Decision

Posted on April 24, 2013 by tfp_admin

In the middle of all the recent hoopla over Lance Armstrong trying to race in a Master’s swim meet in Austin a few weekends ago, a friend and fellow racer asked me publicly (on Facebook) whether or not our race promotion company (Terra Firma Racing) would allow him to compete in one of our races held throughout the state of Texas. I had thought a lot about it on my own, but sure wasn’t ready to make any political statements about it. I was scared, but I’m not sure why. Scared of what others might think of my opinion maybe, or scared I’d get a call from Lance himself.

 

I am still angry that I spent seven years believing in my hero; or so I thought. I was inspired by all he did and what he represented in cycling. To me, Lance was a local guy that grew up less than an hour from where I lived, shopped at the same bike shops, and did the same races ‘way back when’ as me. Richardson Bike Mart was one of his early sponsors, and mine as well. Here was someone that gave me hope, that even though I started cycling later in life and had kids, that I could conquer the altitude, the mountains, and anyone else younger than me if I trained hard and kept at it. I never thought he doped. Somehow, he had managed to win the Tour De France 7 times, and I was impressed and read all his books. His mountain bike skills showed through on the stages where he was knocked off his bike and got back up, or when he narrowly avoided crashing when he careened off one of the descents and managed to cut across a switchback and reenter the race without crashing. I could relate to him. He was a fighter, and so was I.

 

And then the wall came tumbling down. He was caught and made his public confession. As I watched his interview with Oprah, I thought to myself, “Wow, he is just so matter of fact.” I was hoping for more remorse I guess. He just didn’t seem emotionally sorry, and boldly stated that if he wouldn’t have made his comeback, he probably would have never been caught. And it’s not even a question now in my mind, that had that of been the case, that he would have continued to live that lie.

 

We put on a race this weekend at Reveille Peak Ranch, near Austin in the Texas Hill Country. I thought it was a possibility Lance would show up, as the sports involved were all things he excels at (swim, mountain bike, trail run). We (Terra Firma Racing) put on a 2- hour adventure race on Saturday along with a 5K and 15K trail run. On Sunday, Race Revolutions put on an off-road Triathlon, right up his alley, and mine. I half wanted to race, but left town without my wetsuit. A cold front had blown in, and the water temperature dropped to 69 degrees and was now wetsuit legal. I was one of the few that swam without one. I decided this would be good training for a cold race.

 

After getting pummeled in the swim and swallowing a few gulps of algae water too many, I exited the water with one of the worst swims of my life, in 4th place female. There was a pack of 3 girls that had exited not too far in front of me that I should have hung with. I don’t know if it was the lack of the wetsuit and being less buoyant that allowed the guys to swim over me and push me under the water, or the slugfest I was having with a few of them that left me nauseated and trying not to throw up.

 

Once on the bike I regained my composure and quickly caught one girl within the first mile of the single-track. I reeled in the other girl about 2 miles later. Then I began to get the news that I was 4 minutes off the leader, then 5 minutes, and then by lap 2, it was 8-10 minutes. You’re never really sure you are getting accurate information, but when it moves in a negative manner like that, you stop really caring.

 

I was having fun because I felt my biking was going good. I road smoothly, and the guys I passed on the technical climbs called me “Billy Goat”. I just laughed; I am the only 148 lb. billy-goat that I know of. Toward the end of the bike, with about 1 mile to go, I saw the first place guy heading out on the run. He was a mile into his run, and ran amazingly fast. My thoughts drifted to Lance. Does everyone at the front of the pack do drugs to be that fast? I think not. I think in age group racing, there are so many more racers that rely on their natural abilities, proper hydration and nutrition to get them to the finish line. In my book, why would anyone be satisfied to do performance enhancing drugs and then be content that they had beaten someone that hadn’t? 

 

I haven’t read Tyler Hamilton’s book yet, The Secret Race, but I plan to. I didn’t want to bias what I felt or wrote in this article. I think it is a shame we have drugs in so many professional sports, and I wish it could all be cleaned up. It probably never will since so much money is at stake. Athletes will have to decide for themselves what they are willing to accept morally when they are faced with making choices to race in the big leagues. If they partake, can they live with themselves when they beat someone that isn’t doing drugs?

 

For me, I will continue to be an age grouper, and had a blast out there trading positions with the guys that I have gotten to know. We had fun, and did the best we could naturally. A lady about my age with her young son told me it was an inspiration for them to watch me compete. Her son had a twinkle in his eye. Knowing that I can be an inspiration to a youngster that was just like me so many years ago, and knowing that I will never have any regrets about how I became that inspiration and athlete, makes me travel home from the race today with warm feelings inside that will last my lifetime.

 

Posted in Kathy | 11 Comments

Growing Old is not for Sissies

Posted on February 24, 2013 by tfp_admin

Growing old is not for sissies. That’s what Mimi always told me. She passed away two months ago at 81 from a glioblastoma brain tumor giving us only 6 weeks to say goodbye. She left behind a legacy of knowledge, patriotism, and love. All who were fortunate enough to know her will dearly miss her. More than ever, I will miss the simplicity with which she taught by example.

 

During these past 2 months, I struggled with keeping up my routine as I mourned for her. I became a self-labeled ‘non-fit athlete’, and I lost valuable seconds off my bike, run and swim times; seconds that are hard to regain as you age. I am now the one-lap wonder at the Northshore Trail at Lake Grapevine on my mountain bike. I put on 10 lbs. of weight ~ the quickest way to gain a cup size in your bra. It also solidly places me in the chub rub category when I run, unless I wear my body glide. And finally, I am tired of being last in the pool each day.

 

Today, I held the side of the pool in the deep end, proud that I had almost thrown up, and awaited the next command from Coach Tom to yell from his traffic cone megaphone. The ladies in the water aerobics class heard him shout and turned their heads toward the master’s swim lanes to see what was going on. I pushed off from the side and held my breath half way down the pool in hopes of the fastest 25-yard sprint time. My hand slaps the wall as a wake of water spills over the sides. My teammates and I arrive simultaneously, and I rip my goggles off to look. Still, I did not touch first. However, I did decrease my base 100 time by 5 seconds today, and had a breakthrough workout.

