Thru Endurance We Conquer!

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Finally! The training schedule and the weather cooperated. On a day where I'm supposed to rest and just work of school work, clean the house, play with the cat, the weather is such that I'm not even tempted to go outside. It's 22 degrees and I don't want to know what the wind chill is. The flag outside the window hasn't had a rest since I woke up this morning. So I will gladly behave myself and go back to work on my paper.

The promised storm seems to be moving in. It's only 23 degrees out, and the wind is blowing. So far, the snow is not sticking to the roads, but there's a good coating on the grass and the rooftops. It will get icy tonight, I'm sure. Hopefully, we won't get a heavy accumulation of snow. I'm not ready to move inside for all my workouts yet. I'm very happy that I was able to do my workout at CTS today, instead of down in the garage. I got a good session in on the Computrainer , and really felt good riding. I was able to hit and hold the targeted watts and HR. Things are definitely coming along. I'm getting ansy for Silverman now - it's the last race of the year. Now I'm home, sitting at my computer working on my last class project for my DPT. It's the perfect day to knock this darn paper out. I've got a cup of Christopher Bean's Pumpkin Spice coffee to keep me warm. I really like this flavor - it's mild, but the spice notes are right...

I started my new job today - spent the day following the other PT around so I knew how things were done in the hospital. I almost felt like a new grad again! I think it will be a good change from what I was doing before - challenging my skills a little. The whole clinical team - nurses, respiratory and therapy seems to work really well together. Everyone was very helpful today. The good thing about this is I'm still going to be working and maintaining my PT skills, but I'm per deim, so I'm not expected to work 40 hours. I'll be covering Mondays and other vacations. Enough hours that I can pay my bills, but not enough that I'm compromising my training. That's what I want right now. I also want the ability to return to PT full time if things don't work out with triathlons. I haven't had to get up really early in 6 weeks. It was so pretty this morning, with the sunrise and the snow on the mountains. The clouds were tinged with gold and pink when I drove to ...

So I'm heading out for my workout, cruising up Mesa Ave in the aerobars. All of a sudden, the bike jumps about four inches to the side and lurches. I'm on the hood, grabbing the brakes, going "what the...." Look around, and there's this very disoriented squirrel sitting in the middle of the road. Didn't seem to be hurt, because it dashed back into bushes pretty quickly. But man, to think that a "cute" little squirrel could nearly cause me to crash. I swear - it's a grudge match between the squirrels and moving vehicles - they know they can't tackle the cars, so they're going after the cyclists. Be on the look out for attack squirrels.

Today more then made up for last weekend. It was already 60 degrees out at 8:30, and looked to be warming up fast. I rode with Tracy H, on Buckhorn and Captn Jacks. It was such fun - a perfect day for a ride, and just the two of us. The boys went off to do something longer and more insane - Jone's Downhill. I rode up to Stratton with Nick, then the group rode to the Buckhorn turnoff together. There were eight of us total, and we must have looked like a band of mountain bike ruffians heading up Gold Camp road. There wasn't as much traffic on Gold Camp as I expected, but the main parking lot was packed!! There were cars down Cheyenne Canyon road, double parked in the dirt. I almost thought we were at the mall the day of some huge sale. What do we expect, with this being such a nice weekend? The first part of Gold Camp was a little crowded, but once Tracy and I turned off onto Buckhorn , we had the trail to ourselves. We saw two hikers on the ride up. It was very loose and gra...

After my sucessful, but lacklust season, I decided that I needed some help with training, planning workouts, ect. I felt like I was kind of floundering with trying to manage swimming, biking and running, and figuring out what I needed to do to improve in all three areas. After doing some research, I decided that the best fit was with CTS here in Colorado Springs. I know other athletes who have had huge successes working with CTS. I'm really looking forward to this partnership - I can now put my energy into training and recovering and let my coach build the training program. It's one more peice to the puzzle and one that will pay dividends later in my career. Visit http://www.trainright.com/ to see how the coaching staff at Carmichael Training Systems can help you reach your goals.

