BREAKING NEWS!!!

Yes, we like to wear funny hats when we go out to dinner. Karel's birthday was a special day for us. Well, I guess a special day for me! We had a great dinner at the Kobe Japanese Steakhouse (perfect for a vegetarian like me!) and we were in good company with 10 of our closest friends in the area. People who we ride with and have been part of my life since I started cycling with Gearlink. After an entertaining dinner and yummy food (yes-tofu and veggies can be yummy) the restaurant crew embarassed Karel by singing happy birthday to him and making him wear the funny hat. The atmosphere in the restaurant was just perfect and there was a lot of noise, clapping and laughs from people at the other tables who were enjoying their dinners. As we waiting for the bills, Karel stood up at our table and thanked our friends for coming and spending his b-day with him. Next, he looked at me and thanked me, as his girlfriend, for planning the dinner. Then, the unexpected came! He next mentioned that he was in the time of his life where he didn't want a girlfriend anymore...long pause....he wants something more than a girlfriend. By this time, a couple people from the other tables were looking at us and he looked at everyone at the table and then at me and said that he wanted me to be his wife. I was in shock and just speechless (really-Marni was speechless!) and as he got on one knee he pulled out the box and asked if I would marry him. I noded my head but at that point and gave Karel a big hug. Still speechless. The entire restaurant was cheering and all the chefs and staff came out of the kitchen and everyone was clapping, cheering and so happy for us. Of course I said yes and I put on my beautiful ring. This was so not like Karel who is extremely funny, but very quiet and reserved. He is so passionate about everything and he just made my dream come true. He said he picked his birthday as our day to get engaged so that he would never forget the day. Very funny Karel! Well, I guess that is only fare since our anniversary is on our b-day when we met for the first time on a Gearlink group ride.
I never invisioned any kind of engagement before because I never thought I would meet someone who would "put up" with me. I am very strong with my opinions and I am very independent and driven. Karel appreciates all my qualities (good and bad) and supports me and encourages me to live out all my dreams. Most of all, he is my best friend and I enjoy everyday with him. Oh-and I'm also very stubborn! I guess after the past 4 weeks of no running and extreme pain, he (and many other people) have seen a different side of me. With my kona trip coming quickly, I have had many up and down moments. As of now, I am still in a little pain and cannot run but I hope for the best. I will take the next couple days off from training and keep resting. Well, I guess I can just stare at my ring and enjoy my time with my fiance and family.
Thanks again to every for your support and in 12 days I will hopefully be boarding my plane for the big island! Heal leg...heal!

Happy Birthday Karel!!!

He is an old man. He may as well race in the Master category now! Just kidding. Happy birthday Karel!
I will update soon about my current concerns with my piriformis syndrome. I am on some heavy meds right now which seem to be working as of yesterday. Lots of tears and emotions during the last two weeks but I must say that I have been taking really good care of myself. Thanks to everyone for support and encouragement during this time in my life. With Kona in 3 weeks and an expensive flight to Kona leaving in 14 days, you could only imagine the stress in my life right now. I understand that triathlons aren't everything in life but I seek triathlons as a stress-reliever in my life. Training for triathlons gives me balance and teaches me so much about myself. I gain confidence, strength and determination when I train.
Since I haven't ran in two weeks you better believe I have been cycling and swimming when possible. Weekly swim yardage last week was around 14000 and I really enjoyed being in the water. I have spent so much time on my bike trying to become a better cyclist so I am really enjoing aqua jogging and swimming. I've been riding as much as I can with nothing crazy due to my right leg. However, I do feel really strong and I don't feel I have lost anything. Aside from extremely horrible pain to sit, stand and sleep just 2 weeks ago, this injury was probably a good thing to give my body a little rest.
This morning I rode 58 miles and felt just great. Tomorrow will be my last long ride of 5 hours. Not too long of a ride but it is the beginning of my taper for kona. In an effort to embarass Karel when possible, I rode up to Landsbrook where the Gearlink guys were doing a circuit-style race (normal wed. night course) this morning. I wrote Happy Birthday Karel on the street in three different places with really bright chalk. Needless to say..he didn't even notice it!!! He finally caught on when all the guys were calling me the chalk girl when Karel finally saw the letters on the ground. He smiled as the guys were giving him a hard time for being "old". Tonight we are going out to the kobe steakhouse where the Japanesse cooks prepare your meal on the table infront of you. Since I love to be entertained I thought this would be just perfect for a birthday dinner. We have a group of 10 and I just love being around other people. Since I have neglected a lot of my friends (carlos and mike...you all are great!!! Thanks for your support) I am looking forward to getting my mind off my stupid injury. And since I have meds, I should be feeling nice and relaxed tonight :) hehe
thanks again everyone for your support. I will write a more detailed blog soon about my injury but I do appreciate the advice and encouraging words from everyone.

