Kryptonite

As I sit here eating the Reese's and Whoppers from the Halloween candy bags I purchased today, which by the way, it's only October 20th, I'm reflecting on the swim lesson from earlier this morning with Coach Tara.  I only scheduled 3 sessions with her and today was my 2nd.  It went great but good lord, how much more could possibly be wrong with 1 person's swim stroke anyway??  You might as well strap a floatie on me and register me into the toddler swim lessons program on Tuesday nights!  Sheesh.  Don't get me wrong, it's all great information and I feel I'm benefiting but I'm more sore from 500 yards of drills than I am from swimming a mile in my old style!  How naive could I be thinking that my stroke wasn't that bad and maybe 3 sessions was too many to schedule?  I'm sure Tara really only has enough constructive criticism to last an hour...right?

Rotate completely onto your side when you breathe.
Don't bother swimming unless you're breathing bilaterally.
Keep your chest down. 
Keep your elbows up. 
Arms enter the water at 11 and 1. 
Fingers enter the water first, not your thumbs.
Slow down your kick. 
Keep your legs together. 
Superman! 

Agghhhhhh!!!!!  I'm assuming when practicing this pile of information for weeks and weeks, it will all become second nature at some point and hopefully will flow effortlessly but talk about information overload!  It's hard to concentrate on the angle of your arms as they enter the water when your legs and ass are sinking!  I might as well walk the floor bottom down the lane as I'll most likely get there faster! 

*sigh* 

Seriously though, despite the ton of information I've been given in 2 hours total, I do feel I've improved greatly.  Although I may not be getting there any faster right now, the exerted effort to get to that nowhere is much less.  That's all I want right now.  I've always had a love/hate relationship with the swim leg of triathlon but I'm thinking now that maybe these adjustments will at least tip the scale more towards the love side and will hopefully improve my swim enough to help conserve energy for the bike and run portions for those future Half Ironmans.  The improvements have prompted a little excitement in me. :)

Thanks Tara -Tri Kula Coaching !

Back to aimless wandering

Another season comes to a close.  Once again, I'm back to a state of wandering around aimlessly without a training schedule.  Although it's not necessarily a good thing, I'm now able to dictate my own plan.  What does this mean?  Typically for me, it means that with the slightest feeling of fatigue or a sliver of an ache or pain, I stop dead in my tracks with whatever I'm doing...swimming, biking or running.  I'm left with a feeling that I have nothing to strive for.  I'm not lost, just unmotivated. This certainly wasn't the season that I expected.  Many aches, pains, injuries and emotions leading to my less than stellar race times.  Despite all the bitching I managed to spew all over my blog this season, there have been a few notable accomplishments as far as the triathlon season goes. (Ok, I know, it's all notable because I actually have a triathlon season and I'm actually off my ass doing something...blah, blah, blah...) But what made this season different from the last?  I rode a century ride at a last minutes notice and my recovery time was still somewhat impressive after not biking far distances in a while.  I went out of my comfort zone and raced in a couple of different sprints not knowing anyone else racing at the time of signing up (this is huge for me).  Although the injuries were piled up against me, I still managed to squeak in a Half Ironman.  What a different season from last year! 

So what will I do now to prepare for what I hope will be a better season next year?  Well, I will be signing up for a HIM outside of the East Coast to experience something new...most likely Ironman Austin, TX. I plan to train for this seriously since I didn't take any race seriously this year.  I'm not sure what I was thinking but again, emotions were flying high and I pretty much didn't care about anything regarding triathlon.  I'm surprised, quote honestly, that I even made it to any of the starting lines.  Is there such a thing as post first season blues? :)  I need to snap out of it but honestly, I think I enjoy training more than racing.  I think it might be too much pressure for me which maybe, racing outside of this area would help me focus a little more.  We shall see.  I also plan on getting back to basics which for me, is running.  Although I hate it, I miss it.  Yeah, strange, but it does give me a sense of peace despite my sore ankles, knees and hips when I'm done.  I am old but not dead and I'm hoping that getting back into this groove will hopefully alleviate some of those aches and pains that targeted me this year.  My luck, it'll probably make it all worse!

I have goals. Life happens. :)  So my aimless wandering around the triathlon world right now doesn't mean I'm lost...I've just wandered into other experiences of life.

