There are NO complaints from me about the highest temps here in Chicago in March in 141 years.  WE are SO LUCKY!!!  Except for when we all want to race a hilly ½ Marathon.  A large group of us raced a ½ Marathon this AM – the hilliest one in Illinois – but also a yearly tradition for many of us that live up near the race course.  And, honestly, we were just all excited to race without ice, snow or 20F degrees.  But, nearly 80F is a whole different ball game – for us who are not used to it for a longer race.

I signed up for this race in December, when I was not running.  Honestly, I had to sign up because I have rarely missed it – but at the time, I wasn’t even running and I was unsure I would be running 13.1 miles on March 17^th back then.  But, my Achilles was feeling much better after mid-February and I luckily was able to start running.  No speed, except one workout with Dave that was hard, but I felt really good (it is all a matter of perspective!).

But, I had to have this conversation with myself yesterday AND today about my race….

Ok, Jenny, you need to leave your old self at home.  You need to really alter your time goals for this race.  In fact, you should not have ANY time goals.  And, you need to get over it and actually start super easy….DO YOU hear me, Jenny?  Jenny….Jenny…

UGH!  But, I was in the right mind frame for this ½.  In fact, this is the new Jen Harrison….not being able to race one that I entered would have been unheard of me 5 years ago…I would not have even of raced unless I was @ 100% fighting shape.  But, with age and experience comes wisdom and I quickly got over it.

I only wore a stopwatch.  At nearly 80F in March, clearly the HR would be zone 4, so let’s not kid ourselves….so, I planned on running 7:20-7:30 for my first mile., 45 seconds slower than last year (but this was the only time I let myself think/say that).  I hit it at 7:25 and just ran.  I was doing a good job of keeping it real.

And, I felt good…not great…but fine.  I ran slow.  In fact, I have never run this slow in an open ½ and it is a WHOLE different crowd at this pace – how funny to notice that.  And, I am super proud of myself for keeping things in perspective.  My Achilles did not bother me at all for the race, I was just not in shape yet.  Simple as that.  My Achilles is tender now, but not worse for the wear.

I will say this….it was not only a tough race day for me, but also a SUPER tough coaching day.  I had to have many, many tough conversations today. ;(   There were a lot of athletes and friends on this course for me that I work with.  NOT one PRd…it was brutal.  I could not say enough things to everyone about the heat, cramping, needing salt tabs, slowing down SUPER easy first 5k for sure, etc.  I warned everyone, but the heat doesn’t grab you until after mile 8 or 10, really.  And, everyone has run this race so much faster (easier in 30F degrees for us here in Chicago in March than 80F)…I tried hard to keep up with the texts, calls and freak outs all afternoon and evening.  I felt horrible for everyone, but it was simple:  TOO HOT and no one is acclimated and prepared for that heat….whether they ran a 1:20 or 2:30, it was too much.  And, the athletes needed to re-adjust their goals based on this extreme heat for us.  And, of course, everyone feels good until about the 10k and then the shit hits the fan.  Athletes were cramping, walking, shuffling…it was a tough day and it was a tough day at the office for me.

I will say a few athletes had VERY solid days out there – so hats off to them!!!

I hope everyone understands just how hard it is to have a good race in these conditions, some do, of course, but 90% of these runners did not.  March is a super tough month – everyone is itching to race and feeling out their fitness…and usually these races are good indicators of fitness.  But, unfortunately at 13.1 miles, it was just too much and had everyone freaking out today, questioning their fitness, questioning their upcoming races.  A tough day all around for everyone indeed and one that left a huge pit in my stomach – I still have it at 7:30pm at night and I have not stopped working since I crossed that finish line today.

The bright side:  It sure will make the great days even better!  And, there will be great days coming up.

And, I had 3 neighbor friends do this race….they have been on and off training for this and I felt awful because it was cruel really that they picked this race ON this day with this heat…it was challenging enough for experienced athletes, but you know what?  They did great – so proud of them.  But they did say that they thought I was nuts that I did this normally – they missed their green beer last night for St. Patty’s Day and were NOT happy about that.

AND, more importantly, where are my DAMN M&Ms?

Onward!

Well hello March, I have been waiting for you!!

I was whining on Twitter about not being motivated to work or blog or finish up the article I owe to Training Peaks. You know when you have no thoughts in your head?  That is how I feel tonight.  THE only reason is that it is late for me @ 7:35pm!  I know, I know….but Graham is at soccer practice and I am at some café pretending to work.  Yeah, that got me as far as Twitter, FB and Pinterest  thankyouverymuch.

