(Take :15-:45 between each swim.  Stay jolly.  Nothing says Christmas like hard-work.)

Day 1, Day 1&2, Day 1,2&3, Day 1,2,3&4, Day 1,2,3,4&5, Day 1,2,3,4,5&6…Day 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&12

1^st Day of Christmas:  100 easy freestyle

2^nd Day of Christmas: 100 IM OR backstroke

3^rd Day of Christmas: 50 freestyle drill (25 up-tempo = FAST turn-over, 25 distance per stroke)

4^th Day of Christmas: 25 under-water freestyle KICK (:30 seconds rest)

5^th Day of Christmas: 25 freestyle swim

(as few breathes as possible ie 0, 1, or 2 breathes during the 25) (:30 seconds rest)

6^th Day of Christmas: 50 freestyle done as: 25 easy, 25 FAST (1st Day 6 only do the 25 easy, after that swim a 50!)

7^th Day of Christmas: 50 freestyle kick with kick board

8^th Day of Christmas: 50 freestyle swim with 5 push-ups at opposite end

9^th Day of Christmas: 25 SPRINT (If you come from swim background, no freestyle.) (:30 seconds rest)

10^th Day of Christmas: 50 SPRINT (If you come from swim background, no freestyle.) (:30 seconds rest)

11^th Day of Christmas: 75 SPRINT (If you come from swim background, no freestyle.) (:30 seconds rest)

12^th Day of Christmas: 100 easy cool-down

Check it out @ shemoves Atlanta!!  LIKE us while you are at it.

Set-up Events gets two big thumbs-up.  It was an excellent event and a great way to wrap-up a breakthrough season.

The swim was with a current so although the water was pretty rough and choppy due to the wind swim times were VERY fast!  I was the first female out of the water in 40:05!  I’ll never break that PR.

The bike was flat, but the wind was pretty fierce the first 70ish miles.  The last 90-minutes of the ride, however, was like riding downhill.  I ran out of gears.  I couldn’t keep my wattage and my heart rate high enough.  I was too conservative on the bike.  I wanted to hold back and crush the run.  My goal was to run sub-3:30.  I was 5:25 on the bike and still leading the race.

I had the lead bike coming out of T-2.  I struggled to settle into a pace.  Actually telling my biker dude, I’ll settle in eventually.  At mile 2, I really believed I would, but it never felt smooth.  There were several bathroom pit stops in there.  From this day forward I will use Imodium while I race.  I cursed the weather.  I do not enjoy racing in chilly temperatures.  But everything aside, I got passed at mile 16 of the run.  She held onto the lead although I refused to let myself quit fighting.  I finished 2nd in 10:06.

It was a lack-luster performance, but as a season and a year, I should be proud of the personal and professional accomplishments of 2011.

Personally:

See the blog on Rev3 Full – Cedar Point.  I earned almost $5,000 as a professional triathlete racing this season!!  That is a 400% increase in salary from 2010!!  I had a huge PR this season.  All is well in the Burkey household with Ken, Meg, and myself.

Professionally:

The week following B2B, I had 4 athletes cross the finish line at Ironman Florida.  For 3 of these athletes, it was their first 140.6 finish.  This same weekend, I had another athlete cross the finish line of the New York City Marathon in 3:28, his first 26.2!!  I had an athlete finish his first 140.6 at Ironman Arizona.  Throughout the 2011 race season, there were several PR’s, first-times, and I am so proud of all of my athletes.  I do have a couple places remaining on my roster for 2012 with The Sport Factory, if you are interested in coaching.

The Atlanta Triathlon Club Swim Program went along swimming, and although I will have a reduced role in the program in 2012, I will still be involved with the Open Water Swim Program, and I will still be around the Atlanta Triathlon scene.

The CNN ‘6-pack’ all crossed the NYC Triathlon finish line, and all of my producers (that were able to start), also crossed the finish line!

Good things are on the horizon for 2012 and ‘The best is yet to come…’

Tomorrow, I’ll blog about a good friend that also happens to be a Birthday Girl!!  Until tomorrow, Day 2…

I nailed my training going into this race, and I knew I’d smash my PR.  I didn’t want to count my chickens hatched, but I’d put in the work.  I was biking 20+ mph, holding much higher wattage than last season, and forced myself to run sub-8’s on my long runs.

Race day wasn’t perfect, but it was close.  It seems that the further you move away from the event, the more you forget the pain…

The swim was a little boring.  I staying with the lead group through the first turn buoy, lost them after that, caught a male pro on the second loop, but for the most part, it was an hour of swim alone.  3-5 minutes faster on the swim and I would have been with the lead pack… Matt Russ is right, I should be swimming more.

