One week to go

One week from now I'm hoping to be sporting a new triathlon PR. And I'll probably be getting ready for a friend's baby shower, but that's inconsequential as far as this blog is concerned. Next Sunday morning I'll be participating in my second ever triathlon, the Nathan Tempe Triathlon. I keep feeling like I haven't prepared enough for it, but in reality I think I have. I mentioned that to my friend Michelle who is also doing it (this will be her first tri), and she said she thinks I've been training more than she has. Time will tell I suppose. On my last tri, I really freaked out during the swim. So much so that I mostly did breast or side stroke for pretty much the whole thing. That's the big downside to not having an open water nearby for practicing. Swimming in a pool and swimming in a lake are two very different things. I keep telling myself that I know I won't be able to see anything (I could maybe see to my elbow on the last tri when my arm was extended in front of me) and I just have to swim and sight. I've even been swimming laps with my eyes closed in anticipation of not being able to see anything. The swim distance for this tri is 750m; the last one was 400m. In the pool I can do 750m in roughly 16-17 minutes. Theoretically an OWS (open water swim) should be faster than a pool swim because you aren't having to slow down every 25m to turn around, but since I freaked out so much at the last one, I'm not banking on having a much faster time than what I can do in the pool. I was feeling pretty confident about my bike skills. I've had two flat tires recently, so I'm hoping all flats are out of the way and I won't have to worry about changing a bike tube on the side of the bike course. Friday morning I set out on a ride with the intention of biking a distance comparable to the race to see how my time was. I started out and was flying and felt AWESOME. Then I turned north and found myself fighting a headwind for the entire rest of my ride. So over half of my ride was into the wind which significantly slowed me down. Lame. I was averaging 20+ MPH initially and the last half of the ride was less than 15 MPH. Ouch. I was hoping to finish the 12 mile ride in no more than 42 minutes and it ended up taking 48. Please, please don't let that be the case on race day! Running in AZ sucks ass in the summer. It's too hot to run outside, even if you go at the ass crack of dawn, so I've been treadmill running. I'm not sure which sucks more. I did manage to get in four miles on the treadmill one day last week with an average pace of 10:44, so I felt pretty pleased with myself after that. I had a fitness test done at the gym several months ago to analyze my heart rate zones, and the trainer gave me a heart rate zone workout to do, and I've found it has really helped my speed increase. So, with all that being said, I'm hoping to beat my previous finish time by at least three minutes, even with the longer swim. My time on the last one was 1:48. I'd really like to finish in at least 1:40 if not 1:35. My transition times were AWFUL last time, so I think this week I'm going to work on practicing transitions and time myself. If you see my running out of my house in tri clothes dripping wet, think nothing of it. I'm just practicing for T1. Here's how I'm hoping my splits will go next weekend: Swim: 17 minutes T1: > 2 minutes Bike: 42 minutes T2: 2 minutes (dealing with socks and getting running shoes on) Run: 33 minutes Total: 96 minutes I'm going to have to push myself on the run, I know it. If my times for everything else end up being close to accurate, I at least have a little leeway for the run to still meet my goal of 1:40, but I would really really really be happy if I could finish closer to 1:35. So keep your fingers and toes crossed for me!!

Back in the saddle again...again

I really don't know what my deal has been over the summer. I just cannot seem to get my eating in check. I've been decent about working out (a triathlon looming at the end of next month has helped that), but my food habits have been awful. I did two weeks of South Beach Phase One and managed to drop eight pounds, but they've slowly crept back up. Well, five of them. I attribute it to summer eating and drinking. We have a pool in our backyard, so we have friends over pretty often to swim, which means we end up drinking while we're in the pool. I think I'm going to have to ease back on the vino and Froot Loop vodka if I want to reach my goal weight of 155. I do have some motivation--my brother-in-law is getting married in October, so I'm hoping to get back in the 150s by then. I think it's attainable, and now that I have a goal I think I can do it. I started back using Lose It today to track my calories, and I planned out breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for the entire week. I know a lot of my issue lately has been not eating a good breakfast or lunch, so I thought if I planned both those out I wouldn't spend my days wandering around the kitchen snacking instead of having a normal meal. Like I said, I have another triathlon coming up in 34 days. I'm pretty freaked out about it to be honest. I don't feel like I've been training as much for it as I should be, but it's freakin' hot here. That makes it awful to get out and do any running or biking. I've been making it to a spin class at least once a week, but it's not the same as actually being on the bike. In these last few weeks leading up to the tri I'm really going to make an effort to spend time on my bike, regardless of weather, and I also need to try and get in a couple runs that are longer than 5K, as well as try and do at least one (ideally two) brick workouts.

Then and Now

I was telling Boy #2 about the dog we had when he was born, and he wanted to see a picture. I was trying to find one and came across this picture of the husband and me from Easter 2006. Granted, I had an eight week old baby, but still. The husband has no excuse. I was SHOCKED when I saw this. I really don't remember him looking like this at all--and I look awful, even for just having had a baby!! To compare, this was us at Christmas this past year:

So far, so good!

