Sometimes it rains...

Today's workout out had a less than spectacular start. And an even less spectacular finish.

I left my house at 7:45 am with bike in new bike rack on back of my little Ford Focus, headed for a nearby park with a 7 mile loop, and with plans to ride 20ish miles. I get to the park and find it's closed for some type of event. Grrr. I turn around and start heading back to another park with a 1.25 mile loop - nothing wrong with riding in circles for 90 minutes, right? I drive about 50 yards and come to a dead stop. I sit there for about 15 minutes. People are getting out of their cars to investigate. There is no apparent reason. We are on a 2 lane country road. Ugh. So, I turn around again and start going the long way to the plan B park. More traffic. Yuck.

I finally arrive at said Plan B park to start my ride...when I should have already been an hour into it. Sigh. Then I find out they now charge an admission fee. I work for the County and am already taking my 5 unpaid days off. Isn't that enough of a contribution to the budget problem? I fork over the cash, air up the tires, and take off. That's when the ridiculous clunking begins. My bike has become possessed apparently (or possibly just needs a tune up) and now changes gears on its own whenever it feels like it. And my front brakes need adjustment and are dragging on my tire. As I finish my 5th mile, the clouds roll in. Then the heavens opened and it began to pour. Really!?!?! So not an ideal start to my day, but SOMETIMES IT RAINS.

We get wet. Our plans don't work out. We don't get to finish what we started. We have to go to plan B. Or Plan C or D. And to be honest, I like things to go my way. And preferably to be easy. Not that this triathlon stuff has been easy for me so far, but I was just starting to feel like I was getting in the groove and could do this...until the last 2 days of crappy workouts.

Like I said, sometimes it rains. I usually love the rain and can find the bright/positive side of things, throw on my cute polka dot rain boots, and splash around in the puddles for a bit, but I'm not feelin it today. I feel like I'm sitting in the puddle surrounded by my stuff. As much as I want to jump out quick and be done with that, I think it's important to sit for a bit. And feel.

This triathlon training is a journey about more than finishing the race on February 7th. It's become a bit more emotional lately and has a lot more to do with life and me than I'd like to think.

67 Days

Well, the first 3 weeks of training are done. That means we are 1/4 of the way through the training plan. That also means there's 3/4 of the way to go...67 days till the Triathlon. As discipline in the areas of fitness and nutrition has never been a strength for me, I'm honestly a bit surprised that I've kept up with all of the workouts so far. 21 days of Becky being ridiculously disciplined?!?!? Really? Really. But believe me, that doesn't mean it's been easy. There have been MANY a morning that I've dragged myself out of bed to the gym or trail or pool to do what I know I need to do. And I know what I need to do for the next 67 days...keep looking at that training plan every week, plan out which workouts fit when around my crazy work schedule, and do them.

"Rest up. Workouts intensify" - the super (not) encouraging motivational thought from the training plan people. That SCARES me. I looked ahead at the next few weeks. That scares me more. Especially the back to back bike/run workouts that start next week. I'm not sure I can do it. Confidence isn't one of my strengths either. Something else to work on, I guess...one workout at a time.

One-legged biking

Our triathlon training plan calls for single leg drills during some of our biking workouts which basically means you ride the bike using only one leg. My workout today called for 4 40 second single leg drills; I rode for 20 minutes, did my single leg drills, and then rode for 10 more minutes. Overall the workout was great; I rode nearly12 miles in just over 30 minutes. The single leg drills however were not that great. Riding a bike with one leg sounds easy enough, but it's much more complicated than it sounds. The first issue is what to do with the other leg during the drill. At first I tried to just keep it on the pedal without using it, but quickly figured out that it wouldn't work so well that way. After that I decided to put the leg I wasn't using on the inner bar of the bike during the drill. Now even on a stationary bike in a gym this takes more balance than I really have. I didn't actually fall off the bike but I came much closer than I would admit if I were telling this story face-to-face. I felt absolutely ridiculous. Luckily my bike was in the corner and no one was really paying any attention to me, so it was ok. Hopefully these single leg drills get easier because I'll have to do more of them as the weeks go on.

The Sweatology of It All...

In case you hadn't already heard this from me, the Tampa area has been experiencing record highs this week. Of course it has! And of course, this perfectly coincides with when I'm really trying to get into gear for triathlon training, specifically the running portion!!! 

