This weekend I missed our Saturday Practice because I was up in San Francisco with 3 of my best friends, one of whom is the sister of my mentee Yaz. Despite missing practice, Tas (my best friend and mentees sister) dragged me to the hotel gym and I did a 4 mile run/walk. I had the brilliant idea to run OUTSIDE, but Tas vetoed that due to the fact that SF is entirely made up of mountains, and somehow you always seem to be running UP them. So in the gym, it was kind of a disaster because I forgot my inhaler...I found that I could do a really slow run without walking at 5.2 mph...any faster and my chest would get too tight and I had to walk. It's not so awesome that I still struggle with the asthma, but the good news is that usually it's not such a big issue.
And tonight I redeemed myself. I grabbed my 2 mentees, or maybe begged them to join me so I wouldn't puss out, and we ran 4 miles on the strand in Manhattan beach. 4 miles in 41:41, and we stopped for 2:20, so techncially if we hadn't pussed out for 2 minutes, it woulda been faster than my "typical" pace. Felt good! Then off to Subway for a $5, $5 dollar, $5 dollar footlong. (argh!!! I hate that commercial!!)
Swim practice tomorrow. Goal is to make it 5-6 workouts this week.
Wildflower is in 8 weeks!!! Are you f*in kidding me?????? eek!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A Creaky Start
After about 2 weeks of getting in a few workouts, my body is remembering that it doesn't really love to do all these things. From my neck to my toes, there are a smorgasbord of aches, pains, cracking, stiffness. And it's funny that as much work as I have, that I'm a mentor...I'm sure some of my mentees could teach me a thing or two.
But fortunately, there's this lovely little thing called massage and having had 90 minutes of pure bliss tonight, I'm feeling loads better. Until the next time I decide to move again :)
On the other creaky side of things is the fundraising. I know the economy is tight, but I'm really hoping to get the support that I need so that I can find myself not in a stressed position where I can't be there for my mentees. Every little bit counts, but it's hard to ask when everyone is just squeaking by.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/wildtri09/jimprota
But fortunately, there's this lovely little thing called massage and having had 90 minutes of pure bliss tonight, I'm feeling loads better. Until the next time I decide to move again :)
On the other creaky side of things is the fundraising. I know the economy is tight, but I'm really hoping to get the support that I need so that I can find myself not in a stressed position where I can't be there for my mentees. Every little bit counts, but it's hard to ask when everyone is just squeaking by.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/wildtri09/jimprota
Friday, February 13, 2009
Tis the New Season!
When we last left our heroine, she was completing a half-marathon in December, after a year of moderate training and racing, that included 3 sprint triathlons, 1 international distance (my first in san Diego), and 1 full Olympic distance triathlon.
It was a good year, one that had me say "hmmm, I'd love to help others through similar torture so they can feel as good as I did, competing and raising money for Team-in-Training.
So now here i am, and not only am I participating this year, training for the Olympic Distance triathlon at Wildflower on May 3rd, but i am also proud to say i'm MENTORING for the Summer Season of team-in-training. I'm just barely starting to raise money (i'm aiming for about $3,000), and just barely starting to move my ass again.
I had a rough December and January...and a little bit of February..for some reason I just got hit punch after punch by flu, cold, food poisoning, cold, bronchitis. Seriously.
But now I'm feeling pretty good and ready to go!
I don't think that anyone is reading this, so i feel no shame posting the website where you can donate.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/sdtri09/jimprota
It was a good year, one that had me say "hmmm, I'd love to help others through similar torture so they can feel as good as I did, competing and raising money for Team-in-Training.
So now here i am, and not only am I participating this year, training for the Olympic Distance triathlon at Wildflower on May 3rd, but i am also proud to say i'm MENTORING for the Summer Season of team-in-training. I'm just barely starting to raise money (i'm aiming for about $3,000), and just barely starting to move my ass again.
I had a rough December and January...and a little bit of February..for some reason I just got hit punch after punch by flu, cold, food poisoning, cold, bronchitis. Seriously.