I'm on Day 6 of no carbs this go-round, and so far so good. I'm down to 164 which makes me happy (for now). That's what I weighed before we went to FL at the start of June, and just one pound up from my pre-CA vacation weight. It hasn't been too bad going no carb this week, although I did let myself imbibe in alcoholic beverages on the 4th of July, but foodwise I stuck to no carbs. Yesterday my BFF and her family came over to swim and ended up staying for dinner. She and the husband were having wine and cocktails, and it was REALLY hard to not join in, but I managed to not do it and stuck with water. That is HUGE for me! I'm still amazed at my willpower. Tonight we're going to dinner with some friends, and I'm not drinking there either. I may have half a glass of red wine, but I'm not sure. I'm currently eating some tomato soup because I have a cold, so I probably won't let myself have the wine since the soup is carb-laden. For next week I'm going to stick with no carbs as far as food goes, but I will allow myself the occasional glass of wine if the husband is having some. Exercise-wise I feel pretty good about my week. My youngest son has swim lessons right smack in the middle of the day Monday through Thursday last week (and next week, then both kids have them the two weeks after that), so that complicated my gym trips as we either had to be out of the house by 8:00 to make it to the gym for me to get a decent workout and be back in time for swim lessons, or we had to go after. Monday we went before and it worked out okay. I did a great upper-body workout and then did 40 minutes on the bike. I really prefer riding a real bike! Tuesday ended up being an unplanned rest day. I had planned on going to the gym in the afternoon to do a long swim, but I was meeting with someone from church to learn about some reporting I'm going to be doing. That ended up running longer than I anticipated, so by the time we were done it was really too late to drive to the gym, swim an hour, come home, and not be frantic and rushed getting dinner ready and all that. I'll admit I was pretty bummed. Wednesday morning was one of the races in the summer 5K series I'm doing, but it was a four mile race for the 4th of July. None of my friends and I were feeling it that day. There was talk about skipping it altogether and just going to breakfast instead, but we went. Jen and I ran the first mile, walked miles two and three, then I ran the last mile. My only motivation for running the last mile was that I didn't want it to take me over an hour to do just four miles. I finished in 59:06. Interestingly, I was the 1,000 finisher! Sadly there's no award for that. It was insanely muggy that morning which did not help. Thursday I made it to the gym and ended up doing a 2,000 meter swim. I felt pretty bad ass. That's roughly 1.25 miles for those of you who can't convert metric to miles (don't worry, I can't either, I had to calculate it on my phone). it was a great ladder swim, and I really enjoyed it. Friday Jen and I were finally able to work out together. I think it had been almost a month, with all the traveling I did in June, and then her kids were sick. We did a great full body circuit that we both really enjoyed. Then I did 30 minutes on the bike. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to take my running shoes and run on the treadmill. I guess I was just thinking strength, not cardio. Today the husband and I were going to go do some sort of strength and swim, but I woke up with a full blown cold and decided I didn't want to go. he opted to take a rest day as well. Now I just need to come up with a workout plan for next week, coordinate with Jen what days we can go together and then figure out what to do on days that I'll be there by myself (if any). It's so much nicer to workout with someone than doing it by myself, plus I really need to plan out what I'm going to do ahead of time so I don't wander around the machines or free weights trying to come up with exercises. Hopefully by the end of next week (another week of no carbs) I'll be back at 160 or just below.

Operation Bye-Bye-Fat-Claire commences today!

We spent the weekend with some friends at their cabin up north. I went pretty balls to the wall with food and drink, knowing that come today I would start using loseit.com again to track my calories, busting my ass at the gym again, and working on getting down to my goal weight of 155. So my official starting weight this morning after pretty much a month of eating and drinking and barely exercising? 170.8. Ouch. That's a number I haven't seen on the scale in a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time, and I did not like it one bit. I guess it was a good experiment/lesson to see what would happen if I was lax about my diet and exercise, and it just goes to show that if I want to stay fit I have to work at it, it won't come naturally for me! I was originally going to do a week of low carb diet, but I think after being shocked by the number on the scale this morning, I'll plan on two.

Backsliding

I'm pretty frustrated. Before I started training for the tri, I regularly weighed in around 157 and was trying to get down closer to 155. I slowly added a few pounds while training for the tri. It makes sense, I cut back on strength training without adding in enough extra cardio to compensate for that missing calorie burn, plus I was eating more carbs so my body could handle the cardio. Now, however, I've slowly crept up to 167, and I am NOT okay with that. I'm now 12 pounds away from my goal instead of 2! Not cool, body, not cool. I know a lot of it also is that the whole month of June has been crazy. We spent a week in Florida where the only exercise I did was running one morning the whole time we were there, then we were home for four days before heading to CA for a week. I was slightly more active there but still nothing to write home about. I haven't had a good routine which I know is a huge part of the problem. I'm planning on getting back on track Monday...start using Lose It again, have regular, PLANNED workouts at the gym (planning what I'm going to do ahead of time really helps me get a good workout in), and I think I'll plan a low carb week or two for myself. I'm not happy with how I look, with how my clothes fit, how I look in a swimsuit. I'm not doing another tri until late September, and the only other events I have over the summer are an occasional 5K, so this is the perfect time to get back into the habit of regular strength training and get rid of this extra 12 pounds I managed to find. BTW, I managed to maintain my weight on both trips which I thought was awesome. I stayed at 163 the whole time, but then somehow once we got home from CA I put on an extra four pounds that just haven't dropped off. Ugh!!

