Lubbock and RAAM

Lubbock Marathon and RAAM

Since I was not able to go to Ft.Worth I have done my own runs here in Lubbock.  Today I ran over a marathon and feel great!  We had some high winds but it was not to dusty so I got a really long run in.  My feet still bother me but I do think they are getting used to the inserts.  I can only imagine what my feet will feel like at Badwater...yikes.  I am trying to find a sauna here in Lubbock to check out the heat.

I am reading a terrific book called The Death Valley 300 by Richard Benyo.  I bought this book last week while at the Austin marathon.  Richard sold it to me himself and gave me lots of tips. He was a very nica man and his book is really good.  He is pretty darn good at making you feel the pain he felt and it makes me want to reconsider climbing Mt.Whitney.  He got stuck in a lightning storm when he went to the top....yikes!

RAAM 2005-  there seemed to be war going on between my teammates crew and my crew.  For some reason the other crew always wanted to change the plan and always had not so great ideas.  We were in West Virginia..I think.... and they got this great idea that we should follow them while my teammate rode his leg.  This was just in case I needed to hop on the bike and take over (the other crew was not sure how my teammate was doing).  This was an awful idea since this meant we would get no rest following them. It was really foggy and there were some rolling hills.  We actually got to laughing in our crew vehicle cause we knew the other guys would not be able to do this all the time and would later figure out that it was a horrible idea.  We followed them like planned and when when it came time for me to get on the bike we made them do the same thing and follow us.  After a couple of hours they called and were boohooing about not be able to get some sleep.  My crew acted like they really needed to stick around and laughed even harder at the guys boohooing.  My crew let me know what was going on and so I decided to ride a little longer.  When it came time for my teammates next shift they asked if I would keep riding so that they could get some sleep.  We did and for some dumb reason we had a lot of fun since we had won this war.  It is a shame that crews get like this but it does happen on most RAAMs. Crews tend to have these little wars and duties like dumping the RV and washing clothes seem to be what crews argue over most.  I had some wars on solo RAAM as well.

Thanks for reading

Posted: Feb 23 2008, shanna

Gigathlon

Projects-  It never seems to take me long and I get a million projects going on.  Right now I am ready to smash the computer against the wall but that seems to be how you get things done now.  I have spent countless hours on this thing the past month but all the research is coming together.  I used to only use the computer for emails and to check races out but now I seem to be looking into other productive things to do with my life.  I still am on some race sites but most of my time is spent checking out continuing education and corporate wellness stuff.  It seems like a waste of time but I get things done eventually.

Education-  I am working on getting some brain waves going for a change.  I am getting my transcipts from past schools so that I can see about getting some education from ACSM (American Counsel of Sports Medicine).  They require a AS or BS degree but do have some exceptions in accepting some people like me.  I just have to gather all the info up for them and this is taking some time...yikes.  I am hoping to get another personal trainer and wellness coach certification from them.  They teach a little more then the courses that I have already have.  After this year if I need to then I will be getting at least an AS degree in business and marketing.    I screwed my schooling up the first time I tried it and I wont be making the same mistake again.  I should of done this the first time...I have learned the hard way.

Website-  This is another time consuming thing.  I am not just going to have a triathlete website anymore.  I am going to put some tabs on it with info on Wellness Coaching, Corporate Wellness, Motivational Speaking, and my Super Spin Saturday.  One thing I do wish I was geat at is writing.  I have been looking at other websites and am trying to keep my website as simple as possible.  I think some of these websites have to much info on them and I seem to waste time reading to much stuff.  I wont have all the info I want on it when the website comes out but it will get added.  I have someone that will help me edit all my info...thank goodness. I got my race resume and bio done tonight to update the website with.  Hope you like it when it comes out.  It could be another month but I dont think so.

Biking-  This morning I had a farily long bike and I chose to do it indoors.  The weather was perfect so I do wish that I went outside.  I have not been on the road bike much and everyone was laughing at the last ride when I commented on how funny the bike with skinny wheels felt.  I dont think I got used to it for a couple of hours and did not get out of the saddle until I did get comfortable.  I have been mountain biking more lately. 

Badwater- I registered tonight for this and so there is no backing out.  I am also gathering a list of names for my crew.  I will have more people then I originally planned.  I am going to have two crews so that they can get some rest.  Crewing in 130 degrees will be rough on them and I am going to be using them every few mintues or so in the desert.  I want to keep cool with water and I will be needing to get sprayed often and I prefer to sip my fluids.  This means the crew will be working harder then me. I have a hotel that is between the start and finish so that one crew can rest for a while in air conditioning.  I will be using my van for the main vehicle but some of the crew will fly into Vegas and rent a second vehicle to get to the start.  Most of the crew will not be going as early as me and this will save me a 4 hour drive to go get them.  Sounds like a lot of cars but I only want to do this race once.... and I will finish.

Mt. Whitney-  The race used to go to the top of Mt.Whitney but it no longer does.  I still have this urge to go to the top of the mountain but I really have never hiked up a mountain before.  I will be taking some trips to train and I am going to get a permit to go to the top.  I am not sure if I can tack this onto the end of my race and won't do it if I am not allowed but I do want to check on it.  There is something appealing to me about starting at the lowest point in the U.S. and going to the highest point in the U.S. of 14,000 ft. Sounds pretty cool to me.

