Breakfasts, lunches, and bike rides galore!

I haven't done too much since getting back to Colorado, besides Warrior Dash, of course. I was sooooo sore after that "race" that I could barely walk. Apparently I shouldn't be running down mountaintops without properly training beforehand. Oops.

In other news, school has started and I'm slowly starting to figure out my schedule. I finally have some human interaction during the course of my day, which is super nice. Yesterday (Wednesday) was my super long day, beginning with 2 lectures then an hour break for lunch and then 4 hours of section and lab. I woke up late so didn't eat breakfast and it wasn't looking like I'd be getting home for lunch. So no food til 5 pm?! Not gonna happen.

I decided to go to the campus grill/cafeteria and ended up getting roast chicken with potatoes and peas. That was heavenly. I also sat down next to a woman from the English department and we had a nice chat. I want to keep doing that (having lunch with someone) but I don't want to spend so much money every time.

And that's what brought me to looking into getting a snazzy lunchbox and packing a nice nutritious lunch for which I've planned ahead. From this other blog I read (Adios, fat pants!), I got a few websites dedicated to packing healthful lunches into Bento boxes, essentially lunch boxes with compartments that fit in very nicely. So I've been looking over them and I think I'm going to start small and plan a multi-colored, veggie-filled lunch once a week and build up from there.

Like this, from Basic Bento:

The next step is making breakfast as well, but I think that may be a once a week kind of thing. The same goes for biking to work/school instead of driving a few blocks and walking up that dreaded hill. But if I'm doing this once a week, what do I do the other days?

No weigh-in. Waiting on my beer water weight to go away. Perhaps tomorrow.

Nada either. SLACKER!

Warrior Dash!

Today was a really fun race that I had been looking forward to for a while. I even scheduled my California vacation around it, and had to cut out an extra weekend of fun on the beaches to get muddy. All in all, it was definitely worth it.

And now some photos...

Before the race, sparkling clean (I'm on the left in the brown shirt and my roommate's on the right):

Directly post mud pit:

 The last sprint to the finish, through fire, of course:

All in all, it was a really fun race but I thought it was a bit too easy obstacle-wise. I felt like it wasn't much of a challenge, excluding the long hill we had to run up, but that was just an endurance challenge and not a how-do-I-get-around-this-obstacle challenge. A little kid would've had no problem completing every single one of these obstacles, which many did. I was looking for a bit more of a challenge...not that my heavy and out-of-shape butt could've handled something more extreme, but details. And this is how Tough Guy comes into play.

Because of the relative ease of Warrior Dash, now I'm definitely set on Tough Guy UK: The World's safest, most dangerous taste of mental and physical pain, fear and endurance. It's a race held in January in bloody cold England that has some serious obstacles and some serious tests of inner strength.

Check out this appropriately titled ESPN review: Death Race 2007

So if I ever find myself in England (or even Europe) in January, I'm totally doing this. But I'm not flying across the pond for the sole purpose of putting myself through hell. At least that's what I say now. We'll see if that changes.


No weigh-in. Too early to even think about it.

Warrior Dash: 3.27 mile "run" with 12 obstacles

New leaf?

I have a tendency to write these kinds of posts after a super long absence. I get super optimistic about working out, eating healthy, and losing weight. And then a few days pass and I'm over it. This usually happens when I'm at home with nothing better to do but scheme, plan out my life, and make resolutions, which is the case today.

I'm hoping this time the feeling will stick. My mom has now lost 45 pounds (so proud of her!) and weighs 20 pounds LESS than me. How embarrassing. I have got to do something about this because I can't be fat and unhappy any longer. And I've noticed that my abs are absolute Jell-O. I can barely hold a crunch for 5 seconds, and the only reason I know that is because I couldn't hold myself up when I was fixing my hair in bed (try to imagine that one). I used to be able to do 200 crunches at once and now I've got nothing.

So I've started the 100 push-up program. It's a six-week program that "promises" you'll be able to do 100 push-ups at the end of it. It's pretty simple, like Couch to 5 k, and only requires 5 sets of a small number of push-ups three times a week. For example, Day One of Week One for my level is the following number of push-ups: 10, 12, 7, 7, and at least 9.

I can't do enough real push-ups to make this program worthwhile, because I would have to repeat too many weeks with little progress, so I've been doing "girl push-ups" instead, you know, the ones on your knees. And once I build up to 100 of those, I hope my upper body is strong enough to be able to do at least 10 real push-ups. And that's when I'll start the actual program. For now, though, I'm sticking to girl push-ups since I'm already super sore from the 15 I did two days ago. Not a good sign, but I can only go up from here!

