It has been another busy week! I started my first clinical rotation this week at the U of M in the ER, which will last until the end of July. I met with my clinical preceptor for dinner at Bonfire on Wednesday so that I could get prepared for my first day on Thursday. Not knowing where anything is located at the U-I haven't spent anytime there except for a few swim meets and riding past it on my bike on the River Road, I got myself a little lost and ended up parking the in wrong ramp making it a long walk to the ER. The day started off with a mock code led by the head of the ER with the pediatric emergency medical residents. The mock code involved a kiddo that was in status (continuous seizures lasting over 30 minutes). I was super eager to jump in (being I have a ton of experience working with seizure kiddos)-but had to bite my tongue as the residents hmmmm'd and haaaaa'd while trying to figure out what to do-it was great! We spent the rest of the day running from meeting to meeting-I ended up putting in a total of 10.5 hours there and then I was off to WORK my shift at Gillette (a total of 19 hours of work that day!)

I look forward to the clinical rotation!!! My clinical preceptor is really nice and has a ton of experience!

Anyways onto my training for the week:
Monday, swim club was canceled due to the pool cleaning at Lifetime-which was good considering I wasn't thrilled about having it on Memorial Day. According to the schedule it was day number three of big training days in a row. I ended up swimming at the Moore Lake LTF 2000 yards following a five mile run with Shadow. I intended on riding that day as well, however I got a flat.

Tuesday's workout consisted of some running speed work. This was a hard workout for me as my legs were dead from the big training weekend. I ended up putting in 7.75 miles. Two of the miles held at or below a 7 minute pace!!!!

By the time Wednesday rolled around my legs were mush! I ended up taking it easy on Wednesday-An easy 10 mile ride and skipped the run.

Thursday-I managed to fit in a 1.5 hour ride and a 15 minute run! I don't know how, but I did it:)

Friday-I did a 2300 yard swim and then I headed downtown to pick up my race packet for the Mpls half marathon on Sunday.

Saturday, I led run club without runners-hee hee. I ended up doing 2 miles. I then headed to Moore Lake for a T-20 minute (timed) in my wetsuit-this gives me sort of an idea of changes in my fitness level since I started my Ironman training in January-I was a total of 150 yards further today!!! I then headed down to the river road for a EASY hour bike ride-well as easy as you can get in straight line winds (j/k).

Tomorrow I will be running the Mpls half marathon and then hanging out watching my friends finish both the half and full. Good luck everyone!

Great training weekend!

Alright, I had a great training weekend-I got in a lot of hours which can be definitely seen with my sunburned skin. Today was another productive day of training-for the most part. I started it off with a 5 mile run with Shadow at the Dam. Shadow did well on the run until she tried to chase a couple of deer through the woods-not good when I'm attached to her. I got her settled down and focused on running for most of the remaining miles of the run (most is the key word). On the way back, as we crossed over the dam a unleashed miniature poodle started chasing Shadow-not much of a contest though Shadow out ran that dog in no time. It was a good run and even though I was exhausted from the all the training this weekend and lack of sleep due to working. I think combination of the heat and Shadow's sprinting bursts finally wore her out (who knew it was going to be a fartlek run).

Following my run, I headed to the Moore Lake Lifetime for a swim. The Coon Rapids Lifetime pool is closed for cleaning. I ended up doing 2000 yards. I felt great swimming.

I then came home napped a for about 30 minutes knowing that I had a two hour bike still left in order to get my full workout in. I got my bike attached to the bike rack and headed to the dam. Once I got to the dam I started to top off the air in my tires before riding when the back tire wouldn't hold any air. So this is flat number 1 and tire change #2 for season. I didn't end up riding since I my time was limited knowing that I'm scheduled to work tonight.

Biking, biking, and more biking.....

.....and a sore butt!

I have had a nice stretch of days that included a workout of biking. Thursday, I did end up making the P2 training which consisted of 1.5 hours of biking (hill repeats) and a 30 minute run. Up and down, up and down....the "Dam Hill" then over to the "Half Pipe" (a series of hills that resemble a U shape).

