An Honor just to be Nominated??

So after another week of lots of riding and swimming and NO running (thanks, doc), I was ready to head out to Chicago for what was to be my 9th (if you count the practice tri's) and final tri of this season. My week of training was nothing too exciting. Sunday after the race I rode a fairly easy 45mi ride. Monday was a spin on my trainer in the am and then my strength/endurance class (I've started going to the evening class which doesn't include all of the plyo's that the am class has...given my tender achilles situation); tuesday swim; wed OFF (tapering, ya know..); thurs swim and then bike in the evening; friday OFF. Saturday I started the day early with volunteering at the 'Go Girl' Eagle Creek race..which is the same race that I did the week before and in June, but this one is limited only to the ladies...kind of a cool atmosphere w/ LOTS of nervous 1st timers! I got to do body marking, which was fun to talk to the racers and wish them luck. Then I directed on the bike on/off point (ladies can be very literal! "dismount here" doesn't have to mean RIGHT there in front of me?! goodness..) and then to the run finish...good times! Then a short 'leg loosening' ride around the park, load up in the car and head up to Chicago! The Chicago race is the 'Worlds Largest Triathlon', so over 9,000 people, I think? I always get stressed out over traffic and things, but I do love this race. Even though I had to get up and be there to set up my transition area at 4:15am (!!) and then my wave of the race didn't start until 9:40am (!!)...it was still a good race. Luckily my friend, Ginger, from TNT, was in the race and started just after me, so she had a hotel room in the host hotel just up the street and after we set up our gear, we headed back that way for a nap! It's very strange to be waking up from a nap and heading to start your race...and pass lots of others already with their finishers medals and enjoying the post-party stuff... But off we went. I had another amazing swim in my new pal, Lake Michigan. It was chilly (73 feels a lot cooler than it sounds), but felt SO good after standing there dripping sweat in our wetsuits in over 90 degree heat.. Which brings me to the HEAT. Yikes! Last years race was super cold, and the race the day before in Indy was cold...so I was kinda thinking it might at least be chilly to start the race? Not so much. Super hot, sunny and humid. That's what I had going on.. So I had my great swim, 35-ish minutes, I think? It was a long swim..Olympic distance is 1500m, which is just shy of a mile, so not much shorter than Steelhead..so it felt like it was taking a while, but I felt like I had a great rhythm going on and was passing folks..good stuff! Added bonus, the swim is point to point (kinda...there's a little 'out and back' for the olympic distance) all along the shore, so I actually could see Matt and Mason (in stroller) walking right along beside me for almost the whole way! Very cool (this time... Last yr as I flailed around just hoping to finish the darn thing, didn't so much love that people were right there watching me so closely.. But this yr, as I Michael Phelpsed my way through the water..I was delighted to see my 'team'!). So anyway. Out of the water for the looooooong barefoot run transition... Now off on my bike! This coarse is FLAT..all along Lake Shore Drive, so the only 'hills' (which do kinda start feeling like hills after a bit..) are the on ramp and over-passes.. So I cruised along. I hit a bit of head-wind a few times on the 'back' part of the loop, which we do 2x, but all in all, it was great! I averaged 21.2mph! WooHoo! So back to my gear, shoes on and head out to run. Oh, the run. My achilles was fine, believe it or not... But man, I was SLOW! You see, as I mentioned before, it was super HOT. By this time, it's around noon... There is NO shade on the entire coarse... so it. was. HOT. Even though I SO wish I had been able to run faster, I know there was nothing I could have done differently. I gave it my all... I didn't have to walk at all, which was good.. I actually passed a lot of people and still wound up placing 14th out of 250 in my age group, so that just shows that everyone was feeling it... So it was a tough finish. I came in at 2hrs 48-ish minutes, which is interesting because I was 8 minutes off of my estimated time... and 8min slower in the run than I anticipated... So I know where that time went! Anyway, it was fun and I am happy with how it went... Especially since that 14/250 finish put me in the top 6% of my age group, and qualified me for Age Group National Championships!!! So...still not quite done, yet, with this season. Again, after much debate, we decided to make the trip down to Tuscaloosa, AL for the big race on sat, 9/25. I know...it's in the midst of vacations and I 'should' be no longer running on my achilles...but it's kinda like qualifying for Boston...if you qualify, you just DO it. Even if it won't necessarily be my 'best' race...it'll still be a great experience.. Plus, my friend, Ashley (who was the one that told me about nationals...I never even knew it existed! Let alone that it was something I could qualify for..), from TNT, will be joining me! So...I'll keep ya posted!

not quite done yet...

So post Steelhead.. I decided I would make a quick switch from the long, endurance training that I was doing for the 1/2IM and change to short, fast speedwork and interval training to get ready for my sprint race (500m swim, 10mi bike, 3mi run) at Eagle Creek on 8/21. This is the same race I did in June..they do 3 races in a series in the summer and it's a nice way to track improvements through the season. SO. I took on the speed work head on.. fartlek (speed play) run, pace loops on the bike, FAST intervals (3mi bike in a pace line going about 25mph, then transition to a 1mi run, which I approach as 1mi repeats...do this 4x through), speed work in the pool, bike hill repeats, run hill repeats, mini sprint tri repeats (200m swim, 3mi bike, 1mi run..FAST!..now go again)...oh, my! I did work a long saturday training in there, which was fun.. I met up with my Y Tri coach, Todd, for a 45mi ride in the wee early hrs of the morning (5am...which seems earlier now, since it's not getting light out until about 7a these days), then did a speed work swim for about an hr, then met up with the group to bike hill repeats for about another hr or so... Good stuff! By this time, I had already started to realize the damage I was doing to my already ailing achilles (hurting since last Oct in my last long training run before the marathon). I did truck on over to the walk-in clinic at orthoindy..mostly just to make sure it wasn't fractured..which it wasn't! I thought that was a good thing, but the doc was still so grim.. He said the pain in my heel was indicating that I have degenerative (chronic) achilles tendonosis (used to be called tendonitis, but they now don't consider it inflamatory? or something... thank you, google search!) and that if I don't rest it, I'm risking rupture.. Well, I certainly don't want that! But...I still have these races... Doc recommends 4mo with NO running! So after much debate, I decided I would lay off the running in training & I'd just do my best (& hope for the best!) in the races. So race #1 (AMA..against medical advise) comes... Eagle Creek. I felt good. Even though my time didn't reflect much improvement in the swim, I felt great and DID manage to shave a few precious seconds from that time. Then off to ride and I was De. ter. mined to finally average over 20mph..no more of this 19.something... I did it! I pushed hard and averaged around 20.3mph (ish? I don't memorize these things..you can check tuxbro.com if you want exact details..)...finally! Then off to try the ol' achilles out on the run... I felt good! Not great, but good! I think I averaged somewhere in the 7:40min/mi range. And then...wait for it... finally, mu 1st place (age group) finish! I came in at 1:06:something, which was about 3min faster than my June race. 3min doesn't sound like much...but in a sprint race where you go ALL OUT and every little second counts, a 3min improvement ain't bad! I'll take it for sure. Extra fun for this race was that Tom & Sue (Matt's parents...aka 'grandma and grandpa Blunck') were in town and got to come along for the festivities! Thanks so much to them and my usual 'team Blunck' crew, Matt & Mason, for coming out to cheer me on. I didn't see much of ya (I was looking, but just going too darn fast, I guess!..yeah, right..), but I knew you were there and it always gives me that extra boost to know my support crew is out there. So, Yay! Sprint Tri down... Now on to the next...