2nd Triathlon!

 

So I hadn't planned this out like I did my other two (one done, one coming up).  We had just ended a group ride with my triathlon training group and some of the women were talking about how they were all signed up for that weekend's women's only tri.  They said "Why don't you do it too?" At first I thought "Nah, I won't be able to do it", but later I figured...why not?  I had the $, I had the time, I knew I could do it!

I signed up the Monday before at about 3pm!  This race management company doesn't use fancy software for their course maps, so I couldn't see the elevation, but I figured, this is the Midwest, it is flat.  Those rolling hills at the first tri have to be as bad (hilly) as it gets...right?  So that made me nervous and I put the race map into map my run, but the elevation would never pull up on my work computer.  Oh well...but I kept hearing rumors that the hills were pretty rough.

I arrived at the tri and parked in a field :) and started walking my stuff the 1/2 mile to transition.  On the way there, I realized that I forgot to pump up my tires!  Luckily one of the bike shops had an open spot at their tent and the man helping me said he had done both the course for my first triathlon and this course, and he thought that this one was much tougher.  Cue nerves setting in!

My # was 37 this time - they asked us how fast of swimmers we were and I put "very fast", which was the second to fastest category you could choose.  I got into transition and put my bike near the end of the 33-40 rack...first one!  But then I heard someone say to another triathlete "you got here first, put your bike on the end!".  Great advice!  I had a great spot near the exit, so I was excited.  I took a trip to the bathroom (real bathrooms - yay!) and found some of my teammates!  Some were doing a relay, so we chatted and decided to do a "social lap" around the U shaped transition area.

After the pre-race meeting, it was time to head to the water!  Coach Jeff was there and told me he knew I could beat the relay swimmer out of the water, so I should!  I said Okay, I will try!  We got to the water and I got in and did a quick warm up and hopped into line.  I started with the relay's swimmer.  We only had to wait for a minute until it was our turn to run down to the water.

I'm to the left in the green suit.

I ran a little ways into the water and started to swim!  People were going wide and others were sticking closer to the buoys.  It started to get pretty congested and I hit someone in the feet and someone else in the back of the legs as we got closer to the first turn.  After the first turn, I was just trying to go as straight as possible to the second buoy.  Much harder than it seems with that many people around.  I was passing people and I was getting passed as well.  Rounding the second buoy and heading back to shore.  I was tired, my quads were aching, and my tummy was starting to hurt.  This is always the point where the siting is the worst (ha, speaking from my 2 triathlon experience).  If I could describe open water swimming at the beginning of a triathlon to  someone who hasn't done it before, I would say this:  It is like you and lots of other people are super drunk.  You're all trying to get a certain destination, but you only have brief glimpses of clarity before you black out again.  You're all trying really hard to get to that destination, but some are veering off course and it makes it hard to ascertain where the actual destination is, but you do your best.

They also have a pretty good sense of humor.

I saw a lot of people standing up and making their way out of the water as early as they could.  I wasn't about to stand up before my hand hit the sand.  This was not the place/time for a slow-motion baywatch reenactment from me!  I got out of the water and saw the set of stairs...but where were the blue timing mats?  A girl in front of me was walking, but I started jogging and as I ran up the stairs, I realized that the timing mats were just before you got the the transition area, as you can see by the map above, we had to run a ways first.  I totally got passed by at least 3 people on that run to the transition.  I looked at my watch as I crossed the mats.  Swim time:  11:26.4.

Thoughts:

WHAT??? PS first .gif on blog.  HAD to be Doctor Who :)

Dude, that was super slow for 500!  I'll chalk some of it up to 1. being slow-ish 2. The distance being meters, not yards and 3. the run from the beach to transition, which was included in the swim time.  BTW, the relay swimmer that I started with definitely beat me by at 45 seconds! Yikes!


