Olympic Triathlon

I did it! Completed my first Olympic triathlon on Sunday. Here's how it went:

Before the race I was pretty nervous. Had a funky stomach from about Thursday on. Coach Matt had me and my bike in top condition. He helped me work through my leg and hip problem and I felt really good physically. I've put in my time training, now was the time to have fun and see what I could do. I was still feeling pretty good from my first race -the Trek sprint. My husband was doing the Olympic too and after my first race, he was thinking I might come uncomfortably close to beating him this time. I felt positive pressure to do really well and I wanted to represent well for TFP.

Sunday AM

I got to the race nice and early while it was still dark out. Racked my bike right next to my husband's and methodically set up everything I needed. I noticed a big difference right away at this triathlon - pretty much everyone was there to compete, not just complete a triathlon. Lots of super nice bikes and super fit bodies. (My husband reminded me that I now have one of those fit bodies too, thanks honey - you too!). But it was slightly intimidating to be surrounded by so many top athletes. Many of those top athletes were TFPer's and it was great to see everyone there getting ready.

Swim

Had a great warm up in the water. There was lots of room and I felt as ready as I could be. I'm not sure when the last time was that I was that nervous, but seasoned racers from TFP say it gets easier each time. I'm sure the look of sheer panic was written all over my face. I went off in the 5th wave and swam as well as I could. I executed my helicopter turns that Coach Matt taught me at the buoys and tried to stay relaxed. Felt like the swim went on forever, but it was good.

Bike

Ran to my bike and saw that my husband's bike was already gone (he went off in the wave right behind me). Oh well, I half expected he'd pass me up in the water but I was surprised I never saw him. T1 went ok, it's always a bugger getting the wetsuit off. My feet were still pretty sandy but it never bothered me in my bike shoes. I was ready to kill the bike portion of this tri, especially after just doing Ragbrai a couple of weeks ago. As I was steadily building up to my target heart rate, my legs were saying - hey, not so fast. Felt intense burning and it was not easy with the windy conditions. I just kept telling myself- come on! you've been training 9 months for this, let's go legs!!! It was daunting not having my body respond and seeing more and more people pass me. I couldn't get comfortable until the last 1/4 of the bike portion. Got out of my shoes on the bike and dismounted well. T2 was pretty fast. Was hoping to make up some time on the run.

Run

Since I wasn't feeling it on the bike, I was hoping to sit into a good run. Mile one was pretty good and I tried to shorten up my stride to keep my hip from hurting. Saw a lot of people cheering us on from TFP and it was great! It was going well until mile 2. My heart rate was getting super high and the heat was killing me. Dumping water over my head was good but then you have to deal with the weighing down feeling of running wet. I was fighting to keep a good fast pace and found I was in zone 4 but only going my zone 1 pace. Did I say it was hot? The run was cruel, just as you thought you were heading towards the end there was a little jog the opposite way and then back. Coach Lauri passed me about then and asked how I was doing. Not good. She told me I was doing great and to focus and then took off like a champ. Wow, she's impressive! I just kept thinking one more mile, then one more mile, until there was one more mile. I gave it all I had and when I saw everyone from TFP cheering I wanted to cry. I pushed everything I had to the finish. My worried husband was anxiously waiting for me. He assured me I did great even though I didn't feel so as I was holding onto him for dear life trying to erase the black spots dancing in my eyes. I was so happy to be done and the feeling of accomplishment was indescribable.

Post Race

My final time was 2:55 for the Olympic. I completed this race again giving the best that I had that day and being coached and supported by the most amazing and inspiring group of people. I can't say enough of how awesome it is to have the support of so many TFPer's and how much you've all helped me keep my sanity and have an absolute blast throughout my training. It was great to do this race and feel like I can understand what my husband's been training for. Before I started this I never got it, never thought I could do anything like this. It's brought us so much closer and it's fun to talk tri's all the time.

