Crazy Little Thing Called Tri

I've been so caught up in school starting and getting my meager training in and reading OTHER people's blogs about how much training they are doing, I haven't posted in a while.

I love reading athlete blogs.  I have one I read that the girl did the Augusta 70.3 yesterday, and I'm eagerly awaiting her report.  I read another of a friend I've met in my running community about her badass splits on mere training runs, let alone winning or placing in all of the 5ks and 10ks she does.  Another blog is about a lady's adventures while going through her divorce and she swims in the Pacific and hikes Northwestern California's peaks. Fascinating.

So I better get back to reporting on my own athletic endeavors.  This past weekend qualifies.

Waaayyy back in June I was convinced by my two best tri girlfriends, K and K, to sign up for a Half-Iron close by in Kerrville, TX.  My biggest races have been olympic, also called quarter tris, and that was mostly just this year.  My intention was to train and work up to a half-iron, or 70.3, triathlon by next year.

I've been doing sprint level tris for 5 years so this year I'd decided to only sign up for olympic level ones.  Sprint are usually a 500m swim,14-15mile bike, and a 5k run.  The olympic races are usually 1500-1600m swims, 24-28mile bike, and a 10k run.  Almost twice as much.

Last May, I reported here that I did my second olympic tri here in Austin and wasn't thrilled about my swim but otherwise was happy I'd gotten through another big race.  Swim lessons with a tri coach in June gave me confidence to sign up for the Half with K and K.  Now I said it was a Half, but I wasn't signed up to do the whole 70.3, mind you, only the swim leg.  I had gotten better and more comfortable and extended my lessons into July and now swimming is my favorite of the 3 sports.  Shhh, don't tell my bike.

So I volunteered (not really, I had to pay for this) to start off our team 70.3 with the swim portion.  One point two miles in the Brazos River.  I've come to realize all our lakes and rivers around central Texas are pretty gross.  The prettiest I've swam in was Aquarena Springs in San Marcos...a cccold spring with the turtles and fishies and seeing clear to the bottom...but even that had plant life that threatened to rope me.

I kept up my swim class, and did some biking and running too.  I did two more olympic tris, and still didn't feel a groove in that distance.  Except for my swims, my times didn't get better, so my frustration grew.

The Ladies of Tri...and Stevie

Truthfully, I had been slacking way off on the biking and running.  I can ride any day of the week, any distance you throw at me, and all I've ever done was one, maybe two training rides a week.  Cycling isn't a weak spot for me.  Running...jeez running continues to elude me.  I go out on my own and feel okay but in my races I'm sluggish and internally whiney the whole time.  I'm not often happy with my times and I've lost the ability to capture a "runner's high" which I used to get a lot more. But training for running once or twice a week doesn't seem to help.  So I swam.

During our grand plans for the Kerrville Half Relay Tri weekend we got caught up in the nerd-speak race-talk with our training group, Blue Moose.  A pack of all ages/all abilities, we are just a fun group of friends who get together to train and do runs, rides, and tris.  K and K and I decided since we were going down there, we'd go early and do the sprint tri the day before the relay.  Why not? We're badasses, right?  Also it gave me a reason to throw in a ride or run or two while I practiced to swim my one point two miler.

As this past week progressed, the forecasts of rain became more and more dramatic.  90% rain was predicted for Saturday, the day of our sprint. 20% chance on Sunday morning, when I'd do my half-iron swim. I had a million things to do with the kids, as usual, and the idea of trekking 2 hours into a rainstorm, only to have the race cancelled wasn't appealing.  I was getting in a foul mood about the whole weekend.  But the hotel was reserved, the entry fees were nonrefundable and already spent.  I get reimbursed from my BEEF team but not if I don't do the race.  The chance was slim that Saturday's race would be a go, but one of the K's convinced me Kerrville was wine country, so the weekend would not be a bust.

