Mach Tenn

I want to write up my race recap before I have the chance to look at any numbers from the race.  (This would be slightly better if I didn't know my finishing time and place, but I'm going to forget about that for now and pretend I JUST crossed the finish line...well, about 15 minutes ago...)

THAT WAS A GREAT RACE EXPERIENCE FOR ME!!!!

Let me start at the beginning.

PRE-RACE

Given the fact this was a shorter distance race (for me), I didn't do anything different leading up....no changes in my workout, certainly no changed in diet.  I had a hard-for-me bike ride Wednesday night (one that I totally ROCKED), a long swim on Thursday (that I finished which was a good thing), and then taught a strength Spin class yesterday.  I woke up at 4:00, got my stuff ready and got my sweet husband to drive me over to my friend's house so we could ride together.

On the way there we were talking about the swim/bike/run distances; she said the swim was 1000ish.  I thought it was odd that I was thinking it was 600, but I've been looking at a lot of races lately so I didn't think too much about it.

After we got there and picked up our packets, I went to air my tires (using her pump since I figured there was no reason to bring mine since we had hers).  All pumps are NOT created equally...I ended up letting all the air out of my tire and neither of us could get the thing to work!!  So, we decided to get set up in transition and try again.  As I was putting my number on my bike, my friend asked in an astonished tone, "What time did you put down for your swim???"

(((Side note for my non-triathlete readers/friends...many races base your starting position on your swim time.  In a perfect everyone correctly estimates the time it will take them, they all start in the correct order, and everyone finishes in a straight line.  Now...that NEVER happens, but if everyone is close then at least it doesn't get bottle-necked or congested in the water.  The lower the number, the faster the swim time/swimmer.))

((Friend says in astonished tone, "what time did you put down for your swim??"))  It was only at that moment that I noticed my number was FORTY TWO!!!  (She is a faster swimmer and her number was 308!!)  OH MY GOSH...the swim was .6...which my brain saw as 600!!!  I started freaking out.  I didn't care about people passing me on the swim, but the thing was I didn't want to be an impedance to anyone.  I didn't want to be like a big log floating in the water as all the fish were trying to swim by! 

Coach Karen, and some other friends encouraged me it was no big deal because the faster swimmers know how to go around people better than the slower ones do.  I decided to calm down, not worry about it and finish getting set up.  Thankfully the pump worked and I was able to have a very short little warm up in the water before it was time for the race to start.  Just as they were about to sing the National Anthem I asked the starting official if I could let others go in front of me and she calmly said that was NOT a problem!!  Whew-crisis averted!

SWIM

Since I had warmed up (I think that's the first time I've done a pre-race swim warm up), I new how far out I needed to run before starting my swim.  I swam strong, straight and fast-for-me.  ...for about 50 yards!  I intend to write a whole post about the swim later so I won't go too far into it here.  Instead, I want to focus on the fact that I started in a better position than I would have if I had estimated my time accurately, and passed A LOT of people.  I felt good a decent bit of the time and, without looking at my time/pace, I think I had a pretty average-for-my-normal-swim-workout-times time.  I struggled quite about sighting on the way back because the sun was in our eyes.  Also, I got HOT in my wetsuit toward the end.  (However, I am VERY glad I wore it because that thing gives me a HUGE advantage compared to not wearing it.)  ((Now, once I look at me time I might pull out the baseball bat and commence to dis on myself for my performance, but purely based on how it felt, I think I did about average.


T1


I think that might have been the slowest comparative transition I've done.  I'm usually pretty fast but I don't think that was the case today.  In addition to taking off the wetsuit, I felt pretty dizzy and almost fell over when I put on my shoes.  But, I'm pretty certain I wasn't the slowest either and I know I didn't miss placing in my age group because of it, so it's okay.


Since I had completely scoped out the transition area/run in/bike out layout I knew exactly where to find my bike and exactly where to go once I got it.  Fantastic.


BIKE


My friend told me the course was rolling the whole time.  I didn't have a good concept of what she meant until I was out there.   None of them were steep or long, but as soon as one ended another one started almost the whole time.  I am NOT used to that.  I shifted A LOT today-more than any other race ever!  


My goal was to push the whole time-even if it meant I could not stand up when I got off the bike.  All things considered, I think I did that.  I passed more people than what passed me (a first), and I was only re-passed by 3 people (all three of whom I re-passed and stayed in front of-I think).  At one point I was struggling a little.  I said, out loud, "DIG DIG DIG".  (If anyone was close enough to hear me, that may be why I wasn't passed as many times as usual!)


