I need a new challenge.  Ho hum ho hum.

As I busy myself this winter with training, I am trying to figure out what I want to do this year.  Local and small for sure.  However, EVERY winter I get sucked into swim meets.  I do actually really like them.  But, this year has been a challenge for me.  I did IMAZ and then took 6 weeks out of the water.  Fast forward to January 1st and I started swimming again.   And, then entered one of the larger meets this past weekend.  The pure swimmers are in great shape..and I am trying to just hang on.

500 free, 100 free, 100 IM, 50 Free, 200 Free + all relays.

Ho hum. Ho hum.  Every year I do this meet and every year I swim within 5-6 seconds of my standard time.  This year I was about 9 seconds slower in the 500 than my STATE time last year – techinically out of shape.

I was 1-2 seconds off in the 100 free.

Ho hum.  Ho hum.

So, that leads me to my new challenge.  I am SO tired of doing the same things and swimming within seconds of what I normally do.  Sure, if I stripped away my running, strength and cycling I could get my times down.  But, why?

So, I finally got over my bad self this weekend and decided I am going to do something I am afraid to do.  I am going to do the 200 IM at the next meet in March and then the 400 IM at the State Championships!  Now, for most swimmers this is a non-issue, but I am not one of those.  I grew up ONLY swimming distance free.  Even the 200 free is considered a sprint for me.  Give me a 1650 over a 200 free any day.

So, there it is.  I am putting myself out there AND taking on a new challenge.  See, I didn’t even swim the 100 IM growing up.  My breaststroke SUCKS.  And, in practice in flip all my turns regardless of what stroke I am swimming (that is a no-no).

But, it is time to break out of my yearly monotomy.  The STATE meet is huge and scheduled for the weekend of April 22nd.  I have many months to practice and I will need them.

All you “pure” swimmers out there….tips are appreciated!  I appreciate all the feedback on FB, but keep it coming.  I can fake a 100 IM.  And, probably fake a 200 IM. But, the 400 IM is the REAL deal.

Let’s get it going, time for some new challenges in my life!!!

This is a pic of Jerome and I at Duathlon Worlds, 1999 :  Germany

Last week I had a college student here from Northwestern.  She had contacted me a few weeks prior and asked if she could interview me…AS A JOURNALIST.  I immediately shot her an email back and said..Oh goodness, I think you have me mixed up with someone else who WRITES publicly. I just blog and occasionally do some Triathlon stories.

My Professor includes bloggers as Journalists, she responded.

Oh god.  If my English Professors could hear this now, they’d die.  I didn’t even have a computer in college, let alone knew what a blogger was.

She was so cute.  20 years younger than me.  I was careful not to say anything stupid.  And, I most definitely was not in my PJs.  She was prepared, organized and asked me a ton of questions.  I think she was completely freaked out when I told her how long I’d been racing and what I have done.  She was barely born when I started.

Funny how as you go through life, you go through all these different phases as an adult..a recent college grad, a single working woman, newly married, DINKS, then kids, new mom with newborns, toddlers then a mother with school age kids….then older kids…  I remember being memorized by some of the “older” Triathletes when I started this sport in 1995.  I remember working so hard on trying to figure out WHAT TO DO (this was way before coaches) and doing some VERY stupid things, I am sure.  I just laugh when I read my old training logs.  But, the one theme:  I was consistent.

She asked me a question that is always asked – but during this interview I responded in an unexpected way.

“What has been your biggest accomplishment?”  Ok, that is a common question and one I usually rattle something off about Hawaii or this or that….always time or placement focused.

But, not today.. .Instead, I said, “Longevity in this sport.”  And, I meant that…and this is the first time I responded this way and it startled me..but it just came out.

Fast forward to this past weekend, Jerome and I were in Tucson on a little 3 day weekend getaway to chase the sun and for some R&R (dreamy)…and I was telling him about this question and my response (because god knows we are like trains passing in the night when we are all home = no time to chat).  And, it got me thinking to how this longevity happens – because it is NOT easy in this over-demanding sport we do – and this is what helps:

• Don’t take yourself too seriously.  I am SUPER intense…in fact, that is what keeps me always doing this crazy sport, but honestly, at the end of the day, I do NOT obsess about numbers or paces or anything.  I look at the data, analyze it and move on.  NO thinking about it past the moment.