Everything was going as planned and then my worst nightmare hit!

Triathlons are a drug and I, Marni Rakes, am addicted. For those who know me (one who loves to talk and write about anythin tri-related) there is a reason why I have not posted anything on my blog in the last week. After returning from Karel's race, my right hip was a little sore. I ran on tues and wed morning but decided to take it easy on thursday after a great 5000 yard morning swim practice. Cycling went well all week and I after a 40 mile ride on friday I went for a painful 30 min. run. After 10 min. of running I questioned if I should keep going and after 5 more minutes I was forced to turn around. After running very awkardly I returned home and immediately put some ice on my hip. I was in so much pain I could barely walk. After resting all evening, I was convinced by karel and my parents (the people who know me the best and are willing to tell me the truth even though they know I don't want to hear it) that I shouldn't train all weekend. WHAT!!! two days off!! I don't know what was worse, two days off from training or a whole weekend of no training. what was I going to do with my time??? To many people, a weekend consists of sleeping in, indulging in a carbohydrate rich brunch , a little shopping or time at the beach and an evening out for drinks. Well, for an Ironman triathlete in-training, I had no idea what to do for 48 straight hours since a normal weekend consists of waking up at 5am, having a light snack and coffee before a 5-6 hour workout of cycling and running and then indulging in a protein smoothie, some type of sweet coffee drink at Starbucks (Tall Carmel Frappachino light is my favorite!) and a late breakfast of pancakes and egg whites. And everything is followed with a nice nap and lots of TV watching. And to make things worse this weekend, Karel was off in Stuart for a race with 3 of his teammates. That means no room for Marni in the car or hotel so I was stuck at home just being bored to tears! I spent saturday evening at my parents and decided to spend the night at their house. Rather than be completely lonely and bored at home, I was in good company with my parents. I did survive the weekend and decided to take monday off from training as well since my hip was still bothering me. After trying to diagnosis myself w/ everything possible, I believe I have piriformous syndrome and it was probably caused by running the hills in atlanta followed by a LONG ride home in the car. It hurts most when I sit or put pressure on my rt. leg and I feel the pain in my butt, hip and ITBand. All not very good places when I am planning on running 26.2 miles after I bike 112. I'm not concerned about training or improving my performance. Most importantly as I have stated many many many times in my blog, I train and race injury free. I don't "get through" anything and it just isn't fun to me to train through pain. I get into this zone when I run which is so relaxing. Even if it is for 3 hours at a 8-9 minute pace, I am loving every second of it. Now give me an injury or a blister and I'm dreading each step of every mile. I scheduled a therapy apt. right away and this morning I received an amazing deep tissue massage from the same lady (michelle) who Karel saw for his shoulder when he got hit by the car and fractured his shoulder. She really helped me and although I was still kinda hurting after the apt. I feel I am so much better today. I'm icing and stretching like crazy and this morning was the first time in 4 days that I worked out. Just taking it easy and I swam after I taught my spin class. Not too much pain but as long as I stand and don't sit, I'm ok. I'm standing with my computer on the TV right now just to write in my blog. I'm trying to be optimistic but it is very hard when I am supposed to be in the best shape of my life and nearing the biggest race of my life. I know people get injured during training but for someone who is very emotional and passionate for triathlons, I have had many downs during this past week. I see people like Karel and my friend Ray R. who were in horrible crashes and can't ride their bikes for 4-8 weeks. I remember when Karel was hit by the car in may and I can't even remember one time when he complained. He couldn't wait to get back on his bike but even with a fractured shoulder and absolutely no exercise for weeks, he was so positive about everything. I know he was sad but he just kept going. And then I hear about people who are hit by cars or are severly injured just days before a major event and I can't help but feel stupid to complain about a very painful hip 4 weeks before the Ironman World Championships. I remember when my good friend Mike hit a pole on his last training ride on his bike just 3 weeks before IMWI. He totally ripped up his knee cap and had major surgery and was out from training for almost a year.
So, with all this said, I'm still hoping for a good recovery in time for a little more prep before my taper. In my eyes, I just want to be injury free for Kona and in no pain. I don't care about training or any type of improvement in these next 4 weeks. If anything, a little rest was probably good for me. I do appreciate everyone for asking about my training and for keeping me excited for Kona.
And, to make everything a little worse for this weekend, Karel crashed in his race on Sunday. After a decent finish in the Pro race on Sat. in Stuart, someone hit his handlebars on a corner and Karel went down with another rider landing over him. Yes, his Pinarello is ok but his right leg and butt is really tore up. You could imagine the sights in our place on sunday evening as I am hobbling around on my sore hip trying to clean up karel's wounds on his leg and arm and he doesn't even flinch as I bandage him up. What a trooper.
I'll try to do better with keeping up with my blog. Hopefully all will go well this week with some type of exercise.