However, with that 5-minute time gap, it was equal to 1-2 miles on the road which kept the other girls out of sight, and I was able to focus on my ride.  Two silly negatives on the ride:  1. My Garmin got some water in it on the swim.  So the top corner of it was foggy.  My Garmin had my heart rate AND power data for the ride – not so good.  It was tricky to see the numbers, but I’d do spot check every 5-10 minutes.  2.  I lost an arm pad (velcro and all) at mile 56, and chip-seal road + rough roads on the medal arm-pad – OUCH!  I got a good elbow bruise due to that one.

Coming off the bike, I was in 6th place.  In the beginning, it didn’t feel great.  I got off the bike with Paolina Allen, started the run with her.  I knew she could run and the first mile was a 7:20 as I tried to keep her in sight.  As Paolina ran out of sight, my pace was creeping up, 7:40, 7:50…somewhere between mile 7-8, I had a little, inter-personal heart-to-heart.  I told myself to focus on MY race, sub-10 hours was still within sight, not worry about the 2 girls running within a few minutes behind me, etc.  About this same time, some angel at the aid station offered me ‘Cola.’  At first, I said ‘no, too early,’ but before I had passed it by I had changed my mind grabbed the cup, and things seemed to smooth out.  Be it the caffeine or the sugars, ‘Cola’ fueled the rest of my marathon and I felt stronger as I ran…until about mile 20.  I had cameras on me for most of the final 13.1 which really helped smooth out my stride.  It gave me a little extra burst of energy having the camera by my side.  I couldn’t run poorly on TV (at least that was my thought process while I was running.)  The marathon hurt, but I ran as quickly as my stand alone marathon PR – 3:33.

I crossed the line in 9:53, my first sub-10, and in 5th place.  A 27-minute Ironman PR, HUGE!!!  Taking home $3,750, and my first (and only) real pay-day!!

A HUGE Thank you to Rev3 Triathlon.  They go above and beyond and the attention to detail is unlike anything in the market.  They CARE, and in the people business, that makes all the difference.

A HUGE Thank you to my husband, Ken Burkey, without him, none of this would be possible.

A HUGE Thank you to my Coach Matt Russ.  This was his plan.  I was just the puppet and 75% of the time, I did what I was told. To get to the next-next level, I’ll probably need to bump that percentage up.

A HUGE Thank you to Joe Domaleski.  Years ago, he told me these things were possible and that I had to potential to achieve them.  He believed before I did.  Thank you Joe.

A HUGE Thank you to Tri-PTC.  My community has backed me along my professional career, and that means so much.  It really does take a village.

Final Thank you to Splish.  I looked good out there.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.  (Looks like they are having a sale right now…)

(Rev3 Cedar Point – 2010 Photo)

Early Spring-Summer, I races a series of Olympic distance race which were humbling to say the least.

8th of 9 Professional Women @Memorial Hermann T3 Kemah Triathlon in April

14th of 15 Professional Women @ Rev3 Knoxville Olympic Distance

After these 2 races, I was psyched to jump into something local, not feel intimidated by Olympians and World Champions on the start line.  I took myself out of the race at these first 2 Olympic distance attempts.  Going into West Point, I got some solid advice from Amy Kloner – ‘bike your @ss off.’  SO I did, and still ran my fastest 10k split of the season – 7:22’s (still some work to do there…)

3rd Overall Female at West Point Lake Triathlon

4th Overall Female at Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon

Late June, the focus transitioned back to Long Course Training.  It was tough to fit all the workouts in/find the time to train at first.  I got used to 1-2 hours of training a day.  As we added volume, I set personal training goals – trying to maintain some of that speed and quality from short course racing.  My love and passion for triathlon and training took over and the last 2 months have been a happy, BUSY blur.  I am excited to race and hopeful to break some new barriers…

We’ve worked really hard — my team including – Matt Russ, Ken Burkey, Amy Kloner, my TSF Famiy, Anne Chrzanowski, Tom Ramthun, Cannon Cyclery, and Tri-PTC.

The lay-out of the season was Matt’s plan – short-course ass kicking Winter training through the Spring, transition in the Summer back to Long Course.  Challenge my body in a different ways than it has been challenged in years.  Put the gains back into Long Course racing and see what comes of it.  These last couple races of the season should reflect my training (if all goes according to plan), I am very optimistic.  There is something to be said for a long-term PLAN and sticking to the PLAN.  Not always easy to have faith in the process – especially as you’re getting your booty kicked left and right.  Bring on the delayed gratification!

And all the while, Meg has grown-up…

(working to insert photo of Meg)

Meg in her Sport Factory racing kit

I’ll keep it short and sweet – we got a puppy, it’s a girl!!

WTC stands for World Triathlon Corporation.  WTC owns the Ironman trademark and Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.  WTC is currently owned by an equity firm that is pumping money into the sport so that it can sell for 10-fold in the next 5-7 year.  NA Sport (North America Sports), formally the owners of  the ‘classic’ Ironman races in the US were forced out of the industry by WTC (WTC payed large sums of money for the races.)  Within the past 5 years, WTC has streamlined operations.  WTC, also, owns Ironman 70.3 series, 5150, Irongirls, Ironkids and Lava magazine.

