up and I couldn't help myself.  Somehow despite what I had been saying to most people about just not going crazy on the run, I went crazy on the run.  With no watch on I had no idea how much time I had been out on the course, and I had no idea what type of pace I was doing.  I just ran.  It wasn't pretty and as I got further away from the park and the crowds I started to come down from the crowd infused adrenaline.

Although the run course is flat, its hard.  There is no shade on the course and it was getting a lot warmer.  The run is where I come back into the pack.  Men go flying past me, as do the younger women that I passed on the bike.  Each time I see a woman pass I check out the age on the calf.  I'm seeing 30s, 40s and an occasional 50 year old.  I'm feeling pretty confident that I'm ahead of my competition.  However since I don't know how many women are in my age group or who any of them are it could all be a crap shoot.  I'll admit the day before the race when I was up at the race site to do a swim clinic and scope things out, the old inner tri-geek was hoping to see an entry list.  That did not happen.  Nothing I could do, but just run the best I could and hang on for dear life.

The run course also has an out and back portion so I did get to see some of my teammates and give a high five or two.  I don't know if it was because I didn't really care that I might be giving away valuable time with the high fives, or that I was so confident I was kicking butt.  I just like giving the high fives and give a little encouragement.  I also needed those high fives and shouts of encouragement.  There aren't a lot of spectators on the run course.  Thank goodness for the two water stops.  The way the course was set up, I could get water from both stations twice.  With the heat the way it was, I grabbed two cups.  One cup to drink and another to dump on my head.

I sure was happy to get off the hot pavement and running back into the park.  The crowd was cheering a lot and the positive energy bjust pushed me.  I sprinted to the finish line. I don't even remember if I was trying to pass anyone or just felt like bringing it in hard.  As I crossed the finish line I jumped for joy.  I became a triathlete again.  It was a wonderful feeling to cap my comeback on a happy note. Looking at the finish line clock I finally had a sense of what I did.  Seeing the time of 1:25:40 up there made me very happy.  I wasn't sure I could break 1:30.  I guess I was wrong.

Part of the Team in Training experience in the bonding that goes on between teammates.  An important part of that is being around the finish to cheer in one's teammates as they arrive at the finish.  Most races all I want to do is scarf down as much food as I can get a hold of, find a massage table and just veg until the results are posted.  I did grab a bagel to scarf down, but I was anxious to get back t the finish line and watch my teammates come in. They had announced the results were posted. I didn't rush over there to see where I placed.  I could find that out after the last TNt'er arrived.

The picture below shows the true nature of teamwork.  When our last teammate came into the park, we came out to greet her, and run her in. This is a Team in Training tradition to bring in the last participant. It's the team being behind everyone.  It's a cool thing to see and to be part of.  This was truly one of the best teams I've ever been a part of.  There was just an amazing amount of energy and enthusiasm.  Although many of my teammates could have been my daughters.  It makes me feel young being around these energetic young women.  I look forward to doing Jardin Westchester Triathlon with some of the same people.  I'm already fundraising for that event.  Click here if you want to join me in my efforts to raise another $3,000 bringing my combined total to $6,000 for 2014.

T Together

E Everyone

A Achieves 

M More

Oh, by the way I did manage to make my way over to the results sheets, and yes the old tri-geek came through with another age group win.  However the comeback kid was part of the equation too.  The old tri-geek pushed herself hard.  The comeback kid didn't let her get crazy over wetsuit issues and watch malfunctions

Progress Report

Almost a month has past since I announced my triathlon comeback plan. There have a few bumps in the road along the way, but no major disasters. There was the one Wednesday where I kind of overdid things. Let's see...walk/run in the morning, Tae Kwon Do in the afternoon, and killer spin class in the evening. I woke up the next morning with my joints cursing at me. I had several choices for that day. I could drag my aching body out of bed and do one of the following:

A. Go ride my bike with the guys.
B. Tae Kwon Do at 10:00 am in White Plains.
C. Tae Kwon Do at noon in Scarsdale.
D. Tae Kwon Do at 7:00 pm in White Plains.
E. None of the above.

