I plan to compete in half and full Ironman races in 2012 as a professional. It will be a true challenge to balance my professional triathlon career and working as a veterinary ophthalmologist which I also love. I will be honored to compete alongside the best female triathletes in the world! Any profits I make as a professional triathlete will be donated to an account at the University of Missouri called “Jodie’s Eye Fund” which supports vision science research in humans and animals and provides qualified veterinary patients with vision saving medical procedures and care.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Death Valley Training Camp

We arrived in Death Valley (Furnace Creek Resort) on Sunday afternoon.  Put our bikes together and went for an 18 mile easy ride.  I had had a couple bad falls on icy bridges a week ago so had not trained for a week waiting for my knee to feel better.  The knee was a bit painful but overall, biking was comfortable.  Beautiful scenery, breathtaking mountains and desolate landscape.  Plus I could wear shorts!!  LOVE.






Pete Olson at Valdora Cycles helped me upgrade my PHX2 to Di2, he painstakingly drilled the frame and routed everything internally.  Absolutely phenomenal shifting quality and the ability to shift in the bull-horns increased my comfort level a lot.  This ability makes it easier to ride in groups and adjust gear during climbs.  I now am the proud owner of a super-bike!!



The swim venue was incredible, a spring fed 25y pool with no chemicals with complete water turnover every 6-8 hours.  Absolutely heaven.



We rode 350 miles for the week.  This is by far the highest mileage week I have ever had.  Great base miles and fun groups to ride with.  We had a great time sharing a room with Rodney and Diana!!



The pinacle (in more ways than one) of the week was climbing Dante's View (25 mile climb, a HC climb according to STRAVA).  Steve and I had checked out the STRAVA records the day prior (yes we are such competitive little bitches).  We thought we could take down the mens and women's records and we were successful.  The last 1/2 mile of Dante's is >15% grade and after 24.5 miles of climbing with no rest it felt impossible.  I kept telling myself....just don't fall over, pedal just enough to keep yourself upright.  Success, finally we were at the top and just a breathtaking view was the reward, totally worth it.  True respect to the Tour de France riders who hammer the fuck out of HC climbs, it was hard enough just getting up it for me!!



We did a century (well, 108 miles to be exact) to Scotty's castle on the Friday, uphill for 56 miles (I was riding with Rodney and Steve, the skinny boys so they turned the screws on me) and then the ride back was lovely, as I was a wheel-suck the entire time, no shame!




The desert is a great venue for winter training and the lack of automobiles and people in general made it a great vacation.  It is a peaceful place and the desolation allows true relaxation.  The night brought us beautiful star viewing and of course we indulged in a tub of Ben and Jerry's between the four of us at least four of the nights, we deserved it!


Kona 2011 Race Report


I arrived in Kona on Wednesday evening.  The flight from St. Louis was long, almost the entire flight from LA to Kona was filled with triathletes, really, really fit looking triathletes.  I was meeting my friends Rodney and Diana (both experienced triathletes) as they were attending a conference in Kona on exercise and sports science.  I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to stay with them and Rodney was a brilliant advisor as he had done Kona before.  I also got interesting snippets from the conference, ideas for training and racing in the heat.  I was lucky to travel to Hawaii many times as a young girl, this taught me all about the good food it has to offer.  I absolutely love Hawaiian Sun guava juice and papaya with lime, breakfast of champions!



The atmosphere in Kona is second to none.  I knew we would be wined and dined, but I did not expect the fanfare that awaited us.  So many fit, talented people and tons of free stuff!!  As my mum would say, “these people are specimens”, lots of vein poppers and super tanned muscle-bound bodies!!  There were tables set up all along the road down to the race start and every time we went out for a run, bike or swim we would arrive home with more free swag!


Highlights were the amazing Hawaiian tropics Gu Roctane flavor and a new Gu Roctaine energy drink (both not on the market yet) and cute silicone swim caps with animals on the from Biestmilch.  I also got to check out the new Garmin powermeter in the pedal spindles,  the Garmin 910XT watch and the LeMond fluid trainer.  Pretty neato stuff.  I am such a gadget slut.  I had a nice swim on Friday before the race, looked at the beautiful fish.  There was even a catamaran out in the bay giving out free coffee (Coffees of Hawaii is one of Chrissie’s sponsors).  I spent some time getting my nutrition all organized and put my good luck donut in the freezer overnight for the transition bag tomorrow morning. 


