My first 70.3

October 23, 2011. Austin Texas.

The event was well organized. This is my first triathlon with two separate transition areas. Three large plastic bags with drawstrings were provided. The morning bag for items to put in last minute and things you need after the race. Bike bag for helmet, shoes, nutrition, race belt, and to put the wetsuit in after the swim. Run bag for shoes, nutrition, and fuel belt. It was definitely cleaner in the transition areas and there was no over lap with the person next to you. I also liked this aspect because the volunteers pick up your bags and all your gear is shipped over to a final pick up place.

Swim: The water was warm, so I used my O'Neil wet suit-shorter on bottom and top. The water was calm and the sun was coming up as the waves went out. This is the best race swim I have had overall. I felt calmer and more prepared.

T1: I had a rough night prior to the race. Sick-vomitting, chills and slept maybe 2 hours straight. So I took my time in T1 and drank a half a bottle of gatorade and ate a Larabar. At this point, I was thinking I might not be able to finish the day, but I would at least get to ride my bike somewhere I had never been.

Bike: Texas has beautiful scenery. It's so different from what I'm used to in the Pacific Northwest. There were bridges and small streams, over grown brush, tumble weeds, estate type houses and churches, beat up trailers, abandoned cars and some distinct Hispanic communities. It was like a country music song unfolding as I rode along. The surface of the roads are quite bumpy and at the half way mark, I got off my bike and stretched my arms. The challenge that day was the high temps and wind. This was the first time I have felt myself moved over by the wind while I was on my bike. It feels a little scary, especially down hill when there are other riders around you. Despite the conditions, my bike time was what I thought it would be. As I rode into transition, I got to see my friend Sonja on her run. That was definitely a boost and I thought, I am going to finish today!

T2: By this time in the afternoon, the sun was bright and hot. I had water left over, so I just dumped it over me and started for the run.

Run: The run course was changed due to the drought conditions. Apparently the trail portion was cracked-raised in parts and sunk in others and the race officials deemed it unsafe. I had three loops ahead of me without shade. I think this was more of a psychological challenge than physical. I have run 13 miles before and I knew I could do it, but I had to mentally prepare for the monotony of three loops in the baking sun. The first loop was great and it felt good to stretch my legs after the bike. I started to get really warm and I heard someone behind me say I was swaying. I slowed way down. I had made it that far and it was a fine line between pushing it and over heating or jog/walking and making it to the end. The route went by the lake and it was extremely tempting to jump in and be done. The crowd support was amazing. People were handing out ice chips and one group of spectators brought a hose hooked up to a water cooler and made a little shower. The finish line approach was more of a shuffle. I'll always remember the song over the load speakers as I finished in the cool air conditioned arena.

There are moments when I still can't believe I did it.

Chelan Man Highlights

1- First Oly

2- New wet suit, new bike

3- Something I know for sure- I have said I love rain so often that it has started to follow me around to all my events.

4- Lake Chelan is clear I could see the bottom of the lake.

5- Actually passing people on the ride

6- Running along the lake, looking down at the swim bouys and thinking "OMG, I swam that far"

7- Finishing 30 minutes sooner than expected

8- Sharing the day with my friend

9- Catching up on sleep

10- visiting the Columbia Valley Brewery

Packing Rituals

Shane asks me what we are doing tonight. I say "packing."
"All night?" He asks.

Yes. I have a ritual when packing for a race. After dinner, I run to the store and gather my race nutrition. Pre-race: road trip snacks, FRS, Oatmeal, bananas, and a bagel. Race day: power gels & energy blasts and gatorade. Post race: Protein bar. I add my water bottles and fuel belt to the grocery bag and line it up in the garage next to my bike and wet suit.

Next, I start laundry and organize my closet. In between laundry loads, I do my nails and clean the bathroom. During laundry folding, I lay everything out on the bed, print out my tri checklist and start what Shane calls "packing"-putting it in the bag and suitcase.

I am defining and refining this method. There is something very calming about cleaning and organizing things. And in being thorough, I know I'm not forgetting anything.

You Know You're a Triathlete when...

This totally describes my life.

1.Going Commando because you forgot to pack underwear in your Gear Bag becomes normal

2.You Keep an entire second set of Toiletries in your workplace

3.Bonking’ is what happens when you run out of energy on the bike!

4.Food becomes known as ’Nutrition’

5.You now own more Race T-Shirts than regular T-Shirts

6.You tell your partner that you’d like to get away together for a weekend and then announce there happens to be a Race taking place in the same location!