But now I'm feeling pretty good and ready to go!
I don't think that anyone is reading this, so i feel no shame posting the website where you can donate.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/sdtri09/jimprota
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Strawberry Fields Sprint Tri
This past Sunday, I did tri #2 -- a sprint up in Oxnard. It was a 500m swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run.
All in all it was a fast course and a lot more fun than the pseudo olympic in san diego. I seriously enjoyed it!
Some Highlights and Notes:
1. I will no longer show up the morning of the race. I was completely a mess, trying to find a tire pump (my crappy one exploded on Coach Brad as he was trying to inflate my tires), forgetting to get a race chip (thanks to brad again, I got one at the last minute), and still fitting in my pre-race ritual (don't ask)
2. I ran into a high school buddy of mine -Doug Thaxton -- married for 10 years with 3 kids. It's funny as i'm so old it took me a few minutes to remember his name. THere was also the memory that in high school we 'hung out', but i was so afraid of boys at that point, I would practically run away if he even tried to hold my hand. Ha. Nothing like racing in your backyard...thank god it was him and not some other people I can think of that i want to avoid the rest of my life.
3. O.M.G. the WAVES!!! A group of us, about 5 minutes into the swim got CLOBBERED by a wave that broke pretty darn far out. All of a sudden, I was tits-up, and missing my goggles (thank god i barely grabbed them). I didn't even see it coming and neither did the 10 dazed people around me. Meanwhile, my coach Erika was practically out the other side already, traipsing up the beach on the way to the bike ride.
4. A 3 mile run = WAY BETTER THAN 6 MILE RUN!!!
5. Technically I could qualify for the "athena" category. This must be remedied. Call me "Athena" and I"ll shove my sport beans where the sun don't shine. *kiss!*
6. I beat the guy dressed as a giant strawberry!!!! I seriously don't like to lose to fruit.
All in all it was a fast course and a lot more fun than the pseudo olympic in san diego. I seriously enjoyed it!
Some Highlights and Notes:
1. I will no longer show up the morning of the race. I was completely a mess, trying to find a tire pump (my crappy one exploded on Coach Brad as he was trying to inflate my tires), forgetting to get a race chip (thanks to brad again, I got one at the last minute), and still fitting in my pre-race ritual (don't ask)
2. I ran into a high school buddy of mine -Doug Thaxton -- married for 10 years with 3 kids. It's funny as i'm so old it took me a few minutes to remember his name. THere was also the memory that in high school we 'hung out', but i was so afraid of boys at that point, I would practically run away if he even tried to hold my hand. Ha. Nothing like racing in your backyard...thank god it was him and not some other people I can think of that i want to avoid the rest of my life.
3. O.M.G. the WAVES!!! A group of us, about 5 minutes into the swim got CLOBBERED by a wave that broke pretty darn far out. All of a sudden, I was tits-up, and missing my goggles (thank god i barely grabbed them). I didn't even see it coming and neither did the 10 dazed people around me. Meanwhile, my coach Erika was practically out the other side already, traipsing up the beach on the way to the bike ride.
4. A 3 mile run = WAY BETTER THAN 6 MILE RUN!!!
5. Technically I could qualify for the "athena" category. This must be remedied. Call me "Athena" and I"ll shove my sport beans where the sun don't shine. *kiss!*
6. I beat the guy dressed as a giant strawberry!!!! I seriously don't like to lose to fruit.
My "final" email to my Supporters
Well it's been a long time in coming, as I finished the San Diego International Triathlon more than two weeks ago, but I just wanted to let you know that I am in fact still alive. And I finished it -- in under 3 hours, which was my goal!It was an amazing experience and actually harder than I thought it would be, though let's face it, I had dreaded that 6.2 mile run since I started training back in February. The day before the race, we travelled to San Diego, checked in and got our goodie bag. In retrospect, this was probably my favorite part of the weekend - FREE FOOD! ha.
