Journey to IMAZ 2017

Can't believe its here....the trailer is loaded...my last run was done yesterday at 5am...my last swim was today at 5 am..the next time i'm in the water will be for the practice swim on saturday! its the real deal holyfield!!!! This year has been a long journey, fun at times, hard at times, frustrating a lot of times, but I have put the work in and now its time to GO BIG!!! I gave Donny his present today and told him how much his support and love for the last year has meant for me. I definitely am the luckiest :)

I got my butt up the last 2 mornings for early morning workouts! yesterday to run 5 with Caryn, Estella and Lana...and today for my last masters. I swam with Katie today and we had quite the crash when we forgot if we were circle swimming or not. oops! both were fine though. lol. she was encouraging about my race and told me to buy everything! hee hee. i plan to!! :) it was about 2300. Craig wished me good luck, which was cool and I saw Brad. Just one more week..9 days to be exact! can't believe how close we are getting. we had our get together meeting with Lisa Martone, Kris Story, Lana and caryn last night to talk about special needs bags and just ironman in general. It was really helpful. Plus really nice to see them all and have a couple of drinks. I have my moments of nerves, but so far so good. mostly i'm just stressed about leaving while Mom is so sick and not eating anything...which makes me feel so guilty and sad. I know she will be ok though. we will have "ey

this is the 1st week i've actually had some nervous feelings. i think talking about it so much and worrying about being gone from mom for so long....its starting to weigh on me a bit. but like carrie said we are going to will it all to be good. no negativity allowed! Its going to be a great trip...mom is going to be just fine and we're going to have a great time! 12 days to go and I need to keep my mental health as good as my physical health. just keep swimming...just keep swimming! tonight is am uch needed massage. looking forward to it!!!

14 days to go!! last night I watched Nick Potter and Kristi Johnson become Ironmen at Ironman Florida....I know i got this!! yesterday Eunice and I rode to Arlington. She was with me for about 2 hours 45 mins. It was cold, but not near as windy as it has been lately...still a wind of course. She will leave this coming thursday for her Ironman Los Cabos and she is totally ready! The last 2 hours I rode by myself and rode past 2 rivers and around 2 rivers and then back to Tahazouka and around Elkhorn til i got my 5 hours in. Ended up with 76.2 and averaged with wind and hills 15.2...not too shabby! need to take that up a bit for the race, but I know i can make this happen! Today was the last longer run...13 miles around Zorinsky! Estella and Caryn did 7 with me (and Maverick :) and then I did the big side on my own to finish it up in 2 hours and 3 mins. One week from Tuesday on the 14th, we start our trek across country to IMAZ! cannot believe it! This week is still taper, a couple o

ok this shit is really getting real! hah. I am now refusing to look at the IMAZ Facebook page as they are making me paranoid about flat tires and crashes and not making the time cut offs! I got this..and i refuse to let anyone take it away from me! i have worked my ass off all year and i will not let anything get in my way! DON"T STOP BELIEVING!! Estella and I rode our 2 hours last night, it was actually a pretty nice night for Nov 1st..it got cold and dark quickly though. One more really long ride this weekend, which I will do part of on my own and part of with Wayne and Emily and Eunice. Eunice leaves soon for her Ironman in Los Cabos and she is going to rock it! The Florida folks race this weekend. I am just ready to get to AZ and do this!!! let's do this! We got up and swam this morning at common ground, it was a good 2600. tomorrow is masters and then the long weekend begins. 13 mile run sat and 80 mile bike sunday! again...Let's do this!!

WOW! It feels like we are getting super close now! Yesterday was a cold and miserable bike ride, but we got it done! This time it was 65 miles in about 35-40 degrees! we had about every piece of clothing on from head to toe!! hand warmers, toe warmers and the works! It was at least not as windy as it has been lately, but there was a headwind on the way to ashland and a pretty nice tail wind coming back. I tried scratch for the 1st time and liked it. Also tried a belvita since i knew we would be getting off and running and i'm pretty sure i'll bring one on my real ride! we finished the last 15 around waterloo and then it was time for the 13 mile run! Estella and Eunice ran the 1st loop with me, then Eunice had to leave and then Estella left after 8 miles so I finished the last 5 by myself.  I turned on my music and did another loop, but the end of 11 miles i was feeling like crap but i still managed to average about 9:05 and get it done!! The day before I swam at common ground

well this has been a much lighter week for sure. after that last weekend of  craziness i think we are all ready to do this!!! this week when i was coming to work some jackass hit my bike on my bike rack on the back of my car. i rode it on wed night and all seemed fine, but just to be sure i took it to bike way since its close to home...they didnt find anything on the frame thank goodness but then they tried to tell me that i needed a new cassette and chain and all of a sudden my back tire was flat??? they also said i needed my back brake bled. i told them dont do anything, and i took it to mark at trek. he agreed the chain needed to be replaced...guess i've been riding a lot lately. hah...but the rest was complete BS. he is going to check over the tire and change the tube and the chain and i'll pick it up Friday before our next big ride/run. we have our last big brick this Sunday and its gonna be coooooolllllldddddd! i got up and swam masters this morning and i will swim the

