SDRC Labor Day Triathlon 9-5-11

Yesterday was the annual Labor Day Triathlon at the South Davis Recreation Center up the street from my house.

This was the third time I had participated in this triathlon. I had high hopes with this triathlon. I was hoping to set a new PR with this triathlon, but if I didn't set a new PR, I would've been happy with finishing in less than 1:30:00.

Well...that didn't happen. My final time was 1:30:26. I came in 4th in my age division. Alot of people think I came in 3rd because I guess before ALL of the times were in, I did come in third. My personal trainer's wife and my friend Tawni said they heard them announcing my name as 3rd place. I wish I felt like I could take credit for coming in 3rd, but I just don't feel like I can. I came in 2 minutes after the person who came in 3rd place.

I'm very disappointed with my time, but I know what I did wrong. I started out on my swim WAY too strong. I think partially my nerves got the better of me because I saw 2 of my co-workers right before I got in the pool and I think it was in my mind that I needed to impress them and show them how fast I am, so I started out WAY too strong; therefore about 1/3 of the way through the swim I had to stop & catch my breath. It took me 16 minutes to swim 14 laps. That's about double what it should have taken.

So when I finally got done with the swim I headed out on the bike. I felt pretty good on the bike...until I hit a red light. With this particular bike route, we have to bike through part of Bountiful City, in to Centerville and in to Farmington. Centerville City refuses to give us police presence and we have to go through a major intersection. So, when you hit that red light, since there is no police presence, we have to obey ALL traffic laws. I hit that red light going out & coming back. So, that slowed me down too. If I wouldn't have hit those red lights, I probably would have come in 3rd place.

I finally got back from the bike and Tawni's husband was already done with the race. He actually came in 1st overall. He is an AMAZING athlete. I have to say I find it kind of awesome that even though I'm not as good an athlete as Brice & Tawni, Brice was there cheering me on and everything.

I ran out of transition and I was surprised, I was feeling REALLY strong on this run. I felt like I was running fairly fast and keeping a good pace. There were times where I felt like I was slowing down, so I tried to dig deep & push harder. I hit two red lights on the run as well, but they weren't as long of red lights as on the bike, so I still felt pretty good about my time. When I saw my running time it was like 35:15. I was running slower than an 11 minute mile. I was, and still am SO frustrated. I just don't get it.

I've been doing triathlons now for 2 1/2 years. I feel like I should be better. I'm not over training and I'm following all of the training that BJ is giving me. When I am training, I'm running a pretty fast pace (10:00/mile), but when it comes to race day, I seem to slow down. I just don't get it.

This was my last triathlon of the season, but I've still got 3 more races to go. I've got The Dirty Dash 10k coming up, then the Layton 1/2 Marathon & then my final race of the season is the Las Vegas Ragnar.

Here are some pictures from my race yesterday.


Me trying to get in "the zone" before the race starts. It obviously didn't work.


During the swim


Heading out on the bike.


Running in to the finish.

Jordanelle Course Review

I was asked by a reader to go in to a little more depth about the course on my Jordanelle Olympic Distance Triathlon, so here goes. :)



The swim wonderful! They had the Olympic distance men start at 9:00 a.m. and the Olympic women & Olympic relay start at 9:05 and lastly the sprint at 9:30 a.m. They had all the boueys set up and everything. For the Olympic distance, you had to do 2 laps around all 3 boueys, for the Sprint distance you only had to do 1 lap. They had plenty of boats and canoes out on the water in case somebody needed help, etc. The only downer about the swim was after you rounded the first bouey, as you were sighting heading towards the second bouey, the sun was SO bright and right in your eyes, I had a hard time sighting the second bouey. However, thankfully, there was a HUGE boat sitting out by the second bouey that I was able to sight with instead.

The bike was harder than I expected. I drove the route the day before, so I knew what I was getting in to. Normally, the route wouldn't be that hard for me. We had to bike a total of 25 miles. The first 12 miles of the bike were on what they call a "false flat". It looked flat, but it wasn't. It was between a 1 - 2% uphill grade. It was an open course, however, there wasn't alot of traffic. One of the downers of the bike course was the turn around wasn't well marked. Thankfully someone who had already reached the turn around point hollered out to me that I was coming close to the turn around point. All the turn around point was, was spray paint on the road saying 13 miles, turn around. I personally would have liked it if they had a barricade with a sign or a volunteer there saying ok, turn around here. Once you reached the turn around point, it was all downhill except for 2 hills you had to climb. The first hill I would say was maybe 4 - 5% incline and the second hill was maybe a 3% incline. Those second hill wasn't hard to climb at all and the first hill was easier to climb than I thought it would be. Especially with how fatigued I was already feeling. We only had to go through 2 major intersections on the bike and police officers and volunteers were present at both intersections to give us a right of way. That was very nice. The only other hill on the course was a 10% decend and that was towards the end of the course. Going down this hill you can practically almost coast the rest of the way in to transition. If you can't coast, you can pedal easy. :) I wish my speedometer was working when I went down this hill so I knew how fast I was going. They said alot of people go upwards of 40 mph down that hill. I know my personal trainer, who was also competing in the race, was going 55 mph down that hill.

