Dear Half Marathon...

Dear Half Marathon,

You and I have had some good times, lots of laughs, but it's time for me to say goodbye for a bit. It's not you, really it's me. Triathlon season is kicking in, and I need to spend some more time with my good friends cycling and swimming if I have a prayer of making some of my goal races this year. Don't worry though, I will be back! Marathon training begins in July, and I have no dobt there will be some HMs along the way.

Thanks,

Lanie D.

4 half marathons in 5 months, and every run has been a new PR. Yesterday I wiped off another 6 minutes from my previous Cowtown HM time, and it was also nearly 12 min faster than the last time I ran this same course. I went out with a bang, and I am proud to say everything got left on the course.

Having said that I am wobbling around like an old lady. I think I might have broken the muscles that attach my legs to my bum. :) Is that possible?

Just Call me "Gimpy"

It finally happened, nearly 5 months of training and I finally pushed things a wee bit too far.

Some people get knee pain, some back pain...me? It is always shin splints, guaranteed. They have been nagging for a few weeks but I was making sure to ice them when I got home from a run. Begin applying heat after 24 hours to help the muscle heal, and wearing a calf sleeve to help with compression when I ran.

Regardless, they rebelled and I am officially sidelined from running for at least a week. No idea why it got so bad, I had a nice easy run yesterday. 40 min on the treadmill (it was raining so I decided to make a temporary truce with my ex-fitness friend) at about a 12 min mile pace. I think it ended up being a little of 3.5 miles or so. This morning I was scheduled for a 2 hour run, approx 10 miles. I admit that I wasn't looking forward to it, mostly because I had missed my long run last week because I was out of town.

However, when I awoke the inside of my right calf was SO sore, and SO stiff, that I knew running was out of the question immediately. I had hopes of walking today, which is like running's cousin...close enough I thought. Points for at least trying to get a run like activity in today. That was until I actually put weight on that leg, and tried to walk down some stairs. Let's just say my family is calling me Gimpy, and I am out of commission until I heal.

On the upside, I am glad I ran yesterday and did the damage I did. Can you imagine how I would feel if I had ran 10 miles today? I probably would have done some sort of major damage.

Anyway, it is bad enough that I looked into my options for a refund for the triathlon I had scheduled in October. I am afraid I won't be able to get enough training in the next few weeks to make the competition anything less that torturous (I like to know my options). So far I know that the best I can do is defer until next year, and then compete then. We will see how it goes, I refuse to give in so easily to a sissy sort of injury. Today I have been mostly being grumpy and sulky. There isn't much room in my half marathon training for a week or more off, the more runs I miss, the harder those long runs will become. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

To be honest, I don't have a choice. Run and I can do damage that will last much longer than this calf pain. I read somewhere that resting and healing can be the hardest part of training as an athlete.

I sincerely believe it.

Are you Game? Making Training More Interesting

Allright friends, it is time to spice things up! I am inventing my own triathlon training game that is based solely on a points system. At the end of the training season, whoever has the most points wins, and earns the title of: BATT (Bad A$$ Triathlon Trainee...I might change that to something cooler but it's late, that's what I have for right now)



Let me give you the basics (I fully expect the game will evolve as time goes on):



1. Points are earned totally on the honor system
2. Points can be deducted by any team member who witnesses fouls
3. New categories of points/fouls can be requested by any player but must be approved by me. (I made up the game, thus I get to retain some sort of power...bwahhahahahahah)

This game is also only for beginners, you elite athletes have to make your own.