We are at exactly 28 days til the big day!!! This weekend was a true test of the endurance and strength the Imazing ladies have!! On Thursday night, pretty certain we did our last OWS before the race. The water felt at 1st jump in like it was around 60ish?? my hands and face and feet were pretty darn cold, but i pushed through it and did the full loop in candlewood. The wet suit is serving me well, but i need to make sure the sleeves are pulled all the way up. I feel super strong in the swim. I know its going to be good!! Afterwards we ran 4 miles. Brad ran with us. felt a little stiff and sore at the beginning, but loosened up to be able to finish it! I took Friday off of work and we did our last training 100 miles on the bike. the weather was calling for wind gusts of 35 to 40 mph for the day so we knew it would be pretty brutal, and they weren't kidding..it was pretty brutal! We headed out towards Ashland and I started out way behind the pack, which always makes me get down on

Wow! what a couple of weeks!! our longest bike ride in our training 110 miles! We decided to do the simulated "Arizona" loop for all three loops. the 1st time through the wind was pretty brutal, but I was able to keep it in check. tried to stay as positive as I could. On the 2nd loop we were supposed to pick up Kris Story and Lisa Martone. I got told we weren't going back to the cars....well not going to happen cuz I had to refill my water...and it was just in time to catch Lisa and Kris. The attitude on this ride, left a lot to be desired and after the 2nd loop...the attitude left the building! This was a super hard ride for me. I was too much in my head and I was worrying about my mom. Got a text from Dad saying she wasn't doing well...very tired and lethargic. i wasn't sure what to do on the last loop..if i should just say screw it and go to the hospital...or since I was already in the middle of nowhere, if I shoudl just head toward fremont so the wind wou

This weekend was a major challenge!!! It also was a major accomplishment! Friday night was Carrie's bday party at Tanners (and the Husker football game) So we were out pretty late...got to bed about 1145. Met Lynn and Wayne at tahazouka park in Elkhorn at 715 for our longest brick EVER!! of course the wind was ridiculous!! On our way down maple we had a truck driver honking at us and one lane was closed so there was no where to go. I did wave at him one finger at a time. Later on the frontage road he stopped us and said that he was only honking to let us know he was behind us and that we should move over when ppl honk. Wayne explained we ride 2 abreast because so many people try to pass us on those narrow or roads under construction. He was nice about it all, and understanding and i think we learned a lesson when those guys in big trucks are behind, they may not be able to stop so we should just pull all the way over and stop to let them by. We did the mock Arizona route 1st and

Wow! Feeling super sluggish this week. not sure what my problem is. We had 18 miles on Sunday to run, and the weather was fantastic. I was sore by the end, but felt over all pretty good. Did go home and take a nice nap though! Nothing wrong with that. Also had a nice carb full meal when we took mom out to eat for her bday at Jack and Mary's! Yummy Chicken and Noodles! Good thing I was hydrating the whole Husker game the day before! i think that helped for sure. This week has been mostly shortly runs and bike rides. This weekend just has a 3 hour ride and 10 mile run. We are camping in Des Moines for Mike Kellar's bday so i'm going to see if I can do my 10 miler the night before so I only have 7 miles on Sunday :) Last night was a bit of a tough ride for me, just into the wind part of the time and it felt like my legs were super tired. It was great when we had the tail wind though! We did 2 hours on the bike so about 31 miles and then ran 2. We kept a pretty good pace of

Yesterday marked our 1st OWS that is the full distance of ironman!! I didn't wear my full wet suit becuz it was just too hot, but i did wear my lava pants. I felt so good and strong! I was super stoked! i was able to do 4000 meters and didn't have to stop at all. I took a honey stinger gel before I started and it helped a lot. It was super choppy coming back but I was able to swim it without a problem. I did have to pee half way and had to take a tiny slow down to be able to pee. LOL. Estella and I then ran our 6 miles. It was pretty brutal but luckily the temp went down and we did it together. afterwards we went to the store and got our supplies for Today's big ride!! Today started out awesome. The weather was cool, the wind was low. We did the route that mimics our IMAZ route. The loop goes to Fremont and by the time we got to Fremont, the wind had picked up so the stretch on Old HWY 275 was a full on head wind. It was tough, but i was able to keep it at between 14 and