I've been sucked into the triathlon world

My friend Tessa has done several triathlons, and when I told her I was doing the one this past weekend she said, "You'll love it. They're so addicting." One of the husband's friends (who has done several Ironman competitions) had said the same thing. I didn't believe it. I mean, doing a swim, bike, and run all in one fell swoop would be addicting? But, she was right. Especially since I didn't hit my time goal, I have to do more to get a better time. This week alone I've run a 5K four minutes faster than my one at the tri, and my 400m swim at the pool today took me around nine minutes instead of the 11 it took me on race day. Le sigh. So I know I can do it. If you remember, my big bike hindrance was my big bike. Haha...see what I did there? Well that problem has been solved. Not only have I been sucked into the world of triathlons, I've been sucked into the world of the expensive gear that goes with them. I knew I wanted a better bike because I've really been enjoying the biking aspect of training, then after I liked doing the tri I definitely knew I wanted a better bike. The husband and I had been keeping an eye on Craigslist for deals and found one that looked good. It was a little more money than I initially wanted to spend, but thankfully the husband is a good negotiator and talked the price down $100 from what she had been asking. I start to feel lightheaded if I think about all the money I spent yesterday on the bike, then cycling shoes (which were on sale and a smokin' deal at least), as well as pedals. I could have bought a set of really awesome cookware or an entire new wardrobe basically for what I spent on those three things. Ouch. But, my bike is gorgeous and it's fast and it's sleek, so it's worth it. The lady who was selling it estimated there were maybe only 60 miles on it total. She'd bought it from a woman whose husband had bought it for her, but then she ended up having babies back to back and sold it since she didn't know when she'd use it. Then it turned out to be too big for the lady I bought it from. There were a few adjustments we needed to make to it, but they were all pretty minor. I'm really happy with it. I took it for a quick spin around my neighborhood yesterday and loved it, although riding on the aero bars will take some getting used to. Want to see my new toy?

Just Call Me Triathlete

Because after this past Sunday, I am officially a triathlete!!! Honestly I never, ever, ever thought that would be something I could call myself. I was both excited and nervous in the days leading up to the race but more excited. Then Saturday hit, and the closer it got to be to the time we were leaving for packet pick-up, the more nervous I got. I felt a little better once we got there and checked in and got our bikes on the racks and all that. We listened to a walk-through of how it all worked which was helpful, but I was still a bit nervous. we came home and had a yummy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, got our transition bags packed and ready to go, and the husband and I were in bed by 8:30 with our alarms set for 4:30 AM and a planned departure time of 5:00 AM.

I took half a Tylenol PM before bed and slept great until 3:30 when my oldest son came in asking me to fix his covers on his bed. I don't think I ever really fell back asleep, just kind of half dozed. Then at 4:27 my youngest came in needing me to fix his covers! I have got to teach these kids how to fix their own damn covers. I laid back down for a couple minutes and then got up when the husband's alarm went off. We had all our gear downstairs to get ready so we didn't risk waking up the kids or my mom. My BFF Jen and our friend Dani were coming to ride with us. Dani had said leaving the race check-in she'd be here at 4:45. Jen said she would too and we laughed because Jen is NOT good at getting around in the morning. So I was pretty surprised to get a text from Jen around 4:35 that she was already here. We were all ready to go and Dani was here promptly at 4:45, so we headed off early. We parked maybe half a mile from the race start and walked over, got our transition areas all set up, got our numbers on us (they write your race number on each arm, one leg, and then your age on the other leg with permanent marker), got our timing chips (a velcro band that goes around your ankle...what I'd imagine a house arrest ankle bracelet to be like only this one was easy to take off or on), and waited. I was a nervous wreck by this point...my resting heart rate was right around 118. Yikes.

Our ages put us in Wave 4 for the swim. It was supposed to be a beach start, but that was a little misleading. You walked into the lake via beach, but you were actually treading water to start the swim. It felt like we were treading water for forever. Jen and I were in the middle of the pack waiting, Dani was towards the back. My heart rate was still on the high side considering I wasn't really doing anything, but I was feeling calmer because all I was doing was going for a 400 meter swim...no big deal. Then the gun went off. I felt okay at the start but when I was almost to the first turn buoy I started panicking I was super anxious and just felt completely out of my element. Visibility in the water was pretty much zero. With my arm stretched out in front of me, I could see about to my elbow. I couldn't tell if there was something right in front of me. The lake where I practiced open water swimming a couple weeks prior had been murky, too, but I could at least see my whole arm in that water. I ended up doing some side stroke and breast stroke because I just freaked out too much when I'd be swimming freestyle, plus I was breathing just about every stroke and normally I breathe every four strokes. I turned the second buoy and kept telling myself it was almost over, I was almost there. When I turned the third buoy it was a straight shot back to the beach. I did manage to do most of that freestyle because I knew the end was near and I just wanted to be done at that point. The timing of the waves worked out so that the husband was still waiting for his wave to start when I got out of the water, so he was there on the beach cheering for me. Jen was about 10 feet ahead of me. Dani had planned on doing breast stroke the whole way, so I assumed (correctly) she was behind me somewhere. The waves that started prior to mine had been all men, and I did pass a few men while I was swimming so that made me feel a little better. From the swim it was across the street and up some stairs to the bike transition area. I walked fast because I was worried about running and slipping on the wet pavement. The walk to the transition area counted towards the swim time which kind of sucked. I had my heart rate monitor on and checked when I got out of the lake and was at 11 minutes. A 400m swim in the pool takes me usually 8.5 minutes if I'm really hauling ass to 10 minutes if I'm at a normal swim pace, so I was definitely slower than usual.

