Rochester Olympic Triathlon Report

I've been sitting here for a few minutes, trying to put a label on my Rochester Olympic Triathlon experience today. Sometimes we do things that are obviously good, fun, or successful. Sometimes we fail, have a hard day, or know we could do better. Well, I can't quite boil Rochester down to just "good" or "bad", so I'll just tell you about it and maybe by the end I will figure it out.

There were only 62 women doing the Olympic distance, and they were an impressive group of athletes. All 62 were in one wave and everyone looked like they had seriously trained. I lined up with Natalie and Amy, both looking well trained and ready to race. I was able to get into a regular swim stroke right away and didn't have any serious bumps or problems. We did two loops in the lake, with a little beach run over a timing mat between the laps. I swung out and went too wide during the long straight away on both laps, which added extra distance. The .93 mile swim was my longest open water swim yet and I finished in 31:27. This is slightly faster than the pace I swim at the pool, so I'm satisfied.

You may remember my constant complaining about removing my wetsuit at the last race. Oh, ya, I also complained about the open wound on my neck from my new wetsuit. Well, no complaining today! The race had "strippers", so I sat down and the nice man ripped the wetsuit off in two seconds. Yeah! I also solved my neck problem with two applications of New Skin followed by plenty of Sport Shield. My neck came out of the race with no chaffing or pain. Two thumbs up!

Not to digress too much, but let's talk geography for a second. My understanding is that icebergs came across the northern part of Minnesota and scraped it flat. This is the reason why there aren't many big hills where I live. Well, apparently the icebergs stopped in Rochester and deposited all of the dirt into great big hills. Gee whiz! Not only was the bike course unbelievably hilly, but the wind was fierce. On flat parts of the course where I should have been cruising easily, I was working hard just to maintain forward momentum. When my chain fell off around mile 9, I was actually happy because I got to get off the bike for a couple minutes. When I had to stop to fix the chain, I lost the gaggle of people that were my speed, so I rode the rest of the 24 mile course with very few people in sight and no spectators. I was a lonely and it was a very tough ride. I finished in 1:38:26 which is right at 15 m.p.h. Again, I would say that I was satisfied given the conditions and that I had no one around to chase down or keep up with.

Somehow I came through Transition 2 without my race number belt. When the race was over, it was gone, so I think someone took it and that is why I didn't see it and think to put it on. I wouldn't have minded except I had a GU on the belt. I was really wishing I had it about a mile into the run. My legs felt okay but I felt sapped of energy. I ran the first mile and ran/walked the rest of the 6.2 miles, finishing in 1:06:05, or about a 10:36 pace. While the run wasn't one of my prouder efforts, I was tired and I feel lucky that I was able to manage anything less than 11 minute miles.

Mike did the race, too, as well as our friend Brian. Here we are afterwards:

I guess, in my ideal world, I would judge a race on whether I did my best and how my performance compared to my training. In that world, I would say that the race was difficult but that I still finished each leg of the race in the time that I would have guessed given my training. When I think that way, I am satisfied.

When I look at the race results, I finished 52 out of those 62 women. In my division, I finished 13th out of 13. Hmmm... that doesn't feel so good. Does that mean that I'm not good at this and that I didn't try hard enough? I wish I was faster and that I could say that I came out at the top of my division. I'm coming to grips with the idea that it's just not going to happen for me. I'm training two hours a day, 6 days a week. I think I'm going to have to be satisfied with the idea that I lined up with those other women and that I was proud to be a member of that group. I'm still working on that line of thinking... to be honest I wish I had placed a little higher in my division.

In the end, I guess I would characterize myself as being satisfied with my race. I now realize that the Olympic distance is much more difficult than the Sprint. During the Sprint race I was able to keep myself going on adrenaline, but the Olympic course is a mental and physical challenge. I'm glad that I did it, but I'm also relieved that my next two races are shorter. I've only been training in all three sports for a couple months, so doing the Olympic early in the season was a probably overly optimistic. I'd like to try another Olympic next summer, after I've had a full year of training like this. Hopefully next time I'll be a little bit faster and have a little more fun. For now, though, this is just fine.

