Erica's 1st Tri

Last Tri completed!

2007-07-31T20:28:00.000-06:00

Did the Danskin tri 2 weeks ago in Denver. This was supposed to be the "tri of all tris" for women. So glad it was not my first tri of the year as I would have been very disappointed. The venue was poorly organized for the amount of athletes and spectators and it felt like 100 degress on the plains of east Denver. Could not even get my wetsuit on it was so hot so I decided heck w/it and swam without it! That was a good decision. Unfortunately, the asphalt tore up my tender feet between getting to and from the swim area. Felt them the whole time on the bike and run. Got my share of sport beans though! Seems like they were at every transition!

After that tri have been somewhat anti-tri. I really don't know how people train for an ironman. I could not train 5-6 days per week at the intensity level needed to complete one of those grueling events. And I really like to workout...just not that much!

Oh, well - I accomplished my goal and I'm happy. Will hopefully want to do more next year. For now, I'm just biking and working out for fun.

1 open water tri complete!

2007-06-25T15:53:00.000-06:00

Did my first open water tri on Sunday - what a difference from swimming in a pool! Felt like 75% of the skills I've learned over the past 6 weeks went out the window! Most of the way to the first buoy, I was just trying not to get kicked or hit anyone else. Mostly did the front crawl. Every time I tried to stick my face in the water and stroke it just seemed like a struggle. I didn't feel like I was swimming tall, flat, or straight! Had a hard time catching my breath, so I flipped over on my back and that seemed to work well. Felt like it was a long way to swim, but there's really no turning back once you start, so you just have to push through it! Gotta love those forced commitments!

Transition times were better, but still can improve on the first one. Here are the results. I thought I'd do around 1:45 and did 1:47.47. Not bad! I finished 12 out of 22 in my age group and surprisingly, the 11 people ahead of me are all older! Guess there is hope for me yet! Sometimes age has the advantage of experience and additional training time :-)

My goal for the next one on July 15th is to improve on my run time -- it stinks! Now that the heel spur has calmed down, I need to put some miles in.

Time Flies!

2007-06-21T22:05:00.000-06:00

Yes, that's right - time will pass regardless of what you do about it. We all have 24 hours in a day and it's amazing what some people will do while others will just make excuses. While I admit, I'm not achieving 100% of my goals I've set this year (and am still setting), I am making more progress than in the past. I am 1 speech away from completing my Competent Communicator distinction from Toastmaster's and it has really been a good goal to set and achieve because it requires planning ahead (I can't show up to a meeting a do all 10 speeches), making time to write and rehearse a speech and blocking my work calendar so I can make sure no one schedules a meeting for me that might interfere w/getting to this meeting once a week. I'm still dealing w/a bit of procrastination, but at least by setting goals that I write down and communicate to others, it helps me to become more committed than if I just thought about achieving a goal someday.

Speaking of goals - Tri 2 of 3 coming up this wknd!! First open water swim Tri, so I'm a bit nervous, but should be easier than doing flip turns in a pool (or not doing them in my case)! We'll see!

Hope everyone is having a good week! If you have any ideas for what works to help you accomplish your goals, pass them on!
ciao!

Swim "Tall"?

2007-06-16T22:44:00.000-06:00

How do you do that? Been getting a lot of instruction on swimming recently from the trainer we hired this morning to reading about it online. So much to learn. It really gives you a much bigger appreciation for Olympic athletes and the amount of hours they put into their sport constantly honing their skills. Any athlete for that matter.

Swimming is not about having a fast stroke and a strong kick, which I always thought. It's about balance and efficiency. Some of the terms I've heard recently: swim tall, lengthen your stroke, swim downhill, catch-up drill, shark fin drill, side balance drill, front quadrant swimming, fingertip drag. Who would have thought there was so much to a sport I grew up on? No one ever told me all those things! I thought I was a pretty good swimmer until I hear all these things and find out that my arm's in the wrong position, I'm not flat, I'm not breathing right and my kick is weak. What? My kick? I thought that was the best thing I had going for me! Anyway, guess the video won't lie. Should get it back in a week and I'm anxious to see how I look under water. (No, not really!) Part of me already knows the sad truth that I don't look like the sleek swimmers in most instructional videos, but I won't believe it until I see it!

