Monday, July 30, 2012

Monday of "Get back into it" Week

Today, I did my TNT weight lifting workout. It's normally a group workout - but today, it was a solo workout. That just makes it tough(er). Usually you get a little rest between stations because he's got to set everyone else up... but not when it's just you!

Funniest part of the workout was when I was doing my pushups, T said to me "Girl, your triceps are really defined. Like, CUT." I just laughed and said "Finally... it's only taken 6 years of work!". He laughed when I said that. I think I've been gaining muscle back there because some of my t-shirts are getting tight around my arms again.

I had a 30 min run on my schedule for today. I ran probably 20 minutes of it and walked about 10 of it. I'm ok with that. My running has really sucked lately, so it's on me. My focus the next few weeks is just to do my runs... whatever will be, will be.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Recovery week - oh my

This past week was recovery week... and recover I did... not sure from what though. I did both days of TNT, per the norm. Aside from that, I went swimming on Tuesday and riding on Saturday. No wonder why my weight isn't moving! This week's goal is to complete my workouts. Period.

I'm planning on writing the race report for Colonial Beach today, so I'll get it posted either today or tomorrow.

I've been busy studying for my personal trainer certification, so and am hoping to get a lot more of that done this week. My husband's going to Boston on Wednesday/Thursday, so I'll have a bit of time to get some stuff done. :)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Sunday's ride & this week

Sunday, we set out for a 50 mile ride - me and the boys... yup... the boys. Jon and his two bosses (who are awesome) joined me on my training ride. It was originally supposed to be 70 miles, but it was kind of nasty out and I was happy with 50. It's a good thing too, because they were DONE by the time we hit 50. One of the bosses had to turn around after about an hour because he had to get home to get to church. The other hung with us, which was good. We did the 50 miles in about 3:06 of moving time, almost 4 hrs of actual time. We made a couple of stops, which was fine by me! I wasn't sore at all after this ride, which is GREAT news!


This week, I've done both of my weightlifting sessions, which are always fun. I will say that my trainer is upping my weights recently, which I have really mixed feelings about. I know I can do more weight, but since the scale has only been moving up or staying put recently, I'm kind of frustrated. That said, I'm still able to wear the clothes I was wearing 10 lbs ago, so I know it's likely muscle and a change in body composition. It's still just a bit frustrating.

I also swam with the team last night. Always good to be in the pool... especially after a week of being out of it because my body wasn't cooperating. I'm really starting to enjoy swimming. I'm not really getting a whole lot better, but I'm enjoying it, which is making it easier!

Also, we decided to pull out of the race in September. It was supposed to be Jon's first triathlon and he had asked me to do it with him for support. I had hesitantly said yes to begin with. His swimming has progressed a LOT, but it's not quite there enough for a 750m open water swim. After the foot to my chest last weekend, I am insistant that he can do it in the pool and not have any anxiety about it before he gets in the open water to do it. I was hesitant to do the race (even though it's "just" a sprint) because my 70.3 is 2 weeks before. Also, it's our nephew's birthday, and he's getting to an age that he may not forgive us if we miss it. So, hopefully a refund will be placed in the bank account and all will be well.

Now... to get an October race on the schedule! Maybe I'll do the team race. We'll see!

Friday, July 20, 2012

This week

I've been slacking horribly this week. Triathlon has been on my mind, but my body hates me right now. Monday, I didn't go to TNT because I just needed a day off. I was tired... and slept for about 12 hours. Those who know me know this is highly unusual.

Tuesday, I went to TNT and ran for a whopping 13 minutes before class (I had planned on 25-30, but a potty break meant I had to cut the run short). I had every intention of going to swim that night, but after my massage, I decided it was best to let the healing powers do their thing.

Wednesday, I just slacked... there was no reason for it. I just did.

