A nice break...now back to work!

Welcome to 2012! 

I have high hopes for 2012.  Not that 2011 wasn't a good year, it definitely was, but I call 2011 my "transition" year.  It was the year I transitioned back into being single and living alone again.  Transitioned into a new position in my job.  And most proudly, transitioned into the being Half Ironman triathlete! What does 2012 hold in store for me? I'm not quite sure yet, but its gonna be a good year!

So what have I been up to since Oilman Texas?  Not too much.  I took a lot of time off from swimming, biking and running.  It was coming up on the holiday season, and I was just drained from all my training.  I deserved the time off!  Although I did do two races...The Turkey Trot 10K and Reindeer Run 5K.  Both with my running buddy, Melissa.  With her back feeling better, it was great to be able to run with her again!  

With the new year, comes a new triathlon season.  I've started thinking of which races I'm going to do this year, and I think I have narrowed down.  My last post, I wrote about doing the Lonestar 70.3 race in April.  After a lot of contemplating, I've decided to do it!  In fact, the race is 12 weeks from today! So here I go again...although this time around it will be a much different training routine -- I'll be training in winter (its been a very mild winter for us so far...maybe it will stay this nice?).  Also, while in training, I'm going to be working more on toning my body...and slimming down my weight.  I was looking at racing pictures of me in 2009 and I have to admit, had a great lean body.  I want to get back to that.  I'm also going to change up my training...I learned (mostly during my race) that I need to have more long brick workouts (i.e. long bike ride followed by a long run).  That is where I think my biggest weakness was during my previous 70.3 training.  Nutrition is something else I need to improve as well.  Lots of new goals for me!  I'm excited to get started!

Here is what I believe to be my 2012 triathlon race list (assuming I still live in Texas through October...) :

April 1 - 2012 Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas

April 29 - 2012 Memorial Hermann Kemah Triathlon
August - TriGirl Sprint
August - Clear Lake International Triathlon
September 30 - 2012 Memorial Hermann Houston Triathlon 
October - 5150 Galveston Triathlon

So there it is.  Let the training begin! 

Oilman Texas 70.3 Race Report

I can now say I have completed a Half Ironman race!  And it wasn't easy.  Although that really doesn't matter. It was worth it.

About 15 min after I posted on Saturday morning, I was getting ready to put my bike and gear in the back of my car when I noticed my front tire was flat.  Turns out the valve stem was bad on the tube and therefore the tube couldn't hold air.  Thank goodness it decided to fail now and not during the race.  Once the tire was changed, Melissa and I loaded up my car, and we were off to Pink Berry for some frozen yumminess...

...then we were off to Conroe!  The rest of the day and evening was spent picking up my packet, checking out the swim course and transition area, eating a pre-race Mexican dinner, and then some relaxing.  This just happened to be the evening of Daylight Savings, so I fortunately got an extra hour of sleep, which I actually took advantage of.  The alarm went off at 4:45 am.  I got my gear together and we made our way to La Torretta Del Lago Resort, the site of the 2011 Oilman Texas Triathlon.  I set up my transition spot, and then Melissa and I made our way to the swim start.

1.2 Mile Swim:  44: 50

My age group was the first wave to go.  I typically like to make it a goal to catch someone in the wave ahead of me.  Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to do that in this race.  Although, the official race clock would show my actual race time as I crossed the finish line, which is a cool thing (good for photo ops!).  As the race began, I had a temporary moment of panic.  The water was pretty cold and I felt my wetsuit was choking me.  After about a minute, the panic subsided, and I just got my swim on.  Then there was some confusion in the water as to where we had to go.  The race folks on land told us something different than the race folks on canoes in the water.  So all of us girls swam one way when we needed to swim another.  We weren't happy about that at all.  But oh well.  Then when I made my way to the home stretch, I actually got up out of the water and started walking since the water level was so low.  I had been swimming for 41 minutes, so I was fine with walking the final 50 or so yards to the swim exit.

T1: 5:35

The way back to transition seemed like forever.  But once there, I got everything ready to go on my lovely 56 mile bike ride through the hills of Texas.  Those damn hills...

56 Mile Bike: 3:44:18

There was nothing pleasant about this ride.  I was happy to see that the city actually paved some of that rough road (apparently called chip seal), but turns out it was only for about 3 miles.  The rest of that 7 miles of chip seal felt like eternity to get through.  Then came the wind.  It wasn't horrible, but combine a ~10 mph head/side wind WHILE going through hills, just didn't come easy to me.  My legs felt like jello at the end of 56 miles.

T2: 2:54

T2 seemed to last forever.  For the run, put on my calf compression sleeves (which worked great!) and grabbed some Gu and a Nutri-Grain bar.  As I was leaving transition, I realized I forgot to take off my cycling gloves!  Oops!  Thats the second time this year I've done that!

13.1 Mile Run: 2:59:27

As I began the run, I knew the bike ride took alot out of me, so I devised a plan that I would run until I hit the half mile marker, and I would walk for a minute, then run to the mile marker/water station.  That lasted for a few miles, but then I ended up walking more than I expected.  The run course was a 3 loop course through the resort and surrounding neighborhood.  This was an advantage since I was able to see my great cheering squad!  Not only was Melissa there to support me, but my two other friends, Erin and Beth came up that day as well to cheer me on!  It was such a rewarding feeling to see them each time.  On the 2nd loop, I started having doubts that since I had been taking longer on the run that I expected, that I just may not make the 8 hour cut off.  This brought me to a really bad place.  The 2nd loop was by far the hardest mentally.  Then once I started the 3rd loop, I looked at my total time on my watch and saw that I could make the cutoff with only 4.2 miles left to go.  My mood picked up, but then with about 3 miles left, I felt some weird shooting pain in my left ankle.  The pain was enough to make me stop and walk.  Once it was gone I began running again.  This continued to the point where I began feeling it in my right ankle.  So I walked a majority of those last 3 miles.  As I came up to my awesome entourage and the finish line, I actually picked it up and fought through the pain to end my first half ironman experience with a smile on my face.

