Meandering Starre

Here is a great comic on some of the joys of being a triathlete:

We can’t do much about the clothes. They don’t give us much in the way of options.

I’ve been a bit hesitant to get back in the water and lazy. It is harder to get the swims in. The swim went very well, however. It was fairly easy and I enjoyed being in the water. It seemed easier than I remember it being. Maybe I have improved?

Workout: Swim: side stroke, breast stroke, and the crawl
Time:16:55. This includes some breaks and watch issues (I kept forgetting to set it for my laps and going back and starting the lap over).
Average lap time : ~1:40 My side stoke and crawl were 1:35 and under, my breast stroke slower.
Distance: 450 meters
Total training distance to date: 450 meters
Body condition: fine
Time of day: afternoon

As of today I’ve started my next round of training. This time for a marathon in October and a sprint triathlon is last August. Training for both at the same item should be interesting. I’m most concerned with trying to fit all my needed workouts into a week, and still work and have something of a life. Ideally I would

• Swim 3x a week: This is my weak area so I need at least 3 workouts a week.
• Bike 3x a week: One long outdoor ride and probably one shorter indoor ride and a spinning class for the rest.
• Run 3x a week: One long run increasing by 1-2 miles each week, one shorter run with speed work of some type, and an easy middle distance run.
• Yoga 1x a week: I’d like more, but…
• Core workout 1x a week: Again, more would be good, but yoga and the next item cover some of this.
• Strength & toning class 1x a week: To even things out and because Bill takes this class and likes it when I go with him.
• Rest & recovery day: One day without any workouts to rest, recover, and recuperate. This is highly recommended by lots of trainers and experts.

In case you did not do the math, that is 12 workout a week and one day off. This means 2 workouts a day. Plus, as it gets closer to the tri, I need to do some brick workouts (bike to run transition workouts). I’m thinking this is all somewhat impossible. I’m not quite sure what I am going to do about it. I guess I shall see.

But, I did start today with a very humid 4.2 miles run. Other then the oppressive sweat bath level humidity, the run was fairly bland. I did have more trouble with my breathing, which has been an issue of late. Either my asthma has gotten worse or my allergies and sinus problems have made it temporarily worse. If I don’t notice improvement by next week I think I’ll see a doctor. I also was almost attacked by a small yippy dog. It left it’s property across the road and came running right at me. I swerved and then it nipped at my heels for a bit. Very annoying.

So here also begins my Tri/Marathon training log.

Workout: Run (moderate distance and pace)
Distance: 4.2 miles
Total training distance to date: 4.2 miles
Body condition: Asthma/breathing issues
Weather: 78 degrees, 74% humidity, sunny
Time of day: Early/mid morning

Last Sunday I completed my first duathlon. I decided to try a duathlon on Bill’s suggestion. Duathlon are run-bike-run events, instead of the swim-bike-run of a triathlon. Since the swim is the hard part for me in the triathlon, the duathlon sounded like a good option.

I found one in Callaway Gardens that looked good—a 5k run-30k bike-5k run. I trained for this events since the half marathon (which I have yet to blog about and probably will not really blog) I ran in late March and a bit before too. This was one of my most important races of the year (which given the number I have or plan to run this year is actually saying a lot). In addition, I had never been to Callaway Gardens and it looked like a very nice place to visit.

On to the race: We got really bad storms from about 3:15 am - 6:30 am and they delayed the 8 am start an hour. The roads were really wet–puddles, mud in places, and very slick. The bike course had some really sharp downhill turns, which under those conditions were pretty deadly. I had gotten little sleep the night before, and also missed lunch, had managed to get myself rather dehydrated, and sun burnt in places (chest and feet) the day before, so I was not really in any condition to do the race. I was quite nauseous, shaking, dizzy, and the whole bit. But I did it anyway. It was probably the second worse race I have ever done–with that disastrous water problem in my first triathlon the worse. I felt sick the whole time, came close to puking several times, and almost fell off my bike (on straight stretches) because I was dizzy. But I did it, and even finished under my “slowest” time goal. I had three goals: 2 hours (my fast goal), under 2:30 (my slow goal—actually my “just finish” easy time goal—I knew I could do that no problem), and that I didn’t finish last in my age group. Sadly I both did and didn’t make that last goal. I was third in my age group, and also last. Under better conditions, I could have easily been second, and possibly first, which make me pretty sad.

