Ripped

Normally when I say the word RIPPED, it is in reference to things like this, which decorate my "RIPPED" Pinterest Board quite well: 

(seriously, how hot is she?)

Anyway, yesterday I talked about how I am back to a regular training schedule and swimming again. I mentioned my swim bag...and if you are a friend/follower, I am sure you are well aware of my very loved REV3 bag.

This bag was a gift from a friend and I treasured that good mojo that Pat put into it when he bestowed it onto me almost 4 years ago. It has come to EVERY race with me since and it has traveled this county many times over. It is my daily bag for lugging my gear to the gym and to work. It has been  my constant companion for years. I know it sounds silly, but it's always with me. 

When the bottom started to give way, I duct taped it. 

When the liner started ripping, I didn't care...I let it peel and kept using it. 

Then the seams started to come apart...I held on as long as I could until

RIP

It ripped. 

I cannot bear to part with this bag (yea, silly emotional attachment to a BAG) so I must have it repaired. Lucky for me, I have a spanking new one from several years ago when Sonja was my Coach. But it's NEW. Stiff. No stains...no marks of the adventures and miles we have put on over the years...but there are always NEW things to do and new places to travel. 

I also have have an amazing Rocket bag that was a gift from one of my besties for my Bday 2 years ago! (Call that one my "dressy" bag! lol) It's beautiful and SO CLEAN. And light blue. And it is also currently home to all my books for CEUs and my ACE recert stuff. 

So, this new & unripped bag will be my companion for the time being...until Rev3 gets repaired.
Or who knows...perhaps a NEW bag will be in my future.

Do you have an emotional attachment to a "thing"?

What's your favorite tri/transition bag? 

This Post is Brought to You by the Letter B!

 The Letter B: Balance, Balls, Banana Seats, Baseball, Bronchitis

...guess what, it's already near the end of August. Rev3 Maine is this weekend and I once again have a crew from across the country coming to Maine for the EPIC race. This is truly my favorite race of the year and I am so excited to once again have a blast.

3rd Place overall, 2013 "Team Small"

with Angela, who will be back this year! 

Scott (Train Fat Boy Train) returns to Maine this year! 

This year has been one of transition and struggle for me. Trying to balance all the balls in my life: work, family, clients, nutrition, and training. It has proved difficult, and it has been a bit of a struggle for me to put my own needs aside for time to train and work so many hours. SO much of who I am is tied up into training and racing and triathlon. I'd be lying if I said at times, I feel lost and incomplete without hours of riding, running and swimming. I miss it so...and as Cedar Point rolls around, I am engulfed in plans for one of my athletes racing the full there. I recall last year and remember with fondness the training, the chats with Coach Sharpie and the excitement building to perform. And I simply miss it.

CP 140.6 2013 at the finish with my INSPIRATION, Lola

However, I refuse to let the family ball drop. I am getting to the small amounts of free time I have with my daughter, who is growing up way to fast. I am so lucky to have been able to witness so many firsts with her this year. No more training wheels. Swimming like a fish. Running her first mile. Reconnecting with my childhood best friend, Beth, and watching OUR kids play together.

my little fish

I have always loved biking and my Dad saved my very favorite bike from my younger days in hopes that someday I would have a child and he or she would ride it.

Hello 1978-The Cactus Flower, complete with banana seat.

We had an amazingly relaxing family vacation at a lake house this summer, with lots of swimming, kayaking and canoeing. It was a little slice of heaven!

not a care in the world...laying on the dock

Family time was a big theme this summer and we had a blast at the local baseball games. Lola also won a heated game of "musical chairs".