Karel's Race recap -100K cycling Classic

This past weekend was just what I needed. After an up-and-down week of recovery and having to make myself not train as much as I was use to, I really needed a bit of a break. Traveling is something that Karel and I both enjoy and if it involves cycling, we both truely enjoy being together. Because we know each other pretty well and we never fight the long road trip to and from Atlanta was smooth and easy. After checking out of the Days Inn we headed to the Cumberland Mall to kill a little time before heading to the Doubletree. With a quick stop at Starbucks we were on our way to our next hotel. Without getting into too many details, we were both so bummed when we saw that the Doubletree was under construction as they were renovating!! There was no way that we could stay in a hotel with paint fumes in the air and loud noises while Karel rested so I made a call to hotels.com. After almost an hour on the phone talking with a very helpful Customer Service rep, we ended up changing hotels and received an additional $30 vouture. I just didn't want Karel to get stressed before his race and I wanted to be sure he got a good nights rest in a nice hotel. Now, if that was me, I would have been freakin' out and probably stressed as can be. Good thing Karel stays calm and at his races, I enjoy handling those situations cause I'm not the one racing. Finally, we headed a mile down the road to the Wyndam Suites. This hotel was very nice and we were just happy to have a place to stay which was only a mile from the race start. After unpacking the car, Karel wanted to rest his legs. I was still a little worked up about the hotel situation so I decided to run an errand. While Karel was checking out the live updates on the internet for the USACycling Championships in S.C., I took a run to the grocery store to get Karel some breakfast foods for monday morning. Later that evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at the Olive Garden and headed to the host hotel for packet pickup. Karel knows a lot of people at his races so it was nice seeing some familiar faces in Marietta, G.A. Suprisingly, Karel was still confident for his race and didn't show any signs of nervousness. I guess when you are racing with professional teams, all you can hope for is to finish. No expectations is the best scenario when comparing a 45-hour/week full-time employee to professional cyclists who only train and race for a living. Karel is such an inspiration and above all, he is so passionate for cycling. Lucky for me, cycling is one of the three sports of triathlons so I always get words of encouragment from Karel w/ my training. hehe.
Monday morning came quickly and of course Sunday evening was a restless night for Karel. I slept fine....no worries for me, I was ready to spectate!!!
Waking up at 4:30am was nothing abnormal for me, but for Karel he would have preferred an evening race. I asked Karel if we were heading to a triathlon...who really gets up this early but triathletes and swimmers???? Because Karel always does a great job of making me laugh before my races, I thought I'd try to keep him calm on race day morning. After his normal training/racing breakfast (similar to mine but add toast and eggs to the oatmeal)he was getting himself ready for one of the biggest races in his career. Around 6:15am I decided that I should let him do his own thing so I headed out in the car to the feed zone. The course was a little unusual and the riders start at one point and finish 6 miles down the road. However, in the middle of the course, they make a turn which takes them to their 5-mile loop which they do 11 times. Confused?? Just think of a straight line and then place the letter "o" to the left of it. That is kinda what the course looked like. My spot was in the feed zone for loops 4-9 but I wanted to see them start the loop as they turned onto the highway from Cobb Parkway. So, I did what any IM athlete would do...I started running. 