Thursday... oh goodness. I cycled for a whole 15 minutes before TNT. I felt horrible during TNT, just drained. When I got home, I realized my shoulder was hurting so badly... I'm not sure how I missed that during TNT. Guess I just thought I was drained. I iced the shoulder, took ibuprofen, etc and again didn't swim. UGH!

Today, Friday, is our built in rest day. My shoulder still feels like crap, so I'll give it another day.

That all healing massage? Yea, I think it screwed up my shoulder a bit. Grrrr. It's making me rethink the timing of my August massage for sure (Tuesday before the 70.3 race).

This weekend, I have an 11 mile run and a 70 mile bike ride. Thankfully not on the same day this time. I also just ordered a custom blend of Infinit, so we'll see how that works. After the salt bomb that happened last Sunday, I have to do something!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Colonial Beach International Tri - Race Report


Colonial Beach International Triathlon – July 15, 2012
  • Race Name: Colonial Beach International Triathlon
  • Race Date: July 15, 2012
  • Race Location: Colonial Beach, VA
  • Race Distance: International  (1500m swim, 24 mi bike, 10k run)
  • Division: Women 30-34
  • Total Time: 3:16:57
  • Time Breakdown: Swim – 42:42, T1 – 2:46, Bike – 1:18:06, T2 – 2:34, Run – 1:10:50
  • Age Group Placing: 10/12
  • Overall Placing: 67/90 (women only)
Pre-race
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Dalghren, just over the 301 bridge and outside of the Navy base there. It was a perfect spot to stay (and it meant that we got to visit with my brother and his family the day before the race!), only about 15 minutes from the race start.
Race registration was online, per the norm. Setup Events was running this one, so it was as well run as I expected; except one thing. When I registered, I signed up for a women’s medium shirt. What I got was a unisex medium. When I went back at the end of the race (when I noticed the shirt) to see if I could exchange it, the volunteer said they had actually run out of shirts so everyone just got whatever they had. I wish I had known that at 5:15am, because I would’ve asked if they had a small unisex. Not really sure how you run out of shirts of specific sizes if people pick the type/size of shirt they want when they register, but it’s not that big of a deal.
I picked up my race packet at 5:15 am, got body marked (and questioned on my age, yay!), picked up my chip, and started setting up transition.
It was a beautiful morning, small race, and good day to go!

Hi Jon!
Swim
The river was beautifully calm and about 82 degrees. It was almost eerily calm actually. I’m not sure that I’ve ever swum in water (outside of the pool) that was as calm as it was. I should’ve NEVER taken off my goggles after the practice swim. I had so many problems with them during the race. I must’ve had to stop and tread water about 5 times (seriously) to fix them. This race, despite the super calm water and smaller race field, was super hard to sight the turn buoys. I’m not even 100% sure of why. My goggles might have had something to do with that, who knows.
At the final turn buoy, I was in a group of people. I was trying to get out of the way of this one woman, but she kept cutting me off. She ended up swimming me into the buoy and when I did my right handed stroke and hit her (letting her know she had pushed me into it) she literally used my chest as a wall to kick off of. I immediately popped my head back up, caught my bearings, and started swimming back to shore (where we were heading anyhow). As I exited the water, I was relieved to have survived the swim, didn’t care that my time was 42 minutes (I had my watch on), and just tried to catch my breath as I went to T1.
I so wanted to cry, my chest hurt so bad
Bike
After having read some race reports of this race, I was expecting it to be much hillier than it actually was. Most of the “hills” were more of false flats, which are almost worse in some ways. I was able to drink thanks to the new Profile Design water bottle I put on my bike the week of the race. However, eating/drinking non-water was still a challenge. I really need to work on that. It affected my run pretty badly again.
I did this race with my tri bike. It finally made it’s race debut! I had so much fun on this bike course. It took me a few miles to get my legs fully under me and working the way I wanted them to, but that’s pretty much every race. I felt it a bit more for this one though, so I’m not sure if that’s just the bike or the course. Jon said
There was only one part of it that was a little tricky, downhill, sharp left turn, but once you got through it, all was well. I love out-and-backs because the field narrows out and they’re generally easier to navigate. In general, I did exactly what I set out to do – a little over 1:15:xx and just enjoy it. Can’t really ask for anything more than that!
I headed into T2 feeling tired from the heat/humidity, but energized from the great ride.