I took a half day off work Friday, which is always a bonus.  Got home and loaded up my car with everything I'd need for two rainy muddy races.  Picked up K and got some serious girl-time talking done on the 2 hour trip down.  You know you'll keep a friend forever when you can talk nonstop about work, kids, men, weight, working out, racing, and wine in the span of 2 hours.  The other K was driving down after work but we kept tabs on her via GPS so we would know when she got in.  The rain began lazily as we pulled into the hotel lot.

Once we all three were there, we got our packets from the on-site registration pick-up and realized we had to rack our bikes before dinner.  It was raining more now.  The bike racking was literally next door to our hotel so we walked our babies over there and left them in the cold unforgiving rain.  We paid some cashola for those babies, so to leave them outdoors uncovered in a deluge of rain is NOT okay with us.  Normally we house them in our living rooms at home for gosh sakes!

This race set-up was different than any of the others I've done.  The bike racking was T-1, or transition 1, and the running start was at a separate, T-2 which was two miles away.  After consulting some race officials and several maps, we figured out where T-2 was, and dredged over there, in the rain.  Yes we drove but in an unfamiliar town, with low dark clouds and constant rain, I was starting to get irritated again.  We had moisture-proof bags with our run-out gear to leave in T-2.  By the time we got back to our car, I'd been in and out of the rain fully clothed and not swimming, biking or running for less than an hour, and it was already pissing me off.

Off to Mamacitas for dinner with Blue Moose and a margarita to calm me down.  I never drink before a race but I had convinced myself it wasn't going to happen, so why not?  By the time I finished my rita, I felt guilty and thought, the law of averages, it would stop raining and we would race, and I'd be hungover.  I quickly switched to water.

As we drifted off to bed, earlier than I would've at home (because of the margarita?), the rain was light but continual and the forecast now predicted at least 60% most of Saturday.  The race officials had said short of lightening the race would go on, but me and my Ks were pretty sure we wouldn't ride our babies in the rain and risk life and limb on slick unfamiliar roads.

Saturday at 6AM we suited up and poked our heads out to see light drizzle.  We know the diehard community of triathletes would smirk at such wetness and persevere.  We are just competitive enough to join that school of thought.  We took the remaining gear over to T-1 and were happy it wasn't cooler since we were starting out wet as it was.  Body-marking done and we had time to make another bathroom break back at the room before putting on our wetsuits.  Well, I did.  The other two were brave enough to go in without.  The water was 75 degrees which is relatively warm but wetsuit-legal.  I figure why not use the sprint to test out my wetsuit which I fully planned to use the next day for the must longer 2K.  I swim at the pool in 82 degrees, and I think that's cool for me.  The temperature outside was about 70 so getting in the water wasn't a shock and off we went.

500 meters is a really short distance for a race. If you can freestyle, like me, you're done in 8-11 minutes.  Even with all my training, I was on the 11 minute side of that.  Too many turns and since I'm not out front I'd get caught up in the traffic and then you are changing direction to avoid flying feet and arms.  If you can't freestyle, like one of the Ks, you are still done in 15.  Easy peasy.  Up the hill (seriously, a hill up to transistion? Thanks!) and on the bike.  I had to stop and let the "strippers" take off my wetsuit.  Literally 4-5 people stand there outside the water and turn you around, unzip you, force you to sit and pull the suit off you lickedly split.

I took off on my bike breathing hard (from that damn hill) and soaking wet.  No need to dry off since it was still spitting slightly.  It could've been worse, the rain was barely noticeable as we took off.  Fast swimmer K was right behind me.  The course was loopy and lots of in-town turns and repeat loops but otherwise I made it through the 15 miles in about 48 minutes.  Apparently many people (without computers on their bikes telling them the mileage) were confused and turned toward the bike finish before they'd done the 2nd outer loop.  Inexperienced riders should invest in a $20 bike computer, so they don't accept awards when they only rode 8 miles instead of 15 (this happened in the sprint relay my training mates did- MY friends did it correctly).

