A Much Needed Chill Week

(Pictures: Top me swimming in 'Lake Barbara', @ my parents place ~ Bottom, a view of their lake in the fall)

Well, I got back from a few days in Indiana and it was NICE! I decided that after Racine, I needed a week off from training. Well, I tried my best...I did not 'train' per-say, but I did some nice easy things. My parents have a place about 1 hour south of Indianapolis, and it is BEAUTIFUL. Tucked back in the woods near Brown County, on a small lake. I took a walk with my mom one morning, I swam in their lake and I drank wine. :) It was nice to take some time to reflect on the weekends race and also, clear my mind of things. We can get so wrapped up in the daily grind, whether that is work, training, or even our personal life...there is nothing better than to sometimes slow down and well, literally do nothing. A few evenings, my mom and I went down to the dock around 5:00, swam for 20-30 minutes, then enjoyed some wine while we fished. Didn't catch much, as they just must not have been very hungry...but it was so beautiful, you would never realize that Indiana could be so gorgeous and peaceful.

I feel like I am ready for the second half 'push' of my season. It is so easy to be hard on ourselves. I mean, I went into Spirit of Racine truely wanting to and believing I could win it, or maybe finish top 3. Finishing 6th, I could be disappointed...but then, I put up a best time and I felt fantastic. I had my parents there supporting me, I had a few great friends there as well, and I am lucky enough to go out and do these amazing 'things'. In reality, I feel like the luckiest person in the world. And I can honestly say, I take absolutely nothing for granted. But being able to slow down this past week, step back and take some rest time, it allowed all of this to 'soak in' so to speak. One thing that I believe I struggle with is 'selling myself short'. In the midst of having a great race, or coming out ahead in the swim (where I am winning the race!) I start to think "OK, when will they start passing me..." This is something I am working on, not thinking this but rather thinking "Hold 'em off. And if/when they pass you, keep them in sight." I am trying to tell myself I belong to be up at the front, that this is where I am fully capable of being. I think that my ability to step away from the sport, the intensity and just appreciate being a part of it all allows me to keep things in perspective.

In any case...these are my thoughts for the day. :) May not be worth too much, but I think it is great to put the thoughts into words occassionally, even when they are just contemplative and rambling. Thanks for reading. And I hope you are enjoying whatever you are doing, wherever you are. Because, well, life is flippin' short.

Spirit of Racine 1/2 IM: A Personal Best!

I just returned from Racine, Wisconsin late last night, where I raced the Spirit of Racine Tri 1/2 Ironman Sunday morning. The trip was great! My parents and I drove in (as it was only about a 5 hour drive from their place, south of Indianapolis) on Friday, settled in and enjoyed a relaxing evening. Saturday I got in a nice 30-45 min easy ride, and we went to the pre-race meeting that evening. The greatest part about this race was that I had the chance to meet one of my athletes whom I have coached for 2 years, as well as 're-unite' with 2 friends from Illinois Swimming that I had not seen in over 5 years! So in addition to simply being excited to race on Sunday, I had some other things to look forward to as well.

The race was a nice early 7 am start, which outside of the 4:00 am wake up call, I love. We were off promptly at 7:03, 3 minutes behind the professional men, into the beautiful 64-degree waters of Lake Michigan. I felt strong on the swim, but I did not really swim with anyone so I don't think I pushed myself 'too' hard, but I found a nice rhythym and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wore my Zoot sleeveless suit, which was absolutely perfect for these conditions; in a full suit, I would have definitely gotten too toasty. I came out and started the long run on the sand to transition area, grabbed my fancy new aero helmet and was off on the bike. I found myself a bit hungry, and began taking my PowerGels (in my gel flask) early in; I even grabbed a Hammer Gel at an aid station in case I needed 'more'. I lead about the first 10 miles of the bike and then got caught by a few women, but tried to hold a strong pace. I didn't feel too fantastic on the bike today, not terrible but just not particularly 'strong'. I tried to push that out of my mind and just focus on keeping my power up.