Did my first lake swim today with the wetsuit. Not sure if it's harder to walk in the wetsuit or swim in it...definitely not the most comfortable thing to wear. Once you get it on and you want to adjust it - fuh-ghet about it. Once you get it over the mid-section, the thing begins to suction to you like an octopus and unlike pantyhose that can be adjusted w/enough strategic tugging, the wetsuit is now permanenly in place until you peel it off of you. Bummer.

However, once I got in the water, it was a nice protection against the chilly temp! After my first initial panic breaths (oh, wow - it's cold! oh, yuk, what am I stepping on? OOh, what is that wrapping around my lef???!!) and once I got past my fear of being taken under by plant life, I fared pretty well. It is exhilarating, or is that the beginning stages of panic? I just keep talking to myself and repeating that nothing is going to suck me under like the horror movies show and that there is no way I'm going to drown with 5 pounds on neoprene stuck to me -- even if I do get kicked by the swimmer right in front of me that I can't see because the water is so green and I'm breathing to the side and not the front and trying to remember to sight so I don't swim in the wrong direction! I picked a tree to sight to and forgot to notice any particular striking differences between it and the 50 around it. Luckily, on the way back there was a big building to sight to :-)

Glad I got out there and tried it before the actual race. Will hopefully go out again next Saturday before the event on Sunday and do it again at a slow pace.

Very excited!! Summer is flying by too fast though. :-(

Hang in there, Kelli - you will do fine on race day!

Happy training!
p.s. Thanks for the tip, IM ABLE about wearing tri shorts underneath the wetsuit - that is the ticket!

First Tri Completed!!

2007-06-03T17:26:00.000-06:00

Yes, I finally got my first tri checked off the list! It was on Saturday and because it had such an early start, we opted to go up Friday night, pick up the packet, go to the orientation and share a hotel room. It worked out really well and I'm glad we did even though we found out our start times were 8:00 for me and 8:40 for Kelli and Tamera, not the 6:30 like we thought. I'm really glad we went to the triathlon clinic a few days before because Lisa Rainsberger talked about the things to do the week leading up to your event. I learned that the sleep you get 2 nights before is more critical than the night before. And I was relieved to hear that I could eat my favorite breakfast of waffles and almond butter (sans syrup) if I wanted to, which I did and felt great. Also had an apple about 20 minutes before the swim and then I didn't eat anything the rest of the race. Felt great, except for some cramps high up in my diaphragm on the run.

My first transition time sucked! 5:41 because I could not get my shorts to go on over a wet swimsuit! And I took time to dry off a bit and put sunscreen on! Will definitely have to re-think the whole clothing situation for the next one. The next one I will be wearing a wetsuit, so instead of dropping some bucks on some sporty triathlon shorts, I may just wear the bikini underneath the wetsuit so I can put bike shorts on easily over it. Was very happy that my heel spur did not act up during the run. Although, taking the last 2 months off of running because of it really hurt my run time. I have never been a great runner anyway, but I know I could do better if I trained consistently. Kinda hard to do when you can't walk on your foot for a few days after a run. However, the cortisone shot I got in my heel on Tuesday helped TREMENDOUSLY! I'm hoping I don't have to get another one in a couple of weeks and that the probelm will resolve itself. We'll see!

I am pretty happy with my results overall since I wasn't really sure what to expect the first time out. Next time, I will definitely try to have faster transition times and I'll be working on my swim and run times. The swim felt great - in and out in 11:30 and even lapped the girls I was swimming with. Felt very shakey getting out of the water as my adrenalin was in high gear! Walked to the transition, but should have run.

