ARE YOU READY??

Time to

FIRE IT UP!
DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!
JUMP START 2010!


Don't you agree??

Wanna hear what I'm planning?? Keeping reading......


In between stuffing my face with left over Christmas cookies and such,

January 1st, I'm doing an 11 mile run ( ok slog)
January 2nd I'm doing a pool swim but NOT JUST ANY POOL SWIM! NO SIRREE.

100 x 100

This is an event/organized swim that I am paying for because no way
in my sensible mind would I EVER do this on my own or even with a couple of
other unstable swimming latemate. The fact I had to PAY for this makes everything
justifiable. Besides the fact I will be consuming beer and nachos post swim with my friend/MIT lanemate Bob makes it all the more worth while. Yipppppeeeee!!!


I'm not done yet.



January 12th I start a 10 week spin class at The Training Room in Somerville MA. A sleek top of the line training facility in which the class will be instructed by Roz Puelo, a total kick ass cyclocross chicka and cycling guru. After the spin class we will also be doing a session of core strengthening.
I needed something different than the winter Computrainer classes I've been taking year after year and quite honestly, I'm looking forward to a fresh approach to getting my cycling mojo back in gear and NOT having to drag my bike around in the cold sometimes snowy conditions to set it up on a Computrainer. I have one at home and that's all I need. It's sitting there being VERY useful collecting dust at the moment.

So......
What are YOU doing?????

Holiday Count down!

Good thing it's the off season for triathlon because inevitably it gets replaced with shopping, shipping, baking, and imbibing.

This past week we had our morning masters MIT Lane 3 holiday party. Do we invite the other 5 lanes to join us? Hell no. What a bunch of clicky water snobs, huh? As if the water in OUR lane is BETTER than the other lanes and our lane lines are GOLD PLATED or something.
Pffffffffff..

Anyway, here's a few pictures of people you could care less about. See if you can pick me out, duh...



mmmmmm beer


In other news, I'm still on my 6 day a week running plan. Do I feel fast and antelope like? No, I do not. I've come to the conclusion that my body is trying to get used to this frequency and if I'm lucky one of these days, I'll be gifted with snappy legs perhaps.

Back to Christmas: I've decided this is really all I'm asking Santa for

You've seen it... putting on make-up, text messaging, driving with one knee while eating. Everyone loves a good multi-tasker. But WTF!?, NOT while driving! What about the jerk who steals your parking spot or the idiot who won't stop tailgating?

Sometimes, you just need to say what’s on your mind.

But who's gonna hear you?

Save your breath and say it with Shticks®!


I'm almost certain the CALL ME and YOU'RE CUTE! will not be taken out of the box. The Green
JACKASS and GET OFF THE ROAD signs will be dogeared before January 31.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Let's review: (see last post if you are dazed and confused)

I got myself in a good warm up and then quickly changed into my stealthy speed suit and stayed warm.

The water wasn't as cold as I had wished but not too bad.

I didn't false start.

My goggles stayed on! (phew)

I paced myself accordingly and tried to stay RELAXED and as EFFICIENT in the water
as possible.

My feet or legs did not cramp up in my sausage encased speed suit.

In summery, I had a great swim! It won't go with out criticism in that I REALLY REALLY, need to be more efficient with flip turning and when things heat up, i can barely make it to the flags to get some air. Not sure how to fix that.

I had a seed time of 11:40. I started in Heat 3 for the women in Lane 7. The heats went fast to slow and alternated with men and women's heats. After a good clean dive, I noticed during the first 150, everyone near me that I could see were out ahead of me and I just kept telling myself FOCUS ON YOU AND WHAT YOU ARE DOING. It was hard. I thought, "shit.. am I starting out too slow here??? " FOCUS YOU DUMMY, GET THOSE BLINDERS ON.

So I mentally*whacked* myself in the head and proceeded to pay attention to what was going on
in Lane 7,( the pink Diva capped girl sporting freshly painted Christmas toes)

Right after the 500 mark, I had to really work on staying relaxed. I told myself to get through this next 100 and then CRANK out the remaining 200 AS HARD AS YOU CAN.