So after I crossed the mat, I walked quickly to my bike and started to get ready for that.  By that time, my relay swimmer teammate had found me and was cheering, which was great, but when you're tired, and don't want to be moving on to the bike, I found it a bit annoying!  Tri Coach Jeff had set me to a big gear to tackle the hill right out of transition.  So thankful he did that!  It was definitely a hill, but nothing to sweat.  As we moved through the park, we got to a couple of more difficult climbs.  A girl in front of me got off her mountain bike and walked it up the rest of the way :(  I didn't care how slow I was moving, I was NOT getting of my bike!  We made it out of the park and I kept wondering if we were at the turn around yet haha!  I had to get that mentality out of the way as I approached the climb of the course.  100 feet over a mile.  People living in non-flat states would probably scoff at that, but daaaaaang it took forever!  I was breathing heavily and kept thinking of my yoga instructor saying things like "breathe into your quads!"  That and only looking about 10 feet in front of me really helped a lot.  At the top of the climb was the turn around.  and let me tell you, that ride down was sweet!  It felt a whole lot faster in the second half.  As we reached the last hill n the park, the volunteer shouted "this is it ladies!  Last hill of the course!  This is where skinny thighs are made!".  I loved it!  I made it back into transition, was annoyed that I had to go all the way around the U shape of transition to exit (got passed by at least another 5 people while jogging here).

Bike time:  49:12.  Thoughts:  Ouch.  So happy that is over!

That hill that was pretty easy at the beginning of the bike was now a super steep hill to run!  Of course there were people lined up all up and down it.  I could barely muster 1:1 walk/run ratios at this point.  Hill + Brick = no bueno.  I did pass someone at the top of the hill, although she was having side cramp :)  Very slowly, I got to 1:2 walk/run and then I just picked out different points to run to before i could look at my watch for a 1:3 ratio.  I got to the water stop at mile 1.  So happy.  I did a couple more intervals and felt much better after I took my gel.  Some of this was uphill as well.  I decided to stop looking at my watch and just run by feel.  I got near the turn around and kept picking points to walk,but I would get there and just pick a different point to run to.  In my second half of 5K, I only walked for less than a minute through the water stop.  That is unheard of for me!  I really wanted to finish faster than my first tri (which was trivial due to the courses being so different - both in elevation and in distance).  My watch said 1:36 and I knew my last mile would probably be 14 minutes, so I needed to run the whole thing if I wanted to finish under 1:54 (Math isn't my strong suit to begin with.  Let alone while exercising!).  I pushed through and those uphills were now some good downhills.  I ran it into the finish and was ecstatic to hear all of my teammates there cheering for me.  That was definitely a great feeling!

Run time:  44:18.  Thoughts:  The end of that run just saved how I felt about this tri!

Overall:  As hard as it turned out to be, I'm glad I did it and definitely glad I didn't see the elevation chart beforehand or I would have psyched myself out.

Time was 1:50:26.6.  I was 328/372.  55th on the swim, though, which was good.  Made me laugh to see the variations of swim times around mine.  I highlighted mine for comparision.

Yeah those ladies kicked my butt on the bike and some on the run too.  :)

All of us girls plus Tri Coach Jeff!

I had a great time and this one combined with my first one were everything I could have hoped for in a triathlon.  I wouldn't say I'm hooked on them just yet, but as I told Ty, I was looking up more tris a mere hour and 30 minutes after I arrived home that day! 

Up next is a tri that is the same course as my first, this time it is coed and in addition to sprint, they have olympic distance and an additional distance that is basically a little more than 3 times a sprint.  Oh and it is also in conjunction the like midwest collegiate triathlon championship or something like that.  Makes me glad I already have 2 under my belt!  Wooo, get ready!

Improvements & A New Challenge

Every year, during my company's employee appreciation week, we have a health fair where we can get free health screenings.  Here are some improvements I saw from last year:

                            2012                         2013
Weight                 256                           222
BMI                     42.3                          36.9
Cholesterol          150                           176 (best below 200)
Good Cholesterol 40                             49 (best above 60)
Bad Cholesterol  n/a                             100 (best below 100)
Triglycerides       n/a                             135 (best below 50)
Glucose (non-fasting)                            83 (best below 140)

Mostly improvements, yay!

Here is what I have been up to in the past couple of weeks:

Monday: Trail Run (ouch!)
Tuesday: Yoga
Wednesday: Group bike ride
Thursday:  Hot Yoga
Friday:  Easy swim (500 free, 100 back, 500 pull, 500 kick, 100 warm down)
Saturday:  Worked at awesome conference - lots of walking
Sunday: Worked at awesome conference & childcare at the church

Monday:  Road run
Tuesday: Yoga
Wednesday: Group bike ride
Thursday (today) rest:
Friday: planned short walk
Saturday:  Second tri!