I really like structured things like this and I've been meaning to start the day off with push-ups for years now, so this seems like a great thing for me to do. And there's no guess-work. Everything is planned out. Yay :)

Oh, and I'm going to add my weight and daily training to the end of each blog post in italics. Hopefully this will motivate me to post more often. So here's the first one:

210.5

Push-ups: 10, 12, 7, 7, 13!

Getting back to tri-ing

One more posting from the tri forum. Again, it captures my feelings about tris quite accurately.

I know I've been absent for a pretty good chunk of time and I'm sorry for my sudden departure without any explanation. The short version is I needed time away from tris and anything tri-related. The long version follows. Thanks so much for your concern through PMs and inspires. You guys rock!

All is well over here in the sense that nothing is majorly wrong, I guess. I haven't done much of anything (tri-specific, at least) since the Oly in late June. It took me a good three weeks to get back on my bike for a short ride. And after that amount of time off, it had to be short to be surviveable. Geez, it's amazing how much fitness can be lost in such a seemingly short amount of time! It's like I was back at square one.

Since then, I've only been back on the bike a couple times, with no scheduled runs or swims at all. Part of my reasoning was that I'm going back to sea level with no bike for two weeks, so whatever I build up before then will inevitably be lost. So why try, right? Yeah, not the right attitude at all, but it seemed like a sufficient justification at the time.

Anywhos, I felt (and now I know for sure) that I was still jilted by my last tri experience. I don't usually hold on to things for nearly this long so it was kind of weird to have this feeling of crappiness hover around me every time I thought of tris. I needed a positive experience but wasn't about to commit to another hellacious form of expensive torture without being absolutely sure it would do the trick of cheering me up.

And that's where volunteering changed everything. A few friends and I had signed up to volunteer for the Boulder 70.3 Ironman race held this morning a while back after we had a blast at the sprint early in the season. Although the actual volunteer experience wasn't nearly as good this time around from an organizational standpoint (some of the coordinators were absolutely infuriating and incompetent), the athletes I interacted with made getting up at 4 am well worthwhile. It was so much fun and exciting and totally restored my faith in triathlons. The positive vibe felt in transition and before the race start was what I had forgotten about tris. And I missed that. So that's why I'm posting back to the group. I miss you guys.

So yeah, I'm back, albeit slowly and probably going to work on building a base for next season or possibly a late-season race, but I'm excited to get back into things. That hasn't happened in a while. I'm also seriously considering joining the tri club out here to get in some swim workouts with instruction since I feel like that's where I need the most coached help. The bike and run I can fix on my own, I think, (that, and I'm really intimidated by the routes they do so that'll have to wait), but my swim form needs some outside assistance. And the tri club seems like the most cost-effective way to fix that.

And that's that. As always, sorry this is so long, but I figured a one-line explanation wouldn't be sufficient to explain my absence.

Feeling much better

By today, he sting of yesterday has worn off, as long as I keep my mind off the bike portion of the race. That part's still pretty raw.

Oh, and last night we had an end-of-season party for a softball league I'm in. Of course my body marking hadn't washed off completely (not like I tried all that hard ) so people kept asking why I had "622" Sharpied onto my arm. They were pleasantly surprised and impressed that I did a tri that morning.

And the best part was when this super cocky guy on my team found out the distance. "Oh, you did a tri? How long was it, a sprint?" Nope, an Oly mofo. His jaw literally dropped. Awesome!

Lastly, as of 10:45 pm last night, my soul is complete. At least that's the text I sent to a friend. So apparently it didn't take all that much for it to heal. Just a few beers and some good company.

Loveland Lake to Lake Triathlon

The second triathlon is done! And it may've been the hardest thing I've experienced (mentally) since being in the mountains of Italy for a month two years ago...wow, was it really that long ago? Anywhos, below is the race report, again written for the tri group so it's a bit long.

Loveland Lake to Lake Triathlon

1.5 k/30 mi/10 k

 Loveland, CO

26 June 2010

I have no idea what happened to me during this race. Physically, I was fine throughout. I hammered out the swim slowly but surely. My bike split was faster than the trial run last week. And I probably could've run most of the 10k. But I gave up around mile 20 of the bike and it just got worse as the race went on. I barely talked myself into going out on the run. Midway through, I was completely done. Had it not been an out-an-back, I would've just headed back and gotten a DNF. By that point I didn't even care. So I trudged through it and somehow finished.