 

My arm muscles are tight as I sit here and peck at my keyboard. Today’s workout did its job ~ that is, it kept me a day or so younger. My left quad hurts just above the knee from yesterday’s run, and my bunion is starting to throb at random times during the day, a possible sign that I might need surgery in the near future. The athletic tape I wore in yesterday’s run to keep my heart rate monitor from rubbing my skin raw again actually worked. However, the tape irritated the remaining skin that wasn’t already raw and is making me itch like crazy. There must be a remedy for all this. Ah yes, perhaps it is youth.

 

So here I go, telling myself what Mimi told me over and over. You better like yourself as you age, what you are, and who you stand for. Be thankful for what you have, and live by example of how you want others to view you. I’ve often been told I am a role model for a lot of people, both young and old, and it’s times like these when I need to remember that and pick myself up and just “go”. It is hard to let go of being the fastest or the strongest, and step aside so that others can shine. I am working on finding comfort in just being able to “go”, rather than just being able to “go fast”. I turn 50 this year, and even though I’d never want to be called 50, I am thrilled to be racing in the 50-55 age group (you are allowed to race in the age group of your age as of the last day of the year). You probably would never hear a normal person say, “I’m in the 50 age-group (and be excited about it)!” It seems odd that an athlete wants to be classified in the oldest age group they can before they are actually that age. Isn’t that calling yourself old? It is a strange phenomenon.

 

So to keep it lighthearted and young, I got a new cross bike yesterday, a belated Christmas present. A cross bike can go on the pavement or dirt/gravel roads. You can also race it on a cross course which is often built anywhere there is some vacant land. The courses typically have obstacles where you have to dismount, jump over, and then jump back on quickly and keep pedaling. There are sand pits and hecklers that ring cow bells and either cheer for you (if you’re lucky), or make fun of you and offer you beer. It is a great winter time off-season sport here in Texas. I’ll be using mine mostly for rolling around the backcountry gravel grinders (races that use a mix of back country farm-to-market and gravel roads). I hope I see you out there. I’ll be the one with white dust pasted to my face from trying to hang on to all the young, fast wheels out there. I won’t be in the lead, but I’ll have fun holding on for dear life, and giving the fast ones something to work for. I’m back in the saddle again, and maybe, just maybe, by spring I will have rolled those extra pounds off my body and put myself back in contention for some national or world championship medals in my newly adopted age group. That…and a smile on my face that is unmistakably Mimi saying, “Come on, let’s get with it. No whining; no one said it’s going to be easy!”

 

Posted in Kathy, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

USARA Nationals – 2012

Posted on October 17, 2012 by tfp_admin

USARA Nationals, Kerhonkson, NY, 10/13/12

Team MOAT – Nathan Winkelman, Jason Winkelmann, Kathy Hudson

7th Place Coed

 

Little fat sausage links ~ brings to mind the start of a great breakfast for some. For me though, it is my feet. I just got home from 24-hour Adventure Race Nationals. I don’t know why they bother to call it a 24-hour race, when in reality, it has a 30-hour cutoff; this year’s course kept my team hostage for 28.5 hours. Just as my sausage swollen toes have subsided, only 48 hours after crossing the finish line, so too will the memories fade as I recover. The old saying, “Pain is temporary”, is true, and I guess that is what keeps us all coming back for more. If we remembered the pain, it might make it harder to sign up the next time. The nerves in my toes are still dead, but the numb and tingling sensation should go away in a few days as they regenerate.

 

My schedule is pretty full from putting on about 25 events this year, giving me very little time to race myself. It forces me to be very selective with my race choices, and lately, it has only included about 3 races a year. This race required many days of endurance training. It also required constant support from loved ones. All my training spent for the last six months for this race has been in the Texas heat. Needless to say, it was great for my endurance and how to handle the heat over an extended time, but not so good in terms of clothing choices to wear/carry for an extended cold weather race. You must pack everything for the entire race in your backpack, including water and food for up to 30 hours. It has been 9 years since I did an expedition length adventure race, and it is hard to remember the amount of food I eat per hour when staying up all night racing.

 

My teammates and I arrived in the Catskill mountains near Kerhonkson, New York 4 days early to acclimate and explore. The weather was beautiful, but the pre-race meeting the night before the race gave us the bad news; a cold front was blowing in, with rain and dropping temps.

 

Race morning brought a 4:30am wake up call and a 5:30am meeting to receive our race maps. This year, the checkpoints were pre-plotted, so our only job was to strategize our route choices before having to load a bus at 6am to take us to the starting line on Lake Pepacton in the Catskills up north. Each bus had 11 rows of seats for 14 teams of 3, plus all our gear. You can do the math to figure out how great this can of sardines looked. Driving to the start was not the most condusive situation for planning our race strategy, as other teams where now mixed on our row with us, and our team captain, Nathan, was on the row behind me. No matters, we got it done before arriving at the lake for the start, to the unwelcome site of a light rain and a drop in temperature. Some racers scrambled off the bus and scattered into the trees to relieve bladders, while other teams made their way down to the canoes to get the first choice of a boat….they were all the same.

 

We were sure to not grab the boat with the hole halfway through the outer layer, OK, maybe not all exactly the same. Then, at the last minute we received an envelope which contained information that our team would not have to stay together on this leg of the race. Normal rules for adventure racing are that your team of 3 must always stay within 10 meters of each other while on foot, so this gave us the opportunity to place Jason on shore to run to one check point inland, while Nathan and I paddled to another checkpoint across the lake to retrieve a point up a draw and then back across to rendezvous at a pre-determined spot. This worked well for the entire paddle leg, and we thought we would have one of the fastest paddle times as we had been with the top 4 canoes of the 55 teams from the time the canon fired at the start.

The start of the paddle

There were quite a few strategies between all the teams, and though we were good paddlers, our strength could not overcome the 2 teams that joined forces and got in each other’s boats, working together to find the checkpoints on the lake 25 minutes faster than any other team. Nathan had actually thought of the idea, but I thought they had told us in the pre-race meeting that helping other teams was forbidden. I was mistaken, as race management did not penalize these teams and later said, “There was no rule against it.”

