Something Big on the Horizon

This past week I've had an opportunity come my way that I'm pretty excited about.

It combines two areas of my life that I am quite passionate about: Work and working out. I'll explain. As many of you know, I work with adults who have had a Traumatic Brain Injury. I love this job. The guys I work with are incredible. They are strong and true survivors. This past fall I was asked to be a founding board member for a fledgling Not for Profit called "Mindful Journeys Mentoring" (MJM). This is an incredible project for people with TBI's to help each other. But, I'm afraid I am digressing. ANYWAY...we have applied for 501c3 status and are now in the position to begin developing the actual Mentoring program. To do this effectively, we need money. So, as a member of the Development Committee, I have started researching the possibility of having a 5k run/1mile walk as a fund raiser! We're looking at early October, and are in the very early stages of research and planning. But I'm already learning a great deal about organizing an event like this! See the coolness?! Hanging out with people who are incredibly inspiring to me, and organizing a run! How awesome is that?

Here's hoping it works out! There are many pieces of information to bring to our board meeting before I get the approval to go ahead with it. So, keep your fingers crossed, and if you have any experience organizing something like this, please give me some advise about what to do and ask as I go along.

Be safe. Have fun. Peace.

Ready to Roll!

My shoulder is feelin fine!
I did a brick last week that rocked!
I hit 900 yards in the pool, which is 300 more than I need for the race.

I'm feelin' Ready to Roll!

I have 2 new mantras that are keeping me focused and moving. They are, "What's the goal?"
and "13.01"

"What's the goal?" is all about not letting myself stop or slow up. Sometimes the answer is "To finish faster" or"Not to walk". And Sometimes it's as little as ,"Make it to the next mailbox". whatever the answer is, it keeps me moving.

"13.01" refers to my run splits in the last tri. I was very frustrated that I was at 13.01. If I had been 2 seconds faster per mile, I would've been under 13 minute splits. If I had walke just a few seconds less, and run a few seconds more, I would've met that goal. So, "13.01" reminds me to keep going. Push harder, because I don't want to settle for coming close to a goal, but missing it by just a few seconds.

So, I'm feeling strong. I'm feeling motivated. I'm so excited for my upcoming race, and it's still 2 weeks away!
-Peace

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

"I must've slept on it wrong"

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

My shoulder hurts. It hurt all day long.

Okay, for those of you who don't do Tri's you're saying, "What's the big deal?" Or perhaps,"Suck it up, you big baby!"

The big deal is that the first leg of a Triathlon is the swim! That means use of the shoulders!
Mine is popping and feels tired. I swam tonight, because that's what my plan said to do. But, it hurts more now.

So, I'm telling myself it's because I slept on it wrong. And, in the morning, it will be just dandy!!

Please, send some positive energy my way, if you've got a little to spare. Thanks!

Sentence starters that drive me crazy...

I was cruising around, lurking on various blogs, and found this one:
http://theunlikelytriathlete.blogspot.com/

She's pretty funny. But, I admit I found some of the comments people left her to be really rude.
And it got me thinking about all the ways people start a sentence when they are going to justify being rude, mean, or dishonest.

So, here are some I thought of:

"I'm going to be totally honest with you..."[Expect a blatent lie after this]
"I'm just going to be honest and say..."{Here comes something really rude}
"I dont want to hurt your feelings, but"...{I'm going to anyway}
"Please don't take this the wrong way..." [I'm going to be mean, but don't be offended]
"Can I be honest with you?"...[Here comes something hurtful]

And one of my all time favorites:
"Okay, this is not an attack or anything, but..." [Look out cause here comes some of the most judgmental stuff you'll hear all week.]

All of this leaves me with 2 final thoughts tonight. First, thanks to everyone who has been supportive of me in the last year of blogging.

Second, Can we all go back to that kindergarten lesson, "If you don't have anything nice to say...blah, blah, blah"

-Peace.

Sunday's Ride

This was a celebration ride for paying off the first debt in our "Debt Snowball" plan.

Kevin chose the route, and he said,"It's going to be a little hilly. Is that okay?"



CLick on the "Show elevation" tab in the top right corner of the map. Then, when the elevation box pops up, drag the top green border up, to make the box bigger.

I love his idea of "a little"!

The Next Race

Because it's so late in the summer, I didn't think I would be doing a second Triathlon this year. Then, I found this one.. http://myschalmont.org/swim/documents/2009TriInfo.pdf
It's the Duanesburgh 1st Annual Sprint Triathlon! 1/3 mile swim, 10.4 mile bike, and 5k run.

So, I'm off and training again. This time I decided to take a look at the elevation and grades of the bike/run. Here are the comparisons between The Northern Columbia Tri Bike course: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ny/canaan/384124853372762839

And the DACC Ride: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ny/albany/942125003049083107

This time I'm not fooling myself into thinking it's no big deal! I will train on hills for the next few weeks.

And the run...Well, to hell with it. The run will never be easy for me. I'll just suck it up and deal with it...Or maybe I'll take a look at it next week.

I wasn't last!

Me at the end of the day! I love body markings!

That crazed look in my eyes is pure adrenaline!

I wasn't last!
But, I was pretty darn close!

"How was the Northern Columbia Tri?" you ask. Thanks for asking!I'll be happy to tell you...

