Bartlett Lake Tri

I haven't written about my tri training in awhile. I did finish the Bartlett Lake Tri (March 21, 2010) but I was incredibly slow. I finished a full hour after the fastest woman in my age group. I was totally unprepared for the hill work on the bike ride and that's where I picked up an extra 45 minutes of time overall. It was about 8 miles, straight up. I was in granny gear the entire ride. Don't get me wrong, the down hill was thrilling. I was going downhill at 30-35 mph, and there were riders passing me.

My grandfather died a couple of days before the race and my heart just wasn't in it. There was nothing inside of me that wanted to compete, but I had committed to this race with a handful of friends and I didn't want to let them down. I'm considering another attempt at this race in 2011, I want to finish with a better time but as of right now, the sights on this course still make me think of my grandfather and how I felt right after his death. It might be cathartic to do it again, I'm not sure.

T-shirts

I found this at the expo for the Lost Dutchman 8k that I ran on Valentine's Day with my girlfriend. Love it, but I wear pants with mine!

Swim Clinic

Today I drove 40 minutes to DC Ranch Village health club to attend a swim clinic hosted by Tri for the Cure. I'm not registered for their race, but heard about the clinic through Triple Sports. Since the clinic was free, I figured it would be worth the drive. And it was! Sean, the swim coach who took the group who considered themselves beginners was great. He talked about body placement in the water to reduce drag, head placement and rotation, playing "catch-up" with your arms, and breathing. It was a really great clinic because after an out of the water explanation of everything, we got in the pool and practiced everything with corrections from the coaches that were there.

The only thing that sucked was the weather today... barely 60 degrees, and we were in an outdoor pool. It actually rained while we were swimming, thick clouds, and no sun at all. I was freezing cold but I'm glad to have had the practice. It wasn't my only rain-training this weekend... we got rained on during our group hill training yesterday in Paradise Valley. It started to rain at the end of the run, we still transitioned and took the bikes out but had to cut it short because none of us had rain gear on. It was just too cold.

One thing I did learn is that I never want to do a tri in a swimming pool. It snakes through the lanes and people get crowded together, not much room to pass, etc. It sucked. I'll take a lake over that any day.

Still training, just not posting...

I'm still training for the tri in March. Mostly cross-training at this point, with boot camp 3 days per week, swimming 2 days per week, and cycling 1 day per week. I haven't been running much at all which will make for an exciting 8k on Sunday! I hope I can finish with a time that I don't have to be ashamed of!

I found a swim clinic for next weekend, the 21st and it's FREE!

A quote that caught my attention

"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." -Steve Prefontaine

Found it...

...my new training goal. The Lost Dutchman 8k trail run on Feb.14, 2010. I've planned out a 6 week schedule to get myself across the finish line. Six weeks seems like a long time to prepare for a 5 mile run, but you forget that I'm not a runner. I'm one of those non-jock types that cannot seem to push myself past the burn. But I'm not giving up! This is my next goal. I've worked two days a week into my schedule to allow for swim and bike training so I can keep working towards the next sprint-tri in March.

Mondays = stretching & strength training
Tuesdays = run
Wednesdays = cross-train (bike or swim)
Thursdays = short run & strength training
Fridays = rest
Saturdays = cross-train (bike or swim)
Sundays = long run

Christmas Break

I'm still on Christmas break from school, and for the past week I've been on break from working out as well. I read somewhere that you can start to lose your cardiac capacity in 7-10 consecutive days of not working out. I've reached that number and am now thinking about new goals for 2010 to keep me moving.

I know that I want to do another Sprint Tri, I'm looking at two possible races in March. One is in Lake Havasu and supposedly has a killer bike ride, even in the Sprint category. The other race (on the same day I think) is just south of Havasu, near to where my first race was. I haven't read up on it yet but a fellow boot camper was telling me about it a couple of weeks ago. If I only had a bike! For some reason Santa didn't bring me one. :(

I know that in April, De wants us to run in Pat's Run for the Pat Tillman foundation. It's a good cause and it seems to be very well organized. The finish line for the race is the 42-yard line inside of the ASU football stadium. I hope they play the Rocky theme song for that!

May brings a Sprint Tri to Tempe, just down the road really. I would like to compete in this race but everyone says there are dead bodies in Tempe Town Lake. I'm not sure, but I'm not a strong swimmer. I have a tendency to swallow water, and I don't feel like drinking dead-body soup.