My poor baby!

Here are a few pictures of the rash the baby has, which the Dr suspects is from the MMR vaccine. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. I think the ear infection is what is causing his fever and occasional fussiness.

These two are from Tuesday afternoon....his entire back is covered by the red bumps like the ones you see in the 2nd picture.

This was him this morning...puffy face, with much more redness! I feel so bad for him, but there's not much I can do.

Slacker

Just paste a big 'ol "L" on my forehead, because I have not been posting at all!

Here's another catch-up on my workouts....

Friday, 5/15 - Long run, 5 miles, 11:05 pace
I decided to get my "long run" in, because I knew that I'd be busy on Sat. My neighborhood LR was only 5 miles, because I haven't gotten in a LR in over a month! It went pretty well - as usual, I started out too fast. At the 3-mile, I was at a 10:59 pace...these days for me that's fast for anything over about 3 miles. It didn't feel terribly hard, but I was breathing a bit harder than usual. Of course, I wondered if I could maintain that pace for the last two miles. :-) It felt like I was, but apparently not since my overall pace ended up being 11:05. I'm pretty sure it was faster than my last outdoor 5-miler and it was warmer than my last one too. I'll take it!

Saturday, 5/16 - Rest day
I took the kiddos for pictures to commemorate the baby's 1st birthday. Next it was grocery shopping and playing dollhouse. Aren't ya just super envious of the exciting life I lead??? :-) Later, it was time for a girl's night out...woohoo!

Sunday, 5/17 - Brick #5 - 17 mile ride (16 mph), 1 mile run (9:56 pace)
Sunday brought some awesome cooler weather! I took the kiddos to church, then visited my parents for a little while. Next, we hung out at home until the hubby made it home from work (yes, more dollhouse!) and watched the Rockets game. At the 3rd quarter, I decided that I couldn't take it anymore....I went out for a bike ride! (The Rockets were getting a beating from LA)

The bike ride was fun. I planned for an hour, but went a little longer just to get in an full 17 miles. The ride was just through the neighborhood. It was crazy with the wind...when I was riding right into it, I would be anywhere between 13 & 15 mph. I tried to not get slower than 14, but there were a few gusts that I just couldn't ride through. When the wind was at my back, I got as fast as 22 mph...now that was fun!

Monday, 5/18 - Tempo run, treadmill, 3 miles
This is why I should blog after every workout - I can't remember my final pace!!! Doh! It was hard to run on the dreadmill with temps at 71 degrees outside. But, I really don't feel safe on foot on the trails near my work. On bike I feel okay for whatever reason. I could have driven to Memorial Park, but that thought didn't occur to me until after my run. Oh well! And, an evening run was out - we had to go to a rosary service for the hubby's Aunt. May dear Aunt Molly RIP.

Tuesday, 5/19 - No workout (unplanned rest day!)
Hey, life happens right? No lunchtime spin class today...the baby started breaking out in a rash. When he woke up on Tuesday, it was much, much worse. And his fever had risen from 101 the night before to 103. Yikes! I left work early to take the lil' guy to the doctor. Apparently, the amoxicillin the doc prescribed last week for his double ear infection wasn't working at all. His ears looked "terrible" and that was also the cause of his high fever. The rash was another story...possibly viral, or maybe an allergic reaction to either his amoxicillin or MMR vaccine. The dr said it looked closer to measles, so she felt it was due to the MMR. Nice! MMR also happens to be linked to autism (allegedly), so that freaks me out!

Happy Blogiversary!!!

Holy crap, has it been THREE YEARS???? Already? I almost forgot about my blogiversary and actually did miss it by a few days.

Where, oh where has the time gone?

And to think, it all started here. Wow, back then I was studying for my PHR, studying for the GMAT, Riley was 2 years old and I was getting geared up for Chicago Marathon training. So much has changed since then - ran Chicago, got my run a little faster, got my PHR, started and finished grad school, shifted my focus to 1/2 marathons, bought a house, had a baby, sold a house, got a little slower (grrrr...), left my focus on 1/2 marathons, completed a tri...

And of course in the past three years, I have made some great friends through my blog! Thanks for reading, thanks for encouraging, thanks for even telling me what I needed to hear even if I didn't want to hear it! Thanks for everything!

Catching Up

Since my last post was so freaking long, I decided to not post for a few days. LOL!


Here's an update of what I've been up to...


Sunday, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my Mother's Day. After the tri, my Dad watched the kiddos so my Mom and I could enjoy a nice, relaxing lunch together. Afterwards, I came home to a napping baby, so the kiddo and I played with her dollhouse together until the hubby made it home from work. Next, we hung out in the gameroom, watched the Rockets game and played with the kiddos. (Yay for the Rockets!) Finally, we headed over to the neighborhood pool and spent an hour or so splashing around with the kiddos.



Monday was a rest day for me...no workouts!



Tuesday, I had to skip spin class due to a work lunch meeting, but I did get in a 45 minute swim at the pool. Lots of freestyle and sidestroke!



Wednesday, I ran some intervals on the treadmill. I did a 5-minute warm-up, ran 7x400 with a 1-minute rest break in between, the did a 5-minute cool down (which turned into a 7 minute cool down so I could watch the rest of a segment on Ellen). Overall, I was a bit slower than last week. For whatever reason, I felt more tired than usual. Oh and I did my workout during lunch so I could watch the LOST season finale right after the kiddos went to bed. Good decision, since it was a 2-hour special...and it was a great show!


Thursday, hit the lunchtime spin class again! Love it! I think I pushed myself pretty hard with my pace and the tension. Fun times! Sweaty, but fun!

After work, I headed back to the pool near work. Man, summer is definitely here...or at least the summer temps. There were sooo many families at the pool , it was crazy! Fortunately, not many people were there trying to swim laps, so I did not have to share a lane with anyone. And, I made somewhat of a breakthrough with my breathing issues. I came to the realization that I was taking very big (or HUGE) gasps of air when I turned my head to breathe. Since I breathe every 3 strokes, there's no way I could exhale all that air. So, I played around a bit and discovered that I do much better taking very small "bites" of air (as Terry from the TI video says). Normally, once I get winded, I do 3 strokes of freestyle with a few sidestrokes in between. I hardly had to sidestroke at all using my new breathing technique...and I managed to get 250 meters in that way! Progress!!!! I'll take any I can get!!!

TriGirl Super Sprint Race Report

Sorry for the long race report. It’s my 1st tri, so I want to capture everything if possible. :-)

The adventure begins!
Kelly, Katie and I rode to the race together. This is Kelly’s 2nd tri season, so she’s a pro at this. Katie did her 1st tri last weekend (CB&I), so she was nice enough to come cheer and take pictures for us. The ride to the race ended up being quite an adventure! I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say that I lost my navigator rights and Kelly lost her driving to the race rights! We remembered from going to the Take a Hike Ike Tri that the directions to Deussen Park sucked. It was no different for this race. We were among many to have to turn around…when we did, we saw signs pointing to the race parking. Apparently we were coming in from the wrong way or something? Who knows. Fortunately, we gave ourselves plenty of time to get there, so no worries.

Here we are enjoying the sunrise...we look pretty awake for 5:45 am, don't we?

Pre-Race
Once we arrived, we headed to get our body markings. I think that’s when it hit me – when the lady was writing my number on my arms and leg, then asked me my age for my calf – I thought, “wow, I’m doing a triathlon!” We headed from there into the transition area to set up our stuff. My assigned spot was pretty much in the middle. I chatted with the other women around me – they were all 1st timers too. Once I had everything set up, I went over to see Kelly in her transition area. Next, we went over to the water to check out the temps. Nice and warm, and very flat! Perfect! I decided not to use the wetsuit (aka my security blanket). Finally, we went to pick up our chips and get our bearings on where to enter and exit the transition area for the bike and run. I did run into Kerri from beginnertriathlete.com, which was cool.