• I mix things up.  Some years I have to do things by myself – training, I mean.  Some years I am all about suffering in my basement (winter) and running all by myself and just putting my head down and doing the work.  THEN there are some years where I need to be with people!!!  I want to do classes like Computrainer classes and Masters (I always do) and TRX group things, JUST TO get out and socialize.  When you work from home, this is critical to my sanity some years.

• I switch things up every year.  From 1995-2008 I was pretty darn serious.  I did take some time off for the twins, but otherwise, I was go go go and I did love it.  But, then as I worked more and the kids got busier I had to step aside. So, a couple of years ago I “just” did marathons and marathon training.  LOVED IT.  Not sure my body did, but mentally it was a great break.  Then, last year I went bigger with the Ironman…and for me, if I pick a huge race, I go big time in the training.  I leave no stone unturned and I do it all.  Doesn’t necessarily mean I train 40 hours /week but I sure make the sacrifices to make my training key while being a good mom, coach and wife, friend, etc.  I like mixing things up and it keeps me honest with myself and my time commitments and family life.

• I am super consistent.  I take time off at the end of each season.   While I complain I live in COLD Chicago – it is a blessing honestly.  I could not live in a warm climate – I would burn myself out and be riding my bike 100 miles in January – with no major race on the horizon and (unless I race early in the season) that would burn me out and I would struggle each year to be “fresh.”  (Now some athletes do this JUST fine….of course) But, I am always IN OR OUT..there is no in between, so I like the winter balance…time to re-group and get back into the strength component of the training and basics and work on the things that I need to fix!

• I am not doing out of control workouts in January & February.  Sure, I am in Computrainer classes, which historically are hard (X minutes above LT, etc)…but I purposely drive pretty far (when there are closer ones) to go to a coach that I like and trust and who does a PHENOM job with periodizing the workouts and not having us doing work we should not be doing in January – but rather in June.  I am SUPER picky.

• I do not worry about my paces, watts and stuff like that at this time of the year.  I think that if I worried about all of that YEAR after YEAR, for going on 17 years, I would have to slit my wrists.  I know very well what kind of shape I am in.  And, each year it is SO different – this year is dicey b/c I am coming off a SUPER late season Ironman.  So, honestly, I am not in great top end speed now and I can tell by my lack of turnover and speed and pop (let’s be honest, that is always the issue for everyone!).  I wear a stop watch…sometimes a HR monitor and just run or just swim or just bike.  I do gut checks from time to time – swim meets, indoor TTs – just to see how I am progressing.

• I like variety in the workouts.  I DO NOT do well with go and swim 10 x 200 off 15” rest.  OR ride your bike for 1 hour @ 160 watts.  I can do that in the summer outside, but in the winter, I need some mix.  That is how I write the workouts for my athletes and that is what I respond best to.  For some it doesn’t matter – and that is OK.  What is critical is that you need to know what works for you.

• I like and live the lifestyle – as do many of you. I like this lifestyle.  I like being in shape.  Any shape where I can pop in and out of races locally if and when I want to.  Jerome does this too and while he said he is not racing in 2012, he was out running this AM – easy and short, but enough to keep fit and allow him to lead Camp this year or whatever it is!

• I don’t get too involved in what others think or do.   In the world of blogging and twitter and social media, it is A LOT of information all the time – and honestly, it is GREAT for the most part…but I have confidence in myself and my plan that I just do what I am asked to do and be done with it.  It sounds simple and trite – but I can guarantee many of you reading this struggle with this point – and that is normal.  I think if I was not in the sport for all these years, this would be an issue for me too.  I know it would be.