I could brush off the changes within the industry UNTIL this season.

I’ve struggled as a professional triathlete – operating at an economic loss, my own self-doubt in my athletic ability – all the while seeing progression in my racing, training, and efforts.  There has been a natural progression as I’ve taken steps within the industry.  I glamorized the industry while I was on the outside looking in – I had no idea the sacrifices I’d have to make to get to THIS point – second tier professional triathlete.

Over the past three years, WTC has changed the professional rules each season.  This year was an extra special slap in the face.  WTC created a ranking system, which will qualify 40 males and 25 females to race Kona in 2011.  The ranking system is based on points accumulated throughout the season at 70.3 and 140.6 events.  Frequency is key in this system.  The more a professional athlete races odds are in their favor that they will be higher up in the ranking.  Think of this from WTC’s standpoint, pros races more frequently means a better “show” for television coverage which will lead to better sponsorship, commercial spots, race coverage, etc.

Now, let’s jump on the other side of the table, and think about it from the perspective of the professional athlete.  The prize purse has not increased – nor does it go deeper, there is no travel assistance, no home-stay opportunities provided by the race organization, etc.  I don’t have sponsors throwing money at my feet for travel expenses – hotel, plane tickets, rental cars – time away from home means time away from work.  Most pros do not have sponsors throwing money at their feet.  Even if I thought I could realistically raise the $30,000 – $40,000 in sponsorship funds in order to afford travel/loss of work/the WTC program fee of $750, I would have a hard time justifying all that expense until I was actually operating at a profit within the industry.  In the 2 years I’ve been a professional in the sport, I’ve had 5 x top 10 Ironman finishes – 3 of which were payday’s, 1 of which I actually went home with more money than the cost of travel to event – Rev3 140.6 in Sandusky, OH.

SO I am grateful to have options.  I am excited to race the Rev3 series, support some of the local race directors – ga multisports, tri-ptc, tri4gold.org, etc.  This year, I am opting to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

My call for action – support GA multi-sport vs 5150, choose Peachtree International vs Irongirls, etc.  WTC is the walmart of triathlon charging Neiman Marcus prices and it WILL only GET WORSE before it gets better.

I’ll end with an excerpt from the article linked above – racing Kona as a professional is my goal.  ”The Good Fight is the one we Fight because our heart asks it of us.”  Kona has been my single-minded focus since my fathers passing.  It’s kept me moving forward, alive, and healthy.  I am forever grateful for the opportunity to chase my dream and to those that have helped in this journey.

“We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body. Many times in our lives we see our dreams shattered and our desires frustrated, but we have to continue dreaming. If we don’t, our soul dies.”

hint – workout is easier if you bring christmas joy into the pool with you.  i recommend singing mental christmas carols.  it’ll be over before you know it.

on the first day of christmas, my true love gave to me -

1 x 300 easy warm up, la la la

2 x 25 fast

3 x 250s (progressive by 50 – start 250 @ moderate pace, increase speed throughout 250, finish last 50 FAST!), la la la

4 x 25s fast kick

5 x 200s (hold best pace, solid 85 – 90% effort, HOLD PACE!), la la la

6 x 25s fast kick

7 x 150s (#1 100 kick, 50 swim (focus on consistent kick), #2 50 kick, 100 swim (focus on consistent kick), #3 150 swim)

8 x 25s easy – recovery swim (mentally prep up – swim extra christmas carols)

9 x 100s (hold best pace – 85 – 90% effort – make it hurt!  HOLD PACE!)

10 x 25s kick

11 x 50s 2 easy, 1 FAST!!! (repeat 1 – 11)

12 x 25 FAST  - because its christmas – the gifts just keep coming.

your arms and legs should hurt.  if they don’t try again – you didn’t work hard enough.

stay tuned for NEWS YEARS swim workout!

ho, ho, ho!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I was out of shape, focused on a wedding, but I wanted to do lake lanier for a couple reasons -

1.  my niece had yet to see me race.  I thought if she understood part of my profession, MAYBE it would be easier to teach her swim, bike, and run.  she is a bit resistant to the unknown (much like her aunt).

2.  I WANTED TO HAVE FUN AT A RACE!!!  this season in triathlon has been tough, intense focus for not quite as much return as I had hoped.  I made progress.  I grew in the sport in a different way than I expected.  it’s a long road to Kona as a pro – but I got a garmin this year and half the battle is navigation.  okay, that was a very bad joke – but point being – I am starting to figure it all out.  I’ll live to fight another year.

back to my love – this was for madi -

my precious darling.

pre-race group hug.

fun = all smiles, SO race goal = all smiles!

i can not remember the last time I waved in a race. miss america’s got nothing on me!!

i looked and looked for the family going into the run.  finally saw them and they got…a smile!!!

and in conclusion – this race was for my sunshine although she does not like the sunshine in her eyes.  xoxo madi.