Carrying on

I wrote a tiny bit here about my best friend who had cancer.  She passed away earlier this week.  She had been sick for two years and although we knew she was dying, I had not fully accepted that she would one day be gone forever.  The past couple of days have been very difficult.

The last time I saw her we just hung out and talked about so many things.  I told her that I was going to be doing a triathlon in a couple of weeks and she was so impressed and proud of me.  I'll be carrying that with me as an incentive to do this race and to give it my all.  I'm going to race for Lora.

I've been feeling very depressed and kind of lackadaisical all week, so I was not exactly enthusiastic about having to jump in the pool today.  But I suited up and got myself into the water and began my laps.  The more laps I did, the easier it felt and I really started to get into a place where only breathing was on my mind and it felt good to feel empty for a change.

I think all of those hours of watching Olympic swimming on tv have paid off a bit because after scrutinizing their techniques and kind of mimicking what I thought they did, I got into a groove that felt really natural today.  Gosh, I may have even felt like a swimmer.  Dare I say that?!

Oh!  And I really had to laugh at myself today...
There is a sign next to the pool with all kinds of reminders and rules.  It also states the distance of the pool:
Each lane is 25 yards.  33 laps or 66 lengths equals one mile. 
Guess who read that as 66 laps equals one mile???   This guy!
This whole time I've been thinking that I needed to do 33 laps to get in a half mile.  WUT??
And that is after I had calculated everything out at my desk at work weeks ago!  I had a cheat sheet on my desk that told me that I needed to do 17.6 laps for a half mile.  But I'd go to the pool, see that sign and somehow that cheat sheet was completely erased from memory.  I know, I'm a weirdo.  Sheesh.

Soooo - last week when I said that I had gone a little over a quarter mile...yah, I actually swam a half mile.  Doh.  Hello confidence booster!

I did the Tour de Tonka this weekend and ended up just sticking with the 26 miles.  It was for the best.  I was so ready to be off of my bike at ohhh...mile 11 that I knew I had made the right choice.  The weather was perfect for the ride - overcast, cooler and a bit rainy.  I had some technical problems though - my front tire was nearly completely flat for the first 5ish miles.  Thankfully they had bike mechanics at the rest stops who filled up the tire for me.  Then somewhere around mile 10, the screw came off of my shoe cleat so I couldn't clip in.  The same thing happened to me at the Saint Paul Classic last fall and I was able to get another screw at a rest stop.  I stopped at the rest stop around mile 16, but there was just one guy working on bikes there and he didn't have any extra screws.  He straightened out the cleat for me and tightened it the best he could, but at some point it became crooked again and I couldn't clip in for the rest of the ride.  It wasn't so bad, but I made a major mental note to pack an extra wrench and screws for my next ride (race)!!

Half Mile

Today is one of those - oh my god, what am I thinking!?? - kind of days.
The triathlon I'm now racing includes a half mile swim.  I've been assured by others that I will be able to do this, but I haven't been convinced myself yet.  I swam a little over a quarter mile today at the pool and felt really great, but to do twice that?!  In open water?!  OH.BOY.

Aaaand we're back to being scared again...

This weekend I'm doing the Tour de Tonka, which is pretty much right out my parents' front door.  I am pretty sure I'm going to do the 26 mile route, but that 43 mile route keeps calling my name...might be a race-day decision (haven't registered yet).  I just keep thinking back to the last 40+ ride I did last fall, which was emotionally very tough on me.  I've no guarantee this ride will go the same way though.  That one could have just been a bad day for me.  I can't stop imagining how awesome it would feel to conquer that distance again with much less strife.  Darn my competitive nature!  Plus, those Olympians who I find on my tv constantly these days really make a girl want to kick some booty!!

Smelling the flowers

What's the old saying? "Stop and smell the roses?"

Life can be such a whirlwind.  Sometimes I (and I'm guessing actually most of us) get so wrapped up in everything that goes wrong in life, all of the stresses, all of the uncontrollable things that drive me crazy, that I forget to stop and appreciate all of the wonderful things.

A person that I love very very much has been dealt a very bad card.  It is something that is on my mind constantly, something that is so completely unfair and infuriating and I nearly always forget to see beyond the pain and sadness and realize that there is world out there moving forward in-spite of the cancer killing my best friend.

