Training for Coeur d'alene

It is now ten weeks away until the Olympic triathlon in Idaho. I have mapped out my training for the next ten weeks and it seems crazy. After looking at the times from last years triathlon, I realized that I have to step it up if I want to be competitive at all. I know, I know, I was just going to "finish" the race. But anyone who knows anything about me knows that's not possible. I want to be in the top 10. Last year there were 41 competitors in my age group. Although the top 10 should be possible, all these women had amazing times in all three sports. So, I have refocused my training with the top 10 in mind. Don't worry, it's pretty easy to change my mind when I am in pain so during the race if it hurts, I am sure the top 20 won't seem so bad!! :) Here is my workout plan for the next 10 weeks. This is just an overview as the detail is too boring.

Monday - Swim
Tuesday - Bike/Run
Wednesday - Swim
Thursday - Run am/Legs pm
Friday - P90X Back and Chest
Saturday - Long Run (goal 9 miles)
Sunday - Long Bike ride (goal 35-50 miles)/P90X Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps

I am still not committed to the Thursday run in the am. That means I have to get up early and I am so not an early riser. I think I might not add that in until after July vacation. It all depends on how I feel. Anyway, there it is in all its glory. My life for the next 10 weeks.

Tempe International Sprint Triathlon

I am happy to say that I successfully completed my first triathlon. This was a warm up for the Olympic distance triathlon Jenni and I will be doing in August in Idaho. Since neither one of us had competed in a triathlon yet, we wanted to do a warm up to get the experience. We are both very glad we did! On Friday I started getting that familiar tickle in the back of my throat. In anticipation of a cold I started taking coldeeze (?). Unfortunately it didn't really work. On Saturday I started feeling tight in the chest. I was just hoping I could get through Sunday without issues. I barely slept Saturday night because I kept waking up every hour coughing. By the time I woke up I had to use the inhaler. I figured it was just a sprint and the excitement would get me through it. There was no way I wasn't going to compete.

Here is a picture of Jenni and I right before the race. The water was 75, but since we will need wet suits in Idaho we both decided to swim in them. The only trouble with a wet suit is how tight it is around the neck.

There were 1300 people competing in the race. They had sprint, Olympic, and relays competing.

This was the transition area loaded up with all the bikes. Jenni had a balloon tied to her bike so she could find it easier. I was going to do the same but forgot. My bike was three rows from hers so I just used her balloon to find my bike.

The swim was a water start. We were all basically floating in the lake until they said go. Prior to the race I wasn't really worried about the swim. I feel pretty strong in the water so I didn't think it would be an issue. Wrong. When we took off I was ok at first, but it was basically like being in a washing machine. The people in front were kicking my head, the people to the sides were splashing water, and the people behind me were grabbing my feet. The first time I put my head in the water and turned to breathe I took a huge mouthful. All the sudden I couldn't breathe. My wet suit felt too tight and I started hyperventilating. I reached up and pulled open the velcro and unzipped the wetsuit down to my waist. That seemed to help the tight chest feeling, but it took some tough love on myself to get my head on straight. I finally started swimming and just chanted stroke, stoke, breath. This seemed to help calm me down. After I got around the second buoy I seemed to do better. After the third buoy I was home free but my goggles fogged up. I didn't care, I just wanted to finish. I kicked and swam as fast as I could and before I knew it I was done. Thank the Lord.

Here I am coming out of the water. What a relief.

Keith and the kids were standing there when I came out. It was great to have a cheer section. The kids were sooo cute.

I found out later that I spent way too much time in the transition areas. For the bike transition it was 4.5 minutes. Yikes, what was I doing, watching TV.

Here I go. Before the race I was really nervous about the biking portion. I don't feel that strong on the bike so I was really afraid to be biking with other people. After the swim I think it didn't matter.

Here I am coming in. I passed a lot of people on the bike course, but I did get passed by a few 50 and up women. They were serious bikers. You should have seen the quads bulging as they flew past me. You go girls!!!

My transition from bike to run was not much quicker. After looking at these pictures you can tell I must think I have all the time in the world. As if I can run a seven minute mile and don't need to worry about the time...yeah right.

Oh wait, I need a drink.