My transition area...can you tell I'm all proud of it? It takes great skill to set up your helmet and stuff like this, lol.

After that, we pretty much just hung out and took a few pictures. Once transition closed, we made our way over to the swim start. Kelly and I were both in the 1st wave, so it was good to have someone to talk to while we waited. That was when I realized that I completely forgot about my ½ PB&J I had brought. Doh! Oh well.

Katie wanted a "candid" shot, so here we are joking around before the swim...

Omg, we're skeered!!!

Ummm yeah, now I know why guys don't like latex...

Swim – 200m, 5:45.9
Honestly, I didn’t feel that anxious about the swim at all. I thought being in the 1st wave would freak me out. But, the course looked short from the shore, and I knew that I could do 200 with no problem. I just told myself to stay calm. I wasn’t in the back of the pack like I had planned, but since 80% of people in this race were 1st timers, I figured I was okay. That ended up being a good decision. As soon as they would let us wade in, I went in to get acclimated to the water.

Here's my "wave" waitin' for the okay to go in...

When they blew the horn, I did the dolphin dive that Viv taught me and was off! I managed to freestyle to about the 1st buoy. Even though I didn’t feel anxious, I was breathing like a mad woman! I had to do some sidestroke to get my breathing back to a somewhat normal rhythm. It never got there, but it did get better. However, every time I attempted to freestyle again, I got winded so I ended up doing a lot of the remainder of the swim using the trusty ol’ sidestroke. I even passed a few people while doing it! When I started heading to shore, I stole a look back and realized I was no where near being the last one in from my wave! Hooray! The swim was over before I knew it! The nice thing about this distance is that it is totally doable for a novice swimmer like me, and it’s so short that the wave behind us didn’t have time to pass. And, any swim would be better than that 1st ows practice!

Heading to T1...whew, I'm soooo glad that's over! Ummm, yeah, take off the swim cap!

T1 – 2:26.4
This is were I am annoyed with myself…my T1 time was 2:26! Seriously, what in the hell was I doing for almost 2 ½ minutes??? I know what I was doing – I was getting pebbles off my feet, lol. That, and since I’m not coordinated enough to drink while I’m riding my bike, I took a second to take a Gu and a drink from my water bottle. So anyway - I ran it in, but was surprised how wobbly I felt after the swim. Not bad, but a little unexpected. I heard Kelly yell out “great job” or something like that in the transition area. It was a bit of a blur though. I tried to get as many pebbles off my feet as possible, rolled on my socks and slipped on my shoes. I also decided to go ahead and put on my race belt. I grabbed my Gu and water. That’s when I started noticing people around me coming in from the swim and I thought, “Shit, hurry your ass up!” Then put on my sunglasses and grabbed my helmet and unracked my bike. I remember thinking, “STOP! Put on your helmet!”, so I did just that. I ran to the red line, mounted my bike and was off.

Getting on the bike...ummm, I could probably do this a bit faster!

Bike – 8 miles, 26:38.9, 18 mph
Fortunately, I remembered to shift gears, so that it wouldn’t be hard to pedal in the beginning. My breathing was really hard for the 1st couple of miles on the bike and I don’t think I got it under control until I was well into mile 2. I checked the nifty bike computer (my Mother’s Day gift!) and was at a 17 mph pace. That’s the fastest I’ve ever gone in a training ride, so it was my goal pace for the race. However, I found myself getting closer to the people in front of me and wanted to pass! My 17 increased to 18. Sometimes it was 19, but my problem is that I turn really slow and really wide…that certainly didn’t help me on the ride. I really enjoy the bike, so my goal was to just enjoy this. At some point, there was a nice downhill and when I looked at my bike computer it read 24 mph. That was fun! At first I was worried that I couldn’t hold the 18-something mph pace, until I reminded myself that it was only 8 miles. And, I reminded myself that it was a race – no regrets, so I said screw it! I know I am not a super fast runner, so what the hell? I gave it everything I could. I do think I slowed down a little too early getting into transition - another thing to work on.

T2 – 0:50.5
Since I don’t have bike shoes yet or clipless pedals, this was cake for me. Run bike to rack, rack bike, remove helmet and go! Oh, and that PB&J from earlier? I ran over it with my bike, lol! A guy standing near the transition area, said “Umm, I guess you didn’t want that sandwich?”

Heading off for the run...thinking "It's only 2 miles, I can do this right?" BTW, the lady to the right passed me....but I passed her before it was all over with. HA!

Run – 2 miles, 19:39.6, 9:50 pace
I started my Garmin as I was finishing the bike, but realized that it still hadn’t found the satellites yet. Ugh! I was about ½ way through the 1st mile when it finally started working. WTH? My goal was a 10:30 pace. For me that’s pretty good, even for a short 2-mile distance. After my Garmin kicked in, it read a 10:17 average pace, so I thought “okay, let’s keep it there”. It was an out and back course and I saw Kelly as I approached the water station. Hooray, I was ½ way done! I did walk as I drank one Gatorade and poured one water on my head. I ran the rest of the way in and was happy to be done! It was great to see Katie and Woodlands Fit friend, Erica, at the finish. And, I was actually surprised to see my overall pace at 9:50! As always, I go out wwwaaayyy to fast and then slow down.

Coming into the finish...look at my freakin' stride! I promise I wasn't power walking! I have been working on a shorter stride, but apparently that went out the window at the finish, lol!

Total Time - 55:21:01

Age Group Ranking - 23 of 66

Overall Ranking - 109 of 307

So that was it - my 1st tri experience! I have to say that I loved it and can’t wait to do it again – but maybe something a bit longer? The race definitely exceeded my expectations and I even performed much better than I expected. And, TriGirl is a great 1st race to do! First of all, it’s an all women race. Second, they give great swag – a cute, pink technical shirt, pink bag, and pink pen. Third, the race is very well organized – lots of volunteers there to help a girl out. The post race party wasn’t anything extravagant – breakfast burritos, sodas, ice cream, but it pretty much meets everyone’s needs. Overall, a HUGE thumbs up to TriGirl. And, they have another race in August! It’s slightly longer than this one, but still a do-able distance…so if you’ve ever thought about doing a tri….just sayin’

Done!

So, what would I do differently?

• Not forget to eat my pre-race food
• Work harder on the swim training. Maybe get in a swim to bike brick? This is my weakest event, so it needs extra training time.
• Bring an extra towel for getting the muck and pebbles off my feet!
• Learn to drink and ride at the same time, so I don’t have to waste so much time in T1…this could be crucial for a longer distance.
• Get in longer bike rides more often. Not sure how to work it into the schedule, but it needs to be done. I think this might be my stronger area, so I want to see how far I can push myself in the distance and pace.
• Learn to turn on the bike without having to slow down to a 12 mph pace!
• Don't wear race belt & number on bike...the flapping in the wind drove me crazy, lol!
• Speedwork! There’s no reason that I shouldn’t be able to maintain a better run pace in these shorter distances.

All that being said, my challenge is still trying to fit the training in without sacrificing too much time with the hubby and kids. The hubby seems to be supportive, so we’ll see. My goal is to do a sprint tri each month until August. You know, before getting all wrapped up in the longer distance runs for ½ marathon training.

That’s right, no full marathon for me.

Again.

I’m just not ready for a commitment to the distance. Not yet anyway. I’ll get back there again, but for now I want to see if I can improve my times at shorter distances. So there.

Triathlete!

TriGirl Super Sprint Results

200 yard swim 5:45:09
T1 2:26
8 mi bike 26:19:08 (18 mph)
T2 0:50:05
2 mile run 19:39:06
Total time 55:21:04

Looks like I've joined the club! I had a great time...report to follow tomorrow.

Check!

