Just Like Old Times

After 2 months of living at sea-level...I lost every bit of altitude adjustment that I had! And I've been feeling it during the last week of training when my lungs are burning and I'm jogging at like 8 minute mile pace:)
But today will be a bit different...in one hour I've got a running workout on the treadmill in the Sports Science lab where I will be hooked up to an oxygen machine that simulates sea-level! So it should be just like I was back in Noosa doing a hard run...or like in Florida this weekend racing St. Anthony's.
Speaking of racing...I leave on Thursday morning for Tampa to hang with the Margalis' for a few days before waking up early on Sunday for the triathlon. This year, Dustin has signed up for the Elite Age-Group wave and my parents are doing the swim (mom) and bike (dad) legs of a relay.
After the race, I'm going to go home and spend a few days in DeLand...hang out, visit my Grandma, do some sponsor things with the new Plan B bike shop in Port Orange, swim with DBS...I head back to the Springs on Thursday, May 3rd.
I rode on my new Litespeed time-trial bike once (Saturday) and it doesn't look very promising for another ride today...it's windy, raining, and below 30 degrees outside. Fortunately, I have a few days in St. Pete before the race to get comfortable on the nice flat roads...the rolling roads in COS are not very conducive to time-trial training:)
Well, I think that I successfully burned through some extra minutes of time this morning...I was not planning to be awake so early but at 6:30am there was a pounding on my door. I thought it would just go away, but when the pounding happened a second time, I knew it was the drug testing people! No complaints from me...if they have to test me, it's easiest when they wake me up and I've got to pee anyways!

Ishigaki Photos

Cold and wet American triathletes...Margie, Jasmine, and Bec trying to stay dry in the downpour about 1 hour before the race start.

We might be cold, wet, and nervous, but there is still time for a smile or two:)

The women's start at the Ishigaki World Cup...I'm on the very left side of the photo...apparently all my luck in this race ran out after I got an EDGE starting spot!

Fast and furious through T2...this time I'm on the very left side of the photo.

The Springs At It's Finest

4:40...pm...Mountain Time...the plane touched down on the runway in Colorado Springs!
I disembarked from my 4th and final plane on April 16th, 2007 and got my first blast of cold mountain air since February.
I soon discovered that the United baggage handlers in San Francisco managed to load Brian's, Jasmine's, and my suitcases on the correct plane, but they couldn't manage to get our three bikes and two wheel bags aboard.
Fortunately, the bikes/wheels have arrived and are in-transit to the OTC right now.
Speaking of my luggage, that is the last trip that my hideous (but much-used) suitcase will be making...the zippers were holding on for dear life on the way home!
I had another mountain of mail waiting for me at the front desk of the OTC...some birthday presents from relatives that forgot I was departing the country three days before my 24th...some USADA (USA Anti-Doping Association) negative drug test results...and the normal bills, checks, and junk.
BIG thanks go out to our USAT bike mechanic for building my Litespeed Saber Time Trial bike...it was waiting in my room when I walked in...now I have to officially find space in my room for 4 bikes!
I also want to thank the USAT coaches that were in Ishigaki for their support before, during, (and most importantly) after the race. Scott and Brian were drenched like the rest of us before the race...they yelled encouraging things on every lap of the bike and run...and then they took good care of the silly American girls that wobbled off the course and into the medical tents (Jasmine and I:).
I've just read a nice email from my coach, Cliff, who has officially given me a few days off to recover...physically and mentally.
By the way...USAT has posted my latest Elite Update from the Ishigaki World Cup. I actually wrote it the night after the race to get some steam out and vent some frustration about my performance...if you actually read it, it's obvious I edited those parts out and kept them to myself:).
Now it's time to attempt to fall asleep even though it's the middle of the day in Japan and Australia...it's 9:30pm here and I need to get some serious shut-eye!