I used to ride my cruiser bike to work just for fun, fitness and to leave my car in the garage for a while.  Since I've been triathlon training my beautiful orange cruiser has been collecting dust in the garage and I've been finding my exercise elsewhere in the pool or on the trails.  My orange trek only has 3 gears.  It is a slow, heavy beast of a bike, but those things provide me with a slow, purposeful ride to work that allows me to "stop and smell the roses."  On this bike I am more likely to notice the gaggle of geese in the river making a racket as I ride by, the beautiful blossoms on the trees that blow in the wind like confetti and I tip my helmet to my cohorts on the trail with a smile.  It makes me feel better.  It brings me life.

I dusted her off today and tacked those additional 15 minutes onto my ride so that I could gain a little more perspective and feel just a little bit better.

Keep on Truckin'

Here I am in the ninth week of my training with six more weeks to go. Whenever I think about the race, I get a knot in my stomach and my heart rate goes way up. The "trust your training" mantra plays out in my head in response, but it does nothing to quell the nervousness. Last week I attended a beginner's triathlon clinic which was put on by the Trinona race people. There wasn't really anything in it that I hadn't heard or seen before, but it was fun to go and hear about the race.

Since I last blogged, I've done a couple long bike rides, a few swims and one run. My schedule with work and the kids hasn't been ideal for sticking to my schedule as much as I'd like, but I'm trying to make it work.

My husband bought me a bike computer and I used it for the first time on a ride this Sunday.  I am desperate to get faster on the bike and I have to say that this little fella was a big help in that quest.  I watched the mph like a hawk and tried very hard to keep it up as high as I could.  I rode for about 13 miles with a pretty strong tailwind on the way out, which means I had a pretty strong wind in my face the whole way home.  For my race my plan is to do the 11 mile ride in 50 minutes or less, so I'll need to average a pace of about 13mph.  I'm very confident I can do that at this point, but I'd honestly love to do much better.

Last Friday while swimming I noticed first some tightness and then pain in my shoulder while doing the front crawl. I continued on with my laps thinking it would work itself out, but it only continued to hurt more as I swam. I haven't been in the pool since then, so I am hoping I've given it enough time to heal. I plan to swim tonight if I can fit it in. It is a big day at our house, my son has a performance tonight at his school and we're all very excited!

A little push

My son began his spring break last Friday, so my daily schedule is a bit messed up.  I wasn't able to squeeze a workout in on Friday or all day Saturday and by 8pm I was really feeling lousy because I needed to move!  I posted this on Facebook:

That's my sister-in-law there commenting on my status update (names and faces have been deleted to protect the innocent, haha).  This is the important part: "(I have you to thank!!)"  Yikes!  Right there I felt like I had an expectation to set and it really kicked my butt into gear.  By 8:38pm I was in the garage grabbing my bike and heading downstairs to set it up on the trainer.  I had two new episodes on the DVR of New Girl and I biked through both of them.  I biked hard, like I had something to prove.  It was great!  Note: I did have a little trouble with the trainer set up.  I missed a key part and when I got on my bike I was convinced there was something seriously wrong with my gears.  Nope - I just forgot to tighten up the resistance wheel on the back tire.  Doh!

I also made it to my regular Sunday evening swim at the gym.   The pool was surprisingly full for that time of day and I shared a lane with two separate people.  Sharing a lane made me once again feel like I had something to prove because, my goodness, STRANGERS were watching me!  I swam hard.  I got overheated easily and although I got in just over 500 yards in a fairly short time, I was hot and felt icky afterward.  I was so hot that I had to skip my usual 5 minute dip in the hot tub post swim.  :-(

My son is staying with my parents for a few days, so we took advantage of having only one child who is easily transportable in a stroller and Sunday evening my husband and I busted out an invigorating 3 mile walk!  It was awesome.

Progress - or lack there of

I am mad.
I am working so hard, but I feel like I am making no progress.  I really think my problem is that I am going by the wrong numbers.  That darn scale just will not move!  I think I need to lock Mr. Scale away somewhere for a while and focus more on my training progress in each sport.  Then who knows, maybe when I pull my old friend back out, he might be kinder to me.

This weekend I biked to/from a friend's house on Saturday even though we had nearly hurricane strength wind gusts, but it felt so good to use an alternative mode of transport other than on just my commute to work.  On Sunday I did the swim thing and it was one of the best swims so far.  The pool was nearly empty and I was able to get in about 400 yards without too much rest in between each lap.  I switched between front crawl, front crawl with the buoy, flutter kicking with the board, back stroke and some side stroke for my cool down.  It felt great!  THAT is the kind of progress that needs to be my focus.