Considering that I rolled over and went back to sleep until 9:30 A and B were promptly eliminated as choices. As the day progressed and I felt just as lousy as I did in the morning, option E became more and more appealing. It was a wise choice, because by the weekend I had a miserable cold. I think in my old age I'm getting a little smarter about how I'm training. Some things have not changed in my triathlon training. The following two screen shots from Cyclometer shows why.

 Saturday's ride with YTD mileage.

 Monday's walk/run with YTD mileage

My training is still heavily geared towards biking.  However considering that I was riding on New Years Day and my first walk/run day was March 8th I don't think I'm doing so bad.  Though if the winter had been so crappy I might have over a 1000 miles on the bike.  I am not recording my swimming on any phone app.  I don't care how water tight the various phone cases are, I am not strapping my phone on my waist and swimming with it to record yardage.  I will count laps and figure out yardage the old fashioned way. 

The biggest challenge is not trying to work three sports into my week.  The biggest challenge is trying to work four sports into my week.  I'm bringing new meaning to the term "double workout days."  Instead of it being the typical bike in the morning/swim in the evening or bike in the morning/run in the afternoon, it's bike in the morning/Tae Kwon Do in the evening or Tae Kwon Do in the morning/run in the evening.  After that bad Wednesday of the walk-run/Tae Kwon Do/spin combo, I'm going to try to avoid the triple workout day.  Though if I'm preparing for a Tae Kwon Do test I may have a triple day here and there.

Tri-ing For a Comeback

I last made an entry in the blog in February of 2012.  Much has happened since then.  I did make it through the 100 day challenge, but did not workout 356 days.  I did make it to 2nd degree Black Belt in November of 2012.  That was pretty much right on target for me.

 2nd Dan Black Belt

In 2013 I decided I wanted to get involved with Team in Training again.  It had been 5 years since my last event with them.  I missed the camaraderie of being part of a team that was involved in raising money to help The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in their mission finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma and other other blood cancers.  With my cycling comeback completed with exception of hardcore racing and a century, I opted to do America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride (AMBBR) in Lake Tahoe.  A 100 miles of some of the most amazing scenery and some challenging hills, made for quite a wonderful ride.  I don't know how long it took me to do it, or what my speed was.  My cycling app ate up my phone battery before I was done.  That was fine.  This ride wasn't about how fast I could do it.  Competition was not on the menu.

Lunch stop around 70 mile mark. 

Getting ready for a kick ass 8 mile climb ahead.

Now it's 2014 and my love affair with Team in Training continues.  I was all set to do AMBBR again. I signed up, went to the kick-off party, and then found out I had a major conflict the weekend of the ride.  So what was I to do?  When I bid triathlon farewell back in 2009, I told people maybe I would make my comeback when I hit a new age group.  Guess what? I'm turning 60 next month, and I'm now in a new age group. 60-64.  I am making my triathlon comeback at the Sleepy Hollow Sprint Triathlon on June 29th as member of Team in Training.  I'm mentoring 5 new team members and I'm excited to be coming back to the sport.

BUT! I have not run in years, and this sprint triathlon is clearly a runner's race with a 5K run and only a 10 mile bike ride. So what's an old uber-competitive tri-geek to do? Three words: Get over it!  I am pretty much starting from scratch with the running.  I downloaded C25K (Couch to 5K) app onto my phone, and I'm going to follow it to the letter.  I can't do with running what I did with cycling a few years ago where I went from 30 miles a week to 75 miles a week to 150 miles a week in the course of a month.  I have to slowly convince my cranky knees and hips that running is their friend.

Day 1 of C25K

Group run training with TNT

I completed day 2 of the program today. The first week is a  30 minute workout. 5 minute walk warm up followed by intervals of 60 seconds running/90 seconds walking and ends 5 minute cool down.  I like the app because I can listen to my music and the app tells me when to walk and when to run without me having to constantly look at my phone or watch.  Also it will keep me honest in terms of building up properly.

This blog is making a comeback to as I keep track of my triathlon comeback. Come on back and follow my journey.  In the meantime go check out my donation page.

