Hamstring Strain

Well a little set back but I am just glad it didn't happen in June. Last year I pulled my hamstring during a race and it never healed properly. I had been getting it worked on for the past 2 months but I went to go run the MDRA 7 mile race two weeks ago and as I was warming up I got my foot stuck in my warm up pants (note to self - do not wear long warmup pants when warming up next time)...ugh! I knew I did something horrible because I could feel the pull and tear and down I went to the ground. I could hardly walk back to my car and then I had to drive a stick shift home which aggrivated it even more!
I should have posted some pics of it about a week ago because it looked like someone took a baseball bat and beat the heck out of my leg. It was all black and blue up and down and now it is working it's way down to my calf. It is a grade 2 hamstring strain so I haven't ran for 2 weeks - and hoping I can run by the end of the week without pain. I am trying to stay positive knowing that it is early and Ironman Wisconsin is in September. I just wanted to start out the season healthy and strong but just have to remember that injuries happen in this sport and to take care of it now and work on other disciplines of the sport - I can bike and swim! Just wanted to say thanks to Crystal at Spine and Sports as well as others at the Spine and Sports Chiro team for taking care of me!

New Year, New House, New Goals

Well it is February 3rd and I finally writing my first blog of the new year! Shame on me but I do have excuses...just like everyone else! We moved about 2 weeks ago to the great city of Maple Grove. We love our new house so far and so do the kids. We have met some of the neighbors and they are super nice and have children Owen's age so he is very excited about this. Good friends of ours live about 4 houses down and we have loved getting together with them for runs, playdates and carpooling. Here is a picture of the outside of the house with the nice UHaul in front of it!


I will show pictures of the inside once we actually have furniture in there. I still haven't figured out what's better in the new place - the turkey that comes everyday getting it's food from the neighbors (Owen has named him Biff) or the fact that we are going to be tan this summer with the pool in our backyard.

This year my race schedule will be a little different. I won't be racing as much and will miss out on some of my favorite race as I decided to race Ironman Wisconsin. My goals this year are to get to the start line of Wisconsin injury free, healthy and happy. I have been battling a glute issue that just won't go away. I pulled it last May and never treated it properly and it is still bugging me. Seems like me and the foam roller have become best friends and I even carry a tennis ball in my purse so when I drive I am rolling and digging into it.

Coaching has been keeping me busy as well. I started coaching an athlete that was chosen as one of the Lucky 7 for CNN Fit Nation with Dr. Gupta. She will be competing in the Malibu Triathlon in September and I am so excited to show her how triathlon can change and inspire her life. I am also excited because with our move I am a lot closer to a lot of my athletes that I will be able to bike, swim and run with them more.

Owen and Keaton are doing great and are starting to play with eachother more. Owen still needs to remember that Keaton is 3 years younger than him and he can't wrestle and tackle like he can. I have a feeling that I will be breaking up a lot of wrestling matches for the next 15 years!

Austin 70.3 - Yeeehaw!

What a fun way to end my season in warm and sunny Austin!

Derek and I left for our trip on Friday and I had already shipped my bike to the hotel so it was there waiting for us to put together. This is what it looked like before so I was a little nervous about making sure my fit was perfect, but I knew Derek would be more anal about putting it together than I would!
Friday night we walked around 6th street and could hear the music outside of the bars desperately wanting to go in and party but I knew I would have my chance come Sunday night.
Saturday we headed to the race site to drop off my bike, check out the course and do a little pre race warmup. I was very happy to hear that the water was around 72 degrees so that would mean wetsuits would be legal. As I was heading toward the water to swim I saw fellow coach and triathlete Kris Swarthout and his brother in law Kris. It was so nice to see a familiar face in the mass of people there. Kris told me some more about the bike course and how there was an area in which it was gravel and that the bike course elevation was somewhat similar to Ironman Wisconsin. I was excited to hear this since I will be doing Ironman Wisconsin next year. The run course was also very hilly and with portions of trail running. However, the trail had huge rocks and divots in it so you really had to watch where you were running. I slept great Saturday night and woke up Sunday ready to race!