Oh yeah!  Sort of peer pressured into it!  Some of my teammates are doing a relay at a tri and I thought - what the heck, why not?  I haven't done very much swimming or running or any brick workouts in these past 2 weeks, so that makes me a little nervous.  However, this one is 500 yard swim, 10 mi bike, 3 mi run.  So longer swim and shorter bike than my first tri!

It is also an all women tri.  I hear this one is pretty big.  In the last one, I parked 20 yards from transition, so that should tell you that was pretty small.  this one, I have to park 1/2 mile from transition.  Should be entertaining!

Also, they are starting a biking program at work and I'm really excited about it!  It is through a local bike shop that runs 6 week corporate programs, but some of my co-workers are definitely thinking beyond that.  We are setting up multiple rides each week.  I'll be excited to bike more and get to know people from my workplace at all/better.

Last, but not least, here are a few pics from the my first triathlon that I forgot to include, and some yummy food pics (my fave!).

I had my nails done to match my bike!

Tanya, me, and Melody at the finish.  

Curried goat, rice and peas, coco bread.  Good, but a little pricey for a food truck!

OMG Homemade Breakfast Sandwich. Egg, bacon, 1/2 slice cheese, fresh cucumbers - yum!

Swimming Terminology - Time

If you missed part 1 - distance a few weeks ago, you can find it here.

We are now talking about time!  If your workout says to do one of these, don't panic! And of course, feel free to "That's what she said" on these first two :)

on the top - Starting when the standard clock (not digital) reaches "60" at the top of the clock.

on the bottom - Starting when the standard clock (not digital) reaches "30" at the bottom of the clock.

set - the "set" would be the number of times you are doing a distance in a specific manner.  Ex:  " 5 x 100 free" would mean you are doing 100 yards of freestyle 5 times, stopping after each 100.

on x minutes - the amount of time you have to do a certain distance.  Ex: "100 yards freestyle on 2 minutes".  Whether you complete 100 yards in 1:30 or 1:59, you will start your next 100 yards 2 minutes after the first.  The amount of rest you get is determined by how fast you complete the distance.

with x seconds rest in between - the amount of time you are required to rest in between distances.  Ex:  "5 x 100 free w/30 r".  You will swim 100 at the pace of your (or your coach's) choosing, taking 30 seconds to rest in between each one.  r = rest

touch pad- the device that is used to signal when swimmers finish their race.  It is placed over the ledge at the end of the pool and when you touch the wall at the end, you are really hitting the touch pad, which sends a signal to the computer that you have finished and your time will show up on the scoreboard.  During a race, it will show your splits for a small amount of time on the scoreboard before reverting back to the race clock. It is like a vertical timing mat, that starts at the beginning of the race, but you have to hit it to signal your completion. 

In a swim meet, the official results will, most of the time, be when the swimmer hit the touch pad and a signal is sent to the computer that they were done swimming.  Each event is programmed in, so that the computer will know when they are done (ex:  if someone swims 50 yards in the time it takes someone else to swim 100 yards, it will not say that the 50 yard finisher has beaten the 100 yard finisher.)  Sometimes a swimmer will not hit the touch pad hard enough, causing the clock to keep going.  In this case, the two "timers" of the lane will have hit stopwatches at the start and stop of the individual's race and will record the times they collected to serve as the official time for that individual.  Kind of confusing, but the majority of good swimmers will come into the wall fast at the end and it will not be a problem!

if you have questions or words I can include, please let me know!  Email me:  i*am*faster*in*water@*gmail.com (Just take out the *s!).

My First Triathlon!

Wahooooo!  It was great!  I finished in 1 hr 54 mins, totally under my 2 hour goal.

I took a 1/2 day Friday so I could get to the tri for their open water swim clinic and first timers clinic.  My car had been having some more issues, so I took it in, walked home, walked to get my nails done, walked back to the car place.  Doesn't sound bad, but a couple of miles walking in flip flops with my hip still feeling janky wasn't the best idea.  I shrugged it off, grabbed my stuff, and hit the road for the hour drive to the tri site.