Friday,
I met Erica for a ride down around the lakes and Minnehaha Parkway. The lakes were busy with the fantastic weather and it being a holiday weekend. We stopped at a little coffee shop for lunch in the middle of the ride.

What a great day....or at least until I went into work that night! We started online charting this past week. Friday was my first day with charting online-my quote of the night was "I was fine with the online charting until I had to do it". The night was crazy busy and didn't end up punching out until after 9 am. As I was driving home from work, I get a call from work-I was thinking what piece of charting did I forget but no it was the supervisor calling to see if I could come back in at 7pm since they were short staff. My answer to the extra half of shift was NO-partly since I hadn't made it home from work when the call came, partly I needed to get a long ride in that day, but mostly because of the exhausting night I had.

Saturday, I met Cindy and Jen for a ride on the Liberty Triathlon course. Cindy and I ended up doing 2 loops-Jen ended up only doing 1 loop after battling some mechanical issues with her bike. Cindy and I then followed the workout up with a short 3 mile run and some yummy mexican food!!!! Total ride distance was 50.5 miles.

Sunday, Erica and I headed down to St. Paul to ride the River Road. The workout was ride 45 minutes, run 30 minutes, ride 45 minutes, and run 30 minutes. GREAT WORKOUT!!!! We ended up riding 21 miles and running 7 miles.

Kid in a candy store!!!!

Today my Aquaphor garb showed up!!!!! I couldn't wait to tear into the big box to check out all the cool things inside. I ended up with a full tri outfit (top and bottom), running shorts, singlet, running shirt, jacket, and a hat; along with a boat load of free product----yay!!!!!


Training this week has been good. Although its a recovery week I have felt productive. Monday, I led swim club (only one guy showed) but I got a chance to get my full workout in-30 minutes continuous swim about 3000 meters. I felt good! I feeling pretty confident in the upcoming Liberty swim less than a month away!

Tuesday, I headed down to P2 for a run. Hot Hot Hot was the weather. Me, I prefer to run in the heat but with the long winter I needed to re-acclimate to the heat (even though it isn't long lived in MN-45 one day 95 the next).

Wednesday, Back to the pool! I ended up getting in a total of 3500 meters. My swim was as easy as Monday's-probably due to the water aerobics class going on.

Today I plan to head down to P2 for a bike and run session. Hopefully the rain will hold off!

Off to my massage!!!!
N

What a day!

Tube change #1 for the training season. Prior to riding today I had to do my first tube change because I had broke the valve off the stem on my back wheel last week, not allowing me to air up my tire. Although the tube wasn't seven minutes (I had a whole winter to fall out of practice) it only did take 12 minutes-okay yes I'm officially a bike dork!

I met up with Jen, Cindy, Heidi, and Troy for a ride on the Buffalo tri route. The goal was to ride two loops of the Olympic route. We had just past the turn off between the short course and the long course, when I mentioned to Jen that she was going to loose her water bottles. We decided to stop so that Jen could fix her water bottles and I looked up to see Heidi clip Cindy's back tire. Heidi then went out of control zig zagging across the road; before you knew bike was flying and Heidi was tumbling.

We ended up calling 911 and Heidi was taken away by ambulance to the Buffalo hospital. We ended up spending about three hours with Heidi in the ER. Cindy and I drove Heidi home so that she could get her prescribed TLC.

Get well soon Heidi!!!!

hills, Hills, and more HILLS!!!

I went to train with P2 today and if you read my previous posting the schedule called for a hill workout on the bike. Most of the group that I trained at P2 are out in Colorado at the spring training camp being put on by my coach. Although, I am not in Colorado, I got in plenty of hills.

I hurried down to St. Paul to meet up with the group and only one other guy showed up (Dan)-I was a little freaked since he is REALLY fast! Anyways we waited around a bit for others to come and no one else showed-so we were on our way. We biked down river road to Shepard Rd. passing a couple of hills that we would come back to later. We got to the bottom of Shepard Rd and did a couple long repeats-not bad but we were moving! Then on to the second hill for repeats much steeper hill-I was going 30 mph down the hill with my brakes on, if that gives you any idea. We did a total of 6 repeats on that hill and then we were on our way to the next one. The second hill we did was the Hidden Falls hill-very steep curvy but a little shorter. We only did one repeat on that hill (my choice-I was afraid that I was going to fall over!). The hill was filled with pot holes and sand making it hard to maintain a safe pace and grip with the road. Then last but not least- the "Dam Hill" we ended up doing 4 hill repeats on the dam hill and then I had to call it a night (Dan kept going for a few more sets). I on other hand had to get home to update my blog and get a few ZZZZZZ's before work.