I had a great big pasta dinner with my family that night. I mean BIG. I would train for 5 more months just to eat a meal like that guilt free again. Yay Carbs!!!
After a relatively sleepless night, I woke up at 4:45 and met my team in the lobby, at which point we walked over to the race start. We got our numbers marked in permanent ink on our bodies (i was #963) and did last minute preparations of our transition areas. It was a beautiful day and there was so much energy at the race start, as 1300 people from a range of ages, body types, experience, and strengths waited for their wave (age group) to start. I noted to a friend how exciting it all was....except for the pesky little part of having to swim, bike and run myself. :-)SwimThe pros went off at 6:45 a.m., and my age group was to start at 7:25. All of the 30-35's (holy crap, i'm 30...) in our white swim caps swam out at about 7:20 and were given a one-minute countdown. One girl remarked she liked my pink goggles. I was happy to look to the shore and see that my parents, brother, fiance and friends were on the shore, coffee in hand, all ready to cheer me on. I was excited but nervous and hoping to not come in last like I darn near did at the duathlon I did a couple months ago.
BEEEEEEEEP: I swam and swam and swam and swam and swam....making it one buoy to the next, plodding along. I truly had no idea if I was in first, last, or even necessarily swimming in a straight line. But eventually rounded the last buoy, happy to see that I was even passing several orange caps (people who had started 5 minutes before me in the 25-29 age group). I was also getting passed by some pink caps (35-39), but never mind that. So the Loch Jess Monster stumbled out of the water, exhausted but happy to know I had held my own on the swim. Transition 1 (Swim to bike)Up the ramp (hey, no sand this time!) I ran through the long parking lot till I got to the row of bikes where mine was. I was dizzy and disoriented, but that's to be expected. On with the helmet, socks, and bike shoes, then bike off the rack and running/stumbling it out of the transition area to where I could finally mount and take off. I gave the ole peace sign to my adoring and caffeinated fans before i took off out of T1. BikeI hopped on the bike and took off peddling. We had driven the course the day before, which in retrospect may not have been a GREAT idea. Because I knew it was going to be a loooong slow uphill for more than 3 miles. Of course, slow is different for some than others as several people zoomed past me. Looking at my odometer at the worst points, I was at about 7.1 miles per hour. I sorta figure that below 7.0, I'm walking, so I'm happy I managed to not have to dismount at any point. Once I finally got to the top, it was small rolling hills out to Cabrillo National Monument along the point of San Diego. You have the ocean on both sides and it's really beautiful. This part of the ride was manageable and it was (dare I say) fun doing the loop twice at the top and crossing paths with all my teammates and yelling 'go team!' and knowing we were all accomplishing something together. Some weirdo wearing an old man mask was at the turnaround, not doing much except providing some comic relief for us to keep going. I wonder if he was just a weirdo standing at the turnaround, or a weirdo that the SD Tri people HIRED to stand at the turnaround. The great thing about 3+ miles uphill in the beginning is that it's 3+ miles alllll downhill on the way back. So I had a nice 30+mph pace headed home. I think, though, I actually threw on the brakes a couple times just to avoid the impending doom of the run. I felt strong on the bike after the initial uphill, but you can't believe how ridiculous some of these athletes were and how well conditioned their legs are to handle the bike portion. I spent most of the 5 months ignoring many of the slated practice rides because hey, it's just riding a bike!!! But I realized in the aftermath that my bike was relatively my WEAKEST leg. Coincidence? :)Transition 2I flew down the last hill toward the transition area and saw my mom in pink with the event photographer prompting him to catch me in action (link is below). I have this special thing that happens when I ride after I'm in the water -- my nose runs like crazy -- so I was pleased the photographer could catch all the hot snot action. Seriously, it's like a faucet for the whole 18 miles.
