Missing athletes & cheer crew

Not a very positive title for a blog on the first race of the season but hey, its the truth. It was Mermaid time last Sunday, June 3 Lizzie, Brian and I were at Quarry Lakes in the early hours of the morning.

I wised up and and "carbo loaded" the night before at the Old Spaghetti Factory and ordered an extra large portion so I could take the leftovers home. I woke up the following morning and had leftover spaghetti for breakfast. Mmmmm, good. This will be my tri ritual from now on! Anyway, Lizzie got us there in good time and met up with one of her biking groupie Ellen who will be doing a tri for the first time. I did not do the for "For Fun" wave this year because they started 10 mins. after the 40-44 yrs. wave. I wanted to start as early as possible so I did age group. We set up our transition area (I read the signs this year so I set up in the right spot) with not a whole lot of time to spare before the start of my wave. Here I am trying to find Lizzie and Ellen.

This was when I desperately missed Elaine. She's so good in getting folks focused in asking for God's help and does so with elan. As I was lagging (surprise, surprise), I completely forgot to pray with Lizzie but she caught up with me down the beach. Lizzie said a quick prayer for me which was good but I we didn't have time to do a prayer for her which made me feel bad. I just did it in my heart while waiting for my wave to start.

The Swim

The water was definitely colder this year but I didn't wear a wetsuit. I thought I could swim freestyle thinking it was warm enough. I breaststroked until I rounded the first bouy. Not good. I got used to the water temp and started alternating freestyle and breaststroke way before the next bouy. I thought I was swimming pretty well. I wasn't tired or anything and I saw I was catching up with some swimmers and felt I was going to pass them. I kept thinking, okay, I'm going to bump into these women any time but it never happened. Next thing I know, a gal on a surfboard tapped me and made go reverse because I needed to go around the bouy. Damn! That's why I never bumped into those ladies. I was going diagonal! I wasted time backtracking. In spite of that error, I thought I swam a lot faster this year. Wrong.

2007 swim: 19:29

2006 swim: 16:04

T1

You know what, this might come as too much information for you guys but you gotta get over it okay? It is no picnic doing a tri but to do it while you're having your period is just rock bottom. Unfortunately, I had to do it this year. Here is Lizzie, running up with me before I had to make a pit stop to the restroom. This stop cost me a lot of time.

2007 T1: 8:29

2006 T1: 7:34

The Ride

I felt I biked really, really, really well this year. I think its on account of being clipped to the pedals. I thought I was efficient thanks to lots of hours in spin class. I wasn't tired and my muscles weren't giving out on me. It was a good ride. After the race Brian even asked me if I did the whole course (can you believe that?!). He thought I went awfully fast. Well, it was faster than last year's but not by much. I was really disappointed when I saw the splits. I thought I did so much better than I did. Wrong again. Well, it was a 1 minute improvement.

2007 ride: 43:57

2006 ride: 44:54

T2

Here we go again. Lizzie wants me to practice transition seriously. She's going so far as to forbidding me to wear my biking gloves during the race. She says I spend too much time trying to get them off. I promised I'd take them off during the run and put them in my pocket. She was okay with that. Of course, one has to take into consideration that this year, I had to change from biking to running shoes. Still, I wasn't excused. Here I am changing my shoes (I think).

2007 T2: 3:33

2006 T2: 1:58

The Run

Now this came as a total surprise for me. I thought run time this year wouldn't differ much from my run last year. I felt good, not exhausted and my legs were actually feeling fresh. Its probably on account of riding in biking shoes which makes sure you don't use your running muscles to bike. This years course was different from last years. There were way too many loops. I don't remember going on those loops last year. Last year's was straight and this year's was loopy. There's no other way to put it. Nevertheless, I felt strong and get this, I took 7 minutes (well, almost 7 minutes) off my running time! Hooray!

2007 run: 32:05

2006 run: 39:22

Overall, I only improved 2 minutes from last year's tri. It was really fun this year because I wasn't as exhausted. I didn't even have to nap as much after the race! Of course, lets leave it to the first time triathlete to place 3rd in her age group. Oh well!

2007 tri: 1:47:35

2006 tri: 1:49:54

I'll try to do better next year and hope that I'd be doing it in better circumstances (i.e. sans period).

Lessons Learned

You know, there's something to be said for getting in that pre-race swim. I was wondering why Rebecca did that last year (Rebecca from last year just got married and was on her honeymoon in Peru during the tri). It gets your body used to the cold water. I will do that from now on (I think). I need to get a better space for transition. I think my movements were curtailed because of the itty bitty space I had. I'll aim for a corner bike rack next time and maybe get a balloon to mark my place. I need to wear my try top during the swim. It's hard to put on a tight fitting garment over wet skin. I need to take my biking gloves off during the run and just stick them in my pocket.

People Missed

My family. I really missed my 3 boys. However, I might just have to get used to this because my kids get bored waiting for me. It's also unfair to wake them up so early in the morning on a non-school day. Same for Ben. He only has a couple of sleep in mornings and I don't want to deprive him of that. They did however, pray for me and wished me luck before they went to bed the night before.

Elaine. As I said, she's good with giving thanks and asking for help from God. She is also tons of fun to be with and is wonderful in cheering everyone on. She also looks fab in pictures. Its amazing how she looks unruffled after a tri.

Rebecca. I only met her once and tri-ed with her once but you can tell how great she is. I hope she does Mermaid again with us.

Acknowledgements

Of course, none of this report would even be here without Lizzie who started it all. My endless thanks for training with me, driving for training (and race) purposes, storing the "baby bike," and a host of sundry reasons too many to mention. Thank you Brian for being my bike mechanic, sherpa, loaning me money to get a race belt (couldn't find my race belt the night before tri), cheer section and official photographer/videographer. Here's Brian down here.

I guess that about wraps it up for now. Next stop would be the Olympic distance tri at Folsom. I'm doing that one with my friend Paul and with Lizzie. That one I just want to finish and then I'll retire from doing tris. NOT! I just seriously want to finish that without getting driven away in an ambulance. Have a wonderful week everyone! Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

My boys...

Greetings! I know, I know, its been over a month since I last posted. Been very busy lately and its hard to load photos from our home computer. Timmy thinks its because our computer is 500 years old. I agree.



Anyway, I raced today. First tri of the season but will blog in a few days. Meanwhile, Ben has been trying the "couch-to-5k" running plan. Seems to be stuck in week 3 of the running schedule. He's experiencing pain when he runs too far. He's still chugging though, and I'm really proud of him for persevering.



He runs at the high school track. Most of the time he's by himself. Sometimes with me, sometimes with the kids and sometimes the whole family goes on that outing. Her are some photos. Ben knows stretching is very important.

Ben alternates running and walking. So, walk...

and then run!

We had my nephew Jack with us that evening at the track. Here they are playing while Ben does his workout.

Hope all of you are doing well. Will gave race report soon (I hope). Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...