I Am Alive

For anyone who was wondering (probably just my family who was sitting in front of their computer at 2am) I am ALIVE!
It wasn't a pretty sight...on the last lap of the run today, I was completely 'out-of-it' and weaving all over the place. Fortunately, a race official pulled me from the course and I went to the medical tent to get an IV. After lying down there for about 45 minutes and sucking an IV bag dry, I was feeling more like a human again and was able to get up, gather my belongings, and walk back to the hotel while watching the guy's race.
I can't believe that this 2 month trip to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan had SOOO many high points and it had to end on the lowest point possible...a DNF (Did Not Finish). But I was just told by a very good friend of mine (thanks, Jasmine) that the sun is still going to come out tomorrow and we are also going to be back home in Colorado Springs TOMORROW! Back in the USA babe!

It's RACE Day

And, surprise of surprises...it's CLOUDY and RAINY this morning! Just like last year in Ishigaki...the 3 days leading up to the race it was sunny, warm and nice...but come race day, the clouds come, the weather cools, and I'm VERY happy!
I've been up for about 90 minutes, I've eaten some breakfast, and I should be getting into some cycling gear for a short spin/warm-up on the course. They have opened the race course for the elites for 20 minutes to ride it without any traffic. There are some changes to the course from last year, nothing dramatic, but I'm still going to take advantage of the empty roads to do some of my pre-race-warm-up.
As I mentioned in my previous blog title...I am number 34. Jasmine is the highest American with number 29 and the 4 other girls (Sarah, Bec, Margie, Amanda) are right behind us. There are 72 women scheduled to be on the starting line and it looks like I'm going to be right in the middle...I'll be putting all 3 of my fast-twitch-muscle fibers to work this morning when the gun goes off...none of that thrashing madhouse of arms and legs looks like fun to me!
This is it guys...this is the BIG one...send some fast and positive thoughts my way from 12 midnight - 2am (east coast time)! Later Gators!

I Am Number 34

Last year in Ishigaki, I met a very nice Japanese athlete on the bus ride to the pre-race dinner. This year we met up again at the dinner and chatted the whole night! Misato is an awesome young lady...she speaks very good English and loves to laugh. Not long after the Ishigaki race in 2006, she crashed and broke her collarbone...she was finally healed up and racing again at the very end of the season when I was finished racing...that explains why I haven't seen her since '06!

This was the big hotel banquet room for the pre-race athlete dinner. They performed some traditional Japanese dances on the stage and we were served yummy Japanese dishes (buffet style) for dinner.

Taketomi Island Photos

Jasmine and Becca in front of the ferry boat. We rode on it for about 10 minutes from Ishigaki to Taketomi Island.

View from the ferry boat of Ishigaki Island...it has a few 'hill/mountains' but they are to far inland to be on our race course. I did ride to the base of some yesterday on my bike ride...very forest-y and flower-y.

That's me in the bus taking a tour around Taketomi island.

This area of islands is known for the "Star Sand". It's very easy to find, just push your palm into the sand, pick it up and look closely at the grains of sand stuck to your hand...about 1/4 will be star-shaped.

Japanese Sightseeing

Jasmine, Margie, Amanda, Bec, and I on a glass-bottom-boat. We are right above a beautiful coral reef off the coast of a small island called Taketomi.

Ishigaki Again

I made it. It's the world's longest and boring travel...I left Brisbane on Wednesday morning and finally made it to the southern-most island of Japan (Ishigaki) on Thursday afternoon.
This year, my lay-over in Tokyo was the highlight of the trip. After Jasmine and I checked into our hotel room, we got a taxi into Tokyo and found the USC offices to meet up with Andy and Patricia for dinner. They took us to a fantastic Japanese restaurant, sort of hibachi-style, and we laughed, talked, and ate for a few hours before grabbing another taxi back to the airport hotel.
The travel was uneventful (which is a good thing). All our bags made it unscathed, flights were on time, the hotel had a room for us (I'm rooming with Bec Wassner while Margie and Jasmine are in the room next-door).
Today is Friday. We woke up around 7am for some breakfast before heading out on our bikes for a quick tour of the course. I led Bec and Jas around the bike course twice before leaving them at the pool. I rode my bike for a few more minutes into the center of the island (where I've never been) and saw some beautiful views of the area. After a short run, we are all going to meet back up for some sightseeing adventures. There is a new Ferry Boat terminal very close to our hotel. Even if the ferry boat just 'ferries' people to another island and it's not really a 'sight-seeing' boat, we are still thinking of just taking it over and back because the waters and the islands that are close by are all very beautiful.
We do have to be careful with our time because this afternoon at 5pm is the all important 'pre race meeting'! If you are absent from the meeting, you are DQ'ed from the race. It's really silly because once you've been to one World Cup, nothing different is ever said at the meetings, but they want the athletes in town by Friday so they make the meeting mandatory. So we will sit through all the official proceedings and then everyone gets on buses for a Welcome Dinner. Who can say no to free food!??!
I hope to have some photos to post next time...and now I'm off for my running workout. Later:)