Little Miss Molly on Twitter asked me to blog about my 2012 races.  YAWN!!!  I told her it is NOT riveting at all.  I was just laughing about this with Jerome this past weekend in Tucson (which, by the way, was dreamy thankyouverymuch)….and I was telling Jerome that I cannot believe I am this fit in March (bike and swim coming along) and I really have no major races on the horizon.  I am so not like that.

But, here is the deal…and for those who read my blog regularly you understand….I had not run hard since last August….my Achilles was screwed….and after IMAZ I did not run one step for 6 weeks.   January 1^st came and I said I would start slowly again with the running and I did.  3 x 20 min runs, 3 x 25 min runs, 3 x 30 min runs, 3 x 35 min runs…oh yes….just like that with NO intensity (of course)….I mean super slow and because it was winter cold, I was smart (stretched, rolled, etc)….and kept up my strength sessions (OF course, I would be a bigger mess w/o them)….so by the time I got up to March 1^st, I allowed myself to add the speed back in…8 weeks is not a huge base, but for someone like me who has a massive base from years upon years of training, it is sufficient.

March 1^st rolled around….I picked up my phone and called one of my favorite people:  Dave Walters and told him I was driving my A$$ down to see him and run with him…even if I need a wheelchair to get through his workout.  Last week I drove to run with him.  This was after I was nauseous after I brilliantly decided to do TWO back to back 10k TTs on the bike on Sunday AFTER Masters….yep, I am smart like that.  OH and smack talked about the whole event (s) all day too.  Best day EVER.

Anyway, I had warned Dave that this was my first speed workout since..well August (run wise) and this could be a total disaster.  My Achilles is basically 100% now, but the body is out of run shape.  We started to warm up and I thought, “just go with it, Jen” and I did.  I turned off my brain and ran as hard as I could up those hills and for the repeats of the main set.  Dave was pleasantly surprised and told me I am a sandbagger.  Ironically, I have been called a lot of things but a sandbagger, rarely.  So, maybe I am in better shape than I think?

Now, truth be told, I paid for that TT effort /Masters on Sunday and stress from putting our house on the market last week AND this hard 75 min run with Dave….I got a cold sore on Friday in Tucson…felt like I was hit by a truck.  But, that was all that I walked away with…pretty damn impressive really (because I was stressed out).

Then, in Tucson I was able to put in my long run….I ran 2 hours pretty easy but in the rolling terrain at Sabino Canyon…dreamy – but I was no worse for the wear.  So, here we are, early March and the game is ON.  So, now I can plan the season.

BUT, I promised myself (and Jerome, who is flexible) that this would be a step back year for me…all local because this house can sell at any point and we have to move and all that good stuff (to where, who knows!).

But, on December 31^st, when I was NOT even running, I signed up for a ½ Marathon on March 17^th.  Wholeheartedly knowing I would not be able to race it, but it fills so fast that I would lose my slot if I waited longer than 15 minutes.  So I entered.  Now I am in a position, 8 weeks later to run it.  Race it is a dicey word…but I can run the course and be respectable.  Five years ago I would never have done that…I would have to go with all guns blazing or not go at all.  Ah, with age comes wisdom.  And desperation.  I saw the other side:  The side of no running and I will tell you what, it is UGLY…so if I am 3, 4 minutes slower b/c I healed up this injury, I will take it and do the HAPPY Dance!!!

Now my 2012 just fully opened.

So, with that, I read the recent www.ironman.com article on the girls from 40-44 that qualified for Kona at IMAZ…well, that was me, but I was not mentioned b/c I turned the slot down.  BUT for some reason it made me crazy for a brief minute and I immediately whined about it and then said, “your choice, Jen…your choice.”  And, so it is.

So far this is my schedule for 2012:

• I have done 3 x 10k Bike TTs so far
• Racing ½ Marathon next weekend
• I have done a big swim meet already
• I am swimming in a big meet this weekend, HELLO 200 IM
• I am swimming out of MY SKIN at the IL State Swim Meet next month:  400 IM + 9 events
• Galena Triathlon in May
• 10 mile run Race in May – Memorial Day weekend
• Leon’s Oly Triathlon in early June
• Lake in the Hills Triathlon (same weekend as Eagleman, which I am not doing this weekend, Morgan has a dance recital that I would never miss)
• Twin Lakes Sprint Triathlon late June
• Bike TTs all of June, July and August…from 20k – 40ks
• Door County ½ Ironman (see, I threw in a ½ IM in the mix!) in mid July

I need to figure out past mid- July.  No marathons…no major travel, so we will see!  Maybe I do the Chicago Triathlon – what a concept!  Or another local ½ IM.  I know REV3 has a ½ IM up in Wisconsin Dells, which is only 3.5 hours north of me…so we will see!   I am open to anything!  I just want to race a lot and have fun.  I want to be in good enough shape to jump into anything but a full Ironman…but also flexible enough so that I can pack up and move and start building a house if I have too quickly.  That is my theme for 2012.