I treated myself with a haircut today.  I have naturally curly hair and a while ago I had tried out the Deva cut in order to enhance my curls.  I hated it.  It thinned out the ends of my hair way too much and just wasn't a flattering shape.  I let it grow out for - gosh - somewhere over six months, I think.  I was constantly throwing my hair up in a ponytail before/after swimming and before/after biking and I was loathing the ponytail.  So I took the plunge today and walked out of the salon with a bob that is just above my chin.  It feels SO good.  The stylist even commented on how thick my hair is and how much of it I have.  And here I had been thinking it was getting thin, but I guess it was just that stupid cut.  Phew!

I biked to work today.  It is still pretty warm and humid here.  I had no idea how to dress for the weather.  Give me under 20 degrees and I know just what to wear, but 62 at 7:30am?!  No idea.  I went with  my very light bike jacket and a short sleeve jersey with shorts.  I was a little toasty in the jacket, but it was good with the wind.  I'm looking forward to keeping it in the bag for the ride home!

Food, drink and more food

I ate my way through the weekend, but I did also manage to get some really great training in, so hopefully it all evens out in the end.

On Saturday afternoon it was 63 degrees in the Twin Cities, which was where we were spending our weekend.  My husband and I bought a brand new bike rack for the car before leaving home.  We packed up my road bike and his brand new tri-bike for what would be its first time off of the indoor trainer.  We brought the bikes out to Harriet Island in St. Paul and got ready to enjoy a great ride in beautiful weather.  About one minute on the trail and we realized that the extra snow storm that the Cities had (that missed us in Rochester) left extra snow on the trails that had turned to ice and had not melted yet.  We both nearly wiped out going through two patches of slush.  It was an easy decision to stick to the streets after that.  We managed just over 12 miles and it was so fun and such a beautiful day.  Admittedly I did have some trouble getting up a very steep, large hill, but Mike was there to "push" me up.  Considering my training schedule only required 4 miles on the bike this weekend, I think I can safely say my weekend bike training was successful.

On Sunday I met up with two of my sisters-in-law for some swimming.  They are both excellent swimmers as they swam on teams in high school, so I was certainly the newbie there.  They gave me some great tips and help with my stroke and we even practiced some flip turns.  We burned off some calories swimming and gabbing and then ate all of those calories back (and then some) with a brunch later that afternoon.

I am back to clean eating and onto a day of running on this wet Monday...

BRICK.

I'm still coming off the high of completing my first brick workout (bike + run) today, so I figured I'd blog while the happy cells are still alive in my body. The Expresso bikes that I had used earlier this week were all occupied, so I tried out the LifeFitness bikes. I liked it, didn't like how comfortable the seat was. I want to try to mimic my road bike as much as I can on these training rides and if the seat doesn't have me in pain for days, it isn't like my road bike! Otherwise, the program was kind of similar. I just did a flat course for 4 miles at a pretty moderate to hard resistance. I don't know the technical terms for these things, so hopefully I'm making sense. I pushed it today, much more than I did on Monday. Did my 4 miles in just under 15 minutes. My goal for my 11 mile race course is 50 minutes, so it seems as though I'm right on track. Of course, this wasn't after swimming, but I am at the beginning of my training. I have room to improve.

During my ride, I was feeling the burn in the old legs and this song came on:
Gave me just the push of energy I needed! Love Walk the Moon.

Now...
Running...
Oh running, you jerk.
We've met many times before and I didn't like you then.  I think for me, running is like that one (or more than one if you're particularly unlucky) family member who you just cannot be in the same room with, but who sometimes you just have to put up with for the sake of your other family members - at birthday parties, graduations, weddings, etc.  Running eyes me up from across the room, I see him, he sees me and we both pretend the other is invisible.  For the sake of my beloved biking and my new friend swimming, I will allow running to join the party.  But I'm not ready to speak to him.

I did about a mile and a half on the treadmill at 5-6 mph run and 3.5-4 mph walk. I walked more than I ran.  Here's my problem...I know I can do better.  I KNOW I can.  But I am much much too easy on myself.  I need to find my inner Dolvett Quince (anyone watch Biggest Loser?  I don't.  I just happened to catch last night's episode while folding laundry) and kick my butt into running more.  But how?  Any suggestions??


 

Night biking

I don't bike much at night or before the sun rises, but THIS is so so cool!