100 day Challenge: 1 month down!

I got through the entire month of January with at least 30 minutes of "intentional movement" every single day.  Most days it was easy to get my 30 minutes in.  The simplest days were when I went out and rode my bike or took Tae Kwon Do class.  I actually got out and rode 320 miles during the month of January.  I don't remember the last time I got out on my bike that much.

There were a few days where I was not convinced I was going to do 30 minutes of exercise.  There was last Monday when I had to work and couldn't take my regular Tae Kwon Do class.  It was miserable rainy day so taking a run or a walk outdoors wasn't really an option.  I'm rather a wimp when it comes to running in the rain when it's 40 degrees out.  So without the benefit of a home gym, treadmill or a bike on a wind trainer one has to become creative.   It was time to do Grandmaster Kim's bowing meditations.  This is something he really feels strongly about his students doing on a daily basis.  I'm not very disciplined about these types of things. 

It's hard to describe exactly what a bowing meditation move is.  I tried to describe in words and then decided there must be something on YouTube.  Sure enough there.  This video isn't exactly how we do it our Tae Kwon Do school, but you'll get the gist of how it goes.  It is a good workout.



I set the timer on my iPhone for 15 minutes and do them. I gave up trying to count.  I'm sure the yoga folks wouldn't approve of my music choice.  I listen to Christian rock worship music while doing it.  Listening to a Christian artist such as Chris Tomlin while doing the bows helps me to focus on God. The time actually passes quickly.  I do them using my hands to lower myself of go down one leg at a time.  It does work the quad muscles and stretches out the back.  After the bows a did a little weight training.  I'm using some of the upper body workouts in the Women's Body for Life book.

This routine works well for me so at least I've found something I go do indoors when all attempts of outdoor activity fails.  I do have some challenges facing me in the upcoming weeks.  Weekend work and some travel will make it so I'll have to force myself to GMBOOBEAE.  That stands for Get My Butt Out Of Bed Early And Exercise.

Stay tuned as I continue to work my way through this journey of movement for the sake of moving.

My Newest Quest: 100 Day Challenge

It's almost the end of January.  I'm not one to make New Years resolutions.  I do look to set goals for the up coming year.  Is there a difference?  I think so.  Most New Years resolutions go something like this;

"I resolve to go to the gym x days a week."

"I resolve to lose x number of pounds by December 31st."

"I resolve to stop doing __________. (pick your own vice)"

These are admirable things to aim for, but as soon one doesn't go to the gym x times a week, doesn't lose weight at the rate wanted, or starts doing _____ again she feels like a failure.  That usually leads to beating up on one's self and just throwing in the towel.

I have two very concrete goals for myself in terms of my sporting life.

1. Get my second degree Black Belt.
2. Do a triathlon again. (sprint or Olympic)

All of this being said, I've decided to accept John "The Penguin" Bingham's 100 day challenge.  The basic premise is this; "You can be a part of it. The rules are simple. Choose to move, intentionally, for 30 minutes every day for the first 100 days of 2012. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you do it ON PURPOSE."

Why do I need to do this? After all I've trained for triathlons, marathons, bike races, centuries, Tae Kwon Do, etc.  Don't I already do enough? Yes and no.  I can do plenty when I have people to ride with and Tae Kwon Do classes to attend.  It's those days when it's too cold to ride outdoors, or I can't make it to Tae Kwon Do.  Can I get myself out the door to take a walk or a run in the cold?  If it's too miserable outside can I get myself to do a little strength training, Tae Kwon Do practice, or *gasp* set up the wind trainer and ride indoors?

I admit it. I am lazy and I hate doing things by myself.  It's hard for me to drag my lazy butt out the door to go run, bike or walk by myself.  I want someone to talk to while I'm doing these things.  Sometimes I think I just workout for the social aspect of it.  It's probably a carryover from my youth where sports were my in with the cool kids.  Would I be so devoted to exercise if I never could do it with anyone?  I'm not so sure.  There were  many times where I couldn't bike because I was injured.  Instead of finding an alternative, I would just eat my way through my pity party.  The idea of taking a walk by myself to keep some level of fitness was not on my radar.