 

So we finished the paddle to another round of rain and a 25-minute deficit to the leaders, and though our backpacks were in trash bags in the bottom of the canoe, they still managed to get soaked. As a result of the wet clothes, I spent the next 5-10 minutes in transition area switching the tights I wore during the paddle with what I thought was a dry pair in my pack, then after realizing it was also wet, went back to the first pair, before deciding one more time to switch to the other pair. Not only were my feet numb from being in 2 inches of water in the bottom of our canoe for 3 hours, but so was my brain. This was not one of my faster transitions.

 

King of the Mountain leg

Our next leg of the race was a mountain bike section – a very long mountain bike section. The first 6-miles was timed, to see who was the fastest to the top of the mountain (there was a special award for this). We were going to go for the “King of the Mountain” award, if it didn’t cost us too much energy expenditure. It was a blazing start, and we passed several teams who had started just in front of us with faster transition times. Then Nathan put me on a tow rope (a small dog leash attached to his seat post and then carabineered to my bike handlebar stem), but the tow rope was too short and held my bike only 2-3 inches from his rear wheel. I felt uneasy, and within a few minutes, had taken it off. Then, I heard this familiar noise of tires humming and another bike coming from behind. When I looked over, it was Team Tecnu, using a double tow system. Kyle, their team captain, was connected to the guy behind him, who was connected to their girl in the back. This was very impressive as they rode by, and there was nothing we could do about it but admire them. Our King of the Mountain hopes diminished. Nate dropped his chain and our hopes ended. No worries though, we knew we were in the running and in the top teams, so we continued on, navigating to all the checkpoints and optional checkpoints along the bike route. The race is all about who finds the most checkpoints. You are ranked first by number of checkpoints, and secondly by your time. Of course, you must finish within 30 hours, or be penalized by the loss of one checkpoint for every minute you are late. No GPS units are allowed, only the topo maps given by race management, and your compass.

 

The dirt trails and old jeep roads were covered primarily in a layer of slick rocks and secondarily by a layer of multicolored leaves on top, making the rocks hard to see. Negotiating this section was harder than I thought it would be, as all the trails were also mushy from the rain. I began to warm up so I took off my rain jacket. As luck would have it, the skies began to dump a light snow/sleet mixture right after I had put my jacket away, and though it was cold, Jason reminded me of how truly epic this was; I agreed.

 

Navigating in the forest

The checkpoints on the bike leg were not along the trail, but rather, you needed to ditch your bike and run into the woods for 100 to 300 meters to get them. I honestly don’t remember a single checkpoint being easy – especially the ones requiring you to descend steep hills or gullies in mountain bike shoes, go in creeks and then climb back up. However, Jason was spot on with his navigation, and we quickly cleared this section. The bike leg was long however, as we were rode for most of the daylight hours. We broke several items (Jason’s bike bag, Nathan’s waterbottle cage and a rear derailleur). We rode into the next transition area with about 2 hours of daylight left.

 

Now to a trekking/navigation leg, with an award to the team with the fastest time to complete this section.  We started with dry feet, so at first, were careful not to run through the creeks and marshes. We came to a marshy crossing that was just wide enough that I was concerned about clearing the jump. I watched as Captain Nate cleared the jump landing safely on the other side, then Major Jason next with a few inches to spare, then me, in all my glory, running fully speed only to hesitate at the last moment and fall short, landing squarely in the swamp mud with the suction of it pulling my right shoe off. Nathan yelled at Jason to grab it before it disappeared forever to the swamp gods. Thus became the theme for the day, that Jason just couldn’t have anything nice, as his dry gloves were now covered in swamp mud. We cleared all the checkpoints in this section in less than 1.5 hours.

Beautiful Surroundings

However, Team Sog stole our thunder by a couple of minutes. No worries though, as we were still upbeat that Jason was spot on for every point. I remember him asking me to take a 1300 meter pace count (We’ve measured how far we travel per step in varying conditions) as we followed his azimuth and thinking we would never pop out of the woods at the right spot. This is where we surged through thousands of laurel bushes, so thick we often had to yell at each other to know where we each were. We struggled against this native plant to stay on our azimuth (bearing or direction). It was a good feeling to pop out in the open forest at our checkpoint at the end of that maze. At one point, we were all standing with in 5 meters of each other, and Nathan didn’t even see a checkpoint that was 3 feet from his head. Fortunately Jason did.

 

We returned to transition and our bikes and headed out again. Eventually we made our way to a small restaurant on a backcountry road in the dark. There we found familiar faces (our support crew and the race directors), warm food, a bathroom with toilet paper, an instant cappuccino machine, and a warm fire. I indulged in all but the fire, as Nathan pushes the team out the door never wanting us to get too comfortable.

 

It was hard to leave the warmth of the restaurant, as we had a fast downhill to follow where my shaking body and numb hands had trouble turning on my helmet lights. What should have been a screaming downhill was more like an earthquake shaking descent where I didn’t know whether my body was shaking more than the bike. It was very cold.

 

Here we left our bikes again for a 9-mile land navigation section on foot. For us, it felt like 20 miles, as we often were on our knees, and yes, even my belly, crawling under more sections of laurel bushes. Nathan got stabbed in the eye with a branch, and we all hoped his cornea wasn’t scratched. We helped a few other teams during this section who were lost, and after the last checkpoint, got slightly off bearing ourselves and popped out in a neighborhood forcing us to run some roads back to the transition area. The volunteers wondered why we were coming from such a weird direction. Oh well. This transition area included warm soup that smelled a bit strange, but I didn’t care as it was at least warm.

 

The toe warmers on my bike shoes are now frozen and torn, covered in a layer of ice. I break the seal of ice and the toe warmer shreds on the bottom, decreasing its insulating abilities exponentially. This is a bike-O memory section. Very challenging at night when you are tired and cold. You study a map of trails that look like spaghetti, and then without the map, you must ride to where you remember the checkpoint being. We start off and immediately lose the trail at a road crossing where there are huge mounds of dirt blocking our view. We stumble around in the woods until we see other bike lights, then jump on their trail, not knowing where exactly in the loop we are. Somehow, we find the checkpoint and now have to memorize to get to the next one. This one was much easier, but the 3rd one took the wind out of our sails. Here, in our haste with 3 other teams near us, we charge off without a good understanding of where we were going, and quickly find ourselves lost on the wrong trail. We don’t even know which direction takes us back to transition. After messing around for about 30 minutes, we decide to ride backwards to the start of this section and give up the remaining 2 points on this section of the race. We knew it would cost us the win because we would not clear the course, but in our minds, we felt we were hours behind the leaders already. In reality, it was hard to know where anyone was on this course. We should have stayed focused, waited 15 more minutes for daylight, and started over.

