Time off passed so fast. Back to training.

After a last race at November 1st I took one month off. For the first time I've decided to stay in US for couple months in staid of going home to a cold Ukrainian winter straight after an end of a season. I use to stay in Clermont, Florida, a great place for winter training, but nothing else to do there except of training. And an idea to travel for a little bit wasn't the bad one. A first trip I took was the trip to Atlanta, GA to see my Ukrainian friends. For four days I have so much fun with a girl friend (I miss girls company sometime), we'd done so much: we took two classes of Bikram Yoga, that was new for me and I really liked it, although not every pose came out well during my first class; next thing we did was a shopping, you can't find as good person as my friend Roksolana for a girl's shopping; then we went to visit other friends and went to a park with them kids.

After that I spent another week in Clermont, before I’ve planned my next trip. I went to Arizona to watch a last Ironman race in 2008 and to visit my home stay family-friends from 2007 year. Next flight I took was the flight to Las Vegas, I never been there before. I don't think I would go to Vegas by myself, I don't think it would be fun. But my friend, Oliver from Germany stayed in Vegas for couple days. It's hard to imaging better time than I had for those 3 days in Las Vegas: a helicopter flight, a Great Canyon trip, driving around city and walking around old down town.

After those trips it was time to start training again, get my fitness back at, then build some running and swimming mileage. And to my opinion a good place to start doing it is Los Alamos, NM, one of my top places in US. And now I am almost one week of training, still feel crappy, but I keep it easy I have time.

Coming back to the podium.

It was such a long season, started at the beginning of April and finished at the beginning of November. But I am really happy with my results during all season. Of course there was couple not very satisfied races and maybe sometimes a bad luck, but overall it wasn't bad at all :)

About last event in Florida, where I finished with 2d place and with 9.14. I am pretty happy with my results and with my place. And it was very nice to know how many people supported me inside and outside the race; inside and outside the state; and even inside and outside of country. I hope I didn't disappoint them. 

I feel very good at the race day, although I still had made a few mistakes. I picked the wrong socks for a marathon and I got bad blisters on the both feet and lost the toe nail again, which slowed me down at the last part of run. Everything else worked really well for me that day. At the end of run I thought: "Thanks God I don't need to do any other Ironman next season to qualify for the World Championship". I guess that's how much I was tired to get thoughts like these.

Anyway it was a great time in Panama City, it's one of my favorite places: I love sunsets, a flat ocean water, friends around and "it's a good weather for november", like for a person from Ukraine. 

Results; Pictures.

Few more races in 2008 season.

My 2008 season almost done. I planed to do two more races:

1. Longhorn Ironman 70.3, Austin Texas (October 5th)

2. Ironman Florida, Panama City (November 1st) 

And then I am going home to see some snow back in Ukraine. 

Vacation in Crimea (south of Ukraine).

After all preparation I'd done (training camp in Bulgaria, organizing a trip and an accommodation, phone calls and e-mails) for the ITU Long Distance World Championship in Almere, Holand I went to the beautiful place in south of Ukraine, calls Crimea. I went there just to spend one week of resting, enjoying the last sunny days of this year and warm water of Black Sea. Why did I go for vacation in spite of going to compete in World championship? The answer is simple: I didn't get a visa in time. The situation with visa drove me crazy all summer long. 

But anyway I needed some rest and everything in our lives happened for a reason. 

That, what I'v missed .....                               and this what I'v got

More pictures from Crimea see here

The trips and races in few last weeks.

For the last couple weeks after I came back from Switzerland I had done quiet few races and several trips. Back in Swiss, straight after high altitude camp I did Olympic triathlon. I finished 3d on that one after Nicola Spirig and Sibile Matter. I had pretty long warm up before the competition, I couldn’t find location of the race site, it took me 25 km around the lake, so I didn’t have enough time to be nervous: just got my number, checked in the bike and swim had started.
My next race was the Ironman Austria, I was preparing for this race really hard and I expect a good result, which I think I got. But few not very nice situations had happened to me one week before, like I twisted the ankle at Sunday during an easy run and next day the official from Kiev called me and told that I have some problems with visa, which means I don’t have a visa (usual situation for me this yearJ). After several conversations on the phone with Ironman Austria organizers and some of kind magic I finally got a visa and I even bought another ticket on the train. From that moment everything else went very well: my trip to Klagenfurt, a home stay up there, good rest few days before the race and new personal record for me 9 hours 6 minutes. I even ran few km on the 3d position, but I guess I started run too fast, so I paid back for that on a second half of marathon. It’s really amazing how fast girls are now in Ironman; three first girls broke 9 hours and 9.06 was just 4th place. But I am happy with my result.
Unfortunately I had leave right after banquet, of course because my visa. I had to cross border next night (at midnight, like CinderellaJ).
I also had few more small races during next week back in Ukraine: super sprint team relay and Olympic distance triathlon at Sunday, a week after the Ironman. I felt pretty good, but an immunity system wasn’t that strong and I caught cold and I had rested all next week.
Right now I am in Bulgaria for another training camp with part of Ukrainian national team, with youngest part of the teamJ and my training partner and good friend, Viktor Zyemtsev.