That was the nutshell version. Here's the more detailed one. Like my last report, it's also written for me, so excuse the length. And really, it's long, especially the bike part.

Pre-race

We planned to leave the house promptly at 4 am to get there when transition opened at 5. I made the mistake of sleeping in til noon the day before so I couldn't fall asleep that night. Ended up finally dozing off at 2:30 or something, and woke up to my alarm an hour later. I know, 1 hour of sleep before an Oly is probably the worst way to start a day. But since I'm a night person, I'm used to getting only a few hours of sleep before huge athletic events, and I'd also had a pretty restful week. So I figured, no biggie. And once I was up, I felt refreshed and good.

Anywhos, one of the girls I was carpooling with forgot her helmet 15 minutes into the drive, so we turned around to grab it. By the time we left for good it was 4:45, and we had about an hour drive ahead of us with the first wave going out at 6:20. Most definitely not enough time for me. I was pissed off and really stressed. So I think that's where the bad attitude began.

BUT, we made pretty good time (partially due to my erratic driving) and got there around 5:20. We had plenty of time to set up, walk around, and even take a few pictures with our other friends also doing the tri. I calmed down and was really enjoying myself.

Swim

                                                                   47:23             AG: 56/56
                                                           2:53/100 yards       OA: 694/715

I felt really good throughout. I was much more relaxed than during the sprint last month and just powered through it. My roommate was about a pool length ahead of me and swam around the same speed, so it was really nice to have a pace buddy within seeing distance. Kept me consistent and persistent in my swimming. I probably could've gone faster but I wasn't really racing this race, but rather going for a solid finish. And, I didn't want to come out as dizzy as I had last time. So, I did good

There was about a quarter-mile run to transition which I did as a slow jog and then headed to the bikes to get ready to ride.

T1

                                                                      2:26          AG: 45/56

Most of the bikes were already gone by the time I got there, which is fine. Other than that, I took my time and made sure I had everything I would need and headed out.

Bike

                                                                2:04:27             AG: 53/56

                                                             14.46 mph          OA: 686/715

These were the most demoralizing and lonely 2 hours of my life. I wanted to cry at least 10 times and I'm not a crying person. I think I may've shed a tear or two towards the end, and then promptly told myself to suck it up and keep going.
From the beginning I could tell I was a bit tired. I think I used my legs too much during the swim or something, because they felt a bit heavy in the beginning. That feeling went away pretty quickly, so I probably just needed a warm-up.

My roommate and I are the same bike pace too so we stayed close to each other and chatted for the first few miles. Other than that, there was no one else around. Eventually she went ahead leaving me to chat with the voices in my head.

Somewhere around the first hill around mile 8 (don't know the mileage since my bike computer wasn't working) it hit me that this race sucks and it's going to be a long day. I had been one of the last people out of the water and now even my roommate, who I'd hoped to be on par with, had left me, making me really far behind. With all the curves and ups and downs in the road, I could only see other bikers every once in a while. And even so, they were super far away and probably impossible to catch. I couldn't talk myself into thinking I was racing, since there was no one within sight to catch, and then I tried saying it's like a group ride, which it wasn't since I was alone. I had run out of positive things to compare this to or convince myself of, so I sank into despair.

There have been very few times when I've felt so low and alone, and powerless to change the situation. This bike leg is now added to the list. There was absolutely nothing I could do about the situation besides keep pedaling which, thankfully, wasn't too hard. But it took so looooong...

Even now writing about it is pretty hard and brings tears to my eyes, so apparently I'm not over it and it wasn't a fleeting thought, but a true soul bruising. In fact, it's taken me all day to write this report. I don't know what sparked that initial feeling, but it all spiraled from there.

The long hill wasn't bad biking-wise and going down was super awesome...except for the fact that I couldn't see another biker for at least a few miles ahead. The rolling hills were much easier to conquer (physically at least) this time around as compared to last week when we scouted the course. I wasn't cursing them or the course at all. Maybe I was too wrapped up in my own feelings to notice the difficulty of the hills. But at least by that point, I could see 5 miles down the straight road and there were plenty of people to keep me company, even if they were a spec on the horizon.