Official swim time: 12:41

Walking up to the transition area I was thinking about what I needed to do to get ready for the bike. I don't have cycling shoes, so I had to get on my socks and running shoes, helmet and sunglasses on, have a Gu, have a few sips of Gatorade, towel off a little. I had brought some water along to wash off my feet after walking back across the sand, so I started with that then dried off my feet. Got on my shoes and socks, put on my helmet and sunglasses, had my Gu and some Gatorade and water and was off. There was music playing in the transition area the whole time, and while I was in T1, the song was "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor. Really?! Don't get me wrong, I love James Taylor as much as the next person, but something a little more upbeat would have been nice. The lady whose bike was next to mine commented on it to me, too. She said, "Couldn't they be playing something like Tool while we're transitioning?" Seriously! Anyway, I got my bike off the rack and headed out to the bike start. There's a mount/dismount line and you have to cross that before you can get on your bike. I got over to the side, hopped on, and off I went. With James Taylor stuck in my head. :P

Official T1 time: 3:37 (this needs to get faster, and I really have no idea why I was so slow)

The bike was pretty uneventful. The course/route was a lot hillier than anything I'd ridden around my house, but they were all small enough hills that I just shifted down into an easier gear and didn't have to stand up for them. I passed a fair amount of people along the way. Normally when I bike I have my iPhone in my pocket with an app running that tracks my distance and speed and time and all that, but I didn't know if that was legal for race day, so I hadn't taken it (plus my shorts were still wet from the swim, so putting my phone in wet shorts didn't seem like a smart idea), so I really had no idea what kind of pace I was doing. I knew what time I had started and set a bike finish time based on that. Like I said, the bike was pretty uneventful. I had a Gu mishap. I had taped a Gu packet onto my bike to have with a couple miles left to ride so I'd have the energy from it to start the run. I had not practiced this at all. It seemed like a great idea, but I underestimated how tricky it was to open one of the packets while biking. I ended up with it all over my fingers and a streak of it on each leg. Nice. It looked like I had a streak of poop on my leg...fabulous. So my hands were sticky which meant that my handlebars got sticky, too. Yuck. thankfully the ride was almost done at that point. Towards the end of the ride I started thinking about what I needed to do in T2 for the run, which wasn't a whole lot since I didn't need to change out of cycling shoes.

Official bike time: 51:10 (about a 14 MPH pace, not bad on my heavy bike)

Initially I had a time goal in mind of 1:45. Actually my initial time goal was to finish in under two hours, but the husband convinced me I could do it in 1:45. I had a secret goal of 1:30 if I really busted ass on each leg of the race, but when I got off my bike and saw what time it was I knew that wasn't going to happen, but 1:45 was still attainable. In T2 all I had to do was take off my helmet, switch to my running hat, throw on my running belt with my race number attached, have a quick sip of water, use my inhaler, and then I'd be off. Yeah, I forgot the water and inhaler part. Oops. But my inhaler was in my race belt so I took a puff off of it once I realized I'd forgotten to take it. T2 went pretty smoothly.

Official T2 time: 2:35 (still a lot higher than most in my age bracket)

My total time at this point was around an hour and 10 minutes, giving me 35 minutes to run a 5K. Normally that wouldn't be a problem at all since I tend to run anywhere between 10:30 and 11:30. But it was hot. And there were hills. I don't like running on hills, so any uphill on the course, I walked. Thankfully there were aid stations every 3/4 mile (or maybe it was 2/3, I'm not sure). At the first aid station there was a guy handing out sponges soaked in ice cold water, so I just squeezed that over my head and held it on my neck for a second. At the third aid station there were some kids volunteering who asked if they could splash me. I said sure, so they threw cups of water on me. I figured my boys would love to do that, and it would feel good, so I might as well let them. It did help cool me down. It was only a little after 8:00 at this point, but it was already getting pretty warm. I think the high that day ended up being around 105. Ouch. The last leg of the run course was up a hill. Really?! Who planned that?! I refused to let myself walk the last 0.1 mile of the run, so I toughed it out. Once I hit the chute for the finish line I sprinted to the end. The picture of me finishing is NOT going to be pretty. I was just so ready to be done. It ended up being one of my worst 5k times, and I did not meet my goal of 1:45, but I was close.

Official run time: 38:14

Total official time: 1:48:20

I did enjoy the challenge of the race and pushing myself. Honestly a triathlon is something I never, ever would have imagined myself doing, so I feel pretty bad ass that I've done one (and plan to do more). And it really helped me figure out what I need to work on to improve next time.

Swim: practice more open water swims...that's really the only solution to improve my time, I think. The husband thinks I should get a wetsuit, too, and that would help me. I probably will because not every swim is going to be in a 75 degree lake.

Bike: get a new bike that's not as heavy. The bike I used was a cheap Walmart bike the husband bought when he wanted to see if he liked biking. He then bought a nice tri bike and passed the crappy one along to me. If I really pushed on a flat straightaway I could get it around 15 MPH but that was about the fastest. I have no chance of improving my bike time unless I get a new bike, which I'm working on.

