Ironman Inspiration

10 weeks until the Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon. I have not been as committed to training as I should've been and more than anything its a mental game at this point. I know I can do all 3 distances individually and I'm pretty sure if I took it slow I could do them all in a row right now. However, I need to get my performance up if I want to enjoy the day (aka I don't want to fill incredibly sick from overworking myself to get a decent time). Last year I was really scared that I would DNF (Did not finish) that it inspired me to train lots. This year it's a mental game to tell myself that I need to train more if I want to improve my time. So often when I'm running or biking right now I see a shortcut and think "Well, I could just cut it short today, it wouldn't matter that much." However, all those times cutting short would only hurt me in the end since you can't cram for a race like you can studying. All nighters don't work in physical goals.

To pick up a little more inspiration about doing this, today I watched the Ironman 70.3 competition. Half the length of a full Ironman but that is still 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking, and 13.1 miles running. The perseverance of the athletes was impressive. They also did some stories on unlikely competitors who had overcome hardship to be there. If they can do it, so can I. Plus, my distance is a lot shorter so there is no reason not to be in my best physical shape.

Getting Realistic, part 2

A few posts ago I wrote that I wasn't training as much as I needed to be and that caused me to drop out of the Cville 10 miler. The second casualty has been the Muddy Buddy. I have not ridden a mountain bike in quite some time and certainly not offroad. With only 3 weeks until the event, it isn't going to happen. Instead with the 10 weeks I have left until the first triathlon, I'm going to focus on the activities for that.

My revised list grouped by liklihood
Definites:
Cville Sprint Triathlon
Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon
Richmond Marathon
Iffy:
Cville International Triathlon (as part of relay team - thus need to check with my team)
Unlikely:
Luray International Triathlon - it's just too close to Pennsic
Boys and Girls club ride - I just don't enjoy biking that much and I should be well into marathon training at that point.

Richmond Marathon - Registered

I am now officially registered for the Richmond Marathon. I should've done it yesterday when registering for the Cville Sprint Triathlon, since I missed one of the early registration time frames by a day. But now I've paid, so I'm going to do this thing!

(And no, it's not an Aprils Fools joke... I'm serious, I'm doing this)

Registered for the Sprint Tri

Nothing says motivation like forking over the money to commit oneself to the cause. I am now registered for the 2009 Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon. In order to not make a fool of myself out there, time to get serious about the training. Only two months left.

Quick results & video!

The MJ8K folks were amazingly on the ball this year, the results are already posted. My team finished 7th out of 8 teams. Much like the triathlon song says, "won't be first, won't be last, but I'm sure I'm going to have a blast." That definitely holds true for over 3 miles I ran with David and finished strong with him. Becky also ran about 2 miles with us, but we sprinted the final part. During the time we all were running together we were bantering, having fun, and keeping those around us entertained.

My personal time was not as high as I estimated earlier. The official time was 53:55 which is a 10:53 pace. Definitely my slowest pace of any race I've ever done (of all 4 run-only races). That put my 49th out of 56th. Once again... at least I wasn't last!

This year for those of us finishing 45 minutes through 63 minutes they posted video on youtube. I'm in the red pants, grey sweatshirt, and pink bandana.

Publish Post

Martha Jefferson 8K Results

This morning was the Martha Jefferson 8K run. As my last post states, I didn't really train for it this year and I knew my time was going to suffer. That being said, my time was around 53 minutes. That is about a 10:39 pace. This is all conjecture because I didn't stop my watch until 55 minutes at which point I was just out of the shoot (walking area to hand over our number).

The good:

• It wasn't raining this year!
  
• I spent most of the race chatting and running with a friend.
• I was part of the awesome PQA team.
• The t-shirt fits better than last year's.
  

The bad:

• I had to walk multiple times because I just wasn't in good enough shape.
• It was kinda chilly out (40ish degrees).

The ugly:

• My time last year was 45:41 thus I was about 8 minutes slower this year.
• Did I mention the walking thing?

Overall, I'm glad I did it. It really felt good to cross the finish line so I'm now again motivated to start training. I still don't think I'll do the 10 miler in 3 weeks, but definitely start working towards the triathlons again.

Time to get Realistic

There comes a time when you must face reality and accept the consequences. One of my stated goals and races was to do the Cville 10 miler. I would like to do it, it just won't be this year. I haven't trained sufficiently for it so actually running it would only be setting myself up for failure and possibly injury. As it is I'm hoping to even be able to finish the Martha Jefferson 8K (~5miles). Again, I haven't trained enough. I know my time will be worse than last year and that is just the consequence of not training.

Back to training

I ended last season's commitment to running after the Women's 4 miler (Aug 30th) and ended the biking training after the Boys' & Girls' Club ride (Mid October). As for swimming, I wasn't keeping up since July. Now with the holidays mostly over, it's time to get back into training for my series of events. In the near future I will try to post or incorporate a training plan, but for now I'm just going to try to get my baseline back up. I did 2 miles running outside today and that got me out of breathe. I may have a long time until the marathon, but that 10 miler is coming up quickly.

