Post-Race

Okay, I know I need to blog the whole race experience, but I don't yet have the pics I want. I still need to track them down. I have a few Dani took after the race, but there were several photographers out there shooting the whole thing, and I particularly want the finish line pic. But I just wanted to log in here before bed and set down a few thoughts. I am admittedly a little bummed today. It was fun and challenging leading up to the race, and exciting the day of the race. But I have post-race letdown today, and I did a little yesterday as well. I'm kind of sad it's over. I understand why people keep moving on to the next race, and the next, and the next. The thrill is in the challenge and that moment of satisfaction of meeting a goal. It can be addicting chasing that feeling. But probably not necessarily a bad addiction, depending on how it messes with your regular life and your health. I keep looking down at my right arm, where they wrote my race number, 331, with a black marker. It's still cool! I'll be sad when it finally fades away. I wish it would always be there. I can see why people get tattoos to commemorate things.

Thanks for your donation!

While my costs have been minimal (thanks, Sue, for the loan of the bike!!), I'd still like to offset the financial impact on our family while we're still trying to recover from Zen being laid off earlier this year.  The entrance fee is $47, and I'd also like to get some extra goodies to help me get through the race on Saturday.  So, if you'd like to donate about $5, it would be much appreciated!  Here's an easy PayPal button, set up with my PayPal account.  Should be easy.  And thanks for donating!!

Two days to go!

Whew!  Where does the time go?  It's just two days to race day, and I'm half antsy/worried and half excited.  Here's the training I did over the past week:

Thur Aug 20 - swim, I probably did about 3/4 mile, maybe some rebounder warmup in the morning
Fri Aug 21 - rode my bike over to the track and did sprints.  I got this idea from a runner story I read in Eric Greitens book, Resilience (excellent, by the way, go get a copy!)  One of the training techniques this famous runner used was to run as fast as he could for a certain distance (1/2 mile, 1 mile?), then walk for a minute, then repeat that a gazillion times.  Okay, I butchered that story.  But it gave me the idea of introducing something new to my training, teaching my body to run faster.  So, I sprinted for 1/2 lap, then walked 1/2 lap.  And you know what?  Sprinting sucks!!!!  No wonder I hate it.  I had some serious mental cussing going on, not sure if I can repent for that yet because it was miserable and I kind of don't regret my cussing.  Gotta work on that.  So, clearly, you know I need to do more sprinting over the coming months so I can get used to it and get faster.  Because I can tell already I'll be doing this crazy tri thing again, only I'll be chasing the Olympic distance for 2016.  Remember, Olympic distance is only double the sprint.  NOT that alien-DNA-triathlon known as the Ironman.
Sat Aug 22 - I'd done the sprint biking and running distance back to back, but I'd only done the running on flat ground.  Thought I'd better do a loop with the actual race course.  So, I did my usual bike loops, 14 miles total, then ran 3.4 miles on the same loop.  I was probably stumbling more than jogging the last mile or so, but I finished it!  It took me 2 hours, 8 minutes.  But I took a potty break between the bike and run, and did a distance slightly more than race day, so I'm pretty sure I can do the bike and run in two hours or less, which is my goal.
Sun Aug 23 - rest
Mon Aug 24 - taking it easy this week to rest up for race day.  I did my rebounder for 45 min, then pushups, situps, and reverse crunches
Tues Aug 25 - rebounder warmup, then swam 1 mile at the college pool, easy.  And this is when my inner crazy chihuahua woke up and told me I should just do the Olympic distance this Saturday.  After all, if I can swim a mile (double the sprint distance), surely I can bike 24 miles then run six, right?  Right?!!  Okay, yeah I had to talk myself down from my crazy.  Took me a few days, but I'm back at sprint distance for Saturday.  I'll just focus on being faster, because I'll have all this extra energy I DIDN'T use on the Olympic distance.  Sigh... I know, I'm a lunatic.  Just something about doing a tri that makes you a little wacky.  I think it's attached to goal-setting, or the part of you that just needs a good dare every now and then.
Wed Aug 26 - maybe 20 min rebounder in the morning because I knew I'd be biking up to the college in the evening.  There was running clinic from 6 to 7pm, and learned some great stuff from Jessie Shaw(? will edit this info later), who grew up in Rock Springs and now lives in Minnesota and he's nearly professional level, does tri's all the time.  He taught us pose running and watched all of us run, to check our form.  Mine looked pretty good, but I'll be reading up more on it and trying to get better over the next year.  Also, took the kids to Lincoln Elementary playground and got a decent workout pushing them around on this teepee-rope merry-go-round contraption.  Hard to push, but did it over and over and over.
Thur Aug 26 - about 25 min rebounder in the morning.  Then this evening there was a bike clinic down at the local bike shop, The Bike and Trike.  Learned some new things.  My seat height was about right.  Yep, definitely gotta start saving up for my own racing bike.  I find myself in spots on the course where I want to go faster, my legs have the strength for it, but I've maxed out the gears and the bike just won't go faster.  And I need to get some efficiency in the strokes with either biking shoes or pedal straps.  Also, I finally got my act together today and got a bike helmet.  Our local police department gives them out for free.  I'm sure there are snazzier/more-athletic helmets, but this is great for my first triathlon.  Save the brains!