 

Moving on with the course, we then had a short bike uphill section. There were more checkpoints by bike, including one in particular where we lost the trail and it became a hike w/bike on shoulder through the laurel bushes again. Somehow it seemed ok to be lost this time because several teams were following us. We were in the same predicament together. Everyone agreed if we stayed on our azimuth, we would pop out on the road, and fortunately, that led us to the next transition area.

 

At this point in the race, you aren’t running. In fact, I’m not sure if what I was doing was even walking. We had 7 more hours to find 10 more checkpoints. We started this section off not with a bang, but more of a fizzle, not paying attention and forgetting to pace count and leave the trail from a known point. We eventually found the point, but this became the theme for a while.

Great views

We looked for one checkpoint up the wrong draw and after ascending 200-300 meters in altitude up the boulder filled gully, we realized our mistake and descended back down. We were so convinced that we were in the right draw that we told another team they were lost. Turns out they weren’t, and we were. This wasn’t so bad though, as they lead us right to a checkpoint we had missed earlier and then into the correct draw that we now needed to climb 200 meters of altitude back up to get the checkpoint.  The first 3 checkpoints on this leg used a lot of our energy and 3 hours of our time.  Now apparent that we are running out of time to clear all these checkpoints on this leg, we decided to go for only one of the 3 points at the farthest point on the course. However, we couldn’t find one of the many trails on the map that was now overgrown, so we unknowingly walked right across the trail. A small plane flew over twice, and the thought crossed my mind of a search and rescue mission. It is times like this when you are down and feeling lost that your mind plays tricks on you. Eventually, another team walked by us on the trail we were looking for and we were able to recover. We now had to give up 4 optional checkpoints on this end of the course to make the time cutoff.

 

Then came my favorite leg of the race. Traveling down a creek for several kilometers grabbing 3 checkpoints along the way. I no longer cared about getting my feet wet as I ran right through the middle of it. Even when I slipped on the moss covered rock, hitting hard on my hip and bouncing squarely in the water, I didn’t care. We could smell/hear the waterfall ahead, and knew we were home free after that.

 

The waterfall rappel

Our final 2 checkpoints were at the falls ~ one at the top, one at the bottom. What lied between was a 75-foot rappel. What a fitting end to this epic adventure! This was, no doubt, my favorite part of the race. Our bikes were waiting for us on a road near the bottom of the falls, and all that was left was a 4-mile screaming descent to the finish, where we passed 3 or 4 teams using up every ounce of energy we had left. I wish I could have moved that fast for the entire race! We ended up 7th.

Finish Line

 

 

I empty my pack back at the room and find a lot of leaves and pine needles, a pair of knee warmers and socks I never wore, a bag of pizza, a PB&J sandwhich, 4 or 5 bars, 7 scoops of accelerade powder, 5 Powergels, and a bag of gorp. I even have over a liter of water left. A warm shower followed and the defrosting of the feet. This is when I realized the pain I hadn’t been feeling, and could barely put my shoes on for the awards ceremony, as they now looked like swollen sausages. Races like these are nothing I would ever do solo, but somehow, when you have 2 teammates, running/walking/crawling/riding through the things we did seems possible. I always realize we can do more as humans than we think we can when I race. In all, we covered about 12 miles paddling, 60 miles of mtn biking & 28 miles trekking in 28.5 hours. We climbed over 12,000 feet in elevation gain, give or take a few extra gullies. I would consider it some of the toughest miles I have ever covered. Many of them were spent fighting our way through bushes, sticks, knee high vine grabbers, water, and rock. Would I do it again? Of course!

Swollen Feet

 

Posted in Kathy, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

In a Perfect World

Posted on May 17, 2012 by tfp_admin

This has been the fastest year of my life. I blinked 3 times and the ITU off-road tri World Championships are already here again (swim 1500 meters, mountain bike 30k, trail run 10K). Just 3 weeks ago, I did my first off-road triathlon since standing on the podium in Spain. It conveniently fell within my schedule to help sweep out the cobwebs and get me back in race mode. I was 2nd overall, handily losing to a pro woman, Shea Vaughan, reminding me of my ranks as an age grouper in off-road triathlon. The next week, as if I wasn’t already humbled enough, I got a good thrashing at my first TMBRA race (Texas Mtn Bike Race) since 2003…or at least that was the last year I actually owned a mtn bike racing license. Unfortunately that license renewed as a pro, and I was thrown into the cage with the young pros that dished me out more humble pie. Standing on the starting line, I knew I was in trouble when I found out Jessica Rawlins, the eventual winner, was the age of my oldest son.

 

But I am resilient, and my youngest son and coach, Danielson, tells me I went into that race tired, and now tapered, I will rise to the occasion for the World Championships on May 19th. I hope he is right.

 

I shouldn’t carry the burdens of the pros like Shonny Vanlandingham and Melanie McQuaid, but I still get just as anxious. That’s what age group racing is for; when you can’t compete at that level anymore. I’ve got work, my family and extracurricular activities that leave most of my family and friends wondering when I will slow down. I can’t even answer that question myself. I just know I still feel like I did in my 30s, but on the outside, I look my age, 48. It is irritating now that even people older than me call me “Maam”.

 

My last training day was yesterday afternoon, at the culmination of a day packed with so many different work deadlines and data in my brain. I wanted to explode. But I couldn’t, I had to cram it all in, and do one more bike ride at Northshore trail on my home course at Lake Grapevine, followed by one more brick run.

