Who's the boss?

My body has proven to me again that it is the boss of me. Yeah, forget what my mind wants to do, my body is BOSS. I did a hellish hill workout on yesterday with the PG Running Club and 3 of my fellow Tri Unify training buddies. The run up hill to begin the hill workout was a beast. I am slow as frozen molasses and always manage to end up dead last, but I did not quit. I am convinced that if I keep showing up, I will get better/faster. Ken was awesome with passing along tips, Quintin was a great motivator and always managed to tell me that I looked good or something positive right when I needed to hear it, and Lisa was cutting and cussing me with her side eye look for getting her out for a tough workout.

I had a master plan to go riding with the BWMCC cycling crew today but my body had other plans. As the day progressed, I felt soreness setting into my legs from the hill workout  and the multiple Tequila shots that I had last night was starting to catch up to me. I planned to come home, pop some Advil and then take a 1 hour nap. I set my alarm, but when it rang, I turned it off and fell back to sleep while mentally preparing for my ride. I was so upset when I awakened, as I was so looking forward to riding with this group again. When I started to walk around, I noticed that my legs were no longer sore, the Tequila was out of my system and I was ready to ride. I sent a text to a few folks, but  no one was available to ride at Hains Point with me, so I rolled out alone. My plan was to ride 5 of the 6 mile loops and try to keep a cadence of 85. I had to do some positive self talk while out there and reminded myself that I was not out there to leisure ride and that I would be racing alone in the NYC Triathlon, so this was good for me. I ended up riding 28 miles and felt great about it.

So, the master plan did not work out, but going with what my body needed ended up being the best plan of all. It's so funny how your body will tell you that it needs to rest when we don't have the sense enough to do it on our own.

10 day count down until the NYC Triathlon....

Listening to the weird feeling

It's really weird, but I do not feel like getting on my bike. I sure hope that I am not getting burned out! After all, I do have the NYC Triathlon in 2 weeks and the Nations Triathlon in 7 weeks. I had to scrap the plans for the Irongirl Triathlon this year due to a trip to London. This is weird for me, because I love riding my bike and I am not tired or anything, but I just don't feel like doing it. Perhaps, it's because I got all mentally prepared to ride on yesterday and drove almost an hour away to start the ride and it stormed on us! I was a good sport about it, kept smiling and made plans to ride again today. But here it is, 6:45am and I am canceling. I never cancel on a bike ride. I feel bad, because I gave my word to Diane, but I also feel like I just need to listen to my body on this one. Plus, I get weird feelings about things and usually when I listen, I avoid an accident or some kind of foolishness. So, off for a run. Maybe. I know that I should do something, but maybe I won't. Maybe I will just pick the whole Triathlon thing up again tomorrow? I have been going hard with training for a while now. Laundry all of a sudden sounds like a much more appealing thing to do today and maybe church and grocery shop and this Day party. Yeah, I think I will have a normal persons Sunday. I am sure that after taking Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, I will feel like a bum and want to get back to it. Let's hope that is the case and this is not burnout in the making.

The bike ride of many firsts

At the beginning of this week, I started to really freak out about my upcoming Triathlon in New York City on August 7th. I think the things that made me really nervous were all of the unknowns and not having a buddy racing to figure it out with. I wrote to the Tri club and asked for people to come out to an open water swim with me so I can try swimming without a wetsuit again in case it is too hot on race day to wear a wetsuit. I then wrote to two guys who did the race last year and asked if I have been riding hilly enough courses to get prepared. Tarus wrote back and invited me to come out on a hilly ride that he and the fellas ride on Wednesdays. I should have been weary when he told me that it was "an hour of power". Well, let's just say that I had some firsts....

• This was the first time that I rode in 100 degree weather (well, it was actually 98 degrees and 101 with the heat index... same difference)
• It was the first time that I sweat so much that bugs started to stick to my arms (GROSS!)
• It was the first time that I literally called out to Jesus OUT LOUD while cycling up a hill
• It was the first time that I wanted to avoid another hill SO BAD that when we took a short cut and the bridge was not down, I got off my bike, took off my shoes, walked across slimy rocks with my bike on my shoulder. YES I DID.
• It was the first time that I realized that this Tri stuff ain't for no punks or prissy chics

Here is a picture of the darn creek that I walked across/in/through :

When we rode up to that gate and I saw the pavement on the other side of this creek and Tarus told me that the only options were to cross the creek or go back up a steep hill, I didn't think twice. WHAT have I BECOME? I don't know if I was a punk for avoiding the hill or a warrior for doing it the way we did it. Maybe I am both? At least I didn't fall. The London subway lady voice was playing in my head "Mind The Gap"...