Anyway, at the end of the bike I saw Erik, my dad, bro, and some family friends, gave another very original 'peace' sign, before I hopped off the bike and beelined towards my running gear. Throwing on my running shoes and hat, I took off for the final frontier, begrudgingly, but determined to not start walking until i was AT LEAST out of eyeshot of the crowd. The Evil RunI ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran....oh, and did I mention I ran and ran and ran some more? And then after about a billion years, I saw it......THE ONE MILE MARK!!!! Holy crap. I mean, seriously, it felt like 10. So then my legs started to come back and I ran and ran and ran and ran and ran. After a few minutes, I figured maybe they were only marking off every odd mile. No such luck. After another billion years, there was mile 2. Around this time, I started getting passed. And not just passed, but PASSED. The fun thing about the body markings is that on your back left calf, they put your age. And there's something very disconcerting about the wind that kicks up as you're getting SCHOOLED by calf after calf passing you, mocking you, with the numbers 40, 46, 49, 39, 55, etc going by. Some of these women were amazing and while I cursed them, I also truly admired their fitness and youth and it gave me something to aspire to. My friend Jihyon, 39 with 3 kids, flew by me, told me to pick up my pace ("YOU'RE SMILING, RUN FASTER"!), and suddenly was only a speck in the distance. I apparently smile when I'm horribly miserable and exhausted, by the way.
I had to walk some. I ran/walked/ran/walked. ran, ran, ran, ran. Dumped several dixie cups of water over my head, just because it seemed like the cool thing to do. Until I realized I was wearing all white. So along the water, through a little marina area, then through a dreaded mile+ asphalt jungle behind a car rental place near the airport I went. It was lonely and sad there. I think I saw a skull and tumbleweed on the ground next to an empty gatorade cup. But I made it and then only a couple more miles to go. It was really hard between miles 1 and 6 (yup, pretty much all of it), but I reminded myself that if my mom could do a year of chemo, I could run for an hour.
After mile 5, it was an eternity, and I wondered if I would see a mile 6 marker, or just the finish line (at mile 6.2), because that 6 marker was nowhere to be found. I did find a homeless man in a wheelchair that yelled 'looking good, honey!' and attempted to wheel alongside me, though. And then there it was. I came around the corner and I saw the balloons and heard music and saw a crowd of people and the finish -- about .1 miles and a minute away. And the weirdest thing happened: I got all choked up and started to hyperventilate -- my chest closed up and i was sure I was having an asthma attack (which was odd because I was fine up to that point) I had to remind myself that everything was ok and try to deepen my breaths to make it to the end. I saw about 20 of my teammates and my family along the side and I put my arms up in victory for a photo record of all the fun I was having, and stomped through the finish line onto the final "X" that records your time...
It was surreal. And then I broke down sobbing and hyperventilating and had the first panic attack I've ever had in my life. Who knows why. Maybe it was the 5 months coming to an end, or feeling like I had accomplished something big, or fatigue, or let down, or excitement. Whatever it was, it was both bizarre and amazing. Once I could breathe, and got tons of hugs from my family and Erik, it hit me. I'M FREAKIN TIRED!!!!!!!!! and?.....and?.......I did it. It's over. I'm a triathlete.
My final time was 2 hours 41 minutes 51 seconds (2:41:51). I finished in the bottom 3rd of my age division, but not last! I came in top 1/2 in the swim, which was a big improvement, and came in within minutes of several other people on my team, even beating a couple I figured would blow me out of the water. I did the run in 1:05, even with all the pissing and moaning. So there were small victories within the overall victory. Not that it's a race, but...well, it is. And I'm competitive. And I know what I need to work on now.
I could keep going on all about the next 24 hours of extreme fatigue, and the relative lack of activity since then. But instead I'm going to leap forward a little to say that I'm doing a mini-Tri in Oxnard this weekend with many of my teammates. I'm still lightly training, and planning to start hitting it harder in order to do a full olympic distance in September (LA Triathlon September 7th). And while I don't expect to turn pro anytime soon, to be able to start competing against myself, and make positive strides, is exciting to think about. Because, you know I'm a triathlete now! (as opposed to someone who did one triathlon,heh).