 

I unwound my mind as I blasted through the last hour of trees on my mtn bike. This was my last set of 6 race pace intervals, 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, repeat. The last 2 days of work had left my mind spinning ~ I had paid our event bills from the past weekend, worked a booth at tri-night at Richardson Bike Mart, sent email addresses to our photographer of all our racers, read an article a friend emailed me regarding a superwoman athlete and how she trains, fixed a few registration issues for our next event, finalized and approved a promotional flyer with a deadline of today, talked with a sponsor in Moab UT to finalize our awards ceremony/party of a summer race, signed on a new sponsor for all our races (Sport Beans) and added logo and link to all pages on website, updated changes for another sponsor logo on our website, applied for sponsorship with a new company, finished and approved t-shirt design for our next race, finalized our new business card and 5 new sponsor banners for print, had a phone conference with a partner on one event, finalized contract details on our host hotel, filed 2 franchise tax extensions, 2 franchise tax returns, and 1 nonprofit return for family members (no, I can’t take on any more family members), signed contract for online registration for one of our upcoming races & submitted event details to build out the site, finished and approved the design of our sublimated jersey being made for one of our races, edited 2 hours of raw video footage from the Warrior 100K into 1hr 12 minutes, set up an account to be able to upload 6GB of files, uploaded video and pictures to FoxNews, read through a race report for a team we sponsor (FCS Rouse Cycling Team), sent a recap to the Dallas Morning News of our last event, and updated our social media on Facebook and Twitter. No wonder my head was exploding.

 

I needed to ride and run. When I finished my ride, Dr. Heerwagen was there in the parking lot to offer me a cold beer called Liberty Ale. I had to decline to finish my last run…I couldn’t let that beer cost me the World Championships. But as I slipped on my running shoes and locked my bike to my rack, I came to my senses and asked him to hide it by my front wheel in the shade for after the run. Isn’t that what age groupers are allowed to do? I mean can’t we continue to have a normal life after we train. I think so.

 

The cold beer was waiting in a bag of ice. I sipped and savored every drop. At that moment in time, my adrenaline was finished running for the day, I was no longer anxious, and I could just relax. Well, sort of, I still had to go to the store, get gas, take a shower, go for 1.5 hours of stretching and myofascial release, fax insurance card to Danielson to purchase his new car, have dinner (thank you, Lil), and pack. Without Scott, I could never have made it, as he washed and detailed my bike, packed all the tools and the car for the trip, and noticed my bike shoes were toast. My cleats were about to pull out of the bottom and were so thin and chipped off that we were both surprised I made it through my ride today. I could never compete at this level without the loving support of my husband.

 

My last swim was Monday, and as Coach Tom talked to me about my race, I was anxious. My stomach was churning. Coach Tom told me, “The hay is in the barn. Let’s let it dry and cure a while and then TAKE IT TO THE MARKET! Your will is your constitution. You have written those rules for yourself to define the type of athlete you want to be. Go be you, Girl!”

 

My dad called to wish me good luck. This made me feel good inside. He also reminded what a bad daughter I have been (these were my words, not his) since I haven’t sent him a picture I promised to send last October. I promised I would for Father’s Day. I realize how busy I have been since I started training for this race. Between working our 15 events a year, and training, there isn’t much time left in the day. Add a family, and I am constantly behind. I am not good at all. Instead, lately I feel I shuffle through my routine like a hamster on her wheel.

 

My brothers and mom tell me goodluck, and though I know friends and family just want me to have fun and do the best I can, my mind translates that to WIN!

 

My sister called to tell me she was coming to my race. Now I am even more anxious and Scott reminds me that no one cares how I do, or expects me to win. But I am anxious nether-the-less. I can’t change my genetic makeup. My butterflies are real, not make believe. They are like demons, waiting to change my eating and bathroom habits. I hate them more than anything. I feel like it is more than me racing, it is my entire support crew of family and friends. I don’t want to let anyone down. I want to give it my all, and I know God gave me the talents to win, and so if I don’t, I feel I have fell short.

 

I attended the nutrition seminar on Monday night to try to figure out how to eat better for my race. Getting the bonks and severe cramping on lap 3 of my mountain bike race a few weeks ago reminded me I need to rethink nutrition. I’m not use to racing anymore. Maybe Jordan was right to make fun of me on the starting line carrying my pack on my back big enough to hold my picnic lunch and a bottle of wine while I raced. Maybe that extra weight held in my body heat and helped me overheat quicker, and thus the cramps.

 

Well now I’m set, because everything is clear. Start hydrating 24 hours before the event. Not too much though (don’t want hyponatremia). Consume 16oz fluids 2-4 hours before my race. Consume another 8oz before the start. Eat breakfast 3 hours before my race, carb based, low fat, low fiber, moderate protein. Drink small amounts every 15 minutes during race to equal 20 oz or 1 bottle per hour and consume half my body weight in grams of carbs per hour. Got my bento box strapped to my bike and put my carbs (PowerBar energy blasts) and electrolytes (EnduroSharks) in there. Get my carbs and salts in on the bike, before the run so I don’t get behind. Don’t forget to mix my pedialyte with water in one of my bottles, or in my camelback if I go that route. In a perfect world, I will have a perfect race.

 

I went to Extreme Swim and got a new pair of goggles – the same ones that Iron Dave wears. I have a fresh coating of anti-fog so I can see all the thrashing arms around me when I swim. In a perfect world, the water will be warm and no one will be allowed to wear wetsuits. My friend Sandra and Scott video taped me this past weekend in an open water swim so I could visualize my bad left hand entry into the water and correct it. In a perfect world, I will swim as fast without my wetsuit as I did that day with my wetsuit.

 

I went to the running store to get new shoes, but had to settle on a new pair of barefoot shoes for now. I couldn’t find my favorite trail runners, so I will run in last year’s shoes for good luck. “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. Oh wait, that is for getting married. But in a perfect world, this will still work. I was also too busy to meet the deadline for ordering my 2012 racing kit. I’ll be the one sporting the 2011 Team USA outfit (but hey, at least it’s old and blue, in keeping with this theme).

 

Stopped on the way to the race today to get a new pair of mtn bike shoes. Scott already put the cleats on tonight so I can pre-ride in them tomorrow. He claims I will have bonus horsepower from the new stiff shoes and my cleats are actually in the right place now. I know he is trying to give me confidence, but in a perfect world, he will be right and I will get extra confidence from the extra power I feel with every pedal stroke.

 

It is after midnight, 3 nights before the race, and I am anxious. The countdown begins.

 

I miss having Danielson here with me to compete. Last year in Spain was a memory of a lifetime. Somehow racing with my own son took the pressure off, as I think I was more concerned and excited about his race than mine.

