My last year as a 30 year old.

So in October I turn 40. I would lie if I told you I am excited for that. Were has the time gone. Can't say I did not do anything important or fun as I got married, had 3 kids and started a new career during that time. I want to leave my 30's with a bang, so I can start my 40's with a running start. This weekend is the Peterborough half marathon. My first race in the 40's age group since they take your age at the end of this year. Will that give me a better age group placing? Maybe not. It really depends on who shows up to race this Sunday. My run has been coming along and I feel I should have a great race. This race will give me a good idea on how my training is going for my tri's that will be coming up in June. Running has always been my weakest link on the tri's and would like to have a strong run base for the summer. My focus this summer is on the half ironman distance and hopefully qualify for world's 70.3 in September. I may look at getting back to the longer stuff as in Ironman's next year. Since my disappointment in my performance at Ironman Arizona and missing a Hawaii spot I decided to step back for a year to refocus for another shot at qualifying for Hawaii. This year Makayla turns 7. Where has the time gone? I can't believe my baby girl is turning 7. Tyson is in junior kindergarten and loves that he gets to go on the same bus as Makayla. They may fight most of the time but they really miss each other when the other is not around. Chase is turning into a little guy who does not want to sit for any periods of time. We'll all the kids are very active I like seeing that. All the snow we have had this winter has not stopped Makayla and Tyson from going outside to play. Today kids I find don't know how to play outside and instead sit inside and play on video games. This is something I don't want to see with my kids. I know there is times that they need to just unwind and relax but for the most part I would like to see them active. I feel that the kids see their parents being active which helps promote that in the kids with out much force. This weekend both Tyson and Makayla are running the 1km kids run before the half marathon. They ask me if they could run the race without me asking them. If they come first or last it is all about going out and participating. I will be one of the parent with a huge grin on their faces while watching their kids run.

I am in!!!

Last Monday, Ironman Arizona open registration for the 2013 race. All morning I was very excited and nervous at the same time. What if I didn't get in? That was the question going through my head all morning. Registration open at 2pm and I was online refreshing the website like a mad man. The link showed up and I quickly clicked on it. I heard somewhere that once you click on the link you had 15mins to finish the registration before your spot was given away to the next person. I did not want to risk that and so I quickly went through the registration process only filling out the very important stuff. I think it took me under 1min to finish everything and put my credit card down. I think I did not even breath during that whole process until I saw the email saying that I was officially registered. Not long after that I found out from others that they were not able to get a spot and further reading on slowtwitch the entire race was full in record time. Some say it was sold out in 40secs. The 15min to fill out the registration was not true. Some where half way done the registration when they got the message that everything was on hold. All I know is that I have a spot. It is too early to go to crazy with Ironman training but right now I am training 10-14 hours per week. Lots of base building. I am not worrying about swimming until the new year because I know all my big gains will be from my bike and run. Swimming I may be able to drop 1-5mins on the best day but biking and running I could see anywhere up to an hour if everything goes well. I am sad that the race sold out so fast. There was a few racers from Peterborough that was wanting to go do that race but did not get in. I hope they are able to get in next year or in another race.

I am back!

It has been a long time since my last blog. I have been thinking of getting back to blogging also someone had mention to me last night I should blog. Well here I am. I am currently on Parental leave until January 6,2013 since the birth of our 3rd child, Chase Ryan Tucker on October 6,2012. The birth of Chase went well but when the doctor assessed him once he was out they did noticed that he had Petechiae, which are tiny red spots on the skin. After taking blood from Chase they found out he had Thrombocytopenia , which in a short version is having a very low platelet count. The doctor said that this could be from Miranda's body attacking Chase platelet level and was good that he was born when he did. If he stayed in Miranda for another week we might not of had Chase with us today. Let fast forward this to today; Chase is doing fine and his platelets levels are coming up each time they do blood work. We are all getting use to another Tucker in the family. We are finding that Chase is the easy one out of the other 2 kids right now. Also I have started back running and biking more. After Ironman Lanzorate I took the rest of the summer off. That was a first for me. My body was telling me to take a rest from doing 2 Ironman within 6months times. I also just need a mental break from training. Most of my training for the Ironmans were by myself. I have enjoyed getting back in shape and was shocked at first how out of shape I became. I now understand people who start running for the first time why they hate it so much. My fitness has started to pop his head again and making it fun once again. Most of the workouts are easy runs and bikes to build a solid base. I have slowly added some tempo runs now. Ever since Chase was born I have been running everyday sometimes twice a day. That might of been a little to aggressive at first as I am feeling some aches and pain that need to be watched carefully. I don't need to be sidelined with an injury at this point in my comeback. I am right now trying to figure out my next year race plan. Most of the race plan will be based on if I get into Ironman Arizona. Everyone, keep your fingers crossed for me. Online registration will take place after the race on November 18.

