Monday, April 30, 2012

I’m scared. I’m so very scared.


I’m scared.  I’m so very scared.  I sent my bicycle to Knoxville last week, (I never got the gears working completely right) so I haven’t been able to ride since.  I have been struggling on the small hills of Long Island.  What will I be able to do on the mountains of Tennessee?  If I am able to climb them, (I hope that I will be, but I am not sure) they will slow me down  so much that I am worried that I will not finish the bike and/or the run portions by the cut-off times.  If I can’t I will be disqualified from the race.  If the race is on streets that allow bicycles and/or pedestrians on normal days they can’t kick me off of the road, but I will not be considered a finisher.  I will not receive a medal, and I will be mortally embarrassed..  I don’t want to be embarrassed and I really want a medal.  Pray for me.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Getting Nervous

OK, So I know that I can swim .9 miles.  I can bike 24.8miles and run (if you can call what I do running) 6.2 miles, but can I bike up those mountain hills?  and can I do each by their respective cut-off time?  Especially since I have the disadvantage of being in one of the last groups to enter the swim water?  Will adrenalin pump through me that day and make me faster, or will I get no sleep the night before and be so tired and nervous and intimidated by the hills that I go too slow and am disqualified from the race?  

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Still slow. Still fat, but not quite as fat.

Random stuff:

These are my last two facebook posts: 
Yesterday: 
ran six miles and went to a spin class - all before work this morning.
Today:
I swam for 45 minutes this morning without touching the edge of the pool. Thank you Damian for teaching me how to turn efficiently.

Here is my message to Tracy
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the running belt that I could barely close when I bought it is now so big that it slides off my waist and down my butt. The bad news is that I cannot afford to buy one before the triathlon. Since my tri is a week after your tri can I borrow yours? (She said yes)

BTW:
My wetsuit is SO LARGE on me I need a new one.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

My first ride with the TEAM

I was SO NERVOUS to bike ride with the TEAM.  We started the season biking indoors at 45-90 minute spin classes held at various gyms in the area.  Sometimes we’d spin together and sometimes individually.  I went to these classes religiously, worked hard and truly felt the pain afterwards, but I had no way of knowing how strong I was compared to the other riders.  The spin coach might tell us to set our bike resistance to a level 7, but our bikes have no numbers.  We each set on our bikes to what feels like a 7 to us.  I may have made been working harder than anyone in the class, or half as hard.  I just couldn’t tell.    

When the weather got warm enough the TEAM started riding outside.  I, unfortunately, missed the first few rides because of my ear infection, bad weather, and trips out of town.  Here comes in the SO NERVOUS part.  In the past I have always been the, or one of the, slowest riders in whatever group that I was with.  Will that happen again?  What if I can’t keep up with the group?  Will they tell me to go home?  Will they get mad because they have to wait for me?  If so, will they let me ride with them again next week?  I was assured over and over again that this would NEVER happen, but I still had an uneasy feeling.  So here comes my first ride with the TEAM……

We met at the Syosset train station and rode 5 miles to the SUNY Old Westbury campus.  There we were supposed to ride a 4 mile loop around the campus 4 times and then ride back to the train station, 26 miles in all.  GREAT!  I figured that the worst case scenario for me would be that I would do 3 loops instead of 4 and I would not hold anybody up.  We started our ride and quickly split into two groups.  I was in the front group.  YEAH!  To be sure, I was the slowest one in the front group, but I was not holding the TEAM up.  When we got the campus we faced a lot of hills and the fast riders broke away from me.  I had a little trouble with my bike so some of the second group caught up to me, but I still wasn’t last.  I’d pass some teammates, some teammates would pass me and we would shout encouraging words to each other and move on. 

After a while a girl names Hillary asked me if I had seen anybody in a while.  I thought about it and realized that I had not.  We stopped our bikes at the beginning/end of the loop and waited for the other riders.  Nobody came.  I waited at the meeting point as she did the loop backwards.  She saw no one.  They left without us.  No, they would never do that.  Steve knew that I was having trouble with my bike.  He would not abandon me 5 miles from my car.  Come to think of it how do we get back to our cars anyway?  We followed the coach here.  Can we remember the way back?  Hillary doesn’t know the area at all, but I am kind of familiar with it.  I think that I can get us back to the train station, maybe not the same way, but we’ll probably get there. 

Hillary is a much stronger rider than I am, but she was patient and stayed with me the whole time.  (I guess that she didn’t have much of a choice if she wanted to find her car.)  When I saw my other teammates a few days later I scolded them for leaving me.  Shari told me that they had only done three loops when Steve, the head coach, told them it was time to go.  She told me that she pointed out that I was not with them but Steve told her that a few riders were staying behind to work hills.  (I am doing the hilly triathlon.  Most of my teammates are doing a flat one.)  They all just assumed that a coach was staying behind with us, or somebody, at the very least, he told us that everyone was leaving.  but no, we were left behind to fend for ourselves.  

