The Triathlon!

Completed the Labor of Love Bonney Lake Triathlon today!  It has been in the low 80's practically all summer in Seattle (seriously, we broke records) and the day I do a triathlon, Mother Nature screws me over and it downpours!

The last time I did a sprint triathlon was 2003.  I finished in 2 hours and 19 minutes.  My goal was to complete this one (11 years and 2 kids later) in under 2 hours….

The Swim:  Like I've said before, I really have no technique when it comes to swimming.  I can swim to save my life, but I'm not very fast.  I decided to stay in the back of my wave so that I didn't get kicked in the head like I did last time.  I also stayed as far left as I could.  It worked out really well!  I started out and kept up with everyone…  until I looked up and saw how much further that buoy was, and then looked down to see how much seaweed was under me.  I slowed down and someone sorta ran into me and I swallowed an entire mouthful of lake water.  Eww.  The rescue team on the boat asked if I was ok and I said, "Yeah, just drinking the lake, I'll be ok."  But I kinda wasn't ok… I was having a little freak-out attack and felt like I couldn't breathe (I was kind of doing this crazy hyperventilating thing).  My wetsuit was feeling really tight around my neck and I guess I was just feeling overwhelmed.  I decided to swim on my back for a while until I caught my breath.  After that, I just took it slower.  There was still plenty of people from my wave behind me but the elite from the next wave caught up and started passing.  "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…"  I passed the halfway point and a lot of people stopped to hold on to a buoy or a canoe to catch their breath.  I never did, I just kept going.  I was so excited to get out of that lake!  Although when I tried to run to the transition I felt like I weighed a billion pounds after swimming.  (Ugh!)  Finished the swim in 17 minutes.

Transition #1:  I wore my racing capri pants and a sports bra under my wetsuit.  My plan was to strip off the wetsuit, throw on a tank top, and put my bike shoes on.  I could not for the life of me put my stupid tank top on.  It's a double-layer bike jersey and I was soaking wet, and the tank top was just as wet since it was hanging over my bike in the rain.  I swear to you, I got tangled up in the stupid thing and had to take it off and re-try 5 TIMES.  I was about to give up and do the rest of the race in my sports bra.  I was even trying to go all Macgyver and try to find something to cut the inside layer out.  Finally got the stupid thing on, and was on my way… I wasted 7 minutes there!

The Bike:  I got this!  Yes it's pouring but I've cycled in the rain more times than I can count!  I spent most of the ride zooming past other cyclists.  "On your left!  On your left!…"  The only things that slowed me down were hills (there was a surprising amount of them), the rain in my eyes (it was so hard to see when my cycling glasses were covered in spots), and there was a lot of 90 degree turns.  Race volunteers would stand there and say, "Slow way down!  It's slick!  It hasn't rained in such a long time!"  So I obeyed… because I'm overly paranoid on turns even when the road is dry.  I also used the bike time as an opportunity to drink a spark and have an energy goo.  I finished the bike in 47 minutes.

Transition #2:  This was far less eventful than the first transition.  I put my bike on the rack (although someone took my spot which I thought was weird), took off my helmet and gloves, and changed into my five-fingered vibrams.  I also dried out the inside of my swim cap and put my phone inside so I could listen to tunes.  I spent 4 minutes here.

The Run:  So I use an app called Rock My Run.  There's an 11 minute mix on there called HIIT It.  My goal was to play that mix 3 times, and I should be done.  The first time the mix played I passed the 1 mile marker before it was over.  Sweet.  Doing good!  Then there was a ton of rolling hills and I had to walk a bit, so the second time it ended I wasn't at the 2 mile marker yet… but I could see it just ahead.  I grabbed a quick cup of water, and started the mix for the 3rd time.  Again, more hills. (Who designed this course!?)  Same thing happened, the mix stopped, and I could see the finish line ahead.  Pretty close!  I've never claimed to be a fast runner.  Finished the run in 36 minutes.