100

100.3 miles on a bike.  I can't say that I ever wanted to do a century ride but since a friend of mine couldn't ride on Sunday, she asked if I wanted to ride in her place.  Why not?  How bad could it be, right?  After all, it's not a race, just a nice looooonnnngggg ride.  No race number. No timing chip.  And I had 11 hours to complete it.  So, I decided to give it a shot with the only reservation I had being that I hadn't ridden more than 60 miles in one sitting.  What's another 40?  The kicker?  It's NBW's Flattest Century in the East!  Now let's dissect the title of this ride.  Like an arrow to a target, I'm sure everyone's attention is automatically drawn to the word "FLAT" not bothering to consider the rest of the description.  "IN THE EAST".  We're not in Texas, folks and this course was not flat.  At least not as it's defined by my dictionary.  Yeah, it certainly wasn't a Lake Placid course but it had it's share of inclines.  More than I expected and more than I wanted.  I even got to a point where going downhill felt like I was going up.  Ugh. Maybe it was that extra 40 miles that put me over the edge because around mile 75, I was ready to throw in the towel.  But I didn't.  I figured it would take just as long to wait for a SAG wagon to pick me up than to to finish.  After all, I could take my time.

It's not a race, it's a ride.  After racing for 2 years, it's hard to get that mentality out of your head so around mile 50 when I stopped at the fuel station to relieve myself (hurry, hurry, hurry!), I looked around and saw people eating, sitting, stretching, talking on the phone, chatting...taking their time.  Then I think to myself, "God woman, simma down now! What are you doing? You're racing against no one and nothing!  Take it easy, you've got another 50 miles to go!"  So my 17 mph for the first half split went down to 15.5 mph total average. 

And why do some team riders have to be assholes?  On several occasions, they wouldn't announce themselves passing so close to me on my left that if I waivered even a little bit, I would have knudged a body part.  Not to mention when they do pass, they don't wait until they're completely past me before moving over, causing me to brake so I don't tick their back tire.  It's bad enough that their wake alone is enough to blow me off the road, they're going so fast.  I know, I know, give 'em a break. They're working so hard drafting the entire 100 miles.

Besides the constant snot rockets that I feared would find me as a target, the only real trouble I had during my ride was my aching back and neck from holding my head up.  When will someone invent some contraption so that I can simply rest my head?  Like at the eye doctor when you have to rest your chin in the little cup.  Yeah, that's all I needed.  Nice and comfy.  And let's talk about the Chamois butt'r.  This was my first experience with it.  The directions say "use liberally".  Right off the bat I'm confused.  Does this mean use the whole tub?  I didn't think so but let me tell you, I used it liberally. I felt like I crapped my pants.  Maybe too much?  So not only do I have all that swooshing around down there, I can't keep my privates in place and I had to constantly lift off the seat to "adjust" and I'm sure I had butt'r cream oozing out of my shorts somewhere.  TMI maybe.  I still can't figure out how men do it.  And now that it's all over, I'm fairly confident that my private parts will no longer function.

I was certainly glad when it was over.  I just wanted to get the hell off that bike!  Next step when it was done, figure out how to kick my leg over the seat without falling over... And how, for the love of cosmos, did I manage to gain a pound this weekend after burning 4904 calories???

 

The sad thing is...

...I don't have to think twice about eating the salsa.

As soon as I drove off the campus of University of New Haven after dropping my son off for his first year away at college, I knew my life would be different and I knew it was going to be a long ride home alone.  I held it together while I was there for the day getting him settled in with the strangers who he would now be sharing his life.  10:30am - 3pm.  That was my alotted time to prepare both of us for the adjustment of our lives and to make sure his new life away from home was as comfortable and secure as it could possibly be.  5 hours to unpack and say goodbye to the one I've raised for 18 years leaving me feeling like I've abandoned him.  I suppose there are good reasons for these limitations.  I suppose some parents might be well inclined to stay the night if they were allowed.  I suppose I might be one of those parents.  I've been trying to prepare myself for several months now but there is nothing that can possibly be done to prepare for something like this.  You could say that I've had months to "say goodbye" and in a way I have, but it's different when you're in the moment.  Wheeling the empty suitcases back to the car is when it all hit me; trying to hide my face under my baseball cap so the cars passing by wouldn't think of me as weak.  Crying for 2 hours home then realizing after that long ride home alone when you pull into the driveway looking at the recently cut lawn that there may not be a reason to have even come home.  Realizing that you didn't take anything out of the freezer to thaw because there would be no one to cook for tonight so you settle for chips and salsa, briefly thinking of saving the salsa for Tyler because it's his favorite kind.  My bad.  It's the little things like starting laundry downstairs and seeing the empty space that used to house his XBox.  Or opening the freezer to have Tyler's mint chocolate chip ice cream staring me down.  All this emotion and I haven't even hit the whole house yet!

*sigh*

Yes, he's only away at college and some parents may deal with it differently or perhaps even be happy that their kids are away.  This is how it affects me because he has been my life for 18 years.  I will miss him plain and simple but I know he'll be ok.  I should be thankful we're at least in the same time zone.

