New Wetsuit!

Tried out my new wetsuit this weekend. I really liked it. It might be a little big, but felt great. Should be fine unless I lose a bunch of weight, and since I've been trying to do that (unsuccessfully) for a long time, I don't think it will be a problem. It was easy to get on and the arm and neck holes felt really good not restricting at all. Over the chest either. I know one of the wetsuits that I tried, I just had a really hard time breathing, but this one was not a problem at all. And based on my estimated distance and time I seemed to be faster too. Always a plus! Had a really nice 30 mile ride this weekend too. It was mostly flat and very slow. (I was riding with a friend who hasn't been riding much) Very enjoyable. I miss having riding partners!

Yikes!

Ok, ok....so I haven't posted much...hate to say it but it's mostly because I haven't done much...Swam once this week...not good...I need to run, my run need so much work. However I just took a look at the upcoming tri website and was surprised to see that I've been bumped up to the 45-49 age group...I should have realized it goes by your age on Dec. 31, 2009...and yes I will be 45. Must get to work.... am riding tomorrow a longer ride of around 30ish miles I think. Will probably be pretty easy as I'll be riding with a friend. Hoping to run on Sunday morning and then swim, hopefully a trip to Boulder Rez to try out the new wet suit!

Yea!!!!

My new wetsuit is here! I'm hoping to get out to the reservoir this weekend and try it out.

Riding high!

Saw this guy out riding when I was out tonight. Pics not great I snapped it with my cell. Looks like a long way down! I had a really good ride this evening. 17 miles with a couple and I do mean 2 hill repeats..oh my god they killed me! My lungs were burning something firce when I finished. I really need to work on hills. My plan is to work in at least a couple extra hills on every ride. Felt really good to be out there tonight. I can't beleive that soon it will be dark by the time I get home from work.

So today didn't turn out at all like I thought it would.....

.....alarm went off at 4:30 the first thought in my head was, I really don't want to do this. I don't want to get up, I don't want to drive out to Aurora Res. But up I got, down to eat some oatmeal so tummy would have time to take care of it before the swim. A little coffee dressed, bike loaded and off I go. Not sure where I'm going since I've never driven out to this reservoir and it is not in my neck of the woods. So I get pretty close and I'm suppose to make this turn that I just can't find, well of course you can't silly it's not marked! (hate when streets aren't marked!) Finally figure it out but starting to worry about being rushed once I get there. Must be out of transition a little before 7 and had hoped to have plenty of time but it's now approaching 6:30. Finally find the reservoir there is no one in the guard stand so I go on through looking for the sign on where to park...nothing...looking for something that looks like a transition area....nothing...looking for a bunch of women...again nothing. Huh? Look at the water, very choppy, but they wouldn't cancel would they? Call the hotline...goes through the schedule..."and if your doing the rehearsal on Saturday" SATURDAY!!!???? What was I thinking! So I turn around and spend almost another hour driving home.....Just how you want to spend the hours between 4:30 and 7:30 on Sunday morning huh? LOL! But after seeing some of the hills and that choppy water I was darn glad not to be doing anything out there. After I got home I went ahead and hoped on my bike and went for about a 15 mile ride. Not working to hard but it was a pretty good ride. Came home grabbed the dog and went for a short run, passed the 1 mile mark doing pretty good. Run along some more look down and the Garmin shows .90...WTF!?! I'm not running backwards! It then proceeded or seemed to move forward...I sure hope it's not dieing! I can't afford a new one and can't imagine living with out one! Any way finished my run and mapped out on Running Ahead just a short 1.6 miles, but a good brick. Just becuase it wasn't what I planned it was still good..with the exception of the Garmin thing!

Now off to make a plans for the week.

I did it!

September 19th!

I am woman hear me roar!

Not me, but I wish!

It feels good to do things you don't think you can. Being a single woman I am faced with things on a regular basis. Today's challenge ....changing a dead bolt that decided to stop working. Feels so good to be able to do these things that once upon a time I would not even have tried.