You know, I kind of rock

Just trying to get in my hardest/best training this week.  So, today I biked 12 miles (about 3 and 1/3 loops), then ran 3+ (about 12.25 laps at the track, 46+ min).  Dude, I ran a 5K today after biking 12 miles!  That's crazy, crazy good!  And this week, I know I'm ready for the race next week.  Because it was all doable, and my knees and joints aren't killing me.  I feel good.  I'm certainly not an athlete, but you know, I'm in pretty good shape for where I'm at with my weight (183).  I set this big goal for myself, and I feel like I've achieved it.  Next week is just about making it official.  Because my body is already there and ready to go.

Catch Up

Yikes, it's been a week since I blogged!  I'm sketchy on the details of what I did over the last week, but let's see what I can remember:

Thursday - I was probably in the pool, just swimming laps, about 40 min.  Maybe warmed up with the rebounder.
Friday - I'm pretty sure I did three loops on my bike (10.5 miles total) and then ran 2 to 2.5 miles
Saturday - Went to visit Sue in Cokeville.  I did about 45 min rebounder before we left.  While there, Sue and I went biking for 8 miles, and I rode the bike she's loaning me for the race.  It was great to ride a bike that switches gears smoothly!  Although I've got to make some minor adjustments in the seat height for next time.  At the end of our visit, we loaded it into my car.  Thanks, Sue!
Sunday - rest
Monday - This is the week before the race, so I figure I need to do my hardest/longest training.  I ran 3 miles today, and ran all the laps, except for one that I walked for about 1/4 to 1/2 a lap.  I completed it in 43:40, I think that's the fastest I've ever run three miles.
Tuesday - Pool day and testing out my clothing for race day.  I did 1/2 mile, 16 laps, in 24 min (I've really gotten faster at that!  It used to take me 30 min!), then I hurried out of the pool, grabbed my bags of stuff and went into the locker room.  Over my swimsuit, I put on my t-shirt and stretchy pants, then socks and shoes, and headed out to my car where I had my bike stashed.  I rode a mile or so, then back to the college where I put my bike back in my car and did a little running around the campus trails, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile.  My overall goal was to test out my clothing.  On race day, the unspoken fourth race event is transition!  People who are competitive try to get through transition (switching from one event to the other, like swimming to biking) as fast as they can.  There are designated transition areas, and you must go from one event to the other through the correct transition area.  So, I won't be able to run back into the locker room, take off my swimsuit, and put on completely new clothes to bike in.  The pink swimsuit I'd been training in is fine for the pool, but lousy for biking and running in.  I just don't have the dough for an official triathlon suit that you can do all three events in, so I went digging in my drawer at home and pulled out an old swimsuit that is very loose and stretched out.  It turned out to be great for biking and running in!  I'll just add a t-shirt and sweats for the bike and run.  I'm relieved because I didn't know what I was going to do for race day, and I dreaded having to go and fundraise/beg money for something to wear.  Problem solved!