When I got to the swim start our bikes were already there, but it was still dark out and difficult to setup transition and pump up your tires. T1 and T2 were also in different areas so you were given transition bags to put all of your gear into after each transition.
I was in wave 10 - about 25 mins after the pro men started. When I had swam the day before the water was pretty choppy because of the wind so I was expecting the same that morning, but luckily the wind was holding back until later in the day. I wanted to find some feet to draft off of but the waves were 5 mins apart, so that made it difficult to catch faster swimmers in earlier waves. I had a great swim for me - 30 mins! I didn't start out fast at all but built into the swim - this is what Dan wanted me to do so I listened!! I stripped off my wetsuit, threw it into the race supplied transition bag with goggles and cap and off I went on the bike. The bike was definitely challenging because of the number of people on the course. For about the first 20 miles I rode on the right side yelling on your left continuously! There were parts of the course in which you couldn't pass anyone due to construction and road conditions so that really brought my mph down. I was happy with my time on the bike considering the pros didn't have to deal with the traffic and the wind that seemed to pick up the last 20 miles on the course. I did have one mishap on the bike though - as I was running through transition to rack my bike a huge gust of wind blew through and I lost my footing and fell down pretty hard scraping up my knee and side of my leg. I don't think that caused me any issues on the run but it did hurt!

I knew I was in a good spot coming out of T2 and Derek yelled that I was the number one or two amateur out there. The run course was changed this year from 2 laps to 3 due to the drought in Austin. It was tough to run around the same path 3 times mentally and physically! The wind had definitely picked up and so had the heat. I just tried to maintain my pace and not go out too hard the first lap. I wanted to run harder the last 4 miles but didn't have much left in the tank to negative split. I was so happy to see the finish line and also see Derek and my friend Jacquie waiting there for me. I finished 6th overall and second amateur for the day.

Picture of the 30-34 Age Group Winners

In all, I was so happy with my performance and a big thanks to Gear West for all their support, Dan at OptumHealth Performance for being an amazing coach and friend, and to my family for their support as well. Derek's parents took care of Owen and Keaton while we were gone and the kids had a blast with their grandparents. I asked Owen if he missed us and he plainly said no I didn't miss you. I also gave Owen my trophy from the race and he asked Derek why I got second place! I guess I better step it up for him next year!

Below are pictures of the boys and their Grandparents

Ready for a Vacation...wait race!

This Friday, Derek and I are heading to Austin, TX. I am going to race Austin 70.3 and so looking forward to getting out of my house! Owen was sick last week and now Keaton is sick and I am hoping I stay healthy one more week! We also put our house on the market and I have a full time job keeping the house clean. Our house was never "dirty" before but it's a different story when you have to make sure the beds are nice and neat, the toys are all put away or hidden, the sink is empty and all the stainless is cleaned. The weather looks to be in the 80's - perfect racing weather and I am so excited to go to the corporate headquarters of Whole Foods. The bike course is supposed to be challenging so looking foward to climbing some hills since I will be doing lots of that in preparation for Ironman Wisconsin next year. I have never traveled to a race before or done a Ironman series race. I am very nervous about making sure my bike gets put together correctly as well as making sure I don't forget to pack anything I need. I will be in good company though because Coach Kris from Optum Health Performance will be there racing as well so it will be fun having him there to party with afterwards! I will miss my boys though!

Peregrine Charities Race Report - brrrr...it was a cold one!