And to Coach Matt - thank you for taking a chance on a dumpy, unconfident stay-at-home mom and turning me into a triathlon machine who now will jump feet first into anything. I can't believe where you have taken me in 9 months. I remembered when I started and could barely shuffle into a slow jog. Weights were a joke. My biking was just so-so, and I'll never forget my first swim lesson...I was pitiful! Thanks for being so patient with me. You have given me 110% and inspire me to only do my very best. I'm forever changed by you and have found a sport I love. Thank you! When I started I thought I'd just be able to complete an olympic triathlon at the end of this, not be a totally changed person physically and mentally. I now can't wait to compete at my next tri and I'm hungry to improve on another Olympic.

Ragbrai & Training

Me and my little riders Team Dairy Air Sailing & biking...what could be better?

After the Trek Triathlon I headed to Iowa for our summer vacation - RAGBRAI. This is the bike ride across Iowa - 7 days, 480 miles.

We went with our good friends and their team out of Wisconsin. We're the Wisconsin Dairy Airs. Get it? It was our 3rd time going and have to say this was quite a different year. I wasn't nervous in the least to ride across Iowa. My husband and I rode a tandem a couple days and our road bikes the other days and just enjoyed a whole new world of doing this now that we're both in good shape. Lance wasn't there this year - (yes, he did Ragbrai a few times after he first retired) but it was still a blast. Our kids rode a day with us too and made it 55 miles!!

As far as training, riding was the best thing for me after the tri. My hip and leg are still giving me trouble running. After I got back I ran a little and got frustrated with not being able to run well. My piriformis and IT band were not having it. It's crazy how cranky you get when your body doesn't perform as expected. Training took on some ups and downs with this. I think it mostly boils down to getting my head together. Coach Matt gave me total perspective again on how you have to take care of yourself - eat, sleep, ease up on the stress, focus. I noticed I was getting super busy and not writing anything down, just getting through workouts last week. By Monday I was falling apart doing a simple swim in the lake. But Coach made me think - back in the fall, none of this was even close to possible for me. I've gone fast forward for 9 months with training and mentally I'm playing catch up to what my body's capable of doing now. I've had workouts where I've felt like throwing up even before I get there because I know what's in store. Getting your heart rate up in zone 4 territory and teaching your body that it's ok to push it and go all out is hard to do! But then it's not as scary next time you do it and you feel like you can pick up a car after you're done... sometimes. So I'm coming up on the big daddy, the Olympic triathlon next week. It's crazy to think that last summer I could barely run a 5k, tooted around on my mountain bike, and literally couldn't swim 25 yards in a pool - let alone a lake! That's TFP.

My First TRI

Well, I sucessfully completed my very first triathlon on Sunday! I would have never guessed that I'd have this much fun doing an event, especially after the week I had before.
Summertime and everything that goes with it was starting to catch up with me. After missing a couple workouts with an out-of-town wedding, hosting visiting family staying with us, entertaining my kids, and my leg flarring up with IT band pain....I was a little stressed. But everyone at TFP is so awesome and supportive. Everyone assured me I was sooo ready. With the whole bum leg thing, I thought I was going to suck and not be able to run. I was really caught up in what kind of times I wanted to finish at. I had a talk with Steve F. (an awesome TFPer) about this and he brought it down for me. He asked if I was going to do my best, and I'm like - of course I am, but my leg hurts. And he said, how can you suck if your doing your best? So your leg hurts, you're still doing the best you can. So, I let go of the time thing and focused on just doing it well.

Coach Matt had me so prepared for race day. I had my zone numbers down for the race and a good pep talk, I was ready to go. Sunday I got up and had my little english muffin with my stomach in knots. My husband was awesome talking me through everything I'd do when I got there. He dropped me off as close as he could to the event and I had to walk 20 min. to get there. I was cursing myself for racking my bike the day before as a saw tons of ladies fly by on their bikes. The walk was not so good for my sore leg/hip thing. I got there and set up my necessities and then frantically looked around for another necessity...bathrooms! You can imagine the lines at an all women's event. Completely insane! I remebered a little bathroom by a park across the street where my kids played the day before. I booked over there and didn't even have to wait in line. Sweet! Now I was ready to go.

