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June 26, 2007

I am a biking, running fool, and it is really hot

Denver is so freaking hot and dry, it is making me nuts! I do not believe that I have been fully hydrated for weeks. Okay, so maybe last week in Minnesota I was pretty hydrated.

Anyway training is going well. I had a good weekend of training and so far this week is going well. I am braving a local reservoir tomorrow after work to work on my open water swimming. Which is hopefully going to be fun! I have been biking a lot just because when people ask me if I want to go I always say yes. I have not done a true long run in two weeks so this weekend when people ask me to bike I am going to say no!!

I am not sure when I wrote in my blog last so I will just start with this weekend's activities.

Saturday - Speed workout with the team. 7 x 800 meters at 10k pace which is apparently between 6:20 and 6:40 pace. Okay so it was really 5k pace! We never really run the right pace. But I think that's probably okay.

Sunday - What a random workout! First I rode about 17.5 miles with two friends. Then we changed our shoes and ran 3 miles as a brick workout. After that I wanted to go see Matt and our friends in their volleyball tournament so I ran over there and back which was 6 miles round trip. Total day's workout: 17.5 miles biking and 9 miles running.

Monday - 7 miles easy, 17 miles on the bike. It was so windy I think my bike almost blew over!

Tuesday - 7 miles easy. Planning to bike or something later on.

That is the news for today as I am about out of this training class I'm attending.

Posted by barb at 4:09 PM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2007

post-tri week

Well after my tri initially I felt like crap but the recovery was really not that bad. By now, which is Thursday afternoon, I am feeling pretty darned okay. I got back from Minnesota around 1:00 pm today and was hit by a blast of hot, dry air. And cotton wood flying around over the place making me sneeze! Ick. I cannot believe the weather was so much nicer in Minnesota than here. That never happens! But it was great. I really love Minnesota when the weather's not miserable. The area I was in, which is in the western suburbs, has a truly outstanding trail system. I could leave the hotel (a different one from the one where we normally stay, which I had heard was a better running location) and run on asphalt and dirt trails for miles and miles. How awesome is that?! I had always heard the Twin Cities had a really nice trail system, I just hadn't been there in a long time during a time of year when I felt like exploring the trail system. Anyway Minnesota rocked!

Here is my week in review:
Monday - travel day. 8 miles before leaving for the airport. Did not feel great but didn't feel bad either the day after the tri.
Tuesday - 7 miles in the morning from the hotel, exploring trails. Had an embarrassing incident where I thought I was on a deserted trail, dropped trou to go to the bathroom, and immediately was passed by some woman on a bike. She felt so bad! But I am so freaking dumb. I mean seriously, go behind a tree or something! Anyway after work I checked out a gym associated with my gym here in Colorado which was in a beautiful area. I lifted there and biked for 45 minutes, could not find the spinning studio so it was just on an exercise bike.
Wednesday - found an even more awesome trail and ran 9 miles just because this trail rocked! It looked like it went on for miles and miles and it was all on dirt. How sweet! I felt really good and ran a nice negative split. Wednesday evening I didn't feel like working out again so I explored a fancy mall in the burbs which was not too exciting, and then found dinner and a lemon meringue tart which I found very exciting, meaning delicous!
Thursday - easy 6 miles in the morning from the hotel. Felt good but did not want to go hard at all. Flew home. After getting settled in, I took off on my bike (after almost forgetting my shoes - I am out of it today!) for 27.5 miles. I felt tired at first but once I warmed up I was feeling really good. I rode for about 90 minutes, which is a solid time for me on this course. Once I got back I took off running for 10 minutes in my biking outfit just to get to where running right after biking does not feel too awkward and weird.

That is all the news so far from this week. I am feeling good! Once I can conquer my panic in open water, I am going to be really excited about my next tri. And of course I am excited about my running after having a very nice week of low-elevation, very scenic running. And now I am off to take a shower!

Posted by barb at 4:28 PM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2007

My First Triathlon - A Race Report

Hello my dear blog readers! I am copying this text from an email about my race yesterday I'm about to send, so if it seems like a weird style that is probably why. Anyway, see the short and long versions below if you are curious about my first triathlon!

Short Version:
Overall I had a great time, except for when I was attempting to do the swim! My total time was 1:39.47, which was about 5 minutes faster than I had thought I could do. My age group place was 35 out of 94 which was 5-10 places better than I expected. Physically I feel fine today, although at the end I really thought it was a harder effort than running a half marathon even though the time spent was pretty comparable.