I was really excited and nervous to see the results, I kept looking at their website.  The time when I crossed the finish line said 2:30..something.  But that's because the clock starts when the olympic time distance starts.  I knew I started at least a half hour after them but I was really worried I didn't make it under 2 hours… especially with my wardrobe malfunction.  "If that stupid tank top caused me to come in at 2 hours and 1 minute, I'm going to be so pissed!!"

When I got home the results were online!  *Drum roll*  1 hour and 54 minutes!  Eeeeeeeee!!!!  I DID IT!!!!  I was so relieved and so proud of myself!  Especially in the pouring rain, the hilly route, and a cold!  (Did I mention I blew my nose in my towel during transition #2?  Nope?  Well now I mentioned it!  You're welcome.  I'm disgusting.)  So then I wanted to know what time the top finisher in my age group was so I scrolled down.  She made it in 1 hour 27 minutes.  Hey, my time was only about 20 minutes later.  Not too bad!  Then I looked at the rest of the top 5, and noticed that #4 had the same time as me.  Wait.  That IS me!  I scrolled all around to make sure I was looking at that right.  I PLACED #4 IN MY AGE GROUP!?  Whaaaaat?!!?!?  No freaking way!!!!  Look!! …..

Oh man, that's the first time I've uploaded a pic here before.  Maybe that's too small to see?  Well, anyway, it says that I'm badass!!!  ;)  

(Bummer...it never occurred to me to stay for the awards ceremony.  I'm pretty sure there's only prizes for 1, 2, and 3, but what if I won something and I wasn't there to receive it?  Darn it.  Note to self:  Stay for the awards because you never know!)

2003 times:

Swim: 23:16  Bike: 52:09  Run: 50:48  Total: 2:19

2014 times:

Swim: 17:34  Bike: 47:59  Run: 36:54  Total: 1:54

I really think that if I had the same route as before (The Iron Girl goes straight across I-90 and back) I would have killed my bike time a lot more.  (And no rain.)  I want to do the Iron Girl next year now so that I can really compare apples to apples.  But in the meantime, I'm STOKED about today!  WOO HOO!!!!  

My excuses are stupid

Did I go for a walk yesterday at Seahurst Park?  Nope.  This cold sucks and I'm being such a baby about it.  You know why I decided to train for a marathon?  Because I can.  Because I'm physically able to.  My stepmom passed away a couple months ago after a 15 year battle with cancer.  She used to tell me she was so proud of how active I was, and complimenting my "athletic ability."  Ha!  I really don't see myself as having any athletic ability, but she did.  She'd say she wished she could be as active as us and that all she and my dad ever did was go do dinner and a movie.  She was especially proud that we were training for the STP.  She died before we completed it, and I thought of her on that lonely road almost the entire time.  After we finished, my dad cried and hugged us, and told us how proud he was.  

My sister's sister-in-law (or my brother-in-law's sister… however you want to look at it) has had a long battle with leukemia and she's only 24.  We spent the cruise with her and her mom because my dad and stepmom had raised a lot of money so that they could have a much needed vacation.  She met her husband at Children's Hospital and he passed away from his battle with cancer just a few weeks after they married.  I'd never met him, but I was sort of Facebook stalking her after the cruise and I read a post by her mom saying that all he kept saying before he died was that he wished he could run down the street.  She said if you're able to do that, then you're blessed.  This made me cry and really hit home since I feel like I'm doing this for my stepmom who couldn't.  

So here I am with a stupid cold and that's my big excuse not to get out there and run.  I suck.  Get over it.

Bleh.

I still can't breathe out my nose.  My triathlon is in 3 days.  I haven't been on a run or a swim in a week, and I haven't been on my bike in over a month.  ...And I don't feel like doing any of that today.  Bleh.  A friend is going to let me borrow her wetsuit though so that's a little stress alleviated.  Hopefully it fits, I'll try it out tomorrow.