Gigathlon-  This is a funny story about day 2.  The race was cold, wet, and rainy the whole time.  I was going to have Dr.Rudolfo run with me on day 2.  He is the Doc that I stayed with before the race and knew the run course.  I arrived in the transition and he was standing there in the rain and had a rope.  I asked him what he planned to do with the rope and he told be he was going to put it on me to keep me from falling.  I just thought that he was joking.  We got started on the run and it was not all that bad until we got started going up the side of the mountain.  I was always trying to avoid the rocks but when it was steep and muddy I had trouble getting up some of the climbs.  Rudolpho showed me how the rocks were my friends and then I used them often to get a nice place to put my foot.  We were both slipping all over the place up the first steep climb and then when we started to go down Rudolpho put the rope on me like I was some kind of dog.  It was not around my neck but it was around my waste.  Sure enough he kept me from falling many times.  When I would slip he would pull the rope tight to keep me from busting my butt.  I could not beleive how hard the run was.  It really was not something I think anyone could run.  Georgio (my Italian buddy) was taking his time on the steep climbs but he was a pro at hiking down hills so we finished the run together.  I am not sure how much longer it would of taken me if Rudolpho was not around.  The Doc was always showing me where to walk and one of my fondest memories was Rundopho looking like a rat on an excercise wheel.  He sometimes had trouble finding a place to put his foot as well and would be walking in one place.  I laughed the whole run and had a great time thanks for Rudolpho.

Thanks for reading

Posted: Feb 20 2008, shanna

Asia

Today I forgot my socks and was wearing my shoes with the orthotics in them.  I hate to wear running shoes without socks.  My orthotics are some kind of cork material so there was nothing to absorb my seat on my feet.  This made work really interesting.  Every time I picked my foot up and took a step my shoe made a farting noise.  I had to take them off.  I could not stand it.  I will be coming home and getting my socks for sure next time.

running-   this morning was a nice run with some hill repeats on the treadmill.  My legs felt great and I felt really strong.  I have a run sheduled that is longer then a marathon this weekend.  It will be solo. I would like to go to Ft.Worth to the Cowtown marathon and run a 50k but the plane tickets would have to get real cheap.  I am checking hotwire just in case.  I am a little worried about my feet.  The inserts are working but I have spent years learning where my blisters pop up.  Now all my studying is down the tubes. 

Swimming-  today I saw a guy that was swimming really fast.  I decided to ask him if he wanted to swim together.  He had his head buzzed so I did not recognize him today.  I asked him over a year ago to swim with me and when we did he never showed up again.  He did not have a good workout that day so I scared him off.  I do all of my swimming solo and need to have someone push me. I hope we can arrange to get together.

Corporate Wellness-  Last year I tried to work with this office of normal people.  I thought that I could get these people excited about getting healthy.  I showed up with some balls and stretch cords thinking that they would get excited and I only got blank stares while they stuffed some food in their mouth and ordered pizza for lunch.  It was not that bad but it was a slap in the face.  I got a lot of info thrown at me the past 3 weeks and it is all sinking in.  I feel like I have wasted a lot of time on the computer doing research but it turns out that the research is going to pay off.  I want to work with smaller businesses and am constantly working on what will work best.  I will be continuing my education for further my education in Wellness Coaching.  This means more books but the challenge is a nice change.

Malaysia-  what sparked my international travel was 9-11.  The flights got really cheap  and I got a ticket to Malaysia for the ironman for $411.00. I could not pass this up.  With all the terrorist stuff the T.V. station wanted to inverveiw me.  They only show a short clip and they always take the part of the interveiw that you least expect.  They asked my what my one of my fears was about going to Malaysia and my reply was "going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground."  This was my quote on the T.V.   It was true.

In Malaysia I was in a really nice hotel and we had a normal toilet but on occasion I did have to use the hole.  I never did figure out how to properly use it and seemed to always seemed to pee everywhere else but in the hole.  I was not the only one with this problem.  We were at the awards banquet and a Canadian came out of the bathroom and had peed on her shoes.  A really nice Asian girl informed us of what we were doing wrong.  We were using them backwards.  Americans always go into the stall and face the door but in Asia you face the wall.   This made a huge difference!  I was going to try it out but my legs were extremely sore and there was no way I was going to attempt to sqaut.  I waited until we were back at the hotel to use the western toilet. I still do not know what the hose is for....do you?

The next year I went backt to Malaysia.  The portable pottys were Asian style and I was determined not to use them.  While the race was going on I ran off the course into a hotel to use the Western toilet.  This was only costing me time so the race did not get upset about it but I hate to use those nasty things.  You can imagine how hard it was for me to adjust to the bushes at RAAM.   I used to never go into a public restroom.  I guess you could always say that I was afraid of germs. My grandmother made me cautious of germs early in life.  I still hate public restrooms.

What brought all of this up is that I had to try to be a plumber today on my toilet at work.  I hate working on them as well.

Thanks for reading

Posted: Feb 19 2008, shanna