Vancouver Lake Mock Tri

First triathlon ~ DONE! Thanks for checking on me, Melissa!!

Boy, I went out fast on the swim. Too fast with no warm up. I watched Jack at swim lessons the other day with his arms flailing to his sides as his head sunk under water and as I was swimming today, that was how I felt. On the bright side - I don't remember even worrying about taking a breath - I actually don't remember much of it at all - just that we were back at shore before I knew it. We didn't have timing chips or anything so everything but the bike is a bit of a guesstimate.

It was an olympic length race - or close to it (shorter swim, longer bike - I was out there for a bit under 3hours and 15 mins.

800m (.5 mile) swim ~ 18 min
T1 ~ 3 min
27.20 mile bike ~ 1:42:47
T2 ~ 3 min
6.2 mile run ~ 1:06:00 (included a potty break)

Overall it was a good experience. I was happy with the swim but will try to start out slower tomorrow - also warm up quite a bit more. I forgot to put my gloves on at T1 and my left arm fell asleep early on and never really woke back up. Because I was so overtaxed from swimming too hard, I was unable to stomach any food or drink for almost 45 minutes into the bike ride and I messed up my nutrition all the way through - nothing sounded very good. I should have pushed myself harder on the run but it was still a decent time and honestly it seemed more fun to go slower. Both cheeks (the ones on my face) kind of went into a weird paralysis at about mile 3. No idea what it was from. Went away about 10 minutes after I was done with the race.

I have to just embrace that I'm a back of the pack girl. At least for now, because not much is going to change in the next 4 weeks. I would like to blame it on the fact that I'm on a mountain bike and today really wondered how much faster I would be on a road bike. I'm the only one on the team with these big fat tires and I catch heck for them often. My legs are strong so I think that when/if I do get a road bike I might be really surprised with what I can do. I only passed 3 people and I was passed by dozens upon dozens. Embrace the fun of being in the back, Julie. EMBRACE IT! ENJOY IT! HAVE FUN!

So I did have lots of fun and it's nice to have it under my belt. Next weekend's big work out is a 75 mile hilly ride - going up Larch Mountain again - to the top this time if there's no snow. Weekend after that is the Blue Lake Olympic Tri and then two weeks later it's Pac Crest Baby!!

So with Steve gone I had to run home to let poor Ki out of her crate, take a shower, run over to pick up the kids and hit the bank and then grab a few groceries to get us through the weekend. I didn't eat after the race (DUMB!) and I almost passed out (after almost strangling the kids several times to the crinkled up faces of passers by giving me a silent tsk tsk) at the grocery store. I picked the "family friendly" aisle thinking since I had kids they would try to speed up the process and it was the slowest line in the store. Almost made it out of the store before ripping open a bag of Ruffles and shoving two handfuls into my face. Phew....my mouth is now ruined from so much salt, but I feel tons better!

Have cousin Carley coming over soon to help out with the kids tonight while I get month end stuff done for the business and then I'll have a new race report for you tomorrow after the Hagg 1.2 mile swim and 10 mile run.

Tri Virgin

Tomorrow is my very first triathlon. It's an unofficial race built into our training program to get us prepped for the 1/2 ironman. Working on transitions and stuff I assume. The Portland Tri Club is putting it on so there will be a good amount more people there than the team is used to. We have an official race at Blue Lake in a couple weeks as well - I'll be doing the olympic distance at that one. I'm not really sure how long tomorrow's race is. I think it's an 800m swim, 40k bike and 10k run but I'm not entirely sure.

I'm going into this thing pretty low key. No nerves yet and I know a lot of that has to do with another great pool swim on Wednesday and yet another trip out to Vancouver Lake with Melanie and about 7 or 8 others last night. 'Twas cold. We swam about 1700 meters before calling it a night. At one point I felt Melanie smash my foot with her hand and I wondered what that was all about and when I turned around to see what's up - she was a whale's length behind me, so I'm not sure what smacked me and I don't really want to think about it too much more :p

I've been itchy ever since, too. Hope I didn't catch some weird fungus or something. I've already caught some other weird bumpy thing from the gym pool. I'm so tired of seeing some of the weird stuff that floats around in there. Goggles are overrated.

For any of you last minute donators to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society - we have just a few more days to reach our fundraising minimums - So cough it up soon! Ahem, I mean all donations are welcome :o)

An update on Natasha - she's in the midst of her transplant and not feeling so good at all, so please keep this small child in your prayers.