Eventually, I saw the mile 50 mark (Yahoo! This is always a welcome sight) and started getting in all of my remaining gels, some more water and thinking about the run. I had a great dismount off my bike into transition and was off and running...I checked my Suunto watch, which said '10:13' so I could get an idea what kind of pace I was running. Although my legs felt HEAVY, they came around quickly and I was able to click off 6-min+ pace from the first mile. I felt strong! However, I was also pretty tired so I told myself 'control and dial in the pace'. Which I did, I knew that there were some very strong runners up ahead of me (Lisa Bentley, Heather Gollnick) and I knew the had a few minutes on me. A few people yelled out '2 minutes back! 1 minute back!' but at this point in the race, I knew I had to hold this pace for at least 6-10 miles before picking it up. I took in 3 gels the run, at miles 3, 7, and 10 and maintained a very strong pace...strong enough to pick up speed at mile 12 and push to the finish. I saw the clock ticking away at about 4:33 and change, meaning, wow! I was a 4:30!! My best time to date is a 4:37, which I did at Clearwater last fall and at Buffalo Springs in June, so this was a good 6 minutes faster! I also ran a 1:24, personal best run off the bike and 3rd overall fastest run. I saw my parents and smiled to them, and finished in 6th overall and took home a bit of cash...not at all the place I had hoped for, but on a day when I felt about 85% (not 'great') I would take this in a heartbeat.

It was an awesome weekend, the weather could not have been better (high was mid/upper 70's) and I had my parents and a few great friends there as well. Also, I have to say...AWESOME JOB to my friend Jen Peters, who finished her FIRST 1/2 IM in a phenomenal 5:02...all the while, smiling and cheering along the way! Nevermind the fact that she is a lawyer, as well...way to go stud! I highly recommend this race, great organization and a beautiful transition area, swim and run course., and a bike course on mostly country roads...I have to be satisfied with another successful weekend. Thanks so much to all my sponsors, Jack and Adams in Austin, Zoot Tri team, 3 Stories Racing, Suunto, Zipp, and Orbea. Couldn't do it without all of your support. It is easy to be a bit disappointed that I have not been placing quite as high as I would like to, however I have gone up against some very talented women and, I am dropping a good chunk of time on each race. So, the improvement is there! It is just nice and steady...which, I am ok with. :) I am moving in the right direction.
(Ah! I almost forgot, another BIG CONGRATS to fellow Zoot Tri team member Mike Caiazzo, who finished 3rd among the professional men...way to represent! And thanks for cheering out on the race course, Mike!)

Geneva, NY ITU Race

Well, this one will warrant a pretty hefty race report which I will publish later this week. All in all a fantastic weekend, as I had the nicest homestay and Geneva is simply a beautiful place! No big city here, a small little town tucked in upstate NY (or at least, I think it is considered 'upstate'?), green rolling hills, Seneca Lake (a 40-mile long river and at its deepest part, 400 meters deep) running through the town and dozens of wineries. What more do you need?

Getting there was seemless, as I arrived on time, got my rental car and was in Geneva by Thursday afternoon. The return was not so smooth, as I was overcharged for my bike at the airport ($150! BEWARE OF UNITED, all you triathletes, I am warning you now) and had to return my rental car with the gas tank 1/2 empty...this stuff ate at me the whole flight home, but upon reflection, the race was a very solid effort and considering that I really am not training myself to go 100% max effort for 2 hours straight, I did all I could in the end. I was 9th out of the swim, not very good but again I got a bit buried in the washing machine start and by the time I found clear water the front pack was far ahead; Solo-ed most of the bike, which I believe was the norm for the 25-person womens field as there were some good rollers and technical sections on this 8-loop course; and ran like hell. The run was great, second fastest run of the day and I probably passed 8-9 women on the run. In 6 miles, not too shabby! It was also 6-1 mile loops through a beautiful park, and at 5:00 in the evening, it had become overcast and we were running right along the water...very cool! I ran myself into 7th place and to put it mildly, was toast at the end.

I forgot how incredibly hard those races are. I don't like to go maximally hard, I don't have those fast-twitch fibers in me. So I fight really hard to find them. And that fighting hurts, really bad. :) But again, I enjoyed the challenge of it...but it confirms that I truely feel like I am in the right place right now, sticking to non-drafting and 1/2 Ironmans! So...check out the race report later this week, which will be on my website (www.kellyhandel.com). Thanks for reading~!

I've Sold Out.

