Guest Post: Laura's Iron Girl Story

 I got the chance to meet up with Laura at the Lake Tahoe Iron Girl race. She's an inspiring mom and athlete, I thought you would enjoy hearing about her Iron Girl experience. It's a great reminder to get out there and live your dreams!

Laura's Iron Girl Wrap Up

We arrived in Tahoe Friday. I was hoping our early arrival would allow my body to acclimate somewhat to the altitude before the race on Sunday.  I was very unsure what it would be like to swim, bike and run at 6200+ feet. 
Saturday afternoon my husband and I went to the pre race talk, packet pick up and bike racking.  We met up with Robin who is truly one of the coolest people I have ever met.  She was so easy to chat with and very helpful with all my silly little questions.  After our meeting, hubby and I walked down to the swim course. There is a long distance between the swim and transition area. The Iron Girl organizers told us there were going set up an optional shoe transition area down by the water.  Running barefoot didn’t sound like much fun.  I decided old tennis shoes for the jog back to transition would do the trick. After feeling satisfied I knew where I was going race day, we headed off for dinner and bed.  With the race starting at 7:30AM I had to be up by 5:00. Ack. Early mornings are painful.
My sleep was not good.  I woke up at 3:00AM in a panic. I dreamt that I overslept.  In my dream it was 7:15. I was yelling that transition is closed. I kept saying my race is over before it had even begun! My hubby patiently rolled over, looked at the clock, told me I was dreaming and encouraged me to go back sleep.
5:00AM rolls around and we get up and eat breakfast. I had quinoa with cinnamon and coconut milk, a hardboiled egg, small cup of coffee and a banana.  I checked the weather report and was a little nervous the temperature was 36 degrees!  I dressed in layers and headed out the door to the race site.  Got in the car hubby cranked the tunes. A sense of excitement washed over me!  I wasn’t sure if my happiness was because I wasn’t crazy nervous or because I was being afforded this opportunity.
At the race site I immediately set up my transition area, don my wetsuit early for warmth and met up with Robin again. I had to decide if I was going to swim with my bike jersey on or just a sports bra under my wetsuit.  I didn’t love the idea of wearing wet layers on the bike course. I figured they probably were not going to dry quickly in the crisp mountain air. My final decision was to swim in just the sports bra and shorts.  I would throw my bike jersey and light weight riding jacket on after the swim. This was a good decision.
Transition closed and we all walked down to the beach.  I took another look at the swim course.  It looked a little different with the big buoys in place.  We waited for about thirty minutes for our wave to begin. Again, I wasn’t sure how cold we would get during that wait time.  Luckily I wasn’t as cold as I feared. Having my wetsuit and cap on really kept in the warmth.  Although my naked feet were chilled.
At 7:30 we watched the first wave take off.  Robin zoomed away. I stood around a bit longer waiting for my wave to begin.  Cheered on some first timers and encouraged another gal who looked scared.  When my wave began,  I tried to hang back and let others go in front of me.  This plan had worked the other two times. Not so much this time around.  The swim course seemed a bit narrow.  I found myself swimming through bodies anyway.  Grateful I wasn’t feeling frightened by the other ladies just kind of annoyed that I kept having to stop, look around a figure how to maneuver around the crowd. I felt I could have done the swim better if I knew how to get throw people.  I need to work on being a bit more aggressive.  I don’t want to be obnoxious but I do want to figure out strategy for staying my own course.  I found that I was having the same issue on the bike too.
The water was crystal clear and gorgeous!  The temperature was certainly a lot warmer IN the water than out.  Overall I had a great swim.  I kind of wished it was longer!!  My only other issue in the water was sighting the exit.  The sun was peering over the mountains. The glare was making it difficult for me to see the exit.   Once out of the water I jogged over to shoe transition.  My feet were sandy so I made a lame attempt at brushing it off.  My hands were really cold so tying my laces was an issue.  Once my shoes were secured, I jogged back to transition in my wet suit, with hubby jogging a long side.  
If I were to change how I did anything, I would have had a quick slip on shoe to wear.  No laces. My hands were too cold to tie them and I think I wasted a lot of time. Also, I would not have bothered with trying to dust off the sand. I think running in the wetsuit was a good idea. It helped me warm up for the next leg of the race.
Once in transition, I peeled off my wetsuit, put on my bike jersey and jacket.  Got my biking shoes and helmet on and headed out.  The course was beautiful!! They shut down the middle lane of highway 50 just for our race. What a treat! Not many people can say they safely rode down that part of highway 50.  When we drove the course the day before I wasn’t sure how prepared I would be for the hills. To my relief they were not a problem.  My only issue was not knowing when I could pass people.  I felt like I was hanging back, trying real hard to follow the rules but I knew I could push harder on the bike.  Overall the ride was wonderful. The only thing I think I would have done differently is maybe put my bike gloves on.  I didn’t realize how cold my hands were until I was in T2.
T2 went smooth. I had issues tying the laces of my runners.  My hands were not cooperating with my brain. I think I need to get some of those quick laces or something.   As I was leaving transition, I could see Robin coming across the finish line.  At least I thought it was her!! Before the race began I forgot to take notice of what she was wearing or some other identifiers.  I could have let out a cheer!
The run course was two loops through a neighborhood.  There was some elevation gain but I didn’t think it was too bad.  As I began my run, I realized my legs and feet were numb.  I told myself, no worries the feeling will come back somewhere along the way.  Ah I was wrong. I ran the entire run portion of the race with no feeling from my knees down!! HA!   I wasn’t in pain or anything it just felt really weird. The upside to all that is I ran a lot faster than I normally do!! 
As I approached the finish line with a huge grin on my face, I could see my family standing on the sidelines cheering me on.  It felt so wonderful!!  I loved that our boys could see that there Mom is more than just that lady always doing the dishes, helping with homework or driving the family bus. 
Overall I did better than I thought I would!! I told myself I would be happy if I finished the race under two hours.  Turns out I finished in 1:47. My division I was 49/102.  (I was astonished there were so many in my wave. It didn’t feel like it)  My swim time was 10:30, T1 10:00 Bike time 54:39, T2 2:31 ad run time 30:08.  I was also a little surprised at the T1 time.  I guess they must time you from the minute you get out of the water until you are o your bike. Which in this case is a long distance.