I know that exercise is important both physically and emotionally.  As someone who is closer to 60 then 50 I recognize the need to keep moving.  Last year a friend had recommended reading "Younger Next Year" There's woman specific version of the book.  It's an interesting book.  Basically the authors are saying exercise 6 days a week to help turn back the clock.  I'm sure not everyone agrees with their advice, but I think the overall premise is sound.  For me the 100 Day Challenge is to encourage me to keep moving even when I have no one to keep me company.  Though in some ways I do have company.  There's a Facebook page where everyone is sharing what they're doing each day.  Also I have friends who are also doing it.

My original intent was to write this post on January 1st.  Then share  how I'm doing with the challenge. Okay I'm 25 days late.  Being the procrastinator I am, that should be no surprise.  Better late, then never.  Obviously since I went to the trouble to write this post, I'm still on track.  Tae Kwon Do classes, Gimbels and unemployment rides have filled up many of these January days so far.  However I managed to get my 30 minutes in despite traveling for a chess tournament and dealing with very cold weather. 

Day 26 awaits!!

One Year Later.....I'm melting!

It's a year to the day that I last wrote on this blog.  I was in a frenzy trying to figure out what clothes I could take with me to Korea that were going to fit.  I was totally frustrated by an agonizingly slow rate of weight loss.  I was totally convinced that trying to lose any significant amount of weight as a woman in her mid-50s was impossible.  Guess what? I was totally wrong on that count.

A lot has happened since I last wrote here.  I suppose nobody out there necessarily knows or cares.  When one writes a blog entry once a year, the chances that anyone is still following are slim and none. It said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  So I figure this series of before and after pictures will tell my story better then I can.  Each set of pictures are taken approximately 1 year apart.  Each set marks the before and after of different areas of my life

Christmas

My sisters and I are very close.  We always spend Christmas together at my sister Anne's house.  It's a wonderful time of family being together with a lot of good food and drink.  It's three days of eating, drinking and being merry.  Christmas 2009 ended out being a very stressful event having fallen down the steps and breaking my ankle less then a week before.  Would I be able to manage a car ride to up state New York?  Come hell or high water I was going to make that trip.  No way I was spending Christmas at home.  Could I make my chocolate chunk cookies for my sisters, while dealing with a leg that I could put no weight on for two weeks?  The answer to those questions was yes.

Christmas Eve, 2009

Christmas 2010 was a whole lot easier.  With all the food and drink related activities it's not the time to be counting calories and obsessing about being perfectly on program.  I did not obsess, but I was mindful of how much I ate or drank at any particular meal.  The new me realizes she has to make choices.  Is it a slice of pecan pie or another one of my decadent chocolate chip cookies? No brainer. The cookies win out every time.

 Christmas Eve, 2010
Floyd and I together weigh less then I did a year ago.
(No; Floyd is not my dog.)

Tae Kwon Do has become a big part of my life style change. In 2007 when I was looking for something I could do in the winter that did not involve mind numbing laps in the pool, or trips to the gym. Tae Kwon Do filled the bill quite nicely.  It was something completely different and involved using my mind and body in a whole new way.  I thought it would be something I'd do for the workout and discipline, but not worry about belt promotions.  I should have known better.

The Tae Kwon Do dobak (uniform) is baggy and not the most flattering article of clothing.  "Does this outfit make me look fat?" Yes it does.  It was looking in the mirror and seeing the rolls of belly fat hanging over my uniform pants that motivated me to do something about it.  I wanted to get back to "fighting weight" by the time I tested for Black Belt in November 2010. My definition of "fighting weight" was my WW goal weight of 130.

May 17th, 2010

The above picture was taken at our retreat where the Black Belt test was taking place.  That was the Black Belt test I was originally scheduled to do.  Broken bones happen, so that was not my test.  Though it might as well been, since I did all the same stuff at the retreat that the testing candidates did.  I looked at it as a dress rehearsal for when my time would come in November.