Working Out the Kinks

My triathlon last weekend pointed out some things I need to work on. My number one problem during the race was my wetsuit. As I complained about at length, I couldn't get the wetsuit off over my calves. The wetsuit that I rented was a couple years old and had reinforced knees. This area wasn't very stretchy and resulted in me being frustrated during T1. In my own defense, I don't think my calves are extra large. I thought that the numbers on my arms and legs were cool, so Mike took a picture of my calves. Here's a picture so you can judge for yourself:

See? I think my calves are a pretty normal size. If you think they are big, I would appreciate your keeping your thoughts to yourself, thank you.

Living in Minnesota, the temps are still dropping into the 40's at night. It's going to be quite a while before the lakes warm up enough that I'm going to be happy swimming without a wetsuit. During the race, I noticed how much easier it is to swim with one. I like the extra safety that the buoyancy adds, too.When I returned the rental on Monday, it also happened to be my birthday. I decided that it was time to buy my own, proper fitting wetsuit. So here it is, my new swimming partner:

This Blue Seventy is not only girlie and cute, but it is super flexible. I was able to get it off in the changing room in 30 seconds. Yeah! For my birthday, my parents gave me a super cool Blue Seventy triathlon bag. Us girls love it when our accessories are coordinated!

I'm going to try it out for the first time tomorrow with a lake swim with a friend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will keep me warm and afloat. This will be my first real open water workout, so I'm a little excited and a little more nervous. I'll let you know how it goes!

Anticipating PRD

Marathon racing, for me, is a lot like a roller coaster ride. The high excitement of signing up for a race is like being at the top of the big hill that starts every roller coaster. This hill creates the momentum and excitement that will be needed to take riders up and over all of the big hills, curves, and loops along the journey back to the station. At the end of the ride, everyone is smiling and instantly wants to get back in line and do it again.

With a marathon, though, there is no getting back in line to race again the next day. While some of my running friends have amazing abilities to recover and race again within a couple weeks, my body just can't take it. I tried jumping back into training for the Disney Marathon right after the Twin Cities Marathon and it didn't work for me. Knowing that my body is going to need a break, I am anticipating Post Race Depression (PRD and yes, I made this up so don't try to Google it).

In an effort to avoid the post race let down, I signed up for my first triathlon. I'll be doing the Buffalo Sprint Triathlon on June 7th. It will give me something new and different to look forward to right after the race. I'm figuring that the marathon training will take care of the running, and that I can do the training that I need for the swim and bike while I taper and recover from the marathon. The swim is .25 miles, the bike is 13 miles, and the run is 3 miles.

Since the race is June 7th, I declared yesterday, April 7th, as my first official day of triathlon training. Being a female, I kicked off my training season by going shopping! I decided I better get my wet suit situation figured out since the water will still be very cold on June 7th. Luckily, Gear West is only a couple miles from my house. Everything in Gear West just looks like so much darn fun!

I'm not really sure what I'm looking for in a wet suit, so I decided to rent one. For $40, I can use one of theirs and see how I like it. I've done some other pre-season shopping over the last couple months. My husband, Mike, had aero bars put on my road bike for Valentine's Day (very romantic!). I bought some top of the line bike shorts which I love, and some tri shorts which I haven't tried out yet. I have some nifty goggles and a sweet road bike from last season.

Hopefully I'll think this triathlon thing is a lot of fun because I signed up to do an Olympic distance on June 28. I'm thinking that both of those races will be enough to keep me motivated and that I'll avoid PRD. It's going to be hard to stay depressed while I'm busy planning and doing two new activities, and of course, there is always the cool new gear to cheer me up!