I guess that I was right to be nervous after all.

Monday, April 9, 2012

This is what my horoscope says:


Treat yourself today -- be a little bit lazy. There's no harm in relaxing a bit.  

I think that I'll take it to heart.

(Do you think that I would take it to heart if it said "Get off of your butt, onto the bike and up Morrs Hill"?)

Friday, April 6, 2012

Quote(s) of the day

Some of my favorite triathlon quotes found on t-shirts, bumper stickers and training websites:


Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. - Henry Ford

Pain heals.  Chicks dig scars.   Glory… lasts forever. - Shane Falco, The Replacements

Pain is weakness leaving the body.  – U.S.M.C.

Quitting is worse than dying.  When you quit you still have to live with it.  - Unknown 

That which does not kill me makes me stronger – Friedrich Nietzsche

For some sports you need a ball, for triathlon you need two!

Embrace the suck - US Military

How about a threesome?

Swim, bike, run, repeat 

You can keep going and your legs might hurt for a week or you can quit and your mind will hurt for a lifetime. - Mark Allen, Ironman  

Shaved and Tapered

Wetsuit Strippers 

As an athlete, I am ever so grateful that Gatorade was invented at the University of Florida. If Florida State had discovered it, I’d be drinking “Seminole Fluid.”   - too long to put on a t-shirt, but I thought that it was funny

Only a triathlete would call a bottle of sugar water their "Nutrition"  

Life is simple: swim, bike, run, eat, sleep.  

Pain is temporary, quitting is forever. 

Don't drown
Don't crash
Don't walk  

This seemed like an awesome idea 10 months ago

I once met three guys named pain, suffering and sacrifice. Now we are inseparable. We are best friends. - Lance Armstrong  

Racing is a lot like wrestling a gorilla; you don't stop when you get tired you stop when the gorilla gets tired

If your relationship is working you’re not training hard enough.  

If triathlon was easy they would call it football

If I don't beat you on the course....there's always the parking lot!  
  
I'm not slow; I'm just enjoying the race longer

Last is just the slowest winner.

You can't spell TRIUMPH without some TRI at the beginning and a big UMPH at the end!!! ;-)  

Triathlon is for people who can't handle drugs and alcohol. 

Save a bike, ride a triathlete  

I ride my bike more than my girlfriend, but she still loves me.

Size does matter. Use the big ring.  

Almost drowned, crashed the bike, puked on the run. When's the next Tri?

Swim, Bike, Run, Rinse, Repeat  

If it doesn't hurt, you're not going fast enough.  

Most girls chase boys. I prefer to pass them

The only easy day was yesterday

Shut up legs! - Jens Voigt  

PR or ER  

Is your junk numb yet? 

Bet you can't wait to get off that bike – a sign on the bike course

Bet you wish you had your bike back now – a sign on the run course

Swim like your gonna drown, Ride like you stole it and Run like they are chasing you. 

A threesome every weekend 

Triathlon: this much pain is expensive.

Triathlon' is Latin for HTFU - (Harden The F*ck Up)

Why be good at one sport when you can be mediocre at three?

Pain is Temporary but your finishing time is posted on the internet forever

Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming. - Dory, Finding Nemo (and Chrissy Brooks on my tri-team)

Just keep spinning.  Just keep spinning. - Me

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Back on the road again

I’m in pain – OH I’m in pain.

Well, let me back up a bit.  The reason that I haven’t posted to this blog lately is because I was on vacation in Italy!  (The location has nothing to do with this post, except that I am really excited to have gone to Italy.)  Before I left I planned it all out.  I checked out the hotels and found out all that I could about their fitness centers.   I made myself a schedule with no days off.  There was no way that I was going to slack.  I packed tons of workout clothes.  I even packed gear to run outside incase the weather was nice.  Exercise stuff took up half of my suitcase.  When I got to Italy I didn’t do a single thing.  Well, I walked a lot, but that was sight seeing.    I ate, and I drank, and I was merry, but I did not exercise.

I came home on Saturday with the plans to be on the bike the first thing Sunday morning.  I ate and drank and hung out in bed finishing the book that I started on the airplane.  I was merry, but I did not exercise. 

Well, Monday is usually my day off, but guilt took over and I went to the gym.  I ran six miles on Monday (if you can call what I do running), and five plus miles on Tuesday.  Then I swam for an hour and a half.  When I say swam I mean that I swam.  There was no stopping last night.   Today I woke up early and went to an intense spin class. 

Now I am in pain, so much pain.  My legs HURT.  I guess the exercise gods are punishing me for slacking last week.