My friend Katie was my card turner and at the last 50 I heard the bell ringing as I hit the wall!!
I was leading our heat??????? No way.......

Yes way! I cranked out my last 50 looking for that red card knowing I had just 25 meters to go.
I was ready to pop an eyeball.

FINALLY the wall! I hung on the gutter for what seemed like 10 minutes, looked up to see my time

Lane 7/ 1/ 11:15

PR in the 800 for me. Yay.

Thanks for all of your very nice messages! They got me PSYCHED to go out and
just GET IT DONE!!!!!

Swimmers Take your Mark!

Tomorrow starts the 2009 New England LMSC Short Course Meters Championship at Boston University. Friday night is exclusively the 800 meter free and it's the only event I've signed up for. There are 89 women signed up just for the 800 this year. We're talkin' meters here not yards so I will have to adjust my brain matter if and when I sneak a peek at the pace clock tomorrow night.

Wanna see the BU pool?


Here's MIT where I swim. I think we have BU beat. We have ANOTHER 25 yard teaching pool ( 3 degrees warmer) right next to this 50 meter pool. You can just make it out over to the far RIGHT in this picture. AND we have towel service! SPOILED!! :-)



Our pool is usually set up for 25 yards and a few weeks in January and the entire summer, the pool is set up for long course. I much prefer that. LESS FLIP TURNING, which I'm not so great at. Anyway, back to the meet...

Here's what I'm hoping for in no particular order:

1. The water at BU is not too warm.

2. I get there on time to get in a solid warm up.

3. BIG ONE HERE: I don't false start on the blocks.

4. My goggles don't end up around my chest after diving in.

5. My legs won't cramp after being sausaged in my speed suit.

6. I don't go out so fast that I crack at the 500 with a potentially
PAINFUL 300 still to go.



WISH ME LUCK!!!

I was bored at work today.....

A$$ Kicker

How 'bout one- water style???

Here ya go!!

I'm preparing for the 800 meter free Friday, Dec 18th at Boston University.
Too many of us swim THE SAME SPEED, especially if you tend to swim workouts on your own. This is a perfect set to get you to really focus in on changing that nasty habit.

TIME TO GET OUTTA THAT SAME SPEED RUT!!!

Note that you get some good rest after the toughest interval so MAKE IT CHALLENGING.
If done correctly, you will easily be able to distinguish between the FAST,CRUISE and your EZ recovery sections. Throw in a 1700 warm up and an ez 300 cool down (about 3600 total) and you will deserve that extra breakfast or lunch today. :-)

Main set
100 (50 fast - 50 cruise) on 1:45
100 (25 cruise - 75 fast) on 1:35
100 (50 cruise - 50 fast) on 1:45
100 all cruise on 1:55
100 all fast on 1:15
2 x 25 ez on :40
100 (75 fast - 25 cruise) on 1:35
100 (25 cruise - 75 fast) on 1:35
100 cruise on 1:55
100 all fast on 1:15
100 fastest one so far on 1:10 (ouch..I only held a 1:20 on this one)
2 x 25 ez
100 cruise on 1:55
100 fast on 1:20
100 all cruise on 1:55
100 fast on 1:15
100 cruise on 1:55

Goodbye November!

Happy Thanksgiving! One more month and it's almost surreal 2009 will be in the books. My personal year in review can seem at times, a blurry undefined mix of life lessons packed into 12 short months. I'm ready to bank them and walk away from 2009 feeling sharper, stronger, if not a bit wiser. If you can take what life tosses in your lap
and reflect on how you managed each crisis and feel content in the choices you've made in the end, what more can one ask for?

