Thursday, September 27, 2007

Mental Help

Yesterday I did my first weight workout in about 2 months and then did a 50 minute run right after. Needless to say, I was sore when I got up this morning. I seriously contemplated resetting my alarm and sleeping in but I got up. I figured I was swimming and that would help loosen up my sore muscles. I had to do a 2600m swim. I figured it wasn't going to be a problem, it will just take me longer than normal. I'm tired but I think I can muscle through it. I get to the pool and start my swim. The body was willing but the mind had other ideas. I swam my warm up and half of my main set and then stopped. I was TOTALLY wiped out and I SO didn't want to be there. I had the pool to myself (a total rarity!) so I stayed at the end of my lane and stretched. I contemplated getting out and going to sit in the hot tub. I had a dr's appointment so I had to be on the road by 8:00 am or so. I looked at my watch. It wasn't even 6:45 am. Arg. So the mental chatter begins. "Maybe I'll just drop the 2nd 400 I'm supposed to do and finish the rest of the set"......Well...."I REALLY should do the entire workout, my goal this week was to get ALL my workouts done".....but..."It's not like I'm SKIPPING this workout, I'm just shortening it"....hmmm....
In the end, the shorter workout won. I did 2200 instead of 2600. But, at least I did my workout. I can't make a habit of doing this though. I'm sure once Gary gets back into it, I won't be prone to ditching parts of workouts. He's a good motivator (motivation by guilt, he's got it down to a science, God love him.) Right now I'm the only one training so it's easy for me to slack a bit. Everyone else starts training in November. I'll have a good head start--that should be motivation enough.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Doing the Du

I was dreading today. Really really dreading it. Why you ask? I was going to be racing. Doing a race that I hadn't done much training for. Granted it was a duathlon and it was a shorter distance race but still, it was a race. Shorter distance means you have to go hard. You have to have that extra gear. Right now, I have one gear and that is slow. At least I thought it was slow but apparently, it's not as slow as I thought. After all my trepidation about today, I actually did alright.
It was muggy and I had on a cycling jersey--not the best call but I figured I'd survive. I started in the 4th wave, which meant I could watch my sister start since she was in the first wave. Gary started in the wave behind me which meant he'd catch me on the run for sure. I just wasn't sure when. The gun went off and I took off. I had started towards the back of the pack, not sure of my pace capabilities, however I quickly realized that I should have started a little further up. I hit the first km in 4:27, which TOTALLY shocked me. Wow. I didn't think I was capable of that anymore! I kept pressing on, totally stoked. The run course was new this year and took us onto some trails. It was here that I slowed down as the ground was really uneven. I still felt like I was keeping a decent pace, although I did feel like I was going to vomit. I saw Gary just before I hit the trails and thought crap, he's going to catch me. 2km and still no Gary! 3km and the turn around and there he is, 200 meters behind me. I am hurting at this point. He passes me at the 3.5 km mark. Not bad. Better than I expected. He was looking strong as usual. I finally get into transition and promptly become disoriented. I find my bike and am so tired that I can't focus on getting my stuff off / on. I finally get my self sorted and head out on the bike.
It was really windy on our way in to the race and the wind didn't subside at all on the course. Some parts were sheltered but half the race you were riding into the wind. I hate the wind. It is my nemesis. Give me hills over wind anyday. So, needless to say, I stayed in my small chain ring and tried to spin my legs rather than push a big gear and totally burn myself out. I passed a few people and then got blocked in by slow people in front of me and faster riders passing me. ARG! I finally got around the slower riders and motored on. As soon as I turned out of the wind, I flipped into my big chain ring and started hauling ass. There were 2 women in my age group that had passed me earlier and were just infront of me. I passed them both. I motored back--the tailwind helped immensely. Once again, my transition was a nightmare. I decided I couldn't wear a hat on the last run so I had to put my hair into a higher ponytail. Lots of fiddling. I have to learn to move it in transition. Off to the second run.
This was hell. Oh my god. My legs did not want to move forward. My body was going through the motions of running but it didn't seem like I was running. Good god. I hit the first 1km and finally started to come around. My legs started to feel somewhat normal. My head however, felt like it was going to explode. I saw my sister and cheered her on. She wasn't too far infront of me. She was hurting too. I finally caught her at about 2.5km. I ran with her for a bit--she had a bad stitch--I tried to help her work through it. She was struggling so she told me to go ahead. Off I went. I hadn't been passed by anyone in my age group and I wanted to keep it that way. I chugged along, saw my parents and my aunt and uncle. They cheered me on. Right around the corner was the finish line. Wahoo! I looked down at my watch: 1:26:14. Sub 1:30! Yippee! My first run was 18:46, T1 1:29, 43:34 (30.7km/hr?!?!) T2: 1:24 Run #2" 21:02. Wow. I was shocked. To top if all off, I was 9th out of 37 women in my age group!!! Top 10 and I hardly trained. This bodes well for Ironman. Definitely.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Here we go again.

Due to large amounts of peer pressure, I have succumbed to the lure of Ironman again. That and the fact that it will be built around a European vacation. 8 of us have signed up to do Ironman Switzerland. I don't know if I am mentally up for the challenge again. I like the idea of getting back into kick ass shape. Lord knows I need something to keep me motivated. I'm just not sure I'm ready for the 10 month slog again. People always say that your second one is the hardest because you KNOW what goes into getting to the start line. Fear is no longer a motivator as you've done the distance and know what it takes. You have to find something else to motivate you. I'm still looking for that.....

My training started last Saturday and if that day is any indication of how my training is going to go, I'm screwed. We drove out to King & Keele--it was 5 degrees and raining. Not ideal riding conditions but I was appropriately dressed. We head out and the guys are whining about how cold they are. SUCK IT UP FELLAS! We ride along in the rain. I do a little detour around a pile of glass--at least I thought I detoured enough but, I didn't. A couple of minutes later as I'm rolling downhill, my tire goes flat. Crap. I get to the bottom of the hill and get off my bike. I yell up to the guys that I have a flat--Gary comes back and says I'm getting the car and off he goes. Crap crap crap. I sit under a tree and watch Sue do hill repeats. So much for my 2 hour ride. This week has been much of the same. Busy with work & social stuff so I've slept in a couple of times and gotten home late twice. arg. I'm supposed to race this weekend in Niagara on the Lake and I'm so NOT looking forward to it. I've done this race twice before and each time I've done really well as I've been in pretty good shape. I've done pretty much nothing all summer so this is really going to hurt even though it's short. Oh well, I have to start somewhere. On a positive note, my swimming has not suffered as much as I had thought--probably because Gary gave me a few good stroke tips. I swam 1000m in 20:17 which is about 30 seconds slower than what I swam it in this time last year. Not bad all things considered!