7.All of you friends and family buy you running gear and give you “sports store vouchers” on your birthday!

8.Your MP3 playlists have titles such as “Get up and Train!” “Interval Session” & “Harden the f*** up”

9.Lycra becomes something to be proud of

10.You always have several Bike Water Bottles next to your kitchen sink

11.You always have more “Training Gear” in your laundry than normal clothes

12.Your Co-workers describe you as ‘Crazy’ on a regular basis

13.Almost all of your internet favorites are Triathlon related

14.You think cycling to and from ‘Running races’ is Normal

15.When you arrive back from training, your partner automatically hands you some food or a sports drink so you don’t get into a bad mood from low blood sugar

16.Showering 2 or 3 times a day is not unusual

17.You walk around all day wondering why people have been giving you strange looks. It’s only when you look in the mirror that you notice the ‘Goggle marks’ on your face that never went away! (Don’t worry about it Panda eyes)

18.You get worried about going out for drinks at night, in case it effects your training the next day!

19.You secretly think of holidays abroad as an opportunity for a ‘Training camp’!

20.You spend more on Race Entries than on Nights out drinking

21.You avoid telling your co-workers what you ACTUALLY did over the weekend because you know they’ll think you’re a freak!

22.You have an ridiculous T-Shirt suntan!

23.Your friends hate waking up with hangovers and receiving your SMS messages saying “Just had a brilliant 5 mile run – beautiful morning!”

24.Like a ‘Boa-Constrictor’ you slowly commandeer at least one entire room in your house for your ‘Gear’

25.When you see a new movie is being released on DVD your first thought is: “That would be good to watch on the Turbo Trainer!”

26.When you travel overnight you pack one bag for your normal clothes and another bag for your Training gear

27.Your bike becomes a true friend!

28.The smell of Deep-Heat makes you think of Race morning

29.You think it’s normal to queue at a portaloo with strangers while you all check your watches and dance from foot to foot

30.When you hear the word “transition” it triggers a Jason Bourne like reaction and you suddenly find yourself getting changed with a stopwatch in your hand!:)

Learn.Dream.Live.Run

What's up in 2011?

The triathlete-me wants to do Lake Stevens 70.3 this year
The maniac-me wants to run 6 marathons in 6 months and level up to silver.
The runner-me wants to explore more trails this summer
The adventurous-me wants to climb Mt Rainer


Learn
This year I learned a lot about focus and how it feels to over-train. I found myself wandering into others dreams and training plans. In spring training I took on too much, too soon (really key) by throwing in Seattle to Portland,a back-to-back century and ended up camping instead of riding.
My goal was Maniac Qualification, 3 marathons in 90 days, which I accomplished.
This year I will choose one big event and one training plan...


Dream
So my 2011 calendar consists of one race...Lake Stevens 70.3 on August 14. 2011.
Ambitious? Yes, considering I have completed only two sprints. Couple that with a hefty but vague (at the moment) college commitment and it may be too much to take on this year in terms of time and money. My plan is to keep training and re-evaluate in March when I know where Amberle will be landing.


Live
Endurance... I love it. I'm addicted to it. I thrive here.
In order to be race ready I need to:

-cut my swim time in half
-get a full wet suit
-get a road bike
-Complete one sprint with a half mile swim and one olympic distance

I've also come to really get how life is about balance- in relationships, professional life, spiritual practice, and giving to the community.
People have said it to me, given me advice, I've read books, but it's a lesson I have had to learn in my own way and will probably be reminded of often.


Run
Running is a great analogy for life: you get out of it what you put into it; sometimes you do it just for the joy; it's never easy, but always worthwhile.

Here are my specific run goals:
run a half under 2:10 (PR is 2:08)
run a full under 4:30 (PR is 4:36)
run a trail specific event

Heart Rate Monitors

I'm reading up on heart rate monitors as a training tool.
I recently attended a bike seminar where Sally Edwards was one of the guest speakers and, surprise, she spoke mostly about triathlon training.
Her program is designed around training to your heart zone and she's developed a system for calculating it and then a model for phase training: base, endurance, strength, interval, speed and power.

It does make sense to have one to gauge when you can truly push versus when you are just feeling tired.

Another aspect, is if you measure your heart rate in the morning and it suddenly goes up, it's a sign
of over training.

I'm told I have a very low resting heart rate @ 45 beats per minute. I once worked with a personal trainer and we couldn't get my heart rate above 80. At the time, I thought I was just really out of shape. After researching,
I think I may need to monitor it in all three sports and daily to get a better overall reading.