I wasn't sure if I was going to make the trip down to Iowa since my sister's due date was the day of the race. However, I decided that since I had raced this race every year since it's start I wanted to go and support the race and the charity. The race director does an amazing job with volunteers, organization, and post race.
I like racing in the heat and it seems like it takes me forever to warm up. I knew that it was going to be a cold morning and to bring my warm weather gear. We had dinner with Hannah and David and David gave me some good advice that if I had any chance to get ahead of people I needed to bike my booty off so be warm on the bike. I decided I was going to wear my gloves and jacket no matter what!
Race morning it was about 45 degrees at the start and the water temp was about 63 degrees. I was trying out a new wetsuit to see if I liked it and if it helped my swim at all...turns out it didn't!!! I had been having some pain in my left shoulder and tried working it out with some massage but it was still bothering me. I tried hanging onto to some of the other women but I just didn't have any speed or pull - worst swim of the year! I was out there swimming all bymyself and need to just punish myself in the water - and not be comfortable....enough said. I got to my bike and knew I was about 2 minutes behind all the other women and opted not to put my gloves on since I thought it would take too much time - dumb move! Bike went great and had the fastest bike split and caught Janet right at the 35k mark. She had a great swim and was first women out of the water so I was glad I caught up to her. I came into T2 with about a minute ahead of her but she left before me because I couldn't get my helmet off or my feet into my shoes - my hands were so frozen. I finally ripped my helmet off my head breaking the strap and a women said to me "Kortney...just relax and breath and get those shoes on..." thank you to whomever that was. After the longest T2 in history - 1:49 to be exact I made my way onto the run. I wanted to conserve myself since I always go out hard and then feel like I die at the end so that is what I did but every race is different and what I should have done was ran harder to pass Janet and see if she could hang with me because I couldn't catch her at the end - I had a better run split than her but spent too much time in T2 and she beat me by 28 seconds. I ended up third overall and congrats to Claire Boostma who won. She had a great race - she is now a part of the Gear West Devlopment Team and it is great to have her as a part of the team!

St. Croix Valley Olympic Race Report - New Course Record!!

I went into St Croix with my sites set on a great swim time. With my injuries in the start of the summer I never felt like I could "race" the swim and wasn't in swimming shape until the last couple of weeks. I wanted to go out hard and not hold back and see what would happen to the rest of my race. Tim Walton (swim coach extraordinaire from Optum Health Performance) has been helping me a lot with my stroke and was in my heat so I really wanted to beat him out of the water! I came out of the water at 22:00 and change and was super excited to see that it was under 23:00. The bike course is challenging with some hills and since it was raining a little I had to be a little conservative on the corners. I was shocked to see though after the race that I averaged 23 mph on the bike - last year I could only muster 22.1mph. Coming into transition I checked my watch and knew if I could run around a 40 min 10k, I might havea shot at the course record. I didn't want to bonk at the end of the race and be mad at myself for going out too strong so I just concentrated on my form and cadence for the first couple of miles knowing that these were the hardest of the run with a few hills. At mile 4 I checked my split and saw it was about a 6:15 ...only 2 more miles...about 13 more minutes of pushing. At the last mile I checked my watch again and knew I was close. I couldn't remember exactly what the record was, but knew it was 2:09: and change. I was hoping it was closer to 2:10 because as I was making my way to the finish line I was past the 2:09 mark. As I crossed the finish line Jerry said to me "I think you did it Kort". I gave Tim a high five, chatted with him and thanked him for cheering me on. My excitement was short lived as I saw one of my athletes in the transition area. I was wondering why he was walking and was ready to start yelling at him to run until I saw a big gash on his head. He told me got got into a bike accident and wasn't able to finish. I was so bummed to see him like that because he has worked so hard and really wanted to leave it all out there to see what he was capable of. I understand the frustration of having your body and mind ready to race, but certain circumstances prevent you from completing. However, things happen for a reason and that only makes you stronger and more determined. Next up is Peregrine Charities triathlon, Twin Cities 10 mile and Austin 70.3!