No excuses!

You know, many people may think that we are insane for doing this "Triathlon stuff, but the more and more I think about it, it is all a mental game that can really affect your outlook, position and attitude toward life. Please allow me to preface this post by admitting that I have had two shots of Patron plus a margarita with Patron after a very hard work out, so it may be the licka (liquor) talking. However, I usually speak the truth in the state... and I am warming up some food now..But anywhoo....

I am not the fastest or fittest but I have that "Can't stop won't stop attitude". Yeah, I could take a break because I suffer from shin splints, but I don't. I just wear compression socks (as HOT as they are) to help to minimize the pain. Yeah, sure, I could take a break because I still have a sore ankle when I wear heels for too long, but I don't. I just monitor how long I wear my stilettos and wear (a hot azz) ankle brace when I run. Sure, I could continue to swim, bike and run alone because I feel like I am too slow to keep up with others, but I don't. I try to get people that are faster and better than me to train with, because I know that I will get faster and better by training with them.

So, I guess the reason for this post is to tell all of those people that are full of excuses of why they can't do something to quit your bitchin and get with it, IF you want to do it. Sometimes, you have to realize that you really just don't want to. If you want to be extraordinary and do something that only a fraction of the people in the world do, and feel like a superstar after crossing the finish line, then "man up" and stop with all the excuses. I mean, how can you use "the dog ate my homework" line and you don't even own a dog? Really? There are no excuses. Either you are and want to be extraordinary or you don't. Period. There are plenty of people out there that have one leg, one arm, a family a full time job, a new beau, a problematic or sick child, struck with cancer... you name it, that's out there. Just own up to the fact that you don't want to or you don't believe that you can. Those are the only reasons, and both are okay.

On to the next one

I am back to training for my next Triathlon: The New York  City Triathlon on August 7th. It will be another Olympic Distance Triathlon and I am nervous, as it will be my first race without any friends. I guess it will be fine after my disappointment with my last race, the DC Triathlon on June 19th. I finished which is always my goal, but there were a lot of folks that came in town to race with me and some of them didn't even wait for me at the finish line. They just finished their race and rolled out. My girl Dawn, Fred and Bill waited for me but I was not happy about the other 4 that left me. So maybe racing solo in the NYC Triathlon won't be so bad after all.

In the DC Triathlon I completed the Olympic distance race which was a 1500 meter swim (a little shorter than a mile) a 25 mile bike ride and a 10K run. I took my time on the swim and felt like I could've kept going after it was done. The ride wasn't bad but it did get a little lonely on the second loop, as the Sprint racers were done, it started to rain and there were just not that many people out since I took so long on the swim (50 minutes). I completed the ride in 1 hour and 33 minutes, which was just 3 minutes short of my goal. The run was just as planned, as I didn't really train for this leg of the race, so there was a lot of walking. I didn't get really fatigued until mile 5. This is when I started to question my sanity, was desperate for the finish line and was really upset after seeing one of the guys that came in town to race with me leaving when I was only at mile 4. The last 1.2 miles of this race was tough, but I finished. I should not have let the fact that some people left me and some of those that waited were ready to go right after I was done, spoil my victory, but I did. Oh well. I was proud of myself for earning my 4th medal (2 Sprints and 2 Olympic distance races)!

Since June 19th, I have only been on my bike 3 times (12 mile, 50 mile and a 18mile rides), swam once (1200 meters) and surprisingly I have run a few times. On two occasions, I ran 3 miles in 24 minutes! That is an awesome accomplishment for me! I plan to run a whole lot more before my next races (NYC Tri on 8/7, Iron Girl on 8/21 and Nations on 9/11), as I have a half marathon coming up (10/29) and I also need to get to running more to help slim down a bit.

There are 14 people interested in training for Nations with me. After my last experience with so many people racing, I will just be concerned with myself and not give a rats ass if anyone waits for me to finish on race day. I guess my idea of a team and support is different from others and that is disappointing. I do want to finish faster and will start doing more speed drills in all 3 sports, but I realize that this is an individual sport, even if you do know others that are racing. I have put together a training schedule for us and I hope that some folks come out to train... and if they don't, that's cool too, because I will get it in regardless. On to the next one......

The plan: Swim Mondays, Track workout on Tuesdays, Cycle and some bricks on Wednesdays, Swim on Thursdays, rest on Fridays, Cycle on Saturdays and Run on Sundays. I plan to get a few more of everything in or will probably show up before the meeting time for the group to do a little extra. I will also incorporate some kettle bell work outs in to the mix too to help tone up.