2 tri's and a 10k down...next up the open water...

Since February 28th, I have been very focused on improving my swim in both form and distance.  For me the swim is still going to be my weakest link, but in knowing that I am working hard to make sure I will still finish strong.  Since a month ago I have increased my distance from 400 meters at a time to an entire mile without stopping.  I have every bit of confidence I can swim the 2.4 miles required of me come July now.

The past fours weeks have been the first "build" period of my Ironman training and it has included many hours in the weight room working on keeping my body strong and limber.  The limber aspect should not be taken lightly as I learned the hard way after a really tough run, I didn't stretch out properly and it left me struggling to do an easy ride the following day.  In the end my ride suffered and left me feeling frustrated.  Instead of shrugging it off like I used to do, after hoping off the bike I decided to spend an entire hour doing foam roller, massage stick and general  body dynamic and static stretching post ride.  I felt so much better for my next workout  which happened to be a swim day that I ended up finishing my mile swim in record time (for me) of 35 minutes and then decided I needed to get into the gym and work my legs and core.

In the course of the past four weeks I have also done a few hard brick workouts and am learning the what-to-and-not-to-do's of brick training.  First and foremost you must eat properly the previous two days, and preferably not go ride a 70 mile ride at intensity with 6000ft of climbing.  It only leaves your body worn out and extremely tired to be able to handle the bike run brick.  In my very near future (this week and next) I have 2 brick workouts coming up and will be much more prepared in both nutrition and pre workout planning. 

Before I can go run any distances though it is time for me to replace my running shoes.  I cannot believe its time already, I only bought the shoes 6 months ago.  I've really only put on the miles in the past 3 months, but I am having issues with them that weren't there in the beginning.  The issues I know are related to the traditional shoes since I switched to my minimalist shoes for today's Sprint Tri and had no pains at all.  I think I may end up getting both a pair of traditional runner and another pair of the minimalists because they just felt so good. 


Next up April 22nd, San Jose Metro Olympic Distance Triathlon, my first open water tri.  This is a scary thought since I haven't even tried on a wetsuit yet.  Since January I have been telling myself I have plenty of time, well the time is a flying by and now I cannot sit back and be slow about this.  Next up, new shoes to replace my worn out ones, and getting in to try on wetsuits.

FIRST TRI...AWESOMENESS!!!

WHEW!!! I was so nervous this morning about an hour before my first ever triathlon. I hadn't felt race day jitters like this since 2010 when I was bike racing. Now this is a whole new experience because I have 3 sports I have to do all in one day. But thanks to my very good friend and also fellow triathlete and Vineman participant Kimber, she was there for me this morning. Reminding me to stay calm, giving me some last minute reminders and pointers for setting up my transitions. But most importantly she was there to witness this awesome day for me.

The morning started with a very cold walk to the registration table at 7:30am, it was still cold enough to see the breath coming out of my mouth. Me and cold temps do not get along so I was a bit nervous about this. However my wave didn't start till 9:45am so there was plenty of time to warm up a bit. Timing chip in hand I head back to the car I go to get a little relax, stretch and find my focus. Again thank you Kimber for keeping me sane.

At about an hour till my start I make my way back to the pool deck, get another bathroom break in and begin to set up my transition area. I was lucky enough to not have someone in my lane in the heat before mine so I could get my pedals on my WATTBIKE before the others. That kind of felt like I was getting an unfair start, so I sat back down and waited like all the other competitors. But I just couldn’t sit still so I went off for a warm up run only to come back to us being allowed to start setting up our bikes. YAY!!!

With towel on the ground I laid out my bike shoes with my socks on top and rolled down to make it easier to slip my wet feet into them. Then I pull out my run shoes, hat and sunglass and put those off to the side of the towel. Last can’t forget my water bottle for the bike, and my swim cap and goggles for the swim. Okay my transition is set up time to hop on the bike and get warmed up.