Okay, here's my checklist for Sunday....I am getting everything packed tonight, because we have my nephew's 18th birthday party to attend tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Race Belt
Race Number
USTA membership card/$10
Gu packet
Gatorade for water bottle
Water bottle for bike
Garmin
Wetsuit (just in case)
2 pairs of goggles
Swim cap
Towel for transition stuff
Sunscreen
Body Glide*
Helmet
Socks
Sunglasses
Spare tube**
CO2 cartridge**
Bike tools
Bike pump
Running shoes
Flip flops for after?
Camera

Am I forgetting anything??? Obviously, I'll be wearing my tri top and shorts...should I bring a shirt to throw on over it for the bike/run?

* MUST HAVE BODY GLIDE!!!
** Seriously, it's only 8 miles...but the time I change or repair a flat, the race will be over!

Run, Swim, no Bike

Thursday, 5/7 - Swim, 40 minutes
Just to give the legs a little rest, I decided to skip the spin class today. From past experience, it was highly likely that I would have had sore legs until Saturday and I didn't want that. Instead, I would do my regular Thursday swim.

As always life happens. I had planned to go back to the Y near work, just for convenience sake. However, the hubby got stuck at work thanks to a call out about 15 minutes before he was scheduled to leave. That meant I had to leave work early to get the kiddos and hang out with them until the hubby got home. No worries - more time with the kids is always a good thing. When the hubby made it home, I thought maybe I'd just hit the neighborhood pool. No dice. There were kids galore. Next stop - BC YMCA. Turned out to be a great idea, because Katie was there! She was just finishing up on the weights and was ready to go swim.

I tell ya, this was the best I've ever felt in the pool! I think I have totally taken the pressure off myself to try to push through the yards with nothing but freestyle. I've come to accept the fact that a little (or a lot) of sidestroke in between was a-okay for a sprint tri. (Thanks Steve!!!) When I switch back and forth between the two strokes as needed, I can swim all day! Okay, maybe not all day, but you get the idea.

So I am ready for Sunday, woohoo! I was planning leave work a little early to drive over to the tri site after work tomorrow and check out the bike course. Nice and slow of course. But having to leave early today pretty much squashed those plans. Oh well!

Wednesday, 5/6 - Treadmill Run, 2.75 miles, 25 minutes, 10:22 pace

I did my intervals on the treadmill again. 7x400 this time and I was pleased to get into the lower 9's and even flirted with the high 8's for a minute or two. The pace included my 5 minute warm up and cool down at a pretty slow pace.

National Day of Prayer

While I’m not the most religious person, I do believe in the power of prayer. I just recently began attending church on a regular basis again…something that I let slide completely during my two years of grad school. Since it’s the National Day of Prayer and since there are some people in my life who need all the help they can get, I thought today would be the perfect day to remember them in prayer. Who are they?

• Aunt Joyce, who is suffering from a rare form of blood cancer. She has good days and bad days, but the good days are getting less and less frequent.
• My father in law, Jose, who has silicosis. His lungs are gradually hardening with scar tissue, making it more and more difficult for him to breathe. He is actually doing pretty well all things considered.
• President Obama, who is leading our country during a pretty crazy time. May be make decisions that are in the best interest of our country and not just the special interest groups.

National Day of Prayer was even recognized at my office, which these days is probably pretty rare. So, who are you praying for today?

Kiddos

Here are the latest pictures of the kiddos...and, it's already time for the baby's 1st birthday pictures! If you're on FB, you've already seen these.

Spin & Swim

Tuesday, 5/5 - Spin Class, 50 minutes & Swim, 40 minutes

Spin
What can I say? It was another kick-ass spin class! More JT, Janet, Madonna and even a little '80s mixed in. I love spin class, because I can see the results when riding my road bike - better mph! Whoot! Not awesome by any means, but definitely better. I just hope I can maintain a good speed at this weekend's tri...I've never been on the bike after an OWS, so we'll see.

Swim
I don't know why, but I wasn't feelin' "it" during my swim today. It took me a long time to get into a groove with my stroke and I felt like I was getting winded more easily than normal. Maybe the lunchtime spin class was catching up to me? Maybe it's the not so great sleeping catching up to me? Who knows...gotta have an off day every once in awhile, right? I will make it a point to get to bed at a decent time tonight and pray both kiddos sleep all night!

Oh, I went to the pool near my work today since it saves me some time not having to drive to the back of The Woodlands. There is one downfall to that...so many of my co-workers live near the office and I ran into a co-worker and his wife at the pool. No biggie, but it is a little weird to be seen in a swimsuit, swim cap and goggles by your co-workers. (Especially when you're the hr manager, lol!)

Run, run, run

Monday, 5/3/09 - Treadmill Run, 30 minutes, 2.75 miles
Monday means treadmill at the YMCA at lunch...hey, anything to make the kiddo's bedtime and all the prep for the next day not seem quite so hectic! Exciting life I lead, isn't it? :-)

It was a tempo run..overall pace was a teeny bit slower than last week. I think it was because I started my cool down too early. For some reason my right ankle was bothering me, so I decided to slow it down in the last 5 minutes. Ouchie!

I swear since having the baby, I sweat like a pig. Even a pansy-ass little treadmill run makes me SWEAT! Yuck!

OWS

I have to give a HUGE shout out to friends Cassie & Viv for meeting me out at the lake for an OWS practice!

On the way to the lake, I noticed the interesting scenery and huge pot holes in the streets and wondered where in the hell I was going, lol! No worries once I found the destination though - it was great to see Cassie and Viv! We talked for a bit, then donned our wetsuits and headed into the water. I have to admit, I was nervous after the fiasco that happened the weekend before. Both Cassie and Viv gave me some awesome tips for everything from getting into the water to getting out and heading into transition!

I think I took away a much better understanding of what to think about on race day. For example, get into the water and adjust to the temps BEFORE you start swimming (seems like a no brainer, but I didn't really do that last weekend). Oh, and thanks to Cassie, I can get the wetsuit on without all the struggle. I learned Viv's "dolphin dive" into the water to gain a little distance before actually swimming. I got to experience having someone swim on either side of me, in front, behind, etc. I also got to experience some of that doing sidestroke - it is easier to avoid mouthfuls of water swimming freestyle. I also learned some tips for getting out of the water and getting the wetsuit off. And, I feel much, much, much more comfortable in murky open water!

Again, thanks to Viv and Cassie for all their help. I think I have a huge advantage over any other 1st timers out there who don't have the benefit of experienced tri-friends. I think I am going to be A-Okay at TriGirl next weekend...I have my plan for race day - apparently Viv seems to be more of a planner than I am. :-)

Brick #4

Friday, May 1 - Bike, 7 miles @ 13.5 mph & Run, 1 mile, 9:57 pace

I had Friday off from work to get everything done for the baby's birthday party on Saturday. I managed to get everything done pretty quickly, so I decided to head out for a short bike ride before picking up the kiddos from school.

Since the hubby was also home, we decided to ride together. The hubby has a mountain bike, so in order to ride together, it meant I had to slow down a bit. :-) It was fun. We rode around the neighborhood - I showed the hubby my usual route and we even checked out a few sections of the neighborhood that we hadn't really seen. The ride ended up only being about 7 miles, because we ran out of time. Once we were done, I did my T2 in the garage and headed out for a 1-mile run. I am wondering if something was wrong with my Garmin, because even though I thought I was keeping my run slower, I finished my mile in 9:57! For me, that's awesome.

Operation "Get Faster" - week 2 & Thursday update

Sorry no updates lately...just getting ready for the baby's 1st birthday party.