2009 Race Schedule

I've decided on my 2009 Race schedule. Please note I use race as the official term about what the events are, but I don't necessarily plan on competing with others. For most of the races, it is a matter of finishing the race (especially for the longer distances) and trying to improve my PR (Personal Record) on the courses I have done before.

March 14, Martha Jefferson 8K Run

April 4th, Charlottesville 10 miler

June (?), Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon
~ 0.3 mile swim, 16.5 mile bike, 3 mile trail run

July (?), Charlottesville International Triathlon
Trail running portion of relay team.
~ 6 miles

July (?), Muddy Buddy
~6 miles split between running & biking. And the mud pit

August 15th, Luray International Triathlon
~ 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run

August 23rd, Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon
~ .62 mile swim, 17.5 mile bike, 3.4 mile run

October 18th, Boys & Girls Club Challenge Ride
~60 miles biking

November 14th, Richmond Marathon

(Links to each event are on the side)

wdydwyd

The graphic designer in me really enjoyed making my response for a "Why do you do what you do?" meme.

Sized 5x7 so I can print it off and frame it easily to provide further inspiration.

Women's 4 miler

The whole notion of running being part of my life started last year with the women's 4-miler training program and race. I did the training program again this year in the advanced group for most of the summer but Pennsic kinda threw everything off for me. That being said, it was still a good race.

The fun stats:
This year 36:00. Last year 38:42.
This year 352 out of 2505. Last year: 567 out of 2240.
This year 45 out of 277 in my age group. Last year 69 out of 146. (Note, I moved up an age group to 25-29)

Lazy man final report

Yes, it's an entire month late, but Pennsic came and just never got a chance to update it. If you've been watching the numbers for the last month they haven't moved and the final tally was 3.3 miles swim (over by 1.1 miles), 78.3 miles bike (under by 33.7), 37.2 miles run (over by 11).

Once again, I didn't make it. However, I did do much better this year and I suspect I can do better yet next year. It's all a matter of getting the biking in early.

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.

Week 2 of Lazyman

Week 2 was hampered by a business trip and just getting out of the routine. I accomplished 1500m swim (~1 mile), 4 miles biking, and 6.3 miles running. With any luck I can make up the biking somehow and actually finish this thing.

My goal for week 3 is to finish both the swim (really easy as long as I get to a pool) and the running (Saturday should be 4 miles and if I do 5k on Monday I'll get it). As for the biking, just try to get in more in general.

Week 1 of Lazyman

My week 1 totals for Lazyman were 1.2 miles swimming, 28 miles biking, 7.2 miles running. Logically that leaves 1.2 miles swimming, 84 biking, and 19 running. This is very doable.

Lazyman Returns!

With July brings the return of the Lazyman Triathlon. We have the entirety of July to do the distance of an Ironman Triathlon: 2.4miles swimming, 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running. I feel very confident that this year I can actually complete it since I'm starting at a great advantage over last year - I actually have a bike and feel reasonably confident using it.

I will try to post weekly updates with distances remaining. I started off the month with an early morning run (2.6 miles) and short bike (2 miles).

Lazyman Left to go
2.4 miles swimming
110 miles biking
23.6 miles running

Race picture

See post below for race report.

Race Report

I completed the Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon two days ago and from my perspective, I rocked it! My only true goal was to finish the race and not pass out afterwards. My dream goal was to be in the middle 80%. I accomplished both. I finished the race in 2:04:26 which was 87th out of 109 women. My other time splits were 13:19 for the 500m swim (81st), 1:13:52 for the 16.5 mile bike (88th), 32:17 for the 3 mile run (77th). The rest of the time was transitions.

The story of all the training begins way back in January (or possibly even before) but I'll start the recap from Saturday.

Saturday morning I went to the women's 4 miler training program since I felt I needed to wear my new race gear once before the race. In general this is a very bad idea to try anything new so close to the race, but I felt I didn't have a lot of options. I meant to only do the 1.5 mile intermediate run, but ended up doing the advanced group's 2.5 mile. Plus I had walked there and back so add approximately 2 miles of walking.

Later that day I helped with packet pickup. Since I knew parking would be an issue, I decided to walk there too, so another 3 miles of walking. Once there I did a variety of jobs but mostly on my feet. Thus I was certainly not resting like I should've been.

That night I had a good meal of pasta and a 32oz smoothie. I really think the smoothie helped because it had some additional protein and I know it doesn't tend to sit in my stomach too long. Ironically while reading a bicycling magazine and drinking the smoothie, I came across an article that listed smoothies as one of the top pre-race meals.