Run
Oh. My. Goodness. This. Sucked. I’ll throw it out there right away that there were several things that contributed to this. I could fully blame it on the heat/humidity, but I won’t. They were a factor, but a small one. I did a 4.5 hr workout 2 days before this race. I haven’t been keeping up with my running the way I should (this WILL come back to bite me in August) be. I didn’t eat enough after the swim and on the bike. These things are all on me. So sure, it was hot and humid and I was sweating heavier and saltier than normal. I saw my fellow Team Zers around mile 1 and we all followed each other for about a mile (Jill, Jan, and myself in a line with no one between us… sea of green!), which was cool.
Around mile 2.5, I was so cramped and felt like crap. It was at that moment that I was happy that I thought to bring the salt stick with me. At the mile 3 water stop, I took a salt pill. Within 5 minutes (if that) I felt soooooo much better! It was amazing. I was dumping ice in my sports bra and down my shirt to try to cool down a little (it was in the mid-90s at this point) pretty much at every water stop after mile 3.
Around mile 5, there was a group of guys outside their beach house encouraging us to keep going – they were awesome and just what I needed. The last 1.5 miles were all out in the sun. I came in with a run time of 1:10:xx… just as expected. I told Jon to expect me between 65 and 75 minutes after I went out. I was so glad to be done.
Worst finishing photo so far
Transitions
I got in early and got all set up. I was racked next to a fellow team Zer, so that was cool. Our rack actually racked in numerical order, which cracked me up. The guy who was #10 racked the wrong way, which sucked, but the race official didn’t say anything about it (a bit annoying). My transitions were actually pretty decent. In T1, I sat down for a minute to get my shoes on just because I was still recovering from being kicked in the chest. T2 was decent, other than forgetting to turn off my Garmin on my bike.
Post-Race
Post race food & drinks were good. I grabbed a cookie and ate half of it before throwing it out. It’s funny how much you think you want something to eat until you start to eat. We left just before awards because it had just gotten to be too hot to hang out. Race results were posted that night.
Summary and Lessons Learned
This was a great ‘C’ race for me. I used it as training and just went with the flow. No matter what happened, I was OK with it.
Lessons learned from this race: RUN MORE. Seriously, this will be my lesson from this season. Also, I need to eat more consistently. *Note: since the race, I looked into Infinit Nutrition for a drinkable, custom blend as a way to get in my calories. It seems like this will be the way to go for me.

Funniest picture Jon took all day

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

New week, fun workouts

Ok, fun might be pushing it. Monday, I did TNT and skipped my run (see the bad habit here?). Tuesday I didn't ride, but swam. I really enjoy my team swims. Even though we really don't talk much, I feel more motivated and pushed harder than if I swam alone. Today, I did TNT and a 30 min run.

I tried out the Galloway method today, and I have to say I really liked it. I'll have to mess around with my times, but I'll figure it out. I averaged a 10:05/mile pace running a 9:13/mile and walking a 16:00/mile. I think I'll try adjusting the length of the run (to 4 minutes instead of 3:30) before I start messing with speed.

Yesterday, I signed my hubby and I up for the Disney Half Marathon in January. YAY! Disney trip! Ok, ok, there's a (huge) run in there, but it'll be GREAT! I'm so happy to have Jon doing it with me.

Today, the gym was so hot that this saying is totally appropriate. My legs were sweating. It takes some serious heat to get my legs to sweat. Gross!


I'm trying to figure out a couple of inspiring sayings to write on the inside of my arms for the 70.3 for when the going gets tough. So far, I like "I inspire myself"; "You are who you choose to be"; "Don't give up, you've got this"; and "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone". Have any you think I should consider?

