Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween

I started off the morning that began with a chilly bike ride and ended up with a run in some heat. I did 75 miles on the bike and ended with an 8 mile run around a lake. I even was a good cyclist and helped to stop a fellow biker with a flat.

I am all gelled up from sticky GU seeping its way down my leg and my poor bike just gets Gatorade and GU all over it. It withstands such a beating I give to it, as does my poor body. I ran with my headphones and listened to Michael Jackson's Thriller and The Monster Mash to get into the spirit of the holiday.

Tonight I am dressing up as an inmate in black and white strips and heading to a haunted house.

Tomorrow I will do a 14 mile run and a 2.5 hour swim. I am not looking forward to that long swim...it will be my longest. I end up completely comatose after my long swims and pruned as an old apple.

Friday, October 30, 2009

TGIF

Today was a fantastic, wonderful day. I did another one of my aquathon's with a swim and a sprint. It was freezing water...freezing. Putting my face in the water felt like splashing ice on it. Usually when you swim you warm up...not this time. Even on the run I was freezing cold. I kept trying to blow on my hands to warm them up. It was a quiet race on a chilly evening ending with another gorgeous desert sunset.

I then headed to a party with my triathlon group for an evening of friends, costumes and food. I had a nice time chatting with friends and learning how to bike better because heaven knows I need it.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wintertime

Diet Coke with swirls of snowflake designs on the can, pumpkin streusel muffins from a co-worker, a chilly morning, hot chocolate...these are a few of my favorite things.

The weather is chilly today, but temps will go back up by Monday to 90 F, but for now, I enjoyed the warm feel of my blankets when my alarm went off and the cold air surrounding my bed.

I get my brackets of my braces off in Nov. then I switch to an invisalign for a few weeks as my retainer is made. Happy day!

So now I finally had three good things happen to me: 1. an exciting race this past weekend. 2. the dentist saying to me "I think we're about done with those braces." 3. An old friend emailed me out of the blue, which was a pleasant and welcomed surprise.

My horoscope yesterday said "an overseas journey is going to begin." Hmm....I think I'll have to have another international trip to make this horoscope come true.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Weekend

Been behind in my workouts this week. Took Monday AND Tuesday off. Now must make up for it. Although I finally got a good night's sleep last night. Lights were out before 10pm and slept on through till my alarm. I have been waking up at 5am and I'm done sleeping.

We are having crazy weather now. We were having "record-breaking temperatures" everyday with maddening heat. Today we are also having "record-breaking temperatures" but in the opposite way: today is the coldest day of the year ever. I'm not complaining. I will take some chilled weather and I know it won't last. But I did dig out my violet winter coat with a fancy collar and got to wear it proudly.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Half Ironman

Sunday I participated in the annual Soma half ironman: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. I got up at 4:30am, grabbed my stuff and headed out the door for a chill in the air. My wave started at 6:52am and the swim went fantastic. I stayed nice and relaxed, kicking off other swimmers and trying to stay directly on course. I managed a time of 41.40 for the 2000m swim, which is okay. I always want to be faster on the swim, but it's relatively short compared to the rest of the race. The wave behind me were all men and all caught up to me, which is always scary. Women aren't nearly as aggressive swimmers or bikers.

I quickly headed on to my bike and didn't bike fast at all. I was trying to stay in my low heart rate zones and got passed by almost all the bikers. There was an accident in which a biker was carted off to an ambulance with a broken leg. Fortunately, no accidents or flat tires for me. But just a slow time. I had to change around my nutrition plan at 2:15 into the bike. My stomach started to feel heavy, so switched from electrolyte blocks to just gels and gatorade. I usually eat 100 calories every 20 minutes on the bike, but by the end, I switched to 25-30 minutes just to have a better stomach on the run. I got a very poor time on the bike, but biking just isn't my strength, which is unfortunate because it is the longest portion of the triathlon. I am not a good bike handler and get nervous on turns and tight u-turns, so slow down, which is part of the reason I am slow.

However, the run came and I rocked it. I started my run at just over 4 hours into the race and managed to pull off a 2 hour half marathon. I even ran the same time as some of the faster runners in my group. However, because they are much better bikers than I am, they finished with much faster times. My coach told me I would pass a lot of people on the run and she was right. Guys who I saw on the bike course who were a good 25 minutes ahead of me, I caught up with and passed. I slowed down a bit at mile 8 and 9, but by mile 10.5, I started running 8 minute miles and didn't slow down. I got my second wind and finished very strong.

Just need to work on my bike technique. If I can stay that relaxed in the swim, I think I'll be fine. Just need to work on swim speed now. I think in my wetsuit, my form is actually better than it is without it. The wetsuit forces me to keep my arms apart and not cross them over my body. But biking is my nemesis. I don't know how to get better. I can see how people can become better swimmers and runners. It's mainly about genetics, background and experience, technique and speed work. However, I don't see what you can do to become a faster biker? Is there some magic secret I don't know of? Perhaps my positioning could be better; I could stay in aero longer, work out with leg weights more...not sure.

But overall, it was a nice race and glad I did it. Gave me some confidence going into next month when I will be an even slower biker. I am going to have to really slow down my biking during my next race...frustrating. The weather was a warm 90 degrees by the time I finished the run and luckily, ice was available on the run. Every aid station I ran by, I grabbed cups of ice and threw them down my shirt. Felt soooo good.