• I keep it real.  I have fun, I eat M&Ms (almost daily), I do not follow the latest fads in triathlon or diets or “eat this not that” stuff.  I really REALLY attribute my consistency for all these years as keeping it simple.   I SLEEP a ton.  I eat VERY well but I do not restrict or cut out foods and I always have dessert.  I recover like a champ every day.  I am not stupid.  I do not make excuses. I keep things easy.  I do my workouts, not anyone else’s.  I listen to my body.  I get regular massages.  I trust my PT, massage person and husband to keep me honest.  As I get older, I have many more easy/rest days.  I do not over-think things.  I surround myself with people I like (who knows if they like me, but that is not important, lol).  The body trumps everything, especially as  Master athlete.  And, at the end of the day, I love it.  Period.

This is a picture of me racing locally in 2000.  NICE.  lol

I always get asked, “HOW much longer are you going to do this, Jenny?”  (seriously, how many of you get asked that?  NOT many, I am sure)…………Most of these are by my non-triathlon friends…and I tell them, “I never thought about NOT doing this.”    Here’s to your longevity in this great sport!  Enjoy it all.

On Sunday night I woke up at 1:45am and never went back to sleep.  I HATE nights like that.  I could not turn off my brain.  AND I was hungry.  So, I got up, ate and tried to read something to let my mind rest, but no luck.  So after 3 hours of laying there, I got up and went to the pool.  What else would I do?  I surely wasn’t sleeping.  And, my favorite thing to do at 5am is swim….so..swim, I did!

Most of the things I have on my mind are trivial – nothing important but when you are laying there – wide awake in the middle of the night – everything seems important and magnified.  Part of it is the house stuff….this market is SO crappy right now, it is a tad stressful.  But, that is not that big of a deal.  Then, I was worried about my kids’ teeth that are hurting them and I need to get them into the Ortho stat….and then getting my work done so we can take off to Tucson on Thursday for a long weekend…We lost our basketball game on Saturday (Graham’s team) and I hate losing – even though these kids played their guts out…I still come home and try to figure out HOW to win next time.  And, what am I going to race this year?  Big, small? Local?….  And, more and more of things like that – see ALL stupid and not important…but funny how they feel at 2am!

One of the things I was thinking about in the middle of the night was expectations.  I think my expectations of myself are high.  Sometimes, I wonder if they are WAY too high.  And, I do think that my expectations of some of my friends are high.  Sometimes I find myself disappointed with some of my friends – whether they are my childhood friends, triathlon friends, neighbors….or my athletes I work with.  I think it is not good.

But, what I struggle with is do I lower my expectations for myself and others?  You know they always say, “If lower your expectations and they will only rise to that level of expectations….”  I do think that as we get older and busier, I think most people cannot do it all and do it all well.  We all try so hard, but at the end of the day we can only really meet our own expectations for ourselves – NOT other people’s expectations.  Of course, in the Triathlon world, we have to have expectations of our athletes and of our coaches and our support system.  And, I do not find myself trying to live up to anyone else’s expectations (except my Mother’s and my own)…but, I find myself having HIGH expectations of people I interact with frequently and I find myself getting disappointed by some of these people – but because my expectations are probably too high.

Clearly, I need to re-group and fix that because no one is really thinking about this but me – so I need to manage my own expectations of myself, my family and my work….and learn not to be so hard on myself and the people that mean the most to me!    I still have not answered that question after tossing and turning all night!  And, now I am off to bed…hopefully I will just dream about rainbows and fairies and nothing else!

I have been a moving and a shaking recently.  After the holidays, we quickly come upon my birthday, which thankfully is not a big deal anymore!  After 40, you stop counting and I cannot top 2011 nor do I need or want to – so my birthday was a normal work day/coaching basketball at night with Graham kind of day – which was super.  We did get out for dinner at my favorite restaurant this weekend and that was nice.   (I am just glad my sister turns 40 this year so I can start to harass her now).

What is more exciting is that the twins turn 10 this week.  TEN!  I cannot believe it.  I remember hearing (when my kids were 2, 3 and 4 years old) some of my friend’s kids turning 10 and I thought that was SO OLD.  It kind of is…but they are still great at this age.  They are still young enough to want to be with us and old enough to be pretty self-sufficient.  I actually really like this 4^th grade year.  This weekend I even was asked about the birds and bees and once I got to the part where the egg is released by the woman, their eyes glassed over and they were on the floor in laughing in disgust.  GREAT….Jerome said “this is going so well.”  Jerome threatened to show the twins what my LOVELY neighbors bought me for my birthday (not PG)…NOW that would have been a fun conversation!