Felt good on the bike also. The course only had 2 small hills. I have heard not to go too fast on the bike part as you'll regret it in the run, but I think I could have gone a little faster. My bike time was 43:46, which was a few minutes behind the top finishers in my age category. If I could knock 3 minutes off my swim time, 3-5 minutes off the bike time and 10 minutes off the run (ha!) I could be a contender!! We'll have to see how the next 3 weeks of training goes. Open water swim will be interesting...

The run was not bad. A little boring since you couldn't wear your ipod, although a lot of people did. I started to walk at the 1/2 way point to get a drink and the lady I passed urged me on to run w/her so I did and we talked all the way back and it made it go a little faster. I had read in Tamera's "Slow, Fat Triathlete" book the night before that the author always tries to remember to smile (this is fun, right) and thank the volunteers for helping out, so I did. I smiled at the camera man and I thanked all the people watching traffic for us on the bike ride.

That's it for the race report. Overall, had a great time. We stuck around afterwards for the raffle prizes, but didn't win anything. I must say I was a bit dismayed at the lack of cheering for all of the competitors. I know it must get kinda boring standing around waiting for your person to come by so you can cheer, but all the more reason to do something while you're waiting -- cheer people on!! I must have told 50 people "good job!" When I passed someone on the bike, I said "good job" (unless it was a guy) and when I passed people on the run (they were coming back the other way) I said it too. Less than 5 people said something back. And very little cheering coming in to the finish line. In fact, they were so busy giving out awards at the end, that they missed the last competitor coming in, which I thought was very poor on the race official's part.

Anyway, next time I told Chris he has to be there so he can cheer me on at the end. It really is kinda disappointing to come in and have no one to greet you. Some people had flowers for their women and it was very sweet! Since the next one is local, I'm hoping to have a good cheering section from my family.

Until then - happy training!

Roadie

2007-05-19T13:56:00.000-06:00

Been biking with the Bicycle Village crew 3 times now. It is great fun and allows me to combine my love of biking with being in a group. Not that I'm a social bird, mind you, but I really do not like going out biking on my own. Even though many times the group gets separated and I end up biking by myself anyway, at least I know that there's a few waiting at the wait spot and several behind me if I get a flat or something. Maybe one of these days I'll venture out on my own (that was one of my ideas when I started working from home 7 mos ago - "Great, I can just get geared up and ride from my house and go for a ride whenever I want!" So far, have not done it.); however, I'm sure that the one time I do go out on my own, I'll get about 20 miles out and have a flat or something that I can't fix on my own. That is when the cell phone will come in handy :-)

Did 29 miles today and 15 last Wednesday. I swear, the group this year is really racking up the miles and getting out there more than last year. Last year's group was by no means casual, but we never did 40-45 mile rides like they are starting to do. I opted out of the last 10 today as my legs were shot.

Need to get back in the pool so I can build up my endurance for the upcoming tri in a couple of weeks! Can't believe it's finally here! I thought it would never come! Now I'm just anxious to get one done and feel the pain and hopefully make it through! There was a transition clinic today that I missed because I opted to ride instead. How hard can the transition be anyway, right? Heard someone say that you (older people) should bring all your stuff in a bucket to the transition area so you can turn the bucket over and sit on it to put your shoes on! Brilliant!

Need to start getting some brick workouts in (run, then bike or bike then swim.) Gotta start putting it together!~

Check out this blogger's site - found it on beginnertriathlete.com and I think she's hilarious! She's a recovering alcoholic and is working her way up to an ironman. She's in the Athena category, which I didn't even know what that was until I read her blog! Check it out - IM-ABLE.

Motel 6 vs. the Hyatt

2007-05-12T22:32:00.000-06:00

Wow - has it really been a month since my last post? Time flies!
Had the great fortune of spending a weekend with the hubby mtn. biking in Moab and while I was grateful we weren't camping, the Motel 6, I've learned is just 1 step above camping! I know now why most hotels charge over $100/night and the Motel 6 is just $39.99! The towels are small and scratchy, the beds are not "heavenly"and the toilet paper feels like paper. You don't get a nice set of shampoo, bath gels, conditioner, shoe polish cloth, mending kit, etc. you get...a bar of soap!