Three minute warning, I jump off the bike throw on my ear plugs and swim cap, and as I am about to pull the goggles over my head the strap went flying off. Two minute warning goes off and now I'm jittery and nervous I may have to swim without goggles. But no I am able to keep calm and restring them. On the face they go, take two deep breaths as I stare down the water I am about to jump into and splashdown. Wow I'm in the water for my first real tri, and I get really nervous now. I have 16 laps to do my 400 meter swim in. Okay how am I going to stay focused enough to count my laps.

Gun goes off and away I go!  Lap one the excitement of the event gets me going. Lap two the excitement is starting to wear off and my body is talking to me.  Argh I mess up by starting too fast! I couldn’t help it; it’s in my nature to just dive right in. My first 200 meters were blazing fast (for me) but I ended up having a very slow second 200 and realized oh my I may be the last one out of the water. I stop on my second to last lap to double check my laps and catch my breath and gain composure. Dive down push off and away I go for my last 100, I can do this, I can do this is all I'm telling myself. By now my arms feel like lead pipes they don’t want to lift out of the water and I end up dragging my fingers a few times. I manage to finish the swim but had to use the ladder to get out because I couldn’t pull myself up out of the pool. Run to the bike, dry off my toes a little and slide on the socks and shoes.

Getting on the bike was a relief, I had gotten the hardest part for me done already, and from now on I am back to familiar ground. My WATTBIKE won’t start so I fumble with it for about a good minute and a half, finally it kicks in and my pedaling begins the meter countdown. I set my pace at 1min40sec per 1000meters and away I went. Grabbing for a sip of water every now and then I find my rhythm at about 105 cadence and just zone out. The announcer gets on the horn to say the first person is off the bike, then the second. By this time I have 1600 meters to go and I punch it. With less than 100meters I give one last sprint effort jump off the bike and toss my cycling shoes. CRAP!!! My run shoes were not laced up!!!!! ARGH!!! I'm freaking out now. This is a sprint and every damn second I waste tying my shoes is that much faster I will have to run. I start talking myself through this shoe tying experience and realize it took me almost 2 minutes just to get me shoes one. Grr lesson learned, next time shoes are laced and slide them on. Well finally the shoes are on and tied up, I grab my hat and off I go.

The run starts off with two sets of stair then a gradual up hill. As I pass the person who left a minute before me, I feel this nastiness in my stomach not to mention my legs felt like cinder blocks. Ok I can't breathe so I unzip my trisuit. Not what I needed. So here is comes, my breakfast...wow I feel better. Now that breakfast is out of my stomach and my gosh I'm so much lighter time to pick up the pace. I catch two more people and am making good time, so I think however I do not have my Garmin to help me with pace so I just have to wing it by feel. It felt slow but again I didn't know how much I could push. I ended up passing all but two men who were just a bit in front of me. I was third in my heat and 1st women in my heat. WOW!!!  There were still two more heats after mine and I am pretty sure they were the faster people, not to mention the Lavelle’s.

I’m happy with my ability to push through the nastiness of the upset stomach, and not getting down on myself for being so slow in the water especially since I more than made up for it on the bike and run. After the finish I get to chat a bit with my support system, Kimber, and she had noticed a few things in my swim that I will need to work on for next time. The most obvious I went out WAY too fast the first 150 to 200 meters of the swim. But also my feet were doing some really weird movements out to the sides, which is different from when I first started swimming as they would nearly drag on the pool floor. She even had a little video clip to show me for review of my swim.

 To me the swim is by far the most difficult as I have not used this much upper body before in my life not even when I took martial arts, I was a very good kicker so that’s what I did and my arms just blocked. Well not anymore these puny little pipe cleaners I have for arms are going to have to bulk up and get used to pulling me around for at most 2 hours come July.

Looking forward to my next chance at the Threshold burn Series tri on March 25^th.  Then the “real” fun will begin after that with the San Jose Metro in April, the Auburn Half Ironman in May and finally ending with the Vineman Ironman distance triathlon in July.