Run: I wish I would have done longer training runs instead of just doing 30 minutes or 5k runs. My running had really been slacking ever since the Rock and Roll Half back in January, so I kind of anticipated it being a problem. I think I just need to get back out there and do more runs, not let myself walk and slack off on them. I've signed up to do a summer 5k series with some of my friends, and a couple of them are fast. I may try to force myself to keep up with them for at least one or two of the races to see if I can do it. But really I think I just need to get back into my running groove. I know I can do significantly better on the run, I should be able to shave at least five minutes off my 5k time, if not closer to eight.

Transitions: Having never done transitions before (except the couple of times I did a bike to run workout), I know now what to expect from them and what I need to do. Practicing transitions more would have helped, too, I'm sure.

I'm already looking for my next race to sign up for. There's another sprint tri in Tempe in late September that sounds good. There's a great swim area set up at the lake we went to for the open water swim clinic, so the husband and I are thinking we can go do some open water swimming there during the summer.

I didn't have a camera with me, and the official race pictures haven't been posted yet (although I imagine all of mine will be AWFUL), but I did take some on my phone before and after the race.

My bike racked up the day before the race. Like the pink handlebar tape? I did it myself. ;)

Race day! Apparently I should have squatted down or had the husband get me from a different angle.

Transition area. Glad I took a picture so I can study it and see if I should change anything, although I think it was just my slowness and nerves, not my setup.

We're triathletes!! Jen and me after the race. Dani finished almost 10 minutes ahead of me and I think had already left by the time I was done, or at least I didn't see her anywhere.

The Day After The Day After Tomorrow

That's how long until my first triathlon. I guess I'm as well prepared as I can be. It's only a 400 meter swim, which is equivalent to eight laps in the pool. Except this is in open water. Thankfully, the husband, my BFF, and I went to an open water swim clinic a couple Sundays ago. The husband has done a couple open water swims, but Jen and I had not. As we were getting into the lake we were both wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. I was really glad I went to the clinic, if nothing else to just experience swimming in lake water instead of the pool. It really is much different, then throw in having to turn corners around buoys, as well as massive amounts of people swimming around you. Yikes! I did get kicked in the face once, which was my biggest fear. Not much you can do but keep on swimming. I had a hard time sighting while at the lake because so much of the scenery looked the same for most of the swim. Swimming back into shore I had an easier time sighting off a tree. I'm not too worried about the sighting aspect, but who knows. That may very well change once I'm in the water. I did a few 400 meter swims in the pool at the gym earlier this week, and my times ranged from 8.5 minutes to 10 minutes. I've pretty much fallen in love with biking. It makes me feel like a little kid. :) The longest ride I did in preparation for the race was 14 miles. We live near an Indian reservation, which it turns out is a great place to ride because there is very little traffic, it's totally flat, and there are no stop signs or stop lights. Too bad I just found out about it for my last three rides. I did three brick workouts where I went straight from biking to running. Last week's was supposed to be a 12 mile ride and then a 5K run, just like the tri. Jen bailed on the run (she had a decent excuse, she'd been sick the whole week leading up to it), and I was going to but decided to do at least a little. I only did 1.5 miles, but at least it was something. When we did a 10 mile ride followed by a two mile run, the run went pretty smoothly. I was a lot faster than I thought I'd be, averaging under 11:00/mile. My first mile was 10:30, I don't remember what the second was. It's a weird sensation to start running off the bike because you feel like you're going SO SLOW. If I had a nicer (i.e. lighter weight) bike, I could shave several minutes off my bike time. I generally have an average pace somewhere between 4:15 and 4:30, with a few of the miles at a 4:00 pace. (The husband tells me that cyclists talk in terms of MPH, but I run and talk in terms of pace, so that's what I stick with. that and I can't convert times like 4:15 or 4:30 into MPH in my head quickly) We drove the bike course last week, and it's definitely hillier than what I'm used to riding. Not hilly, by any means, but it's not flat like when I bike around my house. I'm not sure how that will affect my time/speed. if I can stick with a 4:30 pace, that should put me around 54 minutes for the bike portion. I really don't know what to expect for the run. It's a flat course which is great, but my running lately has been awful. I just haven't been feeling it. I don't know if it's because I had such great runs when we were in CA for spring break and my runs here haven't been as good, so I'm just discouraged? I don't know, but it's been awful. I have had good runs the last few times I've gone out at least. I had originally hoped to keep about a 12:00 pace for the run portion, assuming I'd just be tired at that point, but since I kept about a 10;30 pace for the two mile run brick workout, I'm fairly confident that I can do faster than 12:00. Plus as my husband pointed out, I might as well go balls to the wall and give it all I have, it's not like I'm working out the next day. Regardless, I'm estimating a 35:00 total run time for the 5K. Not super fast by any means, and ideally I'm hoping to finish it faster than that. Overall I'm hoping to finish in about 1:45. I had originally estimated 2:00, but when I said something about it to the husband he thought that was way too high a time and I could do it in less time. When I really calculated it out, I agreed. I'm hoping the transitions don't take me too long, but I don't think they will since I don't have cycling shoes. Once I'm done with the swim I'll put on my socks and running shoes and helmet, then for T2 (the bike to run transition) all I have to do is remove the helmet, throw on my running hat and running belt thing and I can be off. I go back and forth between excited and nervous, but I guess that's to be expected of any race. I know I can do each leg on its own just fine, so I think if I go into it thinking of each event as its own thing (i.e. "I'm just swimming 400 meters" then "I'm just going on a 20k bike ride" then "I'm just doing a 5k run") it won't be as bad. And it will be pretty freakin' awesome to cross that finish line and be a triathlete!!