Current Breakdown of Points and Fouls:

Crashes:

• Every Cycle Crash: 10 points
• 5 points for every body part with road rash
• 5 points for every bruise, 15 pts for bruises bigger than your head
• 1 point for ejected water bottles
• 25 points if you get ran over by another biker...extra 5 if you have a bruise in the shape of the line where the tire ran over you.
• 1 point for forgetting to unclip and falling over/crashing on the bike
• 5 points for pitching yourself over your own handlebars
• 7 points for head on collisions in the pool (Only accidental counts)

Technical

• 25 points for changing your own flat tire
• 1 point for putting your chain back on the bike
• 5 points for understanding how to work a Garmin
• 5 points for understanding what in the heck a lactate threshold is and how to use it
• 2 points if you can install your own elastic bands in your running shoes
• 7 points if you can put conditioner in your hair and not lose your swim cap
• 10 points if you can wear a hydration belt with a straight face

Random

• 10 points for every successful Farmers Blow/Snot Rocket (get your mind out of the gutter, and google it)
• Minus 25 points if you use the Farmers Blow and get snot on a team member
• Plus 150 points if you use the Farmers Blow and hit someone in an automobile cussing at you while you are cycling.

More to come, I am sure :)

Joy...I missed you

Oh man, let me tell you about the last two weeks of training. I have been in a funk of epic proportions since the end of the IronGirls Triathlon. For a week or two I battled it, because I know myself well enough to know that sometimes I just have to weather the storm.

This was not one of those times.

Every single workout began to feel like a chore, and I even missed Happy Hour and a seminar on heart rate monitors. I rarely miss Happy Hour, because it is one of those rare times I can talk to my training friends in complete sentences. (As opposed to in between gasping breaths, praying my heart, or lungs, don't give out) But I knew I was going to be no fun to be around, and I desperately began to need to just have my nights off so I could catch up on chores, errands etc.

So...in hope of preserving my sanity and just as important, my love of the sport. I took a two week hiatus. I did a couple of light workouts, mostly because I am beginning to get moody if I don't have some sort of workout during the week (when did this happen? I think I am officially no longer a couch potato).

And this weekend I took a deep breath, said a little prayer, and went to training. My hope was that I had shaken my funk off...but I found something even better this weekend. I found joy, and deep satisfaction, and general enjoyment with training again. The weather in Dallas cooled to the 80's, and I was able to push myself without fear of over heating, and I had fun.

Three words, that make all the difference in this process.

I. Had. Fun.

A terrific bike ride on Saturday, snowballed into a fantastic training day on Sunday. I dropped my run time with my run group (scheduled for 1 hour, 50 min) to a 1 hour, 20 min run, so I could go to the scheduled Open Water Swim. The run was fantastic, I flew! We ran some miles at least a minute faster than normal. Then I hopped in the car, headed to the lake (smooth as glass!) did an 800 meter swim, which is race distance, swam around a little longer, and hopped out to get ready for a trail run. I ran with two of my fave Iron Girl training partners, and we did about 40 minutes of trail running. (Give or take, we had to dodge bikers, and I took a wrong turn so we had to back track once or twice).

Fantastic, just a fantastic weekend.

Joy...glad to see you are back, I missed you.

THE goals

Race #2 brings a whole new set of goals to the table. The Iron Girls race was mostly about finishing and not hurting myself in any sort of permanent way (i.e. drowing, hitting a moving car, etc.) I managed to meet both of those goals but I admit that I found myself thinking I had a lot left to give during that Iron Girls race. Not to get all psychological on you, but I know some of it was mental, and some of it was how I trained the last few weeks before the race...mostly slooooow.

There is no shame, because I finished the race, and met the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the training program. And I learned a heck of a lot. Which means I am ready to step it up, so let me tell you about my goals for the Toyota Open.

Druuuuuuuum roll please...

Goal #1: Begin pushing it on the bike, and I am not talking just mileage. I move slow on the bike, I caught myself doing it today, and then I tried ramping it up. Not to say that I didn't feel the burn, or that I am not sore right now...but I pushed my normal limits. Mind you I was so far back from the front of the pack that I never really caught up.

Goal #2: Learn how to ride in the bike pack. To be honest I am not 100% comfortable on the road bike just yet, and when I was on the hybrid I rarely road with the pack anyway. Time to get over this, I really think the whole drafting thing might make it totally worth it. :)

Goal #3 : Nutrition. Pizza apparently is not a very good training food, who knew? Time to clean this part up. I am going to be doing a 3 day analysis of my eating habits starting on Monday, I will let you know what I find out.

