Category: Exercise

Steelhead 69.1

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

I’m thinking of getting this tattoo.

So yes, the swim was cancelled.  Which generally means I am completely screwed, because that’s the only part of the race that I’m remotely good at.

BUT!  I did get in to test out the water the day before the race…

…and after a short bike/run actually got in to splash around with Paul.  The water temp was in the high 70s, and the waves were juuust big enough to do some body surfing, which I did quite a bit of.  Probably not the best pre-race activity, but I couldn’t help myself, the water felt so good.  I miss the ocean.

Our hotel was in South Haven, about 30 miles north of Benton Harbor, and our stay coincided with the National Blueberry Festival.    We just missed the parade where the National Blueberry Queen made her debut, which was a shame.  But we did catch the South Haven Vintage Baseball Club baseball game in full swing.  They even played without gloves.

The weather that day was completely erratic, going from severe thunderstorms to sun all day long (we left the beach just in time to see a major storm rolling in), which wasn’t super promising for the race.

Woke up on race day with serious winds, and upon entering transition the first thing they announced was that the swim had been cancelled, there was a small craft advisory, and winds of up to 25 mph were predicted for the day.  Boo.

So we did a time trial start on the bike, going two at a time by bib number.  My bike was solid, I think…never raced 56 miles for time before and wasn’t sure what to expect…but I averaged significantly faster than I did in the 14-mile bike leg of the Markey Race (yes, for reals) and came in a solid 10 minutes under my goal time of 3 hours.

My run was GREAT…for the first 8ish miles.  My 10K split was right around 51:00.  I was on pace to easily break 2 hours, no problem, and was running at a totally comfortable pace.  Then suddenly, this happened:

Bonk.

It was ugly.  I walked for about a minute.  The next 2.5 miles were a combo of walk/run, and I grabbed a gel, some coke, and Gatorade from the aid stations as I went.  I finally got my legs back and was able to jog the last few miles to the finish line.  But it wasn’t pretty.

Final run time: 1:59:34.  Just squeaked in.  Paul met my semi-coherent self at the finish line, and helped me find my way back to transition to get my stuff.  I also had  knots the size of watermelons on my neck/shoulders from the new aerobars, which I rode on for almost the entire race.

Oh, and apparently I’m from Lexington, CA.

BUT!  I finished, didn’t die, broke 5 hours, and learned that I need to eat or drink more earlier on in the run.

More on the race (if you actually want to hear any more) to be posted here shortly.

Easy Rider

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday was my last workout before we leave for Steelhead.  My run on Wednesday felt like crap (but you’re supposed to feel like crap just before the race…right?), and I was a little nervous my bike would feel the same.  So I wasn’t particularly stoked on doing this ride.  But this week someone gave me an old pair of clip-on aerobars (the week of the race–bad idea), and I wanted to give them a try on the road before the actual race (good idea).  So around 7pm a friend and I set out for a 20 mile ride amongst the horse farms.

Kentucky isn’t the easiest place to train, especially coming from a place like San Diego or San Francisco (where yes, I realize, I was spoiled.)  Winters here can be cold and icy, and the summer heat oppressive.  There aren’t a whole lot of options for open water training, and the triathlon community is relatively small (we are, after all, the most sedentary city in the country.)

But ride or run a few miles out of the city and you find yourself on long stretches of empty, rolling country roads surrounded by miles of green hills lined with clean white fences, dotted with bales of hay and some of the most beautiful thoroughbreds in the world.

And so on this Thursday night, when I probably should have been paying attention to my heart rate and body position on the aerobars, or thinking about my strategy for this coming weekend, I found myself gliding along the hills under a pink and orange sky, chatting with my friend as the shadows got long and the sun dipped below the horizon, not looking at my watch once.

Because really, what’s the point of any of this if you can’t just enjoy the ride.

…here it comes…

~ meh ~ 1 Comment
for allison, who was in hysterics for like 30 minutes when she found this picture on the web

…and on a similar note to the previous post…

Steelhead 70.3 is this coming weekend.  All those months of training are finally coming to an end and I am TAPERING!  After Nashville, I am only slightly less terrified than I look in the above picture that I might crumple up in a heap and die halfway through the run.  Paul and I are driving up on Friday night, I’ll be doing all race-related reporting here.

