Days of Rest

Coach B told Jason and I to take 3 days off after our race. Today is day number 3 and I think we both feel like slugs. I am excited for day #4 so we can burn off some of the junk we have been eating, I hope my legs remember how to run. :)

Jason has been in Kauai for our rest days and is coming back tonight. His dad, Shannon and brother, Garrett, are visiting, so it was a perfect opportunity to spend some time with them. Since Elizabeth and Chasity went back to AK, I have been here by myself. I feel totally bummed for everything they've been going through and we missed out celebrating both of their birthdays this week Hawaiian style.

Hopefully J will have some pictures of Kauai to post! The Big Island has been CRAZY windy today. It's a good thing we didn't have to ride our bikes because we would have been blown off them....not even kidding!

Lavaman

A crazy couple of days! Yesterday was the Lavaman race and Alaskans dominated the podium at the finish! Two of our top local women were 2nd and 3rd overall on the stands with the pros!! A ton of other people also finished in the top 5 of their age groups.

Elizabeth was a champ and decided to do the race before being rushed to the airport to catch a flight back to Anchorage to be with her sister and family. We didn't get any pictures of her after the race because we couldn't find her and a friend had said she went back to the condo to get ready to leave. She had a great race and PR'd by 12 or so minutes!

In my opinion, Jason did incredible with a 2:14! He improved his time by 6 minutes over last year. The guys in his age group were really fast this year whereas the people in my age group were about the same as last year. Plus, Jason was sick leading up to the race, so he really did exceptionally well. He suffered from a horrible side stitch on the run and even had to stop. Neither one of us felt great about our race but Jason was a lot more positive about it than me, I was really dissapointed. We both were not where we thought we'd be. I'm not really sure what happened if it was the heat, a bit of overtraining before the race or just not tappering as much as we might have if this was our "A" race. Either way, it was a great learning lesson on what not to do leading up to a race. :) Bad races make you appreciate the good ones! My time was 2:34 and some change....it was enough to get on the podium in 4th place in my age group although I didn't feel I deserved it after that performance. My bike and run times were completely off but I am happy with my slow swim time, I'm making improvments little by little!

After the race, probably 50 or so Alaskans went to Kona for dinner to celebrate, it was fun!

Race Time...

Bikes are ready to roll (After we had a bit of a catastrophe when I tightened a bolt on my seat post and broke it, luckily John went out of his way to bring me a bolt from the bike shop in Kona and my very nice husband calmed me down when I thought I wasn't gonna be able to race. I could tell in his face he wasn't sure anyone would have the bolt we needed either so I am lucky)....transition bags are packed and we are ready for the Lavaman tomorrow!!! Elizabeth and Chasity are flying home tomorrow afternoon to be with their family, but E is going to race prior to rushing off to the airport. Send good thoughts her way.

Best of luck to all other Alaskans racing....as well as our friend, John, on his first ever triathlon after shedding 70+ pounds! This "event" will seem way easier than that!

Hard Times

After our bike/run yesterday, we headed to the Mauna Kea beach with Elizabeth and Chasity. It was the first really sunny day we've had in awhile, so it was pretty hot! We stopped at another beach (69) on our way home to say hi to other Alaskans that are here. We constantly see all of these Alaska jerseys all over the place but don't recognize all of the people.

We watched the sunset and Jason and I headed to Jim & Carrie's for dinner while Elizabeth and Chasity opted to go out to dinner together. I think Carrie used to be a caterer, or involved in the food industry, so she had an amazing spread (fresh vegetables, salad, pasta, chicken curry and ahi)!

Sadly, we came home and Elizabeth was very upset. Be sure to send her family your prayers. Her sister is not doing very well and is in the hospital. She has been sick for a long time but now the doctors aren't sure how much longer she has....she's only 36. Last night her and Chasity were going to fly home to Anchorage, but now they are waiting to hear what the doctors say. Poor Elizabeth has had a really tough year and the list of bad things that happened to her is too long to list and no one deserves all of it, especially for how kind of a person she is to everyone else.

Aloha Friday!

They call Fridays Aloha Fridays. That sounds so much better than TGIF....but half the time Jason and I aren't sure what day of the week it is since we've been away from work! :) Today we'll be doing a bike workout followed by a pretty short run....and headed to a beach somewhere!The last couple days we were busy with the Peak camp. We biked the course on Wednesday and did an easy run together yesterday.

Back to our hood

This morning we got up early and headed into Kona to swim at the pier with the Peak group in addition to our friend, John, the fisherman from Oregon that we met a few weeks ago. The group swam about 1.2 miles followed by breakfast and a quick stop at the farmer's market for some fruit.

