Race Report!

I got up at 5 this morning and drove down to Quarry Lakes in Fremont so that I could do the Mermaid Sprint Triathlon. This is the same race that I did for my first triathlon last year, so it was exciting to see what has changed since then!

My times:
1/4 mile Swim: 10:04 (last year 13:38)
11 mile Bike: 36:38 (41:07)
2.5 mile Run: 34:34 (38:31)
Total: 1:27:55 (1:39:03)

More than 11 minutes faster! That makes me really excited, anyway.

I got a pretty good kick to the chest at the beginning of the swim. I don't care if people want to breaststroke as long as they stay to the sides/back of the pack, but swimming in a huge tangle is difficult enough when it's freestyle and there are no explosive kicks involved! I managed not to suck up any water, though, so it was more of an annoyance than anything.

The bike was awesome. I maintained 16.4 mph the whole time, which is not amazing considering it's a relatively flat course, but there are a lot of turns and one overpass that isn't so bad until you realize that it's a looped course and you have to cross it 3 times in each direction!

The run... always the run is difficult. At this point, it has to be psychological. I know I can run 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. I do it all the time. But I walked a little, which slowed me down considerably.

But it didn't slow me down too much! Much to my own shock and amazement, I placed 3rd among the Athena group 29 and younger (Athenas are women over 150 lbs--you can opt into this group instead of the regular age groups, which are in increments of 5 years. Athena isn't necessarily less competitive, but it's usually a smaller field).

I really had a great day, and now I'm going to do a bunch of cooking and some laundry so I'm ready for the week ahead...

run report

Checking in... post hacking death running on Tuesday was not fun. It was okay, but MK and I decided that 2 miles was enough even though there were 3 miles on the schedule. We've settled into a comfortable 5 min run/2 min walk pace, though, which is great.

Wednesday I did not exercise. Sorry Hal Higdon! I didn't make it up in time to swim in the morning, and then the dentist made my head feel like it had been jackhammered so there was no evening workout. I'll work out tomorrow--either a swim or a good hour on the bike, I promise!

Tonight MK and I did 3 miles to make up for the missing mile on Tuesday. We're going to try to run the whole 2 miler next week, but the longer runs will have to be okay at the interval pace. I think by the race we could probably push the interval to 8/2 or even 8/1 but we'll worry about that as we go along. For now, we're both pretty happy to have found a comfortable pace--I'm stubbornly running despite my non-running nature and she's been out of the game for a while.

Before the headache took away my will to live last night I did manage to acquire a lightly used bike trainer from Craigslist at a steep discount. This weekend the spare room/C's closet/yoga room/future nursery (that's all one room with many purposes) will be converted into the yoga and bike training room!

Two days in a row!

I don't promise this kind of frequency, but I'll try to do better than 2 posts in a month for February.

January goals update:

• Do my diaries on time, every day. Um, nope. Don't want to talk about it.
  
• Do the Wii Fit progress chart every day. Pretty much, yeah!
  
• Go to boot camp 3 times per week. I went a few times, but more importantly I'm sticking to my training plan.
  
• Go swimming once a week. No, gotta try that again.
  
• Bring lunch from home at least 3 days per week. I think I did that, yeah.
  
• Eat 5+ fruits and veggies every day. Very close to every day!
  
• Make a dentist appointment. Yup!!

February goals:

• Do my diaries at least once a week (more achievable!)
• Do the Wii Fit test every day
• Go swimming once a week
• Keep up with the Hal Higdon 10K training plan
• Bring lunch from home at least 3 days per week.
• Eat 5+ fruits and veggies every day.
• Complete my dentist appointments (3 appointments, don't wanna talk about how many fillings)

Today I rode my bike and crashed, but not badly. Thanks for putting my bike back together, Molly! Then C and M and I wandered around the farmer's market and hiked at Lexington Reservoir for a while. Now I'm chilling and watching the Superbowl, thinking about doing some work or taking a shower or one of the million other things I should do before C and I spend the evening putting together our new bedframe.

January Goals

A mix of work, personal, and fitness goals.

• Do my diaries on time, every day.
• Do the Wii Fit progress chart every day.
• Go to boot camp 3 times per week.
• Go swimming once a week.
• Bring lunch from home at least 3 days per week.
• Eat 5+ fruits and veggies every day.
• Make a dentist appointment.