Overall it was a great ride-we did 25 miles. 1:45 ride time.
N

Just a quick update

It's been a great week not writing papers or responding to discussions! I don't think that I will be missing school once I'm done!!!!!!

Although, I haven't has school this week I have had to work everyday (including my day off!) We are in the process of going paperless-yes we are finally joining the new century and the other hospitals around us. Although, I look forward to the change of computer charting, I DO NOT CARE FOR DOING IT ON MY DAYS OFF!!!!!

Anyways for training this week:
Monday was the typical swim club day with my two boys (the only two people that show up) I ended up getting in a little over 2700 meters. I felt pretty good and I STAYED focused on just completing my workout instead of working on trying to make better swimmers out of the guys. I'm not there to teach swim lessons-RIGHT!

Tuesday, I intended on going out for a 90 minute run-but it didn't happen. I have a slower than normal recovery from the marathon. My knee was really bothering me and I was having a lot of cramping in my legs-go figure a week to focus on my training and I'm hurting! I ended up only getting in 2.5 miles.

Wednesday, I had a decent workout consisting of a swim and bike. I started off biking 18 miles on the flat roads of Coon Rapids. I then got in the pool and did about 4500 meters-I felt really heavy in the water and tired from working Tuesday night. Following my workout, I hung out with the gang at my FAVORITE Mexican restaurant to celebrate Corrine's, LeAnn's, and Roxie's birthdays-A little tequila and head shaking for LeAnn. Let me tell you once I got home from celebrating-I was exhausted!!!!!

Tonight I plan to train with P2-It looks like a hard workout of hills on the bike and a short run.

Race ReportTC 1 mile

My training had been pretty light since I was still having problems walking down the stairs Thursday morning; plus being it was finals week I had very little sleep. Knowing how sore I still was, I didn't have any big race goals. Andy and I had talked about running the race together since we wanted to finish about the same time. We waited around for the 30-35 wave so it wasn't so busy and we could actually run for a time.

The race started-I was dying from the start. Everytime I took a step with my left leg it felt as though someone was taking a sludge hammer to my femur. At the quarter mile mark, my chest was burning and my legs just didn't want to work. They had the course marked every quarter mile-and the goal was just to make to the next quarter mile marker running.

It felt at though this was longest 1 mile ever!!!!! My final time was a 7:16-I was bummed since it would have been nice to beat my time from last year and go closer to the 6 minute/mile mark.

Friday, I got in the pool for a much needed swim workout. I ended up doing 4000 meters.

Saturday, I got up about 1:00pm and then headed out for 30 mile ride through Minneapolis. I then finished up with a 3.5 mile run

Sunday, Cindy and I rode the Buffalo route-20 miles.

Flying Pig Race Report

The alarms went off at 3:40 am. We quickly got ready and were out the door by 4:00! Stephanie (the girl we stayed with) drove us to the start and we hung out in the car until a little after 5 since it was raining out. Stephanie then got kicked out of the parking lot so headed into the Reds stadium and hung out there until race start. We got a few pictures taken and talked a little smack-Right Jen 3:00 marathon hee hee. And I got questioned about the race course by a man who didn't speak English-I tried to tell him that I wasn't from Cincinatti but he didn't understand.

The race started at 6:30 am and it was sprinkling a bit but warm and humid. Jen, Cindy, and I started off together and ran about 3 miles until we lost Cindy. Jen and I then continued to stay together-we were keeping a pretty good pace, somewhere in 8 minute range and for a good couple of miles in the 7:30 range per mile. I felt great! The course was fantastic! Scenic and challenging with many many hills.