Sunday morning came way too soon since I rustled myself out of bed at 4:30 to eat breakfast and finish any packing (most of it was done Saturday afternoon/night). I got to the site around 5:45 so that David could pick up his packet and get all of his stuff prepped before the 6am opening of transition. Since we knew we'd be coming out of the water at different times, we parked our bikes next to each other and set up our area. From there, we went and got our numbers written on with Sharpie.

When transition set-up closed at 7:15 we all went down to the beach to get pre-race instructions and get ready for it to start at 7:30.

For the swim we started in waves based on age and gender. As 20-29 year old woman, I started in the second wave with a neon pink swim cap (I hope there are pictures somewhere). The other groups were labeled with yellow, red, light blue, white, and neon green. So at 7:33 we entered the water and made our way out to the first marker. At 7:34, we were off. Myself and 40 of my closest swimming friends started swimming out to the first buoy. I got hit, kicked, and did the same to other swimmers. At first I was having a hard time breathing but then remembered that even in the pool my 500m swim time was 12-14 minutes, so I shouldn't be trying to keep up with the folks I knew would be finishing in about 8 minutes. After slowing down the area became less crowded and I was able to breath a lot better. I got passed by guys in the following wave (4 minutes behind us) but I was ok with that.

When I finally came out of the water we had to run up a grassy hill to the transition area with our bikes. They have volunteers at all transition entrances and exits to keep us excited and point us in the right direction. It was nice to have a few folks I knew volunteering with that because I felt there was an extra connection and they actually called out my name in encouragement.

In the transition area, I dried off a bit (mostly my feet), put on all my bike gear, and headed out. My coworker Courtney was in transition about the same time I was but I would not see her again until she passed me on the run.

Out I went on the bike and up the major hill. Having trained on this route a number of times I knew that first 4 miles were tough with a major uphill climb. So I paced myself because I didn't want to have to stop at the top to rest. It was a nice feeling as I actually passed a few folks. The rest of the ride I was pretty much brutally passed by everyone and their mother.

The bike ride went amazingly well for me. Part of it was that I was much more confident because I knew the route, and knew all the traffic had been warned about the 270(ish) cyclists on the roads. For the first time I seriously pushed on the biking, I pedaled on some downhills instead of breaking and really tried to ride hard when on the flats. Part of my encouragement was figuring David would be about ~8 minutes behind me (4 minutes for starting in a later wave, and ~4 minutes because I am a faster swimmer). I kept telling myself, all I have to do is get to the next landmark in the bike course before David passes me and I shall have a minor victory. As I got further and further along the more determined I was to get as far as possible before he caught up. He never did, instead he was cheering me on as I came into transition and out for the run.

During the transition into the run I grabbed some gatoraid, threw on my bandanna, and I was off for the 3 mile trail run.

The run was hard. I've done it before and been rather tired going into it, but this time that wasn't my issue - I felt I had plenty of energy. I though I might feel the typical brick in my legs, but I didn't get that either. Instead, as I was going up the first of the hills on the run a muscle in my butt started getting incredibly sore. It wasn't bad on downhills or flats, but it just burned going uphills. It started just on my right but by the end of the run both sides hurt like none other. So I ended up walking up a fair number of the hills.

With less than a mile less, the pain was starting to get unbearable and I was finally starting to feel the energy drain despite having taken in an energy gel (but probably far too late). I did a mix of jogging and walking. What really kept me going was a guy behind me kept yelling encouragement to me to not let him pass me and to at least walk faster. He did catch up to me, but when we hit the last level area he told me to get in front and keep going even though I hurt. It was just a great show of community support. (Somewhere in there Courtney just blew by me too).

As I came in the last little leg and saw the finish line, David & Karen were cheering me on as well as one of my friends was on the announcement system picking folks out to announce their names as they came in. Even though there were a few folks with me she knew me so gave me a grand announcement. It felt great to cross that finish line. As soon as we finished we were supposed to turn in our timing chips and another friend was there collecting them so I got a nice congrats from her. It's a really great thing to know so many folks that can be happy with you when you accomplish something like this.

In the end, it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it. Thanks to everyone who supported me through out the training and have actually managed to read this entire rambling post ;).

Eep!

The Cville Sprint Triathlon is this Sunday. Yes, as in 6 days from now. I waiver between feeling not ready and knowing that I will be fine. I won't be first, I won't be last, I just hope to survive. In training I've done the entire distance and even done some of them on the same day.

In other news, I knew I was not going to be ready for the biking and running for the International distance so I will be participating in that as part of a relay team. I will be doing the swim portion. 1500m of pure swimming joy.

Last piece of news that isn't really triathlon related is that I've also registered for the Charlottesville Women's 4 Miler again. I'm doing the training program again this year and put myself in the advanced group since that starts at 2 mile runs. Since I'm doing over 3 miles for routine practice, this is entirely reasonable. I'm going to try to follow the training schedule the best I can but after this triathlon I'm still going to need to get in swim time and I really want to up my boxing time to twice a week.