It's Thursday.  I can't wait to see how lovely I look tomorrow for work...

The Games we Play

Today I rode 55 miles in 3:08.  I'm getting faster because perhaps now I actually know how to ride my bike, or I think I do anyway. Or perhaps after a year and a half of triathlon, someone finally told me to take off the geeky reflectors which I'm sure was causing some resistence. ;)  Or maybe my luck today was due to the fact that it wasn't hot out and maybe the slickness on the road due to the rain, "slid" me along just a tad bit faster.  Or maybe I should just give myself a little bit of credit in that I actually may be getting better.  Whatever the reason, I'll take it.  The biking leg is fastly becoming my favorite in this game and sometimes I think about taking the swim and run out of the equation and putting all of my focus on the two wheels.  I can't seem to pull that trigger just yet but we'll see what happens in the future.

Who is it that takes over when I hop on my bike? Suddenly, I'm in the middle of a race. I've placed myself there and there are only two of us with timing chips. I try to catch that invisible rider ahead of me but I can never catch her. That one song comes on that makes me pedal a little faster, a little harder but I continue to swallow her dust because she's listening to that same song.

...just one of the many games I play when I ride.

What games do you find yourself playing on the bike?  Or during any of parts of your training for that matter?  For me? ...

• I never go down to the lowest gear because there's no saving grace after that
• Can I go up that hill the second time around one gear higher than I did the last time?
• How soon before the top of a hill can I go up a gear or two to put more fire in my legs?
• How fast can I speed up before I begin an ascent? Yeah, like it's a mountain.
• I do NOT ride out of the saddle on climbs unless I've completely stopped and have fallen over.
• Can I do the second half of the ride all in the big chain ring?
• I adjust the angle of my ride just so I can laugh at myself.  "this...or this?"

My first Olympic race is this coming weekend and I'm really hoping that I do well despite the fact that I haven't been able to swim since my last race (2 weeks ago)..  It should be interesting to see how I pace myself.  After that, I have nothing planned...and this irritates me.  I do, however, have some swim sessions scheduled with an actual coach to help me with fundamentals.  Yep, you heard me right.  I actually swallowed that pill of pride and asked for help.  After all, two years of swimming and not getting any better...something must be wrong, right?

Has anyone seen my Mojo Batteries?

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchill

Where the hell is my energizer bunny? I need a zap!

I'm not sure what's going on with me lately but my training schedule, or rather, the execution of my training schedule has been lacking to say the least. I'd like to spit nails but it seems I swallow them instead. I have no mojo and this dive I seem to have taken is disappointing in my eyes. For the past 2 months, I'd say, I've had no qualms about missing days of training whereas in the past, I'd mentally beat myself up for days for even thinking of skipping out or slacking with what I do. Plain and simple, there are other things I'd rather be doing at this moment in my life. A lot of eating seems to be one of those things. Do I need a break? I'm not sure I can say that since I feel I've been on a siesta time-out for more than just a couple of hours. Is it that the gray hairs and saggy boobs that have pounced on me proves that I'm getting old and for whatever reason, I feel like I deserve to just stop? Who could blame me, right? Wrong. I can't really say that either since that doesn't represent my way of thinking in the past. There have been a lot of changes in my life recently leaving me with a lot of things to contemplate and maybe all of those piled up things are starting to affect me negatively...maybe there's a slight bout of depression setting in.

I wish I had something to blame other than the fact that I'm just being lazy but there are reasons beyond my control like the poison ivy that invaded my arms and legs this past weekend leaving me unable to frolic in the pool. I know, I know, fellow triathletes...find some open water. That's easier said than done for me.  And this certainly doesn't have any relevance to my "I'll do it tomorrow" attitude prior to this weekend. The problems I've been having with my knee and ankle certainly have been detrimental to what was once productive training. But these issues are temporary and are getting better so what can I blame now? Nothing.  You would think watching the Olympics for the past 2 weeks or watching my girlfriend complete an Ironman would snap me out of this black hole and inspire me to push harder, but no.  I just need to get off my low rider and step up a few rungs on the ladder.  Now it's time to get off the vacation plane and take out the unknown on my poor bike and my new running shoes.

I need to keep going.  After all, I'm not done yet.

