International Tri

My team rocked!

We took second in the relay category out of 5-6 teams that entered. It was back & forth with David's team to the point we ended fairly close together. The time for David's team was not posted as of the point we left the park so we don't know how they did besides also rocking it for giving it their all!

As I've posted earlier, I was doing the 1500m (~.93 miles) swim portion in the lake at Walnut Creek. All relay teams started in the 6th wave (Women 40+, Athenas, and relays) which means we started about 20 minutes after the first group. I started towards the back and pretty much stayed there. Between having shoulder problems recently and simply just not training my swim speed enough, there were only a few people behind me out of the water. That being said, it was a big motivator for me because I thought Karen had long since passed me and that the only other person near me was slightly ahead of me. Thus thinking I was DFL (dead f***ing last), I really pushed the last 500m to get ahead of atleast the one person and I think I passed another along that last push.

When I got towards the end it was an utter muddy, mucky mess that I was slipping in but I was determined to give it all I had and I sprinted up the hill to give the chip to G as fast as possible. At that point I saw David still there which meant Karen was still behind me. I hung out in the transition area to cheer her on. She was only 4-5 minutes behind me so G didn't have much of a lead.

Once both David & G were out biking for their respective teams, Karen & I rinsed off and went to hang with our runners (Gena for David's team, Courtney for my team)for about an hour because we figured that would be the absolute minimum time it would take to do the 23.5 mile bike course.

As we were waiting for our guys to make it in, one of our other coworkers actually finished the race and ended up placing first in his age group. Very impressive.

One hour twenty after he left, David came cruising in at full speed. He looked like he was going to face plant getting off the bike because how hard he pushed and how much his legs didn't want to run. He passed his chip off to Gena and we waited patiently for G to come in. Evidently David overtook G & his 5 minute lead in less than 8 miles. Another 15 minutes later G came in and also looked like he pushed incredibly hard, so we sent Courtney out for her 6 mile trail run.

The run on this triathlon is nasty because it is two loops of the same course, thus after the first loop you literally run next to the finish sign and have to keep going. When the ladies came through the half way mark (and we all of course cheered them on), Courtney had made up some time such that it appeared that if they kept the same paces they'd be dead even coming into the finish. In the end, Courtney pulled out all the stops and sprinted like a mad woman across the line. Gena came in not too much longer there after.

I'm very proud and happy for everyone who participated today. I think we all pushed hard and made it a real good race.

Week 3 of Lazyman

In week 3 of Lazyman I was hampered by very knotty shoulders that impacted everything (yes, you use the upperback in all three sports in some way). I did manage to complete .3 miles swim, 17.1 miles bike, and 10.2 miles run. As of the week cut off that means I'm done with the swim, almost done with the run (which I actually finished this morning but counts in week 4), and no where close on the bike.

In related news, the international Tri is this Sunday. Kinda seems surreal.

1500m finally!

Last night I swam 1500m in ~40 minutes. Yet another very zen like experience. Swimming is quickly becoming my favorite part of the triathlon. The 1500m is the distance I would have to do for the international length triathlon. Therefore, I am going to try to work up to doing 2000m and also improving my speed.

Swimming Zen

Today's swimming effort was very zen like. The 1000m felt very calm and not the struggle that it sometimes is. It took me 30 minutes to do the 1k, which is on the slow end but the technique is feeling more comfortable so I'm happy with that. I also did some sprints after the main portion. The 25m sprints weren't too bad, but doing 50m just killed me by the 40 meter mark. Sadly, the speed at which I was doing the sprints is where I need to get to for the actual races. As long as I keep doing both the length and the speed, I should be alright.

Guess this also meets my 40 lengths, any stroke without stop goal since it was 40 with frontcrawl.

Swimming Lesson

On Monday I had my first swimming lesson in over a decade. Evidently the techniques I learned a long time ago stuck with me so there were no comments along the line of "Oh my goodness, what have you been doing?!" I got a few pieces of advice on how to increase the efficiency and strength of my strokes, so that is good.