Every time I saw a light-colored jersey up ahead, I hoped it was my roommate so I would be able to tell I hadn't fallen too far behind. But as soon as I got closer I realized it wasn't her. After 3 or 4 of these disappointments, I resigned myself to the fact that she was way ahead and I stopped getting my hopes up, which helped. The bright side of this was that I was passing people, and never got passed during the whole 30 miles. Yay for small successes

Anywhos, it was around this time (rolling hills, mile 20-ish) that the thought of not finishing crossed my mind. All along I had been aware of the difficulty of running 6 miles after all this. Even though it was daunting, I knew I could push through it and somehow finish, even if I had to walk the whole thing. By the rolling hills, it seemed impossible. Every time I felt that way, I would try to push the run to the back of my mind and just focus on getting through the bike, but eventually I just couldn't shake that feeling. I had no idea how I was going to continue on.

Once closer to civilization, there were more volunteers to cheer us racers on. Some of them looked bored out of their minds which exacerbated everything I was feeling, but the vast majority were genuinely enthusiastic so I put on a smile and yelled out "Thanks" because I really was grateful. The aid stations got an extra shout-out due to the kids' ridiculous excitement and encouragement.

T2

2:42

Had my roommate not waited for me in transition, I would've quit. No doubt in my mind. To add to the feeling of being the last racer on the course, I literally had to wade through the people who were getting their stuff out of transition to go home. No joke. And thus began my anger towards race management. But more on that later.

Some volunteer realized I was still racing instead of going home (like most everyone else in transition) and yelled some words of encouragement, which was nice. I got all my stuff and jogged out with the roommie, who apparently was feeling the exact same way.

Run

                                                                   1:36:55          AG: 54/56

                                                           15:37 min/mile   OA: 708/715

Umm, I should've labeled this as a walk instead. Going out, there were a ton of people heading back in, kinda weird to see after being alone for a couple hours. We ran most of the first mile and then did the rest of the 10k as a half walk, half jog, not because I was tired and couldn't run any more, but because I was done with this race. So over it.

We talked to a Team in Training lady for a while who walked the entire run because she'd badly broken her leg in a fall off a 30-foot cliff (yeah, crazy!) recently and was just looking to finish. There were lots of interesting people on that course, and because we were so slow we got to talk to a few of them, including the group of old ladies who was doing a garden tour down the streets we were running. Incredible landscaping, I gotta say. Even gave us some ideas for our own garden

Back to the race...as we were heading back to the finish for the last 1.5 miles we saw absolutely no one racing or working the race. No volunteers, no racers, nothing. Just a bunch of cones and some beach-goers by the reservoir. It was as if we were going for a Saturday jog by the lake instead of participating in a race. Some dude was putting away football equipment into a shed so we asked him if he knew where we were supposed to go, since by that point we were already back to where we had started and the route took a different turn. It was completely ridiculous that all the volunteers and race officials had left their posts and essentially abandoned the course.

We kept following the cones like the guy suggested and eventually we ran into a finisher chilling by the water who told us where to go. Soon after that our friends spotted us and pointed us in the right direction and for the last half mile we were rounding an inlet so we could tell where the finish was.

It was absolutely ridiculous that there was no one telling the runners where to go. The race was far from over as there were at least 10 people behind us, with one lady going out as we were coming in. We talked to a few people after the race and one late finisher said she got lost and ended up running around the high school thinking that's where the course went, instead of turning away and going along the lake.

I know that people get tired of cheering after a few hours. I most definitely did last week when I volunteered, and that was only a sprint! But that doesn't mean they should leave. The run photographer had even left by the time I was coming back around. I paid just as much for this race as the guy who finished in 2 hours so why do I get shafted with poor race management? Not cool. And I understand that an Olympic race is long and it's hours until the last biker comes in and people want to home. But I shouldn't have to dodge finishers when I'm trying to get through transition. There has to be a better system for that. And I definitely plan on writing the race director about all this, especially the run part.

Back to the race again...for the finish, the roommate and I sprinted the last few yards, even though I wish we had crossed hand in hand (seriously) since neither of us would've made it through the run to the finish if we weren't together. So that's my only regret.

Post-race

Nothing special. Since most racers had already left and the awards ceremony was finishing up, the line for the massage tables was super short. So I got a massage. And a beer that a friend had saved for me.