While at the Hyatt Coconut Point in Bonita Springs, Fla that I was lucky enough to stay at last week for a conference, you get not only a beautiful room with a great bed, a mini fridge, TV, alarm clock, Internet connection, personal safe, luxurious towels, bath robe, 24 hr. gym, and complete spa kit for the bathroom -- you also get a mini starfish on your TP :-) Beautimous!! I took it the first day in hopes that they would replenish it the next day so I would have my own mini starfish collection by the time I checked out, but alas, I was only afforded one :-(

Business travel definitely has its advantages sometimes :-)

Springtime in the Rockies!

2007-04-13T08:24:00.000-06:00

We are getting blasted with snow and cold winds again. Good for the ski resorts, bad for the outdoor workout! Plus, I have been sick all week and not feeling like doing much. Managed to workout w/the trainer on Wed and Thur, but still not 100%. Have been wanting to get outside and bike w/the local group, but the weather has not cooperated so far. Maybe next week. Just got my "Freestyle Made Easy" DVD and have been watching it to learn the best swimming technique. Hopefully it will make me more slippery as it refers to gliding through the water with ease :-)
First tri is still a couple of months away and with weather like this it feels very far away!

Back to the gym!

2007-03-27T20:41:00.000-06:00

Spent a week recuperating from being sick and finally got back to the gym today. Although, I did do a couple of mountain bike rides with Chris since the weather has been nice. We rode Red Rocks the other day and the last part was a bit muddy. I asked Chris why a few grams of weight matter on a crank or rims when you've got 2 lbs of mud on your tires clogging up the narrow passageway forcing you to stop and clean it off!?? He didn't respond. Nikki girl didn't mind the mud though. She took our little tire cleaning break as a sign to lay down in it as she was pooped! I wish I had a helmet cam sometimes when I'm behind her and Chris -- she is just sprinting all out to catch up to him - it's hilarious! She's such a good bikin' dog!

Anyway, been looking at another type of workout plan thanks to a friend passing along the website. It's called Crossfit and it's amazing. It is a combination of gymnastics and weight training and the practice advocates "garage" gyms that have equipment you don't normally find in a gym like Bally's. I've enjoyed watching some of the videos and the encouraging thing is that all of the people in them are extremely fit! There's also a graphic of someone puking their guts out after doing some of the workouts and a warning about Rhabdo, which doesn't seem too encouraging, but it looks like people are getting results. After belonging to a gym for over 18 years and working out and not seeing great results, it's worth trying. Check out the "crossfit housewives" video under the video link -- something to aspire to for sure! I can't even do 1 pullup, let alone as many as these women do!

Found a local crossfit group and I'm going to a free workout on April 21st to check it out. (Click on the colorado springs link on the right.) Did one of the workouts tonight (with the assisted pull up machine!) and swam afterwards. Can definitely feel the quads burning from all of the squats, but it's nice getting a great workout in less than half an hour and I'm looking forward to the day when I can do pull ups w/no assist!!

Happy training all!

1st 5K of the year complete!

2007-03-20T21:02:00.000-06:00

on St. Patty's Day and me, I forget to wear anything green. Thought about buying some cute shamrock head boppers, but thought it would get annoying while running. Should have just dyed my hair green like about 100 other people did! Was a fun race, but man, can some people run fast!! I definitely need to work on my run because I did get beat by a 72-yr old man, but hey, the first placer finished in 14:45 - amazing! There was also an 83-yr old woman and a guy on crutches. Amazing what some people will do for fun. Me, I was just trying not to walk. Great job to my running buddies Tamera and Glen. OK, I only saw them at the start, but that's okay :-)

Have not trained since then as I came down with a horrible ear infection that went into my tonsils and gave me aches and chills all over. Luckily, it started Sunday night so I was able to use a sick day finally :-) Feel like I never get to take advantage of those, so I finally did and after going to the doctor and determining that I don't have strep throat, I laid in bed and read all day - yay!