To anyone who thinks even SLIGHTLY that this is something you'd want to do, and you have a nagging voice telling you you can't do it...WRONG. You can. You just can! I strongly strongly recommend the Team-in-Training program. If you have any questions, you can ask me anytime. To be trained in the way they train you, to have the support of coaches and to make a whole new set of like-minded friends, is a gift. To be able to also give back while doing it is a bigger gift. To know you have people like YOU offering support and donations to the endeavor is yet another amazing bonus. So Two Thumbs Up for TNT.
And for you.
So now maybe my next blog will have to be named bigredDIDatriathlon.blogspot.com?
I had a great big pasta dinner with my family that night. I mean BIG. I would train for 5 more months just to eat a meal like that guilt free again. Yay Carbs!!!
After a relatively sleepless night, I woke up at 4:45 and met my team in the lobby, at which point we walked over to the race start. We got our numbers marked in permanent ink on our bodies (i was #963) and did last minute preparations of our transition areas. It was a beautiful day and there was so much energy at the race start, as 1300 people from a range of ages, body types, experience, and strengths waited for their wave (age group) to start. I noted to a friend how exciting it all was....except for the pesky little part of having to swim, bike and run myself. :-)SwimThe pros went off at 6:45 a.m., and my age group was to start at 7:25. All of the 30-35's (holy crap, i'm 30...) in our white swim caps swam out at about 7:20 and were given a one-minute countdown. One girl remarked she liked my pink goggles. I was happy to look to the shore and see that my parents, brother, fiance and friends were on the shore, coffee in hand, all ready to cheer me on. I was excited but nervous and hoping to not come in last like I darn near did at the duathlon I did a couple months ago.
BEEEEEEEEP: I swam and swam and swam and swam and swam....making it one buoy to the next, plodding along. I truly had no idea if I was in first, last, or even necessarily swimming in a straight line. But eventually rounded the last buoy, happy to see that I was even passing several orange caps (people who had started 5 minutes before me in the 25-29 age group). I was also getting passed by some pink caps (35-39), but never mind that. So the Loch Jess Monster stumbled out of the water, exhausted but happy to know I had held my own on the swim. Transition 1 (Swim to bike)Up the ramp (hey, no sand this time!) I ran through the long parking lot till I got to the row of bikes where mine was. I was dizzy and disoriented, but that's to be expected. On with the helmet, socks, and bike shoes, then bike off the rack and running/stumbling it out of the transition area to where I could finally mount and take off. I gave the ole peace sign to my adoring and caffeinated fans before i took off out of T1. BikeI hopped on the bike and took off peddling. We had driven the course the day before, which in retrospect may not have been a GREAT idea. Because I knew it was going to be a loooong slow uphill for more than 3 miles. Of course, slow is different for some than others as several people zoomed past me. Looking at my odometer at the worst points, I was at about 7.1 miles per hour. I sorta figure that below 7.0, I'm walking, so I'm happy I managed to not have to dismount at any point. Once I finally got to the top, it was small rolling hills out to Cabrillo National Monument along the point of San Diego. You have the ocean on both sides and it's really beautiful. This part of the ride was manageable and it was (dare I say) fun doing the loop twice at the top and crossing paths with all my teammates and yelling 'go team!' and knowing we were all accomplishing something together. Some weirdo wearing an old man mask was at the turnaround, not doing much except providing some comic relief for us to keep going. I wonder if he was just a weirdo standing at the turnaround, or a weirdo that the SD Tri people HIRED to stand at the turnaround. The great thing about 3+ miles uphill in the beginning is that it's 3+ miles alllll downhill on the way back. So I had a nice 30+mph pace headed home. I think, though, I actually threw on the brakes a couple times just to avoid the impending doom of the run. I felt strong on the bike after the initial uphill, but you can't believe how ridiculous some of these athletes were and how well conditioned their legs are to handle the bike portion. I spent most of the 5 months ignoring many of the slated practice rides because hey, it's just riding a bike!!! But I realized in the aftermath that my bike was relatively my WEAKEST leg. Coincidence? :)Transition 2I flew down the last hill toward the transition area and saw my mom in pink with the event photographer prompting him to catch me in action (link is below). I have this special thing that happens when I ride after I'm in the water -- my nose runs like crazy -- so I was pleased the photographer could catch all the hot snot action. Seriously, it's like a faucet for the whole 18 miles.