2 miles to where I could see them about to turn onto the highway and I made it with time to spare. WOWWWW!!! It was like a stampead of cyclists...probably close to 200 with a gazzillion team cars following the guys. The team cars could only do one loop with the guys and then everyone would wait in the feed zone until the finish. After I saw the guys go by, I ran then 2 miles back to the feed zone. This race was so exciting because of all the Pro Teams and good riders which were there. Teams like Priority Health, Toshiba, Jittery Joes and Toyato United just to name a few. And then there is poor Karel..working all my himself. Karel looked really strong on all the loops and stayed towards the front of the mid-pack for the entire race. Around loop 6 he yelled at me that he didn't need anything which was good cause I wanted to spectate in different places. After 9 loops I decided to start my run to the finish. Another 1.5 miles to the finish and they would be coming any moment. While runners/walkers were still finishing the 10K which was in conjuction with the 100K cycling classic I was enjoying the atmosphere of the finish line party at White Water at Six Flags Atlanta. There really is no way to sum up the finish of the race so I attached the link to the official write-up for the race. ( http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/?id=2007/sep07/atlanta07 )
After snapping some quick pics, I ran to the other side of the finish line to meet Karel. Of course i didn't see him finish cause they were going 52 miles per hour!!!!!! Karel told me he averaged almost 29 mph the entire race, which ended up being 66 miles in around 2 hours and 20 minutes. Holy heck that is fast!!! I think I did my 66 mile ride on sat in 3 hours and 45 minutes!!! Talk about time-mangement, just ride with a bunch of Pro riders and you'll get your workouts done in no time! Karel didn't look too beat up and he said it was crazy fast and he just couldn't go any faster. I am so proud of him and after finding out that he was 34th (top 5 among the solo riders) I couldn't be more happy. Although the #1 rider received a hefty prize of $10,000, Karel was excited for the $130 he received for 34th place. Since they only paid out to the top 35, I think he was relieved he was still in the money. After a run back to the car, I think I got a good morning of running in. Not to mention all the hills I had to run up and down in order to catch all the action! Since I drove the car, I headed back to the feed zone and then back to the hotel for a well-needed shower. Can't tell ya how much I enjoyed the weather in Atlanta...much better than the florida heat! Karel ended up at the hotel around 30 minutes after me since he rode his bike back to the hotel. Can't get that boy off his bike sometimes! We checked out of the hotel, grabbed some starbucks and we were back on the road again for our long trip back to Clearwater. We ended up making great time even with switching driving every couple hours.
Not sure how Karel would sum up his experience racing with some of the best Pro riders around the area but as an athlete myself, I think he did amazing and I couldn't be more proud. He told me that it was so cool racing with the guys he reads about in velonews and on cyclingnews.com and after seeing the website I posted on my blog, now he is "one of those guys" that he reads about. As a major motivator to my training, it is hard to believe that in 6 quick weeks, I will be racing with the Ironman athletes that I watch on DVD's, read about in Triathlete mag. and check out on the internet. For on October 13th, I will be racing with (not against!) some of the best athletes in our sport!!
Congrats Karel....also a big congrats to all those who participated in the Crystal River Triathlon in Florida this past weekend. Hope everyone had a great Labor Day!