And, soon back to the track..oh have I missed the running track.  I left a message for Dave begging to meet me at the track soon.  SOON!  And after nursing this darn Achilles for months, I am JUST happy to be 100% again.

It has been intense these last couple of weeks.  Jerome was in Europe on business and I was flying solo.  Usually I do not mind flying solo, but the kicker is our house is going on the market on Thursday and we have a LOT of crap to do.  I do not like to clean.  In fact, I had to call in the big guns last weekend and have my sister come up and help me.  I think she was completely freaked out at the amount of work I had to do…but she has been great and we really hammered through some major organizational and cleaning issues in this house.  Thank goodness.

On Friday night, I was close…close to tears.  I had been not only been working all day every day but training and being mom…Jerome’s flight was cancelled due to our snow storm….I just wanted to lay in my bed and sleep!  But, then, I got over myself and realized single parents do this ALL the time and they don’t complain, so why should I.  So, I shut up and went to bed with my kids at 8:30pm and started the weekend.

The body is amazing, really.  Not only have I been training normally, but I have been on the rivet in other areas of my life…and almost like pure, animalistic adrenaline is rushing through my veins.  I put my head on my pillow and wake up 7-9 hours later ready for the next day.  Thank goodness I am sleeping well.   I got up early, did my brick and was off coaching Graham’s basketball game before 10am.  I really have enjoyed doing this and it is honestly the highlight of my week.  Working with these boys has been challenging but really just pure fun (and a tad exhausting!).

I had been looking forward to – and trash talking – about our bike TT that was on Sunday.  Every so often, I do these computrainer bike TTs.  They are so so hard.  Pure agony for a 10k.  Well, for some insane reason, I decided to swim Masters early Sunday AM for 5,000 yards and then drive to the TTs and then DO 2 of them back to back…with only a handful of minutes of rest in between the TTs….I have known some people (crazy) to do this before and I thought, “why not?”

See, this is exactly NOT like me.  I am usually always somewhat rested for all my races…whether it be swimming or a run race 5k, I do NOT like going into events super tired.  But, I was reminded yesterday how resilient the body is and how it is so amazing if in good shape.

So, I swam and swam and swam with the team Sunday AM…then, showered, talked and drank my Recovery Drink…then, I was trash talking Elizabeth and Ben on my drive down to the TT and stopped and ate.  I arrived at the TT about 90 minutes before my start.  I saw Elizabeth and was trash talking (ok, I was not) with her…she was about 1 hour before my wave.  Anyway, I tried to warm up….but I was already so warmed up from swimming that I just spun about 5 minutes and talked for the remaining 85 minutes.

I jumped on my bike for my TT and I knew what the time was to beat and I was in the later heat (s)…so I just put on my IPod (yes, I listened to music for this) and rode hard.  The room is hot and dripping with testosterone – all day hundreds of riders are in and out of this bike shop.  16 computrainer banks run for most of the day.

Ok, this hurt badly.  I knew it would hurt…and it always does, but this TT was a rolling course…for me, a hair harder than the flat course I did here last time.  I was working so hard and breathing so hard and I just wanted to vomit.  But, I finished up and had the 2^nd (at the time) fastest OA time.  I was trashed.  Elizabeth came over to torture me – as she drank her coffee and ate her PB Bagel – I sipped her coffee because I needed SOMETHING to jolt me into doing this again.  Honestly, I was worried about the 2^nd one – I am usually much more conservative than this!  What am I doing!!?

My good friends John and Tracy set up for the 2^nd TT and I got to talking to them – they were thinking I as nuts, but they did an Indoor TRI earlier that AM…geez!!  At least I just swam!  Anyway, they started the 2^nd TT and I really was going to pay big time for my stupidness.  Elizabeth asked if I needed a leash to reign myself in on this one – but she got smart and left.  I am sure she did not want to watch the carnage for the 2^nd TT.

I did it – hung on…power dropped by 20watts for test #2!  That is A LOT….goes to show you how badly I suffered for TT #1….I mean I left it all out there, so the fact that I could even turn my  legs over for #2 was purely a mental game.