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Race Report: General Smallwood International - Relay

I'm not going to do this one like a "normal" race report since I just did the swim part of it. Though, I will give some important information... it was 104 with a heat index of 112 yesterday. The water in the river was 90 degrees. I wish I was kidding.

We got to Smallwood State Park around 6:15am. Quick stop at the port-a-potties and then I got in the line for packet pick-up and Jon went to the Team Z tent. I really wish they had marked that the relay check in was in the M-Z line. I got in the A-L line and waiting for about 20 min there. Annoying. Ah well. After I got my swim cap and shirt, I went and got body marked, and then picked up our timing chip. I headed back to the Team Z tent and emailed my relay team mates to let them know I had the chip and where to pick up their parts of the packet.

My runner got there first, and it was good to meet her. Our biker was running a bit later than I personally would ever run, but that's just me. She was a bit more concerned about getting a picture of the 3 of us with her bike than setting up her transition area... 10 minutes before transition closed. That stressed me out a bit.

After our biker finally set up her transition area, we headed down to the water for the national anthem, last minute race instructions, a pep talk from the race director, and the swim! I was in wave 7 of 7. The swim was supposed to be a 1500m swim in the river, but I'm going with "it was long". I originally estimated 32 - 35 minutes for the swim, based on the fact that my last timed mile was 32 minutes in the pool. I know I slow down a little bit in the open water, so I figured 32-35 minutes was a safe estimation (and given that my last 1500m open water swim time was about 32 minutes). Anyhow, I finished in just over 41 minutes. I was really annoyed by that. That said... I passed a lot of people from the previous two waves, so I knew I was swimming pretty well.

I got out of the water and ran to my biker, gave her the chip, and chatted with my runner for a few minutes.

After my biker finally got back in and my runner went out, I chatted with her a bit. And here's where I just want to rant for a few minutes. She basically said to me that she didn't believe my estimate when I sent it and she wasn't surprised I was 10 minutes slower than I said I was going to be. I was very good about holding my composure, but wanted to tear her a new one. Given that she told us she'd be anywhere between 13mph - 18mph on the bike ride, I was mad. I am VERY good about knowing my times. Jon has asked me at the beginning of every race "what do you think your times will be?" and I can lock them in +/- 2 minutes. He knows he's got a 10 minute window to watch for me - and it's 5 min before and after whatever I tell him. He's also told me that it's so reliable it's ridiculous. So... I was really annoyed that someone who's never met me and never swam with me had the audacity to tell me she didn't think I could do that swim in 32 minutes.

Here's the kicker. After people started to finish, they all started to talk about how the swim was off. EVERYONE was at least 10 minutes slower than they thought! Several people have the new Garmin 910 and said that it mapped that swim at 1.1 miles, or more. One guy measured it out at 1.99 miles, but he said he thinks he zig zagged a lot. After the biker heard this, she came over and was like "I hope you didn't take offense, I just meant that it was a lot faster than I was expecting. I can't do that swim in under 50 minutes." She was STILL putting her foot in her mouth! I pretty much told her it was "cool" and since I know the course was long, I'm now more confident that I can do my ocean 1.2 mile swim in Maine in less than the cut-off and in about 45 minutes. That pretty much shut her up - given that it'd take her 50 minutes to do a 1500m swim. I mean, I didn't judge her ubber slow bike time, don't judge my swim time.

That being said, I had an AWESOME swim. I came out of the water 3rd for the relays. THIRD. That justified everything it needed to about this race to me... and I'm hoping my biker sees it and eats her words. Yes, it was 90 degrees in the water and it felt like it. Yes, people were getting pulled out around me. But, I felt GOOD. I felt like I could've swam longer. I felt CONFIDENT. It's better than I've ever really felt about a swim and I'm not letting anyone take that from me.