I also spent a majority of the summer with a bronchial infection that just would not go away! Three rounds of antibiotics, inhalers, allergy meds, chest x-rays...you name it, they were trying it. Finally, I am getting some relief and things seem to be clearing up. I certainly lost a ton of fitness this summer (isn't it usually the other way around?). It is what it is...perhaps this was the Universe's way of shouting "SLOW DOWN JEN"

So with Rev3Maine weekend here, I am racing the oly and I will have fun. I will enjoy the swim in my beautiful Maine ocean, ride the rollers of the country bike course and will smile and cheer others on during the run. I don't care about the clock, PR's, Podiums or anything else. I will stay at the finish line and cheer until the last finisher of the day crosses (because it is my favorite part of the race!!).

Lola and her friend, Bella doing tires flips at one of my bootcamp workouts

I have been able to help so many OTHERS this year and that makes it all worth it. I am able to give back in ways I never imagined. Sharing my own story and journey is inspiring others to change their own lives. Through coaching, personal training and nutrition, I am helping others reach THEIR goals.  I love being able to do that and believe that is my mission in life to help others feel awesome. Just like I do every day.

I know what it feels like to be the before...and I know what it feels like to be the after. Every person deserves to feel amazing in their own body and to have the confidence to chase their dreams! 

Cedar Point: The After

You can catch up with the previous few posts if needed but summary.

almost did not make it to Ohio to race
did make it to Ohio to race and did not get sick
had a fantastic fun day and loved every minute of it
crossed the finish line with a smile

...My family had been chasing me around all day and I could tell they were tired. My body was feeling good and my spirits were high. I got a ton of congratulatory hugs from my amazing Rev3 team mates and enjoyed the energy of the finish line. My teammate, Kely, confirmed that I got second on my age group!

Best Team EVA! My girls Tonia and Brit post race

Memories of THIS spot forever

My teammate, Anne.
She was a total rockstar helping me out with special needs
on the run AND with a special message from Coach Shaprie.
 Love you Anne, thank you SO MUCH for your awesomeness!

The minute I sat down, I had to text Coach and tell her about the day! I called my parents but it was obvious that they were glad I was done and had been watching every move I made all day. I love that I have always had them in my corner for this journey!!

I made my way into the retail tent where Casey and Christine held up a sheet so I could change out of my tri kit and into some clean, dry clothes. My feet were pretty beat up and I could see how many pretty deep blisters I actually had developed over the course of the run. I also had a pretty knarly case of "undercarriage chafe" going on (which, thankfully the aid stations were very well stocked with TriSlide).

We hung out at the finish line for a bit and Lola started to get really tired, as was Casey (rightfully, so) and so gathered up my stuff, got my beautiful QR out of transition and I said goodnight to my team mates. As much as I wanted to stay and cheer everyone in, I also needed to let my family relax and chill. It was a long day for them too! The thought of lounging around and getting some food sounded really good to me! We stopped at Friendly's for burgers and ice cream and got back to the hotel. I took a much needed bath the minute we got in...I had a hard time calming down even though I was tired. Finally, sleep came and I woke up waaaay too early.

We were planning on heading back to Maine very early in the morning. I was not expecting to have an awards ceremony to attend so we changed our plans and packed up the car, had a bit of breakfast and headed back to the park for the awards.

It was a nice way to say farewell to the weekend of ups and downs (literally) and to walk along the shore of Lake Erie. I recalled being there last year and how I could not wait to race here and it was already over.

Before my race, I got a message from a local friend, Erika. She told me that she was passing along a bit of advice she received before her first 140.6 - that it was a long day that would go by too fast. She was right...absolutely right. The day flew by.

 We got back to Cedar Point and joined the Rev3 Peeps for the awards ceremony!

Such cool bling--my bumper car finishers medal fits into the AG award. And the medal lights up!

we were hungry!

with Michael from TEAM FIGHT. CP was his first full and he rocked it!

saying goodbye to Lake Erie! See you in 2014

RUN LOLA RUN

It was not until I was settled into the van for the long ride home that I did a little inventory.

That blister that was hurting during the run? yeah...it was REALLY BAD. So were the other 5 blisters that cooked up. I have no idea how I was so oblivious to these.