I am also back to training. I guess I was after the holidays – but I was pissing around a little bit more than I should have been.  This year I am racing more locally and am not doing any IM.  I may do a couple of ½ IMs, but I have not decided with ones yet.  I am trying desperately to get back into swim shape.   I expect my running to be pathetic now (healing up my Achilles)…..but my swimming is worse than I want it to be.  Sound familiar?  Lol.  After my time off, I had to swim solo for a bit to get some fitness back…and just recently I went back to Masters – as of last Wednesday.  They are 90 minute practices and I absolutely have to swim hard for most of it.  And, on Wednesday I even moved down a lane as not to slow down my normal lanemates…but this morning (Sunday) I was back in my normal lane.  Endurance-wise there are no issues, but damn if I can barely flip and do stroke with them.  But, what can I expect?  I do LITTLE to no stroke work all year and then I expect to swim with these swimmers come January?  While they are doing swim meets and I am coming out of my off weeks.  We have a meet coming up in 3 weeks and – for the first time in many years – It is going to literally kill me to swim what I typically swim.  Oh well…who cares..it will come back and I don’t need to be super fast in the winter – of course – but when I choose to swim with swimmers on a competitive team, THIS is their season!

I will say I am consistent once I get back into the pool and this week I swam 4x/week and 4500+ each time, so it will just be a matter of time now.

And, we have some exciting news!  I said that quote to my neighbors this week and when do you get to the point when people do NOT think you are pregnant.  ?!!!  Gosh.  Ha.  NO!    The exciting news is that we bought a lot and closed on it in December.  We will eventually be building our dream home on this lot and selling our beloved 1880s house.  It was a VERY hard decision for me…(not for Jerome) because I LOVE our neighborhood and have raised the kids with all their friends and traditions in this neighborhood.   But, with the twins turning 10 and in 1 more year off to middle school, it was go time.  They are still young enough to make good friends and not feel the impact of being uprooted.  AND ironically, this lot is only 5 miles or so from our current house and the kids will go to the SAME middle school as all their friends – their High School will be different though.    And, no we did not consider buying a house or lot in Tucson.  Family before SUN at this point.

So, that is the main reason why I did not take the Hawaii slot at IM Arizona…remember I said we had some big plans going on in 2012 that were not triathlon related?  Well, this was it…but because this market SUCKS so bad, we never thought the deal was done until the ink dried on the closing papers!!   And, I just wanted to negotiate the heck out of the deal until we got everything we wanted…including them “mowing” the yard in the snow to make it perfect.

We are not going to build this huge house – neither of us want anything obnoxious – we want to be w/ the kids and/or on our bikes!  But, I want simple things like:  a proper bathroom upstairs…..a closet in my bedroom, storage….and simple things that a house built in 1880 does not have.  It will be hard and sad to leave this neighborhood – my neighbors are the best – but it is the right thing and time for us to do this move.  AND I am so excited to start designing our house.   We have spent our free time interviewing builders, real estate agents, architects and more!  We have hired the builder (general contractor) so now it is rolling!  And, we have to sell our current home before we can build the new one….So this is a long process…but one we are so excited about.

Jerome is fixing Graham’s room and re-painting it – so we are starting the house improvement projects to sell this house.

On Friday night we went to dinner for my birthday and then to Barnes & Noble to look through all the magazines at what we want and our wish list.  It is a fun chapter in our lives.  We will be building a Craftsman style home.  If anyone has any tips – I will take them!

2012 is going to be a great year in many regards!

Hello!  Well, this is why I have not been blogging for a bit…besides the holidays and being sick for those couple of weeks – and then with January 1st, it is BUSY BUSY….we were working on the new website in the interim!  So, I am happy that after 11 years, I have a proper website and a RSS feed for my blog and all that other good stuff.

Thanks to John and Jerome who worked hard on the website.  Technically, it is not something I wanted to do – and John (bless his heart) could NOT get over all the pink.  I realize it is PINK, but that is me….good, bad or indifferent…so that is what it is!