Official time: 4:33:56
Overall: 701/715
Females: 306/317
Division (Athena): 5/6
AG (if I was in it): 53/56

Results (Bib 622):
http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=94918

Positives

- NUTRITION: Spot on throughout the whole race. I wasn't hungry at all the whole morning. The Shot Blocks were delicious and kept me full and energized, even though I didn't use that energy for much during the run. The extra Gatorades at the two bike aid stations were much needed and I'm really glad I grabbed some. But then again, maybe my emotional break-down was due to not enough nutrition. I don't know.
- RUN OFF THE BIKE: Well, I should rephrase that to "my legs off the bike." Felt great. Seriously. I could've definitely run most of that 10k, but just didn't want to. My legs didn't feel heavy at all even during the first mile (which I did actually run), and felt somewhat fresh throughout...probably because I walked the rest of the way. That is probably attributed to the last 4 miles of the bike being downhill, but I also made sure not to push too hard earlier on the bike course either. And it worked


What's next? I don't have another tri scheduled or in mind until at least September. BUT, I want to try the Oly distance again this season. It needs to be conquered, and I can't wait a whole year. So we'll see how training goes throughout the summer and take it from there.

For now, I'm taking a break from formal-ish training, and just enjoying swimming, biking, and running without any structure or planning at all.


All in all, even though the bike was soul-crushing, I'm glad I did this race. I have no idea how anyone who does a HIM or IM pushes through a whole race. So STEVEA and STEVEB, wow. Major kudos to you.

No drama, just the truth about the Oly tri

Again, this is copy-pasted from a note I wrote to my triathlon mentor group the evening after the tri. It totally expresses how I felt afterwards:

Short and depressing update from Colorado. I'm not trying to be dramatic here, just honest.

The Oly kicked my butt and killed my soul. And my bike got its first scratches during the transport home. Huge bummer. In short, not a good day.

I'm off to take a nap and recharge. Race report to follow tomorrow. Unofficial time: 4:33:48.

On a positive note, I got a really sweet bike short tan. It's about time!

Post-tri life changes

Ever since the tri this weekend, I haven't been me, in a good way. I've been getting up at an adult hour every day and going to bed before midnight (although I don't fall asleep til 1 at least...damn insomnia). More specifically, I've been FORCING myself to go to bed before midnight. But it feels so good!

I've also been craving exercise and trying to get something in each day. My beer consumption has gone way down, partially because those calories just aren't worth it. We had a rugby tourney this past Saturday and while everyone was getting blitzed off free beer, I didn't have a drop. Part of that was having to do a tri the next day, but most of the reasons were because I just didn't want it. Same with going out later that day.

I have a soccer game tonight and it's pretty early so we'll probably stay after and hang out at the bar. Usually that means I get completely blitzed, but I'm not feeling it again. WTF. What is wrong with me?

That'll probably change once we actually get there and beer is offered, but for now, that's my reasoning. I need to save myself (and some calories) for this weekend when the rugby team is working the beer tent and beer flows a-plenty. That should be absolutely ridiculous!

Summer OPEN Sprint Triathlon Race Report

I just finished my first tri ever on Sunday. It was a sprint distance: 750 m swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run. I loved (almost) every minute of it and definitely plan on doing it again. This one was in preparation for an Olympic distance tri in five weeks, so it was nice to see what a tri looks like and get a taste of what's in store for me soon.

Below is my race report. Sorry it's a bit long. I copy and pasted what I wrote out for myself and another friend. Hope you don't mind the length

Summer OPEN Sprint Triathlon
750 m/12 mi/5 k

Longmont, CO

23 May 2010

Overall, the race went well and I'm very happy with my result. It was the perfect sized race for a first tri, and since it's one of the first outdoor ones of the season, there were a lot of newbies in the crowd. They said we had 88 first-timers (they even had a division for us) out of a field of 400.

I woke up super early to get there early like you all suggested, and it was definitely the right call. My roommate Maggie and I drove down there with enough time to leisurely get marked, pick up our timing chips, set up transition, walk around, and get ready for the start. No pressure or rushing at all.

I had been really anxious all morning and got even more anxious when we got to the race and saw the reservoir with the buoys set up. It seemed so long! But milling around and hearing others talk about this being their first tri put me a bit at ease. Everyone was so nice. There were two ladies and a guy in the bike rack next to mine and they were saying how one of the ladies had taken the guy's wife's credit card and signed him up for the race without him even knowing. The guy chimed in, "And my wife's not even here." In short, everyone was so nice and supportive, which definitely helped.