The group also met with a chiropractor that does ART (Active Release), which in summary is a method used to help athletes (and others) with soft tissue injuries. Nancy has been working on Jason and I for a couple weeks. J had some hamstring problems and my IT band seems to be doing better.

This afternoon, Jason, Elizabeth & I went for an easy 6 or so mile run of the Lavaman course.

Turtles!!!

I keep forgetting to show you pictures of the sea turtles that we keep getting to swim with! They are everywhere on this island! Still no dolphins....maybe today, we are headed to swim the Pier in Kona again with the Peak group.

Alaskans invade Kona

The mass of Alaskans started trickling in for the Lavaman Triathlon, which is this Sunday. Several friends have arrived and today was the first day of our "Lavaman" training clinic with Peak, which is put on by our coach, Rebecca (in picture with her husband, Brendan). For our last two ironmans, we used a training plan I found online for free. Although it worked pretty well for us in the past, we decided to go with Peak because of all the information that was available and we wanted to maximize our training to do the best we possibly could. I'll try to post more later on what Peak is about, but it involves testing our blood at different levels on both our bikes and the treadmill to determine several things, such as lactate levels, VO2 Max and metabolic information (calories, fat, carbohydrates burned, etc). It's pretty cool and lots of information!!

On Saturday, we got a rental car....which is pretty exciting for us considering we had commuter bikes and were borrowing Jim & Carrie's car for a limited time for grocery runs, etc. Sunday, we swam 1.2 miles from the Pier with Mark, who was really kind and waited for us several times along the way. Jason and I saw HUGE waves before our friend arrived and we weren't too excited to get in the water. The local group thought it was no big deal and jumped in so we went as well. The water was murky from the surf and was really choppy, so it was good practice for Lake CDA. After that, we loaded our bikes and went to the location of the Lavaman race and biked the course and ran afterwards. It was a really hot day (every day is hot but for some reason, they keep feeling hotter!?!?)! It wasn't a great pre-race workout because we both felt like we were dying (picture is after our workout).

After working out, we hit the beach with some of those Alaskans....one of which especially stands out in this photo compared to J! :)

Elizabeth and her daughter, Chasity, arrived on Monday. So, we moved out of our Kona condo to share one with them in Waikoloa Beach Resort, which is the location of the Lavaman race. It was sad to leave our little condo....and knowing only 2 weeks are left, eeeks!
Today was a bit of swimming and biking....and most importantly MALASADAS!!!! They are some type of stuffed donut and they are delicious! We got a dozen stuffed with lemon, apricot, mango and bavarian cream, YUM!

Tan Progression...

Roughly into week # 1 we are still pretty darn white!This is somewhere around the 3 week mark.We're starting to turn local!

A little slice of Heaven.....

The first 3 weeks were difficult to just take it easy and not be doing something all the time. The last couple days have been pretty mellow although and I'm getting used to the laid back lifestyle! Jason hasn't been feeling great so he's trying to take it easy and get better before the Lavaman, which is next weekend.

Our day at the "office" included a Master's swim, which was ~3000 yards including warm up and cool down. We ate a quick breakfast and were off for a quick and easy, hour bike. This afternoon, Jason took a nap and I went to the pool and then had a massage to help with my IT band. Rough life, I know!

John, an Oregonian/Californian we met from a local swim race made some delicious desserts today and gave us some tonight...so this is our little slice of Heaven! The picture doesn't do them justice, but they are a gooey chocolate, coconut, graham cracker, toffee sorta thing that melts in your mouth! Yesterday he gave us some fish that his boat caught, we are spoiled! John has lost 70+ (?) pounds by dieting and exercise. I bet Jason and I will be the first people to spend almost 2 months in Hawaii and gain weight! Did I mention we also ate pizza for dinner?!? :)

Athletes Fuel...

So, what does it take to keep us going through all these workouts? To give you an idea, we are working out about 16-20 hours a week (varies weekly). One would think I would weigh 100 pounds from all this exercise. Too bad I like these too much......(note the extra large Costco size proportion and the bag is empty, likely on week #1).

For a little balance, we have also had some very yummy fresh local food!

In between the cookies, avocados and tuna is a lot of Gatorade, Gu and protein recovery drinks, yum! :)

Long days in the "office"

Jason likes to call training our "office", or day of work. It sometimes feels super exhausting and I really am not sure how we managed to do all this and work full time. I have a new appreciation for everything we accomplish back home. It honestly amazes me now. We've had to make a lot of sacrifices along the way (sorry friends and family, you are neglected)!!

Shannon asked what our typical day has been here....and I thought it was a good question. We haven't been lazy to say the least. I have my alarm set for 5:15 every day, except on Sundays we let the birds wake us chirping away. Funny how getting up at 6:30 is no big deal on vacation but to go to work it isn't that fun....