A quick update:

We had a great Christmas and New Years….low key, but all family, which is always nice.  And, I just went away this weekend for my annual trip to one of my friend’s lake houses up in Wisconsin…6 of us, all who have been friends since we were 9.  So, 31 years….yep….and it is always a great time. I think it is the only time I am ever up past 12am both nights!  Just eating, talking, drinking and just girl time.  I cherish this time with these girls and realize how lucky we are all.  Amazing.

Funny though, I had Graham’s first basketball game this weekend too – and there was no way I was going to miss that – so I drove back and forth on Saturday AM to do the basketball game.  So worth it – even though my girlfriends thought I was nuts (but understood).  We have 13 kids between the 6 of us.

Coaching Graham's Bball game!

And, I am back to light training.  I took most of December off.  Some of it by choice and some not by choice (too sick).  My body was ready for some deep rest.  I took off 6 full weeks of running.  I had to heal up this achilles.  It is not 100%, but the achilles is a challenging injury – SLOW to heal…but after 6 weeks off, I called my PT friend, Lindsay and said, “Is this enough proper time off?”  Just tell me now – not in June…and Lindsay said, “YOU are good…let’s start running.”  So, 20 minutes one day….day off, 20 min the next day type of thing.   It is all good.

I got back into Masters and got my ass handed to me … not in that kind of FAST FAST shape…and I had to stop swimming with them to rest.  The team is actually swimming at a meet today – I wish I could be there but since I have not slept all weekend, that would not be a good choice.  This week I head back to Masters, thankfully.  Time to get rolling.

And, the bike – WE have had such a mild winter so far, we have no snow on the ground (THANK YOU) so I have been able to get on my Cross bike here a bit because we have had temps in the upper 30s and 40s.  Amazing days!!  (loving it).

Anyway, I hope you all had a great holiday and excited about all the good things ahead in 2012!  Happy New Year!!

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TAPEREATMORETAPERSLEEPMORETAPERREADYMORETAPER

Ok, by this time, it is time to get the show on the road!  I mean, tick tock……tick tock.  All I can say is this:  The weather in Arizona right now is DREAMY…cold, wet and colder.  Sure, I had snow flurries here in Chi-town, but I can ONLY hope that Arizona is miserably cold – now I realize this is far from probably what will happen, but a girl can dream.

I caught myself reading OPRAH magazine tonight while watching X Factor with the fam.  Definitely good times.  I worked all day and never left the house – from 7:30am-5:45pm – trying to get ready to head out of town for 2 weeks – and I am trying to get ahead so I can truly relax in Arizona!

If you are on Facebook you saw that I posted that I AM OVER the pool.  HA!  I said it – out loud!  I woke up this morning and felt a little off….I spent Monday afternoon in the PED office with Graham (he is fine) but I had on a hat, full down jacket, and a scarf over my face like a mask.  I KID you not.  The PED thought I was totally a loser.  I might as well lick a toilet bowl – really.  Anyway, so THE thought of going to the pool almost made me gag.  So, in a rare moment, I slept in.  Yep….for whatever reason, and perhaps it is the COLD weather but I am not interested in swimming.  It will all come back and I am excited for the IM Swim, but just ho hum about the pool right now.   As I dealt with that guilt today – I thought about April – yes, April, when I was already months and months into prepping for the State Championships for Masters and I had to work so so hard to win the 1650 and 500 again …and I was so focused and so hell bent on winning come hell or high water.  And, thanks to some great competition I was pushed hard to win – I did end up winning both, but my mere seconds.  Looking back, I think that prep and races took months off my life this year.  I poured my soul into those events.  And, yes, it was worth it.  So, when I am tired of full blown swimming in November- that is OK!!!  I will draw on this memory come November 20^th.

Ready for a fun taper story?  THIS one really set me back on my heels – I emailed a few of you b/c I just had to share….because I am rarely at a loss for words, but this bold lady threw me for a loop….I was out running near the river trail that runs near my house…there is a lovely area where people feed the ducks.  This lady – who I would say was 55-60ish…was ripping up bread and throwing it at the ducks – she sees me – whips a full piece of bread at me and says, “This is for you – you are too F*CKING skinny!”