Anyway, at the end of the bike I saw Erik, my dad, bro, and some family friends, gave another very original 'peace' sign, before I hopped off the bike and beelined towards my running gear. Throwing on my running shoes and hat, I took off for the final frontier, begrudgingly, but determined to not start walking until i was AT LEAST out of eyeshot of the crowd. The Evil RunI ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran....oh, and did I mention I ran and ran and ran some more? And then after about a billion years, I saw it......THE ONE MILE MARK!!!! Holy crap. I mean, seriously, it felt like 10. So then my legs started to come back and I ran and ran and ran and ran and ran. After a few minutes, I figured maybe they were only marking off every odd mile. No such luck. After another billion years, there was mile 2. Around this time, I started getting passed. And not just passed, but PASSED. The fun thing about the body markings is that on your back left calf, they put your age. And there's something very disconcerting about the wind that kicks up as you're getting SCHOOLED by calf after calf passing you, mocking you, with the numbers 40, 46, 49, 39, 55, etc going by. Some of these women were amazing and while I cursed them, I also truly admired their fitness and youth and it gave me something to aspire to. My friend Jihyon, 39 with 3 kids, flew by me, told me to pick up my pace ("YOU'RE SMILING, RUN FASTER"!), and suddenly was only a speck in the distance. I apparently smile when I'm horribly miserable and exhausted, by the way.
I had to walk some. I ran/walked/ran/walked. ran, ran, ran, ran. Dumped several dixie cups of water over my head, just because it seemed like the cool thing to do. Until I realized I was wearing all white. So along the water, through a little marina area, then through a dreaded mile+ asphalt jungle behind a car rental place near the airport I went. It was lonely and sad there. I think I saw a skull and tumbleweed on the ground next to an empty gatorade cup. But I made it and then only a couple more miles to go. It was really hard between miles 1 and 6 (yup, pretty much all of it), but I reminded myself that if my mom could do a year of chemo, I could run for an hour.
After mile 5, it was an eternity, and I wondered if I would see a mile 6 marker, or just the finish line (at mile 6.2), because that 6 marker was nowhere to be found. I did find a homeless man in a wheelchair that yelled 'looking good, honey!' and attempted to wheel alongside me, though. And then there it was. I came around the corner and I saw the balloons and heard music and saw a crowd of people and the finish -- about .1 miles and a minute away. And the weirdest thing happened: I got all choked up and started to hyperventilate -- my chest closed up and i was sure I was having an asthma attack (which was odd because I was fine up to that point) I had to remind myself that everything was ok and try to deepen my breaths to make it to the end. I saw about 20 of my teammates and my family along the side and I put my arms up in victory for a photo record of all the fun I was having, and stomped through the finish line onto the final "X" that records your time...
It was surreal. And then I broke down sobbing and hyperventilating and had the first panic attack I've ever had in my life. Who knows why. Maybe it was the 5 months coming to an end, or feeling like I had accomplished something big, or fatigue, or let down, or excitement. Whatever it was, it was both bizarre and amazing. Once I could breathe, and got tons of hugs from my family and Erik, it hit me. I'M FREAKIN TIRED!!!!!!!!! and?.....and?.......I did it. It's over. I'm a triathlete.
My final time was 2 hours 41 minutes 51 seconds (2:41:51). I finished in the bottom 3rd of my age division, but not last! I came in top 1/2 in the swim, which was a big improvement, and came in within minutes of several other people on my team, even beating a couple I figured would blow me out of the water. I did the run in 1:05, even with all the pissing and moaning. So there were small victories within the overall victory. Not that it's a race, but...well, it is. And I'm competitive. And I know what I need to work on now.