Recovery Week

A little swimming, a little running and very little cycling. That pretty much sums up my week. Only road on wednesday afternoon (about 25 miles) on the road bike and saturday morning w/ the Gearlink Group (66 miles). No two-a-days on Tuesday and Thursday like usual and swam Tues, thurs and friday. No brick workouts, around 22 miles running as of today and I'm feeling really refreshed. The first couple days this week were great but as the week went on, I got a little ancy and i felt like I needed to do more. Actually, not that I needed to do more, but that I wanted to do more. I was glad to be on seduza for the 3 1/2 hours on saturday morning but friday was tough. I planned on doing a long bike ride on Friday but because of the rain (which has been on and off all week!) I went to the Y and did a nice 4000 yard workout. Main set was tough but I was feeling good. I feel like the body is healed from my big volume weeks of training and more than anything, my mind is refreshed and I'm ready to go hard for my last 3 weeks before taper. I can't believe i leave for Kona in a month! Well, 34 days until I leave and 41 days until the BIG DAY!!!
Friday was a bit of a scary day for me. I had gotten my brake pads changed on thursday evening at the Hyundai dealership and also had my transimission flushed in the Hyundai. After a morning full of errands on Friday morning I was making a u-turn on 580/main street in Dunedin to get karel a coffee at Dunkin Donuts. Well, all of a sudden I pushed on the gas pedal so that I could quickly turn around as the oncoming traffic was heading my way and my car went no where!!! I pushed and pushed and my car just puttered on the road as my engine started smoking. You could hear the engine just reving and I was not moving. With a couple quick pushes I made my way into the Dunkin Donuts parking lot, put on my emergency brake, turned off the car and got out the car. Of course everyone was looking at my smoking car and some nice guy came out from Dunkin Donuts to pop my hood and check my car. I immediately called my dad (who else would I call than the person who knows everything) and he called Hydundai. Long story short, a hose from my transimission had a hole in it and when I tried to accelerate all the transmission fluid exploded out of the hose and on the engine and the othe parts under my hood. Well, after a long ride in the AAA truck w/ Hyndai being towed my dad was not very happy w/ Hyundai. They said it was a "freak coincidence" but there is not way that in less than 24 hours after I had my transmission flushed that there was accidently a problem with the hose that they used pressure to vacuum it out to flush my transmission. If anyone knows anything about this, please contact me cause we need to let Hyndai know that this wasn't a coincidence. of course the manager felt terrible about my close call w/ death in my Hyundai so they gave me a couple oil changes for free. My dad is just so upset and so is Karel. Nice to know that the two most important males in my life care about me so much. As for my mom, she's just happy that I'm ok and she is my best friend and the one I always talk to...and most of the time we talk about nothing about 2-3 times a day.
I'm in Atlanta right now w/ Karel and he is competiting in the US100K cycling classic tomorrow morning. There is a big 10K running race as well, but I am here for Karel and to help him out in the feed zone. I love going to his races cause I get to spectate and I don't have to race! I would really like to do the running race but that is ok, I'd rather watch Karel race w/ all the Pro Teams. This is a Pro only race but Karel was invited because he races in the Pro 1,2 category by himself. He hopes to race professional on a team next season so we are putting together his results and bio right now to send out to a couple teams.
We always take our time when we travel w/ lots of bathroom/stretch breaks but the traffic was really light and we made it here in no time. It is usually me talking but we really enjoy taking road trips together. We switched driving every couple hours and we always look for Starbucks breaks. Tonight we are staying at the Doubletree and we are excited to have a nice hotel stay. Right now we are in the Days Inn for a quick night's stay. We both really needed this trip so we are spending the day together outside of Florida and just enjoying ourselves in the Atlanta. We just love Georgia! This morning I ran about an hour on the 10K race course and wow is it hilly! This isn't Florida running!!! When it takes you 10 minutes to run up a hill, that is serious running. Karel is out riding right now so hopefully he is feeling confident for his race during his warm-up. I left before him so I'm guessing since he is still gone he is feeling good out there and loving the hills of Georgia.
Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone! Be safe and get some good training in!!! What could be better than a three-day weekend than a good weekend of training and a day off from work to recover!!!