At the swim start I ran into my TFP TRI 1 buddies and other people I knew which was cool. Did the essential swim warm up that Coach taught me, which is hard to do, but so important. Then it was time to go. I was in the 14th wave. Coach Matt wanted me to line up front right, and I tried as nicely as I could to squeeze my way to the front. Then it was game on. The swim start was a little frantic, two ladies swam over me and there were swim noodles everywhere. I tried quickly to get out from everything, then all the sudden it was quiet. I thought I was doing my usual - swimming in the wrong direction, but I sighted quickly and I was fine. I tried to draft someone in front of me and she seemed to freak when I accidently hit her feet. I sighted another time and got elbowed in the side of the head. The girl said - oh I'm so sorry! and I said - oh, it's ok! Pretty sure that doesn't happen in men's races:)

Next it was on to the bike. The transition went really well. Somehow I easily found my bike, got through the crowd and went for it. As I was riding I noticed people were going really fast or pretty slow. It was a big event with all levels. At one point I felt myself slowing down, riding with everyone, then a girl flew by me and woke me up. I thought what am I doing - go! I caught up and passed her up the hill (thank you compu-trainer classes), then she passed me, then I passed her up another hill and we ended up pushing eachother faster the whole way. I completed my fancy triathlete dismount without running into anyone and rushed to get ready for the run. The girl I was riding with ended up racking her bike right by mine - and were both like - hey! that was a great pace - thanks! So cool.

Wasn't sure how my leg and hip were going to hold up for the run but didn't even have time to worry about it. Everything's on auto-pilot, adrenaline is pumping like mad and I was somewhat numb from the bike ride anyway, so off I went. I ran the best I could and kept my heart rate hovering in top zone 4. Not an easy thing to do, but was so glad I've had my butt dragged up to that level in training. I felt mentally sound - no nerves and then by mile 2 I started getting pretty excited about everything thinking - hey, I'm going to finish a triathlon today! Then I looked up and saw Coach Matt smiling like - see you can do it! It was great to see my husband and kids, parents and friends and TFPer's cheering me on at the finish line.
I completed the race knowing what to do and being so well trained. I didn't want to get to the end and think - well, I could have pushed harder, I could have gone faster. I did my best! And in doing my best I came out with pretty good times. I finished in 1:22:38 and placed 24th out of 317 in my age group and 137th out of 2544. Next up....the Olympic!

Only a couple more weeks until my first tri. Doing the Trek sprint on July 12 at Pleasant Prairie and I'm feeling pretty much ready to go, but nervous. I watched my husband and fellow TFPer's compete in the Verona Tri. It was cool to take it all in, see the transitions and everything come together. It was the first time I watched one and actually thought - hey, I think I could do that!

Coach Matt retested me for a bike and run EMR and a RMR. Found I've changed my cardiovascular system. My zone #'s were adjusted as my body is now getting more output at a lower heart rate #. Still need to keep working all the zones which isn't always easy. Especially going slow.

My RMR showed that I now burn less calories at rest - which I intially got upset about. Coach put it in perspective - I now weigh less than I used to and makes sense that I don't need as many calories.

I've lost a total of 13lbs. so far and I've totally changed my body. I'm 2lbs. shy of my ultimate dream weight. Another exciting perk to all this training! My body fat is now 17%, would like it to be 15 or 16% but it's pretty darn close. I've lost a total of 8 inches off my measurements, so wearing a bathing suit this summer has been painless. This past weekend I was in my friend's wedding. Besides the wedding being a total blast, it was the first time in years that I didn't have to wear some sort of major gut-sucker armor under my dress. Talk about freedom! It's a lot of fun enjoy the results so far. Now it's back to business and getting mentally prepared for the races. Coach Matt said I should expect some puke - zone workouts coming up, YIKES!