My left quad got pretty tight about mile 17 making it hard to keep my head in the game-The statement a marathon is 10% training and 90% mental is completely true! I kept telling myself "come on get your head back in the game" by mile 20 I was kind of a mess-thanks Jen for hanging with this crabby pants! My right achilles was cramping up-oh I forgot to tell you that I forgot my electrolytes in MN and they didn't have any at the expo; well I did end up buying some strip electrolytes that worked okay buy not as well as my endurolytes. We started to Galloway about mile 20; run five minutes walk a minute-stretch-stretch.

I started my usual counting of blocks about 2.5 miles out from the finish-I do this to take my mind off the run. About 3/4 of a mile out from the finish, Jen needed to take a short walk break (after I ignored the beep of my watch) up the last hill- I tried to pull the we only have 4 blocks-Jen didn't buy it-that brought back the memory of a long run I did with Michelle (my sister)and I tried to pull that with her and after several swear words and bottle of water thrown on me she didn't buy it either-Jen was much nicer about it.

Overall, I felt the race went really well. I felt strong for most of the race on a challenging course.

Since the marathon, I haven't done much for training. My legs have been sore especially in the places that cramped during the marathon. Monday, I did get in the pool swam 1000 meters, ran in the pool, and did some stretching. I did hit the hot tub for a bit as well-that only happens after races.

I took Tuesday off-still really sore.

Today, a short ride of 15 miles. My legs are still a little sore but much better. The stairs are the test and I seem to moving pretty on them today.

Tomorrow, I will be doing the TC 1 mile race-we will see how that goes.

Until next time.

Here are my results from yesterday's marathon. I will post a race report later today:)
Flying Pig Marathon 2009
Flying Pig Marathon 2009 logo
Flying Pig Marathon 2009
Flying Pig Marathon
May 3, 2009 in Cincinnati, OH


Summary
Number of Finishers: 4,014
Number of Females: 1,633
Number of Males: 2,381
Average Time: 4:29:41
Noelle Andrychowicz
bib number: 1478
age: 33
gender: F
location: Blaine, MN
overall place: 1835 out of 4014
division place: 94 out of 254
gender place: 526 out of 1633
time: 4:18:24
pace: 9:52
6.8 time: 1:06:13
12 time: 1:54:09
13.1 time: 2:03:36
19.7 time: 3:09:50
25.2 time: 4:08:49

Great Day in Cincinnati!

Today we got up early to head to the Expo for the Flying Pig marathon. The expo was really busy and VERY tempting on the pocketbook! I ended up filling up with many "pig" things! After the expo we ate lunch at a really cute little place in an area that reminded of uptown. There are a ton of cute little neighborhoods in Cincinnati, so it should be fun exploring them tomorrow while running the marathon. We have spent the rest of the day just tooling around the city. We drove the race route, so we have an idea of what we are up against with hills-I not thinking a PR will be happening on this course, but it should be a great time anyway! Now we are just hanging out getting our stuff put together for tomorrow and taking it easy before our pasta dinner tonight.



Early start tomorrow, so that means to bed early tonight!!!!!

My bib number is #1478
Jen's Bib #: 808
Cindy's Bib #: 11472
You can track us at: http://www.flyingpigmarathon.com/results/

See ya at the finish! Or in MN

Made it to Cincinatti

On the way to the airport today I had given my friend Cindy a call to see how her flight was on the away out to Cincinnati in which she told me about the tiny plane she took here. As a approach the gate way on the far side of the airport the seating at the gates got smaller and smaller. I too ended up flying here on a "puddle jumper"-it only had 50 seats on it. The flight was pretty good except for the ANNOYING flight attendant and the older man a couple of rows a head of me who kept getting out of his seat when the seat-belt sign was illuminated. I sat next to a girl who was running the half marathon and we spoke for most of the flight.

Today had been a long day so far with the traveling and early rising. My day started at 4 am when I returned shortly to my left off homework from yesterday. I then made my way to the gym to get a short swim of a mile. Following the swim, I quickly ran home to get packed (or at least threw a bunch of stuff in my suitcase) when I noticed that my NAUGHTY DOG was at it again-she ate my vitamins! Then I was off to Owen's benefit wrap up-they presented a check of almost $7000 to them!

Since we arrived had a quick bite of Mexican and now off to go out for a low key night.