Yep, I finally did it. I bought an IPod. For all these years, I have thought how ridiculous they are, why are they necessary? We have CD's, we can play our music, even put it into our computer and chill out while working. But an IPod? So I can be connected to my music while running, cycling, reading, travelling, etc...? Not necessary. But I finally gave in, however I have to admit that my ...good gosh, at least 12-year old...Sony radio walkman has served me well! But I am afraid it will have to move over to my new toy. Well, it is actually not a real IPod but a Sansa. Whatever it is, it holds 2,000 songs and they are all to my liking. :)

Part of the reason I broke down is that I leave Thursday for Geneva, New York for a race on Saturday. This is an ITU race, draft-legal style format. I figured, what they hey, I have not raced these in about 2-3 years and I used to do only ITU racing. It will be a fun change for once, to actually get to draft on the bike. I have a homestay (whereby nice people open up their homes to allow me to stay! And helps immensely as it saves me 3 nights of a hotel!) and I am looking forward to a lot of Kelly-Time. The race is not until Saturday at 3:00 PM EST, so this gives me a plethora of time to chill out before-hand and get good and nervous! I found myself doing just that the past few days, but then I told myself that, well, this is not 'my thing' anymore...I am completely sold on the longer racing! I am so looking forward to racing in Racine, Wisconsin on July 22nd, this will just be a fun little 'tune-up'.

Now that my bike is packed (yes, a day early), I will continue to download music into my 'Sansa-Pod'. Gotta take care of all the important stuff, right?

Freedom 5k

Started the day bright and early (well, not too bright, gloomy and rainy) to do the Run Tex Freedom 5k this morning. My friend Emily came in last night from 2 days on the road and, well she wanted to do it! So I obliged. We took off from our house around 7:30, drove near the start and then jogged in. Picked up our chips, chatted to some friends and by 8:00 (8:15?) we were off. It is one heck of a lovely day here for July 4th, rain rain rain! It just won't stop. But that is ok, if there is anything I enjoy doing in the rain (besides swimming) it is running.

We took off and I felt good, strong the first mile. But I tried to keep it under control, as my approach was that this was just a really good Tempo workout. I came through mile 1 in 5:40 (someone was calling out the pace, I never start my watch) which was good but not terribly fast. Then I got passed by a girl, she just cruised by me! I didn't like that. But, I also knew that in a 5k I usually don't have 'another gear' so I just kept her right in front of me. We turned around and then came to mile 2 in what they said as 11:15, which meant...wow! I dropped my pace to a 5:35 second mile. I then moved past the woman leading, which I was fortunately able to do with 'relative' ease, and finished with anything I had left. I came through in a 17:41, which I'll take! I think my best time is around 17:20-17:30 so that is no too far off, for a bit of a last minute race decision and running on somewhat tired legs. Emiliy and her brother Eddie finished right around 22 minutes, only 3 seconds apart! Eddie beat Emily, I don't know why she let him do that. :) In any case it was a fun start to the 4th! I'll hit up a hard-ish bike ride later and then we'll prep for our big bash, which we plan to grill out for. We'll see, hopefully mother nature gives us a small window this evening of good weather! Happy 4th to ya'll, from Austin. Yee-Haw. And thanks for reading!

Hot Austin

I have heard how hot it gets here in Austin (this is my first summer here), and I now believe it. I ran yesterday (long by my standards, 1 hr 30 min) and it was H-O-T. Of course, I went at about 9:30 which was already too 'late' to beat the heat. I stopped at the awesome water stops supplied by Run Tex here in town (they supply 2 different water stops all the time, always fully stocked with ice cold water) and still I struggled to finish. I am glad I don't have a GPS because I don't think I would have wanted to know my pace! But I just tell myself, 'It makes you stronger'. Today is a 'down day', I did a 4000 swim this morning and a long, easy pull set. It is funny, I get so antsy on 'easy days'. I will use the evening to do some yoga, something which I love to do but rarely find the time for when training is heavy. I like to get in 1-2 good, solid 30 min- 1 hour sessions/week of a mix of yoga and pilates. Since I don't strength train, this works for me as excellent stretching and strengthening work, as well as getting the little kinks out from hard training. That is about all I got...I have a friend coming in town Tuesday for 4th of July so I am hammering out work now to prepare to chill out with her! And we may even 'jump into' the Firecracker 5k, which is at 8:00 AM July 4th. I figure, a good way to get my speed work in for the week!