Muskoka 70.3

This year I have had great results. I placed 3rd overall at Peterborough Half, 89th at Ironman Lake Placid which is my first ever Ironman and I also won the Chemong Lake Sprint Tri. So going into Muskoka I was expecting to have another great race. Well the Wednesday before the race I started to get some painful stabbing back pain and was not sure why. I was trying everything from taking extra rest, massages and even chiro but nothing was helping to completely rid me of this problem. I was really worried that I would not be able to get into my TT position on the bike as Wednesday's bike ride produced a lot of pain while trying this. In the back of my mind I was worried about a sub par race.

So Sunday morning came and I woke up to my back still sore but feeling better than what it has been. I tried to stretch it out one last time. Off to the race site to get everything set up. The forecast was calling for rain and cold weather but once at the race site it was a little cold but the rain was holding off.

My wave was set to go right after the pro's which I was happy for because I didn't have to worry about to many people in front of me during the swim. When the gun went off I started a little more controlled than usually but still was right up front. I did see another racer start to pull away and I knew who he was. He was the overall winner of the age group last year and I figured I would give him a run for his money this year. So I made the decision to stay at my comfortable pace and chase him on the bike and run. The swim was pretty much uneventful and I exited the water in second place only 45sec down.

The bike leg was the most painful and not enjoyably. I could not get off the bike fast enough. So I started the bike leg and the pain was right away very painful and I felt I could not get the power I am use to. I was worried that I was riding to slow but I ended up seeing a racer not to far a head and so I figured that was the lead guy in my age. So I stayed at that pace thinking not to put the pressure on him to soon and plus I was slowly catching this racer anyway. So as I got closer thinking I will be going into first place in the age group I found out that the biker in front of me was actually one of the pro women. My mind went back to thinking I am sucking on the bike and that the lead guy was creating a bigger gap on me. Well this was true and I slowly lots some more time on the bike while a couple of other age grouper pasted me. I was lucky that they weren't in my age group. Even with the pain I was still not giving up without a fight. The bike ride was almost done and I was worried that this back pain would hurt during the run part.

After racking my bike I was having trouble bending over do up my shoe due to the back pain. This worried me except when I started to run I did not feel any pain. I was again a happy person. I wanted to run hard and I was doing a great job. I was still sitting second at the half way mark but knew the 3rd place guy was slowly catching me. I ended up getting past. I ended up 3rd in my age group and 30th overall. I was very happy with the result with what I went through that day.

It is now recovery time. I am taking a week off before I start back to any type of training. I don't have any races on the schedule yet for the end of the year but I might look at running a half marathon.

SQWRACING JOURNAL: a GUEST race report from Frank Ferrari (see previous post for family). photo from Worlds)

SQWRACING JOURNAL: a GUEST race report from Frank Ferrari (see previous post for family). photo from Worlds)

Frank Ferrari a friend and training partner made it onto Simon Whitfield Blog. That is so cool.

"Pains but gains for Tucker"

"Pains but gains for Tucker" That is what the local newspaper wrote about me in today paper. It was a nice article and most of what was written was true. This article came about from yesterdays race. Yesterday it was the Peterborough half ironman or should I just call it Peterborough long course triathlon. They can't officially call it a half ironman because of the copy write. Yesterday I was going into this race not knowing what I was going to do. My training up to this point has been all over the place. Work is keeping me very busy and when I am not at work I am trying to get in as much family time. To make a long story short I was the top local with a personal best time which makes me somewhat happy but at the same time I felt that I had a bad race. I felt that I should be placing higher up in the overall placing than what I did. This race is a good race for many reason: (1) great race to have bragging right over the other locals; (2) It is nice to show off to the other athlete what a great area Peterborough is; and(3) There is always a great party after wards.

In my last post I was deciding what my main race was going to be. This year I am so undecided many due to work and family. It is funny how life changes from year to year. I am not disappointed about not having a clear direction. I think everything will balance out in the long run. I am registered for Muskoka 70.3. That might be my big race of the year or maybe not. Next weekend I will have a better idea or not.

Since my last post Miranda and I are expecting our second child. We are both very excited about this. The doctor told us the due date is December 24. I am hoping this baby comes early like the last one. If not it will be a whirl wind Christmas.