My Black Belt test was Saturday November 20th, 2010.  On Friday November 19th I weighed in at my Weight Watchers meeting and tipped the scales at 127 pounds.  "Fighting weight" and then some.  It was few weeks later that the new Points Plus program came out.  35 daily points for maintenance, and another 49 weekly allowance points??  What? Were they kidding?

 May 19th, 2011

To go from First Degree Black Belt to Second Degree Black Belt there are 8 intermediate tests to be done.  Each test involves performing one or two new forms that have been learned since the previous test, and being prepared to do any form that one has learned as a color belt.  The above picture was taken after my second test. "Does this outfit make me look fat?"  No.  That because 28 pounds went away between pictures.

June 28, 2010

If you go back and reads old posts from this blog you will realize that at one point I was a serious cyclist and triathlete.  Sometimes priorities and interests change.  In April 2010 I had completed my physical therapy and started back on the road to Black Belt.  I think having had my share of mishaps on the bike I decided not to make much of an effort to become a cyclist who could go hammer with the guys.  I also wasn't convinced I would ever get back into the kind of shape I was in during 2003 - 2005.  Cycling last year consisted of an occasional ride on the Bronx River Parkway during Bicycle Sundays, or showing up at the tail end of the unemployment ride and coming back with the group. I thought 56 was too old to make yet another comeback after a setback like my broken ankle.

June 30, 2011

I was wrong about being too old to make a comeback.  I wasn't too old. I was just too overweight.  It's a lot easier getting back into cycling condition when one is not carrying around so much weight.  I started out slowly with short rides and meeting people at the end of rides.  A few weeks ago I decided I would just go up Central Avenue with the Gimbels ride and then head south once I got to North White Plains.  I got to North White Plains and decided "What the heck.  Let me see if I can make it to Otto's route.  The worst that will happen is I'll get dropped.  Then I'll go down Lake St."  I didn't get dropped so I just said "Screw it.  I'm finishing the ride."  Never mind it was going to be close to 10 miles longer then my previous long ride of the season.

Sometimes I just lose patience with easing back into things.  Here it is 3 weeks later and I've had put in 180+ miles for the week.  So much for the 10% rule.  I went from 30 miles a week to 75 to 180.  Do as I say, not as I do.  If you asked me how to get back into training form I'd tell you to take it slowly and ease back into the weekly mileage.  So much for my doing that.

One of the problems with bumping up my activity like that is not adjusting my food intake accordingly.  This weeks weigh in I was down another 1.8 pounds.  I don't want lose anymore weight.  I've been holding steady since March once I figured out how much I could eat, and what amount of weight was reasonably maintainable.  Now I've got to play around with my points again, and 

Here it is almost a year later and I'm getting ready to go on another trip.  Once again I'm dealing with my damn clothes don't fit.  However this time I'm coming across things that are too big. What a difference a year makes.

Hopefully I'll come back here more then once a year.  I'm not aiming to become the crazed triathlete I once was.  I'm running a little bit, but only 30-40 minutes.  I'm slow as crap.  I'm not sure I'm ready to do triathlons running 12 minute miles.  I was kind of hoping that wasn't going to happen until I hit my mid 60s.  I would like to perhaps do a low key sprint race somewhere before the end of the season, but it won't make or break me if I don't.

+0.4 and none of my damn clothes fit!!

I tracked everything, exercised a lot, but....gained .4.  It's kind of frustrating when that happens.  Today I actually got up early and rode up Central Avenue with the group instead meeting them at the tail end of the ride.  I saw a number of people who I had not seen in awhile.  One woman said she hadn't seen me in a long time.  I told her I hadn't been doing much riding.  Her response was "I know. You've put all the weight back on."  Ouch, that was a kick in the proverbial balls.  I haven't put it all back on.  I managed to stay under 150, but I'm well over what I want to be.

The good things about this week: I rode my bike Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  I did Tae Kwon Do on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.  Friday was the first meeting for bodan review class.  All talking and no doing.

The bad thing about this week: Not losing anything, and to make it worse gaining.  I guess I may have to horde my weekly allowance points, and not use so many every day.