Good news (so to speak) for Mom. She's been having back pains and her recent lab work is again showing her"bad" numbers to be rising but her doctor says that it's not yet at a point where they would start treatment again. He did schedule her for an MRI though to find out what is going on with her back and it turns out to be arthritis. Hooray! Who knew arthritis could be such a good diagnosis?! We'll take it! But please keep her in your prayers as well.

Off to sack out - Steve's gone for 3 days out in "who knows where" Oregon with a bunch of guys camping and chasing jackrabbits on their dirt bikes, so I'm here alone with the kiddos. First time ever I think that we've been here without him.

I'm a Rock Star

Oh, what a difference a week filled with prayers makes!!...and wearing my wetsuit around the house to get used to the restrictive feeling. We had our open water swim again at Vancouver Lake last night. It was 10 degrees colder than last week!!!! (about 62 degrees). Somehow this did not affect me at all. I went into last night a bit different than the week before. I stuck close to Melanie so I would have a friendly face close by at all times. We got there VERY early and just lounged around on our towels shooting the breeze with a bunch of people and laughing and sharing stories from last week and I realized that I was far from being the only one struggling with wetsuit/open water issues.

Coach Dano started off by saying he was going to split us up into two groups ~ one who wanted to really swim a good distance and one group of people who are feeling like they just wanted to continue getting used to the water and the suits. I was AMAZED at how many people were in my group. It REALLY helped to know that I was in a group of people feeling the same as me - last week I was in a group of good swimmers that left me in the dust.

We did actually swim a fair bit of distance and I had NO problems at all. Well, I had eaten a bunch of garlic bread right before so there were a couple times when I tried to hold stinky burps in and this proved to not be smart, so I just started letting them rip for comfort. Melanie said she was peeing on all of us every 10 minutes or so. Triathletes can be so gross :o) I wonder if she'll be able to pee on the bike so easily.

We worked a lot on sighting and I was surprised that it came fairly easy to me. It was a fun night and the exact opposite of last Monday. PHEW!!

We have our first "mock tri" this coming Saturday so now instead of dreading it, I'm actually looking forward to it!!! Hooray!!!

Good Swim

Good Swim tonight. 3200+ Meters (2 miles :o)

Open Swim and Longest Brick

Monday was our first open swim. I was really looking forward to it. No good pics of me specifically but you can see my bright pink cap in the first pic (bright so they can find us to save us). The second picture is Coach Jane and Dean in kayaks looking for any little bright caps that might be in trouble so they can save us. The last pic is the group - we all survived...some of us barely.

I was in charge of getting Melanie and I up to Vancouver Lake on time. We left a good 30 minutes early and we needed it since I didn't look at my mapquest directions until we got to the last destination point at which time the paper said that we have arrived in Vancouver and need further directions to get to the lake. ARGGGGGGGG. We finally found the lake, the park, and the group with about 3 minutes to get into our wetsuits and into the water.

I was nervous but did pretty well for the first 25 minutes or so. We got in, floated around, made jokes about pockets of "warm water" and basically came to realize that you simply cannot sink in these things. You don't even need to tread water: they just hold you right up. We swam a bit here and a bit there and although I was frustrated with running into people and having people swim over me, I realized it is just a part of not being in a nice clear pool with lines guiding you on the bottom. I started to freak out a bit with getting water splashed in my face and actually swallowing about a gallon total (this lake is not known for particularly clean water and this was freaking me out a bit...not my usual MO, but for some reason it was bugging me) and took my breathing down from every 4th stroke to every other and then I started to really feel like the wetsuit was restricting my breathing. My lungs felt like the size of peanuts. Since the water wasn't really THAT cold, I had opted to not use my new earplugs and whether it was that or simply me freaking out, I started to get dizzy and thought I was going to pass out. I WANTED OUT OF THAT WETSUIT NOW!!!! DID I SAY NOW? NOW IS NOT SOON ENOUGH. So a total freak out. Dano caught my eye (at this point we weren't even swimming, just hanging out in the water) and he saw I was in trouble. He got me started calmimg down and asked Dean to come pick me up. In the meantime, a fellow teammate stayed with me and just let me cry and shake it all out. It's funny, the guys that helped me were all quiet and strong and calm and just said it was going to be all right and that it happened to them their first time too. Cool. The girls gave me hugs and asked how I was feeling and then I couldn't keep the tears back. SUCKED!