Oh No She Didn't! Or Did She?

I haven't posted about it at all, but there's been this internal debate raging inside my head for a month or more now. It's that little urge that starts like a tickle at the back of your brain when you're a triathlete. That little tickle whispers in your ear "I want to do an Ironman." Well, another Ironman, that is. And everyone who knows you that's not a triathlete has this mistaken notion that since you've done one Ironman, you've Done It. You know. You've Gotten It Out of Your System. Right? Riiigggghhhhhht.

So that tickle becomes a voice, becomes an insistent voice, becomes an internal debate, becomes something you casually mention to your spouse (who not so casually says something similar to "No F*cking Way!") and then you wheedle and beg and reason and cajole and if you're lucky they're supportive like my hubby or maybe have amnesia and don't remember everything it took last time to do this crazy thing and they say Yes. Whereupon you go to the computer at midnight with your heart in your mouth thinking "Do I really want to do this crazy-assed thing? Really?" And you register.

Which is how it will come to pass that I'll be standing on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene with 2500 of my best triathlon buddies on June 24 2012, ready to do Ironman CdA! Let the madness begin.

Unleash Your Inner Iron Girl: Training For Your First Triathlon

Ever thought you could do a triathlon, but didn't know where to start? Wanted to do one but weren't sure that you could? Trained for one, but felt overwhelmed by all the gear and advice? Help is on the way!

I'm beyond excited to announce that I am partnering with the Athleta Iron Girl triathlon series, to help women train for their first triathlon. I will be coaching Julie, from Chubby Mommy Running Club through her very first triathlon ever, and I will be sharing my training plan for her, nutrition tips, transition setups, and everything else helpful along the way in weekly installments here on my blog. All you have to do is follow along and play from home. I'll have all the info you need, right here.

Julie will be posting her experiences as she tries on her very first wetsuit and clips into her very first pedals over on her blog, so make sure you head over there to catch the hilarity as it unfolds.

If you are in the Eugene, Oregon area, you are welcome to join us for a kickoff event on May 7th at 1:30 over at Just Breathe, at 2868 Willamette St. You can RSVP on our meetup page, or just show up!

Also, it gets better. We'll have some prizes to give away here and at the Chubby Mommy page, including a race entry to the Athleta Iron Girl Portland Triathlon on June 26. Exciting stuff!

If you're looking to start later in the summer, I'll also be personally training to compete in the Athleta Iron Girl Lake Tahoe event. So if you want to join in the fun of a beautiful late summer triathlon in such a gorgeous location, you can join me there.

Guest Post: Triathlon Saved My Life

This is the first time I've had a guest post on my blog. I think you'll understand, once you read Karen's story, why I thought it was so important to share. I have always felt that triathlon was life-changing , and in racing with and sharing my love of triathlon with other women I've seen the powerful effect it can have on women's lives.


Many of us are mothers, and we sometimes struggle with the changes that come with new motherhood. One of the biggest and potential life-threatening of these is post-partum depression, something that's only now starting to get the attention that it deserves. Karen's story is a testament to her own strength, something she discovered through triathlon. Here it is:
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My name is Karen Meigs.  I am a mom, wife, and a triathlete.  Triathlons helped save my life.  Okay, I saw your eyes roll, but let me explain.  

After the birth of our first child I had a very hard time recovering.  I went through 17 hours of labor, 2 hours of that pushing, and I made little to no progress and opted for a c-section.  I was exhausted, overwhelmed, excited, sore, and I could not sleep.  Any new mom can appreciate the exhaustion which sets in after a baby is born, but sleeping for just a few hours a day was a recipe for disaster.  I knew of the baby blues, but this couldn’t possibly happen to me.  We planned for this.  