I am currently typing away on my PinkBerry posting this latest entry. My laptop has been on the brink of death and out of commission for over a week now due to my carelessness in downloading a bad virus from an innocent looking email from someone I know but didn't actually send the email through Face Book. I wound up the winner in the end. It's now sporting some fresh new blazing fast RAM it badly needed and Windows 7 instead of XP and some other fun new toys including the latest in virus protection I'm just waiting to get my mits on. Thank you Nate! I scored a awesome IT wizard, who I've offered up a kidney for his services yet all he really wants is beer along with a modest fee. The thing is, I am stressed about this because I have much respect for The Wizard and the hitch is, its up to me to *figure out* on my own what kind of beer to offer. I have been given no hints yet my choice will determine if I am deemed worthy of The Wizard's services again.


In other news, I have my Adopt A US Soldier! Katie is her name and she is overseas in the thick of it. 2 cards and a care package are on the way so far.

After being a lard ass for a few weeks, I am back to some structure. My run will be a huge focus for me this year. I am currently running 6 days a week. 3-20 min runs. 2-40 minute runs and one long run of about 1:20 to start with. The hardest part? Mentally thinking I have to lace up my shoes everyday but one a week.

Consistency yields results they say.

November Ramblings

I'm sitting here drinking tea and eating pink M&M's trying to come up with the latest news flash in the world of Trigirlpink Land that will hold your attention.
Lets see...

First of all did you hear about this?? The Rev3 Triathlon race series is offering up some serious coin for the pros for 2010. Besides the $300,000 spread out among the three events they are holding in Knoxville, TN, Middlebury, CT and Sandusky, OH, they will pony up an additional $125,000 for the Pro male or female who can win (all three) the Olympic distance Rev in Knoxville on May 9th, the Half Distance Rev in Middlebury on June 6th and the September 12th Full Distance Rev in Sandusky. Cha ching!!!
Take that WTC!

Are you thinking of doing any of the Rev3 events? You should! It's time to give the Ironman brand a run for their money. Rev3 has already proven they can run a professional, organized, safe and fun event. I most definitely will be participating
at the Middlebury CT race. It's a very pretty course and extremely well organized.
So...SIGN UP!!!


I took this of Mz.Wee charging on the run at Middlebury.


and here's a bit of Matty Reed eye candy


Jumbotron live action in the expo area in Middlebury



I'm excited to again be working with Trakkers this coming season with the hopes my body will stay glued together and I can train properly and actually race this coming year. Won't that be a change of pace over on this blog??? Fingers and toes crossed!


One last tidbit: Did you know there are soldiers over in Afghanistan and other parts of the world that NEVER get any mail, EVER. How sad is that?
I got this information from my fellow blog mate, Carole Sharpless' recent blog.
Go check her blog for all the details but I've signed up and I'm awaiting
my "soldier in need" and looking forward to sending some much needed thanks
and treats to someone who is fighting for our freedom and safety we so much take for granted here in the US of A. Here's the website if you too want to join.
http://adoptaussoldier.org

A Good Swim Set??? I Think So!

When I leave the MIT pool in the morning after masters with my arms feeling like fettuccine noodles al dente, I know I've gotten in some quality swimming.
I'll share my noodle morning main set with you.


Main set

8 x 100 on 1:35 Big deal right? The idea is to pick an interval that is HARD but gives you PLENTY of rest before the next 100 but you must stay consistent and not FADE on the succeeding intervals. Got it? I knew you would!

I (we) picked 1:18


4 x 25 ez after the 8-100's


7 x 100 on 1:30

again, I stayed on 1:18 but these were TOUGH. Cumulative fatigue setting in on that
2nd 50 for me.

4 x 25 ez recovery


5 x 100 on 1:25
This time the goal was to stay on 1:20 pace which at this point in the workout my arms were really fatigued and 1:20 felt like the 1:18's!! I found that if I stayed RELAXED (especially the second 50) and not let my form go to hell in a over-cooked SpaghettiO's sort of way, it really helped.