I drove home but don't remember it at all...poor Melanie. I took a hot shower, went to bed and cried myself to sleep. Seriously pitiful. I couldn't stop crying. Tuesday was just as bad. Cried off and on all day and finally went to the gym to just ride hard on the bike and see if the tears would stop - they did. Bit by bit I started feeling better and I guess I'm back at it on Monday again. Actually, tomorrow I'm going out with some girls to just hang out in our suits and play around in the water.

So onto a better workout. Today was our longest BRICK before the race. We headed out to Haag Lake for 42 miles. It was the best ride of the year for me. Beautiful weather, flowers, countryside ride. We started at the lake and went about 2/3 around before heading down Old Hwy 47 and out on some country roads. Then we turned around and came back to the lake for another 1 1/3 laps. Total bike time was 2:49:35. My transition time was about 4 minutes including a potty break. Then we headed out across the dam and back. It was supposed to be 8 miles and it took FOREVER. My legs felt good, lungs good, tummy good, so I'm not sure why I was so slow. We made it back in 1.5 hours which is like a 13 minute mile. Hmmmm. We didn't spend much time at the aid station either time, but we did walk up a couple of hills on the way back. I told Sheryl when we were in the home stretch that this was the longest a$$ 8 miles ever and then come to find out it was only 7 KILLED me!(I clocked it on my way home and it was actually just UNDER 7 (poop). Oh well. I felt great after this brick and everything still feels good a couple hours later. Legs and hips and tummy and all. Life is Good.

So I'll let you know how Monday goes. Coach Dano said he'll swim with me so hopefully he'll be able to keep me in a calm state of being :o)

The Week in Review

The Mothers Day hike at Dog Mountain was apparently a HUGE mistake. Wednesday wasn't pretty, but I got my bike ride done. By Thursday, my legs were so incapacitated by DOMS that I couldn't even swim. Since I was unable to train like I was scheduled to, I did my own tire changing clinic with Steve and the kids. I practiced taking both the rear and front tires off and changing the tube and using the Co2 cartriges and feel a lot more confident about all that now.

I did about 17 miles on the stationary bike on Friday but my legs were still not working right. It was like they had a mind of their own. I was stumbling, falling, even having weird twitches where my legs would just kick out in front of me for no reason at all. As you can probably guess this did not look good for my long 15-18 mile run on Saturday.

I was up bright and early and decided to just go for it so I headed downtown and toward Forest Park but when I arrived at the meeting place the parking lot was completely empty. It occurred to me that I probably should have read the e-mail for the meeting place more thoroughly before heading out but I went ahead and took this as a sign that it was not yet time to attempt running. I headed home, got on my bike shoes and helmet and went out for Sunday's scheduled 35 mile EZ ride.

Today I got up and did the long run on my own. It was supposed to be a trail run but I was short on time and not knowing what my legs would be up to today, I decided to stay close to home. I took Ki with me for the first 7 miles...S.L.O.W. 7 miles. She pooped twice, peed three times, ate once, chased one cat, 4 birds and 3 squirrels. I did finally get her to drink from the camelbak. I've been trying to get her to let me squirt the water into her mouth during runs and today was finally hot enough that she was very thankful for it.

I dropped her off after the first loop, refilled the camelbak, grabbed my iPod and headed back out. Before a mile was up, the iPod went dead (poop!) and so it was just me and my own mind talking back and forth for the next 7 miles. I was coming to a hill at mile 13 and decided to hit the top, slam a gel and finish off the last two miles strong but I got to the top, tried to take a slurp of water and realized I had gone completely dry.

Immediately my body went berserk. At the first thought of no water my tongue swelled to the size of a chicken and around the chicken a bunch of cotton sprouted up, my lips started to chap, a headache came on and my mind said "I can't finish". Such drivel. I decided I probably "could" finish the last two miles without water but I couldn't take my much desired gel without water so then my head started playing games with me about how hungry I was. I'm such a wuss! At mile 14.5 I had about had it - seeing mirages of drinking fountains and people standing in their yards with running hoses saying "c'mon - have a drink!" Finally in desperation, I pulled off the camelbak and opened up the bladder thinking there might be a least a drop or two of water down in there and to my glorious amazement I got a full gulp! Hooray, I'll live! So off I went to finish the run and be done with it at last.

