29 August 09: Big Weekend!

Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 1 Comment

There will be no shortage of excitement here in Tucson this weekend. As if the virtual-ironman-spectating extravaganza tomorrow weren’t enough, I will also be doing my first-ever bike race tomorrow morning.

Frightening, I know. (Bike ride-able miniskirts courtesy of K-Swiss!)

Anyways, some of the local super-cyclist chicks needed a fourth for a 40-km team time trial tomorrow morning, so I was persuaded to “help” them. I just hope that I can. This will be a whole new challenge for me and put me out of my comfort zone in a lot of ways, from the intensity required for a one-hour all-out sort of effort, to simply riding on someone’s wheel. I did a practice with the girls on Monday, and not only was it quite painful, it was… Read More

27 August 09: Tuesday, Mt. Lemmon Day!

Posted on 27. Aug, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 5 Comments

“Tuesday, Mt. Lemmon Day!” was originally dated 26 August, but here I am on Thursday morning having to change the blog entry date. Because, yes,  continuing with the theme of my last post, I got too tired somewhere mid-way through posting the pictures and just had to go to bed! While training and racing are all about ignoring my body when it tells me it is too tired, now that I am home and life has calmed down a bit, I am really trying to listen to my body between workouts and lie down and rest when I feel like it. My instinct is to just drink some coffee, skip the nap or push bedtime back an hour, and work on my never-ending “to-do” list; however, I am realizing that while somewhat boring,… Read More

24 August 09: It's getting quiet in here . . .

Posted on 24. Aug, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 6 Comments

As of this weekend, we have officially entered the phase of my training during which the GCM starts to worry that I am angry with him because I stop talking. This may be hard to believe, but it does happen on occasion. Of course, while cycling with the GCM, I am almost always non-verbal, but I am referring to afterwards . . . I come home from training and seem capable of uttering just a couple of different phrases: “I need my bed,” “I need food,” or “I need food but I am too tired.”

Saturday I was treated to five hours of pain and suffering on the back of the GCM, one of the highlights of which was nearly vomiting during the first 40 minutes because that is how hard I was… Read More

20 August 09: Thursday Swim-Only Day!

Posted on 21. Aug, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 5 Comments

People often ask me if I take a day off. During some of my training cycles, I have a “rest day,” but this means a day with nothing but a longer swim. Days completely off rarely happen–usually just the day two days prior to an ironman race. And even then, I often opt to swim a loop of the course rather than taking a day of no activity. Because I hate the way I feel by 5PM when I have been a slug all day. It does quite literally make me sad, and why would I want to subject myself to that?

In my current training block, Thursdays are swim-only days. This meant that I got to sleep past 6AM today; in fact my body apparently needed 10+ hours of sleep… Read More

19 August 09: Tuesday Mt. Lemmon Day!

Posted on 20. Aug, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 2 Comments

After I opted to climb Mt. Lemmon during last Wednesday’s brick, Coach concluded that this ride would work perfectly for our Tuesday morning brick in my fall training block. This means that I get to try to do a solid pace up the 25-mile climb every Tuesday morning as part of my brick session (or bike-run, for all my non-triathlete friends). Add to that some quality time on the treadmill every Tuesday night, and it may be my new favorite training day!

So yesterday I hit the mountain again. The good news is I made it to the top 20 minutes faster than last week! Clearly it is not possible to get 20 minutes stronger in a week; I must admit that I adjusted my seat position a bit and it… Read More