Kick Harder

I found out via Amberle's boyfriend that a new YMCA opened in the area (well the next county North). I called and e-mailed right away about lessons.
Just a re-cap on past efforts to sign up for lessons: I have now been on my YMCA's wait list for lessons for almost a year. And the community pool requires you to camp in line before midnight for registration. After two Grande Americanos and a line that would rival Disneyland, I found the nearest bathroom then drove my sleepy self home to bed.
Well, I'm now in, at the new Y, and even though it's a little bit of a drive, it's going to be worth it! Maybe in the summer when it's lighter out, I can ride my bike there and back.
The good news from lesson one: my form is good. The work on news: the instructor said I need to kick more. Which is funny because when I started TRI training, Marc said I kicked too much. I guess I've come full circle.

Kirkland Tri

This weekend, Mckenna and I completed our first Tri. Saturday it poured on Mckenna's event, but she did great in spite of the rain and mud. I think she was disappointed it was over so quickly. And Sunday was my event. I arrived early, pre-sunrise and the water was perfect. The lake was serene with twilight and park lights shimmering on the surface, completely oblivious to the fact that soon thousands of Tri athletes would be invading. After arranging my gear in my little corner of the rows of bikes racked for take off, I made my way to the pre-race announcement area. The event was packed with energy and conversational buzz, so I was catching only bits and pieces of the briefing...something about body count and scuba divers checking to make sure everyone was accounted for...that was definitely the part I could have missed hearing.
I found another novice (obvious by the pink cap) to chat with and we watched as the horn sounded and the swim began. Got a hug from my coach, just before his wave went out. It was comforting to see him there among the sea of faces. I was in the last wave and I hung toward the back to minimize the chance someone might swim over me. I could feel the water churning and I took a deep breath and started out. I concentrated on breathing, blowing bubbles and thinking I'm swimming over the trees (a little visual from Marc). I looked up to sight and was almost to the first buoy. I could see other swimmers around me backstroking and breaststroking and then I was actually swimming ahead of them. Even my dainty swim stroke (as Mckenna calls it) pulled me ahead. Later, Mckenna would tell me that she spotted me in the water from the spectator area because she recognized my stroke. Then all of sudden, the swim was over. Swim split 13:12
Running toward T1, the grass was still so muddy, my mind went blank. I took my bike off the rack, then realized I needed to put on my shoes...almost forgot my helmet...not the ideal transition. I guess I was too surprised the swim went so smooth. T1 time 3:54
The Kirkland bike route is hilly. Even the seasoned tri-athletes say so. I was determined not to walk my bike. I guess that's a Cindy taboo. Even though I had biked the route before the race, it seemed to go on forever. On 132nd street I was convinced I was the last...there was no one behind me. There's a nice descent however, back to Houghton Park and I tucked and coasted. Bike split 54:19
T1 better than T2, 2:17
Ahhh...running...beautiful, familiar, sweet...was over much too fast...Run split 27:48.
I can say with conviction, I love the triathlon. It's fun and messy and crazy. And it's made me a stronger runner. TRI it! You will fall in love.

Meniscus Tear

I have a tear in my medial meniscus, which isn't so bad, just really sore. When the doctor pressed on my knee, the fluid was visible, kind of bulging to the side of my knee cap.
I find it ironic that I have been running all this time with minimal aches/pains, and my first real injury is biking related.
So I left the Dr visit with an anti-inflammatory and peace of mind that it isn't something more serious.
In the meantime, the Y coach messaged about cutting back the running days through the end of July and focusing on biking and swimming which is less weight bearing.
Sometimes training involves beginning with the end in mind. For me, that is being a runner for life; spending more time running and less time in the Dr's office.

Race for the Cure and a Brick

Amberle's first 5K...smiling at the starting line...smiling at mile 1, laughing at mile two as we pass the LaCrosse Team, still smiling at mile 2.75...sprinting across the finish line...Garmin time 28:50. She owes me a movie because she thought she would be the last one to cross.


I'm always inspired when I see how people respond to getting involved with Race for the Cure. This year, Boeing matched all funds for employee participation. And despite a weak economy, the event was packed.


"Tri-ed" my first brick work out this weekend. Mckenna and I rode 9 miles at a steady pace and finished with a mile run. I didn't experience the jello-feeling everyone describes, but after riding, the run felt like slow-motion. But having said that, I ran my best mile time at 7:40.