Into T-2, threw on my running shoes and a visor and saw one of the Ks ready to go too.  The other K was just coming in, she made up some serious time from her slow swim on a super fast bike.  I took off with K and the other K came up and passed us both, as she usually does.  She's a runner, hence her doing our run-leg of the relay the next day.  Me and K started out slow and I told her to go ahead if she needed to.  She doesn't like to leave me but she's slightly faster than me so I feel I'm holding her back.  Through the trails and back she was a bit ahead of me, but within sight.  The other K was way ahead and we saw her only after the turnaround.  Her overall time beat us both, I was the slowest of us three, thanks to my run.  But at 1:42 I was pretty happy, since my past sprint tris have all been 1:45 or less.

I had an epiphany after that finish.  I like sprint tris.  I feel good after I'm done and during I don't dread the next leg coming.  In my age group I'm not the slowest.  Sprints are typically what beginners start with so the chances of me placing better are higher.  I know that sounds silly but there are professionals who excel at sprints and continue to do them while they rack up more trophies.  Same with 5ks.  I've placed as high as 7th in a sprint in my age group, women 40-44.  Its usually a fairly large division since triathlon is a popular sport among the just-divorced or bored-with-my-life crowd.  Saturday I placed 9th in my division. Whoo-hoo!

I did all those olympics earlier this season because they were the "next step".  On my way...to what?  Ironman?  I have already decided after watching and reading about friends who are training for Ironman that I don't want to devote that much of my life to triathlon.  As in, I don't want to ruin it.  Its still fun.  Or it was when I was doing sprints.  The olympic races are daunting for me.  Faster, more authentic athletes go for the olympic races.  They are training for half-irons and irons.  Olympics are their stepping stones.  I felt fat and slow at my last few.  At the sprint, I felt great, drizzle and all. I think I've (re)found my niche.

K, Me, and K- Team KiCK It

Next up:  I must work on running more efficiently just as I did the swimming.  I have seen the results in my swimming since my classes started.  I have a friend who is willing to give me a running plan and work with me at the track.  I'm all for that.  I just want to feel better running, like I wanted to feel better swimming.  I got the swimming down and even learned to be faster.  On Sunday, I swam my relay leg for my team.  I felt good, I used my techniques, I kept sighting well, I stayed out of the fray as much as I could but followed buoy to buoy until I finished.  Toward the end I felt good, and I felt like I hadn't swam 1.2 miles.  So much better than I'd felt in previous shorter 1600 meter open water swims.   My friend says he can get me there with running.  Cool beans.

Back to Saturday after our amazing sprint (my training mates relayed it and got FIRST PLACE in spite of those 1-looper bike dummies) my friends and I checked out one of the local wineries.  You throw a rock around that area and you're gonna hit a winery.  This one came highly recommended by my training mates.  They took us there and we did a tasting.  All the while talking our nerdy race talk.  We've been training together for over a year now so there's plenty of material.  The wine loosened us up and we talked for hours.

A few grapes at The Chisholm Trail Winery

This adult-time is precious and so necessary for me to grow as an athlete and as a 40+ adult.  I missed Sinatra immensely because I know he would've loved every minute of it, but he was home being a dad to his kids.  It wasn't his time to nurture his me-time.  He fits in with this crowd perfectly and we all have such good times.  We will have other weekends and he will be there.  These are my friends for life and the fact that they are my friends have enriched my life just as much as triathlon has over these last 6 years.  There's more to learn in my training, in my races, and in my friendships.  Cool beans, and pass the wine.

In My Mind's Eye, I Totally Work It

In my 40s I have been challenged with my weight and my physique, watching it go up and down, in and out, but never landing where I want it.  I have figured out my Hormones and my Hunger are in control and my Mind who wants to wear sundresses and bikinis and only a sports bra to run in, has to sit in the back seat while the other two hoodlums do the driving.

I think I look like this...

But I really look like this...

