Digging Deep

I can't say I'm feeling the motivation to train this week. I am currently trying to talk myself into heading down the the gym. I only need to get in a 3.4 mile run (including watch calibration) and a 1700 in the pool, but I think its time to be thankful that this week and next week are the last two build weeks before taper begins. (That should be motivating, right?) My body is tired and ready for that break!!

Time to get it done. Think hot tub post swim.

PS - Amusing article on triathletes in the DC area: http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/health/wellbeing/19594.html

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Afternoon update: I did the swim, not the run. My legs were screaming for a rest a bit too loudly so I decided that I could get my short run in before yoga tomorrow. I decided to do a 300 warm up followed by a (my first!) 1500 for time. Wasn't really sure how that was going to go (my 1000s had gone pretty well, but 1500 just sounds so long), but I wanted to do something at least semi-mindless and not have to worry too much about intervals and such. It went well, but I learned/noticed two things that I will take into account on race day:
1. Try to stretch out the new swim cap they give you as much as possible. I wore my one from the practice tri and felt a nice (or not so nice) fuzzy feeling in my forehead starting around the 500 mark. I also remembering noticing it out on the practice race day, but don't have the issue with my caps that are a little more stretched out.
2. Goggles. Normally during a work out I adjust my goggles regularly-- they need defogging, they're not sitting right, or whatever other minor issue there might be. I wore goggles today that normally give me zero problems, but leaving them on for a 1500 didn't go as well. They were causing some serious pain in between my eyes. I really wanted to stop and adjust, but kept telling myself everything won't be perfect on race day either and I pushed through, not however, without making a mental note to wear any and all potential race day goggles for at least an hour. I'm sure this will amuse my husband at home. :)

A Picture, Finally!

Us and our bikes before heading out for a long and wonderful ride in Ocean City, MD. More photos to come once I get my act together!

Bike Bummer

Braking is not the easiest part of biking for me. I had some medium sized shims put in to help me reach the brakes; those worked OK, but my hands were still getting pretty tired when having to break more often (going through the city, down hill, etc.) so I had some bigger shims put in. Those did not work for me. Had then taken out and my back brake started acting up. Long story short, I ended up having to leave the bike at the shop on Friday which I was (and am!) really bummed about. Biking is my weakest link in the tri disciplines and a weekend without riding on the real road is bad news for me, especially with only a few more weekends before the tri (three to be exact). I went to spin class at the gym down the street from our condo on Saturday morning instead since I was supposed to get 23 miles in. Definitely wasn't the same, but better than nothing I suppose. Kept the heart rate up and sweated buckets. I did the hour of class and then stuck around for another 30 minutes to get the full 1.5 hour ride in that was on my training schedule. We spent the rest of the day running some errands and between the errands and our morning work outs, we worked up quite an appetite. Jon cooked up some delicious steaks and homemade french fries (seriously the best I've ever had!), along with yummy corn on the cob (yay summer!).

On Sunday the hubby and I decided we should get some open water swim practice in so we headed out to Sandy Point State Park. Word to to the wise: Maryland state parks are not free. It cost us $6 per person just to get onto park property and then we had to park a hike and a half away from the beach... which was especially annoying when I left my swim cap in the car. But we got a good 50 minute swim in in some pretty rough water. My shoulder is bugging me a bit today (the 2800 I swam on Friday probably didn't help matters), but hopefully it will be better when I hop in the pool later this week.

Monday morning so I better get back to work.

Practice Tri!

We did great! The hubby and I both finished, and finished strongly! I was worried I would finish last so I was shocked and pretty excited to be the third woman finisher. Granted it was only a practice race and not nearly the distances of our race in July, but still a bit of a confidence booster especially considering the weather was not too great. It POURED all morning to the extent that they delayed the race start time by 30 minutes and shortened the swim. I wasn't sure that I even wanted to partake in the race at that point as Jon and I were running around in our soaking wet clothes, setting up our transitions, etc. BUT we did it and hopefully we'll have some pictures of the finish line from the race organizers soon!

My goals for the race (and yes, I actually wrote these down beforehand!):
1. Relax and breath.
2. Long strokes.
3. Breath, especially on bike.
4. Enjoy! You have trained for this!
5. Some things are out of your control; do your best.
6. Learn some new things along the way.
7. Finish!

I think I can say I accomplished all 7 and I saw a baby turtle on the bike ride! It did take some restraint to not stop and hang out with him or bring him back with me (although I do think another woman just might have). We encountered seaweed on the swim, and wet, kinda slippery and soggy bike and run courses, but all in all a good day! Of course we rewarded ourselves with a feast at Matchbox in Chinatown afterwards... mini burgers, pizza and beer included.

Tri-ing is Tiring!

I wrote out my whole first post that I was pretty excited about, then I came back to my new blog and it was gone. Apparently I did not save it correctly which is a huge bummer because it was the perfect precursor post to the practice tri the hubby and I did last weekend. So I suppose I'll do a mini introduction (and let's be honest, my previous attempt at a first entry was mostly a rant about biking and the huge challenges road biking has injected into my life) and then get back to a post race report.

I'm Jaime. I live in Washington, DC with my wonderful husband and we have both been training for the Olympic distance DC Tri in June. Aside from the previously mentioned hurdles with the biking aspect of triathlon, training has been going pretty dang well for us. I've always been a swimmer (not always by choice however) so that portion of the training hasn't been too intimidating for me although open water swimming is an entirely different beast that scares me a bit. On the running side, I've been running farther and faster than I ever have before so that's great! Biking... where to I begin? I have recently taken to calling my bike my nemesis. My bike and I definitely a love-hate relationship; it was mostly hate for the first couple of months, but we've had a few love days here lately. To make a long story short, the jump from beach cruiser to fancy road bike was a bit too much for me to handle especially with those dang clipless pedals. Needless to say I spent a good amount of time falling and am currently riding with platform pedals while I get used to the skinny tires, hand breaks, shifting, snazzy gear, etc. Its been slow going some days, but I'm definitely making progress.

I think I've been inspired to start my own chronicalization (because that's a word, right?) of my experiences by many of the other female triathlete bloggers out there and hope that writing all this down will keep me motivated along the way. So here we go!