It was brutally awesome! Kevin and I got there with no problem. We drove the course in reverse, as we dropped our stuff off at each transition area. That's when it really set in that some of the hills were pretty tough.

The swim: 440 yards of a lake swim.
There were a lot of weeds for the first 50 yards. I knew that Kevin wasn't doing well with the swim. He got in the water before the race to warm up, and came out freaked! He contemplated not doing the race, at all. I passed him quickly, and some how knew he was heading toward one of the buoys to rest. I got around the 1/2 way turn before I was passed by any one from the second wave of swimmers. That's when I got kicked in the head! Shortly after that, I swallowed water, and I'm pretty sure it went to my lungs. Then, I saw the Sheriffs boat heading toward a buoy to help some one who was in trouble. That threw me for a loop because I was thinking that it might be Kevin, but I kept going.
The timing mat was placed at the edge of the water, so my swim time was "real time" It was 11:52. That's a 2:42 pace, and put me at 133 out of 154 participants.

The bike: 19.8 miles
Bike time started the second you got out of the water- it included the swim to bike transition time. This is where I lost at least 5 minutes, maybe more. I couldn't breathe. My head was pounding from the kick I took. And, I was really worried about Kev at this point, because I heard some one say there was a man down in the water. Let's just say that I was not in "race mode" at this point. Just as I pulled myself together and started to refocus, the milk crate I was sitting on to get my shoes on, shattered underneath me! It's not very confidence boosting to think that my weight shattered a milk crate, as I'm trying to complete a race.

Okay, I pulled it together and got on my bike. I love my bike. I was doing okay. I didn't pass anyone, but I was holding a really good pace. Then, at mile 8, Kevin caught up with me!!! This is when I started dogging it, and now I know that I should've had a GU at that point. But I didn't. I was still fighting the headache and the desire to puke up the lake water. Kevin passed me (I told him to run his own race and not wait for me). Then I hit the first hill! That's where I knew I needed to do a GU earlier. I couldn't make it. But, in my defense, many people around me were walking their bikes too. I made up lots of lost time on the flats and downhills, but never caught Kev. The other hills were rough, but not as bad as the first one. All in all, I think I gave it my all on the bike. The hills were much harder than I estimated. The scenery was absolutely beautiful!The course was well marked and intersections had plenty of volunteers/ state police to keep us safe.

The bike time also included the time for the second transition area. Again, I could've been at least 3 minutes faster in this area, but I just let myself slow down way too much.
So, all in all, my bike time was a pathetic 1:36:40. That gave me a pace of just over 12 miles per hour. It's a very sad time. If the transitions had been separated out, my time would've been more like 1:26:00. So, now I know to push it much harder in transitions, and not slip out of race mode.

The run: 4.5 miles
OH MY LORD!! First of all, at this point in my training, 4.5 miles is a long run. So, even in a stand alone race, that would've been tough for me. The run started on an uphill!I ran most of it, but then my calves froze up on me, and I started to walk. Mile 2 was another uphill. Yep. The entire second mile was uphill- steep. 5% grade for some of it. My knees started hurting a lot- sharp pains. So, I walked part of this hill too. Mile 3 was downhill- some as steep as 7% grade. I went as fast as I could without hurting my knees. Then, the last half mile was uphill again. I know the scenery on the run was beautiful- but I don't remember much of it.
Final run time: 58:36. Ready for this....my mile splits were 13.01.. How frustrating is that? I was so close to being in the 12 minute range.

Overall:
My final time was 2:47:09
Kevin's final time was 2:29:42
I'm so proud of myself and Kevin for doing this!
There are a bunch of things I learned- like don't try to sit on a crappy milk crate for the transition area!
I'm taking some time to process the event and every thing I learned.
I know what to focus on for my next tri- and I have a baseline to set some goals with.
Here's a picture of us at the finish line:

Two Days Before the Tri!

First, thanks for the kind and supportive words you left in response to my last post.


After I got over my hour of poutiness, I did some research and some planning. I took the advise of one of the women in my Beginner Triathlete mentoring group, and came up with 3 sets of numbers. For each leg of the race I came up with a "best case scenario, every thing's going perfect" time, a realistic goal time, and a "safety net" time.
Here's what I'm looking at:

GOALS FOR NORTHERN COLUMBIA TRI ON 8.9.09

SWIM; 440 YARDS
best: 10:30 Minutes
Probable: 11:30 minutes
definite: 13 minutes

BIKE: 19.8 MILES
best: 1:10 (16.50 mile pace)
Probable: 1:18 (15 mile pace)
definite: 1:25 (13.8 mile pace)

RUN: 4.5 miles
best: 40:30 (11:00 min pace)
probable: 52:30 (11:40 min pace)
definite:54 minutes (12 min pace)

Of course, this is still all guess work because I've never done an official Triathlon, and I didn't factor in transition times. So, if transition times are factored into the leg times, then my times might be longer than I'm anticipating.

Next, I took a look at the results from the last few years. And, I feel a bit better about my prospects. I like this race for my first, because it's not USATF sanctioned. There are some fast competitors in the past years, but there are also several people who are more at my pace.

So, I'm feeling better now!
-Peace.

A Moment of Self Doubt

Oh Crap! I'm going to finish last on Sunday.

Even my husband, who decided last week to enter this race, and has trained for one week is going to beat me.

Dead. Last. Packing up the Finish line arch as I'm hobbling underneath it. Last.

I'm just warning you all now.