I work out, yes.  But lately nothing changes whether its a lot or a little exercise.  I don't feel good if I work out only a little so I continue to try to do SOMETHING almost every day. I weigh myself every day.  I fluctuate 4-6 lbs over the course of a month.  Its maddening.  If I am not changing much of my routine or my food, then why do I float around in the 150s that much?  

Thanks Brightroom!

Food.  I do like food.  I have done Weight Watchers, juicing, and online diet plans and dropped down some, but only at most 8-10lbs max.  Then I bottom out.  Eight to ten pounds is a lot on my frame, and I have loved it when it works but as I've crept into my 40s, it takes grander and more extreme dieting to make a dent.  Did I mention I like food?   Its about portion control and the healthy food pyramid I am certain.  But I know I'm not willing to sacrifice like the pros.  Not many people would, so I'm not alone there. I'd love to juice at least once a day, but who has time to clean up that damn juicer?

As much as I like food (and because I do), I hate race pictures.  They are the over-priced "professional" pictures taken by the photography companies that work 5Ks and marathons and triathlons.  Sometimes the photographer lays on the ground to get that shot of us running or cycling by.  This never works.  Depending on how close they get to me when they snap the shot,  I look like a two-ton gorilla, or my head is too big for my body, or my leg fat is billowing in a downward motion.

As in the photos displayed here,  I tend toward a hulkish rather than girlish figure, all massive arms and popping booty in a form-fitting wetsuit or on a skinny little bike.  I am well aware I weigh twice as much, if not more, than that bike.  If it wasn't for the bike, I'd never make it up those hills, that's for sure.  Don't get me started on how unforgiving spandex is.  Thank God everyone out there wears pretty much the same thing so I'm never the worst one.

Lots of Junk in that Trunk

I have been in better shape than I am currently but I never have nor will look like Ms. Desiree Ficker (see above), multiple Ironman top-five finisher and awesome triathlete from my town of Austin, TX.  Underneath all my mass, I might look like her, but I have yet to find the secret to unlocking my potentially (and alleged) tiny underframe.

Work that bike, Girl...

When I pose for pictures I can turn my angles and work it so I look more fit than I am.  Like an overweight mom who's Facebook profile picture is her happy face over the shoulder of her child, who's she's hiding her body behind, I use props to camouflage certain undesirable body parts as well.  Thank you Skinny Bike! Sans the props, I go for the legs together-facing front-biceps at my side-neck prolonged, I look like I have more muscle than fat.  I can work with that.

I just rode 36 hilly miles here, so who cares if I'm fat?

But alas, in the professional race picture, when I am in flight, my limbs out of my control, and angles nowhere in sight, you get what you get.  It ain't always pretty.  But so disheartening when you have felt like a champion and finished something you didn't think you could, but then see pictures that make you look like someone people may think didn't even train for this.  Or didn't train enough.  Or didn't take it seriously.

Happy I'm almost finished and out of the spandex

NOT my best angle

Of course I shouldn't compare myself with the super-fit elite athletes who don't eat anything preserved, and  grow their own organic veggies in their backyards, and who workout every day for hours.  Again, not likely to ever be me.  I do take my racing seriously, and within the scope of my life, with my kids and job and dogs and boyfriend and boyfriend's kids and parents and friends, I do all I can and make the best of it.  I have been more fit in the past, but I've never been this busy.  

My Hunger and Hormones will eat do what they may, but I must champion my Mind to see the healthy girl I am, not magazine cover-perfect, but strong and worthy of being out there with all those other athletes of all shapes and sizes.  Mind, free yourself.

You're still a BadAss, lumps and all

Ten Miles, 20 Bands, and 1 Sore Old Body

That is me, on the far left in the Beef shirt, smiling. Its a fuzzy picture which is good, because it camouflages the pain behind that smile. Not one certain place on my body in pain, pretty much the whole body. It was a ten-mile course, spattered with rock-n-roll bands all along the way. Sound cool on paper. It was cool. Except I only got to listen to each band for a few seconds...because I was RUNNING! Duh.

Many of Austin races have bands. I remembered that after we got started. Its kind of a thing here in the "Live Music Capital of the World". We're not bragging...much.