I started AdvoCare's 10 day herbal cleanse today.  It's been 90 days since my last one, and I really need it after my cruise.  I'm hoping I'll feel tip-top by Saturday.  Crossing my fingers.

I plan to at least go for a walk today.  Seahurst park near my house is FINALLY open after a year of renovations.  (Gee, just in time for summer!)  So maybe we'll go check it out after dinner tonight…. maybe I'll even bring my bike.

Uggghhhh.

I just got back from a caribbean cruise.  I know, poor me.  But cruises really screw up your health and fitness plans.  I planned to use the gym on the ship every morning, I planned to never use an elevator, and I planned to eat as healthy as possible.

What actually happened:
I used the gym on the ship once (ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill) but there was almost no air conditioning in there, and the ceilings were really low, and it was really crowded and claustrophobic.  I also ran 1.5 miles on the outside track early one morning and did some yoga, but it was so hot and humid outside I drip sweat and it was really gross!

We were on the 1st floor, and the lido deck was the 10th floor and I started out only using the stairs…. But as the week went on, I started using the elevator anytime I'd have to go up 10 or more floors.  I still used the stairs more than anyone else in our clan though.

I ate almost as healthy as I usually do...really.  I chose the meals with the little heart next to it at dinner to signify the healthiest option.  ...But I ate dessert every night.  I started out eating half my dessert and by the last day, I ate two desserts.  Haha.  I also splurged big time and had a delicious cheeseburger for lunch once.  It was a Guy Fieri burger joint and everyone ooh'd and aah'd about the burgers so I decided one wouldn't kill me, and I didn't get fries.  And omg it was totally worth it.  I also HAD to go to the chocolate buffet once, right?  Aaaaaand...I also pretty much drank rum non-stop.

So anyway, all in all… for an 8 day cruise… it could have been a lot worse, right?  Right?!

So now I'm back, I have a triathlon this Saturday (it's Tuesday today) and of course I caught a cold (ugh traveling!) and I can't breathe out my nose.  I really should run today but who wants to run when they feel like garbage?  Also, the weekend before the cruise I ran 7.5 miles around a lake in Spokane and my right hip STILL hurts, (I really need to google some stretches and figure that all out), which is why I didn't run long distances on the ship. (That and all the other excuses I had.)

I also haven't been back on my bike since the STP.  (I know!  Gasp!)  It's been over a month and at first my bike was in time-out and I said (jokingly...sorta) that it was going on craigslist the next day.  But after the initial few days, I really did want to go for a ride.  My cycling wife and I kept planning rides, but something always came up and we kept having to cancel.  And our weekends were so full of family things after months of training that we just never had time.  I only have to ride 12 miles on Saturday which seems like nothing after 204 but I'm still nervous about it.  I HAVE to get on my freaking bike this week!

And then there's swimming.  I really suck at swimming.  I mean, I can swim enough not to drown but I'm super slow.  I don't doggy paddle, but my technique is pretty close.  I swam my 1/3 mile at the lake before the cruise, and I swam in the ocean during the cruise, but not as much as I planned.  The pools on the ship were tiny and really hot.  It was more like giant crowded hot tubs.

It's also supposed to rain on Saturday.  It's been gorgeous and over 80 degrees almost all summer (and for Seattle, that's crazy) and the day of the triathlon is when the beautiful weather finally ends.  I've been looking at borrowing/renting a wet suit for the swim.

I signed up for the Iron Girl Triathlon because I did it in 2003 (It used to be called the Danskin Triathlon) before I had kids and when I considered myself in the best shape ever.  I wanted to do it again this year to prove that years (and 2 kids) later I could beat my time.  Well I didn't do the Iron Girl because it was during the cruise.  So I signed up for the Bonney Lake Triathlon for this weekend because it's the same distance.  And I'm doing it alone.  And I'm really nervous.  ...Mostly about what to wear, and where to transition, and I'm extra worried about getting lost on the route.  I really would bail out if I didn't spend $100 to do it, and I already lost $120 for having to bail on the Iron Girl.

