Sunday, June 28, 2009

Hy Vee in the books

Well things never go as expected and for me the Hy-Vee was no exception. It is my first DNF(did not finish). I felt good in the swim, I took a little side trip which didn't help my time. I started sighting the wrong booy. OOPs. but I got back on track. Since I DNF I do not know what my official time was because they did not post the swim and bike however my watch said 32 minutes. I am happy with that.

Out of the water and on to the bike, I started out slower this year, I did it on purpose. I wanted to get my legs warmed up before I started to pound them. Up Grand I went I found out that I am a better hill climber than most, I was passing people right and left. I guess riding into the river bottom does help. On the top of the first hill I was met with the sight of the "Hecklers", most of the biking hecklers had been out riding and drinking all night. So they were pretty well wound up, and one even had a speedo on, I will refrain from naming this speedo wearer to protect the identity of this wife and daughter..:)who have to put up with this speedo wearer. After the Grand hill the gound was flat for quite awhile. I was going between 18-19 mph. we had a slight head wind. I would pass some people, people would pass me. People would ride by yelling "go pink biker". Go to love the All9Yards pinks tri kits. About 2 miles from the turn around the hills started again, they were long and fairly steep. On the way back I started to crank it a little harder. I was going between 20-22 mph. Nice little tailwind. My shoulders were starting to ache really badly, i need to ride the tri bike more to get use to the position. Well back to Grand Ave and the Hecklers. Julie Hugo was cheering and yelling as was SS. I is nice to see your friend yelling for you. I think I did the bike in about an hour 20-24. I am not unhappy.

Now the Bike to run. I knew that this would not be good, I was not feeling energetic at all, i just wanted to stop. So I get my bike racked, my calf sleeves put on and head off to the run. I waved at Julie, Bill and my mom, sister, niece and nephew, then trotted on down the trail. It was miserable, my hips hurt, my stomach would not settle and I was thirsty. I tried not to drink to much water because that did me in last year. I ran maybe a mile then walked. Once I started walking I knew that it was over. I just could not get any kind of rhythm. The cycling hecklers were now the running hecklers. They cheered me on but It didnt help much. I was talking to myself about what to do. I really didnt want to walk the whole thing. It is a tri Swim, Bike and Run. Not swim , bike and walk. So I decided to hang it up. I have tried to starting listening to my body more. As I was walking back I ran into Kyle, Rob, Joe and Kurt. They tried to talk me in to walking it but I had made up my mind. I was done. No tri finish for me. I got a ride back to the park with a nice gentleman with a golf cart. Then went and found Bill. He felt bad for me but knew the issues that I have been having with my legs he was surprised that I stopped but not that I was having to walk.

I am upset with myself but at the time it was the right decision for me. I need to reevaluate how I am training and eating. I was having a hard time this year getting my mental attitude ready for this race. I was much more excited about it last year. Will I do another intermediate tri, I don't know. I hope to keep doing sprints.

I need to work on my nutrition, my stretching and my running. I need to maintain my swimming and cycling. I also need to lose weight.

I want to say I failed. I did fail in my mind but I tried and it was not to be. Life is full of disappointments you just have to deal with them.

JS also participated and did great. I will let her tell you about her adventures.

Thanks for checking in... until next time PEACE

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hy-Vee Tri...here we come!

hopefully...my back is all whacked out right now...lots of ice and rest before my swim on Sunday!

JG is once again taking part in the whole tri....she'll do great!!

Come on out and watch the fun!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Win a $75 Gift Cert!

Want to win a $75 gift certificate? Check out Steve in a Speedo, read the blog posts and find out how! Onlineshoes.com is using his blog to give one away!

His blog is funny and inspiring all at the same time!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Pigman Sprint PR!!

JG and I headed over to Cedar Rapids with Alexa on Sat. morning. We arrived in time to eat lunch and then head out to get my packet and check out the water! After arriving at the lake and seeing how windy and chilly it was, we opted to head back into town and see what we felt like doing. Stopped at the grocery store for some needed items and then headed back to my in-laws. We were both pretty lazy, but all of a sudden, Julie popped up and said, I need to go run and you need to do a little something today! OK, OK, I'll go for a little jog with you. We had a nice 2 mile jog/walk and then headed out for some pre-race pasta.