But the Austin 10/20 promised 20 bands during the ten miles and I thought what a cool way to distract me from the ten miles my body will be trying to run. I wondered as I watched those bands how many of them hated to get up that morning to go play in the muggy weather over thousands of sweaty runners trotting by not even able to stop and bang their heads. None of them looked much like "morning" people.

It was a mass start but we were organized into zones according to our running abilities so we milled through the corrals until we reached the start and off we went. I was running with two of my Beef team members who ran my same pace. One was soley a runner so she was probably conditioned to run faster but mentioned this was just a "fun run" for her, aka social-run-I'm-not-trying-to-win. The other is training for the freaking Ironman next month and said after this 10 miles her training plan says she needs to run another 10. Oh yeah, and she rode 74 miles on her bike the day before. She's a machine.

Me? I'm the triathlete who gets her workouts in while her kids are in piano or after dark when everyone's homework is done if I'm lucky. There are weeks I haven't been able to squeeze in more than one hour for a workout. Usually on the weekends I make up for it and try the whole Weekend Warrior thing with long rides or runs, but many times only one day of the weekend I'm able to fit something in. Its frustrating to want to do more but just not have enough hours in the day to do it.

Get up early you say? Hmmm, so I work until 5 every day. I drive home in rush hour traffic arriving by 5:40pm on a good day, and usually am out the door again to the kids' church, piano, volleyball or cheer functions by 6 or 6:30. Home by 7:30 or later depending on the night. Kids get dinner and shower and the dogs need a petting or even a walk if they're lucky and now its 9pm. Kids go to bed (in theory) at 9:30 and 10pm. Now if my teenager ACTUALLY goes to bed at 10pm, which usually bleeds over to 10:15 or 10:20, I get to finally veg in front of the TV to catch up on my shows. I try to turn off the TV by 11pm so I can read before I go to sleep. I love to read but never have a quiet moment except for 11pm or later. Fall asleep reading by 11:30pm.

Do you see me getting up at 5am the next morning? Uh, no. I do get up at 6:30am to start the whole thing over again, so to get an early morning workout in means 5am, and 5am means Mommy gets no sleep, and that means DANGER. I need my 7 hours of sleep or it gets ugly.

I digress. Our plan on the 10 miler was to run at least the first 5k without stopping and reassess whether to run/walk it. In the past on the two half-marathons, I ran/walked one and ran the whole second one and my time on the second was only like 8 minutes better. But somehow run/walking seems wussy. My running is slow enough that some duck-walkers pass me so really to slow down more is embarrassing.

We got to the 5K mark and the other girls were like "I feel good, wanna keep going?" so of course I said "YUP" even though my legs were not so happy at that point. After a 5K! UGH. I should be leaping past that 5K sign with all the running I've done in the past year. My last few weeks have been short sub-4 mile runs and not fast at all. Basically I've been slacking, and it showed.

We ran more and I think we got to the 5 mile marker and I finally said I wanted to walk a minute. It was right on the hour mark, so we try to time it as a four minute run, 1 minute walk so the math is easy on our watches. Sometimes we talk too much and don't pay attention and either walk too long or run too long...but 4/1 is easiest to maintain.

The sun never came out but the clouds were gray and low and holding the heat and humidity down right on us. I was smelly and sweaty and it was only half-way over. Austin is not a flat town and so up and down we went. I slowed at every water stop to hydrate and my legs, knees, hips continued to bark. The other two were slightly ahead of me which was fine because I was in a "leave me and my pain alone" mood and hung back on purpose. They would slow on the walks to let me catch up and we did have some nice girl-talk. I barely noticed the bands to tell you the truth.

We came back around the 9 mile marker and there was our Beef team volunteers cheering and making noise and taking pictures...hence the smiley pic above. It did give me a boost to get running and I saw the band we saw first as we left the starting gate. Whoo-hoo we are almost to the end and its only be an hour and 45 mintues! Oops wait, we still have a mile to go. We veer off from the finish line to loop around some of the stores in the Domain and I'm really starting to ache. But there were big crowds and our Beef team members were screaming for us to keep going so I put my head down and ran.