Bill, who was doing an Olympic distance triathlon the next week, did the duathlon as his long workout for this week and took it light and slow as part of his pre-race taper. So he stayed with me, which was really wonderful. We actually expected that we’d run the 1st 5 k together and then I’d kick his ass on the bike portion (since I would be going all out and he would be taking it easy) and then he might catch up with me on the run. We were quite curious to see if he would catch me or not. But I was in such bad condition for the bike that I took it much slower then even I have during previous rides on the Silver Comet–not a “race pace”. The conditions did not help, but mostly it was just my psychical condition. Bill and I stayed pretty even, with me beating him on the flat stretches and him beating me on the hills (both up and down, since I was being wimpy).

Oddly, although I felt awful and walked more than normal, the last 5k may have been my fastest 5 k since high school. I ran it in just under 29 minutes. I wouldn’t believe it if my watch didn’t tell me. So I am rather proud of that and of the fact I did finish and didn’t do so very badly.

One really nice part of the race was that some friends came down and cheered. Due to the way the course was designed they found a location where they go to see us several times. Only a few times before have I had fans besides Bill and never so frequently did I see the fans during the race. It really kept me going at times when I was my worse. I wasn’t a very good racer to be a fan of though—I nodded and grimaced and waved the few times I could—but mostly was trying not to throw up on them or near them (not good fan treatment at all).

The nausea and dizziness stayed with me throughout the day and the nausea until Tuesday. I also was shaking quite a bit for the few hours after the race. When we visited the butterfly gardens I had to sit down most of the time as I couldn’t really stand for more than a few minutes at a time. I also had to rush my luggage down to the car because I thought I was going to throw up. Due to the race delay we were leaving our room after checkout and I decided it would be best to throw up in their lobby bathroom and not our bathroom post check out time. Luckily a few minutes sitting in the lobby helped quite a bit, and I was up shortly to check out.

I did learn some good things about doing duathlon:

• Obviously don’t be dumb the day before.
• Before taper get in a long run exceeding the time I expect the duathlon to last, so I have recently exercised for longer and my body is better prepared for the time.
• Work on my hills—both up and down—on biking.
• Work on sharp turns biking, especially downhill ones.
• Try biking without my gloves. I did try to put them on and in my awful state it was hard to do that and bike at the same time. I ended up with two fingers in one finger hole and the was no way I could fix it.
• Work more on drinking and doing other such stuff on the bike. My state made this harder, but I should be generally more comfortable like this. I should also be able to take Gu on my bike and I couldn’t.

Since becoming a triathlete my husband has begun watching the televised Ironmans. I’ve watched one previously with him and today watched a bit of the Ironman Hawaii with him. For those who don’t know, the Ironman Hawaii is THE Ironman. People must qualify for it and it is the world championship

About 5 minute into my watching I made this comment “they really need a commentator who has actually done a triathlon.” I don’t even require a commentator that has done an Ironman, but any old triathlon, even a sprint. Or maybe a marathon, or some endurance event in at least one of the three areas. Something! He was clueless. He even made some rather insulting comments at few points. He does not understand why it means to be an endurance athlete and many of his comments made this clear. I got the most pissed off at this one: “sunset at the Ironman makes you ask yourself questions about why people would want to punish themselves and for so long.” Yes, the Ironman is just an exercise in masochism. Pretty soon they will come out with a line of leather Ironman gear, complete with self-flogging devices. Come on! I don’t know any endurance athlete who does it for the punishment. The reason a person does an Ironman has nothing to do with pain or punishment. It may have to do with accomplishment, meeting a goal, the endorphins, a desire to push one’s self, and much more. But not punishment. I’ve never heard anyone say “I’ve been such a bad girl/boy today so I’m going to do an Ironman. I need the punishment.”