Warm-up

Warm-up consisted of getting in the water to feel out the temp. O. M. G. 61 degrees is COLD. My body felt fine in the full wetsuit, a bit chilly, but fine. That wasn't the problem. As soon as I put my face in the water I got an immediate brain freeze. I tried a few more times to see if more exposure would help, but it was just as horrible each time around. I didn't think I could last the 15-20 minutes it would take me to swim the half mile and I started to get worried. But there was no backing out and there was really nothing I could do about it (besides suck it up), so I tried to get my mind off that while waiting for our wave to start.

We (being Maggie and I) were in the 4th wave, so we hung out a bit watching the pros kick butt. A few of the elites were out of the water before Wave 3 had even started. Wow!

Swim

                                                                19:23                AG: 29/30
                                                           2:22/100 yds       OA: 321/350

Not too bad, actually, once my face got used to the freezing cold of course. 750 m feels a lot farther when you don't get to stop at the end of the lane after every drill. Haha! My time was a bit slower than I wanted, but I put everything I had into it. My arms felt super heavy in the wetsuit (I definitely had this feeling when I swam in a SCUBA suit for a fitness test a couple years ago, so maybe I just don't like sleeved wetsuits...or I need to strengthen my arms) so I alternated between freestyle and breaststroke. It seemed to work and was an easy way to spot and not go off course.

I essentially sprinted the last 100 yards or so in an effort to keep up with this lady in front of me, which was a bad call. See T1.

T1

2:38
AG: 22/30         OA: 237/350

I was as efficient as I could be considering the severe light-headedness I felt as soon as I got out of the water. I thought I was going to fall over within the first few steps, so I had to catch my bearings a bit.

In transition, I had to hold onto the rack so I wouldn't fall over while taking off the wetsuit and putting on my shirt and shoes. Again, I severely questioned my ability to complete the next stage of this tri. Seemed to be a pattern throughout this race.

I slowed down a bit to buy myself some time, had some water, and went along as soon as I felt ready to stay upright without assistance.

Bike

                                                                  41:40           AG: 22/30
                                                             17.86 mph       OA: 288/350

AMAZING! I didn't think I'd like the loop idea since I like seeing new things the whole ride, but it was really great, actually. I'm a convert.

The course was completely closed to traffic and consisted of three loops of 4 miles each, so even though some crazy fast riders were already coming in when I was just headed out, there was still a nice overlap of faster waves with me. It was actually fun to be passed by the super duper fast tri bike people and see them in action. It made it feel like we were doing the same race, instead of just seeing them at the start and then at the finish, and nothing in between.

One of the guys I paced myself with was in an earlier wave and the only reason I could keep up with him was because of his clunker bike. He had these rainbow-colored board shorts and the squeekiest mountain bike I've heard in a while. So it was easy to hear him coming and turn up the pace so he wouldn't pass. I can only imagine how fast he would've been had he had better equipment!

I pushed myself more consistently than I've pushed before and ended up with the best bike split I've ever had. My legs felt great at the end. Tired, but great. At the beginning of the first loop I remember looking down at my bike computer and thinking, "Wow, I've only gone 1.5 miles? This is going to be LONG." But by the end of the last lap, I was bummed that the bike was already over. It was just super fun to actually be racing people and passing each other back and forth. Towards the end, a lady pulled up to me while passing me and we chatted a bit and then she went on her way. I'd passed her in the very very beginning and told myself that there is no way I'm finishing behind her. I didn't see her again til the very end when she passed me and then we ended up keeping the same pace. So mission accomplished, kinda. I probably could've passed her again, but I was saving my legs for the run, which was a waste since there was no hope for me there.

T2

1:38
AG: 26/30         OA: 265/350

Nothing special. Walked through most of transition, got my running shoes on, and took some water. I think I may've even put on sunscreen, but I'm not sure. That could've been T1.

Run

                                                                 42:13                AG: 30/30
                                                        13:37 min/mile       OA: 346/350

Oy. I died. I knew I was in horrible running shape so I was hoping for a 12 minute mile or so, alternating between jogging and running. I stuck with part of the plan in that I walked and jogged, but I think I did about half and half. I got passed by EVERYBODY and didn't pass a single person. So frustrating. And everyone was like, "Keep it up, you're almost there," as they ran by. That just pissed me off even more and made me feel like they were pity-partying me, which was totally not the case. That was just in my head. Those same statements during the bike put a smile on my face and made me pick up my pace, but during the run I just scowled and cursed under my breath.