The run was ALOT harder than I expected. I don't think the run would have been hard if I would have eaten on the bike (see my previous post about the Jordanelle Triathlon). I didn't know what the run route was until I started it. The majority of the run was a trail run. If you did the sprint distance triathlon, you only had to do 1 lap on the run, if you did the Olympic distance, you had to do 2 laps. About the first 1 1/2 miles of the run, it was on pavement and then you were on a trail until about the last 1/2 mile of the run. They did have water aid stations at every mile on the run, so that was really nice. We were basically running through campsites at Jordanelle. I don't really know how else to describe it. There was only 2 hills on the run and one was on pavement and one was on a trail. I've never been good at trail running, so the second hill was harder than the first. There was also part of the run that was a really narrow trail. If you're good at trail running, you'll do fine on this course. I was very impressed with how well marked the run course was. They did a great job.

TriUtah put this race on and they've got to be the best race organizers. I was very impressed with how well organized this race was. I will definitely continue to support TriUtah and do their races.

Race 4 of 4 - Jordanelle Olympic Distance Triathlon

Yesterday was my first Olympic distance triathlon. I picked this triathlon because it was later in the year and I would have plenty of time to train for it and get plenty of open water swimming practice in.

Well, before the race, I had only had 2 chances to go open water swimming. I wasn't feeling to confident about the swim. BJ, my personal trainer, had given me plenty of tips and told me about the race course, etc. I was about as prepared as I was going to be.

Transition opened at 6:30 a.m., so I wanted to be there bright and early to get a good transition spot. Little did I know is that they assigned you a transition spot, so hell, I could've slept a good extra 1 - 1 1/2 hrs. I was pretty bummed.

I had to actually bike from where we parked down to the transition area, which was about 4 miles. I got to go down a REALLY steep hill. Everybody was saying you can go upwards of 40-50 mph going down this hill, so I was kind of excited to see how fast I was going to be going down this hill on my way to transition to set everything up, but my computer on my bike wasn't working. :( Boo.

Finally 8:30 a.m. came and I ate my sports beans. I'm getting increasingly nervous because the event I was most scared of was the swim. I had to swim 1 mile. 8:55 a.m. came and I was in my wetsuit nice and good and decided to get in the water to warm up. I was surrounded by others that were doing their first Olympic distance so I was still panicing on the inside, but it was nice to know I wasn't in this alone.

Then...the gun went off. I started out slow on my swim and the first bouey was easy to spot. I felt like I was doing really good. I rounded the first bouey and started sighting for the 2nd bouey. That was more difficult because the sun was right in your face. I ended up just sighting with a big boat that was out there by the bouey 'cause I couldn't see the bouey. Then I finally got there and headed to the 3rd bouey to start my 2nd round of swimming. I had to do 2 laps of this swim to swim 1 mile. The first lap went really well and most of the 2nd lap went really well. When it finally came time to swim in to shore I thought I'd never get there! I kept sighting and it seemed like it was always the same distance away. You know those endless pools? I felt like I was swimming in one of those.

Finally I made it to the boat ramp and I saw people running up the boat ramp, well that just wasn't an option for me. My legs felt like jello, my arms hurt, I knew right then the bike was going to be rough.



So, I was in the transition area and I'm trying to go as fast as I can, but my body is just already tired. I'm screwed! I finally get my shoes on, helmet on, etc. and I'm heading out of transition to start a 25 mile bike ride.



The bike route is what they call a "false flat". It looks like it is flat, but it's a 1 - 2% uphill grade. The first half of the bike was dreadful. I was just praying I would get to the turn around point. I mean God and everybody was passing me on the bike. I was starting to have a panic attack on the bike because of how terrible I was doing on the bike, therefore I started hyperventilating on the bike. This wasn't good. Everybody passing me had kind words of encouragement, but it was still rough.

I think at one point on the bike I saw BJ stopped off at the side of the road cheering me on and that pushed me further. That made me dig a little deeper and push harder. Once I finally got to the turn around point, everything was good though. It was all downhill from here.

On the bike though, I made a stupid, very stupid, mistake. I didn't eat anything. I had a packet of sports beans taped to my bike, but I kept looking down at them and I saw was salt. They are very salty, which is good, which helps you drink more, etc., but all I wanted was water. So, I never ate them. I just sipped a little bit of my Powerade and drank all my water.

I finally got back to transition and there was at least 2 people behind me on the bike, so I knew I wasn't last, but I wasn't doing as well as I wanted.

I headed out on the run of 5.7 miles and I was just done. My legs were done. They felt like jello. I was really discouraged. The whole run was like a giant panic attack and I kept hyperventilating on the run too. I walked a good portion of the run just cause I couldn't do it.

I came walking/running in from my first lap and I'm bawling and my dad is there ringing the cowbell telling me not to give up. Then as I'm heading out, I'm thoroughly embarrassed because I'm one of the last people out on the course. I see my personal trainer and his wife there cheering me on telling me not to be embarrassed. This is my first Olympic distance tri, I can keep doing it.



