52 Degrees in the Twin Cities

Having become obsessed with the ten day forecast upon my move to Minnesota, I use this weather predicting feature fairly often to plan outdoor events. Today was no different. Knowing it was going to be in the 50s, I scheduled a run with Claire earlier this week, and we had a really great run together this morning along the Mississippi River. We were both working off hangovers, and today's run proved to be a satisfactory treatment.

Running with Claire is great, because she keeps a good pace, challenges me to pick up my speed, and we don't get to see each other too often, so we chat the whole run and the time just flies by. I canceled my gym membership earlier this week, so my last day at the gym is going to be April 14. But between scheduling running dates with Claire, and Rachael, who I run fairly often with as well, I think I will have ample opportunities to exercise. Claire is running her first 10K next week, Rachael signed up for a half marathon, and another friend, Lanser, is competing in her first triathlon this summer! Working towards my new triathlon goals and having some friends to keep me accountable is going to make this summer especially productive.

Final Stats

Vacation Sports posted the final times for the triathlon yesterday, and I was thrilled at the results of my first race! I met all of my goals (finishing; not finishing last; and not walking at all during the run portion), and when I came around the final turn towards the finish line, I thought I was going to die of happiness. Six months ago, I couldn't run a mile without stopping. To see hard work truly pay off in concrete results such as a race time is so gratifying.

My overall time was 1:31:19, and I finished:

• 264 out of 476 total competitors (men and women) in the sprint distance. 
• 79 out of 211 women
• 12 out of 23 in my age group (women 20-24)
• AND I had the third best bicycle time in my age group

It was such a great experience, and I can honestly say that every second of the time I was competing was enjoyable! I have already started looking at more triathlons, but one of the bad parts about living in Minnesota is that triathlon season is really only from May to September. At this point I am planning on competing in another sprint triathlon in spring 2011, and I'm going to aim for a specific time. In the meantime, I have to continue working out and maintaining the healthy habits I've picked up along the way. Second triathlon, here I come!

Hugs from the #1 fan!

The Finish Line

 

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!! More details to follow, including final race time and pictures.

The Final Countdown

The triathlon is tomorrow! I was emailed final instructions for checking in and registration along with some mildly complicated directions about each leg of the race. My new fear is that I will somehow go off course and be disqualified.

The past two days have flown by with my number one fan in town. She showed up on Thursday night ready with a cowbell and a big sign. I think I am going to have the loudest cheering section at this triathlon! I woke up early this morning and went on a 50 minute bicycle ride. The lakes were completely covered in fog and the early morning mist made the ride seem vaguely eerie. But my legs felt good, and I think Golden Eagle Jr. is ready for the race tomorrow! I removed my pannier rack last night and my headlight in order to streamline Golden Eagle Jr. in any way possible. I may not have the fanciest bicycle out there, but at least I won't be a complete embarrassment to the sport of cycling.

Today's activities consist of some outdoor yoga at Lake Calhoun for one final big stretch before the race, and then heading over to Lake Phalen to scout out the course. I started packing my race bag last night, and I am SO EXCITED for tomorrow morning.

Training in the Boundary Waters

Traditional triathlon training took a hiatias over the past four days, as I was roughing it out in the Boundary Waters on a camping/portaging trip with some friends. We did some canoeing and portaging, but I had planned on a lot more swimming. Unfortunately, the cold temperature and high winds prevented any of us from jumping into the lakes willingingly!

We got back into Minneapolis around 6 pm, and on the entire 5.5 hour drive back to the city, I went back and forth about whether or not I would work out once I got home. It was a beautiful evening, and eating some sugary road trip treats along the way gave me a second wind after that long drive, so I decided to run the loop around Calhoun. I did the loop in under 30 minutes, which really raised my spirits about Sunday! Lately, I have been a little worried about the racing - fearing that I won't finish or will have to walk during the running portion.

Running around Lake Calhoun has become a bit of a safety blanket. I really enjoy the loop, because it is a perfect 5k (the exact length of the run in the tri) and it is enjoyable, especially in the evening. But I also know exactly when I am halfway around the loop, I know when I'm a quartile mile away, and I'm concerned that not knowing where the end of the race is will detract from my time on Sunday. My number one fan arrives in Minneapolis tomorrow, and I'm hoping we can drive over to St. Paul on Friday or Saturday to check out the course! I think that will relieve some anxiety and get me even more excited about the triathlon on Sunday. So close to race day!!!

OMG Race Info!