Maggie, my roommate, caught up to me right before mile 1 and we ended up walk/jogging the rest of the run course together. I felt bad that I was slowing her down and kept telling her to go ahead, but she wanted to do this tri together (and so did I, actually) so we pushed each other to go a bit harder. I think it would've been even more frustrating had she not been there, so everything worked out really well in that respect.

Post-race/Cool-down

Didn't really do a cool-down, but I stretched a bit. I tried to eat some of the post-race food, but my stomach just wasn't feeling it so I stuck with a protein drink and a liquid diet. We hung out a bit for awards and then headed home to chill in the backyard on a beautiful day.


Official time: 1:47:30
Overall: 338/350
Females: 140/147
AG: 30/30


In short, great race and we lucked out with the conditions. Saturday was crazy windy and today is just as bad. Yesterday was the only calm day we've had in a few days.

Next step is to add another run day in for a total of three a week (and stick to them!) so I can survive 6 miles for the Lake to Lake Oly in five weeks, and push myself harder in the swim intervals, since I definitely need to get that endurance up as well. Bike training can stay the same, since I don't really want to add too much in the coming weeks.

Here's the link to the results: http://www.myentryfee.com/results/RaceList.aspx

The tri is called Summer Open Sprint Triathlon and my full first name is Katarzyna, Bib 613.

My roommate Maggie finished 1 sec ahead of me only because she thought I'd sprint to the finish with her. My legs were shot and I didn't want to fall on my face at the finish line, so I played it safe and jogged in. She still feels kinda bad because that puts me last in the age group. It's hilarious since I don't care. I accomplished my goal of not being dead last overall, so that's good enough for me

Partial success

Today was alright with respect to food and better than alright when it comes to tri training. It was insanely windy (60 mph wind gusts, no joke) all day so I didn't get the planned run and bike in. It was hard enough walking around in that, so I didn't even attempt to be discouraged by attempting a run. So instead, I dragged myself to the pool to do 1575 yards. Ay ay ay. That's long. The swim I ended up doing was even longer: 1650 yards (completely by accident). That's probably the longest I've ever swam at one time. Yay PR! (Personal Record, for those that don't know.)

Halfway through the workout I was already mentally checked out and overwhelmed, not wanting to swim anymore. But the urgency of the tri has really scared me to the point where I'll actually push myself harder than I normally would. And that never happens. So I kept trying to beat each interval by at least two seconds, and for the most part, it worked. I was super sore and my arms were exhausted at the end, but I'm so glad I did it. Like a 3FC poster once said, "You'll never regret a workout. You'll only regret the workouts you didn't do."

I got confused with the timing on my watch, so I ended up doing an extra lap, and then because my kickboard was on the other side of the pool, had to do another length to get it. So I got an extra 75 yards in. It doesn't hurt to do more, I guess.

My food choices were ok today. I didn't really eat breakfast, but eventually made tortellini when I couldn't handle the stomach growling anymore. I finished off the Potstickers last night, so there was nothing else to eat at home that was easy to make. So I headed over to Qdoba to grab a burrito. And for once I went with the Naked Burrito, which is a normal burrito without the tortilla. It cuts out about 300 calories and tastes EXACTLY the same...you just have to eat it with a fork. As always, I couldn't finish the whole thing so I put it in the fridge for tomorrow. Not bad, calorie-wise, but I really have to get back into the groove of cooking. Or maybe I should make lots of stuff and freeze it so it feels like it's a purchased frozen dinner when it really isn't. As always, there's room for improvement.

So far so good, right? Well, after sitting on the couch watching TV for hours, I got bored and decided to eat more. There was some ice cream and mango juice, both of which I don't entirely regret because I was well within my calorie budget and kind of craving them. But, even after I felt completely full, I made myself two slices of toasted bread with butter. WTF. I didn't need or want those. I could barely fit them into my stomach. And they're not all that flavorful in the first place. What was I thinking? Had I made a grilled cheese, then at least I could've enjoyed the taste more. But these guys were mostly tasteless.

Anywhos, I'm not going to beat myself up too much because I'm still at only 1700 or so calories for the day (SparkPeople is going through its updates so I can't look it up right now) so it's not that big of a deal. But I've learned my lesson. Two in fact: 1) Don't eat stuff you're not actually craving (buttered and toasted bread = no, ice cream and mango juice = yes), and 2) Occupy yourself enough so that you're not eating out of boredom.