FitBricks

IM Florida Pictures

Diane — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:16:33 +0000

Yay, I got some of the pictures up! Here are pictures through the swim start of the race. The first picture is the cake I tried to previously post. It was a delicious as it was creative! Thanks again Laura!!!

If I have time in Austin this week, I’ll post more

A party, what a surprise!!

Diane — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:39:38 +0000

Last night I thought I was going to the movies with my husband and our friends. Little did I know, a surprise party was in the works! My husband, last minute, says “oh, Dot called, you have to pick something up at her house that you left there last night”. I of course was arguing with him saying “what did I leave?” and he of course was being incredulous saying “I have no idea, just run up and get it”. LOL So, run up I did and I entered Dot’s house quietly, and surprised the houseful of people LOL…

Needless to say, I have never been more touched than I was last night. Thank you to Gretchen for thinking of doing this and organizing it all. Thank you for Dot for hosting the party. Thank you for giving up your Saturday night and in some cases driving long distances to be there. And a HUGE thank you to all of my friends that attended, brought food, and gave me a LOVELY gift that I can’t wait to use (spa treatments :-)) in December!!! When I tell you that your thoughts, prayers and workouts buoyed me during the race, I am not kidding. Why else would I have felt so good doing something so rediculous LOL!!!

Here is a picture of the cake that Laura made for us. It was UNBELIEVABLE! Not only beautiful to look at, but delicious too! I unfortunately didn’t get any other pictures! If you guys did, feel free to post them, or send them to me to post.

I promise to work on posting my other IM photos this week. I am traveling Thurs to Thurs this week, so again a busy week, but I’ll do it!!!

Thanks again for an amazing night. I truely feel blessed to know you guys, and one last thought to leave you with….

I have sucked you all in……..feel the vacuum…. We are all tri geeks now! I can’t wait to work with you and train with you next year.

What finishing the IM means to me….

Diane — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:13:50 +0000

It is now one week after the IM. I am just amazed that I’m back to working out and have no issues- other than the toe. I would not change a thing about how my training or how I raced this race. I feel so blessed to have all of you in my life. I couldn’t have done it without all of your support.

Here is my finisher photo. I don’t think I could have smiled any broader!

I was recently asked to reflect on IM for the Heartzones conference/training that I’ll be attending next weekend in Denver. I am going to get my Level 2 Personal Training certification (look out athletes I train, I’m sure I’ll learn some new and fun ways to torture you guys :-)). I thought I’d post what I sent to the organizers of the training.

When I started doing triathlons 6 years ago, a spin instructor convinced me to do the local Danskin triathlon. Why she thought I could do this, I had no idea. I hadn’t been swimming since I was 15. I didn’t own a bike, and I could only run a mile or so with extreme pain due to 2 ACL reconstructions on my left knee. But, I had just lost my mother to kidney disease, so I was up for a new challenge.

Fast forward 6 years and I am a certified USA Triathlon, USA Cycling coach, and a Level 1 Heartzones coach (soon to be Level 2 after the conference) and I just completed my first Ironman. Even saying this is still unbelievable to me. I never thought I would do an Ironman. As stated earlier, I have had 2 knee reconstructions and have a vertebrae missing in my lower back. Running 26 miles seemed an impossible task. Let alone after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles.

I set 3 goals for this race:

Finish and be able to walk afterwards;
Have fun and enjoy the entire experience; before, during and after the race;
Finish in under 14 hours

The day was PERFECT weather wise. If it wasn’t for my blister exploding on my big toe under the toenail, I would have finished probably an hour faster than I did (actual time 13:44), so I am thrilled. I can not express the sense of accomplishment I felt crossing the finish line. As I’m writing this, I think about what I did and just shake my head in disbelief.

One month prior to Ironman, my brother unexpectedly passed away and I had to fly to California to plan the service and clean out his house. Talk about throwing a wrench into my training and emotional stability at the peak of my training- Life, can be very interesting and trying at times. The other amazing thing I noticed as I think about my Ironman race, is that here I sit 4 days post Ironman; I’m not sore at all, and I feel great.

Reflecting, I asked myself, how can someone who did a race of this distance not feel badly or hurt at all, post race??? I know how it happened. I decided that I would complete the entire race solely on heart rate. I knew that I needed to keep my heart rate below 140 in order to feel good throughout the day.