Last training days in Switzerland

Few more days of training in high altitude and I go down to the sea level. I completed last bike ride with Swen today, we climbed two passes: one of them was 8km (Julia pass) and another one 30km long (Albula pass)(whew).It wasn't easy, but at least I am not scare of hills any more. Annett went home yesterday morning and she missed another 10-13 hours of "main workouts" :p 

Anyway it was great time here, good training, cool company, beautiful weather, even to train with rainy weather was fine.  

Switzerlan, training camp. " Higher than mountains can be only the mountains, which you nether climbed before"

My dream came true. I am here in Switzerland in Pontresina, 7 km from St. Moritz, 1800 m high altitude. Three of us: Annett, Swen ( my friends I met in Clermont, Florida, while I was training there) and me train together in this beautiful aria, surrounded by white tops of giant mountains.

We are here for more then 10 days already and the hardest acclimatization days left behind, it's easier to breath now in the swimming pool and I am able to talk while I am running or biking. But I still have troubles going long, 13-20 km, uphills. Last Sunday I've done my hardest bike ride aver. We climbed over 4000 m during 170 km, which included 4, 13-15 km long, passes. At the end of that training I couldn't go straight any more on the bike, I was going zigzag and I was "almost" crying. But I guess in several days I would say, that it wasn't that hard compare today bike ride. 

It's also a very good aria for the run, a lot of nice trails in the wood with wild animals :) , like squirrels and marmots. And right now I am going to look for some new trails, as I go for the long run. 

Pictures

Two Half Ironmans in two weekends.

I had done first two Half Ironman races in Europe this season after I had come back from States. I completed those races during two weekends in row. That wasn't an easy experiment. The first triathlon took part in a beautiful city Linz in nice old Austria. I was happy to visit that country, especially after all troubles I have had with a visa,which I need to get for a visit to any country in Europe, as a Ukrainian person. I got the visa one day before the race and somehow I should to get to Linz from Lvov, Ukraine during 24 hours. I wouldn't be able to do it without my Slovakian friend, Marek and with his help I had very comfortable and rested trip to Austria and back. The race came out very well for me, I felt confident and strong . Unusually for me I was leading from the first part of the bike course and I save my lead till the finish line. After the event when I got back home at Tuesday I realized that I have just 2 days to prepare for the next trip to Switzerland and as usually my visa wasn't ready yet :) Even I knew I can't do anything about it, I already done everything to prepare all documents, the situation still stresses me out. Maybe that's why I also couldn't recover very well between competition, or maybe it's just an excuse ;) I got my passport with visa two hours before my flight to Zurich and after I got to my final destination I felt exhausted. Although I slept next nights a lot and very well it's still wasn't enough time to recover and at the race day I felt still tired. I suffered from the second loop on the bike and all the time during the run course. I am really angry with myself that I let two girls behind me pass me right before the finish, but honestly, nothing I could do about it, I had no power left. Anyway I completed two half Iron distances in two weekends with a pretty good time: 4h.29'......; 4h.33'...... And now I am looking forward to the training camp with my friends in St. Moritz; no races for the next six weeks before the big one: Ironman Austria.

Pictures:Linz triathlon

Results:Linz triathlon; Switzerland 70.3

Beauty of old Lvov

The summer is slowly coming to Ukraine and in to my city, Lvov, which makes an old town very beautiful. And as usually there is no time to see this beauty. But one friend of mine took some pictures for me and for you, who look at my blog sometimes. Enjoy a nice view. Lvov pictures.

Truskavets, the world famous resort.

I am back to Ukraine, but still not at home. Just 2 days spending in Lvov and I went to a beautiful place, named Truskavets. It's the world famous place on the west side of Ukraine, very close to Carpaty mountains. I came here for few reasons: to have a good recovery after few hard races in US, to get rid of the stress I got from a long trip and from an acclimatization and the main reason is to clean my body with a special water. 

More information

Ironman Arizona, again 4th.