4x dog paddle (pant pant)

Longhorn and Margaret Reflections

Today marks the one year anniversary of Margaret's death and as I sit here and reflect on this, it seems quite trivial and self centered that I've been obsessing and feeling sorry for myself over the last 48 hours about my lack of prerace calories and how many Cliff Blok squares I consumed or rather didn't that allowed me to ruin my own race. Simply put, I lack the respect and attention proper fueling deserves and it bit me in the ass on Sunday and most likely my last 1/2 iron race in September for that matter.
This is a sport, a hobby, a choice and a privilege. Margaret will always be there to remind me of this and I am so very thankful she occasionally slaps me back to the here and now and gently points out what really matters.

Austin was spectacular. I just loved it there. Thank you Amanda for your recommendations! I tried to hit every place you mentioned but sadly I wasn't there LONG ENOUGH! The food was great. Gawd, I love authentic Tex Mex!! The weather beautiful, my accommodations top notch and Keith Jordan and the Endorfuns crew per usual, put their heart and soul into that race. Many many thanks to all of them and the droves of volunteers that helped make our day a memorable one.

Jennifer Harrison:
I owe you a kidney for taking the time and going through my day and deciphering my self destructing fueling issues. YOU ARE THE BEST!

I am looking forward to 2010. I truly feel good things in store and really, I'm not just spewing out poop here.

You wait and see.....

I like this quote my friend and fellow team mate Maggie sent me this week:

Shoot for the moon and if you miss, you'll be among the stars.

Here we go!

VARoooooom!


It's time to get ORGANIZED!! I am not a light packer. The airlines love me. $$$$$$


Pinky Elite all packed up and bubble wrapped. Southwest Airlines $50!!!! YIPPPPEEE!!
They'll just get me with my 80 pounds of luggage I need for 3 days. HA!

Here's my suit! Thanks Dawn! xxxx Might as well be fashionably coordinated shufflin' down the street in this, no???? Hey...it's all about THE LOOK this year, being speedy is SOOOOO passé!!!

One more time!

It feels a bit bizarre that I'm still in full swing training swimming, biking and running. This is the first year I've ever stretched my season out so far for triathlon and this coming weekend will be my cap.
I've been racing for the last 5 weekends mixing it up with triathlon and road racing while trying to be SMART about resting as to absorb and bank some of the efforts put forth. Here's a recap:

Pumpkinman - I ran/stumbled through a 9:42 pace for a 2:07 1/2 marathon feeling way under trained for the distance but I had to start somewhere.

Lobsterman- I was hoping the shorter 10k distance would feel better but... ah.. no. 55:27 10k
(8:55 pace) Can I blame it on the really windy bike?

Eliot 5K - Short and sweeet but still feeling sluggish. 24:49 (8:00 pace)

Harvard MA 10 miler Road Race Ok, this one i felt pretty good because I played my cards SMART and didn't go out too hard on this very hilly course. 1:29 (8:55 pace)

Tufts 1OK for Women - "Control the heart rate and negative split the run" was my completed goal 51:20 (8:16 pace)
Next up
Longhorn 70.3

Who wants to take a stab at what pace I should be able to hold for this weekend's 13.1 based on those STELLAR times above. HA!

My running is coming along but it's progressing at a snails pace. I'm missing the bottom of the all important pyramid: A solid base. My head thinks I can spit out 7:00 miles but my legs and my head are not in sync. I've at least made one major milestone
which is, I've finally rid the feeling of dragging a bus behind me on every run. Now that is progress!!




Tufts 10k For Women

This week I'll be enjoying some rest and getting ready to pack up for Austin Texas! I've never been to Tx so looking forward to the trip.
Stay tuned for a red carpet preview of another custom Splish suit for my last race of TGP's wild and wacky 2009 season.

Bees, Butts and Bike Chronicles..grab a cup a joe for this one.

Happy October my friends. Tis the season of candy galore. Ahhh....the beauty of it all. My mother DENIED me of candy as a child hence the infatuation with it. And Gerry, don't you deny this. Remember how you used to pick through my Halloween candy and throw out the BEST STUFF, lick-a-sticks, NowandLaters,Lemon Heads Wax lips and candy cigarettes. I'm scarred from this. Right now I have sugar coated jelly pumpkins under my bed that I bought at the apple farm stand . A rather large bag of them I might add. And guess what everyone??? For her birthday Sept 8th, I sent her an exquisite assortment of CHOCOLATES from Dean and Deluca. Ha! EMBRACE THE CANDY!!!