Scratch the part about Jennifer Lopez being the best part about my day today. I just got an email with more information about race day! I LOVE information, and I hope you do too, because I'm sharing whether you like it or not and also including my lunatic ramblings: 

RACE DAY SCHEDULE:

6:00 AM- Transition area opens with bike racks.  First come, first served for your placement. What is the best placement to have?! Mental note to do research on placements in transition area to make best strategic decision.

6:15 AM- Registration opens. There, you'll pick up: bib number to pin on for bike & run (we have pins)  velcro strap with timing chip to wear on your left ankle, swim cap provided in the color of your "wave" start group, helmet numbers to place on front lowest brim of bike helmet, and race memento t-shirt. Yes! Race t-shirt that I will wear ALL.THE.TIME. (as long as I get a small and if there are no smalls, then I get an XXL per usual, and give it to my dad). Also, I hope the color of my swim cap is green, because that's my favorite color.

6:15 AM- Body Marking- participants will get their race number marked on their arm and leg by volunteers. Amazing! Temporary tattoos! So many sentences to put exclamation points at the end of!!!!!

7:30 AM- International (Long Course) Race start.  Last year there were 10 starting "waves".  The International Course were the first 3 waves.  Next up were Short course males from youngest to oldest, and then females-with the last wave being the oldest short course females.  Waves were only separated by a couple minutes, so it goes fast, be ready to go.  Actual waves will be set closer to race date. 10 minus 3 equals 7 waves of short course participants. That's me! More people participated in the short course last year - interesting....

8:00 AM- TENTATIVE race start time for Short Course.  Actual time will be set after waves are set the week of the race. YES YES YES! This is when I become a triathlete!!!

11:00 AM-Estimated time of awards.  Medals for top 3 in each age group, or category of Elite, Athena, Clydesdale, Male Team, Female Team, and Coed Team. Also, stick around for your chance to win door prizes! I will be hosting my own awards celebration in the parking lot with bottles of champagne and orange juice. Mimosas, anyone?

One More Reason I am just like Jennifer Lopez

Guess what J-Lo did? She competed in a triathlon for the first time. JUST LIKE ME. This might be old news for some of you celebrity gossip mongers, but finding this out pretty much made my day. You might remember that J-Lo is on my ipod shuffle and her music (Let's Get Loud in particular) really gets me going. I can only imagine that J-Lo also listens to her own music when she works out, so again, the similarities between us are astounding.

For the past couple days I have been taking it easy and trying to get physically better before I resume training. My horse-pill-like antibiotics seem to be working, and I'm feeling a lot better than earlier in the week. I have been using my bicycle commutes on the Greenway as my workouts, and as long as I'm feeling good tomorrow, I'll be back into the swing of things. In the meantime, I'm going to spend the rest of my work day researching J-Lo's training routine and cute hairstyles for the triathlon. 17 days til race day!

One More Setback

This is the story of a girl attempting to train for her inaugural triathlon who continuously fights off sickness to prevail against all odds. At least I'm hoping that will be the story. I recovered from strep throat only to now have tonsillitis, and even though I began a heavy dose of antibiotics today, my throat is still very swollen and painful. I attempted to run 3.5 miles today, but I got to the 1 mile mark and my inner ear was hurting so bad I had to stop. I can't even express how disappointed I am in my body and in myself right now. Instead of pushing through and finishing my run, I came home, and I'm hoping with a lot of sleep tonight and lots of fluids, I will be feeling better enough to be back on schedule tomorrow.

My race is only 20 days away, and I'm starting to get very nervous about how I will perform. I have yet to do another open water swim and my transition workouts have been less than enthusiastic. I have been looking forward and working towards this race since April, and now that I'm less than a month away, I find myself wishing I still had more time. How is that possible?!

The Cutest Triathlete Of Them All

Anyone who has talked to me in person lately has probably become aware of my obsession with having a matching triathlon outfit for the race in August. I bought tri shorts off Bonktown a while ago, and I have been searching for a top ever since. Well, today I hit the jackpot! I randomly searched for the matching top on google shopping this morning, and instead of zero results, as have appeared in every previous search, I found one this time! One, sole, remaining matching tri top, in a size small on some random website in Texas. If anyone has ANY idea of how hard it is to find small sizes on sale, this fact alone should make you understand why this made my day. Normally, my disdain for Texas would prevent me from supporting the state in any way, but I had to put my personal feelings aside in the name of triathlete fashion. 