Extra padding, food, and a helmet

Did my bike course today.  First, I warmed up with about 15 min on my rebounder.  Then, with all the construction around the race course, I went back to my regular course, a 3.5 mile loop that I did four times.  For some reason today, I just got really saddle-sore.  So that's what padded biker shorts are for!  Sigh.  Man, I'm still feeling it.  The chafing on the delicate bits started to be a lot more worrisome than my quads.  My quads were fine the second half, or at least overshadowed so much by the soreness where I was sitting that they didn't seem to be screaming for attention like they do the first half.  And I hit spots that just winded me.  I know that part of the problem is that I've got some fine tuning to work out with the gears.  My sister, Sue, has volunteered to loan me a good road racing bike, or at least a bike that is in better shape and design than the one I'm currently riding.  But that means gas money to go retrieve it, and I'm not sure I should do that now.  I'm hoping my eBay sales will be good the next few weeks.  I could also get my current bike in a lot better shape than it is in - just strip it down and lubricate it and do fine adjustments on it.  I found someone in my ward (church) who could help, and I've just been dragging my feet setting up a time, getting over there and getting it done.

Another problem that will take some better planning on my part, is that I need to eat before I go on a bike ride, as it seems to take the most endurance so far.  I don't like exercising after I've eaten, so I never eat anything in the morning until I've exercised.  But sometimes I don't get around to that until 10 or 11.  By that time it's been over 12 hours since I last ate anything, and my blood sugar is low, probably too low for what biking takes out of me.  So, on biking days I need to make sure I eat before I leave.

Totally random, but I passed several people I knew from my ward.  One was with a crew working on the power lines, and one was out walking with her sister and kids.  It's kind of odd riding out on the road, and trying to figure out what is the right thing to do with traffic and pedestrians.  I probably ought to read a rule book, you think?  Plus, I keep forgetting to get myself down to the police station where I hear they give out bike helmets for free, but it might be just for kids.  As I'm racing down the road on a downhill section, I find myself thinking, "Wrecking without a helmet on would be very bad.  Let's get a bike helmet, shall we?"

Just swim

Warmed up on my rebounder today, around 40 min? maybe.  Wasn't keeping track that much.  And it was a light session, none of my high-intensity moves.  Headed to the college pool to do my swim session.  Last time I talked about just swimming and not trying to count laps.  That's what I did today - just swim.  No clocks, no timing.  Swam 40 minutes.  Although, I did try out a 3-stroke rhythm so I could practice breathing on my left.  Usually, I do a two-stroke rhythm and just breath on my right, because it feels natural and I have that down pretty well.  It's breathing on the left that is awkward and I keep getting little bits of water in my mouth when I'm breathing.  I could probably get a lot smoother with that over time, but I don't think I'll be in the pool enough between now and August 29th to accomplish that.  Will be back in the pool on Thursday, and will see how long I can swim, maybe do some more timing.  But that means getting my rear end over there as soon as they open...  Let's not talk about my time management issues.

Getting back in the routine

Got back to my training schedule today.  I warmed up on my rebounder, about 10 to 15 min.  Then did 3 sets of pushups on my rebounder - 25, then 10, then 10.  Situps - 25, then 15, then ten.  Headed out to the junior high track on my bike, then did my walk/run.  I increased my running distance per lap today.  I ran about 2/3 lap and walked 1/3 lap, and did 3 miles.  I could tell my legs are getting stronger.  I'm not really faster yet, but it's not as hard on my joints as it used to be.  I'll push it up to running 3/4 lap and walking 1/4 lap next week.  One thing I did notice, though.  Since I'm at the track, and not having to pay attention to my environment like I would with a street run, I had my ears plugged in to my mp3 player.  I was listening to a podcast with Mark Divine of SEALFit and Captain Bob Shultz about personal ethos.  It was kind of meaty, so I was trying to absorb that and not paying as much attention to my running.  I think I better unplug my ears next time, or at least switch to something that isn't so distracting.