During a post-partum check-up I failed to mention that I had been crying at least once a day, that wanted to leave my husband and baby, and that I never wanted to get out of my sweats and leave the house.  I was ashamed and embarrassed that I was struggling with being a new mom.  Shoot, women have been doing this for centuries so why is this so challenging?   Our little girl was three months old and I was still crying every day.  My mother-in-law (love her) told me to call my doctor and get some help.  I was immediately put on an anti-depressant and directed to a post-partum group that I attended on a weekly basis.  

Three years later my sister-in-law asked me if I would be interested in doing a triathlon.  For sure I thought she was pulling my leg.  I was overweight, self-conscious, and still in a funk.  I just laughed it off.  

But then I got to thinking about it and started asking her a few questions here and there.  Doing a triathlon sounded like such a huge daunting thing.  For Christmas a few months later my husband bought me a book written by Sally Edwards called “Triathlon for Women”.  I devoured it.  For the first time in a very long time I was excited.  I decided to sign up for my first race.  This race wasn’t for our daughter, it wasn’t for my husband, it was for me.  

I had no clue where to start.  I took each event apart and since swimming was the first leg of the race I worked on that first.   I took a basic swim lesson to learn how to swim, as weird as that sounds.  I didn’t know what would be the most efficient way to swim for a race so I learned how.  I also started to bike and run.  I mostly walked at first to avoid injury, but slowly worked my way up to running.  I committed to doing one of these activities once a week and then I followed the training scheduled outlined in Sally Edwards’ book, as the race date drew near.

Before I knew it I was feeling better.  I started to lose a few pounds and felt better about myself.  That was six years ago and I have signed up for my fourth triathlon this summer.  I will never be the best athlete by any stretch of the imagination nor will I have the best equipment.   But as I said, this race isn’t for my children, or my husband:  I do it for me and I tri.  

How Triathlon Helped Me Be a Better Robotics Coach

Here I am, surrounded by robot parts, cords, cables, batteries, computers, team t-shirts, snacks, bolts, tools, and random pieces of electronic gear. The high school robotics team I'm coaching is off to the State Championships tomorrow. I could be really overwhelmed right now.

Oh okay, I admit I AM really overwhelmed right now.

But the reason I'm confident that we'll make it to our championship tournament intact and with all necessary supplies has more to do with triathlon than anything else.

Packing up for a triathlon can feel like packing for a six-month Arctic expedition at times. Between the necessary gear, clothing, food, and hydration, it's a lot of stuff to remember. Fortunately, many years ago I created a Triathlon Checklist that lets me pack with confidence. I know if I just use the checklist, I'll arrive with everything I need to have a great race. So it was a natural step to do the same for our robotics team. One Excel spreadsheet later and we have a fool-proof item-by-item checklist that makes sure nothing gets left behind.

My years in triathlon have also taught me many other things that come in handy no matter what the endeavor:

• The race is often won by the most tenacious, not the flashiest
• Gear and money aren't everything
• If you get so nervous you can't sleep beforehand, use positive visualization to see yourself accomplishing everything you want to do
• Get to know your competitors, they are often as nervous as you and usually are really great people
• Having fun is the name of the game, so look around and enjoy what you are accomplishing

Whenever I try anything new or difficult, I am grateful for the lessons that triathlon has taught me. I know how to win, and how to lose graciously. I know how to pick myself up from a crash and keep going. I know what's really important is to enjoy the journey to the start line, not just what comes afterwards. Triathlon has been a gift in my life that just keeps giving.

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm off to stuff robot parts in bins!

Am I Going Over to the Dark Side?

I know many of you have seen this video already. It's actually responsible for almost wrecking my laptop. I was watching it and my son was standing behind me drinking orange juice, he laughed so hard he had a monitor spew moment and I ended up cleaning orange juice off my keyboard for an hour. It's very funny for precisely the reason that there are so many little elements of truth in it.

But as I thought about it after (okay I admit) multiple viewings, I started to wonder which character I most identified with. And to tell the truth, I'm not quite sure. I think I might be going over to the dark side of ultra running. I haven't worn my watch on a run in ages. I seem to gravitate toward trails and now hate to run on the streets. I've started thinking "A 50k run really doesn't sound all that bad". My bike hasn't been off its rack since my last half-Ironman in September.

Now a lot of that is just because I'm training so hard in karate right now, I barely have time to get a couple of runs or swims in during the week. When you add in the snowy/sleety/hailing/nasty weather we've been having, getting the bike out is less than appealing. And I may have some exciting triathlon news to share (soon) about some upcoming races.But in the meantime, I feel torn in two. I'm coaching people who are training for races. We're doing track workouts and pool workouts and using heart rate monitors and GPSs and gadgets and here I am wandering in the opposite direction, going for long rambling aimless trail runs. No periodization, no goals in sight. I guess we'll just have to see when the warm weather hits whether or not the hardcore triathlon bug will bite me again, or whether I'm beyond hope.