5K

Did the Reach Out and Run 5K on Saturday! I haven't done a 5K since the 4th of July last summer. My husband was laughing with me that I was a little nervous about this race, it's only 5k you know - you'll be fine. My training schedule said 5k - top zone 4 to low zone 5 - the puke zone as I like to call it. Coach Matt assured me that yes I'm supposed to run hard (the whole time) for a race like this. I was nervous about getting down and ugly, being able to let go mentally and go all out.

On Sat. morning my kids, never fails, wanted to sleep in more while every other Sat. they're up at the crack of dawn. My son wasn't feeling well and had a slight fever. Great. My husband was flying out the door to work saying - you'll do just fine. I shoved the kids in the car, got to the race and by then my son looked like he was going to faint and was burning up. My dad said he would come and pick him up. Meanwhile I've got to warm up and I put my daughter (so thankful she's a responsible girl) in charge of my boys and 2 nephews because my sister-in-law raced too, and hoped grandpa would find them OK. The warm up felt horrendous. The race seemed to start way to soon and I was stuck in the pack trying to find a pace. There was some jerk actually riding his bike on the beginning of the race into the path of the runners. He almost ran a younger runner over and I thought the dad was going to kill him. That gave me a little adrenaline boost to get going. No sooner am I starting to settle into a good but super uncomfortable pace, I see my dad waving at me at the sideline, asking me to point which way my kids are so he can pick up my poor son. I do a quick point and a prayer and keep on truckin'. I'm definitely in zone 4 and trying to get back in my mental game. I fell into a pace with a runner by me and I know I must have sounded like a steam engine, I was puffing hard. I stopped looking at my heart rate when it was inching closer to zone 5 and just found my happy place, held on and tried not to think of the burn.

I finished at 26:02, (although my garmin said 25:49). I'm really happy with that, I pushed as hard as I could. My time from the last 5k in July was 31:26, so this training must be working! It was amazing to see everyone medal from the Fitness Pursuit! So impressed by Coach Matt and Coach Lauri and their wins. It is amazing to be coached by those who don't just talk the talk.

Just looking at my calendar, I have exactly 12 weeks until my first triathlon. Some have been asking my race plans.
Here they are: July 12th - Trek Women's Sprint Triathlon, Pleasant Prairie
Aug. 16th - Pleasant Prairie Olympic Tri.
Sept. 27th - Danskin Sprint - again Pleasant Prairie

I should be pretty comfortable with the PP course by then! Plus I get to swim in Lake Andrea;) Speaking of swimming...I can swim now! I put in my time, and with the coaching it all did magically come together. We'll see how it is when I get in open water, but I'm confident it will be just fine. Just to compare, my first swim lesson/session in December I could barely do 25 yards...and yesterday I completed a 2400 yd. workout!

This weekend I finally got to pick up my new bike. It's a beautiful Trek Madone WSD 5.2 project one that I picked out at TFP night at M&M Cyclery. I've been drooling over a bike like this for more than a year. Was hoping to have this in time for the TT last Sat. I've been training on my husband's bike - which is great but it's nice to have my own bike that fits me, plus now we can ride together and I might be able to keep up. The TT went ok on the 11th. I improved my time by over 1 minute and watts by 11. Much better than last time. I'm amazed at how much I've learned about cycling from the compu-trainer classes. It will be interesting to get outside and see how it translates on the road.

Balance

Alright, just when I think I've got this triathlon training business all down.......

the other week I was feeling great, ready to really make huge strides with my training, I was eating pretty well, so I thought and then I got sick. Not just a little sick - it was the 3 days in bed kind of sick, and still feeling crappy a week later. I felt like I was being punished. All I could think about was the training I was missing and how am I going to make it up and get back to where I was.

It was frustrating, but I got over it after a visit to the doctor. I asked when I could get back to running and training. He asked if someone was going to arrest me if I didn't train for a week, (I thought, well Coach Matt is tough - no, just kidding). I had to step back and get better and chill out. This has been like a see-saw. Not only do you have to become efficient in 3 sports but you have to balance it all with eating and sleeping well, reducing stress in everything you do. I see the people that do it well at TFP, I'm hoping to learn their secrets.