I effing hate race pictures.

Time to be Fearless…or insane

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Photo via CNN

If you’re bored today, check out Diana Nyad‘s progress as she attempts the 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage (they have a kind of electrical shark-guarding field that surrounds her during the swim, but apparently it doesn’t work for certain types of shark, so she also has a team of “shark divers” to distract any sharks that go after her.  Uhh…)  She jumped in at 7:45pm ET yesterday, the swim is expected to take about 60 hours.  She’s 61.

Track her progress on the swim here.

Update:  She didn’t make it.  After 29 hours she voluntarily quit, and exited the water vomiting (uhh…good call on calling it quits).  Props to her for going for it.

Race Reports: A Backlog

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Turns out:  New job + Old jobs + Training + Paul out of town = Blog fail.

Did a few races the past 2 months.  To spare you from pages of details that you don’t care about anyway, here are a few haikus to fill you in.

USMS 15K Relay National Championship (5K Open Water Swim)
Poor Buoy Placement
Can Make For Frustrating Swim
In Indiana

(I'm the one with the 3 on my arm)

Markey Race for Women’s Cancer (Sprint Triathlon)
Thunder And Lightning
Cannot Stop Us From Racing
In Our Wet Clothing

4th of July Bluegrass 10K (10K Run)
Fun To Run Fast In
The Bluegrass But Blisters Sting
Go America

Music City Tri (Olympic Distance Triathlon)
Nashville Has Hills
Do I Still Like Triathlon?
Heat Stroke Feels Like Death

For full race reports (if you really want them), go here.

Run like a girl

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Finished the NYC Fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon this weekend, 2 laps around Central Park.

mile 11.5.  shoot me.

It was my first “women’s” race, and I don’t know if I’ll ever opt to do one again (I have never seen so much Lululemon in one place before in my life…and we all know how I feel about them.)  Did you know, though, that the race legally can’t exclude men, so there were some men who ran with us (as highlighted in the above photo.)  I don’t know what they did with the purple goodie bag full of Weight Watchers shakes and Tampax.

Went a PR, which was good, but it didn’t feel awesome (largely due to some poor decisions made the night before regarding food and hydration.)


post-race, in margaret’s apartment

But I did get to see some old friends and hang out in New York on a beautiful Sunday…it was great.

view from margaret’s window

For a full race report, go here.

The Plan

~ meh ~ 4 Comments

Below is the (very tentative) schedule of events for the year:

  • April 3: Fitness Magazine’s Women’s Half Marathon, NYC
  • April 30: Scenic City Triathlon (sprint), Chattanooga, TN
  • May 6: DERBY (I consider this an event that requires training), Louisville, KY
  • June 26: Markey Race for Women’s Cancer, Lexington, KY
  • July 23: Trans Tahoe Relay, Lake Tahoe, CA/NV
  • August 14: Steelhead 70.3, Benton Harbor, MI

As of right now I am only officially signed up for the half marathon in April.   And Derby.  So we’ll see how this pans out.

Let the games begin.

February Fitness Challenge

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February can be kind of brutal.

With the novelty of New Year’s resolutions slowly wearing off, winter dragging on, breakups on the rise…it’s easy to spend the month moping in cold darkness.  Enter: February Fitness Challenge.

Every year US Masters Swimming holds a February Fitness Challenge where swimmers track how far they can swim during the month.  A number of people on the team I coach participate, which means writing slightly longer workouts than usual.   Results are released nationally so, in addition to personal records, participants can see where they fall within their age group.  A general goal for many swimmers is 100,000 yards (almost 57 miles.  Some of the results are ridiculous).

Because I am starting to train for a triathlon and swimming is far and away my strongest leg (and because I did the hour long Postal Swim in January and feel as though I have filled my quota for winter swimming challenges) I personally will not be devoting all my time this month in the water.  I will, however, attempt to swim about 15,000 a week (nearly double what I did last month) and will be tracking my combined mileage on the bike, running, and in the pool, which I don’t normally do.

This is a nice event, especially for people who generally don’t like to compete in their sport.  Setting any kind of goal for this month, swimming or not, is a way to stay in the swing of things until the warm weather rolls around.  Plus, who knows, you might surprise yourself.