Have been reading about sprint tri's and open water swims and found a great video that will hopefully prepare me for the open water swim. Check it out here.

That's it for now - back to my book :-)

First tri complete!

2007-03-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! Had the first "mini" sprint tri event today up in Longmont. Long drive and the cops were everywhere! Unfortunately they saw us before we saw them :-( Sorry, Tamera! Luckily, the cop was so efficient at giving out tickets that we were on our way within 5 minutes! Looked like they were getting a lot of experience handing out tickets. Anyway, made it to the YMCA and got checked in. The organizer messed up our registrations and did not put us all together in the last wave, but we survived. It was a very low-key event and unlike the mountain bike races I've done, I didn't feel like I was going to throw up or pee my pants right before the race started! Decided just to work on my form during the swim and not go all out. Was doing great until I looked up at the clock to catch my breath and realized that only 5 minutes had gone by! WHAT? Are you serious! I'm dying out here and I've only been swimming for 5 minutes!! Crazy...

Also decided to try and get that last lap in before the whistle blew and got 1 length in and the time was up, so had to swim the whole length back while everyone else was already getting out of the pool! Shared a lane with Melissa, and we did alright. I was a little nervous sharing, but I think it works out better when you just split the lane instead of trying to trail each other counter-clockwise. I only felt Mel's hand once, but Tamera said she thinks she kicked her lane partner! Luckily they had lap counters for each swimmer because I lost count after only a couple of laps. We had 10 minutes to transition and I think I'm the only one who actually grabbed my conditioner and rinsed out my hair! That will be one advantage of an open water swim - no chlorine!

Next, on to the bike portion. They had spin bikes with a preset tension and speedometers, so you could tell how fast/how many miles you were doing. They took mileage at every 5 minutes. It was hard to know how much to push yourself on the bike so I stayed on the conservative side and tried to just keep a decent pace. I didn't want to get done and have wet noodles for legs as the run is not a strong suit of mine.

We had 5 minutes to transition to the run, so it was a nice break to hydrate and grab a couple of grapes and some gatorade. I thought for sure I was going to get a cramp from drinking so much while riding, but I only got a small one and managed to run the whole time. There were only 8 people to a wave, so the groups were relatively small and a little encouraging. I think the volunteers could have done a better job encouraging people. They pretty much just sat upstairs at 1 turn of the indoor track and counted your laps for you. No words of encouragement except for the few people running past - yes, I got lapped a few times, but I was just happy to still be running after all of that and I felt so good I managed to sprint the last lap! Again, glad someone was counting because I lost track after 13. It always amazes me how the mind seems to wander to different thoughts when doing a sport. You couldn't wear headphones on the run, so I had no music to listen to and you'd think you'd be able to concentrate enough to count laps, but so many things go thru your head. "Should I pass this guy? No, then I'll have to go faster." "Ooh, starting to get a cramp. Should I walk? No, push through it." "Wow, running around this tiny track is kinda boring and so many right turns are making my right shin hurt!" "Will someone please rescue that screaming baby in the nursery!" "Wonder if these people are sick of counting everytime I run by?" "I wonder how much these girls train that have lapped me 4 times?" "Wow, my left heel is not hurting - this is great!!" "Wow, only 3 more minutes, let's see how many laps I can do!" Time!! "Wow, that's it - that was fun!!"

And after a nice lunch a nap would have been very welcome if it weren't for the hour and a half long drive home! All in all, a great day and a good pre-season warm up. We have decided that we'd like to do our own 1 hr tri's each month until our next event because it was such good practice. That gives us one in April and one in May. Next event is in June. Can't wait!!

Thanks to Tamera for remembering her camera! Pic is : Melissa, Erica, Tamera.