 Each pinky toe on the inside was completely blistered...there were others too but I did not take pics of those.  Seriously, it's three weeks out from the race and these suckers are still healing. That one blister must have annihilated 14 layers of skin...

I had some pretty epic chafing like I've never had before. I remembered asking for TriSlide at one of the aid stations on the run and lubing up the undercarriage again while running but by then the damage was really done.

I was in SHOCK to see the actual damage. Yes, I took pictures. I really, really want to put them up too!! So inappropriate... My husband was HORRIFIED that I was taking pics of this mess but I wanted to remember it forever. Ha ha ha ha. I did show some friends the pics and/or the actual damage and one comment was "what the hell did you do??"

Lola and I had as much fun as we could on the drive home and I took turns driving with Casey.

someone was STOKED to have ROOTBEER

Lola, a self portrait of her toes

Bobby and Casey

In upstate NY, we stopped to see a life long friend, Bobby. It was nice to catch up with him and of course, Lola was entertaining us as usual.

Finally...we were almost home! Here we are 26 miles from home

I told Casey to just drop me off and I could just run the rest of the way home...no big deal, right!?

__________________________________

Just before Cedar Point I was considering doing another full in December. I wanted to see how things went at CP before I decided. I consulted with Coach and the timing worked so it was thumbs up. Back to back fulls were planned.

In the weeks that have followed Cedar Point, I felt great physically and mentally. I was excited to tackle 140.6 again with new goals. Lola started school, all day Kindergarten. Worked picked up for me-more classes, more clients and a new Coaching position with the swim team. My days were jammed packed with busy. Lola was (and still is a bit) struggling with being away from me all day.

I started to feel selfish for taking time away from her when she needed me. I questioned my motivation for another race so soon when there were NEW challenges taking my time and attention. I called Coach and chatted with her.

So as much as I want to go to California and do another full, my daughter needs me and my attention right now. My family has been super supportive with the training time all summer and now is time I can give a little of my time back to them. I have my whole life to race and I will only have my 4 year old Lola right now.

And I am OK with it. I have a couple more trips with Rev3 planned for this season and I have not ruled out going to Cali to race a different distance. I love going long but maybe it's time to shift gears for a bit.

Shorter. Harder. Faster.

It's not the off season yet....

Let's Go to Ohio!

In the days leading up to the race I became very calm. Focused. Ready. Calm.

This is very unlike me. Usually leading into a race I get very excited and butterflies start nesting in my tummy. It's a mix of nervous energy, expectation and a dash of anxiety.

Calm is a new feeling for me.
I wasn't scared. I wasn't nervous.
I was just ready.

I knew that the calm would not last. How could it? How could I be toeing the line of my biggest race to date and be this CALM? Relaxed? It made me nervous. I kept sending text messages to Coach telling her that I was scared of this feeling.

Then the vomit hit the fan...so to speak.

We were going to leave on Wednesday to drive to Ohio. We rented a huge minivan (a Toyota Sienna, which I am in love with btw). Wednesday morning, Lola got sick.
Really sick.
Fever.
Projectile vomiting (grapes across the living room, sweeeeet!).

The calm left and the anxiety, worry and panic set in.

My biggest fear is that I would not have my little girl, my inspiration, my heart with ME. All of this change came about because of HER and the finish line would be missing a huge part of ME without HER there. I wanted nothing more than my family with me to celebrate this accomplishment.
It broke my heart.

My other fear was what if I get sick too? 

I started to have a mini-freakout complete with tears, anger and frustration. I felt such a complete loss of control over the situation. This race was the culmination of years of hard work and I was afraid it would slip through my fingers with nothing I could do to stop it...

There were lots of prayers happening.
We delayed our trip by a day in the hopes that Lola would feel better and get to go.
The thought of driving 15 hours to Ohio alone wasn't thrilling but back up plans were made.

Casey would stay home with Lola.
My friend/athlete/training partner Marc was able to come with me if Lola did not improve and he would pack and be ready to roll at 3am if need be! (Thank you, Marc!!)