And now for those who have a high tolerance for minute details, the long version:
Setup and the night before:
I did not sleep well at all the night before the race. I was really nervous about getting all my stuff set up, getting flat tires on the bike, and having a horrible swim. As you will see below most of my fears, but not all, were unfounded. I woke up at 4:30 am and drove to the Boulder Reservoir, which is about 5 miles north of Boulder. I was one of the first people in line to enter the transition area which means that I got a sweet spot and I had a lot of time to kill! So I set up my stuff, chatted with a few people, and went for a 2 mile run to warm up and calm my nerves (okay, mostly to calm my nerves). Then I got my swim stuff, headed out to the beach, and got ready for my 8:00 am start.
The Swim (750 meters, 22:22):
I was really nervous about the swim and most of my waking thoughts the night before were about horrible things that could happen. The swim kind of lived up to my low expectations as I kind of panicked in the water and had a really bad swim. I doggy paddled most of the way because I was having a really hard time holding my breath at all. This is an area I’ll have to practice before my next tri because it was a pretty miserable experience. I think all the people freaked me out—I kept hitting peoples’ legs with my arms when I would try to do a normal freestyle stroke. My time for this leg was about 7 minutes slower than I expected, which at the time didn’t seem that bad as I felt like I was in the water for about 30 minutes.
T1 (1:12):
Somehow I kind of rocked the transitions for this race. There was a fairly long run up the beach into the transition area and once I got my wetsuit off my top I felt okay running up the hill. I pulled the legs of the suit off and then didn’t feel like drying my feet off so I just put my cycling shoes on without socks. I didn’t use gloves either and I think this helped my time. I was feeling pretty tired from my spastic swim but I was excited about the bike so off I ran to where we could mount the bikes (you had to run out of the transition area to do this).
The Bike (17 miles, 50:39, 20.3 MPH Average):
I felt really good on the bike for the most part. The course was a gradual uphill for the first 4 miles or so and then the rest of the course was downhill, flat, or slightly rolling. I passed a ton of girls in my age group by trying to keep high cadence on the uphills and get in the right gear and hammer on the downhills and flats. I really liked the course and I feel that it played to my strengths, which is keeping up a good pace unless I’m going way uphill. When I finished the bike I felt exhilarated but not particularly tired. I had thought before I could go 20 MPH at the most so I am really pleased by my time and I feel that in my next race I can do just as well, especially if I can manage not to exhaust myself in the swim.
T2 (1:26):
Okay, it is really hard to run in cycling shoes. I think I almost fell over several times in the transition area as I was trying to get to my spot. I put my bike down haphazardly, pulled off my cycling shoes (next time I think I’d try to do more of this while dismounting), and put on socks and running shoes. I grabbed my bib on my race belt and my visor and started running out of the area.
The Run (3.1 miles, 24:05, 7:46 min/mile):
I felt pretty lethargic on the run but I was pleased to see my pace under 8:00 per mile. It is really weird to run after biking hard for almost an hour – my legs felt kind of dead and I felt like I was running about 10:00 pace but somehow I was going at a relatively decent clip and passing lots of runners (I think I was only passed by two people). It was pretty hot by this point and I always have a hard time drinking and running so at each of the water stops I drank a sip of water and dumped the rest on my head. My head got a bit out of the game during the third mile, but once I was close I picked it up and finished with a decent kick. I was ecstatic to see my time under 1:40 when I finished. When I was done I could literally not drink enough water (I even drank some vile Gatorade), so I definitely need to hydrate more on the bike in my next race. I was really tired at the end but it was different from a running race, more of a bone tired than a feeling that I was going to puke.

So overall I am really pleased by how the race went and I feel really good about my chances in this race next year – I think I can get into the top 25 for my age group if I can take 5-10 minutes off my swim time, which should not be hard if I can defeat my mental difficulties with the crowded open water swim.

Anyway thanks to everyone for your good luck wishes, and for listening to me obsess about my training for the last month!!

Posted by barb at 5:25 PM | Comments (4)

June 15, 2007

tri barb tri!

Well, it looks like I'm as ready as I'm going to be for my first triathlon this Sunday. I have run, bike, and swam quite a bit in the last two weeks after getting back from my lazy vacation. I am pretty sure I will get my butt kicked by a bunch of awesomely fast girls which is kind of cool actually!

I have worked out a lot this week but not so much that I'll be exhausted on Sunday, hopefully. I have not done one workout in a day since last Saturday. I tell you what, this tri thing is freaking tiring! Luckily I have a very close gym with a nice pool and I do not have a long commute or I do not think I would see Matt ever.