Casserole Queens

Our goal was to run out of food on the last night here in Australia (that is TOnight for those keeping track). We wanted to be cleaning out the fridge for one last dinner...time everything perfectly and not waste anything.
Well, we tried. But we just emptied out the fridge and cupboards of leftover food and filled quite a few garbage bags! We've got more pasta, rice, and cheese than we could ever need! Fortunately, it's not all going to waste...most of the bags are waiting to be picked up by Toby (he's a local guy who came twice a week to give massages...he was more than happy to hear us offer up free food for he and his flat-mates).
Three nights ago, I thought I would start combining my leftovers in the fridge and I baked a vegetable/meat/cheese ziti casserole creation. It was a balanced meal and used up a lot of half-opened containers. The very next night, Bec and Jasmine made similar creations using their own half-empty containers of food.
Now, it's three days later and we are all VERY sick of eating our respective casserole for EVERY meal of the day (okay, okay, we've still got cereal and yogurt for breakfast:). But, I've still got about half a container left in the fridge and guess what I've got planned for dinner?!?! Yummy:)
I am very much looking forward to some good Japanese food starting tomorrow night. It will be a long day of traveling...our shuttle arrives at 4:30am to take all 8 athletes to the Brisbane Airport. My Qantas flight to Tokyo departs at 8:50am. Around 5pm I will be landing in Tokyo (Narita), claiming my luggage, boarding a bus, and riding it 90 minutes around Tokyo City to the OTHER Tokyo airport (Haneda). The Haneda airport has a hotel attached to the terminal and I will be spending the night in a room with Jasmine. Before we collapse for sleep though...we are grabbing a taxi and heading 20 minutes back into Tokyo for a dinner party with Andy and Patricia!
Right now, I need to go grab my swim suit for one last open water swim session. I'm riding down to Hastings Beach with Jasmine, Paul, and Brent for a quick swim. It will be sad to say good-bye to the clear and warm Australian water...but there is always next year!

Easter Summary

First of all, the 1 hour run workout never happened on Easter (who is surprised?:). After a very enjoyable sleep-in (a 'late' morning here is 7:00am!) I rolled out of bed and joined my roommates to watch some TV and eat some breakfast. We spent all morning talking about our workouts that never happened. We bust out a quick game of Scrabble (everyone is ADDICTED!) and then I got to work on my mashed potatoes...a quick boil and then some delicate mashing and mixing with a wooden spoon.



Paul showing off his culinary masterpiece for the Easter Brunch...fruit and freshly-whipped cream filled crepes! They were very tasty!

What can I say...these two ladies took over the kitchen and created some amazing treats...mango-lemon-ginger scones, chocolate chip and yogurt scones, rhubarb compote, feta-spinach-tomato scones, banana bread, deviled eggs, and roasted asparagus!!! There was flour and dishes flying everywhere...I just stayed out of the way and taste-tested everything:)

Paul, Brent, and Jarrod waiting patiently to devour the Easter Brunch food:) Everyone showed up and everyone stuffed themselves (but we've still got scones in our kitchen!)...the 8 remaining Sunseeker athletes!