Tri training update

I think I'm something like six weeks out from the sprint tri on Mother's Day. I'm really panicking about it. I know I'm capable of doing each leg on its own...swim 400 meters? Sure! Bike 12 miles? Definitely, I just did it this past Saturday. Run a 5K? No problem. But putting them together and having the transitions in between? I'm going to be a freakin' basket case as it gets closer. I'm really nervous about the run because every time I've tried to run after biking (albeit every time was going from a spin bike at the gym to running on a treadmill), my calf muscles have cramped up. It has me very worried. THe husband thinks I need more electrolytes (it is what plants crave, so maybe my muscles crave it too), so I may try having some Gatorade on my bike ride before I run. This weekend I have slated an eight mile bike ride followed by a one mile run, so we'll see how that goes for me. I'm not super concerned about the transition from swim to bike, I kind of view that as mostly having to remember everything I need to take on the bike. I'm going to wear a tri shirt and tri shorts, so I'll just be able to grab what I need, get on the bike, and go. I'm just worried that my legs are going to give out on the run or cramp up and I won't be able to do anything. Ugh! I also need to review official triathlon rules so I don't end up getting disqualified for some silly little thing that I should have known.

I can swim a mile, can you?

I feel like I'm part of some elite swimming club now. A week and a half ago I swam a mile straight--33 laps! I'm still pretty amazed with myself. Isn't it incredible what your body is capable of doing?? When I first started swimming eight-ish weeks ago, I could barely swim two laps without feeling like I was going to die or my heart was going to explode. And then I swam a mile. My BFF Jen also swam a mile and was telling her five year old son about it. He asked if that was something everyone could do, and she said no! We figured other than us there are just two people we know of that can do it (or have done it)--my husband and our friend Tessa. That made me feel even more bad ass for it.

PR for the mile!

I ended up running twice on our vacation, just two miles each time. And each time I got a PR for the mile! Woo hoo!! The first day I ran it was 10:20, then the second time I ran it was 10:01. I was a little annoyed I came so close to breaking under 10:00. I could have kicked it into higher gear at the end had I realized. I'm not sure what the reason is for my increased speed--cooler weather, lower altitude, my breathing is better from swimming. I don't know, but I sure hope it can keep up on runs at home. Especially since I've already registered for next year's Phoenix Rock and Roll Half Marathon with an estimated finish time of 2:15...I'll have to run around a 10:00 pace if I want to finish within that goal!

Outdoor swimming = AWESOME

My family and my mom spent my son's spring break week in southern California. In the past I probably wouldn't have even given much thought to exercising while on vacation. I mean, it's vacation, so why would you? But, I'm training for a triathlon, and I'm in the home stretch of the six weeks to swim a mile program, so going a week without exercising wasn't really an option. I knew I'd be able to run some, but I was concerned about getting in some swims while we were gone. I found out there was an LA Fitness less than five miles from where we were staying, so that was my main plan. I called when we arrived in CA to see if I could use the gym since I'm a member in AZ, but my membership doesn't include gyms in other states. I could use the facilities for $5 each time I wanted to go. Before I had a chance to call the gym, my husband found a public, city pool that was right on the ocean, so we had looked that up as well. There was an indoor Olympic pool and an outdoor 25 meter pool. We were both kind of excited about swimming in an Olympic pool, but sadly it's closed until further notice. To swim here it was only $4 and right on the ocean, so I figured that would be a better experience than the LA Fitness lap pool.

So while we were having a beach day one day, I left my husband and mom with the kiddos and went off to swim. This week's swim was 1000 meters followed by 4x100s and 4x50s. Twenty laps to start it off! Man alive! I was a little nervous when I got there because all the lanes were taken, and I didn't want to have to share a lane. Thankfully by the time I got changed and out there a few had cleared up. Let me tell you--the people swimming there were swimmers, not like the majority of people that are swimming in my LA Fitness pool in Phoenix. It was really nice because it motivated me to really work on my form and just keep swimming.

You know what I learned? Swimming outside is AWESOME. It was so cool to see gorgeous blue sky above me when I'd turn my head to breath and just the way the water looked. I loved it. I've been enjoying swimming in general, but swimming outside really made me like it even more. Our old gym had an outdoor pool for lap swimming, and after that swim I really wished we could go back there, but it's really expensive and far away. So I'll just have to take whatever few opportunities I have to swim outside when they present themselves. I wish I'd been able to get one more outdoor swim in before the end of our trip, but it just wasn't in the cards.

Swimming Week Two

Today was Week Two, Day One of the swim a mile in six weeks plan. It started with a 200 meter swim (four laps in the pool at my gym), then repeated last week's 4x100, 4x50, and 4x25 routine. I was a little nervous about the 200m for a few reasons. One, there were days last week that just the 100s were tough to do, so doubling that without stopping seemed daunting. Also I have a cold that hit me full force over the weekend, so exercising in general sounded awful.