Here is the week in review, at least since my last post (okay, I don't remember when that was so I will start with Monday):
- Monday - 7 mile run in the morning, 20 minute open water wet suit swim after work. Okay, I know I posted after this now because I was whining about how hard it is to put on and take off my wet suit.
- Tuesday - 5 mile run in the morning; brick workout after work (40 minutes spinning on the bike, 30 minutes running). This brick was really not too bad. I'm sure it's different after actually biking - I guess I'll find out Sunday!
- Wednesday - mid week long run of 8 miles in the morning; 30 minute swim mid-day. Fun swim! I have a new lap counting method wherein instead of counting with numbers I count via letters of the alphabet. I then think of as many words as possible starting with said letter. It is so much easier to keep track this way!
- Thursday - 6 mile run in the morning; 60 minutes (17 miles) biking in the evening. I felt good and usually my hip gets tight after doing both running and biking, but yesterday it didn't.
- Friday - very easy 4 miles in the morning; lifting in the afternoon. This was a nice, easy day as I never go too hard core with the lifting. In fact I am a lifting wuss but I do like to attempt it once a week or so.

Now I am getting ready to go to a little pizza party, after which the Weekend of Tri will commence. Seriously, do not expect to do anything but your tri on the weekend on which it occurs. There is a pre-race meeting! It is mandatory! Granted, I am sure I would go either way since I am a newbie, but this must be annoying for all those grizzled veterans out there. Or maybe every tri is unique and special. Either way, time consuming!

Anyway wish me luck. The field is so strong that I expect to be about 50th in my five-year age group, but that's cool with me. I hope everyone else has a nice weekend!!

Posted by barb at 4:08 PM | Comments (1)

June 11, 2007

tri training is tiring!

I spent the bulk of this past weekend training for my upcoming sprint triathlon and let me tell you, this is nothing to sneeze at! And I do mean that literally as every run I undertake right now has me sneezing like a fool due to all the cotton floating around. Tri training is SO time consuming. I swear. And there is so much gear involved! One thing I love about running is that I can run almost anywhere, at almost any time, and all I need is my shoes, a sports bra, and shorts, give or take a few items. And socks, because no one wants to make their orthotics smell really bad! But now I have a bike and stuff to clean my bike, and a wet suit, and a host of other items.

I am pretty excited about the training I did over the weekend. Starting Friday, really, I was fairly hard core. I ran 6 miles Friday morning and after work biked about 18 miles (in just under an hour). I was feeling fit! Then I went to happy hour and dinner. Saturday I ran 11 miles with a few friends, N. and R. R. was feeling good into the last two miles and picked up the pace to about 8:00 pace (we had been at or around 9:00 pace for the first nine). He couldn't quite hang with the pace he set but I finished at 1:37, so I guess I could!

Saturday that was all the training - 11 miles is kind of a lot for me right now - and after that I felt okay doing an easy, short run of four miles on Sunday. This left me feeling fresh for a 2 hour and 15 minute ride with my friend whom I affectionately call Pie. We covered a little over 38 miles which was an all time distance record for me. And I did not feel too bad at all!

This morning (Monday) I ran about 7 miles, easy. I felt fine after yesterday but didn't want to push things at all. I also tested out my wet suit in the open water today after work for about 20 minutes of swimming, and 15 minutes struggling with my wet suit (does that count as a workout? I almost think it should!). Now it is almost 10:00 so I am turning into a pumpkin!

Posted by barb at 8:51 PM | Comments (2)

June 7, 2007

backwards tri

I had a fun day of working out today. Believe it or not I did go to work but I also practiced my tri backwards over three workouts. It wasn't exactly the same but it was moderately close. This morning before work I ran 5 miles. At lunchtime I did a one hour spinning class. And after work I swam 10 laps (that was all I had time for before the aqua aerobics instructor took all the lanes out). So it was pretty close to doing what my tri entails. I do not really feel that tired but I think it's probably different when you have to do it all in a row!

So it has been a good week so far and I'm feeling good about my swimming - today was my second swim of the week, and the first one was longer. My running has been somewhat indifferent - not bad, just feeling kind of leaden in the legs and whatnot. So I have been taking it easy later on in the week, just so I don't crash and burn early in the season. I don't really feel like I'm getting injured but I do want to feel better on my runs.

This should be a fairly big training weekend, I've got three rides and three runs planned over the next three days. We'll see how we do and I think it wouldn't be surprising if I ended up with only two rides. My friend M. is convinced that she got injured because she rode and ran in the same day too much and I don't want to make the same mistake. I am definitely planning on ditching practice Saturday so I don't overdo it on the quality. I am considering trying out the bike course for my tri Saturday afternoon as I have a dinner in Boulder anyway.

It is about time for me to get everything ready for tomorrow and to go to bed. I am so happy to hear Beth is doing okay (I don't think there's anyone who reads my blog that doesn't read hers, but if not, see it here). Cyclists, always wear your helmets!

Posted by barb at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)