So what are the biggest lessons that I learned? No matter what your adversity, if you train well, watch your heart rate, and eat healthy, you CAN finish an Ironman!

The days after Ironman

Diane — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:20:40 +0000

I feel good, so good (wish I could insert music bars here- think James Brown)….I’m sitting here 2 days post IM at 3:30am dressed, fed and waiting to get a taxi to the airport home….wearing my new IMFL Finisher jacket (it’s soooooooooo cool!). Other than the blister/ purple toe, I feel GREAT! It really paid not to push myself too hard. It’s all about HR training people LOL. 134 average for the entire race- probably why I feel so good.

Anyways, thank you all for such great support, good wishes and thoughts during my race- I felt you all the way! I’m still on cloud nine. Can’t wait to catch up in person and show you all my “goods”!

IM Race Report

Diane — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:52:10 +0000

#1 I finished!!!! I said before the race that I’d be happy if I finished in under 14 hours, so, happy I am!! I obviously can’t sleep either.

What an amazing experience this has been, I can’t believe it is over! The whole thing was wild. Just being here is dynamic. The way the race is run is like none other. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t here. Maybe Jim or Marie can try to explain since they witnessed it today.

Here is my race report:

Swim: I had a great first 1.2 round at 37 min. I’m not really sure what happened on the second round. All I can think of is that it was low tied and people were walking in the water for a long time and then there was a jam up at the water station. So, it must have slowed me down a lot. But, during the swim I was really enjoying it and staying in the moment. I wasn’t nervous at all. I just pretended it was just like any other race. The only issue I had was when I got kicked in the face twice and punched in the nose once. The hazards of swimming with 2200 of your closest friends (including the men). It was funny. At IM races, they have people pull off your wetsuit for you. During the race I had decided I would probably just take it off myself in the tent. But then I decided that I wanted to experience the ENTIRE IM experience, so lay on the sand I did and had someone pull it off. It was great! Came off so fast LOL!

Transition #1 went fine. It was long because I decided to go with comfort and changed out of my wet top clothes. It was kind of cold out to start, so I was glad I did that.

Bike: I held back on the first part of the bike because I didn’t want to go out too hard. Plus there was a nasty headwind the first 50 miles. But by mile 70 I felt good and decided since my HR was only 130 I should be pushing it a little more. (BTW, my Avg heart rate for the entire race was only 134- SWEET!). I started to get nauseous at mile 90. Not really sure what that was all about but it was hard to keep my nutrition plan going so I knew I’d have to add extra nutrition on the run if I could figure out what would make me feel better, and Gatorade and cliff bars were not going to cut it!

Transition #2- I had a great volunteer help me bandage the blister (didn’t really help much, but I think it prevented it from rubbing even worse. I changed out of my tri shorts into nice comfy running shorts. That was the theme today-enjoy the experience and be comfy!

Run: Here is where the rubber meets the road. I REALLY had to dig deep for this one. My blister bler up and got so much worse that it swelled and caused blood leakage under the toenail. I won’t be able to wear shoes for awhile and I’m guessing I’m going to loose the nail. Christine took pictures of it because it is so unbelievable that I ran 26 miles with it and she’ll be poising it when she gets home- if you want to get grossed out. Now that I’m walking in my sandles, it hurts so much it just goes to show how much the mental game plays in these racess. I was NOT going to quit, so it didn’t matter what hurt (EVERYTHING BTW!). My right achilles was really bad too, maybe making up for the left blister although I tried hard not to run funny.

After I finished, I went up to my room, ate something, took an ice bath and got some Ibprophen. I then showered, dressed and headed back to the finish line to cheer in the other finishers. That was alot of fun. I suppose I should go to sleep now since it is 12:48 central time (oh wait, we gain an hour tonight- SWEET!) so, it’s 12:48EST LOL. I’m a little punchy too, I guess. Anyways, everyone took lots of pictures and I’ll be posting them soon. Thanks Doug for the blog keeping everyone up to speed.

Thanks you guys for your great support this year! Don’t worry, I’ll keep this site going with articles and a place for us to chat.

Diane is racing Ironman Florida… Now!

admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:47:45 +0000

Diane, we are all here to cheer you on.

You can see some of the live coverage, or even track her progress as bib #2383. Or get some “Live Coverage”

She has just finished the Swim at 1:22:07… Go Diane!