Pigman Race Report

Great weather yesterday resulted in some course records and lots of PR's. David Thompson lowered his course record by 4 minutes and Derek and I also PR'd. I was looking forward to this race the whole year - it was definitely my A race.
We headed down to Des Moines Iowa to spend the week with Derek's family on Sunday afternoon after I raced the YWCA Women's Triathlon. This was a great race and so well organized. I wasn't sure I was going to race this until about a week before. I have only done two sprints before the YWCA race and I go about the same speed for an Olympic as I do a Sprint!!! Sprint races are not for me but it was tons of fun though and I had a blast just racing with women. I hope I am able to do this race next year and it fits into my schedule because I would love to support it.
It was great being in Des Moines because the kids love their grandparents and we get time to see friends from college and I got to go shopping by myself. Wow, the damage you can do when you shop without kids is amazing! I went to Adventureland with Owen one day too and remembered what it felt like to have your stomach do somersaults! The only bad thing about being there was that Keaton had to go to Urgent Care on Friday. We were at the park and he touched a metal slide. It wasn't even that hot that day but his poor little hands got burnt very badly. He has second degree burns on both of the palms of his hands. He is a trooper though and adjusting really well to having his hands all bandaged up. I felt so horrible for him and didn't want to leave him when we left for Cedar Rapids for the race on Saturday.

It was really nice not having the kids to worry about while I was racing on Sunday. I decided to race age group because there were not any girls signed up for the elite wave when I looked on Friday night. Then Sunday morning I noticed two girls racking their bikes in the elite area.... darn it! My wave started about 16 minutes after the elite wave so I was trying to figure out what position I was out on the course. I had a great swim for me and I actually liked doing the time trial start. I didn't get pushed and shoved around as much as I do starting with the men! The bike went great too - I pushed it hard the whole time but had some issues with my gels and water that I need to get figured out before the next 70.3. My run is still not where I want it to be. I was hoping to go just under 7 min miles but took the first 5k out too hard. I was checking my splits at every mile and kept telling myself to slow down and I did slow down - almost to a 8:30 min mile from mile 10-11....the killer hill! I will come back to this race next year to defeat that thing! I thought about walking at one moment but told myself NO - you are racing against the clock!

After finishing I chatted with Ruth Brennan Morrey - she passed me on the run around mile 7, and she was flying. She ran like a 6:30 per minute mile - wow! I thought she had finished before me but since I started behind her I had actually beat her a little under a minute. She is a rookie this year but you wouldn't know it - she is good! I finished second female overall and happy with my time of 4:36:54 but wish I would have kept a better eye on where the elites were on the run because I was beaten by 37 seconds. In a race this long there are things you can do to make up 37 seconds. I feel like I am still learning this distance as I hadn't raced a half for two years and this is my third one. I think I am going to sign up for Austin 70.3 in October so if any of you have done Austin let me know what you think.

The picture below is of the Gear West Triathlon Team - we won the team award and poor Suzie got bombarded from David right after finishing the race to take this picture. No idea why him and Thad still had on their race belts because they seriously had been done for about an hour when we took this picture!

Twin Cities Triathlon - History in the Making

Since I was injured at the beginning of the season I wasn't able to race in two of Optum Health's stellar races - Manitou and Minneman.
I was very excited about Twin Cities Triathlon because not only was the race venue gorgeous, the course challenging, but because a number of my athletes were also competing.
The swim was in the Mississippi and even with having my fastest swim due to the current, it was the fastest swim ever for others too! I came out of the water more than 2 minutes behind the other elite women. I knew the bike was going to be challenging and hilly so I was looking forward to it. Since I have had bad luck on the bike this season (chain dropping on the past two races) I wanted to see how hard I could bike. I pushed myself and had a great bike split, finally working my way into second place. I knew I had to put some time on Becky on the bike because she is a stellar runner but I didn't catch her until about mile 20. I figured I had about 1 minute on her going into the run.
I had no idea how hard the run course was going to be. My legs just were not feeling it. I saw the lead men on their way back from the turnaround point and I was saying good job to all of them. If I am able to speak - that means I'm not running hard enough! Becky caught me close to mile 3 and she was movin! I ended up 3rd female overall and happy with my bike splits but not my run at all. I also learned that I got a penalty for placement of equipment. I was so confused about this but lots of other people received the same penalty. Not sure what I did - I am wondering if I racked my bike in the wrong spot. I wish they would tell you so you know what you need to correct.


There was a first place finisher in our family though. My father in law came from Iowa to race the sprint course and he got first in his age group - so proud of him! Here is a picture of him and Owen finishing the race together!