So… wish me luck… and no broken legs.  Off to google hip pain for runners...

Hello again! Long time no write!

Wow.  Has it really been 4 years since I posted anything here?!  I'm happy to say that not only have I kept the weight off, I've lost even more!  80 lbs now!  I was really worried about gaining a bunch of weight when I was pregnant two years ago.  ...And I probably would have gained a ton if I didn't have gallstones, a few scary nights in the hospital, surgery for an ERCP, and forced to limit my fat intake to 10g a day for the remaining 20 weeks of my pregnancy.  How was a pregnant girl going to satisfy her pregnancy cravings?  I got very, very creative with cooking and even started a Facebook page with low-fat recipes called Fat Attack.  I had my gallbladder removed 1 month after I had a healthy baby girl and I continue to eat a healthy low-fat diet (just no where near as low-fat as before).  After all that craziness, I now appreciate having a little interior "healthy food gage" that lets me know right away if this food is going to be good for my body, or make me feel yucky.

This year my BFF's husband got my husband and me into cycling.  We started training in February (as in purchased bikes, lots of spandex, and learned how to shift in the rain) and by July we did the STP (Seattle to Portland bicycle classic), 204 miles in ONE DAY.  WHO DOES THAT?!  Normal people do the STP in two days.  We just decided to keep going in 103 degree weather all the freaking way to Portland.  (I read that only about 10% of STP cyclists do it in one day.  AND only 1 in 4 cyclists are women!  Huzzah!)  I can tell you that it was just as hard mentally and emotionally as it was physically.  I'm pretty sure we all cried at least once.  (Our group was 2 women, and 3 men… and we adopted an extra woman along the way.)

I also started doing all sorts of fun 5K's with my BFF.  She wants to get into running, and I really do like to run (more than cycling really) so I told her I'd sign up for anything she signs up for.  I have a stash of bib numbers hanging in my kitchen now.  Many cycling and running events this year so far.  It's like a disease.  We can't stop.  She wants to do the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in Disneyland next May so we signed up last week.  We also started reading all sorts of funny marathon books like "Confessions of a fat marathoner", "Running like a girl" and "The non-runners marathon guide for women."  While reading all these books about the highs and lows of a running I thought, "I can do a marathon.  It sounds like the same emotional ordeal I went through during the STP.  Only a marathon can't possibly take me from 5:30am to 11:30pm…I hope."  Sounds like a piece of cake… that I choke on and cry over… but it'll still taste so good!

My BFF said her goal was a half marathon, not a marathon so I'm still in the process of convincing her that we're going all the way.  I told my "cycling wife" that I wanted to do a marathon and she should do it with me.  She said, "But I hate to run."  I said, "Yeah, me too."  And she said, "Ok".  She's easily convinced.  She's also been teaching me to weight train at the gym a couple days a week.  She's a middle school gym teacher so she's super spunky, motivational, and awesome.

Anyway... I decided to make my blog a marathon journal.  I never in my whole life had a marathon on my bucket list but here it is I guess.  I didn't have riding a bike from Seattle to Portland on my bucket list either and I didn't die doing that, and riding my bike terrifies me.  Bikes go too fast, especially down hill.  This endeavor sounds much safer.  And my plan is to do the Honolulu Marathon.  No time limit… and of course the added bonus of beaches and many tropical drinks is an extra motivator.

So here we go!  I blame this entire crazy adventure on the "BFF's".  (My BFF and her husband, who is pretty much my husband's BFF too.)  We make quite the crazy team!  ….although the husbands really have no interest in running.  They just roll their eyes at all the money we're spending on 5K's, 10K's, triathlons, and cycling events.  I figure it's cheaper than fast food and the medical bills that go with being stationary, right?  Wish me luck and no medical bills for being active!