She’s past the 73 mile point on the bike at 4:14:36 (17.2mph!)… Looking strong!

She’s off the bike last 39 miles at 2:08:48 (18.2mph!) total 112 at 6:23:24 (17.5mph) great ride… now on to the run!

I can’t believe it, but she has finished it! She did the run at 5:42:50 for a total time of 13:44:27!!!!

Hopefully she is recovering now and getting some food and much needed rest.

Diane, we are all so proud of you!!!

Congrats, Ironman!

Aghhhhhhhhh the swim!

Diane — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:57:24 +0000

OK, so I went for my LAST workout before the IM race begins- a simple/easy 15min swim was on the calendar for today. Ah, not so much….

The waves are VERY strong today. I’m hoping it won’t be like this tomorrow. Lesson to all, this is a very good reason to learn bilateral breathing. While going out to the first buoys, it was wavy, but OK-doable. Going across we were not as lucky. The waves/current were coming in at an angle and pretty high so every time I breathed to the right, I got water instead of breathe, no matter how high I held my head. So, to the left I breathed. Then, going back in to shore, the sun was coming up to the right, so, off to the left I breathed.

No problem though! I’m going to do an IM tomorrow- what is cooler than that

BTW, my hands were so cold, this hurts to type LOL

Enjoying the journey….

Ironman update #2

Diane — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:02:06 +0000

So, I finished the 12 mile bike ride (we cut off one of the turns of the run) and it felt great. Of course we went VERY slowly, but my legs are ready! Now I’m cooking a carb loading dinner. Chris and I decided not to risk having someone else cook our food, so I’m making pasta and chicken for dinner. We then have to get over to another athlete meeting at 7pm. This is sooooooooo much fun!

Talk to you tomorrow after my swim and after Beth and Chris cook me breakfast

On my way…

Diane — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:51:32 +0000

After working for 5 hours from 5-10am, Jim and Marie picked me up to take me to the airport for the final journey of this year long endeavor. We got to the airport, uneventfully, parked and ate at a pretty good restaurant in Terminal E. It was great because we had plenty of time to relax and eat and have great conversation. Thanks guys for taking me!

My plane took off on time and I ended in Memphis at 5:30pm local time (Central). This brought up an interesting point for me. I completely forgot that IMFL is held in the part of Florida that is in the central time zone. So, my plane didn’t leave Memphis until close to 8pm local time.

I landed in Panama City Beach at 9:30pm CST and Chris was there waiting for me. Just like clockwork! This trip was just as I like- uneventful

We drove the hour to Panama City and went to the local 24-hour Walmart to get water, fruit and breakfast for tomorrow. I finally got to bed about 11:30 local time which is WAY past my bedtime! I slept until 5am local time and couldn’t really go back to sleep. I layed in bed until 6 and then gave up.

I’m now sitting here doing email and watching a movie “Lions for Lambs” while I wait until 8:30am so I can go get my bike stuff and register…. the excitement then begins! Here is the plan for the day:

9am get bike and transition bag walk back to hotel

10am register and get goodie bag and check out IMFL store

12 or 12:30 Eat lunch with Chris and his mom

2pm ride the run course VERY easy

4pm shower and shop for dinner

5pm start dinner

7:30 athlete meeting

BTW, this condo is very cool. Fully equipped with everything.

It is freezing here, we might as well be in Boston! It’s 41 degrees right now, this won’t be so fun swimming and then biking while the sun comes out! Brrr…..

Heartzones seminar was FUN!!

Diane — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:35:34 +0000

What a blast we had yesterday in the Heartzones seminar yesterday. As you guys know, I was fortunate enough to host a Level 1 personal training and coaching Heartzones seminar at the WTSC yesterday. It was a lot of fun. What did I like best….seeing Keri, Janet, Marie and Barbara!!! That was great. Now the 5 of us will be all set to perform and teach our Danskin tri athletes next year, all of the sub-max tests.

It was great to catch up with you guys and I REALLY appreciate your well wishes for next Saturday. Remember check out the Athlete tracker at www.ironman.com. My number is 2383. I think you can just put in my name too, but knowing the number is FUN!!!

I have so much energy right now, I’m bursting…..save it for Saturday, save it for Saturday, I know.

I’ll post again after my flight to FL on Wed.

Cherio.. Enjoying the journey,

Diane