I walked almost all of the 2nd lap of the run. I was so far behind from everyone else, I could have easily cheated. I mean, there wasn't anybody at the last water station. That's how far behind I was. BUT...I knew my conscious would get to me so I kept on with the whole 5.7 miles.

Somehow I managed to run the last 1/2 mile of the race and run in to the finish.



My personal trainer and my dad met me at the finish line. I stood and talked with my personal trainer for a little bit. We briefly talked about what I did well and what I didn't do well on the race. We're gonna get together in a few days and go over it in more detail.



I drank a TON of water on my run because it was hot and I was afraid of getting dehydrated. Well, shortly after this picture was taken, BJ and his wife left and I promptly walked over and barfed up every ounce of water I drank. It was rough. I wondered when I was going to stop barfing. I ended up seeing the medical tent people and took some electrolyte pills.

Finally I was feeling well enough to walk down to transition and grab my bike and walk back up to the bus to go up to the car.

Weird thing is...while I was sitting there taking the electroylte pills, I heard my name called over the loud speaker. I didn't find out until I got home that I placed 2nd in my division!!! Now...only 2 of us registered in that division, but I placed!!! My final time was 3:49:00 (I don't remember the seconds). I came in 123rd over all and there were I believe around 200 people who did the Olympic distance.

I know my biggest mistake was not eating anything on the bike. I needed to refuel on the bike to have energy to get through the run. I can't wait to do another Olympic distance triathlon to see how well I do when I eat something on the bike, you know? Looking back now, I find it interesting that my best event in this race was the one I was most scared of...the swim. I just can't express how STUPID I feel for not eating anything on the bike. I knew I should have and my gut was telling me I should, but I just didn't want to. It wasn't that I didn't want to consume calories, that wasn't bothering me, I just was craving water and nothing else.

Here's one last picture. My personal trainer on the run portion of the race. Yes, he took 1st place overall. He's a machine.

Race 2 of 4 - Bountiful Triathlon

I did 4 races in 4 weeks. My second race was the Bountiful Triathlon on August 6th. I will ALWAYS make room for this race in my schedule. Why? It was the first race I ever did. It just holds a very tender spot in my heart.

This race is organized by a girl I went to high school with and her husband, Tawni & Brice Williams. They do a FANTASTIC job at organizing the race.

This race is a little different because it is a run/bike/swim order. The run has always been the same route, but this year the bike was a different route. It was a nice route because the older route, you had to go over some train tracks and sometimes people got stopped by the train, etc., and this year, they changed the route so we didn't have to go over train tracks. The only thing that sucked about the bike route was we rode our bikes through Bountiful, Centerville & Farmington. We had to ride our bikes through one major intersection in Centerville and the Centerville Police didn't feel the need to have any presence there to make sure we were safe.

The swim went really well. I passed a TON of people in the run, bike AND the swim. I wish I could have hung around for the after party of the race, but I had a wedding I had to get to, so as soon as I finished swimming, I had to book it to the transition area, grab my stuff and go home.

One thing that happened at this race that really pisses me off (Has nothing to do with the race organizers) is the general public. They just don't care. As I was riding my bike home, I saw a fire truck and ambulance out on the street by where you turn in to the parking lot on your bike to go in to transition. One of the cyclists & one of the volunteers got hit by a truck!!! There was a police officer there directing traffic and apparently the driver of the truck still didn't feel the need to stop. They ended up transporting the cyclist to the hospital on a backboard.

Also, on the bike, we were on a frontage road and there wasn't much of a shoulder for us to ride on so we were having to ride our bikes with the traffic. Everyone was obeying the traffic laws, but then I saw a Suburban pull up behind a bunch of cyclists and honk his horn because they weren't going fast enough.

Seriously people? Why can't the general public have courtesty for us cyclists. Cyclists get a bad rap because there are some out there that don't obey the regular traffic laws, but car drivers have to take in to consideration as well that we might have to not obey some of the traffic laws for our own safety because they are too inconsiderate to let us ride with them, but for the most part, all cyclists that I see are obeying the traffic laws. I just don't get it.

So...here are some pictures from the race:

Here I am heading out on the run:


Heading out on the bike. I love this picture:


Swimming fast:

Race # 1 of 4

I'm doing 4 races in 4 weeks. I'm doing 3 triathlons (one being my Olympic distance triathlon) and 1 relay race (Epic Cache to Teton).

This last Saturday I did race # 1. It was the Layton Triathlon. This is the second time I've done this race. This is a very unique race. It is a sprint distance triathlon, but because the pool is so small, you have to do everything twice. So, we swam 12 laps, biked 6.5 miles, and ran 1.55 miles, then did everything again.

Doing everything twice presents its challenges. It really plays with my mind. You get done with the bike and are heading out on the run for the first time and you're thinking you're almost done with the run and then you remember you have to do everything again. Oh God help me! But then you jump in the pool for the second time and forget all of that and you're happy to be out there!