I kid you not.

I wanted to kiss her.  BUT I was so taken aback by her profanity that I snapped something at her and ran off.  What I said was not the most pleasant thing I have ever said…but I do not usually have a filter, so that is par for the course.

But, then I ran off and thought…..GOOD…time to race. (and for what it is worth, I am not that skinny, pleeeasseee).

I am going to jump to something that really has inspired me in my final IM prep…..This is an excerpt from an email I got from Dave Walters (some of this is a PR piece that is why it is so formal), who was my coach for 10+ years and is my mentor.  Dave is the one who really taught me how to race and suffer and really get what I wanted as an athlete.  And, I thought his story about his season this year was worth reading…..keep in mind, Dave’s marathon PR is 2:19 (Olympic Trials in 1979) – but now at 56 years old how inspirational he is.  I know he makes me a better athlete every time I talk to him (and I talked to him this AM!)…so thanks Dave..for keeping it real.

Jennifer,

Here is what has happened in my pursuit of the Trifecta!

The Boston/Chicago/NYC Podium Finish Trifecta is something that I have been aiming towards for the last few years.  The object has been to run hard enough to get on the podium yet easy enough so as not to incur major leg damage that might limit the next marathon attempt.  Obviously the Chicago/NYC combo is the toughest with four weeks between and the reason I had to negative split Chicago.  In previous years I noticed that I was fully recovered from marathon efforts in 3 weeks if I had run even splits during the race so I figured that Chicago/NYC was doable if I kept to the plan.  This year I was able to register for all three marathons and stay uninjured – and NYC went as planned!  Age group wise I finished 3rd at Boston, 1st at Chicago, and 2nd at NYC this year.  

 I am very happy with my effort this year at Chicago.  I went out slow (first mile in 6:39!) but picked it up slowly after that.  Averaged 6:28s thru the half (1:24:37) then started to drive it down to the low 6:20s.  After turning the corner in Chinatown I pushed the ‘balls to the wall’ for a second half of 1:23:25.  Things that helped me during the race – drinking a cup of Gatorade at every station, wearing Recovery Sock compression socks, and wearing compression shorts.  All three combined to help hold off fatigue during the last miles.  One critical change that I made going into this race was wearing light weight trainers (Saucony Kinvaras) instead of racing shoes.  Much less late race muscle soreness.

 The NYC Marathon last weekend was a great experience.  Super crowd support and a perfect fall day – sunny and 51 degrees.  Due to some confusion at the start corral I was pushed into starting in the second wave (!) but managed to move thru the crowds OK during the race.  Pacing wise I held it to an average of 6:35 for the first 18 miles to make sure that I would be able to accelerate out of the Bronx and down 5th Avenue into Central Park.  Running up the mile long hill on 5th Avenue after the 23 mile mark illuminated all the weak spots in my stride.  I corrected what I could but knew then that I was feeling Chicago from 4 weeks ago!  I threw myself down the hills in Central park and was able to finish the last mile faster than any other in my race.  I wound up negative splitting the race by 10 seconds.

This year I was coaching half a dozen runners.  Working as a United Airlines 767 Captain puts a limit on the number of runners I can assist.  Most of my flying is between Chicago and London, Lima, or the West Coast.  All my 22 mile runs were done in Portland, OR this fall during layovers – which worked quite well.  I get my mid range runs done in London and Lima – both excellent locations for 12 to 16 mile runs.

2011 Results:

Boston  2:52:09  3rd in 55 – 59 age group

Chicago  2:47:52  1st in 55 – 59 age group

NYC  2:52:12  2nd in 55 – 59 age group

Amazing.  Truly inspiring.  Thanks Dave.

I am just plugging along!  I am in super focused, streamlined right now.  This is such a great week with Kona being Saturday!  Not only do I have some super fit and ready athletes racing Saturday (GO GO!), I have so many friends racing I cannot wait to watch it unfold  online! The energy is so fun and if you need any inspiration – this is the week to find it in the lava fields!  GOOD LUCK to everyone racing!  I have not raced in Kona since 2006…but you never forget how hot and windy and hard that race is!

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