Unchained the Carb Beast

Went on vacation Thursday thru Sunday to the family reunion, which was fabulous!  Thanks, Don and Lora!  and again to Lora, who worked her tail off and stressed buckets!  We had a great time.  Now go hit the spa to recover!

Back to training.  Here's a brief recap of what exercise I did while mostly being a slacker:

Thursday - rebounder about 45 min.  I was packing to get out of town, trying to leave by noon, and didn't have time to make the college pool swim time, which was between 11:30 and 1:00.  Besides, Thursdays are semi-rest days.
Friday - rebounder 30 to 40 min.  Yep, I tied my rebounder to the top of my car and hauled it on vacation.  Totally worth it!  I also did a short 30 min session on one of Don and Lora's treadmills.  It was on an incline, 7%, and I alternated walking and running every 2 minutes.
Saturday -  Don and Lora took us on a hike up the canyon near their house in Mapleton, Utah.  I wasn't counting, or keeping track of time, really, but my guess is that it was somewhere between 1 to 1.5 miles?  Later, it was casual swimming in the pool.  I had thoughts of doing laps, but the pool was stuffed with kids, so I bagged that idea and talked to my sister, instead, while treading water and trying not to get mauled by children.  Happy 40th, sis!
Sunday - rest

Now, I didn't try for one second to follow my nutrition plan this weekend.  I did unchain the beast and ate whatever carbs I wanted to, which wasn't very hard.  Lora kept us stocked up on plenty of goodies, and wonderful meals.  I did appreciate all the fresh fruit she provided and ate plenty of that.  The protein shakes were a great idea, would love to have more of those on a daily basis as I'm training.  I got brave this morning and stepped on the scales.  Suprisingly, I only gained a few pounds. Whew!  Seriously, I ate a gazillion calories over the weekend and I was sure it was going to be five pounds.  I can get rid of two a lot easier.

First try at the cycling course

I started the day off with my rebounder, doing about 35 to 40 min, plus doing 100 reverse cruches.  I have no idea what they are called technically, but that's my closest guess.  I lie down on my back on my rebounder, and extend my legs out.  Then I bring my knees up to my chest and back out again.  Do that 100 times.

It's only four weeks until the sprint triathlon race, so I figured I better get over to the college and start getting familiar with the course.  Turns out it shares some of the same streets I've been training on thus far, which was a pleasant surprise.  I haven't mapped it in my car yet, but based on my time today, I'd say the course is about six miles, and that on race day we'll be doing it twice.  My time today was 1 hour 15 min, 15 min more than my times so far for 12 miles, but a little story about that.  Part of the course is shut down due to road construction.  I kind of thought I could sneak through on the sidewalks, but with all the heavy equipment around, and some of the sidewalk petering out at one point, I decided I was just going to push through the dirt and desert scrubs as I wound my way past the construction.  Good thing my bike is a mountain bike and not a street bike!  I probably would have popped a tire, or bent something.  It made the riding tougher and take longer than the street, but it was kind of a fun little adventure.  I think I liked the challenge of it, and seeing something new and different, plus the problem-solving aspect of finding my way through a patch of desert hills.  I know it's silly, but I sort of felt a little like a tough chick.

Listed to the podcast again, twice - The Art of Manliness, podcast #105 Lesson from a Navy SEAL on Resilience With Eric Greitens .  Really, really want this book.  Maybe I'll do an interlibrary loan for it, but I've got a feeling I'm going to mark the heck out of it, so I'll want my own copy.  You would not believe how desperately broke I am this week, so that's out for now.  Maybe next week.

Podcasts

Sunday I was messing around on Pinterest, making a new triathlon board for myself.  One thing led to another, and after reading one guy's blog about triathlon and Spartan race preparation, I found my way onto podcasts on iTunes.  I didn't know there were so stinking many of them, and you can listen to and download them for FREE!  Nirvana!   A new obsession is born.  I listed to quite a few of Mark Divine's podcasts.  He's a former Navy SEAL, who now runs a training center called SEALFit.   His podcasts have a wide diversity of topics, but I was really interested in the ones that talked about mindset and your mental/emotional state.

