NOLA 70.3

2 weeks ago I participated in the Ochsner New Orleans Ironman 70.3. I was really excited to compete in this event, my first attempt at this distance. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run. I was super excited that it was to take place in New Orleans, one of my hometowns. Even better, a lot of it went through New Orleans East(aka: the old neighborhood). I felt like I had a homefield advantage and that all my family gone before me would be there to guide me by spirit. I knew i would not be defeated that day.

Saturday i picked up my race packet and checked in my bike. My bike was definitely on the low end of the financial spectrum in the field. Even so, I felt pretty uncomfortable leaving Betty White(yes, that's the name of my bike. also sometimes called the prancing unicorn or ragin bull). Luckily, she was there waitning for me when I arrived Sunday morning.

As I was walking into the transition setup area I heard rumblings in the crowd that the swim was being cancelled due to bad conditions on Lake Pontchartrain. These rumors were confirmed by the voice on the loud speaker. My heart immediately sank(or is it sunk?). I felt defeated before I even started. I thought about it for a while and decided to change my outlook. It's better to choose on the side of safety than have a competitor or safety patrol volunteer be injured, or worse....

All i could do was compete in the race set before me, and thats what I did. My plan was to average a little over 16 mph on the bike ride. I averaged 18.1 and finished in 3 hours and 5 minutes. Thats about 25-30 minutes faster than I had planned. The ride was tough though. The first half of the ride was almost directly into the wind. As the route was along or near the lake there was very little to break the breeze. I kept telling myself just to keep pedalling and get to the turn around. It was like riding in a wind tunnel. But, I survived and reached the turnaround. I jetted back to the transition area and was super excited when i realized what my time was.

I got throught transition pretty quick and got out on the run. I felt like the run would be my weakest area. I trained pretty hard for the swim and bike, but knew I could have trained harder for the run. I passed a lot of people on the bike and i quickly began to see some of those people pass me on the run. It didn't hurt my pride. I was happy for those people. But, I had a plan and iIwas going to stick to it: find a comfortable pace and keep rollin'.

I found my groove and just kept going, running the entire 13.1, except for a couple powerade stops that I walked through because I feared I would spill orange powerade on my new shoes(that makes more sense if you know the love affair I have with my running shoes). I never doubted that I would finish and did finish the run in 2hrs 55mins., about 10 mins faster than i anticipated.

All together I finished in 6hrs and 5 minutes.

The time in the picture is off because I started an hiur after the pros.

I was very pleased with the way it turned out. But, as much as I want to say I completed a 70.3(miles) the fact is I only did 69.1. I couldn't bring my self to buy a shirt or even a sticker for my car. Don't worry, I'll get that badge of honor next year, and I'll get it even faster. My preparation has already begun.

Team Pegasus 2011 was formed as Mom and Tom came out for support me in this endeavor, as did Kelley and her Dad who drove down from Ohio. There were also lots of early morning texts from my Dad offering encouragement. Thanks to you all.

Special Thanks to:
Kelley-  For being the most supportive and encouraging GF ever, and for being an excellent nutritionist.
Mom and Tom- for your tireless support of my crazy ideas and for your knowledge of the NOLA back streets.
The Commander, Kelley's Dad- for letting me ride my bike in your garage during the Christmas holidays, and for driving 16 hours just to see me(because I know it had nothing to do with your grandsons 1st birthday)
Steve, My Brother- for being encouraging in my training and always making me feel like I am Awesome.
Steven,  "The Freight Train" -my excellent cycling partner. Thanks for pushing me on our training rides and for doing all the talking on our runs.
Heidi, "Wildcat Safety Coordinator"- for amusing me on those long bike rides and making sure we had safe routes to ride on.
Dad- for being there at my race last may and for your early morning race day texts, a good boost of confidence.
Sadie& Lily- Great running partners, and Brady too.
Bent Rim Bicycle Club- Roll Tide!!!
and finally...

Emile Zatopek, "The Human Locomotive"(also known as the man in the little picture frame)1952, Helsinki, 3 gold medals. Unstoppable!!!

Unstoppable

It's 4 days until the New Orleans IronMan 70.3

I feel ready, most of the time. But as I have never done this distance I sometimes get overwhelmed by it. Sometimes I wonder if...

But then I cut my self off and remind myself that I am "Unstoppable".

That's my mantra, "Unstoppable".

One word that says it all. One word that keeps me going.

Unstoppable

One word that reminds me of all those who were not, and how I will not be one of them. One word that reminds me of those who overcame, fought through, and earned their glory.

Unstoppable.

Looking back on my training I can see where I could have done more, worked harder, not skipped a session. But I also see many days where i was worn down, tired, and sleepy. On those days I dug down deep, and got in my workout. On those days I was unstoppable.

I think of the days when my legs were tired, still I pounded out a 40 mile ride. The days when my knee was sore, still I ran for an hour(followed by ice). The days when my shoulders, neck, and arms were tired, but I still swam a mile. On those days i was unstoppable.

I think towards Sunday. Will Lake Pontchartrain be smooth as glass or will it be like swimming in a washing machine? It doesn't matter, I am unstoppable.