I always find a surge of energy to sling-shot me into the finish line of my races...all the spectators lined up yelling always helps me out. There we went all three of us across the Finish at 2:06. I didn't feel like I had a great run but my time wasn't horrible. I was #508 out of 628 women in my age group (40-44). That's a huge age group and I definitely wasn't a shining star in it, but there were 120 women of my age who sucked worse (not you K, your time was the same as mine, they just listed you a second slower so you were under me- totally not fair since you waited for me half the run!). There were 6,000+ men and women who finished and I was one of them, so I'll take it.

My training can be better. It will be better. I have an Olympic triathlon coming up in a month and I don't want my run to ruin it. I will squeeze an hour even if I'm tired, and even if the girls are busy, so I have something to call my own. I've already signed up for my next 10K (only 6.2 miles) and there's no excuse not to do better with 2 weeks to get ready.

And onward to the next over-sized stupidly heavy medal, which validates me whether I had a good run or not, and which I love so much.

Lucy's date with her mortality

Lucy, my fearless (to the point of stupidity) canine partner in running, has had a really bad week.

We began last week with a run near a fence line in a neighborhood, just jogging along and a rogue dog pokes through a rogue hole in its white trash fence and barks at us. Lucy took it upon herself to protect her mamma from said rude dog, and bit the crap out of the nose sticking through the fence. Full-on her teeth over the dog's nose and I wasn't sure she would let go.

So I stepped in. Yes, insert groan here.

I grabbed Lucy by her shoulders, she still wasn't letting go. I got my hands on her top jaw and pried them off the dogs nose. Finally she let go but not before she caught my right hand in her teeth. Across the pinky and next two fingers, punctures. Thought they were little ones and we'd keep running but the pinky was really bleeding. Then it was really hurting. Tried to wipe the blood on the grass and felt something move. Something unnatural. It was dark so I just wrapped it up and we got the hell out of there. Got back to my car and Lucy looked fine and dandy, didn't see any other-dog parts on her, and my pinky nail was split through the middle. Still hurt like hell but I figured nothing could be done that night.

A trip to the doctor the next day for a tetanus shot and I'm told the nailbed is split and needs stitches. Eight painful lido shots in the finger later and my nail has been removed and 4 stitches are in. Thanks, Luc.

Funny thing about comeuppance...and karma. Lucy did not escape the week unscathed. When my finger felt good enough to run again in 4 days, I took my girl out again with me. Regular route near the house. Turned at a corner on the sidewalk at a point we sometimes go straight and Lucy tried to go straight, pulling a bit away from me. I laughed that she has doggie memory of a different route, and at that second a car turned that corner next to us and she was startled and jolted toward it, ready to chase. She slipped out of my grasp and took off. It wasn't going that fast but she was right next to its back tire and as fast as she went toward it she clipped it or it clipped her. That was it. She hobbled over to me with a foot dangling from the "knee" down...not good. Her turn at the doctors.

No doggie insurance so instead of a $30 copay like me, she had a slightly more expensive surgery to install a plate and screws to realign and stablize her leg. She a pathetic mess now.

I so missed her tonight on my run. I probably can run faster without her zigzagging and poop breaks, but I really miss her. She's confined to the bathroom with an elizabethean collar on (which is in no way regal, it looks like a lampshade) and is walking around in a daze. Two weeks of this and the doc will check her staples and hopefully pull them out so no more collar, but still no strenuous running, jumping or playing for 8 more weeks. That is not Lucy. We have stairs and she's used to beebopping up and down them without a thought. Now a baby-gate is keeping her downstairs.

I hope to get back my runner-girl, maybe with a bit more humility and respect for the big loud motory things that pass us by. She can still take a chunk out of a dog that comes after me though, I won't stop her again.