My final time on this triathlon was 1:38:57.2. That's not my best time, but it's not my worst time. I did improve from my previous triathlon and I didn't come in last, so I'm ok with my results. I still haven't got my splits to see how fast I was in the pool, etc. I think I could've done a little better if the transition area wasn't so dang far away! Transition is probably a good 150-200 yards (if not farther) away from the pool. I don't understand why they don't have the transition area in the parking lot next to the pool instead of on the grass in the park that's that far away.

I got to the race early so I could get my ideal transition spot. Lately I've been getting to the race a little late and have been getting crappy transition spots. Here's a picture of my ideal transition area. I'm the blue bike on the very end with the Spongebob Squarepants towel and JCPenney bag. :)




Here I am before the race standing on the pool deck. I like this picture 'cause it makes me look thin. With my arms crossed, it kinda hides my belly of extra skin, etc.




Both times on the swim I felt I did pretty good. My mom said the first time in the water I passed 10 people! Nice! I didn't use a swim cap just because I had to swim twice, I wasn't going to put a swim cap on the second time as I was running from transition to the pool so why wear one the first time, you know? I just wish I knew how to do a flip turn. I think if I could do a flip turn, I'd be a little bit faster on the swim.



Both times on the bike were really good. I felt like I did really good on the bike. The first time on the bike I passed quite a few people (I can't remember how many), but I was pleased with that. The second time on the bike I was a little slower because my legs were starting to get tired, but I still did ok.






Oh the run! I forgot about how hilly the run is. I remembered there was 1 hill on the run when I was riding past it on my bike the first time. I forgot about the other hills until I came upon them! There are lots of uphills and downhills on this run. It presents it's challenges, but I ran them! I have Yankz stretchy shoe laces for my shoes so I don't have to waste valuable time in transition tying my shoes, but sometimes Yankz make it hard to get your shoes on in a hurry. I heard that if you spray TriGlide in your shoes or use Body Glide on your feet, it helps prevent blisters (if you run without socks) and it helps you get your feet in your shoes faster. It's true! Right before the race started, I sprayed TriGlide in my shoes and it worked fabulously! I will be doing that with all of my races now.

The only 2 downers about this race is how far away the transition area is and you can't use your headphones on the bike OR the run. I can understand not having headphones on the bike, but on the run I like to have music to help me pace myself, etc.

Finally Went Open Water Swimming

I finally went open water swimming. It was scary at first. I'm not gonna lie. My dad went with me. I was supposed to go camping this weekend up at Jordanelle, but I ended up not being able to camp and I had already rented my wetsuit. This time I wasn't going to NOT use my wetsuit.

So, this morning, me and my dad went up to Jordanelle and I went open water swimming. At first I was VERY hesitant. I didn't know what to expect or anything like that.

Slowly I went farther and farther out in the water so that I was just treading water and then I just turned on to my belly and swam out to the booey.

The first time I swam out towards the booey (about 50 yds), I only swam about 1/2 way out. I had alot of trouble with my breathing and I could feel my body trying to panic, but then with each time I swam out towards the booey, I went a little farther and I got a little more comfortable being in the water.

The last time I swam out to the booey, I actually decided to swim beyond the booey. I only swam about 10 yds beyond the booey, but still, 10 yds is 10 yds, you know? On that last swim, I was actually starting to feel pretty comfortable in the water, but it was time to go. :(

I can't wait to go back up & swim again so I can get even more comfortable. The next time will probably be the day before my triathlon though.

Cache Valley Super Sprint Tri

This last Saturday was my latest triathlon. It was up in Logan and it was the Cache Valley Super Sprint Triathlon. It was alot of fun. It was hard for me though.

Why was it hard? I'd been sick all week and hadn't been able to workout. I've always been told that when you're sick, you need to just rest and let your body recover. Once you're over being sick, then you can pick back up on your workouts.

So, I was taking cold medicine and Zicam all week and finally Friday morning I felt really good. So that was the first day I worked out that week and my triathlon was the next morning.

I got up to Logan and we left a little late so I got a pretty crappy transition spot. I always like to be on the end of a row in the transition area and I was lucky to even find a spot.

A girl that I communicate with on Facebook (Lyndsey) lives up in Logan and she does triathlon's. She told me that the course was pretty flat and it was a quick course. I was looking forward to it.

We started out with the swim and I could tell the swim was taking me longer. I could just feel that I wasn't swimming my "a" game. I finally hop out of the pool and head to T1.

My T1 was pretty fast. It was like 1:26. That's one of the fastest T1's I've had, especially considering you gotta get your shoes on, put your helmet on, put your number on and put your sunglasses on, unrack your bike & run out of transition. The only thing I know about the bike course is that there is about 100 yds that we have to ride through and it's all construction. The race director advised us to either get off our bikes and walk that 100 yds or ride VERY slow through the construction area. I chose to just ride pretty slow through the area and it wasn't too bad. There were some very mild hills on the ride, but it wasn't too bad. For some reason though, I was just riding VERY slow. I was really disappointed. At one point on the ride I remember cursing and crying because so many people were passing me. I just don't understand why I ride so slow. I don't get it. The ride was an out and back ride where we had to ride out 6.25 miles and then ride back 6.25 miles. We rode out SO far I swear we were going to ride our bikes in to Brigham City. Lol. I saw parts of Logan I'd never seen before. It was honestly, just a bunch of farm land. It was pretty cool. The ride back to T2 was pretty quick. It seemed pretty quick.