 

I’ve been given all the tools I need to succeed. Both Coach Tom & Daniel have prepared me for the race with training programs and coaching, I have done the work, I have been humbled in races, and I am hungry for the win. Scott & I were fortunate to have participated in the Warrior 100k mtn bike ride a few weeks back, and the amazing soldiers we witnessed first hand were such an inspiration. They all gave up incredible parts of themselves to serve our country, and would do it again in a heartbeat. Some of them were missing limbs or had PTSD, and as we rode with these soldiers, we realized how blessed we are to be able to live in a free America that they make possible. I am thankful that my sons did not have to go to war, but if they had, I know I would have been so very proud of them too.  I want to do well for Team USA, and being able to represent Team USA somehow takes the pressure off me as an individual. Maybe that is why a strange calm came over me last year in Spain and I was able to deliver. I hope the same for Saturday, but if not, will be happy to just give it my all.

 

Sounds like a pep talk – a self induced one at that. So if that’s true, and I get knocked down, just know that I’m gonna bleed, then I’m gonna bleed some more, then I’m gonna get up and fight, and fight some more, and go for it, until I hit the finish line. (this was my favorite inspirational video we got last year in Spain). In a perfect world, I will stay on my bike. And in a perfect world, I will bring home another gold medal from the world championships to share with my grandkids someday.

 

Here is the link for the race. I’ll be the Team USA member in the 45-49 age group category.

Many thanks to my kind sponsors:

 

 

 

Posted in 2012 ITU Off-Road Triathlon World Championships, Kathy | 3 Comments

Last Run

Posted on May 2, 2012 by tfp_admin

I want to back up a bit. I meant to write about the trip to Moab, UT with the Rocky Mountain Tri Club but never got around to it.

2 weekends ago I took some time off of work to head to Moab for a 4 day training camp with the Tri Club I am in. It was by far the best training weekend I have ever had.

We started on Thursday with a 30ish ride out of Grand Junction, CO on the famous Monument ride from American Flyers. I have not seen the movie, but I will be adding it to my Netflix queue. This was a beautiful climb up to a quick spring thunderstorm on the winding decent. I did take it easy going down through the rain, because I was shivering and skeerd. My roommate for the trip, Kiley, and I were planning on starting the training off conservatively so that we could survive the weekend…But there is always that guy who takes off from the parking lot and goes all out straight up the climb…And then there is always those couple guys who chase him down to see if they can hang (myself and Kiley)…And then the guy who started the pace blows up and gets dropped by the 2 that were just keeping pace…I thought for a minute that this would be a good opportunity to back it off a bit like we had decided, but that guy got Kiley and I amped up so we kept the pace high all the way to the top. As we hit the undulating top out in elevation, the small patch of thunderest looking clouds turned into freezing cold rain which felt like little pieces of hail hitting you from the speed of the descent. A good Adventure Race Training day.

The next day I still felt very good. The training for the day was a 50ish mile ride through Arches National Park followed by a 45 min run. Now all the people from the club were out to play this day. I was personally hoping for a more endurance type ride after yesterday, but deep down I wanted to ride fast. Luckily it turned into a hammer fest up every climb! My average heart rate for the entire ride was 12 beats higher than my Lactate Threshold! Most of the climbs I was seeing numbers I only see at the end of a very hard race. I knew this was not good. The club is filled with people of both genders that can drop the hammer hard. I was loving it!

Saturday was the long ride day of 106ish miles to The Canyon Lands and back. I was definitely feeling the hours above threshold from the day before. Many of the people from the day before decided to cut back the ride a bit so we had a much smaller pack. It still turned into a very difficult ride. The amazing views of the Canyon Lands kept me going though! It was a lot of fun trying to hang with everyone in the club on the ride. I probably got dropped 10 or so times. Humbling rides are always my favorite!

The following day I had to stop having fun riding my bike all day and get back to my marathon training. I went out for a 2.5 hour run with a good group from the club on the so called “Flats.” I believe the total elevation gain was 800ish feet. So for the theme of the weekend…Definitely Flat! I hung with some buddies from the club until I hit 2 hours. At this point I tried to hold a sub 6:45 pace for 20 minutes on very tired legs. Just barely made it around 6:38. I have been trying to do some quality speed @ slightly faster than my goal for the marathon to get used to running fast when I am very fatigued.

I left Moab refreshed, sore, fatigued, and slightly injured. I really screwed up my ankle riding all those miles with about 2 hours of biking a week prior to this trip, but that is how I role.

This past Sunday was my next long run @ 2 hours and 45 min with a 10 mile race thrown in the mix. I wanted to do the race after running 1.5 hours, but I forgot to factor in my bad habit of sleeping in and porta potty visits. It has been a while since I raced so I had months of build up. People talk about working hard to get to race weight…All’s I need is some race morning adrenaline and some caffeine! I only ended up with a 5K under my belt before the start of the race, but that would have to do. I still had a pretty hard training week so my legs were feeling very poopy.

The start went good as it always does, because my hyperventilation had not set in yet. Once that kicked in I knew I was racing. I actually felt surprisingly good for the first few miles, but I knew I needed to pace myself for the end and the rest of the run. I kept a solid comfortable pace around 6:30 for the first half. Then at some point I remember Molly (a member from the club) surge pass me. I tried to go with her but only made it about .5 miles. She was on a PR mission! I settled back down a bit until my hard effort became the same speed as my comfortable effort. The last 3 miles were very tough for me, but I was able to hold the 6:30 all the way to the finish line before I could back down to my endurance pace for another 1.5 hours.

I felt good about my race considering my goal was 6:45. That was the confidence booster I needed to go into the marathon with a 6:45 goal pace. I have started my taper a bit early, because I feel burned out. I would rather show up race morning slightly unfit and fresh, rather than fit and fatigued.

Most marathon plans have you running 22 miles for your longest run. I ran 21 miles with 10 of them @ faster than race pace so I think that is good enough.

A lot is happening on May 20th. My first big race, I believe some friends are doing IM Texas, and my Mom’s World Championship Race I have been coaching her through! I can’t wait!

Posted in 2012 ITU Off-Road Triathlon World Championships, Daniel | 1 Comment

The Undulating Terrain of Training

Posted on April 15, 2012 by tfp_admin

“We had a good run Boopy.” I was hitting all my planned training run sessions up until my long run a couple weekends ago. I had a 2 hour run planned w/ 3 X 8 min LT paced efforts mixed in the endurance pace. I made a couple mistakes:

1) Waiting until the middle part of the day on a record breaking TEMP day in CO.