Jen and I met at the gym at 6:00 this morning and got in the pool. Neither of us were feeling it and were tempted to get in the hot tub instead, but I finally said that I didn't get up at 5:30 to go sit in the hot tub, so we got started. After the 200m was done, I said to her I was surprised that it really wasn't hard. I was a bit worried I'd lose track of my laps, but that wasn't the case at all.

The rest of the workout was tough in spots, mostly because I had to stop and cough pretty often because of this darn cold. And the 25m at the end were HARD. I take it as a sign of a good workout, though. I always feel the last few of whatever you're doing should be hard or you either haven't worked hard or long enough. I was very glad to be done, though. All in all it was a good swim.

Now I really need to decide on a triathlon training program. Do I do 12 weeks or 8? I need to review both of them and decide today. The tri is 12 weeks from this past Sunday, so if I'm going to do 12 weeks of training I need to start now. My friend Dani is doing an 8 week program, my husband is doing 12. Ugh! I've put it off for too long and need to decide now!

Try a tri!

Waaay back when, we went to a fancy schmancy gym. Once an LA Fitness opened up near our house we switched, mostly because it was closer but also to save a little money each month. Anyway, the old gym would occasionally have an indoor triathlon event and there would always be things up all over the gym to "try a tri." I'd been hemming and hawing about doing a triathlon as a fitness goal. I needed something after my last half marathon but wasn't sure if I was ready for the tri route. I was intrigued by them (a sprint distance anyway...I'm not completely crazy and contemplating an ironman or anything like that...yet...), but I'm not a strong swimmer, and the only biking I've done in the past 10 years has been at spin classes at the gym. I found a couple sprint distance tris I was eyeing, and my friend Dani was on board to do one with me. Actually the ones I was looking at weren't even sprint distance--they were more mini tris. While I was trying to decide if I wanted to sign up or not, my husband registered for an Olympic distance tri on Mother's Day. I'll admit I was a little miffed at first that he got to go off and do something on Mother's Day which would leave me home with the kids alone on my special day. Actually I take that back...I think he registered before I even considered trying one.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up from a nap on a recent Friday afternoon and discovered an email in my inbox from active.com confirming my registration for the sprint distance race of the tri he is doing. Yup...my husband (whom I love very much) signed me up for a triathlon while I napped. That'll learn me to never nap again, at least while he's home! So I'm going to be swimming 400 meters (roughly 8 laps in a normal, gym-size pool), biking 20k (12-ish miles), and running a 5k the morning of Mother's Day. I go back and forth between being excited and really REALLY freaked out. Dani signed up to do the same one, and another friend of mine is considering it. I'm not worried about the running--I can run a 5k no problem. Swimming and biking on the other hand I'm not so sure about.

In preparation for this swim, the husband suggested I do the program he used when he first started swimming, to go from not swimming (well, not necessarily NOT swimming, but not being an avid swimmer I guess) to swimming a mile in six weeks. I was telling my BFF Jen that I was going to start going to the gym early in the morning on Tuesday and Thursday to swim. I can't go at my normal time those days because of some weekly commitments I have. She decided to join me. We tacked on a Saturday morning workout, too, so we could get in the three days of training for this program. The first day was AWFUL. I really thought I was going to have a heart attack after the first set of two laps. My heart rate was through the roof. It did get easier with each swim that week, but we decided last Saturday that we'd redo week one and really follow the plan. It calls for taking a certain number of breaths between sets, and we weren't adhering to that at all. So we decided to dub last week our inaugural swim week and then start the program this week. I have to say, my swims this week all went a lot smoother. Today's was a bit of a struggle, but I have a cold, so I found myself having to stop and cough pretty often. Thursday's swim was fantastic. I really focused on form (from some tips the husband gave me) and found the swim was much easier and I was able to go faster, too. Or at least it seemed I was going faster.

The biking aspect I still haven't really started, except for attending a spin class once a week now and using the spin bikes for cardio at the gym. The husband just got himself a new tri bike, so I'm going to inherit his cheap Walmart road bike until I decide if this is something I want to stick with or not. If I like it, I'll probably get a nicer bike down the line. Oh yeah, and I don't have a helmet so that makes it difficult to go on a real ride. I just ordered one yesterday, and it should be here by Wednesday, so that's good news. I am excited to get out and bike. I do remember biking some when I was unemployed in 2001, but it wasn't very often or for very long.

So that's where I stand as of now. I'm enjoying swimming the more I do it, and I'm wondering if it might even make running a bit easier. I've always struggled with my breathing when I run and have to take an inhaler before I run, so I'm kind of hoping that swimming and increasing my lung capacity will help with my run breathing. We'll see. I still haven't decided on a tri training plan, and I really need to get that done. There are basically two I'm trying to decide between--an 8 week and a 12 week. The race is 12 weeks from tomorrow, so I need to decide soon which one I'm going to use. As nervous as I am about it, it will be pretty awesome to be able to say that I've done a triathlon.

What's next?