Podcasts I listed today on iTunes:
The Art of Manliness, podcast #113 The Evolutionary Origins of Depression With Jonathan Rottenberg, one of my take-aways was a good overview of what depression is and an idea that I'd already decided was true.  Depression isn't something you cure, it's something you learn how to manage well.
The Art of Manliness, podcast #105 Lesson from a Navy SEAL on Resilience With Eric Greitens - this was incredible.  I have got to read this guy's book!  Once I get ahold of it, I'll probably be commenting on it here, and I'm guessing it's going to address some of the problems I've been struggling with.

My workout today:  45 min rebounder in the morning, followed by a trip to the college pool.  I didn't really time myself, but I roughly counted laps and did about 3/4 mile in about 40 min.  I don't think I was very fast today, but I found myself zoning out a lot and time would pass without me being aware of it.  On the one hand, that probably means I'm not focusing very hard on technique or speed, but on the other it was kind of therapeutic, reaching that free-floating state.  I bet there's a particular brain chemistry that describes that, a particular kind of brain waves.  Also, a lot of times I just stopped and tried to remember which lap I was on.  I think next time I'm just going to swim for a certain amount of time and quit worrying which lap I'm on, just focus on swimming as fast and long as I can.

Let's try this running thing again...

So, I was talking about running and how difficult it is for me.  But I'm kind of stubborn, and sometimes I get an idea in my head that I can't let go of and my mind sets up a little subroutine to start collecting data relating to that problem I'm trying to solve.  I went digging around, and one of the running articles I found that made a lot of sense to me was this one -

http://breakingmuscle.com/running/a-week-by-week-guide-to-becoming-a-runner-later-in-life-and-or-safely

I'm paraphrasing, but he makes the analogy that you can't walk into a gym for the first time and expect to bench 300 pounds.  You build up to that.  Same goes for running.  You can't just take off and start running without getting your body incrementally adapted to it first.  As difficult as it is for me to accept that my knees aren't nearly as ready as my heart and lungs, I'm willing to go back and start more basic.  So, I stepped things back a little and did laps today by running the first half of the lap, then walking the last half of the lap.  It took 12 laps to do 3 miles.  I did it in 48+ minutes, so a little improvement over walking.  Plus, I tried to think about form as I was running, trying to keep my pelvis tucked in and picked up my feet a bit more instead of nearly dragging them along the ground.  I'll just keep increasing the portion of running versus walking until I'm running the full three miles the week before the race.   But the five days leading up to the race, I'm not even going to run, just walk.  Every triathlon training plan I've read makes the week of the race an easy one.  I think that's because it gives your body time to recover and heal up to be its best for the race.  Yet, you do some activity to keep the blood flowing and to keep your fitness level fresh.

The other thing I loved about running today was that it was sprinkling outside.  I'm not sure what the temperature was in the morning, my guess is somewhere in the mid 60's, but it was perfect.  Yes, I got a little wet and my feet were a little squishy, but it was wonderful to run in.  Also something I want to try just for fun is to run up and down the bleachers.  Think I'll try that, too, next time, keep things fun and interesting.

What else did I do today?  Before I went running, I did 45 min on my rebounder, and did pushups and situps.  I did three sets each, 25 reps, then 15 reps, then 10 reps.  I did the pushups on my rebounder, which is about eight inches off the ground.  I can do more reps that way than right on the ground, but I sort of have a Pavlovian response to doing pushups on the ground.  Just the idea of it makes me nauseated, and I only make myself do them that way sometimes so I won't feel like a sissy.  But I prefer the rebounder, and just do more to make up for it.  I once did this three-week challenge where I started off at 5 pushups, and did them in the morning and at night.  I added a pushup a day until the three weeks was up.  There were times where I stood there looking at the ground for ten minutes until I could overcome the vague nausea and get them done.  I love pushups, can't you tell?!