Focus Shift: Black Belt

The triathlon calendar has come to a close. Even with the inauspicious beginning, starting off with a broken arm, it's been a good triathlon season for me. Three top-5 women's finishes in Sprint and Olympic distance and one top-12 in the half-Ironman distance has made it one of my better seasons. Which is good, because next year I'm not sure if I'll have a season at all. Which is kind of weird to say because Robin with triathlons is kind of like pancakes without syrup: you have to wonder what the heck is it good for at all? Luckily, I frequently eat pancakes without syrup, so I can envision that I might also be able to exist without triathlons in my life for a season. It's also highly unlikely that I won't do any tri's next year. There will most likely be a sprint or two at the very least.

But for many reasons (not the least of them financial), my focus needs to shift. And right now, there's only one direction that what remains of my scattered ability to focus on anything will be. I'm this close to getting my black belt in karate. I'm actually about one broken arm away, since I should already have been able to test for my belt this year, if it wasn't for that fateful dog tripping incident. The arm is now healed about 90% for karate purposes, which means I can do most of the necessary training, with the exception of any serious contact on the left arm. I'm hoping to test in March, with a fall-back to June if that doesn't work out. My son Mackenzie is now a brown belt as well and training seriously for his black, so we can do a lot of training together at home. So I will be shifting to at least four days a week of training at the dojo, and more here in our garage at home. Swimming, biking, and running will take a back seat for the foreseeable future, though I can't really see giving any of those up completely.

I will still be coaching my Master's swimmers, so you can expect to see more swim workouts and swim tips here, but I hope no one will mind if I hang up my lycra in exchange for some white cotton pajama-y things for awhile. I'll be following the rest of you triathlete, swimmer, biker, and runner friends vicariously though!

Eleven Miles Never Felt So Good

Yes, Robin 2.0 the Endurance Model is back! After what has seemed like a crazy string of interruptions to my regular training (including the twisted ankle, the detour into "Crossfit Endurance", and the broken arm), I finally feel like I'm back in the Endurance saddle again. An eleven mile run of mostly hills today left me feeling elated and strong. I was trying to hold a 10:00 per mile pace, nice and slow. On the way out, my benchmark went by a little fast at a 9:42 pace. Imagine my surprise when the same benchmark on the way back home, nine miles later clocked in at 9:26. I was clearly feeling stronger and stronger as time went by. That's the way  I want my season to be headed!

This week, my first-time triathlon peeps and I are doing our final tough workouts (biking and lake swim on the docket for the next couple of days) and fine-tuning transitions, then we're tapering, packing up the camper van and heading north for the Blue Lake triathlon the first weekend in June. Getting excited now! It's like the broken arm and all of the rest are fading into distant memories (well, except when I swim long, then the arm starts to remind me it's not all there) and we're headed forward into the triathlon future. Now just don't let me trip over my own two feet in the next couple of weeks!

And We're Off...

I've trained as much as I could, given the circumstances. I've tapered for the last week (not enough I know, but it will have to do). I'm packed and ready to go. So cross those fingers for me that the half-Iron feels doable on this amount of training and that all goes as smoothly as possible on race day.

Also keep 'em crossed for hubby on Sunday who is doing his first Olympic distance triathlon. I think I'm more excited for him than I am for myself!

Race Report and CFE Review: Portland Triathlon

First of all, I'd like to state that although I am not superstitious, I lost my lucky triathlon towel this year. It was big and purple and had a cute dolphin with punk rock sunglasses on it and has been to every race with me for 20 years. Well, all but one other. I didn't take it to Ironman Florida because they just have that transition bag system instead of an area. And look what happened there - dislocated toe! Not that I blame anything that happened yesterday on its disappearance, but still...

Second of all, I have to say this up front: PORTLAND TRIATHLON IS AN AWESOME RACE. Seriously, if you're looking for a really fun metropolitan triathlon to do, consider this race. No, just register for it and do it. The course was very challenging (river swim, massively hilly bike course with technical turns) but also very pretty, it was extremely well organized, well marshalled, tons of volunteers, every twist and turn of the course was marked or covered by volunteers or police or both. The run was on a riverside path and crossed two bridges with great views of downtown Portland. You really couldn't pick a better urban race. The post-race BBQ was pretty darn nice to boot, and really, they had FREE BEER and FREE GELATO for athletes. Doesn't get any better than that. My only negative experience with this race is that they failed to close the transition area when they said they would. They shooed all of the athletes out of the transition area and down to the water for the start, but continued to allow latecomers to rack their bikes. This resulted in someone racking their bike RIGHT ON TOP OF my transition area, which made for a pretty infuriating T1 for me. Rest assured that the race directors will be getting an email from me on this point since the rest of the race was such a positive experience.

Thirdly, as anyone who has been reading this blog this summer might already know, this race was my watershed moment to see how well the much-touted "Crossfit Endurance" training program would stack up. You can visit their website to read all about their program, but their main selling point is that you can train for endurance events much more efficiently by training in shorter and more intense sessions instead of in longer endurance-based slower sessions (like the traditional long bike/long run weekend that most triathletes put in). I've been doing only Crossfit Endurance training for the last four months, and have not put in any longer endurance sessions, not adding in anything that was not in their program. I also followed their prescribed taper for this race. Also, I was curious to find out how adding Crossfit training into my regimen might affect my swim, bike, and running abilities.