Makayla is changing so much everyday. It scares me to be away for any period of time because I might miss something. It is so funny how before she was born we weren't going to be one of those parents that spoil there kids rotten. Well we are defiantly one of then now.

In the Swing of Things

My life is back to somewhat normal pace after finishing school, passing my nursing exam and starting work at the Hospital. It is great to be making money again and I am able to start planning for all those toys I want.

Working shift work makes juggling my training schedule a little tricky. I am up at 3:30am on most days that I am working a 12 hour shift because I do not feel like training once I get home from work. Also trying to work around Miranda's schedule to get my training in is hard also. I have been doing great but the last little while the cold has hit our family and my training was down to a maintenance level until I we were able to all get over it.

2 weeks ago I ran the Around the bay in Hamilton. It was a great race and I might look at doing it next year. I did not reach my goal of going under 2hours but I can't complain because when my IT band flared up it was game over. I was on track at the 15km mark and also had some time in the bank but when you are forced to go at a snails pace that time quickly disappears. I think I enjoyed the whole weekend because Miranda and I was able to leave Makayla with the grandparents and had some one on one time.

Makayla is keeping busy trying not to get anymore scraps or cuts. That girl falls and trips so much. I am afraid that people are thinking that we beat our child because of all the bruises. We found out that her feet turn inward and also her knee which may be causing her to trip all the time. The doctor sent us to the foot people and they are wanting her to get some orthotics. This will correct her feet and knees. They are not cheap! I don't mind spending the money to help correct her problem.

Nursing exam.

So today was the big nursing exam. It was 7hours and it was very grueling. I am glad that it is done and I hope that I don't have to write that test ever again. People ask me if I think I passed or not but this test they mark it on a bell curve so it really doesn't matter if I passed. I could of done well but if I'm on the bottom half of the marks...I fail. That's not nice but that is how they do it. Right now I am not looking at being that group that is on the bottom half.

Today was the first day in a long time that I did get to spend most of the day with Makayla. I really miss that. I think tomorrow I am going to take Makayla and we can both get a book. She loves to look at books.

Big Shoes to Fill

So the past couple of months have been nice to have the time off while spending it with Makayla and Miranda. I was unable to work because I was waiting for my temporary license to come in so I can nurse. The speed that I opted for to get my degree was a little bit of a whirl wind. At times it overwhelming but looking back it was well worth it and glad that I made the decision to go back to school.
Tomorrow is the big exam. I believe I studied enough in the last month but still I am learning new things every day. This profession I can see myself consistently learning new things which is one reason that I choose it. Once Thursday comes I won't know what to do with all my free time, well that's a lie. I am looking at racing an IronMan (IM)this year. I am not sure which one yet as I will need to qualify at Muskoka. Muskoka usually has 3 IM which you can qualify for. I was looking at Lake placid IM at first but now I am leaning towards Florida.
I have been back to training for the past 2 months now and I feel that I am in better shape then I was during last summer. This could be because school is no longer a priority. I do have a ways to go to were I want to be if I am going to race an IM. I don't want to do an IM just for fun. I want to go and do really well and maybe place in my age group or get an IM Hawaii spot.
The picture is Makayla wearing Miranda shoes and wearing my hat. I think that girl already has a shoe fetish. That is also her giving a smile. I love spending everyday with her because she changes so much and keeps busy.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Only 18 days left until I am done school. Yes! I am counting. Also Miranda and I move into our new house the day I am finished. I can't wait because we have out grown the place we are in currently. We really didn't want to move into a house until earlier next year but we could not pass up a house like this. Both Miranda and I just love the place.

Everyday Makayla is changing and it is so amazing to see. It seems like just yesterday we were taking her home from the hospital and now see is learning to say new words every day.

There is not much to say about my training. I was looking at running the Pheonix marathon in January but with this house thing I think I will have to pass this year. I am getting some running in, some weights and a little bit of biking in. Frank has lent me his bike that has the powercranks on. I am giving the powercranks a try to see if all the hype is correct about them. The first couple of times on then my legs were rubber after only 10mins. Right now my training is on the back burner until my schooling is finished.

Crazy Times!

I figured I should post because it has been a while since my last post. My triathlon season ended on a good note. With all the injuries that I was plague with this year I was still able to have a okay year. I had less time to train this year them the past since I started school again but maybe this is what I needed. Well, Muskoka 70.3 triathlon was the last race of the year and was my "A" race and I ended up coming 4th in my age group. I was expecting anything closer to a top 5th pace finish. After the race I took some time off from training and focused on my last semester of school.