Thursday morning we woke up super early and finished packing up the van. We woke Lola up shortly before ROLL time and she was fine. She woke excited and ready to GO TO OHIO!

She seemed to be doing great and then BOOM! Sick again...no fever but she was started throwing up again. We debated back and forth what to do. I called my Mom seeking advice.
I wanted Lola and Casey with me but I did not want my daughter to suffer through a very long car ride sick. I did not want us to be 8 hours in and have one of us get sick. I did not want to get to Ohio and spend the weekend throwing up myself...My Mom said to roll the dice, bring a bucket and go.
Casey was not too on board with this idea and was very concerned about Lola being stuck in a minivan, sick. But we rolled the dice...

Two hours of driving brought some vomiting, crying and she was afraid of the dark. It broke my heart to see her like this and I wondered if me made the right decision. She started to get warm again and when the sun came up, she finally fell asleep.

She woke up a NEW GIRL.

No fever. No sickness. The spunky, high energy girl we know and love was BAAACK!
It was all going to be OK

Lola re-enacting the action with the puke bucket

Let's get GOOFY! 

Yup, she was feeling better for sure! Shaka

The drive to Ohio was pretty cool! I wish we had more time to make some stops along the way, like Niagra Falls, the Football Hall of Fame to name a few.

We took Route 90 all along Lake Erie and it was a beautiful drive!

NEXT STOP: Sandusky, Ohio

Rev3 Maine

I wish I had an assistant who could run or bike with me so I can dictate all the marvelous blog ideas that percolate in my head while training but never find the time to sit down and put on "paper" and hit publish for...

As I have mentioned, trying to balance everything this summer has left me neglecting my poor little blog which totally bums me out. So since I am on taper, I have tons of time (ok, not really) to do some posts!

Race Morning with Angela!

REV 3 MAINE
Aug 25th

What a difference a year makes. Last year my husband begrudgingly made an appearance at the race and we spent the entire weekend with a great amount of stress and animosity between us. This was literally the beginning of the end for us.

Luckily, things have changed.

This year? Dude was along for the ride AND the other half of my relay team, A Small Team.

The idea of a relay started what chatting with Coach Sharpie about how the race season would play out. With Cedar Point just two weeks after Maine, we were considering the Oly or an aquabike option. There was NO WAY I was sitting out my favorite race on my home turf and I had to be honest with Coach, there was no way I could "take it easy" on the bike at a home game either.  That's when the idea hit me...we could race TOGETHER> I'd swim and bike, Casey could run.

Coach gave me the greenlight on this idea, said I could chick as many fella's as I wanted so it was GO!
I checked out the previous years results for relay teams and they had some pretty fast times.
Sub-5 and the podium was the goal! 

I gotta hand it to the folks at Rev3 (Ashley, Jonathan, Charlie, Carole ??) ... not sure who is responsible for the perfect mornings on race day for Maine, but it was another amazing race start with a beautiful sunrise.

Beautiful Photo Courtesy of Chris Dodd

kayaks heading out to the swim course
Photo Courtesy of Angela Campos

Seriously--Ahhhmazing!
Photo Courtesy of Angela Campos

The Swim
Photo Courtesy of Hannah Heisler 

I was standing in the water with a new tri-friend, Leslie (Maine was her first half and she finished in 5:53) and I just stopped, stood there and took in the moment--and asked her to do the same. It was just breathtaking...

The ocean water was chilly (barely 60*) and there was a lot of grumbling and BRR's going on. With a wind change, the temps had dropped quite a bit over the last several weeks leading into race day but the water was actually a few degrees warmer than it had been all week.