Will the bike course be like riding into a wind tunnel on the way out, only to have the winds shift when i reach the turn around so that I ride into the wind the whole way? It doesn't matter, I am unstoppable.

While running, will the temperture shoot up to the low 90's in the afternoon, as it often does in NOLA? It doesn't matter. I am unstoppable.

I don't claim to know much, or to be an expert at anything. But I do know that I have worked hard. Though I may not finish fast, and I will likely win  no style points, I know that i will finish. Because there is only one word that will be on my mind for 70.3 miles.....

Unstoppable.

A scary thought

A very scary thought just crossed my mind. I was sitting in class a few minutes ago watching my class prepare for their graduation exit exam. They were supposed to be working in groups, review a key concepts packet. What they were actually doing was everything other than what they were supposed to be doing. I waited a few minutes to see how it would go, they got worse and worse, louder and louder as the minutes went by until I finally, what's the word? Exploded on to them verbally about what the were doing, and what they will be doing the rest of class. I'm pretty good at that and so they went from groups to individual study time and class ended a short time later without incident.

But, as they were working I thought to myself, "I am gonna hate to see what its like when their kids get this age."

Then the really scary thought popped into my head. Most of the parents of these kids are in my general age group. We always say things weren't like this when we were in school . But these kids had to get this behavior from somewhere.

Did my generation drop the ball?

Maybe, maybe not. Alls I know is its getting worse and there seems to be no end in sight.

Crap, thats an even scarier thought than the other one.

Oxbow Triathlon 2011 report

This past weekend i competed in the Oxbow Triathlon in New Roads, La. Unfortunately I have no pics to post but I will give you the low down anyway

I completed the swim 4 minutes faster than last year, completed the bike 10 minutes faster than last year, ran 4 minutes faster than last year, and was faster in the transitions for a total of beating my previous time by 20 minutes. I am pretty excited about those results and feel like I have gained a lot of confidence in my abilities. That confidence will come in handy in less than 2 weeks when I competed in the Half-IronMan in New Orleans on April 19th.

For now, it's time to get in these last couple of workouts, taper, hydarate, and eat right.  At this point, the hay is in the Barn(I have always liked that expression).

For You Know Who

I just wanted to let you know that you are on my mind, because you can be so kind.
I hope the words might be worthwile, and maybe even make you smile.
Everyday when i get home, I realize that I'm alone.
Sure, Sadie and Lily are there, but i can not find you anywhere.
and speaking of Sadie, she such a sweet angel true, and even sweet baby Lily too.
But this poem is not for them, but for you. this is my ode to you know who.

My New Nickname

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I had a lot going on at school and worked really hard to keep the kiddos motivated and interested in learning about the "conflict in Vietnam". After school I had to drive a couple of the students to moot court practice at our local HBCU, then dash over to the Y to put in my laps at the pool and then make it back to school for an event called "family literacy night", where I(and some students) dazzled some parents with the wonderful things we have been doing in class.

But that's not what's important. What's important is what happened at the swim. I swam 2500 yards, or 50 laps, or 100 lengths of the pool. It's a little over a mile. I have swam this distance several times. But, yesterday I swam it 3 minutes faster than normal. No, I wasn't trying to. I was just cruising along at a comfortable pace. I guess these workouts are paying off. The beauty of it was not only that I did it faster, but that it seemed more effortless. I felt fine afterwards. And so, A new nickname popped into my head, but I will get to that in a second.

I claim several cities as my home towns. I have lived in Baton Rouge for a couple years so it is home now. My family has it's origins in New Orleans, so that's where my roots are, I spent many years in Slidell, LA. And Moms still resides there, and I lived for about 9 years(in 2 different segments) in Tuscaloosa, AL. So, you can see how I might claim different places depending on the situation. Well, Nothing catchy popped in my head that pertained to swiming and any of the Louisiana towns. But, There was one that popped into my head that pertained to my years in T-Town.

"The Tuscaloosa Torpedo"

Awesome, I know.

Runners up were:
The New Orleans Drunken-Hurricane
The Slidell Slug
The Baton Rouge Manatee

I think I made the right choice.

So Aggravated

I love being a teacher. but these kids are driving me nuts. I could give you a list of a hundred things I love about teaching and a hundred that aggitate me. But, I know you don't want to hear all that. I will just tell you about one thing. Today, my students, my little thugs geniuses, took the first part of their graduation exit exam. They can not graduate without passing this test. I had no idea as to what was going to be on the test (the state doesn't tell us any specifics) but I focused on a few key concepts from each unit and really "hammered" on those things as we went through the year. Since taking the test this morning several students have stopped by to tell me that they thought they did well and how "easy" the history questions were and to tell me that the rules I gave them for answering essay-like questions really helped. "It was the exact stuff that you said would probably be on there". Well, I'm glad someone was listening because for everyone that said that, there was another who swore we never talked about "that" stuff.

My reply to that was: "You are correct. WE never talked that stuff. I talked about it while YOU did everything else that YOU could possibly find to do other than pay attention to what WE were talking about".

On the brightside, repeaters make it a lot easier to learn the names of my students at the beginning of each year.