So that being said, on with the race report... The swim is in the Willamette river, which was about 70 degrees on race morning, and beautiful in the sunrise I might add. The men's wave went first, exactly 3 minutes in front of us women. I don't care for that arrangement because it means I will have to swim through the obstacle course of the men's wave. In fact, it meant I had to pass all but a few of the male swimmers which was a pain in the ass. 5 minutes between waves would've been a lot better methinks. Maybe I'll add that to my email to the race directors, LOL.

When I started out swimming, it just felt so darned good. I started to wonder if maybe the downstream swim start was throwing me off and I was going to end up with a slow swim time. It was hard to figure out pace because I felt like I was flying along, but also didn't feel like I was putting out a whole lot of effort. Still, I could only see one or two red caps (women) near me and the rest of the women's wave was behind me, so it seemed as if I was doing fine. Unfortunately, my goggles got knocked a little off in the start and they kept fogging up. I had so little visibility that I actually had to stop cold and rinse them out several times, which I've never had to do before. I knew that was slowing my swim time down, but it was that or run into a concrete bridge abutment or one of the 200 male swimmers in my path or something. Turning around at the buoys and heading back upstream didn't seem to slow me down noticeably, and that felt great. Hubby said I looked like a shark cutting through schools of fish, my red cap swimming around the herds of silver caps in front of me. The end of the swim was at a dock and there was a traffic jam of men crawling up the netting that we were supposed to use to haul ourselves out. Also a slight disadvantage to the faster women's swimmers as the fast men didn't have to worry about slower people in front of them. Still, all in all even with the goggles and treading water waiting for my turn to get out, I had a killer swim time: 21:58. 10th fastest overall swimmer (male or female or relay) YAH! I'm going to chalk this one up to Crossfit because my swim times in the pool have been getting noticeably faster with every pull-up-and-push-press-laden Crossfit workout I've been doing.

Into T1, I mentioned before that some lame-ass latecomer racked his bike right on top of my transition area. I couldn't easily get to my stuff, and my bike was totally stuck behind his, which was also wedged against the triathlete to my left, leaving both of us struggling with locked handlebars trying to escape T1. 2:22 for T1 was slower than it needed to be.

Onto the bike, I've been doing some of my CFE intervals on hills to prepare, but looking at the course profile was a bit daunting with that 2100+ feet of elevation gain. Still, it didn't seem all that bad once I got out on the course. Most of it was a long gradual climb, and then there was one steepish bit towards the end. I felt pretty darned good on the first round, which took me 26:19 to finish. That seemed like a good pace, felt very much within my usual Oly comfort zone, and would put me under 1:20 for the bike course which was what I was aiming for. I zoomed down the back side of the hill, and into the U-turn for the 2nd loop. This is a great course for spectators with a 3-loop bike and a 2-loop run, and hubby was cheering loudly right before the turn-around which really got me smiling. The 2nd loop breezed by because now I wasn't worried about it, 26:48 was the pace for that one and I was soon watching hubby cheering again. By the time I hit the 3rd loop, the course was getting more crowded with folks from the sprint race all hitting the bike course.

This last loop on the bike was also when I noticed that now that I was about 90 minutes into the race, I was slowing down considerably. I just couldn't seem to get any steam on that last loop, which for me is unusual. I'm usually an endurance specialist. Not particularly quick in the short run, but generally the longer I go, the better I feel. This race was starting to not play out that way, and I could feel that my snap was going. It was a really odd and new feeling and I didn't think I liked it. More and more women were passing me on the bike (this is unusual, usually it's maybe one or two total!). Last bike loop took me over 30 minutes, way slower than the first two, for a total bike time of 1:23:30.

Still, steaming downhill into that last u-turn was great fun, knowing that the big hills of the bike course were behind me and all I had left to do was the run. Normally, the run in an Oly race is pretty fun for me. It seems like I usually run my best after an hour or so on the bike to warm up, and this run course was flat, scenic, and the temperature was balmy and pleasant. After wrestling my bike onto the rack (strangely, there was now a different bike racked right over my transition area!) I was out of the chute and onto the course. About halfway through mile one, it became apparent that this wasn't going to be the race I had hoped for. I just had nothing left at all. It was the weirdest feeling, like running out of gas in a car. Hubby saw me after the first loop and knew I was just having a really tough time of it. The 2nd loop was more or less a death march, just couldn't get going Not really able to even enjoy the scenery. Final run time: 57 minutes, about 5 - 6 minutes slower than I should've been.

So, bottom line report card on the training protocol I've been following: I think I have gained a lot of strength and power, and I could really feel it on the swim and in the fact that the big hills on the bike seemed pretty easy, despite not putting in a lot of mileage on hills like I've done in years past. I felt that I really came up short in endurance though, and for me at least I feel like I can definitively say that short intense training does not train my body in the same way as endurance training. I don't think I would follow this protocol for anything longer than a sprint triathlon. While it might be a fine way to train for someone with limited time who just wants to complete a race, I don't think it gives enough endurance to be able to be competitive. Case in point, this is the first race shorter than Iron distance that I haven't placed in my age group in many years. It was actually kind of humbling to go through that, and probably good for me in many ways. At the very least, it told me something about the way I've trained this year and the way I've trained in years past. I can take the good parts from this year and move forwards, and chalk the rest up to experience.