I've been very productive this week catching up on my my blog reading. My brand new Thule rack is installed on my car. My Cervelo "issue" is solved (more on this later) and I'm working on lane mate suits for our MIT Masters Lane 3 squad just for kicks. Wanna see? Well it really starts with my friend Katie. I never know what to get her for her birthday and who couldn't use a custom made Splishy?


So since she is the official leader of the lane, I thought the suit should sport all our lane mates on it. Katie HATES kicking and IBB means- In Before Bill (our coach). If he strolls in and catches you squandering away warm up time socializing BOOM! The lane gets punished. Usually by giving us some junky fly set. Also he (tried) to post on KT's Lane 3 blog anonymously as "Stinging Bee". It took us a nanosecond to figure out who was leaving the rouge comments.


And here's one of male suits I made. This one's for Bob. No room for all the late mates so I kept it simple. I love swimming with BB. I am cranky come morning masters and BB is never cranky which in turn makes me a tad bit less cranky when he's there. I've got 5 more suits to create and hopefully everyone will order one and we will be DA BOMB in lane 3. You can bet your Stinging bee a$$!

Speaking of asses. Mine has been chronically sore for a long time. I just thought I'd share that with you. I went to have an MRI on my lower half to see what is nagging me there and come to find out, the radiology report said:

Significant strain of the hamstring on insersion into the Elvis.. I mean PELVIS.
I do not consider this anything new or even actually an injury. I've just had it for so long and all my other injuries totally overshadowed a sore butt so I just learned to live with the discomfort.
As a dental professional, normally I would sit on a stool to treat patients and now I stand and have been FOR MONTHS. If I'm in the car for more than an hour, I want to crawl out the sunroof if I don't have my lacrosse ball rolling around under my a$$ to loosen up my bum. But the worse part is, my running stride is not a stride. It's an old lady shuffle and it's due to the lack of flexibility I have. It doesn't matter how much I warm up or stretch, my flexibility is so limited back there my knees barely lift. Pathetic. But not for long....


I went to a sports medicine/ soft tissue chiro last night who dug to China working on the scar tissue in there and electro stim-ed me and sent me on my way armed with hamstring strengthening exercises. Ahhhhhhh. It felt soo good! The combo of deep tissue massage and seeing Dr Michaud over the next 6 weeks and I should be Cirque du Soleil- good in no time!



And lastly, my bike!
For the ENTIRE SUMMER folks, I've been riding an aerodynamic, carbon fiber sleek road machine that has been sucking the ever loving power out of my legs. YES.. I AM BLOND and why couldn't I figure this out???? Well I did... It just took me a while.

Because I am a new Cervelo owner and have not taken much notice of the rear cutout where your tire goes in the frame
and when I was OFF the bike both the front and back wheels

spun freely. The brakes where always checked and made sure that they were seated properly.

But here's the catch:

When ON the bike and PRESSURE (as in TGP's big 'o butt) was placed on the saddle/rear part of the carbon frame, the wheel was seated too far up into the frame and it was RUBBING on the inside of the carbon wheel cut out. You could not hear ANYTHING as in rubbing noise so I just chalked it up to needing compact cranks that I've been so accustomed to and just can't handle the gearing of the 53 up front and that I am a wuss.

So, come to find out, the screws in the frame were loose and that is why the tire wasn't seated correctly and the probable cause for why I sucked at time trialing this summer riding this nightmare while feeling like my legs were going to EXPLODE and feeling like a loser who couldn't manage her swanky new bike gearing was the effect of this. It's all just a memory now and one can continue to justify the purchase instead of staring at it in the corner collecting expenstive dust.

PHEW!


Bring on the candy apples and fall crisp air this weekend!!!!! Oh.. and less of a butt ache one can hope. :-)

Eliot Festival 5K fun!