Goal #4: Wipe off 8 minutes from my run time at the Toyota. Which means pushing myself on runs during the week.

Goal #5: Continue to not cause myself any permanent damage. I just feel like this is a good one to hold onto from Iron Girls.

Wish I could say it started with a bang...

As an FYI, I am so not done with shout outs, but I decided to sprinkle them out through the posts.

I began my first week of training for the U.S. Toyota Open Tri this weekend. I wish I could tell you that it started with a bang...it started with more of a fizzle...maybe a snap, crackle, and then the popping sound of my lungs. Whew.

For starters I took nearly the entire week off from training after my IronGirls race. I did run, a little, because I knew that I had half marathon training. My hydration was bad, and I knew that this weekend would be rough. I bonked somewhere around two-thirds of the way into our 30 mile ride. I had flashbacks to my early training, the nauseousness, the weakness, and the pride being the only thing getting my bum back onto the saddle. And then we ran a pretty rough 7 miles this morning.

So ends my whining, but I want to look back on these posts and remember the workouts that were rough. So I don't look back with rose colored glasses about training and think it was all puppies and rainbows. It isn't always puppies and rainbows, a lot of times it is sweat, and tears, and a lot of other bodily functions I try not to think about too much.

Crazy.

Shout Out: To Tina who fell off the bike at White Rock. You messed up your shoulder, and you had a bruise the size of Texas. And yet you still made it to the Open Water Swim a week later. No whining around you, because you are one strong lady.

Shout Outs, Part I

There is no way on Earth that I would have been able to complete this triathlon without my IronGirls. So I am going to do a series of shoutouts to them individually...this might take a few posts but it's totally worth it.

Heck...let me start with my coaches

Coach B: You have more patience than anyone I know (with as much estrogen flying around, this was probably a survival technique) At the end of the day, you and Coach A set the tone of the group and it a positive atmosphere that made us one to come to training...every...single...day...6 days a week. And I know that we all loved having you announce at our race, thanks for making it spectacular.

Coach A: How is it that you are pregnant, and still able to out run, bike and swim me? Crazy. I consider you to be a friend, coach, and role model. I think you might also have race day picture taking down to an art, you were everywhere!

Assistant Coach S: I survived my first Sunnyvale Loop because you made sure the back of the pack stayed together. It was also great to have you at the race helping us with our last pre-race nerves. Thanks!

On to my training partners (this is done in no particular order, and I promise to get to everyone)

FloGlo: I knew the first day of training I was going to love training with you! You are hilarious, and an inspiration to me. You are my girl!

Melinda: Seriously, there were weeks on the bike I wanted to quit the whole triathlon sport. You reminded me no shame and I got back on the bike. You are a spectacular lady. Team in Training is lucky to have you!

Stephanie D: You are too sweet, and you have a sense of humor that never quits! Plus you are all kinds of an amazing writer, the poem for post-race dinner was...perfect. I hope you keep training, but I know we will stay in touch regardless!

JR: You have more energy than anyone I know, and I don't think I stop laughing whenever you are at training. (You also throw one mean post race dinner celebration.)

Jennifer B: You are one of the people I am always trying to keep up with on the bike. Your training took has just taken off, and it has been such a pleasure getting to know you over these 3 months. I would also like your banana pudding recipe...thank you.

Leona: Thanks for carpooling, and for being the one who researched everything triathlon. I learned more tips from you that I would have ever known otherwise. Get excited about Toyota!

Teresa: The group would never get started training on time without you :) Whenever we gab, Teresa is the one getting on the bike telling everyone to get their bums moving. She is tough, no doubt about it.

Cara: Anyone who crashes mid race and then gets back on the bike to finish...with no thought of quitting! Amazing. Way to go Comeback Kid. (Don't worry, you weren't too grumpy before the race, you were speaking in full sentences and everything)