I got back to T2 and my T2 time was AWESOME...if I say so myself. I hopped off my bike, grabbed a different water bottle and headed out on the run. The run was an out and back...twice. We had to run out 0.75 and run back 0.75 twice. It was originally just going to be a 3.0 mile loop, but part of the course was flooded & the race director said that if they would have kept the original course, we would end up swimming, biking, running and then swimming again there was so much water.

But...my run started out good. I felt like I started out pretty strong. I was actually about to keep right about a 10 minute pace, which I'm pleased about.

My final time on this race was 1:40:00.09. I was quite disappointed with my time. That is my 2nd to worst time. My worst time was my very first triathlon, but I actually don't even consider that my worst time because it was my VERY first triathlon.

But as we were driving home from the race, I saw an article on Twitter that helped me because it talked about what if you have a bad race. I gave myself time to be upset about the race, but then when I got home, I wasn't allowed to be upset with my time any more. And that's exactly what I did.

It was nice though, before we left Logan, we went and got ourselves some Aggie Ice Cream and the ice cream store on campus. It was DELICIOUS!!! I think I'm going to have to make that a tradition.

P.S. I'm not posting any pictures on this race because I look like a fatty in all the pictures. For some reason, whenever I can't workout, I lose ALL self control and eat whatever I want as much as I want.

Tsunami Triathlon

This latest triathlon that I did yesterday, it was a spur of the moment triathlon. I haven't done a triathlon since the end of May and my next triathlon isn't until July 9th, so I decided to sign up for the Tsunami Triathlon at the SDRC that I competed in yesterday.

I was really nervous about this triathlon because I hardly trained at all this week because I just got done doing the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay and I was EXHAUSTED from that, so I didn't train hardly at all.

Considering I trained maybe twice this last week, my triathlon wasn't too bad. My final time was 1:29:04. I came in 6th in my age division, so it wasn't too bad.

The swim was pretty good. I swam 350 yards in 8:30. Granted, I need to be able to knock that time down by about 1:30, but with no training this week, I'm pleased with 8:30. I killed 5 people in the swim, so that made me feel pretty good.

It was kind of cool. As I was walking in to the pool area before the swim started, I saw one of the swim coaches and he recognized me. We both said hi to each other & then he proceeded to tell people that I was going to kill it because he sees me at the pool every day and I'm doing really well.

Then during the swim about lap # 4, he got right down by the edge of the pool and was cheering me on "You're doing great! Hussle, hussle! Keep it up!". I don't know if he did that for anybody else, but it made me feel special. He did the same as I was getting out of the pool too.

While I was swimming I swallowed a lot of air, because as I was running to T1 I let out this HUGE belch! Then I was like "excuse me". It was kind of funny because then off to the side I heard someone say "Awesome! That's a true swimmer right there!". Every time I belched yesterday it made me think of that & I laughed.

The bike wasn't too bad. It took me about 43 minutes to ride 12 miles. It was a different route than what I'm used to, so that threw me off a little bit, but I did pretty good. It wasn't windy at all, so I was able to keep my speed up. I really need to get clips as pedals so I can just clip in & shave a little time off my T1 and go faster too.

The run was rough. I was just slow. It took me 35 minutes to run 3.1 miles. I'm not too happy with that, but I know it gives me room to improve. My legs were just tired because I really pushed myself on the bike, so I was just slow, but hey, I finished!

So, overall, this was a good race. I'm not disappointed with my time. It gives me room to improve.

What I really liked about this race is it shows me that after a race like the Ragnar, I can bounce back just fine and do a race the next week. I've been concerned about this because I'm doing the Epic Relay in August and the very next week I have my Olympic distance triathlon. This race yesterday proved to me that I know I'll be able to do that race and be ok.

Open Water Swimming

My first open water swim triathlon is rapidly approaching on August 20th and I'm scared out of my pants!!!

I don't know why, but ever since I was little I've been scared of open water. I even have a picture in one of my scrapbooks of me sitting on the beach in California just crying because I was scared of the ocean.

I signed up for my first open water swim clinic back in May and I had bought a wetsuit, but stupid me, I forgot to try the wetsuit on when I first bought it. The day of the clinic, I try on my wetsuit...yeah, it doesn't fit!!! Crap! So, I wasn't able to go to that clinic.

I then heard about a clinic that was going to be this last Wednesday at the lake that my triathlon is at. I thought sweet!!! The day before the clinic, I go and rent a wetsuit ($40) and I get 1/2 day off work the next day so I have time to get the rest of my workout in and then head up to the lake. The day of the clinic, I find out it's been cancelled!!!! Argh!!! I'm SUPER frustrated.

They said they're going to try & reschedule the clinic for this upcoming Saturday. Well that sucks! I've got a triathlon this Saturday.

I don't really feel like I can go open water swimming by myself. It's just not safe to do.