Happy Easter

Talk about a country going crazy about a holiday! These Australians are ALL about Easter! Everyone got Friday off (school and work) and Monday as well...I think the population of Noosa has quadrupled. You could not find a vacant holiday apartment in this area if you wanted to...everyone is on vacation here during the long weekend.
The grocery store was a mad house today...it was also almost out of food! Jasmine and I stopped by after swim practice to pick up some cooking ingredients. Our room (Jas, Bec, and I) have decided to have an Easter Brunch. All the 'left-over' people at the Sunseeker are stopping by around 11am with some munchies. Our kitchen was hot tonight as Bec and Jasmine spent about 90 minutes creating some epic scones (sweet ones and savory ones)...we've got Saran-wrapped-plates all over the apartment, just waiting to be unwrapped and eaten!
I've got a huge bag of baby potatoes to boil in the morning. I'm going to be serving some creamy mashed potatoes (lots of butter and milk). First, though, I've got to enjoy a late morning of sleeping-in followed by a little 1 hour fartlek run workout:)

5:30am

Yep, its pretty early in the morning to be blogging...but I've been awake for almost an hour. My alarm went off a bit before 5am so that I could eat breakfast and stretch before getting into my cycling gear. Today is Saturday...and my typical workout was to join the 6am group ride that leaves from the firehouse and rides 2 hours hard along the coast.
Well...it's raining again and I've done enough rides in the Australian rain to satisfy my desire and this time I'm just going to curl up and go back to sleep until it clears up! I don't want to push my luck on any more wet roads...a crash this weekend would not be timed very well for my big World Cup race in Japan next weekend.
Can you believe that I've only got a few more days of this wonderful Australian training camp!? On Wednesday morning, I start traveling to Tokyo at 3:45am when the airport shuttle stops by the Sunseeker apartment to pick up 7 triathletes: Me, Jasmine, Becca, Joe, Jarrod, Brian and Joe. We are all on the same or similar flights to Tokyo...and just like last year, we land in one airport: Tokyo, Nariata...and have to take a 2 hour bus to the other one: Tokyo Haneda...for departure the next morning.
I'm excited to get to Haneda because once I've checked in and freshened up, I'm going to hop in a taxi and meet friends for dinner! Last year I met Andy and Patricia at the Ishigaki race...Andy was participating in the age-group race and Patricia was cheering. I've stayed in contact and because they are not heading to Ishigaki again (bummer) we are going to catch up over dinner!
On a completely separate side note...I was randomly web surfing the USAT site and found out that I was chosen as the 2006 U23 Female of the Year! The announcement was hidden at the bottom of the "USAT Age Group" awards (I was reading them to see if I knew anyone so I could send a congratulations).
Also, the Wellington race site finally put up the results and splits. Apparently, I ran a 36:12 for my 10K in the insane winds...haha. I will accept that I had a fast run, but I will also be realistic that the course must have been a bit short:) That time is kinda like my 16:20 1500 meter swim at Ishigaki last year...really accurate measuring! I do hope that they can lengthen the course this year because I estimated that to be at least 250 meters short! It might have been a calm harbor but the side currents that are flowing in and out of the ocean should NOT make it a very fast swim.
My eyelids are getting heavy, so my goal for this blog is accomplished...I'm going back to sleep until the rain stops!

Anything & Everything (Except the Kitchen Sink)