Tuesday I leave for Korea.  I started packing today.  I couldn't find this one pair of capri pants that I was looking for, so I kept digging out others.  None of them fit.  Some I could get zipped and buttoned, but they were way too uncomfortable.  Others I couldn't even zip up.  It's really frustrating to have tons of clothes, and most of them don't fit.  I was even having trouble with some shirts that I bought two years ago.  Damn boobs have gotten too big, so the shirts don't fit well either.  I refuse to buy anything else.  I just will make do with what does fit. 

I did finally find the pants I was looking for.  They were stashed away in some bin that I had not looked in before.  I find it kind of embarrassing that I have so many clothes that I have to keep some of them in bins stashed in corners or under the bed.  But what makes it worse is so little of them fit right now.  I don't even know what to get rid of until I lose enough weight to figure out what will really fit.  I'm afraid the size 4 pants may never fit again, but I'd like to at least get into the 6s.

How will I fare with my weight on this vacation? Unclear.  Korean food is not my favorite cuisine.  On my last trip there were times when it was challenging to find something I liked besides rice.  However I can only take so much white rice before my insides are screaming for fiber.  Brown rice does not seem to exist there. Kimchi is most prevalent there.  I tried it, but too bitter or spicy.

 Jeonju Bipimbap - Traditional Korean meal

Wonderful vegetarian restaurant we went to.

It was hard to believe that some of the tofu items weren't really meat.

I finally got some broccoli!

Hopefully I can get through this trip without doing too much damage to the waistline. 

Alive and Kicking - Update

The weight loss journey has taken off in fits and sputters.  I'm like a car that needs a tune up before going a long road trip.  The short trips have had a few glitches in them.  Week 2 I had lost the big walloping .4 lbs.  Yes that's a decimal place in front of the 4.  That was despite being really good about tracking what I ate.   I think perhaps I need to fine tune exactly how many of my WA points  I use.  In the past I've tried to hardly use any of them, but then I'm eating in a manner that's unsustainable.  This time I decided I would use them, but I had to tweak things a bit.

 I attend meetings on Friday mornings.  I like this one particular leader and Friday morning is a convenient time to catch one of her meetings.  I was a little bummed by the minuscule weight loss, but I couldn't dwell on it because that weekend was our Tae Kwon Do school's black belt testing weekend.  Even though I wasn't testing for black belt, I still had my Bodan Keup 2 test to do.  Besides it was going to be a great weekend of training and testing.

I got through the weekend without too many food mishaps.  I tried to make good food choices as much as possible.  However the training and testing sessions were long and intense so I didn't feel bad about the piece of cake with Saturday night's dinner.  Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend.

Working on my side kick.

I'm standing on the bad leg!

Board breaking with my hand.

Graduation Day!

Me, Marguerite & Susan

Marguerite and I spent many hours training together last Fall getting ready for this big day.  However a trip down the front steps caused me to take a detour so my big day will come in November.  It was a great weekend, and gave me a chance to see what I'm going to have to do in the Fall.

Week 3 I was down 1.2 pounds so that was encouraging.  However 10 days of vacation wiped out that loss, and by the time I came back I was up 1.8 pounds.  After a few weeks of fiddling around, I got myself back on eTools and tracking again.  Last Friday I was down 3 pounds.  Hurray!

The other piece to this weight loss journey is making friends with my bike again.  I'm not ready to go hammer out those 50 mile rides of 4 years ago.  I'm going out 3 days a week and have gotten up to a longest ride of 23 miles.  The rides aren't very fast, but I'm doing them.  It's hard to get excited about riding without having some sort of competitive goal.  At the moment I have no interest in even trying to run again.  I don't know if I had someone to do it with whether that would help or not.  It probably would.  I don't enjoy training on my own.  I like being with people.  My rides coincide with meeting up with my old group for the last part of the ride when the pace has slowed down.

My club uniform is fitting a little tight at the moment.  My gut is sticking out, and I got those jelly rolls on the sides.  Sometimes I feel as though losing the weight isn't going to make them go away.  However if I can get rid of these 12 pounds it should help.  Maybe I need a "gut-be-gone" machine.