2) Drinking a Chai, a smoothie, and eating a muffin 30 minutes before I went out in the middle of the sun.

I felt awesome for the warm-up! Followed soon by heavy breathing and GI issues during my endurance pace. I went ahead and tried my first LT effort but was brought to my knees after 3 min. I had to stop and walk for a couple min. I decided to cut the LT efforts out and just keep it END paced for the length so I could atleast get in the miles. It was very difficult to do, but the location made it a little easier. The wide open Farm Preserve out in Broomfield was a good place for exploring on a long run. My pace did not live up to my expectations that day. A real confidence killer for my Marathon goal.

After that run came a much needed recovery week. I actually felt horrible pretty much the entire week. I still went out on my runs and actually had some good times but it just felt so hard.

This week started my last build phase before my taper. Still feeling a little sluggish, I cut out one more run completely from the week. I just really could not handle all this running without riding my bike. I went out on the local Tues Thurs after work fast 75 min ride with a group and opened up the throttle up the short climb to Cherry Creek Reservoir to refresh my legs on how to pedal. I think this break was just what I needed! There is nothing like recovering from a hard run by smashing the pedals over!

This Saturday I had a 2 hour and 15 min run planned w/ 1 hour of TEMPO. During my warm-up I felt very sluggish again. It was in the 40s, cloudy, and my legs were asleep. Luckily I had Metallica on Pandora for support! As soon as “Where Ever I May Roam” started playing my legs kicked in, my motivation ignited, and the sun broke through the clouds to light me up like Joliette Jake in “The Blues Brothers.” (If you don’t know me well, I use to be obsessed with Metallica and still rate “The Blues Brothers” as the best movie of all time!) I was officially ready!

Do you ever have a workout where you have to actually hold yourself back a little, because you feel so good?

Well that is where I was on Saturday. I was holding an 8 min pace without even breathing hard, which for me is really fast! I could not wait for the TEMPO interval anymore. I started early and ended late for the interval. I was able to average a 7:30 min pace for 12 miles. I passed people on the streets and parks of Denver.

Do you ever run so long that you cycle through 4 different groups of people at a park that drive up, go for a run, then get in their car and leave?

Well I don’t. This was the longest run I have ever been on in my entire life! I officially PR’ed during training. At around 1:45 into the run I decided to up the TEMPO more to my goal race pace for a mile. So I ran a 6:50 mile around mile 15 of the run.

Then my body began to feel the distance. My legs started to shorten up as I got a side stitch and chest pain that ran up my neck and arm. So I slowed it down to cool down back to Mi Casa.

Total run: 2 HR 15 min – 17.34 miles.

My confidence skyrocketed during this run. My average pace for the entire run was barely outside a min of my goal pace of 6:52 or faster. I just hope I can get enough adrenaline push from the race to break 3 hours. Then I can retire from running a happy man :)

Posted in 2012 ITU Off-Road Triathlon World Championships, Daniel | Leave a comment

Runner Poser

Posted on March 28, 2012 by tfp_admin

I promise I will start writing more. I think that I just felt pretty boring since I was not training very much or racing at all, but I know that my Mom reads these so I better keep writing.

I recently got a new job in the white collar force. First time for me. So I no longer move furniture. Instead I book the moves for the movers to do. It is funny walking into a house, looking at all the “family areloom solid lead double stacked entertainment center” that was built in the house knowing that somebody is going to break their back moving that, but not me! Now that I have a lazy job I have plenty of energy to train.

I know I have said before that I would some day try to focus on less than 5 sports but never follow through…Well now I am really doing it. I am attempting to only run. Swimming was no problem to give up since it is not my favorite thing in the world, but cycling just is impossible! I have managed to limit my mountain biking and cycling to 1-2 days a week, which is a first for me, so that I can focus on running.

For the first time I actually feel comfortable running. I have always had trouble going on an easy run, because all running paces felt hard to me. My paces are way slower than I need them to be, but I am hoping I can pull out a performance out of my butt on race day like I have in the past.

I have been coaching runners, mountain bikers, adventure racers, road cyclists, triathletes, and off-road triathletes for 2 years now, but I have never wrote a training plan for myself. I now that sounds ridiculous that a coach who writes training plans everyday does not follow a plan himself…Well now I am! It is weird that I follow it too! I never thought I could follow a plan, but I am doing it and having fun with it. It gives me something to think about at work and prepare nutritionally and mentally. I just hope it pays off! One thing is that I am running more than I ever have in my life free of pain (besides muscle soreness). I hope I can keep it up!

Today’s workouts:

AM – 45 min run w/ 30 min TEMPO after warm-up

PM – 45 min run @ Aerobic Endurance w/ 8 x 30 sec strides…

Posted in Daniel | Leave a comment

My New Ride

Posted on February 11, 2012 by tfp_admin

I had a nice swim today. I like it when coach T doesn’t send the workout by email in advance so I don’t know what is going to happen. Somehow it is easier to go hard that way. After swim, I was sad to miss a mountain bike ride with the boss to help my mom do her taxes, but was rewarded for staying home when our UPS driver delivered my new Orbea Alma 29er. It is time to button down the hatches and get it in gear for the 2012 ITU Off-road Triathlon World Championships coming to Alabama on May 19th. Goodbye to my canoe, ‘Slice of Pizza’, and hello to my Orbea, Alma 29er! I just got my NoTubes ZTR Race Gold wheel set and my complete bike built up weighed in at 20.7 pounds. In anticipation of my first legit ride, I almost signed up just before midnight last night for my first pro mountain bike race since 1998, but changed my mind until I can test ride the bike first and get to know her. I can’t wait, and seemingly, neither can my ride.

Just put me in some Swiftwick socks, and I’ll be on that line, lining up with all the young pups again. That’s all it will take.

Posted in 2012 ITU Off-Road Triathlon World Championships, Kathy | Leave a comment

Texas Winter 100k Paddling Race (1/28/12)

Posted on February 2, 2012 by tfp_admin

We pulled up to the starting line to unload our boat, and I realized that we brought a stock car to an Indy car race. My canoe is a solid boat with a descent hull speed, but it is not lighter than it is long. In fact, it is named Slice of Pizza. Its sister boat, Piece of Cake, is made of carbon fiber. And like pizza is heavier than cake, fiberglass is heavier than carbon. As we hooked up our dolly to make sure it would function for the portage, a guy walked by carrying his boat in his left hand. It was at this point that I no longer had the pre-race jitters…we WERE going to lose. Debbie said, “Don’t worry, we will pick off everyone that crashes.”