So today I've been giving some thought to my results of yesterday. Funny I had, apparently told my son that I just wanted to beat last years time, even if it was by only 3 minutes. Which I did. However you know of course that I am somewhat disappointed in myself. With the improvements in my swim and transitions I should have been able to do better. My bike was not that much slower, (which I'm a little bummed about as I thought maybe I was a little stronger) and of course my run...that is the real problem in this equation. Why could I not seem to push myself to run more. As I said I walked way more then I ran and I don't really know why. I just couldn't seem to push myself to a little pain...and I do mean a little because really I felt pretty good. So how do I get past this and how do I become a faster runner? That is the question I'm dealing with. I don't need to break a 30 minute 5k but I would like to be a lot closer to it. How do I get myself to just deal with the "pain" it will cause to run faster? Things to ponder.

And speaking of pain...I seem to somehow have acquired some sore shins. Now I've had some injuries in my 2 years of "running" however I've never had any shin issues. I tend to run a fair amount of hills and I've never had a problem, so I'm not sure if it was possibly a result of running of the boat dock in bare feet to transition, or running up the damn hill to the dam road. Either way I'm not very happy about it.

Last but not least...I'm thinking about doing one more tri in September. I was considering a 1/2 marathon, but really tri's are what I like so why not spend the money doing what I really like. It's a small one only 750 people. It would be my first co-ed tri, although I did do the Stroke and Strides last year that were men and women. I'm a little intimidated to take out my girly hybrid bike, but at some point you just gotta say "what the heck" Or maybe I just need to say

I am woman hear me roar!

Tri for the Cure 2009

TRI FOR THE CURE 2009

SPRINT TRIATHLON

SWIM 750 meters (1/2 mile)

BIKE 18.3k (11.4 miles)

RUN 5k (3.1 miles)

You might want to make sure your comfy....this is kind of long! And I want to tell you guys all thanks again for all of your support. You are the best!

Done! All went well I'm not sure of my exact times as I don't think I did my watch right. I didn't want to use my garmin, so just used my waterproof watch/lap counter. I think it was around 1:54. Which would be about a 3 minute improvement over last years, not much but I'll take it! Woke up at 3:45 although my alarm wasn't set to go off until 4:15. Had a little oatmeal with yogurt mixed in a cup or 2 of coffee and off I went. I was pretty nervous this morning on my way there, but once I got into transition things were all good.

Me in transition before the race. Behind me you can see the run start and the dam road

Just a general shot of the transition area, one small part of it. You can see it on both sides of the road.