I did realize that I do need to start thinking about how the run will be in the hot Sunriver sun. We've mostly been training in rain and cold conditions and it wasn't until today that I actually remembered what it's like to feel thirst like that. I know there will be many aid stations but I do need to try to train in some good hot afternoons if at all possible between now and then.

I got home, slammed a berry smoothie, showered and then headed over to my in-laws for my MIL's birthday party. The kids stayed cool in the sprinkler and I added to my dehydration with a couple glasses of wine. We played our own version of Family Feud and had a lot of fun.

I'm headed upstairs behind a locked door to practice putting on my wetsuit again before doing it in front of the whole gang at our first open swim at Vancouver Lake tomorrow. I'll let you know how the swim goes. Hopefully I'll get some pictures, too.

Mothers Day HIke

Today was Tracy's Annual Mother's Day Hike at Dog Mountain. First pic from left to right is Luke (Celeste's cousin), Celeste (new friend from the gym. Her twin sister is a figure competitor), Mary (you should see her nekkid...well, in gym clothes - WE should all look so good and she is in her 60s), my Tracy (workout partner) and in front is our spin instructor, Vickie.

We knew it might be too early for the wildflowers galore that should be there and we were right. It was just such a cold winter and oh so much snow. In a couple weeks these hills will be filled with amazing color, but today was just too soon. We at least expected the weather to be good since we're supposed to be up into the 90s by Thursday, but again, we couldn't catch a break. I will say that it didn't rain (much) and so that was terrific, but the wind was whipping around so bad up there that as soon as we hit the summit, we scarfed down our sandwiches and headed back down shivering. Took us 3 hours total which was better than I expected so when we got back into town I hit the gym for a 15 minute spa to get heated back up and then jumped in the pool for laps. Did 2000 meters and headed home. Time to walk the dog and then I'm calling it a day :)

We get our wetsuits at the morning group swim tomorrow so I'll be sure to hit that at 5:20am. So early? And it's downtown so I have to be out of the house by 4:50 AM to get there on time. Yawn. Big Yawns. I'm sure I'll be wide awake once Coach Jane gets us going, though. I dread these workouts. Hopefully my work in the pool this last week will help in group swim.

That's it for now, I guess. American Idol tonight :o)

Breakthrough Swim

Hit the pool tonight even though every part of my being wanted to say no no no! Drank too much wine last night, ate pizza for breakfast, spent a good portion of the day rototilling and planting flowers and I just wanted to lie in bed and wait for Survivor to start but I went ahead and got to the pool to do 2000 meters which turned out to be a good decision. I had a great workout and felt really in my zone (who even knew I had a zone?) and now it's time to lay in bed and watch three hours of Survivor and know that I earned it!

I can swim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Larch Mountain Brick

2nd Group Brick workout was yesterday. We met at Blue Lake and headed out with warm clothes in anticipation of the descent off of Larch Mountain. I felt way too overdressed for the first part of the ride even though I was wearing shorts. Everyone else seemed to be in long pants and in Robbie's case some type of gel he spread all over his legs that he says would heat him up with ingredients like pepper and other hot stuff. He offered some to me, but I thought I would have enough worries on the ride without my legs catching on fire, so I declined.

The first picture is of Larch Mountain. It was a 44.8 mile ride (although I actually only went 42.8 miles) with about 2500 feet of elevation gain. We stopped at mile 13 at the Oregon Women's Forum for this awesome view in picture two. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera but found this great pic online.

There was still snow up there but I didn't get that far. I saw my mentor turn around at the 7 mile marker so I followed suit only to find out that many others actually went up to 9, so I feel like I wussed out on another good two miles of climbing. The good news about climbing is that it didn't feel so bad - just slow and steady and Dad's advice about not pedaling for a second when changing gears popped into my head at the beginning of this ride and it made ALL the difference. Smooth shifting baby, smooooooooth! Thanks Dad!

The descent was CHILLY to say the least. My earwarmers and extra gloves and extra fleece jacket now became quite handy. I stopped with a group changing a flat (when will I learn to stop doing this? I was of no value/help in the situation and all I did was end up letting myself get cold) but in the end it turned out good because I knew if left on my own I would get lost at the bottom of the hill (sure enough, Abby went cruising down really pushing for a good bike time on her own and took a wrong turn which added a good couple miles to her ride). So the descent was fun in speed but I was so cold I was shaking.