Even better, the tank top was on sale AND I found an online coupon for another $10 off. The combination of savings on top of savings nearly blew my discount-loving mind. In 5-7 days, the two pieces will be combined to create one super-amazing Captain Planet-like power field that will get me to the finish line!

"Watch out for lake rats"

My first open water swim didn't go so well last night. It began when we arrived at Cedar Lake, and Jihone pushed me into a patch of algae, yelling "Get started!" Things only got worse once I started walking to the edge of the swimming area and felt unknown substances and possibly lake creatures underneath my toes. I'm not going to say that I was scared, but I will say that I had a mild panic attack when I put my face in the water and realized I couldn't see anything, even when using my goggles.

Once I had actually calmed down enough to contemplate swimming, more disasters ensued. My stroke broke down completely. I'm used to swimming four strokes, then turning to breathe. In the pool this isn't a problem because I can see through the water at all times. But in the lake, I found myself swimming in complete green darkness for four strokes until I finally took a breath and sighted.

After a brief coaching session, Jihone and I agreed that I needed to take a breath more frequently in order to see where I was going. Once I started taking a breath every other stroke, things got a little better, and by the end my confidence was back up again. If nothing else, now I know I need to do a lot more open water swimming before August 22nd. 26 days until race day!

Tacos: Triathlete Super Food

I swam laps today, and once I was in the pool, I realized I hadn't been there in a week. So what, you might think, one week, stop crying about it already. Well, I'm not crying, but my legs are, because this workout kicked my butt. I wasn't in the water that much longer than normal, but my workout consisted of longer sets with shorter resting periods. It's exciting on one hand, because it means I am a lot closer to the actual race. But on the other hand, I was in the water swimming laps for about 45 minutes and by the time I hauled myself out of the pool, my legs felt like jelly and I was as hungry as Michael Phelps.

I'm starting to seriously consider buying some of those awkward gel packets to squeeze into my throat during the swim/bike transition during the race. They are kind of like Go-gurt, but energy and not yogurt... I have been trying to avoid looking like a real big weirdo in this race, and staying away from high tech energy foods may or may not fall into that category. I haven't decided yet.

As for tonight, I pushed the thoughts of drinking vitamin Gak out of my head, because I already had dinner plans with great friends, Adam and Rachael, and I quickly devoured three tacos at their house in quick succession. Yum! Maybe I can patent my own taco flavored energy gel and pay off my law school loans?

#1 Reason Why I Couldn't Train for a Triathlon Indoors

I am really lucky to live in such an awesome city like Minneapolis where bicycle trails are abundant. The trails are all well groomed and maintained (even in the winter months) and provide ample amounts of rides with interconnecting trails to facilitate longer rides. The only potential downside to the trails are the number of rollerbladers that hog up space on the trail and always seem to be listening to their music loud enough that they don't hear the annoying "on the left" alert from me when I try to pass them. Or maybe they're just ignoring me. I'd probably ignore me too.

As my time on the bike increases in training, I realized how much I would hate having to be on a stationary bicycle in a gym for over an hour. Talk about boring! Instead I have been on some great rides lately. My new favorite, a little longer ride of about 90 minutes, takes me around Lake Harriet (photo above), out to Hopkins, MN, and then back on the Greenway to wrap around Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet again before heading home.

The best part is ending the ride on a beautiful evening like last night and seeing this sunset (photo below) over Lake Calhoun. Tres belle!

The Night I Won $4

See the horse coming in second? That horse won me four freaking dollars the other night at Canterbury! I know, pretty amazing. I bet you've never heard of anyone cleaning up like that at a race track. Next time I will have to make more of an effort to place bets. Figuring out whether the odds made it worth it to place a bet combined with semi-complicated betting machines made me less than enthusiastic to place bets. Too hard. I just like watching the horses.

I felt vaguely guilty for drinking beer and eating nachos and hotdogs instead of working out that night....nah actually I didn't feel that guilty at all! But I'm back on the path of straight and narrow now. I ran 35 minutes yesterday, and swam laps today. I have been following the swim workouts without adding up the total meter length of each workout, and I realized today that I've been swimming over half a mile already! Horray! A half mile (the length of the swim in the triathlon) is approximately 805 meters. I swam 1,100 meters today, no problem.

Looking back on the workouts from week one, I am already feeling a sense of accomplishment. The first week I swam 800 meters and felt sore and tired. Three weeks and an additional 300 meters later, I'm feeling confident and strong in the pool. I signed up for this triathlon to challenge myself and to have a reason to work out other than being obsessed with losing weight. I still have a long way until race day (78 days!), but I am extremely happy with my decision to sign up and have already seen the positive mental and physical effects of training. It's a good feeling.