Wednesday - "Speedwork" on treadmill, 30 minutes
Same workout as last week, but this time the average pace was around 10:20. I am taking the intervals/distance up slowly, because it seems like when I have done hills and speedwork in the past I've gotten injured (Achilles issues, ITB, etc). The run felt great! I enjoyed seeing some of those intervals in the 9's. :-)

Thursday - Spin & Swim
Spin
I went to lunchtime spin class even though I really didn't want to. I figured since my swimming is rather slow, maybe I can make up some time on the bike...spin class seems to be helping with that, so off to spin class I go! :-)

Swim
I decided to head to my neighborhood pool with the wetsuit for my swim. After the fiasco of my 1st OWS with the wetsuit, I thought that I should try the wetsuit again - but this time, I'd try it in a more calm environment. Sure enough, it was better. I played around for a few minutes, getting used to the buoyancy. Then I practiced my freestyle and side stroke with the suit on for about 100 yds. Finally, I did 300 yds - no stopping, no pushing off at the wall. It went well! It was a combo of both the side stroke and freestyle, but overall the distance was no problem. Next, I took the wetsuit off and did the same thing without it. It was funny, because my 1st 50 yds or so without the wetsuit felt funny. I noticed my legs sinking, so I had to adjust accordingly.

More workouts...

Tuesday, 4/28 -

Lunch Spin Class, 50 minutes
Just your normal Tuesday workout day - spin & swim. Our spin instructor was especially fond of the tension increases today, but I love it that I didn't mind. The music was great (think Janet, Madonna and JT) and we sweated our arses off so it was all good!

Swim, 40 minutes
The traffic was horrendous thanks to the floodwaters on I-45. Since it was bright and sunny where I work, I decided to head to the YMCA pool near the office after work - that way I could get my swim in while waiting for traffic to die down. It was great! I swam for 40 minutes and made it home by 6:40 pm! There are times when I am barely getting into the pool in The Woodlands by 6:30 pm. It made me really realize how much time I waste driving to BFE in The Woodlands! As long as the weather is nice, I think I will take advantage of the work Y or just go to the pool in our neighborhood.

For my swim, I did some drills to start - trying to mimic the TI dvd. Then, I did about 100 yds of freestyle before getting completely winded. After that, I did the next 200 yards alternating between freestyle and side stroke. Next, I did 200 yds of side stroke alone - just to get a better feel for it and be sure I could do it when I was in a pinch. I did a few more drills, a little more freestyle and called it a day. This time I was also careful not to push off the walls and only took two rests at the wall.

Oh, and then there was the annoying Dad at the pool who was trying to teach his two daughters how to swim. He was soooo loud. Once, when the lifeguard blew the whistle because he was tossing the girls into the air, he told the daugther to get out and walk over to the lifeguard and find out why she didn't think tossing them was such a good idea. Yeah, he was part of the reason I was ready to go after 40 minutes.

How it all started...

Not to make light of what's going on, but everyone is so freaked out about that I thought a little humor wouldn't hurt. :-) Wash your hands!

It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A!

Monday, 4/27 - Treadmill run - 3 miles, 32:38, 10:52 pace

I headed off to the Y near my office for a treadmill run yesterday during lunch. I felt the need for more miles since I didn't get in a long run over the weekend.

I don't know what happened, but it was probably the best treadmill run I've had in awhile. I decided to make it a tempo run. I had a good warm-up and cool down and in between I maintained a faster than usual pace. I can never seem to get under an 11-minute pace on the treadmill unless I am doing some mock speedwork. Maybe it was because I was distracted with the local news on the TV. Or, maybe it was the music on the ipod that kept the feet moving. I dunno, but it felt great! I was sweating like a pig afterward, but even that felt great!

It was great to come home with the kiddos after work and not have to squeeze in a workout after they were in bed! Tomorrow it's back to lunch time spin class and more laps after work.

Mini Mock Tri

Sunday, 4/26 - Swim 300m, bike 6 miles, run 1 mile

Fellow tri-wannabe, Katie, met me on Sunday morning for our mock tri. The plan was to get a better feel for what it feels like to really transition from one event to the other.

We set up T1 at the neighborhood pool. We swam 300m – this time I was super careful about not pushing off the walls, not resting on the walls, etc. I alternated between freestyle and side stroke when I had to and just kept going. Then we exited the pool, went to our transition area and prepared for the bike. This was my 1st attempt at putting on shoes with wet feet. I forgot to bring the baby powder, but still managed to get my shoes on pretty quickly. My helmet and sunglasses were on my handlebars and they went on easy – wet hair and all. This would also be my 1st attempt at not wearing socks for the bike and run. We rode for 6 miles and headed to my garage where we had T2 waiting.

For me, T2 will be easy – rack the bike, lose the helmet and pull on the race belt. I haven’t gotten brave enough to get clipless pedals and shoes, so no change of shoes for me this time. And, I figure I can put on the racebelt while I am moving out of transition. Once we had on our running gear, we headed out for a 1-mile run. This is my 3rd attempt at a bike/run brick and it is getting better. My mile was slower that the previous 2 weeks, but the legs felt much less jello-y.

Overall, I’m glad we did our mini-tri just to get a feel for how all this works. I know race day will be much more chaotic, so I plan to practice the transitions a few more times at home just to get the feel for what works best for me. I do wish I had biked and run a bit farther, but there may be time for one more brick this weekend.

Things I learned:

1. Don’t forget the baby powder! Although, I may opt to wear socks – wet feet and no socks feels really weird in running shoes.
2. Do NOT forget the sunscreen. I didn’t use any, because I didn’t think we’d be out in the sun very long. Bad idea! My back and shoulders were super-fried!
3. Stay calm amidst the chaos. I know that I can become Spaz-Girl…the goal is to keep Spaz-Girl away during the entire race.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh Relax!

I am feeling much better now. Sorry for the total freakout on Saturday! But, I needed to get it all out of my system and I am hoping (desperately hoping) that one day I will look back on that post and laugh. I'm hoping that one day I will look at that and say, "HAH! To think I couldn't do a measly 500m in open water, now I can easily do _______m!"

In retrospect, I needed that experience. That experience made me realize that 1) there are no walls to push off of in open water and 2) there are no walls to hang out at and rest in open water. I knew that BEFORE the ows, but you know some of us need to be reminded of things.

Viv, your comment made me laugh...yes, it woulda been great to have you out there, but lord I dunno if that would have been safe for you, lol! And thanks to everyone else here, on FB and the e-mailers for the kind words. I luv ya! :-)

I look at it alot like my 1st marathon experience. I had IT band issues and had actually over hydrated and was feeling nauseous with awful muscle cramps. By mile 21, I was cussing like a sailor and telling anyone who would listen that I was NEVER, EVER IN A MILLION YEARS going to run a marathon again. That I was EFFING STUPID for doing this in the 1st place. By the time I had crossed the finish line, gotten my medal and had found the hubby, I was strategizing about what I'd do differently next time. Nine months later I was running NYC, lol! Or, it could be compared to childbirth...it's painful during and after, but by the time your beautiful baby is home, you've forgotten all the bad stuff.

Yeah, it was bad. But, I am moving on, learning from it and will hopefully end up stronger because of it.

OMFG! What the hell am I thinking???

Those words went quietly through my mind as I listened to Sandra Sutherland teach the First-Timers Tri Clinic today at Northshore Park. I was watching the people rounding the buoys in Lake Woodlands in the background and could not believe that I was going to be out there soon. Some people were gliding through the water effortlessly with their freestyle, then there were some backstroking, breaststroking and sidestroking. I can do this I told myself.

The clinic gave a lot of great information...nothing I hadn't heard or read somewhere, but good information nonetheless. (I am super-duper obsessive compulsive about reading everything I can about triathlons - blogs, discussion forums, magazines, books, you name it.) It was a bit chilly, because the sky was overcast and there was a breeze. I met quite a few great people at the clinic, including a woman from Cypress, Keri, who I originally "met" through beginnertriathlete.com. We were all 1st timers so it was nice to commiserate and laugh about what this 1st time was going to be like.