*GATOR DOMINATION! - Last night the University of Florida Men's Basketball team defended their 2006 National Championship by beating Ohio State 84-75. Don't get this confused with the other spanking we gave Ohio State earlier this year (41-14 on the football field). It kinda makes you feel bad for the Buckeyes athletic association...but not really:)
*SARA THE JOURNALIST - My latest press release/elite correspondence from the New Zealand triathlon last weekend is posted on USAT.org.
*THAT THING CALLED TRAINING - I've been getting back to work in the pool, on the bike, and on the road after a few recovery days. Sunday was full of traveling and unpacking...Monday was still light with a massage and lots of napping. But Tuesday morning it was time to go!! I was up at 5am for breakfast before heading out to meet the local group ride at the Noosa bike store. The Tuesday ride is VERY hilly and because I was rested, I was able to hang on the boy's wheels for almost the whole 'hard' part! Later in the afternoon, I joined the other American and Canadian athletes that are still training in Noosa for a intense swim practice...I seriously haven't swam 5000 meters in over a month and my body was definitely telling me that around the 4300 meter mark when we were still in the middle of the main set!
*LACK OF TRANSPORTATION - The coaches and USAT staff have all returned home...so we've got no vehicles or scooters...just our little legs and bike power! Grocery shopping is always a challenging experience when you have to think about the weight and size of things that will fit in your backpack for the up-hill ride. So, in the past couple of days I've gotten into the habit of visiting the produce market every day to just pick up what I need for dinner. Some carrots on this day, a bag of mushrooms on another, fresh grapes EVERY day (delicious!)...just whatever I used up on the previous day.
*SWIMMING ON TV - I couldn't have picked a better time to be living in Australia...the same time as the Swimming World Champs were being held in Melbourne. I was born in the wrong country to be a swimmer...this is the place to be...FULL and LIVE coverage of EVERY event on every night of the swim meet. Can you imagine ABC spending 3 hours of prime-time each night for a whole week showing JUST swimming?!? Well, that's what the Aussie TV station WIN did...and we are talking about UNinterrupted coverage...I saw every lap of the men's 1500 meter freestyle without any commercial breaks or cuts to interviews. And last night was the Duel in the Pool in the Sydney Olympic pool...how I envied the USA athletes being treated like royalty!
*NAP TIME - It's that time of day again, when my body revolts and won't do anything I tell it to unless I conk out for an hour and give it some time to re-boot! I just finished lunch and the whole 'food coma' thing probably isn't helping right now. This morning I also dominated the treadmill for my main workout of the day. Remember the note about 'transportation' above? Well, I rode my bike to the gym (good warm up) and then did an intense race-pace set of intervals before hopping back on my bike for a nice cool-down spin around town. When I passed by the produce stand, I picked up some fresh fruit and just devoured it in the shade right outside the store...that was probably the only reason that I managed to make it up the windy hill back to the Sunseeker apartments:)

NCAA Basketball Tourney!!

GO GATORS!!! GO GATORS!!! GO GATORS!!!
Deja vu anyone? Florida vs. Ohio State for the National Championships? It'll be deja vu after the game as well...because the Gators are going to DOMINATE! Our boys are the Fab Five and they are unstoppable!
A bunch of the USAT people here in Noosa for the past month decided to have a $5 betting pool for the tourney. We put together our brackets on espn.com. Of course, I was the only girl...but that apparently wasn't a problem because I just SPANKED everyone! Can you believe that I actually picked UF vs. OSU for the championship game? Want proof...look at my espn.com bracket...I just thought it would be funny to have the same teams in the final game! I'm so far ahead in points that I've already won our pool and I should start collecting $$ before everyone leaves Noosa:)
I'll be watching the points LIVE online tomorrow...I wish the internet connection was strong enough to watch the live broadcast but it can only keep up with the live scoreboard on espn.com. The game starts at 11:21am my time...I'm getting up at 5:00am for a bike ride and a run so I will be finished, showered and fed by tip-off time!
GO GATORS!!! GO GATORS!!! GO GATORS!!!

Wellington Weekend in Photos

Me, Haven, Bucky, and Jasmine after the race...trying to stay warm and out of the wind! Both Jasmine and I were randomly chosen for post-race drug testing so we had to start getting re-hydrated right away!

The Women's Podium...Samantha Warriner, in All Black on the top...but the Red, White, and Blue was well represented!

The American Women all finished in the top 10 overall: Sarah Groff, Jasmine, Mary Beth Ellis, and I.

After the race we CELEBRATED! We stayed up early into the next morning...dinner at a Japanese restaurant, dancing at JET, and hanging out with some really cool Kiwi athletes!

This was on the sunny Friday morning before the race. Haven, Jasmine, and I checked out the race course...we swam right along the edge of this walk-way we are standing on. The crowd of spectators had a great view of us getting thrashed by 2-3 foot chop!

Wellington is beautiful (and quite hilly)! That is the hill that we climbed part-way up on each bike lap. I hope to get back to NZ soon and experience more than just one city!

Our lodging for the week...the Wellington Youth Hostel! This was taken during one of our walks to the downtown area to find food and coffee:)

Sarah Groff, me, and Jasmine goofing off after the race (notice the change in sky color from my previous photos!).