It was weekend #3 for consistency and focused effort on re-programing the grey matter into Cheetah thinking and digging out those fast twitch muscles that have been dormant far too long.
It's been a humbling but very motivating 3 weeks of trying and make some progress in my fitness and what better way to do it then to sign up for a race? Certainly I'm not going to push myself as hard on my own as I would in a 5k road race, so back up to Maine I went for a local 5k in my sister's home town in Eliot.
I ran my very first Eliot Festial Day 5k race back in 1996 covering the distance in 19:09/ holding a 6:10 pace. Eeeeks, times have certainly changed and the fact is folks, the body is DECAYING!!!
2009- 2/27 F4549 24:49 8:00 Elaine Debitetto 46 F Newton MA
Although my Garmin said 24:44/7:56 pace which sounds a sliver better, and I think we should just go with that, ok?

This year, my 17 nephew (NON RUNNER) decided to join me.
I was very excited to
run with him. Next year he will be off to college and running with his aunt certainly won't be on the agenda so I took it all in and really enjoyed this.
Here I am giving him tips on how to destroy me.

And as predicted,he dusted me. I was very proud of him. We started the race together but by the 2k mark, he found another gear(or two) and left me as if i was standing still. Simply put, he is talented,smart,damn good looking AND a natural athlete! Pic to prove it.

Andrew Post race



Up next: A 10 miler next weekend in Harvard MA. One of these days I just know I'll
find some snappy legs to trade in!

Surf and Turf

This weekend was another trip up to Maine for another go at that crazy littl' thing called triathlon.
Lobster Man OLY in Freeport Maine. I'll describe it in 3 words, hilly, windy and ch ch chilly. 46 degree air temps and 60ish degree water made for some excitement. Mz Mary Iron matron was there ready to do battle.(Mary...I'd post our pic but we are not looking super glamour kitty like so I nixed that. :-)
I'm thinking the course wasn't measured so accurately but a nice venue for a race.
The bike portion was so windy, I had a tough time staying aero.
The run: I figured just maybe... the shorter distance would feel oh-so-much better and I would instantaneous become supa fast but alas... I was not.
I did wear my HR monitor for the run to see if truly I was working hard enough and to be frank, I got my money's worth if just for the run. Here's the pattern: Swim like mad, bike like my next breath depended on it and run.. eh... try not to go into deep depression as I get picked off every mile while still trying to maintain some sort of illusion of actually running (fast). I know my run fitness will
someday return but does every hard effort have to be so bloody painful coupled with my snail pace? I keep reminding myself that yes, it's a fact that Rome was not built in a day and on a paper foundation to boot so next year... just you wait. That third cylinder will be FIRING.

A Saturday race left lots of time for LL Bean Freeport shopping and a taste of an
authentic Maine fair. The Frankin County Fair in Farmington Maine.

I LOVED the animals, can you tell!!!!

Pumpkin Man 2009 in Foto Format!

Milling around Spring Hill pond as the fog lifts
Finally, the sun breaks through


What better way to carbo load than with a Shipyard Pumpkin Ale?

My personal bike mechanic-nephew giving my bike a once over

The Elite Cockpit, ready to go

Me in the 40+ (old women?) and mixed relay wave #3. No pink caps for us?? Bummer!

Me among the weeds. Here's how I was thinking: Try to get a wicked good head start on the swim and try and hold 'em off on the bike 'cause u's gonna get eaten alive on that run. Kudos to me in my accurate prediction!

Kat and Jeff Donatello, Mr and Mrs Pumpkin Man
See the look on my face? It's PLEASANT here compared to each accumulated mile. Hee Hee!

Mz Mary Eggers-I CLEANED UP AT PUMPKIN MAN winning a wetsuit for the fastest swim time and first amateur overall and thrilled-to-be-done-me
My sister Paula with the winners flowers donated by her business, Twig and Fern Designs
What could be better than an Adirondack chair at the finish area complimented with a bag of ice to cool off your (?????) modeled here by speedy Rob- Slayerhatebreed- Straz. I guess you deserve that for getting first in your age group.