Next, it was time to swim! I went ahead and put on my rented wetsuit...if there was even a fraction of a chance that I'd use it at TriGirl, I wanted to see what it was like in the water now. My arms felt weak just after getting that sucker on...whew, it's a workout by itself! Next, I got in the water, which was cold but with the wetsuit it wasn't too bad. I hesitated for a minute and then thought, "screw it!" and put my face in. I started to freestyle, but immediately went into freakout mode after seeing the lovely green through my goggles. The wetsuit felt like it was choking me and I had to take a minute to attempt to regain my composure before actually trying to swim again.

To say it didn't go well would be an understatement. What I was doing could not be called swimming. Everything...and I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, I had been practicing in the pansy-ass pool went out the window. I tried to put my face in the water and freestyle, but then I felt like I was choking. I tried sidestroke - choking. After about 100 yards of this I seriously wondered what would happen if I tried to shed the wetsuit right there. Then I thought how much I would have to pay to Tri On The Run to replace it and kept trying to move forward. I rounded the 1st buoy and at the 2nd buoy, the kayak guy was asking people if they wanted to rest. I took him up on the offer and hung there on the kayak for a few seconds.

Seriously people, I was PANTING.

And swearing. A lot. (But not outloud)

So then I tried to keep going and never felt like I was getting anywhere - I'd do about 5 -6 strokes of freestyle, then sidestroke and at one point I even flipped to my back. It was awful. I was getting somewhere, because I eventually passed a few small buoys. At one point, not realizing I was saying it outloud, I said something like "OH JES-US CHRIST! THIS SUCKS!!!" and a guy next to me responded with a "Yes, it does", lol! Okay, so I was glad I was not the only one who felt that way. I was thinking a lot worse though, like "what in the f*ck am I doing?" and "G*d damn mother "f*cker holy sh*t to h*ll"...and yes, a few of these may have slipped out as well...I honestly don't remember. About the time I was getting to the part of the course where you're actually heading to shore, I began to question if I could even make it. I was tired. I had been struggling this entire time and I had freaking had it. I decided the following things:

I AM STUPID FOR DOING THIS. STUPID I'M TELLING YOU!

I AM NOT DOING TRIGIRL DAMMIT! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I AM GOING TO DROWN, AND THAT HIGH SCHOOL KID OVER THERE IN THE KAYAK IS GOING TO PULL MY BODY OUT OF THE LAKE!

And then I realized, OMG THIS IS HOW PEOPLE DIE IN OPEN WATER SWIMS!  THEY HAVE HEART ATTACKS IN THEIR RENTED WETSUITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I waved Kayak boy down and asked him if I could rest for a sec. I caught my breath and then started moving again. Where is the freaking ground???? Where is the goddamn ground??? Finally, there it was....I made it to shore and wasn't sure I ever, ever wanted to do that again.

So I got out and Keri was all, "How'd it go, did you do the 500?". And I was all like, "YES IT SUCKED I AM NEVER DONG THAT AGAIN". She was totally happy and very encouraging - someone I probably need to hang with more (I need to be more positive!). She swam to the 1st buoy (around 200) and over to the side twice, and she felt GREAT about the swim.

Seriously people, this tri-thing may really not be for me. The only reason I am not wussing out on TriGirl is because it is 200 pansy ass yards. If it were 500 there's no way in hell. I will not use the wetsuit. I like that with the wetsuit I can't drown - I just float. But, I felt like I was struggling against the wetsuit the entire time while being choked by it. I think I'd prefer free range of motion, even if it means freezing my ass off for the 1st 100 yards.

So that's it - my 1st open water swim. It sucked ass. No, it sucked monkey balls. No, it sucked BIG sweaty monkey balls. IT SUCKED.

Now excuse me while I go pick up my kiddos. :-)

Survival Mode

Yesterday I was supposed to head to the Y to swim, but around 4 pm I realized that I had forgotten my contacts. (I've been wearing my glasses all week, because my right eye has been bothering me.) I am blind as a bat. Seriously. There is no way I would feel comfortable swimming without my contacts, so I headed home after work and decided to check out the neighborhood pool so that I didn't have to drive all the way to the Y. I swear I seem to be having issues every time I've gone to the pool lately - the closed pool last Friday, the closed pool on Tuesday and then the contacts.

I won't lie, the pool was chilly. I dipped my foot in and started to question my sanity. Then I just said screw it and jumped in. Honestly, it wasn't too bad once you got going. After a very kind e-mail from someone who shall remain nameless (you know who you are) about my swimming woes, I decided that I would be shifting into "survival mode" for the race on May 10. By survival mode, I mean that from now on when swimming I would still work on my freestyle stroke and drills, but I would do make sure that I could do 400 - 500 yds non-stop and get it done with whatever stroke necessary - freestyle, sidestroke, backstroke, whatever. I know there may be some hard core tri folks who would not like this, but for now it's gonna hafta do.

So that's what I did yesterday.

First, I did a few drills to warm-up. Then I told myself - 400 yds with no stopping at the wall. I was surprised that I did do mostly freestyle, but I did mix in some sidestroke and even a few strokes of backstroke to catch my breath. Once I was finished, I worked on freestyle again. It's weird - some laps I feel great. Very relaxed, easy breathing - I can get from one end of the pool to the other and immediately start heading the other direction. Then some laps, I am winded and need to stop at the wall. I'll get there dammit, I just may not get all the way there before May 10.

The hubby has to work late tonight, but fortunately my parents are going to watch the kiddos so I can get in a quick 30 minutes at the pool again today. I watched the TI video last night and started reading the book, so I am anxious to work the drills some more!

Tomorrow is the OWS practice in Lake Woodlands and I won't lie - I am skeered!

Shopping!

I don't remember if I mentioned that I went shopping for some basic tri gear and I am too lazy to go back and look at my previous posts, lol! Nothing too major - I don't want to invest too much into this sport until I determine if I even like it. Ya know?

Last week, I went to Tri On The Run twice, because it's not too far from where I work and they seem to carry several different brands of tri gear. The folks at TOTR are very helpful. The guy there suggested I try on each of the brands, since everyone likes something different. They had 5 brands – Zoot, Orca, Craft, TYR and Louis Garneau. They only appeared to have men’s stuff in TYR, so that’s the only brand I didn’t get to try on. Apparently, the more expensive stuff is made better and some shorts have the compression fitting. The guy who was helping me laughed when I told him I was still using my $10 Speedo goggles from Target. Time to upgrade! I went twice, because I wanted to check out the sizing 1st and see if I found some comparable stuff on-line at a better price - bad, I know but when your monthly childcare costs are almost the size your mortgage payment, you gotta do what you gotta do!!! LOL!

Here’s my review of each brand:

Zoot – tends to run a little small. I needed the large tri shorts and I was somewhere between a Med and Large for the tri top. The large felt a little big in the back between my shoulder blades, but I felt like a stuffed sausage in the medium. What I liked about that top was that it offered some support for “the girls”, if ya know what I mean! I actually liked the Zoot $40 tri shorts the best. The $100 tri shorts fit great, but they have the compression fitting and they made the flab on my inner thighs stick out like balloons - can we say SCARY?

Orca – tends to run big. I could wear a medium in the shorts. The medium top felt too big, but they didn’t have a small in the same style, so I’m not sure if it would have fit. The shorts were super comfy though and very flattering. This tri top also offered some support, which was nice.

Craft – Shorts were comfy in a large, but the stitching was not very flattering at all. When I turned around to check out the backside, I was mortified at how much they accentuate the cellulite. I think it’s because they have some super-gripper rubber on the shorts, which is probably good because they won’t ride up, but OMG does it grip! The tri top they had in stock was cute, but I just didn’t like the cut (also a large). The top also didn’t seem to have any built in support.