We joined the local Master's swim team and have been going to their workouts Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 6:15 am. Steve is the coach and he is known all over for his awesome teaching ability. We have been taking his swim 101 (intro class) on Wednesday as well and it is awesome. If we only had 6 months here we would be really good swimmers!!!! Jason and I both have improved in the very short time we have been here. Steve is on top of his workouts and doesn't let anyone take breaks, so in an hour workout we are easily swimming 2700 yards, which is a lot for me considering how horrible I am at swimming. I still am in the slow lane.....but it has given me faith that I could become better with a lot of hard work. On Sundays, we have been swimming in the ocean on the Ironman course. We have only made it to the 1.2 mile buoy, but I want to hit 2.4 before we leave. The water is awesome, so clear and lots of tropical fish and coral! If we are out there long enough, several people told us we will likely be able to swim with dolphins. A guy we just met today at the pier, Mark, who swims in our Master's group is going to meet us on Sunday and will be helping us in our hunt for dolphins! :) The picture above is of Jason, Jim, his kids and I after the 3 of us swam out to the 1.2M buoy.


The bike....is a pain in my arse, literally!!! I have tried what feels like 100 saddles and can not find one that works for me. I am about to use Jason's saddle from his $20 bike that has a gel pad over it! :) If anyone has an answer on how to fix this, I am open to all suggestions. I am in misery for most of the entire bike and really don't enjoy one minute of it. The bike is probably my strongest event but the one that I dislike the most.

Our longest ride has been around 75 miles. We are riding about 4 days a week and the distances vary. Some are pretty hard efforts, others are pretty easy. Jason is getting fast, I never see him in in front of me anymore.

Running here is tough and another reason we get up so early. We have long runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which range from 14-19 miles for Jason and about 14-16 for me. I can't handle running in the Kona heat, so if we are running by 6:30 it isn't as bad. The streets are also slanted to deal with the rain, which has led to a silly injury on one of my IT bands. Nothing serious at all, but has made me stop running this week to give it some rest. Why do we need IT bands anyway???

Lance Armstrong & Chris Lieto Twitter Time Trial

By far, the highlight of the trip has been a time trial that was done through Twitter between Lance and Chris (which is a USA professional triathlete and I believe took 2nd in the Ironman World Championships). Jim and Jason follow Lance on Twitter and we knew he was on the Island. Anyhow, he put on a challenge to Chris, who was also here, to do a 12 mile bike time trial race and invited anyone that was here to join. This is the morning that Jim showed up at 6 am at our condo to pick us up to join in the race. We weren't sure it was gonna happen, but it did! Check out the link and you'll see Jason and Jim right behind Lance. I'm further back on the left.

For all you ladies.....Lance looks pretty darn good in person! But, I'm pretty sure the boys were more awe struck by him than I was! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhvMhDKXj8k

Our Commuters....

We only rented a car for our first couple of days in Kona to stock up on groceries since the rental cars are so crazy expensive. We are staying in Kona for 5 weeks and Waikoloa Beach Resort (about 35 mins from Kona) for two weeks. We are moving to Waikoloa when Elizabeth and her daughter come on March 22nd. There is somewhere between 65 and 90 Alaskans coming to the Big Island to do an olympic distance triathlon called the Lavaman on March 28th. Jason and I have done the race the last couple of years along with several of our other friends. This year it has expanded drastically to other Alaskan peeps. Our purpose for coming to Kona wasn't really for the Lavaman.....our main focus is on training for IM CDA, but it is such a fun race and will be awesome with so many people we know.

So....our plan was to find two very inexpensive commuter bikes that we could use around town and not worry if they were stolen. We were on our last few hours with the rental car and still no bikes. Jason called a posting on Craigslist and the guy had a mountain bike for sale for $50, so we were on our way to pick up the bike. I had been searching Craigslist for awhile and cheap bikes didn't pop up very often. As our luck turned out, there was a garage sale on our way to pick up the mountain bike and we looked while driving by to see if there was a bike for sale and sure enough Jason saw a mighty fine red gem! We only had $20 cash on hand after our rusty mountain bike purchase so Jason told her he only had $20 on him and she said it's yours!

The red bike is what Jason has been using and the mountain bike is what I have been using. The pictures really don't do them justice. They are totally rusted from the salt water. It's also a good thing you can probably walk faster than they roll because the breaks barely work!

Our Journey Begins

Jason and I signed up for Ironman Coeur d'Alene again, which is on June 27th. We were fortunate enough to take 7 weeks from work to come over to Kona to train for the event. This gave us a break from the monotony of our indoor bike trainers and treadmills! We would both love the opportunity to some day race in the World Championships, which are here in Kona.

This is our first day in Kona and represents our "before tan" picture.