Transition is just amazing! I forgot how big it is! When you are talking 3000 bikes and women it is just incredible! It's hard to tell from these pics but trust me there are a lot! Which reminds me...I biked my rack in the wrong place...:) 6 instead of 9 ...maybe I'm a little dyslexic or something. But when I realized it I decided not to move it at that point. Our rack was not really all that crowded so I don't think it really mattered. So on to the swim, met a really nice woman in the corral while waiting to swim. We chatted for quite a bit and that made the time go really fast, before I knew it was our turn and in the water we went! Water felt pretty good, a little initial shock but once you were in it was fine. It was about start time that I realized I was in about the middle of the group instead of the back were I usually line up but to late to do anything at that point. The horn sounds and we're off! I had a really hard time finding my rhythm. I think I was at the first turn before things started feeling better. I was feeling pretty good though, behind me were a bunch of blue caps (my wave) and I was starting to catch the slowest from the wave in front of me. Although about this time the fastest from the wave behind us were also passing. I did run into quite a few people this time but no major problems. Before I know it I'm getting out of the water, I think my time for the swim was around 19 minutes, that would be an improvement over last years 22 minutes. I made an effort to run up the boat ramp thru transition ( I really wanted to speed up my transitions times which were crazy long last year, however as I said transition is crazy huge!) Felt like I did pretty good got to my bike shoes on, shirt on take a drink and head out, although I did get stuck behind a girl who was just kind of moseying along, I couldn't pass her because it was to narrow. The bike starts off on a small uphill which was not a problem, but it always seems like the first 5 miles of a bike ride is all about warm up. This ride is pretty flat although I think it's a bit uphill and we were going in to a headwind. There is one pretty rough hill just passed the 1/2 way point. Passed a lot of people and got passed by plenty too. It's amazing because you see every kind of bike you can imagine out there. Even saw one with a basket on front! You also see all size and age women it really is incredible not to mention inspiring to see some of them out there! So anyway made it up the hill and from there it was easier, slightly down hill an flat. At this point I saw one lady walking her bike and it looked like her handle bars had fallen way forward or something..yikes not sure what that was all about! Getting off the bike again could tell that I have not done my brick work like I should legs were a little wobbly, but I have a long way to the other side of transition to get it together. Had to stop for a pit stop in the bathroom, and as one girl put it those porta potties rocked...I mean literally rocked! The were not very stable at all and some of them just king of threw you around inside. LOL! Business taken care of and it was off to run....well walk....I did a lot of walking I'm afraid to say. It's not only my bricks that didn't get worked on this last month. :( The start of the run, about 3/4 of the first mile is all up hill. You have to run up from the boat ramp to the dam road. and then out about a mileish or so on the dam before you turn around and head back. And I got to tell you it is so hot up there on top. It's all black top surrounded by rocks (you know the dam) and there was no breeze at all. I was getting the chills on and off (something that happened last year too, think I may need to get more electrolytes) on the plus side the end of the race is downhill. One thing that I don't much like is you can't see the finish line until you are on it. You run down the hill and then have to round a corner and then it's right after that. It would be nice to be able to see the finish line before you hit it. I believe I finished with a smile on my face and could not resist raising my arms and doing a little cheer. I got my finisher metal grabbed a water and headed over to the CWW tent to see who was there. Met up with a girl I've become somewhat friendly with ( she had passed me on the hill in the run) We grabbed a beer and a bagel and chatted with the coach a little. Yoli is such a great coach, she is so full of enthusiasm. At that point I headed back over to transition. I wanted to try and see my friend come in from the bike (they had started about an hour later then me) My timing was almost perfect I had only been standing there a few minutes when the headed in off the bike. I snapped some pics of them and saw them off on the run. Then I headed up to a portion of the run where I could cheer for them as the came in (after getting another beer of course) Got to cheer for a bunch of people which is fun, it really makes a difference to have people cheering. Snapped a few more pics of my friends as they came down the hill and went to the finish line to say hello to their families. I'm really proud of these two for doing it.

My friends and I after they finished. Way to girls!

They were the two that were going to do it last year and then both had to drop out the week before. Neither has been able to train much, and one of them had a baby about 3-4 months ago, and was on complete bed rest for the last 3 months of her pregnancy...way to go girls! Wow that's quite a long race report, and I'm sure that I left something out. I have to say though that this is such a well run race, I can't believe the job they do considering the amount of people and all the logistics of a triathlon.



Not sure how well you can see this but this is a line of people leaving, now there are still alot of people racing too and that line stays that way for a long time. In fact this was when my friends were running and it was not much smaller when I left an hour later.

Feeling pretty good all in all, iced the knees a little and I can feel some stiffness, but all in all just a walk in the park...along with a bike ride and a swim.

Official time with last years time in red

OVERALL RANK 1588 OUT OF 2890
CLASS RANK 192 OUT OF 286
SWIM TIME 00:20:11 (22:14) RANK1152
T1 00:05:00 (7:11)
BIKE TIME 00:43:43 (43:06) RANK 1337 SPEED 15.6
T2 00:04:55 (5:25)
RUN/WALK TIME 00:40:32 (39:19) RANK 2155 PACE 00:13:04
TOTAL TIME 01:54:23 (LAST YEAR 1:57:17)