I have run more this week than I have in a long time, but before you tell me that's great and how proud you are, let me put this "more" into perspective:

1. I haven't run at all in at least ummmm, er, maybe about 4 months. 

2. I use the term "run" somewhat loosely...for you marathon/fitness professional types (you know who you are), it might be considered more of a jog

3. My "running" this week has been more of the walk/run alternation situation

4. Total mileage thus far for the week is only about 3ish miles

Clearly, I have a LOOOOOOOOONG way to go with this running thing. If anyone has any ideas on how to not hate running, I'm totally open :)

And on to sweatology (term courtesy of Karin Korb)...the science of sweating:

Sweating or "perspiring" is the other thing I've done more than usual this week. I think sweating is an area of athletic training I totally excel in...possibly the only one I'm particularly gifted in. I know everyone sweats, especially when it's super hot and humid like it has been here, and I'm not talking about sweaty pits. That's the least of my concerns! It's my face/neck/head that are out of control in attempting to cool themselves. I turn all kinds of red, and liquid pours off my face, even when I'm not at all winded or haven't worked out that hard yet. I mean really...ending a 30 minute workout with my hair being completely soaked (and going crazy curly) because of the excessive sweating of my face and neck seems a bit ridiculous, don't you think? Unfortunately, it is inevitable. As is the fact that I must continue to "run"... 

Here we go again!

Well, we've begun again. Becky says that I'm the motivated one this time, but I'm not so sure about that. We'll see...I'm halfway through bootcamp and needing some motivation to keep working out after its over since there's no way I'm spending oodles of money to do bootcamp again and again. So we're back at it, Becky and me. Here goes nothing! At bootcamp this morning I discovered that I can run. Apparently during each bootcamp session (4 weeks), there's one all running workout and today was the day. We ran for 50 minutes and I ran the whole time. I'm told we ran between 4 and 5 miles. I guess that means there's no excuses for me on the running leg of the triathlon, huh? Now on to conquer swimming!

TRI"ing" Again...

Okay folks, it's for real this time...Erin and I are gonna do this: we will complete our first (and perhaps only) triathlon on Sunday, February 7th, 2010. I know, I know - you've heard this before. First it was going to be the Top Cop Triathlon on my 30th birthday (11/2/08) but that plan was foiled: I had to be out of town for work and the event actually ended up being cancelled. Then it was going to be the Lake Louisa Triathlon on September 24th of this year. Then my summer turned really crazy at work and Erin's job got extra crazy, and it was SUPER hot and obnoxiously humid and I MAJORLY slacked off in my training. I confessed to Erin partway through the summer that I didn't think I could do it. Turns out Erin felt the same way and we were mutually relieved that we could let ourselves off the hook.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, Erin got engaged to her fabulous fiance, Daniel, whom she will be marrying in May of 2010. And I'm honored and excited to be one of their bridesmaids. We decided we still wanted to do a triathlon and do it before the wedding (and before it's too hot here in the SE), but I was kind of still in the thinking about it stage, not the committing stage...was just working on trying to get my workout habits back to normal after said crazy summer. THEN Erin goes and signs up for fitness bootcamp. My reaction: so super proud of her and SO super happy that I was not the one being tortured at o dark thirty every morning! Last Friday marked the 1/2 point in Erin's boot camp and she all goes and e-mails me about this triathlon series with one in January, one in February, and one in March. We both agreed that January is WAY too soon. February feels too soon, but is probably doable. March is preferable, but I (of course) will be out of town for work during it. And so, February 7th, 2010 it is...

That is 14 weeks from yesterday. With the holidays in there. I spent $12.95 and bought a 12 week training plan for us to follow from triathlongeek.com. They claim that if you can currently run 1/2 mile without stopping, swim 25 yards without stopping, and bike for 15 minutes NOW (Erin and I can both do all 3 of those things) and follow 80% of the plan that we'll be fine on race day. Allegedly, they actually guarantee it. However, it's not guaranteed for those who hate running (me) or who despise swimming (Erin), so we'll see how that pans out...

The first time around, I was the excited and motivated one and now I'm pretty terrified and un-confident while Erin is a bit more pumped up about the whole thing. Hopefully we can balance each other out and keep each other motivated during the coming months.

We're both starting to train now, but the 12-week plan starts on November 8th. I'm excited I'll be in Atlanta later that week so Erin and I can get in a couple workouts together before spending the majority of our time training alone in our respective cities. This is gonna be quite an experience, I'm sure! Stay tuned our updates: the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Oh, and here's the website for the tri if anyone wants to take a peek:

http://www.stateofmindsports.com/florida/gville.html

Tri"ing" in 2009

September 24th, 2009 to be exact. Erin and I have settled on the Lake Louisa Sprint Triathlon on a Thursday evening in the fall. My friend Ananda may join us from Michigan as well. And if there are any other takers, let me know. It's a 1/4 mile swim, 7 mile bike, and 1.5 mile run. Being that I'm the non-runner, I'm THRILLED that it's only a mile and a half!!!! 

To Tri in 2009?!??!

Well, the New Year has arrived and Erin and I are thinking about actually signing up for a tri since our last one got cancelled. Perhaps the Iron Girl in Atlanta in late June? Stay tuned...