I could keep going on all about the next 24 hours of extreme fatigue, and the relative lack of activity since then. But instead I'm going to leap forward a little to say that I'm doing a mini-Tri in Oxnard this weekend with many of my teammates. I'm still lightly training, and planning to start hitting it harder in order to do a full olympic distance in September (LA Triathlon September 7th). And while I don't expect to turn pro anytime soon, to be able to start competing against myself, and make positive strides, is exciting to think about. Because, you know I'm a triathlete now! (as opposed to someone who did one triathlon,heh).
To anyone who thinks even SLIGHTLY that this is something you'd want to do, and you have a nagging voice telling you you can't do it...WRONG. You can. You just can! I strongly strongly recommend the Team-in-Training program. If you have any questions, you can ask me anytime. To be trained in the way they train you, to have the support of coaches and to make a whole new set of like-minded friends, is a gift. To be able to also give back while doing it is a bigger gift. To know you have people like YOU offering support and donations to the endeavor is yet another amazing bonus. So Two Thumbs Up for TNT.
And for you.
So now maybe my next blog will have to be named bigredDIDatriathlon.blogspot.com?
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Race Results!!!
Well, I did it! I am officially a triathlete. This past weekend I did the San Diego International Triathlon, a 1000meter swim, a 30k bike, and a 10k run. (translated that is a .6 mile swim, 18.6 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) I'm going to write a whole play by play on the experience in my other blog (bigreddoesatriathlon.blogspot.com) when I’m not quite so hungover from an insane karaoke night, but I really for now just want to report the results, that weren’t as slow as I had anticipated!
In my age group , I finished 50 out of 68 women…ok, so it was definitely in the back of the pack, but there are good things to report within that stat, that I’m proud of, and it also gives me a way to see where my weaknesses are for further training.
First off are the numbers.
Overall time: 2:41:51 (773rd place in the entire field – out of about 900 doing the full distance)
Swim: 19:26 (663rd place)
Bike: 1:08 (764 place)
Run: 1:06:58 (785 place)
My transition from swim to bike took 3:52
My transition from bike to run took 2:59 (these figures include running all the way into the lot where the bike rack is and back out)…
The good things to report are these:
My swim time was in the top half of my age group and I even passed some of the people in the wave before us (they send us out every 5 minutes based on our age). I finished 3+ minutes faster than the last swim race I had done 2 months ago, in under 20 minutes!! You can see that if I had kept up the pace of my swim thru the bike and run, I would have finished 663rd instead of 773rd (I lost a bit on the 2nd 2 legs, ahem….).
The bike was ok – I had no idea how I would rank in the pack. The run was about as horrible as I expected, but to finish 6.2 miles in just over an hour, doing slightly slower than 10 minute miles is really cool, considering I couldn’t run a full mile 4.5 months ago when I started all this.
Compared to my teammates doing the race, I was surprised to learn how close in time I was to some of the people I thought were in considerably better shape.
Overall, I finished, I survived, and I can see that I need to start hammering it harder on the bike and run – building my legs and fitness up for those events, as well as improving on my swim strokes to be more efficient and strong when I emerge from the water.
Anyway, I’m proud and happy to have accomplished this goal and milestone and am looking forward to keeping at it!! Thanks for the support from those of you who have watched me on this journey!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Games Coaches Play
"Ok, now do 5 x 100meters."
Hey WAIT, that's 500 meters...
Yeah, that 10 seconds rest in between doesn't really delineate anything to me. A wolf in sheeps' clothing is still a wolf!
6 x 25 = 150meters
You can't fool me!
5x50 = 250
mmmhmmmmmm
Hey WAIT, that's 500 meters...
Yeah, that 10 seconds rest in between doesn't really delineate anything to me. A wolf in sheeps' clothing is still a wolf!
6 x 25 = 150meters
You can't fool me!
5x50 = 250
mmmhmmmmmm
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