Swim: 21:58
T1: 2:22
Bike: 1:23:30
T2: 1:28
Run: :57:03

Total: 2:46:21

You Go (Seven Year Old) Girl!

Along with me doing a triathlon last weekend, our daughter did her first tri as well! It was a 50 y swim, 3 mile bike, and a 1 mile run and she was great!!



















That's her coming out of the water in the pink top. By the way, she has the best natural swim stroke - like a chip off the old block I tell ya'... She swam 250 yards in the pool the first time she ever went lap swimming with me (which was a few weeks before the triathlon) and no swim lessons either! Of course, the kids' triathlon was more of a dash through the water than anything...




Transition time. You go girl!



Crossing the finish line with my exhausted and sweaty hubby behind her - he ran with her the whole way, even while she biked, so she could feel safe (the bike course went out on the roads.) She had a great time and wants to train for another one next year!

Missed, By An Arm Warmer

So I was standing on the lakeshore yesterday morning in about 41 degrees of horribly damp cold, with rain streaming down my ears and saying to myself "This is why I never do early season triathlons in the Northwest. Sorry, make that the NorthWet." It didn't help that I'm still trying to shake this chest cold (so why am I out in the freezing drizzle doing a triathlon? I have no answer for that one.) And it doubly-didn't help that the long-sleeved wetsuit I had rented for the occasion (see previous comment about never doing early season tri's, I've never needed a long-sleeved wetsuit before...) didn't work. As in leaked water like a sieve. As in didn't fit right or something (good thing I tried it out before the race). So I'm standing there on the lakeshore in my sleeveless warm-weather-wimpy-triathlete farmer john style wetsuit getting ready to go into the water. In the words of Han Solo, I had a bad feeling about this.

That bad feeling was one of my intuitions, those things I've learned to listen to now that I'm old enough to believe I'm more or less mortal. And it was based on the fact that this is a pretty hilly, curvy bike course with many of those curves coming sharply at the bottom of those hills. I'm not the world's best technical cyclist on a good day, and this was not looking to be a good day. So I told myself (again, and again, and again) that I was not going to try to qualify for Nationals in this race, and therefore I did not need to kill myself on a slick wet corner going hell bent for leather on my bike. Having decided that one up front, I also decided to put on some arm warmers when I got to T1, judging (quite rightly) that my arms would be nearly frozen coming out of the lake and riding through the biting wind would be unpleasant at best. If I wanted to qualify, of course I would've never taken the time to pull arm warmers onto wet arms with nearly-numb fingers, but I was not going to worry about it this time.

Out onto the bike course, I played it safe. Using my patented Hill Weenie steering techniques, I probably frustrated the hell out of the riders around me, three guys I kept passing on the uphills who then usually passed me on the downhills. But, given my cornering history (remember my day with Billy Blaze?) and the steep dropoffs to the lake on the side of this road, I didn't really want to go riding off into the puckerbrush again, so I didn't have a very fast bike time, in fact I think it was the worst I've posted on this course, ever. But, I was alive and not covered in road rash, and given that the race organizers said that there would be absolutely no pickup of cyclists on the course ("you'll just have to walk" was the answer one gave to the question of whether or not cyclists with injuries or technical problems would be assisted back to the transition area), I was doing good as I rolled into T2.

Well, good until I put my running shoes onto my frozen slabs of meat...er....feet. And then tried to run on said slabs, which I pounded senselessly into the pavement over and over thinking some blood might start flowing to them eventually. All that run training I've been doing to get faster and I was looking like a Frankenstein monster on crack out there. Thud thud thud. At this point, I was apparently in the lead, however. No one bothered to tell me this (usually a race official or kind spectator will at least mention it!) so I didn't know until I was getting close to the run turn-around, which was also when another woman passed me. Still, first off the swim and bike, and a good mile into the run course is not a bad day under such conditions. Another gal caught me, and then one more just before the finisher's chute (grrrrrr) but my legs weren't going to go any faster, so I just kept chugging along as best as I could. Very very surprisingly, I turned in a PR for the run on this course for me, at 25 minutes for the 5k. Don't know how I managed to do that, except that maybe that run training and all of those hill repeats did actually pay off on this hilly course. That's pretty exciting for me, and gives me some hope for later in the season with non-frozen feet.

I ended up 2nd in my age group, 4th overall (though I'm listed in the race results as being male, the final indignity of the day I suppose), and there was only a minute and a half separating those fisrt 4 places, probably about the time it took me to screw around with my arm warmers in my slow T1, so the joke's on me there. In a way, it was a cool race though because it was different for me (early season, very indecisive about how to approach it and what to wear). I felt like a bit of a rookie, and sometimes it's good to push your own personal envelope a bit. I'm encouraged by my running, and not too discouraged by my slow bike time because I hope that these road conditions won't be repeating themselves in any further races this season!