I get the feeling that my first experience with open water swimming is going to be the day of my triathlon. That does not do me good for my anxiety.

So, if you have any tips on open water swimming for me, I'd greatly appreciate it!

What I Want

This weekend while doing the Ragnar Relay, I figured out exactly what I want as far as a spouse, etc.

My personal trainer, B.J. and his wife Chrystel competed in the Ragnar. I saw them a couple of times throughout the race. They have an 8 year old son too and he was there. He didn't compete in the race, but he was there with them.

That is what I want. I want a spouse that enjoys doing 1/2 marathons, marathons, relays and triathlons with me.

I've always been afraid that if I were to get married and have a family that would be the end of triathlons and marathons, etc., but seeing B.J. and Chrystel competing in the Ragnar this weekend with friends and bringing their son along with them proved to me that you can have a family and still do triathlons etc.

The only problem is, I don't know how to go about finding that person. People have always said that a good place to meet someone is at the gym. Well, they've never been to the gym I go to. Because of the neighborhood and city I live in, alot of people are married. Every guy I've seen at the gym is married. :( Plus, alot of guys when they workout don't wear a wedding ring, so how do you know if they're married or not?

I just don't know how to go about finding someone who likes to do the same things I do. I guess that's why I'm still happily single.

More Changes

As this week has been going on, I've been doing really good with my workouts, until today. My legs were just like jello. I couldn't do the bike. I just couldn't.

This is normally what my workout is that my personal trainer has scheduled for me:
Monday:
Swim and run (4 miles). Also do weights.

Tuesday
Bike (60 minutes) and run (3 miles).

Wednesday:
Swim & run (4 miles). Also do weights.

Thursday:
Bike (60 minutes) and run (3 miles).

Friday:
Swim

Saturday:
Run (6 miles)

Sunday:
Bike (90 minutes)

Now, with what I've listed in my previous post, I'm obviously over doing it. It's not that I don't trust B.J., because I do. I mean, he's an amazing athlete and he's an Ironman. He knows what it takes. It's just that I'm so scared to death of gaining my weight back that I workout constantly. I hope I haven't offended him by doing more than what he has scheduled me.

But, it has finally occured to me that at this point in my training, I just physically can't do what I posted in my last post. My body will start to rebel.

So, I'm going to try really hard to stick to the schedule above, except for I will continue to swim every morning because that's where I feel I need to most work, and on Saturday's I will run more because I'm training for a 1/2 marathon.

I will continue to eat more protein like I talked about in my last post, but hopefully this will help in my quest to lose the rest of my weight.

Olympic or Not?

Ok, so as you can tell by the little countdown thing I have on my blog, I have my first Olympic distance triathlon on August 20, 2011. I've already registered for the race, but I am have serious doubts as to whether I should do the Olympic distance or not. I can pay a small fee and down grade to the Sprint distance, I just need other's opinions.

I know I can do the distances, I just don't know if I'm ready to do the distances. My goal for every race I do is to finish the race AND not come in last. I'm afraid if I do the Olympic distance I will come in last.

So far in my 3 years of doing triathlons, I've only "placed" in one of my races and that was this year. Granted, I've made pretty big strides, at least I think, from my races last year to my races this year. BUT...do I need to wait until I start placing in more sprint distance races before I move on to Olympic distance races?

I think the one part of the race I'm most concerned about is the swim. I don't know why, but open water scares the bejesus out of me. It always has. Ever since I was a little girl. Plus, I haven't been able to attend any open water clinics to get familiar with swimming in open water.

Plus, the whole timing issue makes me nervous. It currently takes me about 1 hour to swim 1 mile. :( That's not very fast. Now...granted, I have been slacking off a little bit with my workouts. I haven't been doing weights as much as I should and I know if I do weights on a more regular basis that will help me with my swim time.

The bike portion I'm not too concerned about and I'm not too concerned about the running either. By the time I do this race, I will already have a 1/2 marathon under my belt for this season, so 6 miles of running shouldn't be too bad.

So...do I just knuckle down and make no excuses and go hardcore with my workouts (I'm gonna do this any way) and still do the Olympic distance, or do I downgrade to the Sprint distance?

I would really appreciate your opinion regarding this.

Frustrated

Do you ever have days where you just want to give up? Throw in the towel? Wave the white flag? Well today was one of those days for me.

Like I said in my previous post, my shin splints have come back, which has put a kibosh on running for a little bit. Granted, I can do the eliptical trainer, but that's not the same as pounding out miles on the pavement or the treadmill. And like I said in the previous post, if I keep getting shin splints because of how I run, am I going to continue to get shin splints every couple of months? If so, will I ever reach my goal of completing an Ironman? I've got a 1/2 marathon in about 6 weeks and I've got shin splints. That's not a good combo.

All of this got me thinking about other aspects of the triathlon and how I'm doing as far as improving and am I EVER going to improve.