Louis Garneau – This was the last brand I tried on. The shorts fit well in a medium, but TOTR only had them in a bright, royal blue. Trust me, my lower half does not need to be bright blue! The only women’s top they had in stock seemed a little short and barely made it to the top of my tri shorts…I don’t wanna expose my midsection if I don’t have to!

So here's what I ended up with:

And, I did end up buying it at TOTR. Their prices are pretty comparable to what I found on the web and of course I'd rather give my money to a local business if I can.

Unfortunately, that isn't my body in these pictures and I do not look anything remotely close. Think sausage, or as my SIL would say chorizo! Lumpy chorizo at that, lol! This stuff does absolutely nothing from one's body image. Although it did inspire me to start following my healthy eating plan more closely. :-)

Operation "Get Faster" - Week 1

Treadmill Run - 30 minutes, includes (2-miles of intervals) & P90X "Ab Ripper X" - 15 minutes

Well, I said last week that I wanted to do speedwork consistently and today the process began. I skipped my Monday run to watch the TI dvd, but today I would not miss another run. I decided that since I've been whining about not getting enough family time, I'd run at the Y during lunch and have my evening open for the family. Again, I know speedwork on the treadmill is not as effective as running at the track, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

I did 6x400 with a one minute recovery between each - overall it was somewhere around 2 miles at a 10:30 pace. I'm not completely sure, because I had to change treadmills midway through due to a mechanical malfunction. That and a warm up and cool down (and a little more) gave me 30 minutes on the treadmill.

It felt weird to not have a workout to do at night, so I did the 15-minute P90X Ab Ripper X once the kiddos were both in bed. :-)

Spin & Swim

****Warning - long post with self pity and venting ahead****

Tuesday, April 21 - Spin Class, 1 hour & Swim, 40 minutes

Spin Class
This was my 1st lunchtime spin class in almost 3 week. I didn't go the Thursday before the Zooma 1/2 marathon, because I didn't want sore quads on race day. I didn't go the Tuesday after, because I was still recovering from those damn hills! The other days I couldn't go due to work stuff - lunch meetings, training classes, travelling to Austin, etc.

Fortunately, I survived. I sweat like a pig, but I survived!! The instructor made us progressively increase our tension for what felt like forever! I do take a quickie shower after these classes (but don't have time to wash my hair), but I still feel sorry for my coworkers who get near me after the spin class...I swear it takes at least an hour for my face to not be beet read and to just feel like my body has really cooled down!

Swim
The whole swim thing didn't start out quite as planned. I arrived at the YMCA pool only to find that it was closed for maintenance. Grrrrr...yes, it adds at least 20 minutes to my commute just to get there, so I was extremely annoyed. Fortunately, the Y with the indoor pool is about 10 minutes away, so off I went. At this point in the game, skipping a swim workout is NOT an option. Of course, that pool was filled with kids taking swim classes...and they all swim better than I do. There was one lap lane open, but there was a swim instructor with 4/5 year olds at the deep end. She was having them jump in and the paddle to the side of the pool. The lifeguard told me that they'd be done soon, so I waited. After about 5 minutes, I just hopped in and started swimming 1/2 way down and back. They eventually finished and I had the entire lane to myself for about 15 minutes!

I don't know what the eff my problem is, but I am still having difficulty breathing. I practiced some of the TI drills, but still can't freaking breathe. It's better than it was a couple of weeks ago...I can at least go 50 yds without stopping, sometimes 75 - but any more than that and I get winded. It's so frustrating! At one point, I almost said "screw this" and hopped out of the pool with the intention of forgetting about this whole stupid tri-thing. I started having serious thoughts about not doing this tri, even though it's only 200 yds. I started thinking, "Who am I to get out there and possibly put myself in danger because I can't get my shit together?" or "Do I really want to be rescued by some 18 year old lifeguard?" or even "Maybe I'm not cut out for this...maybe I wasn't meant to do triathlons". I thought to myself, "Seriously, if the water is choppy on race day, I'm gonna bail." Then I calmed down and remembered - you can always flip over onto your back for a second if you freak out...you may not do freestyle well, but you have sidestroke, lol.

After my freakout, 3 others arrived to swim laps. Somehow, I pulled myself together and managed to hammer out another 400 or so yds ...although there were rest stops between every 50 yds thanks to the breathing. Grrrrr........I just hate that this breathing thing could keep me from being successful at this. And, worse it means that I might never make it beyond this baby "super sprint" race and move onto a "real" sprint or any other distance.

Okay, I'll stop now. I am getting over the angst and will be back in the pool on Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday.

Well actually, I signed up for the First Timers Tri Clinic and open water swim at Lake Woodlands on Saturday. So yeah, I can freak out there and hopefully not on race day. Say your prayers people!

I am not kidding. Pray hard.

Total Immersion

Monday, 4/20 - No workout

Okay, rather than do my usual Monday workout, I decided to use that time to watch the TI dvd. If I can swim just a fraction as well as the people on this video do, I'd be thrilled. They make it look so effortless! While it's a little cheesy, the dvd does show several different drills that help you get the feel of how your body should be positioned in the water when you swim, how you should stroke, etc. I could definitely see that there is a major difference in what I do, and what the TI program suggests! I do not roll as much as I should, I think I stroke too often and I am pretty sure that I wear myself out by kicking way too much. My only complaint is that many of the drills are supposed to be done with a partner.

I'll be trying some of these drills at the pool tonight! Let me see if I can survive my lunchtime spin class first...it's my 1st in almost 3 weeks.

SCORE!!!

Guess what came in the mail today???

My Total Immersion "Freestyle Made Easy" book and DVD. Whoot! I know what I am watching tonight when the kids are in bed and the hubby is at Hapkido. :-)

God, I am geeky. Who would have thought I'd get so excited over such a thing?

BOSTON MARATHON DAY!

Good luck to everyone running Boston today...especially those 1st timers. I'll be checking the live commentary on the Boston Marathon website. 'Cuz I'm a dork like that! :-)

And, congrats to all the peeps who rode the MS150 this weekend. So sorry that Day 1 was cancelled, but would you really wanna ride in those conditions? It sounds like yesterday was beautiful, but with a wicked headwind...great job to those who toughed it out (Jessica, Veronica, Jeff, Hal, Cassie, Mike, Cat, Roberta, Joe and anyone I missed)!!!

Another weekend re-cap!

Crazy busy weekend...but let's start on Friday...

Friday, April 17 - no workout. blah!
Very annoying and disappointing day as far as workouts go. I knew there was an 80% chance of rain, but the weatherman has been known to be wrong on this stuff, right? So, I brought the bike to work just in case....

Yeah, didn't happen. The heavens opened right as I was leaving. I don't mind running and even biking in the rain, but I don't mess with thunder and lightening! Instead, I thought maybe I could head to the indoor pool at the Y. After 2 hours of driving in intense rain (think 25 mph on the toll road with wipers on high, people with flashers on, etc) and 2 errands done, I made it to the Y. Yep, it's closed due to inclement weather. Drats!

Yes, I could have stayed and run...but I didn't bring my shorts. Only some old sweats. Instead, I headed home to visit with the in-laws who were in town, get the baby's b-day party invites out and get ready for the next day's garage sale. Shit, um I mean, life happens!

Saturday, April 18 - treadmill run, 1 hour, 5.25 miles (11:25 pace)
Dang rain! We had the garage sale and for a few hours, I thought the rain might actually stay away. No such luck though. Again there was thunder and lightening. I originally thought it was going to be a run in the rain kinda day, but it quickly became a run on the treadmill kinda day. I probably should have done more mileage, but I can't take more than an hour on the dreadmill.

Had planned a girls night out, but it was cancelled thanks to the flooding. Naturally, the rain stopped by 6 pm and it was a rain-free evening....oh well, maybe we can reschedule.