I've gone from being a non-runner (okay, non-active at all) to having completed two half marathons in the past year. I need to figure out what my next goal is going to be so I don't slip back into a sedentary lifestyle. I definitely want to do the 100 pushup challenge, but I'm thinking of finding a sprint distance triathlon to do and start training for that. A sprint distance is a half mile swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. I think the swimming would be the hardest part for me because I'm just not a good swimmer. Although my husband wasn't either and then he did the Alcatraz Shark Swim, so I'm sure I could prepare for it. My friend Dani did a sprint tri awhile back and gave me the website she used to find it. They have one at the end of April I'm thinking maybe I'll sign up for once more info is available about it. And after I research training plans to make sure I give myself enough time.

Second half marathon - done!

Way back in May when I was just barely starting to train for the Disneyland Half Marathon I went ahead and registered for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. I think there was a coupon code for discounted registration. I don't know why else I would have done it since I still wasn't 100% sold on running at that point I don't think. But after actually starting to enjoy running and how I loved running the Disneyland Half, I was glad I had signed up. The husband actually signed up, too, so we could run together. It was his first half marathon.

The race was yesterday. I was excited about it but nervous because I really didn't feel like I'd been training enough leading up to it. I'd done all the long runs, but I had really slacked on the shorter runs during the week. Like REALLY slacked. I had the mindset that since I'd already done one half, surely I could easily do another. I wasn't entirely wrong, but I probably could have trained a little harder.

My previous half marathon time was 2:45. I really wanted to come in on this one at 2:30. The husband and I had been averaging an 11:30 pace on long runs which would just about put us there (we'd need to do 11:27 the whole time to get a 2:30 finish). We started off really strong, varying between 10:00 and 10:30 but maintaining close to a 10:30 pace. I felt great! I fell into the pace easily, my breathing was good, it was a GREAT morning for a run--not too cold, mostly overcast, wide open streets so runners weren't all smashed together. We had driven the route the day before so I knew where the turns were and how far we had on each straightaway and all that.

I felt great until about halfway through the race when my left calf muscle started to cramp. The right one soon followed. I thought maybe I could run through it and just kept going. Nope, it wasn't going away. There was a Gu stop at 7.7 miles, so I walked through that and then decided to stop for a second and stretch my calves. That helped initially but not long after the cramping was back. I stopped again at some point between miles 9 and 10 to stretch it some more. The whole time I was thinking, "I ran every step of my last half while suffering from strep throat and now I'm having to walk and full on stop because of a stupid cramp?!" I wasn't happy about it, but it HURT. The last three miles of the race were all literally downhill. It had been a gradual incline leading up to that which might have been part of the problem. I hate gradual inclines--I'd much rather power up a noticeable hill than go 1-2 miles where the elevation is just slightly increasing the whole way. Anyway, I tried to enjoy the downhill and let gravity do it's thing and help speed me along. We were still under our pace target at this point, with about 2 minutes cushion built in, so I was feeling pretty confident that we'd finish in 2:30. Then I started getting charlie horse cramps in my calves. I almost full on fell at one point from one of them. It was not cool. So, more walking. My awesome, sweet, wonderful husband stayed with me the whole time, too. I told him to go on ahead because I wanted to make sure he finished in the time we wanted to, I really didn't want to slow him down. Do you know what he said? He told me he'd carry me if he had to. I love him so much.

Right after the marker for Mile 12 there was a bridge. The husband said let's at least run across the bridge and see how it goes from there. I made it most of the way across before I had to walk again because the pain in my legs was AWFUL. By that point we had less than a mile to go. I walked a little and then forced myself to keep running the rest of the way. I knew with all the walking we were going to be cutting it close to hitting our 2:30 goal. I tried to reassure myself by saying that no matter what, at that point I was going to finish with a PR because I would finish before 2:45. It helped a little, but I really wanted my husband to hit his goal. I knew once Sun Devil Stadium came into view that we were in the home stretch. I knew I could make it at that point, and even though it hurt like, well, I can't really say because I think my mom reads this and she would not approve of the word I'm thinking of, and I wanted to walk I kept going. My dumb Nike run tracking app somehow was ahead on the mileage, so it said I was done when I still had something like 0.2 miles left to go. Not cool, man. Not cool. It was a glorious sight when the finish line came into view. We past my BFF's husband waiting in the crowd and gave him a high five. We were cutting it super close to hitting 2:30. Under normal circumstances, I would have sprinted for the finish but as I was struggling to move at that point, I knew that wasn't going to happen. When I stopped my Nike app, it said my time was 2:31. So close!! At that point I was just glad to be done and not have to run anymore. My calf muscles were screaming.

By the time we got home from the race (after all the post-race stuff and going to lunch), the official times had been posted. Mine was 2:30:55 and the husband's was 2:30:56. He's a little butt hurt that his was somehow one second more, but we're both rounding down the time to be 2:30. So not only did I get a new PR and shatter my old one my 15 minutes (18 minutes if I go by my official race time from Disney, which included two bathroom stops), I did it with cramped up legs.

I still have no idea what caused the leg cramps, and I haven't had a chance to research it really to see what it could have been from. My form wasn't any different, I wasn't wearing new shoes (I wasn't wearing new anything!). I don't know. It's especially weird because in all the runs I have ever done, I have never had an issue with cramps of any kind. I'm hoping my next half goes off without any hitches--no sickness, no pain, no cramps. It would be nice to just have a normal run!!