Woooofreakinhoooooo

When you do triathlons, there's usually a nice little grace period in between races that lets you more or less forget about the pain you were in during the race, and remember the nice afterglowy feeling of having completed it successfully. This is more or less the same mechanism that allows humans to have more than one child, because if we didn't forget a lot of childbirth it probably just wouldn't happen.

So all of that is different when you step out of the triathlon world and into a race series like the cycling time trials I've been doing. There's one of them a week, and that's just not enough time to forget how bad it hurt last time. It's also a little strange doing the same course over and over, although I guess the upside is that you get to know it a bit better over the course of time.

This Tuesday was the last race of the time trial series, and to tell the truth I wasn't really looking forward to it. By the time my busy Monday and Tuesday is almost done, it just seemed like one more thing I had to do. Get all the gear together, slog out to the countryside and ride fifteen miles as fast as I could, then check it off the Palm pilot for another day. Fortunately, my hubby and the kids came along this time and that always makes it more fun. Also fortunately I had taken a peek at the rankings going into the last race and knew how close it was, so that was a bit more encouragement to get out there and go hard. The weather cooperated this time and it was balmy and lovely as the sun faded toward the horizon. I got a slot close to the start along with a couple of teammates, so I could look forward to chasing them and being done early.

Although it was a bit windy and I didn't post my fastest time on the course (and in fact, missed 1st place in Cat4 for that race by a measly 4 seconds), I held on enough to get the overall series win in the Cat4 Women's division. Woooofreakinhoooooo! There was only a minute between myself and the next gal over four races, so that was very close. I'm pretty excited, and my hubby has been nodding knowingly because he's been saying for a long time I should try my hand at just cycle racing. It does make me wonder what I could do if I actually got on my bike more than twice a week (I'm sure I will once the weather gets warmer, I don't usually ride this much so early in the year!) I don't know though, it was a cool experience and all but I really discovered something about why I love triathlons so much. It's that you're always doing something different. Every race is different, each course, each transition, even the water in the same lake is never the same twice. This was fun, but my true love remains triathlon.

Tri Tag

I was recently tagged on my Urban Farm blog (6 Weird Things About Me), and thought it would be fun to do a game of Tri Blogger Tag. I'm going to tag the people in my Favorite blogs list: TriGirl40, J. at Ironmanlife, Hakado Ru, Flatman, TriSaraTops, TriJack, Sheila at Mind & Body of Iron, and the Iron Kahuna himself.

If you've been tagged, answer these six questions, then tag six more folks.

1. Describe a memory from your first triathlon ever

2. Describe a memory from your most recent triathlon

3. What's the most embarassing thing that has ever happened to you in a tri?

4. What's the most thrilling thing that's happened to you in a tri?

5. What is something you discovered about yourself by doing triathlons?

6. What is The Big Goal that you're working towards?

My answers:

1. When I did my first triathlon, it was 1986 at Forest Grove, OR. My main goal was not to walk on the run, but my memory is of the bike course. It wasn't well marked and I don't remember any marshalls, just some chalk on the pavement. Several people got lost. I was biking along just looking at the pavement for arrows and almost ran into a cyclist ahead of me. It hadn't dawned on me that I might catch someone, so I wasn't even looking!

2. My most recent Tri was IMFL 2006. I had read in the race brochure that they wouldn't be letting anyone in the finisher chute but athletes, so when I came up the ramp and saw my husband and kids standing there, I just about burst into tears. We ran across the line together. The kids kept trying to stop and talk to me, and I said "We've got to run now!"

3. Hmmmm, that's a tough one since I've fallen over my own untied shoelaces before (I've gotten quick ties since those days). But it's probably the time I got passed in the run by a pregnant lady. I mean really pregnant. Did I mention I'm a slow runner??

4. Other than crossing the Ironman Finish line, I think it was a couple of years ago in the Hagg Lake Enduro Tri. I was coming out of T1 on my bike and there's a real steep upgrade out of the parking lot. This damn truck was in my way and driving very slow, I guess I thought some spectators or something. Then it stayed ahead of me driving very slowly and I was a bit annoyed. Until I realized it was the pace vehicle and I was the Race Leader! I've never come out of the water ahead of all the women and men before. I kept the pace truck through the whole first bike lap. Now that was a thrill!

5. Another tough one. I've been doing triathlons for half of my life now and I think so much of what I know about myself I've learned during training and racing. I guess the most important discovery for me was that I could change myself a little at a time. That big change doesn't have to happen immediately. In a society focused on instant gratification, this is such a huge thing to know and understand. I see it in training all the time, what is difficult today becomes easier tomorrow. But it has unending ramifications in all areas of life.

6. The Big Goal. I think I would like, someday, to qualify for Kona. I was only an hour and change away from the last qualifying spot in my age group at IMFL, my first Ironman. And with the dislocated toe and all that limping and my almost 5 hour marathon, I'm guessing I could be a whole lot closer than that. I think it's within my reach, one of these years. I'd probably wilt in the heat on the Kona course, I'm notoriously bad in the heat. But it would be cool to be there.