I was careful about organizing my race day nutrition.  Since the 300 calories per hour worked in Canada, I was sticking with the same routine plus some additional salt tablets taped to my aerobars.



Racking the bikes was a pretty amazing experience.  Never before had I been witness to so much bike porn.  Simply amazing amassment of beautiful machines, none as beautiful as my Valdora PHX2 of course J


Race morning was early as usual, Rodney and Diana drove me to the race site (they are the best friends ever!!) and  I went into transition.  The volunteers were weighing all the athletes, I did not want to know my weight.  Taper week is a bitch.  There was a lot of media and video cameras and choppers overhead.  Pretty amazing experience.  I took everything in and was looking forward to the race and getting underway.  The pier is a small place and they essentially herded everyone onto the beach for the start, I felt like a cow.

I knew Joe had told me not to go out into the open water too early so I waited until 10 minutes until the start to swim out to the line.  I had practiced treading water without expending energy the week before.  It was pretty chill and I talked to a few girls as we were waiting for the start.  The cannon went off and wow, what a washing machine.  Way worse than IM Canada.  Salty washing machine this time and major aggression.  The swim felt long and I was glad Rodney had told me about the ship out in the bay that was the half way point, it was helpful sighting this.  There was a lot of contact and I took in a lot of salty water, my mucus membranes felt pickeled and I was thirsty when I came out of the water.  Not a great sign this early in the race.



The changing tent was insane.  At IM Canada I had two lovely volunteers doting on me and in Kona there were 250 athletes in the tent and it was standing room only.  I got a little claustrophobic and just froze.  Suddenly I realized the race was still on.  I grabbed my bike gear, put it on and dabbed some sunscreen on my face.  I was afraid my hands would be too slippery if I applied it to liberally.   Got off on the bike and tried to get some fluid into myself.  The sun was hot and everything people told me about the bike ride in Kona was true.  The lava fields loose their allure after 20 miles, they are beautiful but the beauty is the same.  The pros were on their way back as we were making our way to Hawi.  Julie Diebens was riding with the pro men, what a stud!!  I was surprised Chrissie was so far back, this was going to be an exciting race!! The cross winds up to Hawi blow your doors off and the 3 miles before the turnaround were murder (horrible headwind and all uphill).  On the way home I was really starting to expire in the oppressive heat and my fanny and the soles of my feet felt like they were on fire.  My wattage was starting to decrease despite the fact that my effort felt high.  My legs were feeling the tax of two Ironman races 6 weeks apart, I could tell that today wasn’t may day to break records and it became about survival more than anything.



It was thrilling to see the men’s race unfold as I was coming back into town on the bike.  Craig Alexander was absolutely killing everyone in the run, he was on his way into the energy lab when I rode by.  I was so glad to see the transition and to get out on the run.  Once I was running I could tell I didn’t feel as invincible as I felt at the run start in Canada, the heat was taking its toll.  I could see my sunburn on my arms was really bad, and my wrists were starting to swell from the heat……I got the first 6 miles under my belt in 8:00 pace and as I started up Palani drive hill the wheels started to fall off.  It helped give me some motivation to see Chrissie followed by Miranda run down the hill to the finish, I could tell Chrissie would win but she looked like she had battled and really conquered some demons.  I walked aid stations (slow walking, not the kind of walking that is planned) and lost the will to be a competitor.  Once I was out of the energy lab I knew I would make it and got my second wind, picking up the pace and walking aid stations at a respectable pace.  The runner in me was a little embarrassed that I was acting like such a triathlete J




After going down Palani hill I could pick up the pace as I knew the finish was close, the speakers were blaring and the choppers were loud.  Going across the finish line was more special than I thought it would be.  I was so proud to finish Kona.  It was something that I would have never dreamed possible this season and I felt truly lucky to have the experience.  My time was slower than I had hoped but it didn’t matter, I was a Kona finisher and that was what was important.