I printed out directions because, Lord knows where my GPS is, and I don't have a smart phone.  And this is the country, like every corner is a field (which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE), but the roads are all numbers and I'm bad with directions...I ended up getting lost.  I got there at 5:20 and the open water clinic had started at 5.  I grabbed my race bib and shirt, took them to the car, and then headed down to the water where there was a group of women drying off, but one still in the water.  I made my way in and spent about 10 minutes swimming around, trying to get my sighting groove on.  The other woman's name was Kim and she was great!  It was her first triathlon too.  During the first timers clinic, they basically went through step by step of the whole tri and answered any and all questions we had.  I can be a nervous nelly, so this was awesome.  The next morning, I found myself answering questions that other triathletes had about the course!  I drove the 5K course on my way home, and sure enough, it was super hilly.  Still, I knew I could do it!  I went home and tried to relax a little!

In the morning, I needed to pack my stuff for the tri, a suitcase for a family weekend at the lake, and arrange my room so that the carpets could get cleaned (renew your lease = either $50 credit or get the carpets cleaned...duh!).  I just couldn't do it the night before. I am really a procrastinator!  I got everything in my car and left at 5:30am.  It was a breeze getting to the tri site this time.  Although I did eat breakfast (toast + pb), and I took some pain reliever just to make sure my neck was okay.  It says to take the pain reliever with a full glass of water, but I knew there were only port-a-potties, which I hate, so I just sipped some.  I don't know if it was nerves or the pain reliever, but my stomach was feeling a little nauseous as I was closer to the race.  I arrived just before 6:30, as the sun was making its appearance.  I got out of my car and started putting some stuff together to go into the transition area and started talking to the ladies next to me.  It turned out to be Melody!  That was super exciting and definitely helped calm my nerves.  I got body marked, set my stuff out, then it was time for a warm up swim.  The water was very calm and it was partly cloudy, which was great.  I got back for the pre-race meeting/USAT rules/prayer/national anthem.  Then it was time to head to the water!

Melody is in the green, I'm behind my car chatting with her an Tanya.

Leaving transition set-up (in the purple)

I'm in the green suit, to the left of the pink (olympic distance) caps.  Teammate Sarah is covering her ears due to the impending cannon blast.

I saw my teammate, Sarah, and she told me to start in the elite wave because I was a fast swimmer.  Girl be crazy!  I said I was definitely not starting in the elite wave, but I did line up at the front of the time trial start for the non-elite.  They fired a cannon to signal the elite wave start and then waited 2 minutes before they told me to go (why does the elite wave need a head start? hehe).  They said to walk over the timing mats, just so they could make sure it was working correctly.  I had my game plan of breathing every 5 strokes and sighting once or twice every 10 strokes.  Well, that went out the window once I hit the water!  I was holding my breath (instead of continual release), I was breathing in uneven patterns, and I definitely got passed in the first 100 yards.  I was all "oooh, ego check!".  But I kept up with her pretty well.  As we rounded the last buoy and headed back to the beach, which the sun was rising over, I couldn't see that well.  I knew the dock should be to my right, but I couldn't really see it.  They did have an ambulance with its lights flashing at the exit to help with the sighting.  The girl in front of me went far left and I was just a smidge left of where I was supposed to be.  I got out of the water, ran through the timing mats, then started walking.  Transition was several hundred yards away, uphill.  I wasn't trying to break any speed records, so I stuck to walking!

A little gallop into the water

Running out of the water, guess the others weren't too far behind!

Swim time: 6:13 (course marked as 400 yards)

I am at the end of the alphabet, which is how bib #s were handed out.  The people next to me in transition were the relays.  So there were a couple ladies there waiting for their swim leg to get done.  Pretty sure they thought I wouldn't make it due to the difficulty of me getting my socks on.  Getting socks on wet, dirty feet while standing on uneven, dewy grass is really hard!  Again, I walked my bike out of transition because this clumsy girl did not need a spill like that!