We got back to the Lake at just under 3 hours. I think this ride could have been done in 2:45 for me if I had felt comfortable in breaking out on my own but then again, if I got lost it would have taken me 3.5 hours, so I'm glad with my choice to stay in the pack.

At the lake we transitioned into running clothes but I HAD to use the bathroom so within my "pack" I got left behind. BUT...again, I made the right choice as others were struggling with a full bladder - and I did catch up to my two girls, Amy C and Sheryl. We did one lap together and called it a day. Again, I wussed out as we were supposed to do two laps. A and C were heading in and I was all turned around at the park and not sure where I was so I just called it a day. My legs felt great and I had no transition troubles. I kept Lyndsay's words in mind the last mile and really put it into an easy gear and tried to spin at over 100 to get my legs ready for the run, which really appeared to help.

The only thing I would change about the day is that I wish I had gone the extra two miles on the bike and finished the second lap of the run, but all in all I'm happy with my performance and how I felt at the end...like I could go further! Always a good thing!

Mama, you are sure ONE STRONG WOMAN

HI GINA :o)
I was amazed on Sunday that I had absolutely no ill effects from the bike ride on Saturday. My 13 mile run was as if I had rested on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and when I finished my run I got out in the backyard to pick up a whole bag full of toys that have been half eaten by Ki over the winter and then pulled a dead tree out of the ground with my bare hands and hauled it up the hill. Jack told me in awe " Mama, you are sure ONE STRONG WOMAN!" which kept me going good for about a half an hour before Mai asked to go down her little slide with her and then said, "Oh that's right, you can't - YOUR BUTT IS TOO BIG!". Hmmm. I guess she was trying to keep my big head in check.

When we were at REI on Friday, Mai informed me she needed a basket for her bike so that she can store her powerbars and water bottles for her training rides. She also needed a horn to beep at people who get in her way during her triathlon. She also needed bike shorts, bike gloves and the kids pink camelbak that she found, but I had to put my foot down at some point. I threw in some tassles to make up for it, though. She's one happy biker.

I'm still waiting to hear back from my brother,Ron, on how his race went. He did the Eugene Half Marathon yesterday and I've heard he did it a minute faster than he predicted so I'm betting he's happy! I know it will be much faster than I did my 13 miles in - I can't wait to find out HOW MUCH faster. It should give me a good laugh.

Today Tracy and I are doing legs, I believe. Then tonight I'm back in the pool. Can't wait to try some new ideas out.

Ride Around Clark County

HOLY QUADRICEPS CRAMPS!!

Today was my first organized bike ride ~ Ride Around Clark County. We did the 65 miles but it ended up being more like 67.5 and took exactly 5 hours. The TNT group met up at 8am but Sheryl, Abby, Michelle and I didn't get going until almost 9:00. Abby had flat front and rear tires before we even got on the road but finally we had a ride where no one got a flat on the ride!! HOORAY!!

I went into this race thinking it was a completely flat course but upon arriving was told that it is even tougher than the Pac Crest course, so I had a bit of surprise in all the hills. I would say it was easier than Hagg Lake because of all the long straight stretches and downhills but there sure were a lot of uphills, too! I had the BEST ride - felt energized, exact right amount of clothing on - not too hot, not too cold, and I was fueled properly - didn't once feel weak from hunger or thirst, but my QUADS!! Oh my gosh! At about mile 41, they started to cramp. I was afraid they were going to downright bust out of my skin.

Fortunately at mile 42 we had an aid station so we stopped and stretched and had a bunch of goodies before heading on down the road. (side note: Trail Putty - best darn concoction I've tasted for endurance food. It's a mixture of chunky peanut butter, honey and powdered milk. MMmmmmmmmmmmm good ~ I plan on making a lot of this in the next two months). About 3 miles further I decided to take some advil to see if it would relieve the quad pain and it seemed to help quite a bit.

I seem to hit my stride around mile 45. If it hadn't been for the quad trouble, I think I would have done fine on the 100 mile course today.

I was at REI yesterday ( my FAVORITE STORE IN THE WHOLE WORLD) and tried on a couple of bike skirts. I've been riding bareback in the hopes of getting my butt prepared for the minimal padding the tri suits offer, but these skirts are sooooo cute and my butt is sooooo sore that I think I'm going to fork over the excessive amount of cash required to own this sweet little thing.