I can't wait to see how many people sign up next year - it is definintely a must do race. I am taking the next couple of weeks to prepare for Pigman Long Course. Derek is gone this weekend so I am a single mom - we will see how much training I can get done :)

HOLT Race Report: Bad Voodoo continues

I love this race and was looking forward to it all week long. I knew the weather was going to be warm but I thrive in the warm weather. I would much rather it be 90 degrees than 75. I also knew this was going to be good training for Pigman Long Course in August which is known to be steamy.
My swim is still not where it needs to be - especially since I didn't swim for six weeks and then I fell down the stairs a couple of weeks ago and I might have a slight crack in my rib or a rib out of place. Swimming hurts as well as taking in deep breaths. I was hoping that with the rain the lake would cool down....it did but not enough, so no wetsuits. So again I struggled in the open water and had to do some catching up on the bike. The bike was going great until I got my chain caught again earth rear derailer. This happened last week at Lifetime and again I had to get off my bike to put the chain back on. It was pretty scary going 24 mph when your wheel is jammed and also sucky when you loose time because of it. I am really frustrated because this has happened the last two races so I have no idea of where my biking fitness is at. I came off the bike in 5th and knew I had some work to do on the run. It was really hot at this time and some people were walking on the course. It was hard to run by them because you kind of say to yourself "if their walking....I can walk too!" I wasn't sure how fast I was running because my watch wasn't working and I like to know my splits. At every water stop I considered taking my gel but the thought of warm gel in my mouth did not sound appealing.
At that point you play mind games with yourself...if only I didn't drop my chain...if only I took my gel....should I take my gel?


I finally caught Suzie with about a mile left and just wanted the race to be over with. So much that I thought the end of the race was about 20 yards short of the finish line!


I ended up third female overall so it's a long road to recovery but it's coming :)

Lifetime Fitness Race Report - Can't a girl catch a break!

5 days ago running with a cast on

Photo courtesy of Paul Phillips (Competitive Image)

Yesterday crossing the finish line at Lifetime Fitness

(much better!)

Photo courtsey of Kerry Yndestad (Yndecam)

When I went to get my cast off on July 5th. There were two questions I asked my doctor:

1. Can I swim today?

2. Can I swim in the open water and race a triathlon in 4 days?

The answer was a resounding, Yes! I was super excited to race Lifetime because I love the atmosphere and it's so fun to see the professional triathletes on the course at the same time! With no swimming for six weeks I knew the swim was going to be brutal, but I talked with Coach Dan beforehand and went into the race just to have fun and push myself.

I knew the water was going to warm at Lake Nokomis, but I was crossing my fingers it would be wetsuit legal, unfortunately that wasn't the case. The temp was somewhere around 81 degrees! I forgot how brutal the swim start is - I tried hanging on to people's feet with no success. I found myself out in the open water pretty much by myself. My sighting was good ...probably because I was going so slow! I came out of the water 28 mins and 30 secs later. That is a lot of time to make up on people when they get out 7-8 mins before you!

The bike was going great until I went over a pothole and I dropped my chain - I was going about 23 mph when that happened, so there went all my momentum. I was able to stop, jump off and put it back on. I have no idea how much time I lost, but it had to be around 3-4 mins.

I was looking forward to the run because the course is pretty flat and there are always great crowds cheering you on. During my warmup I ran what I thought was part of the run course - needless to say that wasn't part of the course. I took the same route during the race and realized I was off track after about 30 seconds. I turned around and someone I had passed about a minute ago was heading in a different direction. I was so mad at myself because that cost me another minute. In a race this competitive you can't make mistakes and I was just ready to have the race over with.

I finished strong with a little kick at the end to catch a woman in front of me. Derek and the boys were there to cheer me on and cheer me up afterwards. Even though I had my issues, it was so fun to be back to racing and seeing all of the friends and other triathletes I have come to know and love. We really have a great community of athletes here, but also just really amazing and wonderful people as well. Up next is Heart of the Lakes where I am sure it will be non wetsuit as well. I am going to be swimming everyday this week!!!