With my alarm set for 5am, I quickly fell asleep, only to be woken by a thunderstorm about 4am! hmmm...not getting back to sleep anytime soon! The rain stopped about 5am and I got up to eat my oatmeal and get ready.

Off to the course by 5:40, we arrived and there were already a bunch of people there. I didn't get the spot I scoped out the previous day, but at least there was room a couple spots in from the end. Transition set up...after 2 trips back to the car for stuff! I was pretty out of it from being up so early!

Off to the beach to warm up and get ready for this race! The water felt good at 67degrees. I wore my sleeveless wetsuit and it was perfect!

This particular race started with a time trial start. Each wave lined up in the shoot with a person going off every 3 seconds. It was nice not to have to fight for a spot in the water. I swam a solid swim and didn't once run into anyone!

Out of the water my legs felt like jelly, a slow jog up to transition! Off on the bike and my legs just felt really heavy and it didn't help that we had to go uphill out of the park! About 3-4 miles into it, my legs are finally feeling better. Into Palo was about the halfway point, so I downed my GU and some water and pushed out of town back towards the park. Big hill up to the park entrance...but wait, we keep going...so it's down the hill, around to the turn around and back up the hill into the park...my legs were not liking it at all...not a good sign for the run!

Slow transition so my legs could loosen up a little and I headed out! My goal, run all the way to the mile water station! I did it! Slow to a fast walk to drink my water and off jogging again. A little walk up a little hill about 1/2 mile down the road. Jog the rest of the way to the water station again, this time, just slow down the jog a little and keep going while taking more water. Run another 1/2 mile and walk for a minute to slow the heart rate. Jogging again...dang...one more hill, walk up that....dang, there goes another in my age group! I'm not going to lose her...I keep her in my sights. As I head down the last stretch I hear people cheering and I decide to finish hard and catch that girl! About 20 yds to go I meet up with her and say: "come on...let's go!" She didn't follow, she let me have it.

It was a great race and I am really happy that my run and swim were good. Kind of sad that my bike time was slower, not sure what was wrong with my legs for that!

Here are the official times:
Swim - 500yds - 9:57
T1 - 3:38 - it is a pretty good run up to the actual transition, I didn't start running until about halfway.
Bike - 15.5m - 52:47 - avg 17.7mph
T2 - 2:01
Run - 5K - 32:43 - avg 10:32pace
Total - 1:41:04 (last year was 1:44:30)

My swim, T1, and run were faster than last year. My bike and T2 were slower. Oh what could have been done if all were faster....1:39??

I am happy with it!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Bluff Creek in the books

For a fun, training-workout for the day it went good! My fastest time in a tri last year was 1:44:??.

I had a great time, let the "serious" swimmers have at it, helped some girl with her gearing into the wind during the bike, and had a good walk with JG on the "run"!

Official times are:

Swim: 14:31 - I do believe that includes the LONG jaunt up to transition. My watch said 11min when I checked it out of the water.
T1: 1:51
Bike: 52:23 - 15miles
T2: 1:20
Run (walk): 32:27
Total time: 1:42:33

That put me 10th (13 total) in my age group and 44th (51 total) overall in sprint women. I am very happy with that and am excited for Pigman Sprint June 7th!!

JG did great also...I will let her post about her race experience!

Ok i am a little slow but I finally made it for my update.

Swim: 10:48- my watch said 9:13 so I am not quite sure where they took the time but I am ok with this.

Bike: 49:05 - 15miles

Run (walk): 39:25, I need ALOT of work on my run, my leg did start to hurt again so I decided to walk most of it because of Hy Vee coming up. A couple of weeks ago I pulled a muscle in my left calf and dropped a table on my foot. Not a good thing to do.

Total time: 1:42:43

I am happy with my results. I tried to be more relaxed and enjoy the experience this time. I was better but need to work on that more. Next up for me is Hy Vee on June 28Th. So the next three weeks i am going to focus on the bike to run transition and just the run to see if I might be able to get something going.

Thanks for reading. Until next time. Peace