Slacker

2007-03-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in over a week - feel like a slacker! Or maybe I just feel like no one's reading anyway, so why bother? :-) Maybe I'll have a following one day. For now, I'll just muse about my latest training efforts. It's going well except that when I swam last night and tonight I feel so out of shape! I can't believe swimming is so hard. Those that do it well make it look so easy, but I guess that's true of any sport. I see great snow boarders going down the mountain while riding on the lift and think, "Wow, that looks so easy!" I think I'm just way too impatient - I want to be great at everything NOW! I want to lose weight NOW! I want to swim fast NOW! I keep having to remind myself that things worth achieving take time and as Lance Armstrong said, "It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster!" So true - if it were easy, everyone would be doing it and we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic on our hands.

I have XM radio and I have to admit I'm starting to get addicted to the "Oprah & Friends" channel. I've never really watched Oprah since I rarely find myself in front of the TV, but I do like talk radio as long as people are not arguing. What's weird is that the times I listen, I've never actually heard any of Oprah's shows on this channel! I've listened to Dr. Oz, Bob Greene, Dr. Robin Smith, and Gayle King. I think Gayle sounds a lot like Oprah. The shows are really good except for one by Jean Chatzky - she just speaks too slow for me and talks to you like you're in Kindergarten, but does have some good financial advice.

Anyway, I really like the Bob Greene show because he's doing some weight loss challenge and interviewing people. He's really up-front in his speaking style and forces people to get honest with themselves and while he does provide great practical eating and workout advice, he really helps people work thru the emotional side of why they got overweight, which I think is missed in so many diet books out there today. There are literally thousands of diet plans, but to find what works for you for good, ah, that's the hard part!! And he talked tonight about how you really have to own learning about what overeating is for you and to make a commitment to getting it right. Many people go on a diet, start an exercise plan, lose some weight and then fall off the wagon and end up exactly where they were or worse - heavier. It's hard. I think that's why I just never try to diet! Seems like you're doomed to fail and you'll just end up putting more weight on, so just keep the status quo and be satisfied. OK, that's a cop-out, I know. Anyway, another thing I liked that I heard today was from Dr. Robin Smith about having too many priorities and feeling stressed out - right up my alley :-) Check it out here.

Happy training all, or whatever you enjoy doing :-)

Paradise

2007-02-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Spent the last 4 days in San Diego at an OMS conference. It was very informative and I have some ideas that I can take back to work and hopefully cut thru the red tape to implement, but not likely. We'll see...Anyway, did manage to make it to the gym several times and today is actually sunny and warmer than it has been so looking forward to getting outside with Chris once he gets back from mountain biking. Just registered for the Danskin Triathlon, so as Kelli says, "I'm committed!" Still need to register for the others. Training is going well, but need to swim at least 3x week and that has not happened yet. Working on a training log for me and the girls, so that should help us all stay on track and be accountable to one another. Better run so I can go finish it! Hope everyone is having a great week! Get out and MOVE!

Spinning makes the world go 'round

2007-02-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

and it makes you huff and puff! Went to spin class today for the first time in a couple of months. Have tried to go a couple of times in January and did not get there early enough to get a bike -- those damn New Year's resolution people! They should be dropping off by now though.

Class was good, but hard after not riding for several months. I am reminded of something Lance Armstrong said everytime I'm struggling up a hill (either outside or in spin class). To paraphrase-- "It never gets easy, you just go faster." or as Kelli said at the end of class, "That was horribly good." She's right - painful, but good :-)

Can't wait to start riding outside again. Hopefully soon!

Blog and Tri newbie

2007-02-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

OK, 2007 is turning out to be a year of "firsts". I'm writing my first blog and attempting my first triathlon! I also created my own website, but it's really lame, so I think I'm going to switch to the blogspot and update my pics on smugmug. Special thanks to all my geeky friends for trying to keep me updated - Dave for posting on Smugmug religiously, Kim for sharing her blog, Steven for answering all of my dumb hardware questions, and Michael for teaching me RSS and social bookmarking :-)