This semester I am in the emergency department and just love it! I knew before going into the nurse field that I wanted to end up in the ER. Even though I love it, I am going to work on an inpatient floor for a min. of 1 year before applying to work in the ER. I believe I this will help me develop more as a nurse and give me the confidence that I need in the ER.

Last week I sign a contact with the hospital to work when I am done. It is nice to have a job before I am even done school. Also with school coming to a end Miranda and I have been talking about buying a house. Well we ended up looking at a couple of houses a week and a half ago just to see what we want in a house. We were thinking of making a serious effort to get a house in January but we ended up falling in love with this house and decided to make an offer. To make things worse is that we were biding on a house that had another offer on it. In the end we got the house and are moving in December 2. This is awesome because we will in our house for xmas and Makayla will have her own room.

Miranda and I was planning on taking a trip to Phoenix so I can run a marathon in January but buy this house throws a wrench in the plans. We still might go but it is depending on when I start work. I am still training for it but if I can't go I might look at going back to Boston again in April.

Half Ironman or Sprint

I am racing this Sunday but I am not sure what distance I am going to do. My foot is feeling better everyday but I am still feeling it after a run. So if I decide to race the half Ironman I might do more damage and be back to square one. Also training is starting to come back but still I am from where I can race and be a force out there. So it looks like I am leaning towards the sprint but this will be a decision I will make tomorrow.

This past week I have started orientation to the hospital. Lots to learn and almost to much at one time. I am nervous but at the same time excited to start.

The Flu again!

Makayla is sick again with the flu. Poor little thing. There is an up side to having her sick is that she is very cuddly. When she is not sick she just doesn't stop all day which can be very tiring for Miranda and I.

The past couple of days I have been in the pool and not just swimming. I have been doing this pool running which is keeping me from wanting to go out and run. I have read many articles on pool running and most have said that by doing this you won't lose any run fitness and that you can maintain the same level as before. I am going to give this a try. I have nothing to lose.

Today I also swam 3500m but I felt that I was going backwards the whole time. Maybe my arms are still a little tired from the weekend. Even though I felt like I was going backwards my time was not that bad than what I thought it would be. My main set was 15x100m on 1:30 and I held 1:20 for each of then. This is okay for the amount of training I have been putting in. I would love to see my time under 1:10 for all of them but that will come later on, I hope.

Pictures of me at Muskoka

Muskoka Long Course Triathlon

Yesterday was my first tri of the season. I usually have at least one before this race but I have been dealing with tendinitis in my foot. My foot was feeling better and I thought the tendinitis was all behind me. I was wrong. After yesterday race my foot is back to square one.

I didn't have any expectations on yesterday race because my training has been sparse due to school and spending time with the family. I wanting a top 10 placing in my age group and to see where I need to focus more of my attention on.

The swim was great. I started off fast but then settled into a very comfortable swim behind two other swimmers. It might of been a little to slow for what I like to be in most races but this race I sat back and let then do all the work. I came out of the water feeling great and warmed up for the bike.

My goal for the bike was to hold 33km/hr and again I reach that goal. From previous years this was a good goal because of the many hills on this course. I also started off slow to save my energy for when the hills really started to come. I finished feeling strong and better than I felt last year.

I was worried about the run and did not know if I would actually finish the race. I felt the pain in my foot every step but I kept on going. The first km my split was 4min and I thought that was awesome. The second and the thrid km my quads sieged up and force me to stop. The next two km I was seeing 6min for each split. After the 3rd km my legs loosen up enough to allow me to pick up my pace. I was only able to hold around a 4:40/km for the rest of the race. With 4-5 km's left my foot was really hurting but I wanted to keep going and get this race finished.

I ended up finish with a time 3:18 which is slower than last year but was expected. I was overall happy with my race and learned that I need more time to rest the foot. I was back at training today with a pool run. I want to get in the pool more to do some more running so I won't lose to much by not running outside.

Working through

The past week was hectic with school that my training with no existent. My mom and my grandmother was here for a visit. It was nice to have some family visit even though it was a very busy time at school. My mom and grandmother flew in on the Thursday and back out on Tuesday. They had a very nice time spending it with Makayla. She sure kept them busy.

I ended up booking an appointment to get my foot looked at. I ended up not being able to get in until this Monday coming up. My foot is feeling better but I still can feel it when I walk sometimes. I am hesitant to run on it yet just in case I re injure it.

Muskoka triathlon is coming up next week and I am worried that I won't be healed for that race. If all else fails I can pull a DNS. I hope not but I really need to get over this injury before deciding to race. If my foot is better I know my performance won't be great but I will use this race as a warm up to the season.