I kept telling myself it was only 16 miles...less than an hour.  I've been teaching tough, climbing, Spin classes that last longer than an hour for a while now, so this should be old hat...piece of cake!  My goal was to not leave anything on the course and be able to say I gave ALL I HAD today.  Based on what I know right now, I think I did that.  Now...let me say I know that when I learn how to suffer really well I'm certain I will have more to give but I can honestly say I haven't learned that yet.  (More on that later, too.)


T2


Again...because of my pre-race recon, I knew exactly where to go once I got into transition and where to go once I had my running stuff.  Still not my fastest time in T2 (comparatively speaking) but, all-in-all, not horrible.


RUN


I'd like to only say one word:  ROLLING.  But, who am I kidding, there's no way I could only say one word!  


I ran out of transition with a gal wearing pig-tails and a very fit-looking 50 year old man. The man looked strong so I decided to try to stay with him.  It always helps me to have someone to pace off of, or to chase.  I think once I get better at pacing (and suffering) this might not be the case, but that's what it is today.  It turned out Pigtails and Fit-n-50 and I were pretty well matched in the run.  Fit-n-50 had to walk some hills (obviously watching his heart rate) but ran faster on the down hills so he did this back and forth thing with us a good bit of the time.


I didn't wear my Garmin but I'm pretty certain the first mile was slow.  After mile one I told myself I needed to pick it up.  About that time I saw Coach Karen who was of course on mile 3 about to finish.  She yelled out, "DANA!!!  ARE YOU OKAY????"   She sounded so concerned it made me wonder if I was bleeding somewhere or if I looked like I was limping!!  I yelled back "I'M GREAT!!"  I realized after a split second she thought I had started out 42d instead of 309th!!  She had been looking for me the whole time and had been worried to death.  I worried it might have hindered her performance until I found out she came in 2nd Masters (1st won bike several minute...I don't think the worry over my well-being made the difference--WHEW!).


As I neared the 2 mile mark I worried.  I entered the water with two gals who I know are MUCH better swimmers than I am.  One is MUCH faster than I am on the bike.  But, I figured I am a faster runner than both of them so I hoped to have caught them at some point...but the course was an out-and-back and I had not seen either of them anywhere.  Could they really have been that far in front of me???


About that time I saw one of them, she was about 1/2 mile ahead of me I'm guessing.  She kindly said, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, YOU BIG WUSS???  YOU'RE A FASTER RUNNER THAN I AM, YOU BETTER CATCH UP??  YOU CAN RUN FASTER THAN THAT--SPEED UP!!!"   I love my hard-driving friends!!  I yelled back at her, "OH, I'M COMING ALL RIGHT!!  I'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER BABY AND I'M CALLING IT!!"...and promptly passed Pig-Tails and Fit-n-50 in my pursuit of catching up with (and passing) my friend.


About that time I came up to a gal with a star tatoo on each shoulder, I'll call her Rock Star.  She was running strong so I latched on to her.  We ran down a hill and then up a hill together.  I "knew" she was going to leave me as soon as she said, "good job" because I couldn't say it back to her.


My one real regret at that point was not trying harder to stay with her.  Instead I re-focused my attention on my friend who was only about 25 feet ahead of me, with one mile to go.  I hooked her and started reeling her in as we went up a hill.  She was holding her side so, with all the concern I had for her, I yelled out, "you better use that arm to get up this hill because I'm about to pass you!!  COME ON--WE ONLY HAVE ONE MILE TO GO!!!"  

We had talked earlier about willingness to suffer in a race.  A longer race is a little easier because you really don't hurt the whole time as much as you "should" in a shorter race.  The first time I heard a runner tell me a 5K hurts more than a marathon I though she was crazy.  But it's true...you run much faster the short the distance therefore you suffer more, albeit for a shorter time.  (So maybe the total "sufferage" is the same...but you get what I mean.)  We talked about those people you see who cross the finish and completely collapse, and how we really want that experience.  So, I added, "LET'S TURN IT ON, CROSS THE FINISH AND HAVE TO LAY DOWN!!"


I then passed her and proceeded to find a new target as she cheered me on.


My new target pair were both 40 years old-a man and a woman running together.  We rounded the corner and a volunteer in a wheelchair cheered loudly for us saying, "around the corner and down the hill to the finish!!"


DOWN THE HILL???!!!  Oh yeah baby, I can do this.  About that time I realized this woman in my age group was another friend of mine.  I yelled out to her that I was coming for her when, from out of no where, Pig Tails FLEW by me yelling, "COME ON!!"


OH YES!!!!  I LOVE IT WHEN I HAVE SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO RACE TO THE FINISH!!  She was a little ahead and we only had about 150-200 to go to the finish. 