In that spirit of being dealt the low card in the technological advancement category, here is a list of the gadgets that malfunctioned within the first two hours:

2 headlamps
IPod speaker
GoPro Video camera
Spot tracker
& of all things, the Velcro holding my food bag. I was mainly worried about this one, because ALL of my snacks were in this food bag.

Back to the basics, we still had a canoe and two paddles and we lined up for the start in Slice of Pizza. The race began with a loud “GO!” and the sunrise treated us to perfect silhouettes of the fastest boats as they took off like water bugs flitting across Lady Bird Lake. Before we reached the first portage at Longhorn Dam, all we could see were arcs of water flying through the air from the rapid paddle strokes of the leading teams. The ½ mile portage was uneventful; we ran down a path with our boat on a dolly, through a cement tunnel, and down a cliff and into the water. We even passed a team (who was walking). They quickly passed us once back in the water.

We embraced last place in the competition boat class with a few other teams who were probably conserving energy for later in the day. The first half of the race consisted of avoiding the shallows, jumping in and out of the boat to drag it through when we could not, and spending more time in transition than we should have. The only signs of life we saw for a few hours were plastic decoys and camouflaged hunters whose heads would pop up beside us to assure us that we did not look like ducks. Happy that we were not about to be shot, we spent our time searching for ANY moving water in a river that supposedly flooded three days ago. However, due to the drought, no water was being let out of Longhorn Dam for our race. The race director told us to expect the river to pick up the closer to the finish we got, from runoff from area creeks – something to look forward to!

The only other portage was a low-head dam where we wisely struggled through deep sand and over a fallen tree, turning just in time to see a fellow competitor paddle straight over the dam on purpose. I’m not sure if we were more excited for her successful run or because she made us realize that we actually had not been in last place; but, since she stayed upright, now we were.

We were not alone for long, as we soon started picking off the adventure class racers that had started two hours earlier than we did. This picked up our spirits, as it gave us someone to commiserate with about the headwind and the low water. This might be the time to mention that canoes do not do well in a 20+mph wind.

The race director was right. The second half of the course had a lot of creeks bringing fresh runoff into the river. We had run this section two weeks earlier and the water was noticeably higher and faster than we had seen it before. It was actually moving. This is when we became focused and boldly told our support crew at the halfway point that we would pull a negative split. We were also able to gain confidence in our progress as we began to see a lot more of the recreation class boats and we started picking them off in earnest. By the last 10 miles of the race, I was no longer looking for trees to pee behind but dropping trou in the middle of shallows to save time.

The second half of the race held the most challenging section of the course, with a few small rapids through a series of boulders the locals call the “rock gardens.” Our favorite was a two-foot drop that we ran straight down the middle, waiting to see if our bow would pop up above the water or if we would come to a screeching stop on a rock hidden beneath the surface. This would have been our best photo op, with Debbie leaning forward powering through the current as I was leaning completely back, in a full brace, anticipating the boulder that luckily did not materialize.

As we neared the finish line and now certain that we would come in before nightfall, Debbie recognized a team ahead of us as friends in another boat class. Debbie wanted to beat them, so we found the shoulder and back muscles needed to pick up the pace the last three miles and slowly reeled them in. Luckily, we had a little more time than I thought we did, as the first finish line that I saw and pointed out turned out to be a hallucination. With a quarter mile to go, and just 50 meters to catch the other boat, they saw us coming and picked up their pace. The race was on. Both boats came across the line to loud cheering from spectators, with Slice of Pizza edging out the other boat by inches.

The next day I had the typical post race soreness but, unlike when I race bikes, it was every muscle from my waist up. Would I do it again? Maybe in a different boat.

 

Posted in Kathy | Leave a comment

Acceptance

Posted on January 26, 2012 by tfp_admin

It has been a long while since my last blog. I have been going through a lot of mixed emotions and depression with my 2012 racing season.

My current job is very physical leaving me with nothing in the tank for training when I get home on long days. Usually winters are slow for movers, but this winter has kept me very busy. I sometimes try to suck it up and just go running after a 12 hour shift, but my feet, and legs can’t take much. Then the next day I am unable to perform at work as well as I need to. This cycle built and built on me for a few overtime hour weeks and finally broke me.

I wanted to be faster in 2012 than I ever have. I wanted to cat up, run a sub 3-hour marathon, win XTERRA Mountain Championships, place top 3 at XTERRA Nationals, and be competitive for my first half-ironman. I wanted to be the hardest worker, and the best boyfriend all while enjoying all the great things Colorado has to offer. Go snowboarding, cross-country skiing…you know the reasons why I moved.

Once I realized with my current job I would not be able to reach those goals (while actually still enjoying racing) I lost it. Everyone at work kept asking me what happen to me. They said I was always the one smiling and joking but now I am just quiet and short. My training sessions were always me trying to push my body through the stress as hard as I can, but it just… was not… working.

I was still trying to have a training schedule where I put in 17 hours a week along with my job and social life. I wish I could wake up at 4 AM and do a 2-3 hour session before work and still have the energy to do my job. I admire these Ironman athletes that train along with their 50 hour a week jobs, but it is just not me. I have always raced, because I fell in love with it. Its fun…its my hobby…its a luxury… If the fun is removed, I won’t do it. I am sure this will keep me from ever being competitive, but I don’t care.

It took some serious meltdowns and meditation, but I finally accepted that my goals need to back off until I atleast find a different job. I am in a much better place now. A slower place but a slowly better place. I need to stay healthy, enjoy life, and have fun again. I am a newb, but this years goal is to race like a newb and have fun.

I am going to live my competitive dreams through my clients I coach and try my luck as an athlete some other time.

And with all that…I really would like to do a race right now! It has been so long! I have never gone this long since I raced for the first time! It was much easier to squeeze in races in TX when I worked with Terra Firma Racing!

So the marathon is still on for May. It will be my first, and it will be fun! The course is right in my neighborhood so I will have home field advantage…except the whole altitude thing…and the being from TX thing…and the I am out of shape thing…

Posted in Daniel | Leave a comment