Me vs. JLo: The Match Up

I'm already regretting that I said that I was going to take on Jennifer Lopez's triathlon time. Note to self: check a person's finishing time before mouthing off a challenge. I've never done a triathlon, so maybe I'm wrong, but unfortunately for me her time doesn't look too bad. Here is the breakdown:

.5 mile swim: 20:52

T1: 6:09

18 mile bike: 1:14:36

T2: 3:09

4 mile run: 38:51

Total time: 2:23:38

I've never done any open water swimming, but I know it takes me about 35-40 minutes to swim a mile in the good old pool with no one kicking me in the face. I don't see any advantage for me there. What about the transitions? I'm guessing that it takes a little longer to get that curvylicious body of hers out of that wetsuit, but anyone that has a PUH (personal umbrella holder for those of you that don't read Perez Hilton) probably had a special coach to teach her exactly how to strip as quickly as possible. (I'm always looking out for you men. Trying to keep you reading!) Again, I'm not seeing a big advantage for me. Her bike was about 15 mph which seems pretty normal depending on the terrain. For the run, she ran just under 10 minute miles which is probably comparable to me on a day when I didn't run and swim just minutes beforehand. Hmmm... this is not looking good.

To add to the idiocy of my challenge, I am doing a much longer race than Ms. Lopez. I will be doing 1.5K swim (.932 mile), 25 mile bike and 6.1 mile run. Even if I try to just beat her pace, I think I'm going to have a tough time since I'm going so much further. Oh, and Mike (who convinced me to sign up for the Olympic distance instead of the Sprint) just happened to mention that the bike on this course is extremely hilly. Thanks, Mike. That might be some good information to share with me before I sign up.

Now, JLo did have twins just 6 months before this race. You would think this would be a big plus in my column. I guess I will have to concede that point and mention that she does have unlimited funds for training, a chef, and equipment. I could go on and on about the fact that she trained in California where it is perfect training weather every day and I have to live in &%$#* Minnesota where it was 5 degrees today.

Does it sound like I'm kind of copping out of this challenge? Good, you are getting the right idea.

Me vs. The Celebrities: Round One

In November of 2007, I was in New York City to watch my husband, Mike, run the NYC Marathon. The day before the race, we walked to Central Park to watch the Men's Olympic Trails and were stunned at the speed and athleticism of the racers. We didn't hear about the tragedy until later that day, so we left the park in awe of the athletes and inspired by the pursuit of their dream to go to the Olympics. The next day, I cheered Mike on as he reached his goal of breaking the 4 hour mark. He did this only four weeks after running the Twin Cities Marathon in record heat. At mile 10 of the race, Lance Armstrong, an inspiration to millions of cancer survivors, ran right in front of me. I saw Paula Radcliffe, who had a baby the previous year, lead the pack of elite women. Not far behind them was my son's Cross Country coach, a local woman about my age and running just minutes behind the world record holder. That day, I saw countless people of all shapes, sizes and abilities run past me and achieve their goal. It was enough to bring me close to tears.

So, given that entire weekend of being witness to a thousand dreams, what did I take away as my primary motivation for my first marathon? Katie Holmes. Katie Holmes gave birth in April 2006 and completed the marathon just 18 months later in NYC. Of all the things I saw that day, for some reason I became obsessed with her time of 5:29:58. All through my training for the Fargo Marathon, people would ask me what was my goal and I would always answer the same, "To beat Katie Holmes." Why? Her real-person time of 5:29 was inspiring mostly because it was so average. This wasn't like Lance Armstrong finishing under 3 hours, or even Oprah running a respectable 4:29. Katie's time was that of a real person... a real mom of a toddler with a real life and a real body with real limits. In fact, having never run a marathon myself, I thought it was on the slow side. Yes, I was quite sure I could crush it. For goodness sakes, even if I had to walk, at least I could beat Katie Holmes.

So what happened? Well, I did finish over 30 minutes faster than her, but unlike her, I was not able to appear in high heels at my husband's movie premier later that evening. No, I laid in bed for several hours, limped to Applebee's for dinner, then limped back to bed. No high heels for this girl. So, while technically I beat her, I think it would be fair to say it was pretty darn close.

This past fall, I was minding my own business and training for another race. Wouldn't you know that another celebrity had to go out, mere months after delivering twins no less, and complete a triathlon. Curse you, Jennifer Lopez! Get ready celebrities, I'm bringing on Round Two. Rochester Triathlon- you are on my schedule and I plan to crush JLo and her luscious booty! (Men, get your mind out of the gutter.)