Sunday, April 19 - BRICK #2! Bike - 11 miles (16.1 pace), Run - 1.25 miles (10:06 pace)
Glorious sunshine!!! After spending some quality time with the family, I headed out on the bike. (And after DH showed me how to use the adapter with the pump to get some air in my tires! Doh!) I did the same neighborhood route as last week, but was 1 mph slower this week...I blame it completely on the headwind! Then, I rushed the bike into the garage, changed my Garmin to run mode, gulped a little gatorade and ran 1.25 miles. Once again, I started out WAY too fast - after about 2 minutes I was at an 8:50 pace! I slowed it down a bit, but still not enough - 9:20 pace. I was breathing hard and thought my chest was going to explode. Slowed down more. I held steady at the 10:07/10:06 pace the rest of the way and took a walk break so I could sip more gatorade.

Next weekend, I am going to try to put everything together with a mini-tri in the neigborhood - swim in the neighborhood pool with T1 set up there, then bike the loops around the hood with T2 set up in my garage and then run.

Operation "Get Faster"

I am on a mission....a week or two before the Zooma 1/2, I decided that once that race was over I was going to go back to some shorter distances and work on 2 things:

1) Getting faster! Must.do.speedwork.consistently.

2) Throwing out the 5/1s...especially on shorter distances.

Speedwork may be tough to get in, since a 99.9% of my weekday runs are on the dreadmill. But I can be resourceful, so surely I can figure something out, right?

Most of the time, I don't do 5/1s on my shorter weekday runs anyway, but I realize that sometimes it's my crutch - and it needs to stop. I decided that for now, I would give 9/1s a try on longer runs and see how that goes. I would like to get into the habit of not doing intervals for anything shorter than a 10k and eventually do away with them forever.

So that's it - it's in writing, which means I have to do it, right? Oh the pressure! What brought this on? It was quite an eye opening experience to look at my race times from before I had the munchkin - even my slowest 1/2 marathons were faster than my "fast" 1/2 marathons of this year. Yikes!

Party's over. Time to set goals again.

And let's be realistic about this...I have 2 kids, I work full-time, have a helluva commute and have to work around the hubby's oddball schedule...running is not in the top 3 of my priority list. Heck, it may not be in the top 5. But, I do need goals to keep myself motivated and I will do the best I can to meet those goals. It's not like I'm trying to qualify for Boston or anything, but it would be nice to PR my 1/2 marathon time....maybe a 2:10? :-)

Sllloooowwww

I left work 15 minutes early so I could get to the pool a little earlier. Heck, I had been coming in a little early, had worked late one day, had worked through a couple of lunches, so I figured it was okay. As soon as I was about 3 miles from the Y, it started raining. Just a sprinkle or two, but rain nonetheless. I asked the woman at the desk if the pool was open and she assured me that it was. I changed clothes and head out the door. Well, almost. The door from the dressing room to the pool was locked. Great! I put clothes on over my swimsuit and head toward the other door that heads to the pool. That's where the life guards were hanging out...turns out there was thunder and it would be another 10 minutes before the pool would be open. So much for getting an early start!

I was eventually able to get in the pool and do some laps. When I had my private swim lesson with Connie at the Y, she would tell me to think sssslllllooooowwww as I swim. Going slow and concentrating breathing out would help me not get all out of breath. Well, for some reason when there are two life guards hanging out and I am the only one in the pool, I turn into SpazGirl again. It wasn't my best time in the pool. I did the 1st 50m and was completely out of breath...yeah, apparently I wasn't going sssllllooooowwww enough. I finished up about 800 meters, but there were lots of rest breaks in between. It was not a pretty swim day.

I am going to hit the pool again tomorrow after work. My goal is to swim 3-4x each week from now until the tri...I need some improvement or else I'll be backstroking the tri course.

Sporadic

I have been incredibly sporadic with my posting...must be all the time I've been spending on FB instead, lol!

So, here are my workouts so far this week. I have cut waaaayyy back on my workouts last week and this week. Mostly due to life stuff, and then work conflicts have kept me from my lunch time spin class...don't these people know I have a tri to train for????

Sat & Sun, April 11 & 12 - No workouts
Between getting stuff ready for Easter festivities, the hubby's work schedule and Easter itself, there was no time to workout.

Monday, April 13 - Treadmill run, 10 minutes
I procrastinated about getting on the treadmill all evening and when I finally did, the baby started crying once I had been on the treadmill for about 10 minutes. Darn procrastination and darn teething!!!

Tuesday, April 14 - Treadmill Run, 37 minutes
No spin class and no pool - I went to our Austin office and didn't get home until around 7:30 pm. That left me with the option of running, so running it was! The first few minutes were just a warm-up, then I did 3 miles progressively increasing my speed followed buy a few minutes of cool-down.

Wednesday, April 15 - Rest day (unplanned)
Wednesday nights are usually my run nights, but the kiddo was not cooperating at bedtime and by the time I got lunches and clothes ready for the next day it was almost 10 pm. I did manage to watch LOST while I was getting everything done, but no workout.

BRICK!

Brick – Bike, 15.41 miles @ 17.1 pace –and- Run, 1 mile @ 10:06 pace

With Friday being a holiday from work, I had a list of things planned to do – take the kiddos for Easter Bunny pictures, take Riley to the movies, dye Easter eggs, get in a bike ride!!!

I managed to get through all the stuff I needed to get done, but had a little help from the hubby on the Easter eggs. I'll post some pics of their masterpieces asap, lol!

And now on to the training...

This bike ride was my best yet. I decided to stay in my neighborhood, using both the 2 mile circle around the ‘hood, as well as some of the streets where there are still no homes being built. There was a little bit of a head wind on ½ of the circle, but somehow I managed to maintain a 17.2 mile pace each time I went around the circle. I did the circle 3 times, then went riding around the curvier streets of the neighborhood – that’s when my average pace dropped down to about 16.8. I am not brave enough to go whipping around those curves, so I tend to slow way down when I'm turning. After about 4 miles, I headed back out to the main circle and did a few more laps and managed to bring my pace back up with an end result of 17.1. Apparently the spin classes are working, because when I did a similar ride 3 weeks before, I was doing good to keep my average pace around 15 mph. Thank God for spin since I can never seem to find time to ride my road bike…well, at least not as much as I’d like.

When I made it back to the house, I dismounted the bike, jogged it up the driveway and into the garage. I threw off the helmet, grabbed some Gatorade, closed the garage door and then headed off for a run. My goal was to just make one mile. Hey, it’s my 1st real brick…I wasn’t brave enough to go any further.

Turns out 2 times around the little loop of our section of the neighborhood is a ½ mile. When I went out for my 1st loop, I looked down at my watch and saw that I was running a 9:34 pace and my legs felt a little jello-y, but overall not too bad. I knew I would not be running a 9:34 pace on race day and slowed it down a bit. I managed to finish my mile in 10:06…for me this is excellent even when I haven’t been on the bike 1st! I’m not expecting that pace on race day because 1) I have another mile to add and 2) I will be adding swimming to the mix…but, it made me feel a little better about this whole triathlon thing. I hope to get in a few more bricks before race day!

Catching Up

Monday, April 10 – Rest

Tuesday, April 11 – Swim, 45 minutes

Wednesday, April 12 – Treadmill run, 2 miles, 11:04 pace

Thursday, April 13 – Swim, 45 minutes

Zooma Austin (Bastrop) 1/2 Marathon

FRIDAY, 4/3
Most of the 15 people staying in the B&B headed to Bastrop on Friday morning and arrived just in time for lunch. After unloading the cars and checking out the B&B, we headed out for the 2-block walk to Main St for some lunch. Maxine’s was pretty good, but the service left much to be desired. I won’t go into details, but lets just say they weren’t ready for a party of our size and made it quite known that we should have called ahead.