Still no run!

Yesterday I tried to give the run thing a go. Even though my foot was still injured it was feeling a little better and I wanted to see if a new pair of shoes would help. Well I ended up turning back after 1 block in and the foot is still in pain. I wanted to do something other than swim so I headed to the gym to try out the cross trainer. I see people on the cross trainer all the time but I have never tried it out, so I booked 30min session on it. I ended up only doing 20min because my balls of my feet were getting sore. I don't know if I was doing it right but I don't think that I should be feeling pain down there.

The good thing about yesterday was that I register in almost all my races for the summer. I have been putting it off to see how my foot is going to be but if I wait to long I might not enter into any. Also by registering for this races it will get my butt in gear.

My goal for the summer is to get in as much training as I can while I am in school and to use all these races as a good building tool towards Muskoka 70.3 in September. After that race it looks like I will be focusing back on my running get ready for another marathon. I have not decided which marathon I will do but Phoenix is on the radar. Depending on the group consensus is were I will race. I am not a big fan of racing a marathon but I do like the training with the group and also I like to make a vacation out of these races.

Frustration

I have not blogged in a while because I have been frustrated with my training. One thing to another has lead me to not be able to train.

Just over 2 weeks ago my training was going great. I was starting to focus more on speed but it soon came to an end. The flu was going around my family which started off with Miranda not feeling that well for a few days. On the Wednesday I got home from class and was getting ready to go coach and then a swim but Makayla ended up throwing up everything that she was taking in. This went on until Friday before Miranda took her to the hospital to get check out. We were worry and even called tel -a-health on Thursday to see if we should take her in. Well we were glad to have taken her in on Friday because the doctor said that she was extremely dehydrated and that if we waited any longer it would not be good. That night I ended up getting the flu and it was the worst I have ever had. It took me almost a full week to get over it. Well Makayla ended up coming home after 5 days in the hospital but it took a few days more before she was back to her self. I am glad she is back to normal it was hard seeing here in the condition that she was in.

I thought that with the flu gone I could start trying to train again. It did take a day or two to start to feel better at training without feeling so drained in energy. This didn't last long. The top of my right foot was very sore and made walking and running unbearable. So back to taking the time off and giving my foot some time to rest and get better. I don't know what I did but it is very sore to walk on. This has gone on for a week now and I am getting very frustrated with not being able to train.

I am hoping that this will go away by Monday as I am icing my foot every 15min now. I have to keep telling myself that this is just a set back and that not to push it because I might be out longer. Well Muskoka is in 3 weeks and I need to focus on the my swim and bike and hopefully when my foot gets back I will be able to get my run back quickly.

I did get in a swim today and was looking at biking but with Miranda working and with the amount of homework I am hopping to get out on my bike at 7pm.

Back to School

I am back in school now for the final push until I graduate in December. It looks like there is going to be tones of reading but it doesn't look to be that bad of a read. I am very excited to be going to Belleville for my clinical. I really missed being in a hospital last term when we had to do a community placement but now I am back. This placement I believe is in the Labour and delivery area. That is going to be exciting because I like working with children and this might be an area that one day I might try out in my nursing career.

The next 2 weeks is going to be a trial period for me to figure out my workout schedule. I don't want to overload my weeks with to much training even thought I would love to do that. I have to find a balance that will work for me and at the same time have enough time and energy left over for the family and to get in all my homework done. With figuring out my scheduling for training I am going to try and see if I can put a few group workouts every week into my plan. I really do enjoy training with everyone and it seem to push me to the next level which somethings I can not get there by myself. The only problems I see with going to group workouts is that I will have a time limit and I can't waste it talking or standing around at the start of every workout.

Tired

I did not get much sleep last night. Makayla was up a couple of times. I am not sure why, but it does create a sleepless night for everyone. I had to coached this morning so I could not even sleep in. With Miranda having to work 11-7 I ended up biking by myself. I did not mind it because my legs are still recovering from Boston. I ended up biking around 45km. This was my second ride since Boston and each time my legs are feeling better. The rest of my day I spent it chasing Makayla who is now walking. She is so cute when she walks. It is almost robotic and un-human like. Since it was nice outside today Makayla and I walked to the Y to go for a swim. She really loves the water. Maybe she will be the next swim star.

Tomorrow is my first day back to school. This will be my last long haul until I finish in December. I can't wait to be finish. Also tomorrow I am going to try to go for my first run since Boston. It will be interesting and very slow.