My first thought was, "I can't sprint that far...she got me."  In a split second I remembered so many words from Macca's book "I'm Here to Win", coupled with the verse of the day I got this morning in my email ("I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil 4:13)...and my second thought was, "you will NOT beat me across that line" and I took off with ALL I HAD.


I'm pretty sure I heard some people cheering for me, but I didn't care.  All I cared about was getting passed her before that line.  And...I did!  Coach Eric was right there saying "GREAT JOB".  I couldn't talk!!!  He held his arms out for a hug and I darn near collapsed!!!  Now...it wasn't because I had gone hard the WHOLE time, but it's a start anyway!  It took me several minutes to recover enough to even make sound other than the involuntary guttural gasping for air sound coming out of my throat.  YEA!!  Success!!


I'm going to write up a whole post about Pig Tails because I had the good fortune to meet her later and get some of her story and I think it's pretty cool!!


POST RACE


After my friends came in hot on my heels, I went to load up my bike.  I told my the one I rode to the race with (the one who called me out for being a wuss and not running as hard as I could) that I wanted to say (before I saw any numbers at all) I felt I had just had one of my personal best races.  I figure the times wouldn't be that great given the rolling hills, but only speaking in terms of making myself PUSH and feeling like I had in fact done just that, I think it was fairly decent.


When we checked the results I saw my time was right at 1:56 and I had come in 7th place in my age group.  This is a smaller race so there were only like 11 of us...but that's okay.  this race has been around for 30 years, chances are high at least some of the others have done it and knew the course (which in my mind gives at least a slight advantage).  


I almost fell into the trap of allowing those numbers dictate my perception of the race, but I stopped because I remembered how I felt on the course.  I "know" I could have/should have swam faster, but that will come as I give more effort in my swim workouts.  I don't think I could have biked any faster today than what I did.  I may have been able to run a tiny bit faster, but I didn't feel like I left anything that I knew I had on the course...and I had not given up when I thought Pig Tails was going to beat me.


All-in-all, today was a grand victory.  


Now I'm going to look at my times! :D


Thanks for stopping in.  Come again soon for the rest of the story about the swim, Pig Tails and to see if I keep feeling as victorious once I look at the data!  
:D

NOLA Pics

I really wanted to make a slideshow, but I'll add that to my "when I have time" list!  For now...here are the professional pics from NOLA.  ((Some of them show how gross my thighs are, but I decided to post those too because I've seen a lot of people have gross thighs in race pictures!!  It is what it is, right?))   (Turn on the sound for the full NOLA effect!)

The day before the race...this water doesn't look SO bad...

Buoy out...swim cancelled...

Can you tell how hard the wind was blowing?

I love all the "end markers"-I didn't put the A there, but this was my row!

Seeing the pros start was more exciting that I expected it to be!  But seeing Mirinda running at the end was AMAZING!

1st run-should have worn my sunglasses!

Bike out!

Home stretch--NOT smiling

Smiling or just grunting?

early in the run

Still the first loop...I like the hitch-hiker look! :D

Okay..who wouldn't be smiling running next to ......Lake Ponchartrain.

Not smiling and no thumbs up...(terrible form-I'm "putting on the brakes"!!)

I need to have this determination THE WHOLE TIME not save it for the end sprint!

Gun time...chip time was 5:40:05.

AWESOME medal!

...and hat...that I somehow lost...but they were nice enough to send an even better replacement!

Yeah...it would have been better in a slideshow....but I'm on my way out the door to teach Spin class so this will have to do!!

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!  :D

Conessions of a Complete Hypocrite

In light of my last post, Coach Eric sent me my "bank statement" showing my training data from the last five months.  There were a lot of holes in there from times I had not reported my workouts so I went back to my log and my data and filled in as many as I could.  In the process I took a close look at my day-to-day workout reports.

Here's the thing...I would have said I did about 70% of the workouts as written.  Uh...maybe up until the last couple of months...(I didn't go back and look at every day)...but from mid March until now I have either made excuses for not doing the work out at all, doing a different workout for whatever other excuse, or made excuses for why my workout wasn't up to par.

Let me talk in terms of my bank account analogy...I think that will make it easier for me.

I have "always" been very good at managing money.  By that I mean I can take a meager salary (by my own standards) and stretch it to get what I WANT while still paying my bills and not paying with credit most of the time (and not ever without a plan on how to pay it off).  What I want has typically revolved around travel.  As a single mother I took my kids to Florida, the Grand Canyon my son to Europe and my daughter to New York City.  (My daughter had a trip to Europe too, but that was funded by my sweet husband.)  All the while I made a sizable house payment and paid my bills on time.  I was able to do this because I watched EVERY SINGLE PENNY.  I didn't buy Starbucks unless I could legitimately afford it in my budget.  I planned out about a year in advance for everything.  I played nothing by ear and took nothing for granted.