Once our tummies were full, we headed over to the Lost Pines Resort. We decided to make it a lazy day and just hung out around the pool, trying to get in some relaxation before the race. We also decided to drive the route just to see how hilly it really was. We accidentally took a wrong turn that lead us down a gravel road with some interesting trailers all around us. I could hear the theme to deliverance playing in my head and we all thought, “Surely we’re not running this way!!”. Once we figured out where we made our wrong turn, we headed back to the house. We had an early dinner and turned in early. Well, sort of…our room turned into the giggly, slumber party room and several of us stayed up much too late telling ghost stories…not such a good idea when you’re staying in a creaky house that was built in 1903!

SATURDAY, 4/4 - RACE DAY!
The alarm clocks started going off at 5 am and we were off. We ate our favorite energy food (PB&J for me) and headed to the parking lot where we would take the shuttle to the resort. The whole race is a “girls weekend” theme, so it made complete sense that there would be pink porta-potties and hand washing stations!

The race was pretty small, so lining up at the start was a non-issue and before we knew it the anthem had been sung and we were off. It seemed like the hills began the minute we made it across the start line….and they never stopped. Some were bigger, steeper hills and a lot were just those llllllooooooonnnnnnggggg, ssslllloooowwww innnncccclines that never seemed to end.
I started out extremely slow. There were 4 things I was thinking about going into this race:

1. I had not been running as much as before…kinda hard to do when you have to split your time between biking and swimming. I run 2x a week, swim 2x a week and bike/spin 2x each week – gotta have one day for rest, right?

2. No amount of training at Flintridge could prepare us for these hills! It was an out and back course and the out hills were a doozy, so I wanted to conserve a little for the return trip!

3. I wanted to baby the Achilles. No point in pushing hard in the 1st ½ only to aggrevate the Achilles and not be able to finish.

4. And finally, “Damn, it’s HOT!” and “What happened to temps in the 50s???”

Luckily, the miles did tick by pretty quickly - even at my slow pace. The only drawbacks were that everyone was restricted to one lane of a two lane country road…and that one lane had cones in the middle. Those heading out were supposed to stay on one side of the cones and those on the way back were supposed to stay on the other. This made it almost impossible to pass anyone for a majority of the race. The other drawback was that only a couple of the aid stations had Powerade and even then it was really watered down…yuck!

This was the 1st race where I was behind most of the peeps in my group. Fortunately, after the turn around I ended up running with some of them….thank God because the hills were brutal. It was nice to have others to not only commiserate with, but to also keep each other moving forward. Before we knew it we were back at the hills that we had run at the beginning at the race. This, of course, was when the sun started coming out from behind the clouds and making it even hotter. I was losing my steam and walked a lot of the uphill sections. At one point Katie said I cracked her up when I saw the next hill and said in my best ghetto girl voice, “HELL no, I ain’t runnin’ up that SHIT!”. LOL, I am pretty sure those were my exact words but I hardly remember it at all – darn runner’s brain.

All I know is that I was very happy to reach the resort again. I could see the 13 mile marker in the distance and was sooo ready to be done. Normally when I make it to the finish line, I am picking up the speed and getting ready for my photo crossing the finish line. This time, I don’t think I did either. I was pooped.

As we crossed the finish line, we received our “finisher’s necklaces”. I didn’t take it out until later, and was surprised to find my little pouch empty! I managed to get another pouch that actually had a necklace in it. In all honestly, this was the worst part of the race…the after party and finishers necklace. The necklace looked like something that you could get out of a gumball machine. The “catered brunch” was a soggy, cold egg and cheese breakfast burrito (could ya slap some bacon on there please???) and coffee (juice maybe?). The upside was that we enjoyed a band and each other’s company at an awesome resort with awesome weather! Plus, the champagne and wine didn’t hurt either.

After we had a chance to recover, we headed back to the B&B on the shuttle, changed clothes and then went back to the resort to enjoy the pool a little more. We hung out by the pool, enjoyed a few frosty adult beverages, floated on the lazy river and even went down the waterslide a few times…yeah, I could get used to that life!

We ended the day with dinner at a different Bastrop eatery and had another slumber party in our room until midnight. Overall, it was a great girls weekend! I told the hubby that it was very relaxing and he cracked up saying, “You ran a freaking ½ marathon! How relaxing could it be?” Just more proof that running is my therapy. And when you combine that with a girl’s weekend, life's good!

Race Report...

I'm working on the Zooma Race report...all I'll say for now is that hills suck! :-)

In the meantime, here's a random thought for you:

Why is it that no matter what time or day I go to the grocery store, the parking lot is full and I have to park wwwwaaaaayyyyy in the very back???? Then, when I leave, the parking lot is empty and I look like one of those goof balls who parks waaaaayyyy in the back so her car doesn't get dinged? As if I'd be worried about anyone dinging my mommy-mobile, lol!

Ugh!

No workout yesterday.

Wednesday would normally be my running day, but that's out due to the achilles issue. To make matters worse, I felt like I was coming down with the stomach flu that has been visiting our house. I left work a little early and went home for a nap before taking the kiddo to dance class. Between that and getting into bed as soon as LOST was over, I think I kicked the bug! Thank God, because I saw what the hubby went through with it and trust me when I say that if I caught what he had, I would NOT be running on Saturday!

I am feeling good today. Focusing on eating the right stuff, getting plenty of rest and still babying the achilles - I think I will actually be good to go on Saturday. I still might be walking a lot of the uphill (and there is a LOT of uphill!), but I will be okay. And I cannot wait for the celebratory margarita's afterward! Wooohooo!

For the 1st time, I am not overly obsessing about the weather. I did check this morning and it looks like it will be not too bad - lows in the upper 50's, highs in the 80s with low humidity. As long as those 80s are after the race, I'm all good! :-)

Good Stuff

Yesterday was a great day…good work stuff, good spin class and good swimming. Just good stuff all around.

Nothing that exciting with the 1st two, so let’s talk about swimming. First, I love the outdoor pool so much more than the noisy indoor one. And, it was nice and warm last night when I got in. But, as always, the problem was breathing!!!

Does everyone have issues with the breathing when they swim? Or, is this problem only reserved for loser runners like me? Seriously? Everyone says, “You breathe just like you do out of the pool”. Oh really, so you exhale into a pool of water all day? Hmmmm, I thought not. Or they say, “Try not to take such a big breath” or “Try to take a breath more often – like every other stroke”. I’ve tried both tactics and I end up gasping for air by the time I make it from one end of the pool to the other. I’m surprised I’ve never hyperventilated. Yet.

Okay, okay, so last night really wasn’t that bad. In fact, I swam the 1st 50 yds with only a quick breath at the wall. Then, I swam the remainder of my laps with much less rest in between than before. I lost count of how many laps I did, but I think it’s safe to say that I did more laps in the 45 minutes of pool time than I’ve ever done in 45 minutes. So, it is getting better. Some laps are better than others. I have to constantly remind myself to slow down and take it easy. I did flip over to my back a few times, but overall I think I made a little bit of progress. I am trying to take a breath every 3rd stroke, but I still have issues keeping my head down and doing it quickly. After the ½ this weekend, I am going to have to find a way to get in the pool one additional time each week…not sure how I’m going to do that, but I need to.

The achilles? It’s better. I stopped taking the meds and it only aches a little…I haven’t run on it and I think I won’t until Saturday. Oh, and the stomach thing the hubby and kiddo had…maybe I am being paranoid, but I have been nauseous since late yesterday. Please keep your fingers crossed that it’s really nothing.

Oh, and keep your fingers crossed that my shoes make it here tomorrow from the Houston Luke's store. They were supposed to be in yesterday, but someone forgot to send them and they weren't there when the hubby went to pick them up for me today! I would go to the Houston Luke's store since it's not that far from my office, but I have a Market Street gift card to use and I can't use that in the Houston store!