My hair, gotta fix my hair.

Another drink and a thumbs up...tick tock...tick tock. At least I look like I am enjoying myself.

Here I am coming around at the end of the run. The run felt great. I only got passed by one guy who wasn't even racing and wearing head phones. I did pass a lot of men on the run who looked like they wanted to pass out.

In for the finish. Final time 1:28. Not too shabby. Total time in transitions......8 minutes. If I could have improved that I would have been 9 out of 31. Instead I finished 14 out of 31 for my age group. Not bad for a first timer. And that horrible swim I thought I had was actually 10 minutes 28 seconds. If I hadn't panicked for the first minute it would have been a good time.

Jenni was in an older age group so she finished after me. Here she is coming in. Great job Jenni!!!!

And the sweet taste of the victory beer. Jenni's sister Janice had them waiting for us when we finished. It was great. Nothing like a cold beer after all that hard work.

Elle and Pierce were soo cute watching. They kept shouting "we love you Mommy". Don't worry, it isn't Elle's beer, it just looks like she is holding it.

Overall it was a great experience. Jenni and I are both glad we did the practice run. I know now what I need to improve on so I am looking forward to Idaho and the Olympic distance. Final tally:

Swim: 10.28

Transition 1: 4.30

Bike: 42.20

Transition 2: 3.30
Run: 27:50

Look out Coeur d'Alenene, here we come!!!

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!

We have been taking Henely to the dog park every weekend to socialize him a little. He has been doing a lot better. At first he would roll over for any dog that looked like it might be aggressive. The dog park we go to is Echo Canyon dog park on Grover and Cave Creek. The dog park has a web site and I happened to browsing it this morning when I saw the picture below. There are two volunteers that take pictures of the dogs at the park. Since the City has made so many budget cuts the people that use the park have picked up the torch to make sure it stays clean. They do fundraising, etc. Their web site is http://www.thepacknews.webs.com/. Anyway, I was browsing the pictures this morning and came across this one. At first we weren't sure it was Henley because we have never seen his eyes open so wide. This is probably the funniest picture I have ever seen. You could put any caption to this picture and it would work.

Landslide

Elle has recently been listening to a lot of Dixie Chicks. They remade Landslide on their Home cd and that is the version Elle is singing. Except for a few slip ups, I think she did a good job for a six year old. Take a look.

Two Weeks and Counting

My first sprint triathlon is two weeks from today. Wow, that is hard to believe. Although it seems like I have been training forever, it also seems like it just snuck up on me. I am very excited about the first race. It will be a great learning experience. I am hoping the water temperature will be warm enough that I don't need a wetsuit. Since I don't own one and haven't really even looked into renting one, I am especially hoping it will be warm enough. The swim is very short, only 400 meters which should only take about ten minutes at most. That is if I stay on course. Surly I could tolerate cold water for that short amount of time........we will see. Today was a very windy day and my long bike ride. Everything started out ok, other then it was taking me a long time to get very far. There would be big gusts of wind that came from every direction. It didn't matter which way I was riding, it always seemed like it was a head wind.

So, it isn't to hard to believe that I fell for the first time today on the bike. I was at my half way point at Cave Creek and 23rd avenue. I was stopping at a red light and unclipped my right foot. I was just about to put my foot down when a big gust of wind from the right pushed me left and I couldn't get my left foot unclipped. It was very slow motion, but I fell completely down on the ground with the bike on top of me...IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION. There were two Mexican men in a truck on my right and it scared the hell out of them. The driver jumped out of the car to see if I was ok. I was fine, but my pride was hurt a little. After I got up and got back on the bike the guy in a convertible on my left asked me if I was ok. I told him the wind blew me over and he laughed. We had a nice little conversation before the light turned green and we were on our way. I am sure everyone watching got a nice little laugh out of that one. I am just glad nobody was coming into the lane next to me as I fell out of the bike lane into the actual car lane to the left. Pretty scary when you think about it. Especially after Jenni told me a couple of stories of where people got hit on their bikes. Thanks Jenni! Anyway, all is well. I have a nice couple of bruises already from where I fell. Hopefully I got that out of the way.

Two weeks and counting!!!!