I'm really frustrated with my swimming right now. Hell, I can't even do a flip turn. I can't even dive in to a pool. I have a hard time staying consistent with my swim time. One day I'll be able to swim 100 yds in 2 minutes and I'll be able to do that 4 times, but the next day, it'll take me 2:10 to swim 100 yds. On Friday's, my swim workout is 200 swim/kick/pull and then a long 1000 yds. I want to be able to swim the 1000 yds in 20 minutes (30 seconds a lap). One time I was able to swim it in 21:10 and I was proud of myself. I've never been able to do that again. I'm always at least 23:00. It's just VERY frustrating.

The bike, that's the only part where I feel like I'm doing ok. I still seem to struggle with hills some times, but other times, I seem to do ok. I want to get to a point where I can climb hills without a problem, but the bike is the only part where I'm not too frustrated.

I know the only way I will get better at triathlons is to keep doing them and to not give up, but today, I just felt like giving up. Even now that it's 8 hours later, I'm frustrated, but I don't feel like giving up. I just need reassurance sometimes.

Be Well Joy Ride Triathlon

My latest race was the most disorganized race I have ever competed in! I will NOT participate in this race ever again.

I got up bright and early to get ready for the race 'cause I had to drive 1 hour to get there. The race was supposed to start at 8:00 a.m., so I got there right about 7:00 a.m.

I went up to the table to pick up my packet and get my bib # and that's where I realized how much of a disaster this race was going to be.

At all my other races, they have a spreadsheet of everybody that has already signed up for the race, so when you pick up your number, they just mark your name off on the list and hand you your bag that has your t-shirt, bib # and all the other goodies in it. Not at this race. I walked up to the table. They wrote my name down on a legal pad sized yellow paper, picked up a # off of the big pile of #'s they had. They asked me if I had paid already or not and then passed me off to the t-shirt table. I went to the t-shirt table and picked up my t-shirt and they passed me off to the body marking people.

After I got my bib # marked on my arm and leg, that was it. I didn't get a timing chip, nothing. I finally asked how they were going to do the timing with this race and they said they weren't going to break it down in to splits or anything. That still didn't tell me how they planned on timing the race, so I just stopped asking questions.

I got my transition area ready and then me and my dad just wandered around, looked at the pool, and then hung out by the pool until it was time for the race to start.

The race was supposed to start at 8:00 a.m., but 8:00 came and went without the race starting. So did 8:30 and 8:45. I was starting to get impatient. Finally at 9:00 a.m., they said they were close to getting the race started, they were having techincal difficulties.

Around 9:15 a.m. the race finally started...at least for the slow swimmers. They said that so we could get the swimming done fastest, the slower swimmers went first and the fastest swimmers went last. Oh good grief!!! So, I was in the second to the last heat.

I had already eaten my energy jelly beans at 7:30 a.m. (the package says to eat 30 minutes before event), so my energy had come and gone by the time I started the swim. One good thing about the swim was we stayed in the same lane the whole time and did 12 laps. I did like that.

I wish I knew how fast I swam, but nope, didn't know. I figured out that the way they started the race was in each heat, there was 24 swimmers and they gave their bib #'s to the timing people and when they said "go", they started your time on the computer.

So, after the swim I was off to the transition area to pick up my bike. I was kind of nervous about the bike because I didn't know the route or anything like that. I saw a map of the route, but I still wasn't familiar with it. The bike seemed to take FOREVER!!! I felt like I was riding my bike forever before I got to the turn around point. It felt like I rode my bike all the way up in to Idaho and back. There were a couple of hills on the bike, but nothing too bad. The police officers that were blocking intersections for us were super nice. I almost wiped out on my bike on the way back to transition. I was going kind of fast and took a corner too sharp. Thankfully I was able to correct myself and distribute my weight on the bike well enough that I didn't wipe out (thankfully).

Then it was off on the run. The run wasn't bad at all. I got to see the run course while I was on the bike, so I knew what to expect as far as the route, etc. We had to run a little dirt trail for maybe 1/4 of a mile and there was two hills that weren't too bad, but my legs were getting tired, so I knew I wasn't running as fast as I could've been.

I gauge my time on the course by how many people are on the course with me, but that was hard to do with this race, because alot of the time, I was on the course by myself. I wasn't fond of that.

Finally I'm headed back on the run and as I run in to the finish I see them look at the number on my arm and look at the time that I cross the finish line and they write that down on a legal pad sized yellow piece of paper and that's how they figure your final time!!! Ridiculous!!! I couldn't believe it.

My dad forgot to look at his watch when I started swimming and I forgot to look at my watch when I started swimming, so I had NO idea what my finish time was. I was going to stick around to see the results, but I was so frustrated with how the race had gone so far and how disorganized it felt that my dad and I just packed everything up and left.

Finally, Sunday night, an Excel spreadsheet was emailed out to all of the participants with our final time. I came in 6th in my age division and my final time was 1:27:49.

Even though they said in the email that the race has grown so much that they are going to have an outside company do the timing next year, I will not do this race again. The only good thing I have to say about this race is the bike and running courses were well marked.

Here are some pictures from the race:

Running After the Race

Yesterday, I had my Splash & Sprint Triathlon, but then right after the race, I had to head inside and run 4 more miles on a treadmill. Why might you ask? I've got a 1/2 marathon coming up in about 6 weeks that I need to prepare for. I need to get my long runs in on the weekend. I needed to run 7 miles yesterday.