Here are the results from the race. I've emailed the race director about teams #2 and 3 and their run times. A 22 and 33 minute 10k (6.2 miles) seems a bit too fast to me. Even the pros don't run it in 22 minutes. Apparently there was a place a few people made a wrong turn - we had one teammate who had to DQ herself because of it when she got to the finish. So sad for her, but it was the right thing to do.

An update here: They've since released the "full" results (apparently the others weren't) and I was eighth out of the water. That's ok though, there were still 9 teams behind me :) After my email to the race directors, the two teams with the crazy fast 10k times were DQ'd. They probably also took a wrong turn somewhere, but yea... it's not right.

Here's the updated results:


13 is our overall placing
583 was our race number
8 - placing after swim
41:23 - swim time
13 - placing in transition 1
2:18 - transition 1 time
16 - placing in bike
1:37:19 - bike time
13 - placing in transition 2
1:03 - transition 2 time
8 - placing in run
1:08:20 - run time
3:30:22 - total time


The Rest of Recovery Week

I've been kind of slacking again. I got on my bike on Thursday and that was about it. Sigh. For the race - I know I'm good for the swim, I can do the bike, the run has me worried. It'll be OK. I'll walk what I have to... I just HAVE to come in before the time limit. It'll be FINE.


I'm glad it's the end of the recovery week. I need to kick it back in gear!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Ahhhh Recovery Week

It's recovery week for tri training and cardio week for TNT, so it's a light week. Whew! Yesterday was a complete rest day, which is nice. Today, I did a 30 min bike ride and plan to do a 60 min swim later tonight. I also did 30 min of hatha yoga (stretching). I really need to incorporate more yoga into my routine.

I had a slight freakout yesterday when I figured out the number of days until my big race. It'll be fine, but it's coming up quick! I saw this, just when I needed it:


5 lbs or so until race weight, 54 days to do it. I ran 6 miles Sunday - only 7 more until a half marathon... I need to get up to at least 10 during these training runs. I basically just have a lot of work to do. But... it'll happen. Just need to focus!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Entry slackin!

Last week was a super busy week!

I didn't get my run in on Wednesday, but was ok with that (I need to STOP being ok with that...).

Thursday, I decided to meet up the team for the 6pm ride and then do the 8pm swim. The ride was really good. We had a headwind on the longest part of the 3.9 mile loop, which royally sucked, but we all managed through. The swim was good, though my shoulder was bothering me a bit. I swam through it and got my laps in.

Friday was a rest day and I did that :)

Saturday, I was supposed to do a 10 mile run. We had a crazy thunderstorm system roll through Friday night, so we decided to do our runs at the gym - wouldn't have to worry about getting up super early after going to bed way later than normal. Well, somehow the gym didn't have power! I'm not entirely sure how that's possible given that we did and we live about 0.1 miles from the gym, but they have to be on a different grid or something. So, no gym. It was incredibly hot and nasty out, so we decided to do the runs on Sunday morning.

Sunday, we got up, went to the gym and decided to do an hour on the dreadmill. I got in 5.99 miles (dang it for not being 6 miles!) and Jon got in close to 4 miles. I'm proud of him - I think it's the furthest he's gone. He walked the last 20 minutes or so, but it's still a great accomplishment for him. Later on Sunday, we got the bikes all set up and started in for our long ride. Because of the crazy storm, we had already decided that a ride outside wasn't a great idea with the amounts of debris on the road. We put on the prologue of the Tour de France and settled in. Jon had a 1.5 hr ride (30 miles outside) and I had a 3 hr ride (60 miles outside) to do. I'm so glad I had something like Tour to keep me occupied, 3 hrs is a LONG ride on the trainer!

This morning, I hurt. My muscles are fine... my sits bones, not so much. Stupid breaking in period of this saddle. We're waiting for our July schedules, but I'm pretty sure it's a rest day, so rest I will! I think I'm going to try to get in some yoga today as it's much needed!

5 days until General Smallwood International Relay.
12 days until Colonial Beach International.
55 days until Rev3 Maine Half.