After the 2^nd TT it is now 1:30pm and I am OVER it.  I can’t even cool down I am so tired.  I get off my bike and talk some more (that is why I like these events, I can talk to people!) and change, go to Panera (next store) and drive home.  My phone had died so I just drove home in silence.  I was dizzy, exhausted and nauseous.

I got home…Jerome was outside painting the shutters and then tiling the shower upstairs.  I could not even take a shower.  I sat down, did some more trash talking on the computer, answered emails and played on Facebook.   That is all I could muster.

Then, no sooner had I sat down, then I had to get up to meet with our builder and architect at our lot to go over the details of the house and how we want the house set up on our LOT..so we were outside in the snow forever walking our lot all while the kids had a snowball fight.  I was so hungry now that I could not focus on anything but where we were going for dinner!

I got home at 6:30pm and took a shower, sat on the couch, watched the Oscars and worked.  Finally!

I woke up this AM no worse for the wear but starving AND still a little nauseous!  I am heading out to go running soon (edit:  maybe later now) but Jerome woke me up at 5:15am to work on the tile in the shower.  He has to get this shower done and needs to get to work, so this is the only time, of course.  Did you know Home Depot opens at 6am?  That helped us this morning!

The best news:  The house goes up on the market on Thursday and we leave for Tucson!  Of course…so looking forward to some R&R…sleep, warmth and Mt. Lemmon!  I may sleep the entire weekend in the sun.

GOSH I wish I had more riveting updates for you all…but it is pretty routine here.  I am swimming a lot of FLY and just officially signed up for the Illinois State Swim Meet – the max:  9 events + relays over 3 days.  I am actually really excited. I never swim all days, because I hate being in a pool all weekend but this is the new Challenge year !  I signed up for the:  1000 free (1650 and 1000 alternate years), 500 free, 400 IM, 200 IM, 200 Free, 50 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Free, 100 IM.  Should be totally hilarious if I can move Sunday night.  But, I am sticking to my promises!

In other news, we are putting our house on the market on March 1st….so that is coming up fast and living in an 1880s home, we have work to do – my sister (bless her heart) is coming up this weekend to help me get rid of CRAP…especially in Morgan’s room.  One of the challenges in working from home is that I can’t see past my own crap…so an intervention is needed.  YAY for my awesome sister.  And, our architectural plans are coming along.  We are really excited.  Yes, we have an issue if we sell our house quickly – and our new house will take 9-10 months to build…where will we live?  Elizabeth’s new basement for sure.  She misses me.  No, we will rent a little place here in the neighborhood (rental market is hot now) so the kids can be near the school.  Let’s just hope we have that problem!!!  But, we have to go in front of the Association soon to present the house plans, so Jerome and I are having fun with the Builder doing all of that.

But, word of advice:   When your husband’s boss invites you to look at his 2.5 million dollar custom home on a lake….don’t go….you will want to build a house like that with 1/4 of the budget!  We went to look at his house and get a tour (8000 square feet) and OH MY GOSH….truly amazing.  I would get lost if my home was even 1/2 of that!  Geez…but the attention to detail, the word work, the quality of everything was truly inspirational.  For fun, here is the back of his house…now you know why I wanted to see it – TOTALLY my style – and dreamy.

And, a classic Jenny story for you…(eeks)…as I have mentioned, I coach Graham’s basketball team (3rd and 4th grade boys).  I really LOVE IT.  We are actually pretty good and we are all having fun.  At our last game this past Saturday morning, we played a very good team.  The score was very tight the entire time and I was pacing and coaching from the side line the entire time.  The REF was worthless (calling the game like these boys were in High School)…but, I keep my mouth shut…

BUT….(there is always a BUT)….there was a play the REF could not see, so he looked up at the other coach and asked him what happened.  OF course the Coach said “our ball.” (crappy call)  I said something under my breathe (and he heard me – maybe on accident, maybe on purpose)….but after the game he came up to me as we all shook hands and said:

“Honey…” and grabbed my arm.

I promptly ripped my arm out from his touch and said, “DO not patronize me.”

He had that dumb look on his face – you know which one I am talking about.

He said, “You don’t need to say bullsh*t out loud.”

Me:  “No, I don’t, but you are lucky that is all I said out loud” and walked away.

I can guarentee this to you…IF I was a male coach he would NEVER have done that.  At least now I know he won’t do that again to me.  No one ever said I am a shrinking violet.

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!!!