Total time: 7:37:05

Once I crossed the finish line, my friends were immediately by my side.  And let me tell you, I was pretty emotional, just taking in the whole experience and knowing I was done. I had finished the race.  My friends surrounded me in a huge group hug and we were all in tears.  It was the greatest feeling I had all day.  A moment I will never forget.

So you may be thinking, will she do it again?  The answer: Yes.  Will I do the Oilman Texas race again?  Probably not.  Ironman Lonestar is on April 1, 2012, a race I'm considering.  This race is in Galveston.  One word comes to mind that I'm in love with:  FLAT.

  

Tomorrow is the big day!

The day is just about here! In about a half hour, my friend Melissa is going to be here and we're gonna start our way up to Conroe. Its only an hour and 15 min drive, but doing that drive tomorrow morning when transition opens at 5:30, means I'd have to get up around 3:30 am.  No thanks.  So Melissa and I are staying the night near the race venue.  Melissa, my tri training buddy from the very beginning, is awesome enough to stay with me the night before and she'll be driving me home tomorrow after the race.

I've been thinking alot about how I feel...and I feel good.  Getting a little nervous, but it really hasn't sunk in yet. Maybe it will when I pick up my packet today and see all the other triathletes. My transition bag is filled to the brim, with everything I'll need and more.  Of course, I'll take everything out at the hotel and repack it with the stuff I'll actually use for the race, but the planner in me is being overly conservative.

This morning I did my final swim, bike and run.  It was a short workout, enough to get my muscles loose and relaxed.  I had a massage yesterday, although it was about 80% stretching and 20% massage.  Which was fine by me!  Hamstring feels great.  I think I'm ready. 

One last piece of motivation:

One. Week. To. Go.

I can't believe it.  One week from right now, I'll be on the bike course, and on my way to finishing my 1st Half Ironman race!  This past week was a my first of two taper weeks.  I feel good.  I feel ready.  Did my last 'long' run yesterday, and it went well. Today, I'm going out to do an open water swim in my wetsuit to get reacclimated with it, so I don't have a "freak out" episode like I did during the swim in the Kemah triathlon in April.  And then next week, every workout consists of a swim, bike and run.  Nothing more like getting me in the mood, than to do little mini triathlons the week of my big race!
Today's motivation:

Trial Bike Ride

This weekend I did a trial bike ride on the Oilman Texas race route up in Conroe.  I was a bit nervous about this ride since it is quite a bit more hilly than anything I've rode on before.  Yes, those spin classes I take help somewhat, but nothing compares to the real thing.  Thankfully, three guys from work offered to do the ride with me, so if I couldn't make it up one of the hills, at least I'd have someone able to go get the car for me.  :) 

Actually, the ride turned out pretty good.  It indeed was very hilly, and the most difficult bike ride I've ever done, but I made it.  And the good news, I still had some fuel in the tank when I was done, so running 13.1 miles afterwards could very well be doable, although it may involve some walking.  Although, by the end of the ride, my quads were on fire.  Those hills just did them in.  We did stop along the way and rested and had our nutrition, which I'm thinking I just may do in the race as well.  The route was actually pretty beautiful, and at one point, it didn't even feel as though I was in Texas.  Six miles into the route, we encountered the roughest road I've ever rode on.  I literally thought my bike, and myself for that matter, may not make it if the whole 56 miles were like this.  Thankfully at mile 17, it was done.  Turns out after to talking a girl after we were done who also just rode, said that pavement was not there 2 weeks ago.  I wonder if the race folks knew that was happening.  I guarantee there will be ALOT of complaints about it. 

All in all, I am very happy I decided to do the trial ride.  Now I know what to expect on raceday.  Only two weeks to go...I can't believe its almost here...

Last big training week...then let the taper begin...

To start off my last big training week, what did I get to do?  Nothing.  Off day.  Yippee!  Just because its a nice rest from my 50 mile training ride I did yesterday morning.  My longest ride to date.  I felt pretty good, a bit windy at times, but nothing like my 40miler I had a few weeks ago.  I did stop 3 times to give my legs a few minutes rest, which really helped.  I'm debating whether I should do this in the race or not.  Since my goal is to basically finish the race, I'm not to concerned with my bike time, and I want to make sure my legs are up for a 13.1 mile run afterwards.  This time last week, my right hamstring was bothering me, which began hurting after my USA 10 Miler race.  My workouts last week were impaired from my hurting hamstring, enough I decided to go see my awesome sports chiropractor.  Since then, its feeling much better, and I barely felt it on my ride. 

As for the USA 10 Miler race last Sunday, it went well.  My total time was 1:47.  For the first 5 miles, I paced myself with a girl running just ahead of me (seen in a pic below), then a friend of mine who is training for the NYC Marathon caught up with me and we ran the rest of the race together.  It was pretty humid, and actually started sprinkling on us for the last 4 miles.  Then, literally ~30 seconds after I crossed the finish line, it began to pour.  Thank goodness I was done! 



So I'm already looking ahead to this weekend.  I'll be heading up to Conroe with a few friends to ride the race route so I can get familiar with it.  Its supposed to be hilly, so we'll see how it goes. Below is the elevation chart for the route.  I'm used to riding on pretty much a straight line graph.

    

28 Days.

I'm less than one month away.  I can't believe race day is almost here.  Now the mental part begins...I can do this.  I will do this.

Alittle motivatin always helps...