...and the purple caps are ready!
Photo Courtesy of Angela Campos

There was nothing remarkable about the swim except I got up front, I swam and I rarely had anyone near me--very strange for a race! After the initial scrum of the start, I had clear water. Head down and swim. By the time I got to the final turn buoy, I could see no purple caps around me and I was passing the two waves ahead. My effort was steady but more paced for Cedar Point vs. a half. Upon exit of the water, Garmin flashed a 37:xx and I was like "crap" SLOW but apparently, the swim was longish (most report 1.4 miles and I was told that this was due to water level changes with the tide). I looked at some local "fasties" swim times and this longer distance rings true. Regardless, I was happy with my effort and my time.

SWIM 38:35
5th of 108 in my wave (F40+, Relays & Athena)
(1:32/100 based on my Garmin distance of 1.45)

It's a bit of a haul from the water to transition, but I don't understand why so many make a big deal out of it really...this year they offered a "special needs" shoe bag for those who wanted to put something on. Honestly, I don't remember thinking it was that bad in 2012 and again this year, it was not bad. Just a short jog to the best leg of the day....THE BIKE!

Ahhhh, the bike. My happy place. 
Onto my chariot and I was spinning easy until I was able to get away from the crowds. After I got thru town, across Route 1 and out into the "country roads", I settle into pace. Sucked down some Perform and popped a Powerbr Apple Gel. Up ahead quite a bit, I spotted a QT2 systems kit and let him be my "rabbit". I caught him rather quickly and we played a game of back and forth.

About 20 miles in, I dropped my chain (uuuggghhhh--c'mon Kid! rookie mistake here!) changing into my small ring and lost about a minute hopping off and getting it back on. Back on and GO!

The miles were ticking by quickly and I was on top of my hydration and nutrition (priority of the day) and there was not a female in sight. I was riding with a small group of men and there were two others that I'd play the back and forth game with through most of the ride. I finally saw a female (Veronica, Newton Kit) and we took turns passing the boys and eachother. We would all get clustered up on the hills but there was  no drafting going on. It was simply a testosterone festival with two chicks in the mix.

The bike route had a change this year, taking out Simpson Road which is under construction, and what a great change! You hit up some small rollers instead and I really liked the flow of the new bike route.

With about 10 miles left to go, this is when I put some power into it and tried to break away from this pack of fellas I'd been riding with for 40 miles. I broke away from them and spotted my superfast team mate, Alyssa, up ahead. My first thought was HOLYSH*T!! I can catch Alyssa!! (she was 2nd or 3rd OA)...and catch her I did. And then I passed her...
Highlight of my freaking race!! 
When Alyssa caught back up to me, she yelled "Girl, You are pulling 30 guys!" and I rolled my eyes and told her I was trying to lose 'em all! ha ha I chased Alyssa "home" and she entered T2 just seconds ahead of me and it was time for Casey to run!

BIKE 2:31 
2nd of 108 in my wave
I had one of the fastest female bike splits of the day! wooo hooo
My Garmin shows that I did the ride in 2:29 and I hope I did not lose an entire 2 mins messing with my chain!

Happy Happy Girl!!

**

Dawn, Me & Lola

Team Pace Booty! 

I said hi to my parents, got to see Angela come in and head out on the run and see my BFF for a bit while Casey did his thing. I got to hang out with Team Pace Booty and pick up Sara!


Before I knew it, Casey was coming in from his run (1:46) and it was time to FINISH!!

It is all very symbolic of how things have changed in the last year. We are finally a solid family unit, doing things TOGETHER. As a TEAM.

Hand in hand, we crossed the finish line!
5:02

Our Finish
Photo Courtesy of Michael Brillant, Brillant Images

I think my expression says it all

So our goal going into this day was to have fun and celebrate a year of change, for the better.
We also wanted sub-5 and the podium.

Well, we did have fun.
We ALMOST went sub-5 (and had soooo many discussions about those 2 minutes!! ugh).
We made podium, 3rd place Relay team. Taking 3rd place to two VERY fast teams with times of 4:20 and 4:40!!



Best of all, we celebrated being a family that now plays TOGETHER.

Next Stop: Cedar Point 140.6