Starting on the bike was exhilarating.  It was a chance to take a minute to think about how great this was, and how tired my legs were already.  I started getting passed a couple of miles in, but I did pass 2 people on the bike - woohoo!  The course has rolling hills, so there was ALWAYS another challenge.  I didn't have too many problems besides being REALLY tired at about mile 9.  One hill just felt like it was never going to end.  I tried coasting on the flat parts! haha.  When I rode past the 10K turnaround volunteers, they were awesome, cheering like crazy, one was standing on top of an SUV!  I got to the 5K turnaround and started to see lots of women running and I was able to keep riding, but focus on cheering for them instead of how I was feeling.  I saw my teammate Sarah right after the 5K turnaround.  She was KILLING it!  I didn't have a "mantra" per se going into this tri, but all of the hills made me say "I think I can, I think I can".  Oh yep, I'm the little engine that could!   I made it back to transition, racked my bike, put on my race belt-thing, grabbed a gel and took some swigs of from my water bottle and I was off!

Rolling hills

Bike time:  55:11 (course marked as 12.6 miles)

As I was running out of transition, teammate Sarah was running into the finisher's chute into a great 2nd place!  I started to run down the first hill and saw Melody!  I was thrilled to see her and she was so close - obviously had lied to me...she told me she was slow!  Slow would have been walking the bike up the hills!  My running strategy, much like my swim strategy, fell to the wayside.  The brick effect took my legs full force and my strategy of at least 3:1 run/walk ration went out the window!  I was probably doing 2:1 there for a while.  I just went with the flow and cheered more runners (that were passing me!) and bikers on.  I got some water just after mile 1 and wondered how 1 mile felt like 5!  Near the turnaround we were no longer in the shade and it was getting warm!  I grabbed some water  there and felt my legs perk up a bit.  I was able to run 5-6 minutes a time or two and felt really good about that.  Then I stuck to running to a tree, a line in the road, etc. The photographer got my picture near the end.  There was one nasty hill at the end.  Melody caught up to me and we ran our way into the finish.  Teammate Sarah was there cheering me on, so great to see a familiar face!  They announced our names, we crossed, got our medals and were handed a water.  I was finished!  Official triathlete!

Run time: 44:48 (course marked as 3.1 miles)

Overall time:  1:54.27

In the unofficial results, I was 4th overall in the swim, 28th in the bike, and  32nd in the run.  Overall I got 31/34 women doing the Sprint.  That placing isn't great, but I knew I did the best I could on every part.  Yep, I was right, just got passed for most of the race, but I loved being able to be 4th on the swim! 

Yay!  The post race was disappointing to me.  At the first timers clinic they had boast how there was to be "chocolate and wine" at the finish line because this was an all women's tri.  Awesome!  Well, there were Hershey kisses and boxed wine.  LOL!  I don't drink wine, but yeah, I was expecting a little more than that.  I had a few Hershey kisses, a few pretzels, and the rest of my water bottle that I retrieved from transition.  I was excited for door prizes because this was a small place, and I am usually pretty lucky.  Well the announcer didn't draw bib #s, he asked questions.  Like "who was the youngest president?", "what is pi to the 10th digit?"  For real?!?  I don't even have a smart phone to look this crap up!  Needless to say no door prizes for me. Still kinda pissed about that.

TeenSwimSis needs to clean her mirror!

I packed up, drove 3 hours to the hometown, which was terrible.  I was so sleepy and my legs were a little crampy.  I drank half a coke because I didn't want to die in a 1 car accident in the middle of a Saturday.  I did go 7 minutes out of my way to stop at a legendary ice cream place.  Ohhhh it made my stomach hurt!  I was never one of those people who thought something could be too rich, but dang, this was it!  I made it to my dad's, got in my epsom salt bath, and watched and episode or two of Scandal.  SwimSis asked if I would bring a side dish to the lake.  Heck no!  I didn't want to do anything but show up!  Family dinner was great and the next day I spent 6+ straight hours on the lake.  Boating, tubing, swimming, kayaking, repeat, repeat, repeat.  It. Was. Awesome.

It was such a great weekend and I really loved every minute of it, except for the driving!  Next tri will likely be September 7th in the same spot!  Eek!  It may be a little late in the game, but I REALLY want to do this half marathon.  It is a race that is only happening once! How cool!  And if I'm driving that far to do a race, I am NOT only going to do the 5k!  Hmmm...start half marathon training while keeping the fitness level up for my next tri???  We will see!

PS Pretty sure when I started my blog 17 months ago, this girl would not have imagined I am where I am today!