One week already passed after Ironman Arizona and it was very busy week for me: few days of rest in Phoenix, a beautiful trip to Grand Canyon and a long, very long journey back home to Ukraine. So, back to the Ironman last weekend: I think it was toughest condition of the weather during an Ironman race in my triathlon experience. Till last Sunday I thought I am good with the hot weather,but I was a bit wrong. A strong wind on the bike course was slowing me down sometimes to 23 km/h and after turn around it pushed me so hard and fast. It looked like I did a fartlek: 3 times 30 km. Even more than usually I looked forward to start to run. But with +93+97 degrees and almost no shadow ( just under the bridges) it wasn’t that easy and enjoyable at all. And honestly, on the each loop there was a spot when I just wanted to give up. But I am really glad I didn’t. And with a sprinting for 400m at the end of an Ironman, thanks Lensey Corbin who gave me this chance. I finished 4th at the Ironman Arizona 2008 behind Erika Csomor, Micheille Jones and Heither Gollnick. Now I am looking forward to the next races in Europe of cause after several days of recovery in my rainy but still beautiful city Lvov.

Results

2.4 Mile Open Water Swim - Tempe Town Lake

The Ironman Arizona is in less than one week from today. We went yesterday for the open water swim  in Tampe Town Lake. Almost 400 people were participating in that event. It was organized as a race, but most of the people who swam that day wanted just to try the Ironman swim course week before the Ironman, as well as me. I was worry at the beginning about swimming with 300 something people around ( didn't do it for a long time). But it wasn't that scary. The way out seemed to be so long to me, although I was really glad with my result at the end. I wish to have same swim time next Sunday. 

We'll see ;)

Results

California 70.3 and team Timex meet.

The first big race of this season is done. The women field this year and the previous years as well was really  strong. All big girls came to California at the beginning of a triathlon year to compete. It was great for me to be a part of that mix of the champions. After good training camp with my new family down in Clermont, Florida I felt pretty good,  although I didn't taper yet and I was still a little tired. The weather was nice and we were lucky that it wasn't raining on race morning. I was kind of ready for the cold water, I had some experience a several weeks before at the Great Escape triathlon in Clermont. But I still decided to wear a Blue seventy warm cam and, honestly, even with 15 degrees water temperature it felt hot. Thanks Blue seventy for saving our brains:) The Bike course was fast and flat, kidding, just few first miles were like that and then it turned out to the hilly routs with the strong head wind. I didn't feel very powerful at the end of the bike course and I was looking forward to start my favorite part of the race, a run. I thought before the event: " Even if I'll have a good race in California with this field it doesn't mean I'll be able to make top 8, but the small goal I had motivated me a little bit too: a new laptop, as a present from the prize money, if I would make some". I guess without my new "baby" you wouldn't read this blog.

The other nice gift after the hard race was a team Timex camp and meetings with new and old (not by age) family members. Unfortunately for me and possibly for somebody else ;) I wasn't able to join the guys and girls from the team for a party and a fun part of the camp. I hope I'll do better next time :) But I was very happy to see my team all together and happy.

Results

Pictures

My new "Trek" bike.

Looks cute in orange .... ;)

MIT, early Olympic triathlon this season

It's the beginning of March and I have already completed my first triathlon without a wetsuit - yesterday in Miami, the Miami International Triathlon. It's a beautiful place and a beautiful race course. The weather was very nice and warm on race morning. I felt really well during the swim, even though I had some difficulties: Although the water was calm I couldn't see anything, because the race had started at 7 a.m. and we just have changed the time one week ago, so it was still dark. I had to stop a few times to see where I am going. The bike and run course were totally flat, except for one spot during the bike segment, when we had to cross the bridge (it is the highest hill in all of Miami). I moved two places up on the bike, and stayed in that position during the run, so I finished 6th. Not many Pro girls showed up at the race, but it was a competitive and fast race.

Pictures
Results

Clermont sport camp

Working hard building shelves (me and Matt)

(Annett, me and Kattie)

Training and....... rest

Today I did my first race of this season - The Great Escape from Florida. Even though it is Florida, the weather was not very nice this morning. The water temperature was 59 Fahrenheit, and the air even chillier with 41 Fahrenheit. It still was warmer than some races I have done in Europe.

In addition to the cold temperature the water was also very choppy, so I didn't feel great at the swim. I was sure happy to get out of the water, and little later left the transition area as woman no. 3 (to my surprise). It took me the first loop to get my breathing under control. Second loop on the bike I felt really comfi, as well as on the run...despite my cold feet. My fingers were numb, too. But it was still wonderful to race, and earn some money for my next massage appointment, my homestay, and some antioxidants (as in wine) ;-)!

Results