The key to a good budget is knowing exactly where/how you spend your money, knowing exactly what your monetary goals are, having a plan and FOLLOWING that plan.  I did that for the most part.  I might modify things along the way to accommodate various changes (I want some new shoes so I have to give up some entertainment money).  I didn't let opinions about my salary control my spending (my opinion or others').  I took what I earned (my deposits) and made it work for what I wanted (my withdrawals).  I didn't live beyond my means and I didn't squander my earnings then turn around and say "I can't afford what I want because I don't make enough money."  I also didn't play it by ear then wonder why I didn't have the things I wanted.

Bringing this back around to my training...in the past I have tried the strategy of just going out and doing what feels okay at the time (playing things by ear).  I have tried having a plan and not following it closely, doing part of the workouts or not giving them my all (not following the "budget").  I have tried thinking I could do better on race day than what I have prepared for ("living beyond my means").  These have all lead to frustration.  I think the thing I really didn't fully see is just ow far off I allowed myself to get in training and how it has all added up.

I can't honestly say I have wondered why I haven't had better results.  What I can say is that I have lazily settled for results below what I truly desire.  But...here's why I'm a hypocrite...I have seen other people do this and have preached to them exactly what they need to do.  "If you want to do your best on race day...all you have to do is follow the plan AND do your best in training."  "You say you can't do a workout because 'life got in the way', all you have to do is make a plan to make it happen...don't allow life to be the boss of you!"  "Make, and follow, a plan or plan to fail." I've spent the last two and a half years beating myself up over not meeting my own expectations (usually unspoken) when I've been in control of not only the goal, but also the plan, and the effort.

Here's the thing...I am NOT saying everyone has to be a competitor.  But don't say you are and then fail to train and compete.  I'm not saying everyone has to train, but don't be upset if you don't meet a goal.  I'm not saying everyone has to have a goal, but don't be upset by the fact you don't seem to be getting anywhere or that you don't like where you are.

I see this more often in the area of food.  People will say they want to lose weight, but they have no idea how much, or what kinds of foods they are eating.  I have said I want to lose weight but have made choices along the way to give up what I want MOST (to lose weight) for what I want now (just a tiny piece of chocolate pie). 

I'm a hypocrite because I KNOW the "right" things to do, and am critical of myself and others for not doing them.  It's one thing to read Coach Eric's status updates on FaceBook that say, in effect, if you aren't having the results you want, take a look at the effort you are putting forth and seeing my own data staring me in the face.  For the record, he has never said to me, "HEY!  YOU, DANA, aren't doing what you are supposed to be doing--that's why you aren't having the results you desire." ...he just allowed me to discover this on my own, which is having a very powerful effect on me.

I just hope I can hold on to this determination to seriously go after what I know I want MOST--to figure out what my best really looks like and to DO IT.  The hard part is knowing what that means.  It's "easy" to say "I want to save up for a trip to Venice" and them make that happen (at least it would be for me).  Knowing what "my best" is and getting there is something no one else has any control over or say in.  Eric can't tell me if I am giving all I have in a work out on any given day.  Eric can't tell me how fast I "should" be able to run/bike/swim. 

I want to be VERY CLEAR here...I am NOT beating myself up.  I'm taking an honest evaluation of myself.  In terms of the money analogy, I'm looking at my income and my expenses and financial goals, coming up with a serious budget and making firm plans to follow the budget.  In terms of the food analogy, I am taking a serious look at my food diary (with no exceptions made for just a bite of this or a taste of that), coming up with a realistic diet, buying the food to make it happen and making a firm commitment to sticking with the plan.


I'm writing this out because I know I'm not the only one in this boat.  It's too easy to change goals mid-plan.  It's too easy to "decide" I don't really want to compete, I just want to have fun.  I know that's now what I really want (the desire I believe, for whatever reason, God has put in my heart) because of how disappointed I feel after the fact.

Again, I am not saying everyone should want to compete...some people I've known have had just the opposite experience.  They have this natural ability and compete VERY WELL but are unhappy...because their heart's desire is to just have fun and not allow the competition to have the control.  They need to leave the Garmin at home and just have fun.

I'm boldly saying I believe God made me a competitor.   He didn't make us all the same, thankfully, but He did make me this way and I'm ready to embrace it, to submit to it and to stop questioning it.

Man...three posts in less than 24 hours...I'm on a roll here.  :D
Thanks for stopping in again...come again soon!