Those 4 miles on the treadmill felt like hell. But you wanna know something? I secretly enjoyed it. Why? It gave me the satisfaction of knowing I can run 7 miles.

Something else that excites me? Because I ran 7 miles along with biking 12 miles and swimming 350 yds, I pushed myself beyond what I normally do (a good thing) and it made me kind of sick. Granted part of the sick was because I'm on new medication for my depression (a whole different story), but I think I was kind of dehydrated too. I'm not sure why. I made sure I drank water on the bike and run.

I've always wanted to feel sick from working out. I know this sounds weird, but I've always wanted it. Why? It makes me feel like a real athlete.

Weird, I know. So, yeah, I'm kind of excited about that. This next Saturday, I have another triathlon. When I get home from that triathlon (it's about 1 hour away), I need to go up to the gym and run 5 miles. :) I will however prepare myself better and drink some gatorade or something on my way home from the triathlon.

Splash & Sprint Tri

Yesterday was the Splash & Sprint Triathlon at the Rec Center up the street from my house. This is my second time competing in this triathlon.

It wasn't my best race, but it wasn't my worst race. My final time was 1:28:05.

The race was in the swim/bike/run order. Most of my races are in that order this year. I think I only have maybe 2 or 3 races that are in the run/bike/swim order.

The swim went well. I don't have a break down of my time yet, but I think I swam the 350 yards in about 8 1/2 minutes. If that's right, that is my best swim time EVER!!! I should have a break down of my time tomorrow. As soon as I get a break down of my time, I will post that as well.

One frustrating thing about having the swim first is there are SO many people in the pool, that sometimes you can't swim as fast as you would like. Yesterday when I was swimming, the guy behind me kept tickling the bottom of my feet, which typically means, move over to the left so they can pass you. Well, I was swimming as far to the left in the lane as I could and he would NEVER pass me. He was getting frustrated wtih me, but he had many times that he could pass me and he didn't. If he knew he could swim faster than those he was around, he should have picked a faster swim time.

One cool thing about the swim was my personal trainer, he was the guy at the beginning of the race that got on the microphone and told everybody how they were seeding the swim and that you had to swim twice in each lane, etc. After the race started, he went to the door that we had to run out to go to the transition area. As I was running out of the swim, it was just really cool to hear him say "Go Ara! You're doing great!" It was just awesome! It has been important for me to have him see me race and see how his work has helped me so much.

I think I could've done better if the wind wasn't blowing so damn hard. The wind blowing made the bike portion of the race SUPER hard for me. For most of the bike, we were riding in to the wind. At one point, I was riding East and the wind was blowing so hard that I could feel the wind blowing me South.

Because the wind was blowing so hard on the bike, I had to pedal harder; therefore I got a harder workout on my legs, so when I went out on the run, my legs were SUPER tired and I know I wasn't running as fast as I would've liked. It'll be interesting to see how long it took me to run and see what my pace was.

Oh well, at least it wasn't my worst time and I didn't come in last! Yay!

A big thanks to my sister-in-law for taking pictures! Here are pictures of me from the race. I'm the one in the bright pink swim cap. :)

4th Street Clinic Tri

This last Saturday was the Fourth Street Clinic Triathlon. It was held up at the U of U.

This triathlon is probably the triathlon I was MOST nervous about. It was a mountain biking triathlon. I've never mountain biked before in my life! What was I thinking.

All I had was a $70 mountain bike from Wal-Mart. I just had a gut feeling that bike wasn't gonna cut it for this race. I put a plea out on Facebook and my dear friend Monica had a mountain bike I could borrow. It was a NICE mountain bike. I was right...my $70 bike from Wal-Mart wouldn't have cut it.

It was a swim/bike/run triathlon. The swim went ok. I could've done better, but I didn't have a good suction on my goggles for the first few laps so after every lap I had to stop & adjust my goggles. Finally after the third time stopping to adjust my goggles I got a good enough suction and I was able to finish the swim without having to stop.

Then it was off to the bike. Dear God, what had I gotten myself in to? Lol. I ended up walking probably 1/2 of the bike distance, but that's ok. I'm still proud of myself. During part of the bike, I thought to myself, I wish I would've brought my camera on the bike portion so I could take pictures so that you guys could see the trail. It took me almost 1 hour to do the bike portion.

I finally got back to transition and went off on the run. The run just took you 3.1 miles around the U of U campus. Holy crap, I knew the campus was big, but I didn't realize how big it was. I saw parts of the campus I never knew existed. Lol. The run wasn't too hard. I thought I was running a little faster than I was, but eh, it wasn't too big a deal.

My final time on the race was 1:35:46.6. It obviously wasn't my best time, but I'm ok with that. This was a race I'd never done before and it was a mountain biking race.

I would love to do this race again next year. Within the next year hopefully I'll be able to purchase a mountain bike and get better at mountain biking before this race next year.

Here are a couple of pictures for your enjoyment (P.S. The bathrooms really weren't barred off, but from this angle, it looked like it, so we decided to have fun with it! Lol.):