Obviously, he has no idea of what he is talking about. Can’t NBC do better? Get one of those retired professional Ironman athletes or even your average triathlete to be the commenter. Goodness, my husband and I would be better than this commentator. Now that would be a cool job. NBC, give us a call. We’d be happy to do the commentary for the Hawaii Ironman. We may need a few weeks on location before it…

Commentary aside, it is always cool to watch these. As something of an endurance athlete and a triathlete, I can feel their pain and accomplishment and understand, to some degree, what is gong on. Plus, just watching people accomplish such a difficult race is inspiring. Chrissie Wellington, the first place woman, had never competed in an Ironman before. She won, and it was her first! This is amazing. People work for years to qualify and more years to do well. She also won her first marathon. I wish I had her genes.

Okay, of course I can swim. I’ve been able to swim for years. I took lessons and made it to some silly pre-lifeguard level. But I grew up swimming in cold Maine rivers in small “swimming holes” in the river. This means I can swim 5 feet real well and then turn around, and get out after 5 minutes because I am freezing.

Sadly, triathlons don’t value these fine swimming skills. So, I’ve been working on going the depressingly short 500 meters I need to be able to go for the tri. I’ve been having major issues with the breathing. At first I could only swim one length of the pool before needing to stop the catch my breath. Well, lots of practice has made it so I can go a full lap (down and back) without stopping (unless I swallow water and choke, which still happens).

Today Bill offered a helpful piece of advice. Go slower. Duh… I thought the problem was just because of the breathing in the water thing—my body was just not used to only taking a breath on a certain stroke. But apparently I was “spiriting,” which was not helping. Now granted my spring is slow… but it is still my sprint. So today I slowed down a bit and did full laps the whole time. I still have problems, but not nearly as bad. I also drastically increased by distance. Last time I swam 400 meters and I had been increasing by 50 a day when I increased. Today I did 550! 50 more than the race! Yipeee!

Then, I got out and biked 6 miles. So I did more than half the triathlon—more than the swimming portion and half the biking! Go me! My body is rather tired and my arms are a bit… not sore… but, I can feel them. I bet I will feel them even more tomorrow. But tomorrow my only exercise is a run.

One of the problems with training for a triathlon in a humid area is actually getting dry between showers, the exercise, and more showers, and especially getting long hair dry. Take today for instance. I got up and showered. I put my hair back in a ponytail. Not all of my hair was dry when I went for a swim this afternoon. Then I toweled off and biked for 6 miles and came home. My hair was still wet when I jumped in another shower. My hair is still damp from that. Yes, I supposed I could use a hairdryer, but then I would spend all my time blow-drying my hair and blow-drying does bad things to my hair and takes time I rarely have, especially if I am going to swim and shower later. So, I seem to be living with eternally wet hair. It’s annoying. But the training is beginning to do good thigns to the rest of my body, so I guess wet hair is okay…

Bill and I have decided to expand our racing repertoire by competing in a triathlon in September. We are doing a “sprint” triathlon with means 500 meter swin, 12 mile bike, and 5 k run. The running component is no big deal, but the biking component required an investment as neither of us had bikes.

We went with some decent road bikes, Treks (1600 WSD for me [see pic], and 1500 for Bill). I discovered that I love biking! Now I am a bit of a klutz, of course, and the whole pedal loops took me a bit (and resulted in nasty bruises on my left shin). But biking itself is wonderful. I find it is not the rollercoaster of “good runs/rides” and “bad runs/rides” as running is. All the rides are at least good, and many better. It is also easier physically, although part of that is because I am not at the level biking yet as I am running. But it is still easier on the knees and the legs in general with less impact issues. I also found it helpful for my back. The stretched out position seems to be good for relieving my back pain, although I have had issues with wrist and thumb pain from the position.

The swim component is another matter. This required much less of a financial investment (suit and goggles, that’s it). But, swimming is not an area I am very strong in. I grew up swimming in small swimming holes in cold Maine rivers. This means I can swim back and forth over a short distance well, but not so well for long distances. Plus, I am used to getting out of the water frequently because it is cold! In addition my swimming is… a bit rusty. Bill has been a great coach so far and I have much improved, but I still cannot do a full lap without stopping to breathe. My swim yesterday was 250 meters, good for me, and my laps were stronger as was my breathing. I bet in a few more swims I should be able to do a full lap without stopping. That’s a goal anyway!

The training is hard in that I am really training for three events. Normally I train at least three times a week for the event I am doing. This means 9 times a week, which is just too much! But I am working out a somewhat kinder schedule. The cross training should do great things for my body though!