Our last race before the big one!!! I feel very pleased over all with how it went. The swim was of course my favorite. I was playing a game of "finding nemo" I called the yellow buoys "blow fish" if they were round and sharks if they were triangle...I swam along trying to get past those and "find nemo" the orange buoy at the turn! i also tangled a bit with one guy who was by my side for a long time and finally said...finish him!! Sweep the leg Johnny! and got past him. I came out of the water in 34 minutes and was greeted by a guy on the shore that said i was the 4th woman out of the water!! YES! my transistion was kinda slow...over 2 mins but I got on my bike and got ready to face the hilliest course known to man! these hills are just brutal...not rollers where you can get momentum coming down and then fly up the other side...ooooh no!! these are down adn then flat and then straight up!!! i started to name them on my way..."mother dick" "

This week hasn't been too bad. Got to do an OWS on monday at candlewood on Labor Day.Also a 4 mile run with Estella before it :)  We did a mile and half. I swam masters on Wednesday and it was a lot of butterfly! not my best and not my fave but i survived! at least i got to wear fins most of the time so I didn't drown! hah. In biking this week Estella and I rode our 1hour 47 min with intervals out to Valley/LaShara. It was super windy so pretty tough this time, but I feel a bit more comfy on my bike.We ran a mile after which wasn't bad at all.  Then yesterday we did a time trial for 10 miles on "white trash" road in valley. I felt pretty good going out, head wind coming back but I was still able to keep it over 18.5 most of the time and I actually wasn't the slowest! Yay! AND no one passed me :) yay! Today was a day off and tomorrow we head to Lawrence, KS for the Ad Astra/Legend 70.3. This is our last race before the big one in November! Its a great time

This week has been a down week. I have been having some issues with my knee for some reason and i'm not sure its my bike or if its the run thats doing it to me...but it needs to stop! Our longest this week was a 3 hour ride (56 miles) and a 10 mile run today. It bugged me quite a bit today. One thing I really need to be better at is stretching! I used to be so good at it, but i've been a slacker!! I think as the miles ramp up I am going to have to start really making it a routine! I also have slacked on the chiro the last couple of weeks and this week with mom in the hospital. Poor mama! she's out and home now and hopefully doing better!! Tomorrow is labor day, so we're going to try and do our open water swim tomorrow instead of wednesday so i can actually be there!

Wow! this has been a big week of a lot of long workouts!Monday was the eclipse, but I still got up for masters! Craig had a puzzle for us to solve on the workout...which ended up being Eclipse on the dark side of the moon. lol.  On Wednesday I swam the longest I have ever swam open water. 3500 or 2.17 miles! That is almost the full distance we have to go in Ironman and I'm super stoked to say I didn't stop and I felt like I could keep going. Getting stronger and stronger in my swim. Craig (at masters  common ground) told me my stroke is looking good! Which also makes me super happy!! I am feeling more and more that I am getting ready for this craziness!! This week also included an 8 mile run, which we did in the afternoon on Thursday...it was a bit brutal because it was hot and my legs were hurting from the ride the day before, but we made it through!! I thought 8 wouldn't seem like so far, but after last weekend's long ride and run it was a bit tough. On friday I s

It is a much needed day off today! Yesterday was master's swim and the eclipse adventure and with another big weekend of work outs coming...its definitely time for a night off to hang out with Donny and the boys. I am feeling better and better about  my swim. Craig (the masters coach) told me yesterday my freestyle stroke is looking good! That was a huge boost! Now if i could just get the bike down. I am still getting used to the new bike...i've only had it for a while, so I need to give myself a break. We are coming up on our half ironman in just a couple of weeks though, and I know its crazy hilly, so hopefully i will be ready! I was reading the IMAZ tri email talking about where we should be 3 months til race time and it was saying we should already have a few 80 milers under our belts and feel comfortable. that is pretty worrisome! The farthest we have gone is 75 miles and we've only done it once!! EEKS! The other thing that bothered me was it said we should be do

As of yesterday 8/19/2017, we are looking at exactly 90 days left of this journey! I know the next 3 months are going to be some of the hardest work of my racing life so far, so I decided it would be a good idea to do some journaling about the journey. This journey officially began last year in November when Lynn, Estella and I signed up to be volunteers at the IMAZ 2016 race in Tempe, AZ. We worked in the women's changing tent after the swim portion of the race. WoW! what an experience! I learned so much, saw so much and gained a lot of confidence about doing this race...now 3 months to go...not sure I know as much as I thought I did, but i'm learning for sure!! We started our training in Jan of this year with our coach Brad Hildebrandt. Since then, we have worked on swim techniques and bike techinques...i've definitely gotten faster on my swim...not so sure about the bike. I started this out on a Tri bike...went back to my road bike and then bought a completely new roa