Beyond that it's been a slow couple of weeks for training. Last week I hurt my arm (don't ask) and this week I've had other commitments. Though with the time rapidly closing in, the Tri needs to become the commitment I skip other things for. I'm considering starting a more structured training plan based on one I found. I will shift the days around so that Wednesday is my rest day (which is only rest from exercise but will still be full of SCA goodness). Then I think the Sat/Sun rest day will have to be flexible based on my SCA schedule as well.

Swimming update

This does not meet any goals, but I wanted a beginning time with doing only freestyle. I swam 20 lengths (500m) in approximately 14 minutes. This is the distance I will need to do for the Sprint Tri and the middle 80% (not first or last 10%) of the women ranged in time from 8-13 minutes. Clearly I need to build some more power and efficiency in the next 4 months, especially because I was pretty exhausted getting out of the pool. Had this been a real race, I would've had to biked 16 miles then run 3. I definitely have room for improvement.

30 Lengths w/o Stop

Last night I completed the 30 lengths w/o stop - any style goal. It was about half freestyle and half backstroke (with a few breast strokes for good measure). I didn't record the time but as for exhaustion level, it is definitely at my baseline or right above. At 25 lengths I was getting pretty tired, but I pushed myself to finish the 30. I will definitely need to put in some good quality pool time but it's doable.

Goals

I work best by setting small incremental goals and trying for the next highest one. I may not make it in the next work out I do for that portion, but it is what I'm trying for. On the right side it displays my current goals. Some have two goals for inside & outside since I know the treadmill, stationary bike, and pool are nothing like the trail run, roads, and lake that I will be doing. Whenever an outside distance is accomplished it will automatically fill the inside goal if the inside one has not already been achieved.

Swimming
One length = 25m. So 60 lengths = 1.5km of race.

• 30 lengths of any style w/o stop - DONE 1/25
  
• 40 lengths of any style w/o stop - DONE 4/25
  
• 50 lengths of any style w/o stop - DONE 5/1
  
• 60 lengths of any style w/o stop - DONE 5/1
• 40 lengths freestyle w/o stop - DONE 5/1
• 50 lengths freestyle w/o stop - DONE 5/1
• 60 lengths freestyle w/o stop - DONE 5/1
• 30 lengths freestyle w/o stop in under 18 min
• 30 lengths freestyle w/o stop in under 15 min
• 60 lengths freestyle w/o stop in under 35 min
  
• 60 lengths freestyle w/o stop in under 30 min
• 750 m in open water
• 1500 m in open water
• 1500 m in open water in under 35 min
• 1500 m in open water in under 30 min

Biking
Full length for biking is 40K (~25 miles)

• 15 miles inside - DONE 1/27
  
• 20 miles inside (see outside)
• 25 miles inside (see outside)
• 10 miles outside - DONE 4/27
  
• 15 miles outside - DONE 5/17
• 20 miles outside - DONE 5/17
• 25 miles outside - DONE 5/17
  
• 25 miles outside in under 90 min
• 25 miles outside in under 85 min

Run
Full length for running is 10K (6.2 miles)

• 5K in under 30 min inside - DONE 1/21
  
• 4 miles in under 40 inside (see outside)
• 8K in under 50 min inside (see outside)
  
• 5K in under 30 min outside DONE 3/8 (Appears to be about 28:30)
  
• 4 miles in under 40 min outside DONE 3/8 (Appears to be about 37:30)
• 8K in under 50 min outside DONE 3/8
  
• 10K in under 60 min outside

Combining
Eventually I need to combine them and get my body used to the transitions. I'm not entirely sure what those goals are going to specifically be. My training plan will be to do things in the correct order and perhaps start small. For example bike for 30 minutes then run for 10. Then up it to bike for 30, run for 30. When I get closer to really focusing on these I will revise these goals with actual distances.