There is something rebellious about eating traditional breakfast foods for lunch. I had French Toast with black berries, some coconut and maple syrup for lunch after my run. It was really good, too. One of those random thoughts that really no one cares about....

Last weekend, Nick and I headed down to Lake Pueblo State Park for a test run of the camper. We had a big weekend of training planned, with riding and running every day. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with our plans! We got out of Colorado Springs just before the nasty sleet moved in and motored down to Pueblo at our stately 55mph. At least the semis weren't flying past! Everyone else was... But that's why it the Road Turtle! After a quick grocery stop, we got the campground and hooked into the electricity. There was no live water, but with the weather like it was, we didn't want to take a chance with filling up the tanks and having things freeze. Besides, there will be no live water down in Old Pueblo's 24 Hour Town, either. We got things unpacked and fussed around for a while. The biggest issue was that Nick could not get the furnace to put out hot air. It was a good thing that we bought a little heater fan at Target. Other wise, that would have been one...

I've got the photos from the New Endland trip up. Don't worry, no pictures of my bloody socks or my heel. I prefer the fall foliage and course photos. http://picasaweb.google.com/TracyThelen.triathlete/NewHamshireAndMaineMarathons #

For the record, this is not the first time that I have run a Saturday-Sunday Marathon combo. It's just been a while since the last one, and I was training for faster marathons and running more mileage back then. But with the cost of travel, trying to complete the 50 states would be out of the question without pulling a few crazy stunts.

I'm lucky that Bristol, NH has a Rite Aide. Otherwise, finding the things I needed to doctor my blister for the Maine Marathon would have been challenging. After the New Hampshire marathon, I cleaned my heel as best as I could, then covered it with a paper towel and duct tape. It was all that I had availible at the time! Once we got to Rite Aide, I spent nearly $30.00 on stuff. Neosporin, 2x2 gauze, large water proof bandaides, tegaderm, and finally athletic tape. I was set. With that I would be able to cover and protect my heel enough to get through the second marathon. We got to the University of Southern Maine just in time to get our race numbers for the marathon. After that, the 50 States Club was having a reunion, so we decided to hang out with the group for while. It was fun. They had a speaker and a short skit, then handed out awards for the most recent finishers. There was one gentleman who had just finished his 8th trip around the states. That's over 400 marathons! I m...

New Hampshire is done. This was a wet, cold day, but the course is still really pretty. We ran around Newfound Lake, just north of Bristol. Hilly, but very pretty. It was just to bad that we didn't get to see much besides clouds and rain. A cold front moved in last night and we woke up to a steady mist and heavy clouds. No spectacular views of Newfound Lake during this edition. Before the race started, I met up with a guy from Boston who had done a number of Ironmans. We ended up running the same pace, along with two other guys from Birmingham, AL. They were father and son, and were natives of the area. Between them telling stories about the lake and tri guy discribing all his races, we were a chatty crew until about mile 11. Then things started getting quiet. It's an interesting and predictible phenomenom. As soon as people start feeling the distance and see the distance still to go, the chatter stops. We were still running smoothly as a group through 13, just not talking as m...

In Concord, NH, getting ready to head up to Bristol for the New Hampshire Marathon. If the weather cooperates, it promises to be a really pretty race. The leaves are just starting to turn and the colors are awesome. We make a big deal of the aspens changing in Colorado, but it's nothing compared to out here. There's so much more then just the aspen gold, with oranges, reds and yellows all mixed in with the green. Haven't gotten any pictures yet, will try to get the camera out later. On a different note, I tried somthing new on my last ride. I normally mix a MotorTab with a few just plain GUs. It's a good mix of electrolytes and calories and is easy on my stomach. There is also very little flavor - just the flavor of the MotorTab. This time, I uses the strawberry bannana GU with an orange MotorTab. It was really good - like a fruit smoothie. Definitly something to keep in mind for races and training in the future.