Mudder Style

Tough Mudder.  The new craze that's sweeping the nation...quite similar to 'baby fish mouth'...along with all of the other crazy obstacle course races that are constantly being engineered by people who just want to see other people endure as much pain as possible.  Tough Mudder in California on a ski slope a couple of weekends ago (gosh it's been almost 2 weeks already) was nothing to sneeze at.  I'm a triathlete after all.  There was no need to train, right?  **achoo** 

It was to be a day of hell but we all decided to surround that day with a great vacation out in Cali and when that Saturday arrived, we all started to get a little anxious about the unexpected.  After all, before the race even started we were expected to climb a wall to get to the starting line.  In the near distance we could see our first ascent and I think out all of our mouths came some form of 'You've got to be F*ing kidding me?' not realizing that this hill...is merely a pimple on the ass of Texas.  This is going to be a great day.

If you're not familiar with Tough Mudder, and you haven't clicked on the link at the beginning of this post, it's an obstacle course supposedly designed by British Special Forces to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project.  These courses travel the world with variations at each site but generally, it's a 10-12 mile course designed to test your all around physical and mental strength.  Now let me remind you that this particular course was on a ski slope.  Generally, the average time to complete these races is 3 hours but this day on the slope took about 5 1/2.  Up and down a mountain 3 to 10 times takes it's toll and I felt just about the same fatigue when it was all over as if I had just completed a Half Ironman.  It was that exhausting. 

To start the day, we were informed that we needed to park in the overflow parking area because the lot at the ski resort was already full.  You would think that's no big deal because the word "overflow" usually implies 'down the street', 'next door at the flea market', '1 mile down at the elementary school', 'the big empty field 2 streets over'.  Good lord I would have taken any of those options but no, "overflow" in this context meant 10 miles in the opposite direction down the 1 lane mountain to the mini airport which then you will have to take a school bus (which apparently is required to pull over and let other cars pass every 2 minutes) back up the 1 lane mountain.  This may sound like an easy jaunt but when you have thousands of participants and spectators trying to get to the resort up that 1 lane mountain and school buses that are breaking down and catching fire from being overworked, it equals about an hour 1 way.  Needless to say, it was bad planning on the part of the Mudder staff.  Especially since we needed to make that same "jaunt" when the race was over.  Did I mention that our cabin was 3 miles from the ski resort?  So yeah, we were psyched we signed up for this race.  This is a great day already.

Let's get to the obstacles.  As I mentioned before, we had to climb a wall to even get to the starting line.  This, in and of itself, got the nerves up.  What the hell was waiting for us?  I'll tell ya what wasn't waiting for us...water.  Dust getting tossed up from the very start of the race.  Our tongues were stuck to the roofs of our mouths and everyone was spitting out dust buckets.  Every corner we turned and at the top of every climb, we were on our knees praying for a water station.  We never thought we'd have to wait almost 2 miles!  And that's not the worst of it.  The only nutrition on the course was bananas.  I wish I could tell you how good those bananas tasted but when we got to every water station, all the bananas were gone and not restocked...  That's right, we had no food throughout the entire race and by the end, we had no energy for the last few obstacles.  Poor planning on our part or Mudder's part?  Lesson learned.

Right, the obstacles!  The most notable obstacles by far...

Arctic Enema. WTF?? A giant pit of water filled to the top with a shit load of ice!  Not to mention the wood beam spanning across the width of the pit which forced total submersion.  Holy numb nuts!  Doesn't sound bad but when you come out and every part of you is numb and immobile, you wonder why you're doing this event at all.  Especially when this is only obstacle #2.  I believe this is where most of the F bombs were dropped that day.

Cliffhanger. This was what I swear had to be an 80 degree incline up to the very top of the mountain.  I also swear that it felt a mile long but was probably not even a 1/4 of a mile.  It sucked and there is no picture that does this hill justice.

Walk the Plank. A 15 foot jump off a plank into the water.  But be careful, those military dudes are telling you to jump when people haven't yet moved out of the way in the water.  Half the lake ended up my nose that day because I was so worried about losing my bandana.

Electric Eel:  Crawling under barbed wire with active electric wires hanging down. Yay.  There's no escape from getting zapped and I did come out of that one crying...not sure if anyone saw that. :)  And I did have a bruise on my ass from a really good zap.

Hold Your Wood. Doesn't sound so bad but when you have to carry wood up an 80 degree incline (I swear it was 80, ok, maybe 50), it's tiring.  And when we got to the top of that incline, we thought we were done.  Nope.  Let's carry that wood for another 3/4 of a mile, shall we?  Kill me.

Electroshock Therapy:  Who wants to run through live wires? Not this girl!  Especially after the Electric Eel!  I wish I could give details on this one but only one brave soul in our party defeated this obstacle.  Yay, Jen!! She rocks!

We finished minus a few obstacles at the end due to sheer fatigue and lack of nutrition.  You girls rock!!  When's the next one???