Eat, Drink, (Swim, Bike, Run) and Be Merry

As the comedienne Rita Rudner said: “It takes six months to get in shape and two weeks to get out of shape. As soon as you know this, you can stop being angry about other things in life and only be angry about this.” So here we are launching into the holidays, a time of not only eating, drinking, and being merry, but cold weather and dark, short days. Clearly, a time when it's easy to fall out of shape.

Yesterday was the Solstice, and we celebrated the fact that the sun will be returning to us, a little at a time, each day until summer. But for now the days barely start at 8:00 am and darkness is falling before 5:00. Finding the time during the busy middle of the day to get that exercise in can be daunting, and yet we have parties to go to and platters of cookies beckon. Luckily, like the fat squirrels outside my window, we athletes have a secret. We know that even if we pack a pound or so on here or there over the winter, it won't be staying put come training time. It won't accumulate, like a slow snowdrift, burying us in layers and layers that hold us to the ground. Before long (possibly even before the the last scraps of wrapping paper have been all picked up and thrown in the recycling bin), we'll be hitting the pavement, the pool, the trainer, or the weight room. We can't help it, our bodies just don't feel right without it anymore.

Tomorrow, we're heading over the mountain pass to some cabins where we'll spend Christmas with my mom, sister, and brother-in-law. I've packed up all of the warm coats, jackets, gloves, and boots. We'll probably go tubing, rent snowshoes, or hit the slopes, as well as build snowmen and throw a few snowballs. I won't have time to train, but it will be an active, busy holiday all the same.

So before I go, to all of my triathlete friends, have a wonderful holiday! Eat, drink (swim, bike, run) and be merry!

A Glossy Lie

Nine years ago, I was standing at the finish line of the Portland marathon, waiting for my husband to run across the line. Now, he's a pretty fit guy: at the time of the marathon he was 32 years old, 5'9" and about 170 pounds and one could easily picture him on the cover of one of those glossy sports magazines that always seem to feature buff youngish people looking vibrantly athletic.

The eye-opening thing that day though was the people who crossed the line in front of him. People of all ages, shapes, and sizes, people who ran faster than my fit poster-boy husband. There were dumpy grandmas, gangling teenagers, middle-aged executives, and a notable woman with a bust so big that it made me uncomfortable just to watch her run. That day, a realization dawned on me, something that had been kept from me all my life, something that is largely kept secret from all of us:

You don't have to be thin or buff or athletic-looking to be incredibly fit.

I know it sounds simple, but this one piece of information keeps so many people from believing that they are athletes, that they even could be an athlete. The fact that this concept is kept from people means that so many don't step out the door, don't even try. This idea affects even the lives of real, true athletes every day. I remember my neighbor once said to me, after I lost about 5 pounds (my usual amount) in the final stages of training for a half-Ironman "Wow, now you are really starting to look like an athlete!" Yes, starting to look like an athlete. Despite the fact that I had been running, and often placing well in triathlons for 17 years at that point, I was starting to look like an athlete. Why? Because I got a bit skinnier.

I am used to this, of course. I'm a big girl. I've always been a big girl. I was "a fat kid" in school, though looking back at photos, I was far from fat. I was stocky, big-shouldered, big-boned (much like my own children). I was also muscular, but that doesn't count if it means your waist or hips are bigger. So I did not self-identify as someone who could be an athlete, nor did others see me that way. I have always loved swimming, so I tried out for the swim team. The coach said I was "lazy" and would never be a good swimmer (there's also this myth out there that chubby or fat people are lazy, which is often far from the truth).

And even to this day, I deal with surprise, even from other athletes, that I am as fast as I am. I stood on the beach of a triathlon start one day and listened to three athletes behind me malign the Athena category (the female equivalent of a Clydesdale race category - to enter as an Athena, a woman has to weigh more than 150 pounds) as the "fat chicks division". They probably didn't know that the athlete in front of them (me) was registered as a bona fide fat chick. In fact, I beat the weight requirements for the category by a good 10 pounds. And that was also the last they ever saw of me, except on the run, coming toward the finish line, I spotted all three of them still heading out. In another race where I was entered as a Pro, one of the other Pros caught me just before the finish line and said (really!) "I can't believe you're this fast." In the Ironman last week, a couple of fit and hardy male athletes that I had met earlier were out on the run course when I caught up to them. We chatted for awhile and then I prepared to move on. One of them grumbled about having three hours left. When I said I was on my second loop of the run course, their jaws all but dropped.

Now I tell all of this because I think it's a vital message for people out there to get. So many people don't start exercising because they think they can't. Maybe their body type will never be thin, maybe they'll never get rid of that post-baby tummy or heavy calves or thick chest, or whatever their natural shape may be. I've seen plenty of people cross finish lines with those things. All of the fitness magazines out there give us a not-very-subtle message: if you look this way, you're fit. If you don't, you're not. I call it the Glossy Lie. Some of those people in the glossy photos are probably fit. Some of them are taking steroids and EPO and all kinds of other drugs in order to get that way. Some of them are starving themselves or throwing up or taking laxatives to look that way. Some of them are not fit at all. Some dumpy middle-aged woman out there crossing the finish line at the Portland marathon may be fitter than all of them.