Books!

I ran on the treadmill at the gym today, and then attended a yoga class. My low expectations for the yoga class were fairly accurate, and my obsession with CorePower continues...

But who cares about that crap, because I also stopped at the public library and picked up a load of triathlon books I ordered! LOOK!

Notice the two books for "idiots" and "dummies." The titles of the books are demeaning, but I suppose I am an idiot when it comes to training for a triathlon. For instance, I have already learned that if you wear a wetsuit, you also need to cover yourself in some kind of lubricant (kinky, I know) because apparently you get some rough sorts of chaffing! Sick! I'm not sinking $300 into a wetsuit anyway, so I guess I don't need to hang on to that piece of information, but maybe it will come in handy someday. Nah, probs not. I paged through a few of the books on my bus ride home, and I'm excited to read them after those five pesky finals. Oh, May 15th - how I await your arrival!

First Timed Run

I ran another lap (5k) around Lake Calhoun tonight, and for the first time I actually paid attention to my starting and stopping time. I made it around again without walking, although I must confess, it was harder to do on my own and with the 25 mph wind gusts. My time per mile was what I expected: 10 minutes. I'm not sure how to decrease that time, other than running faster. My hope is that the more I run, the better my time will become. I will have to read some books about this.

I don't think I have explicitly stated my goals on here for my first triathlon, but they are as follows:
1. finish the race
2. don't be last

Although I am far from swimming, biking, and running a complete course, I looked up last year's race times to get a general idea of where I need to be in 142 days. The top woman finished in 1:08 and the last place woman finished in 2:51. I would love to finish right around the 1:30 mark, but unless I buy a new bicycle, I don't think that's happening. Some time under 2:00 is realistic. More about getting psyched out about expensive triathlon gear that "makes you faster" later.

And on a final note, I haven't exercised this much in a week since high school - and that was because we had gym class daily....

First Triathlon

So last spring I was eating a bowl of Wheaties for breakfast (already off to a great start with my diet btw!), and as I sat there spooning the bowl...read third... into my mouth, I read about Hunter Kemper. Prior to this day, I had never imagined doing a triathlon. Triathlons fell into the category of impossible things like marathons, speed skating, dancing, etc. Things that my body cannot do basically.

Sure I was on the track team in high school, but I joined to hang out with my friends and let's face it, I threw javelin, and I sucked at it. My favorite days were when we got to stab pop cans with javelins in an attempt to improve "aim" and "return to our cave man roots." In college I mainly worked out at our campus gym, but that workout schedule strictly evolved around the days when I was not hungover.

In an attempt to try a team sport (my concern with maintaining a firm sense of a physical personal space boundary kept sports that involve other people from being "my thing"), I joined the law firm softball team where I was working one summer. This short lived attempt ended with a black eye and the nickname, Rocky, for the rest of the summer. Real professional, guys. Oh yeah, and I got this shiner during "practice" when a paralegal threw a pop-up towards me. Biatch.


I bought my first bicycle in college to avoid riding the metro or paying for cabs in DC, and somewhere along the way, I really began to enjoy bicycling. Likewise, swimming has always been fun. I was a lifeguard in high school and could swim the distances required for weekly trainings, but I was always last. Never mastered that flip turn. So, reading about Kemper inspired me to challenge myself and work off some of those cheese curds. I actually enjoy two of the three aspects involved in the competition, and after a brief Google search, I found plenty of triathlons in Minnesota.

The real journey here will be developing endurance, and hopefully, an affection for running. I have always been a fan of the brisk walk. I bust it out on city sidewalks and the hallways of the Mall of America alike. No one can hustle it to make an elevator like me. My 7th grade gym/health teacher once told our class that you could burn just as many calories running as walking the same distance, and as much as I've tried to forget the Richard Simons dances we were forced to learn, I have kept that simple equation (running calories = walking calories) at the forefront of my mind. Until NOW.

Dissuaded about the amount of time I would have to prepare, I delayed participating in a triathlon until this year. I sent in my registration and $65 fee last week and IT HAS BEGUN. Thus far, my training has consisted of running/walking around Lake of the Isles or Lake Calhoun and attending a 90 minute hot yoga class. I'll be participating in the St. Paul Triathlon, sprint distance, and I am hopeful! 160 days until race day. Stay tuned!