Today makes six days since my last triathlon... It's a strange place to be, but I am already to begin training for my next race. I think. I have another race in mid July and after being successful in Ramblin' Rose Raleigh, I was tempted to sign up for another triathlon in between now and then, but I ultimately decided against it in order to give myself a break.

Here is a brief summary of the past week... Keep in mind it was planned as a recovery week, but I still wanted to do my Master Swim class.

Monday - Off day and well deserved! After getting a major PR yesterday, I am giving myself a break....

Tuesday - Day two of a break. As long as I get in my swims this week I will be happy.

Wednesday - Master Swim - Agh.... not a great workout. My kick sets were incredibly slow and I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe I'm tired from the race?? The effort was there and I didn't feel like I was doing anything crazy, but my times were 5-10 seconds slower than normal. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong. I tried the new swim cap that I got from Ramblin' Rose and it sucked. It was latex and I had a feeling I wouldn't like it because I am used to wearing silicon swim caps. I forgot to pack a backup cap and when my ear plugs started popping out I had enough and went to change my cap. Upon realizing I did not BRING a back up (for the first time EVER!) I threw the ear plugs in my bag because I didnt want to lose them in the pool. My ears were filling up with water and then my goggles were filling up with water. It really took everything I had not to pack my bag and leave, but I knew it wouldn't fix anything. I had to deal with the water in my ears and that was painful. When I got home I put in Auro Ear Drops in my ears to help relieve the pain. My ears must have been really water logged because the drops took a while to start working. Next time I'm packing a back up cap.... I still cant beleive I didnt have one... I was tempted to cut the workout short and go home and ride the stationary bike but I decided to stick it out and do my best to finish the workout. I cut the main set in half after telling the coach that I just wasn't feeling it. I finished the workout with a 250 in 6:08.... Yeah, it's not a good workout.

Thursday - No workout today. After yesterday's fiasco I am giving myself another off day, in hopes that it will pay off so I can do well in my swim tomorrow. In preparation for tomorrow's workout I watched some swim drills from the Total Immersion swim program DVD. I am hooked on the Total Immersion book and just got the video companion in the mail today so I watched the first few lessons. Tomorrow I am planning to try "superman" and "torpedo" drills. Both help with balance and so I am looking forward to seeing how I do tomorrow.

Friday - Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Everyone is headed to the beach, so I didnt have to share the pool with many other swimmers. (I have no social life. Obviously.) For the first time on a Friday, I didnt have to share a lane for even a minute. Superman drill was fun! It was different from what I am used to. When I take off from the poolside, I usually clasp my hands in front of me and make a "point" with my hands in order to slide through the water. With Total Immersion, your arms are separated and you quite literary look like superman flying in the sky. It was a strange feeling, but it was neat. Overall the workout went well but those darn kick sets were still sub-par.  I am happy that I did not time my sets, but rather just let the timer go until I stopped swimming. I ended with about 43 minutes, so I could live with that. Tomorrow I have a long workout planned, so I will be in bed early for sure!

Saturday - My alarm went off at 5:20am and first action (like always) was to set it for 10 more minutes. At 5:30am I realized that I had a BRICK planned for today and had to be to Tony's by 6am. Oh yeah, and I was riding to his house. He lives 1.5 miles away so I only had to average a 3:45ish mile to get there in time. I grabbed a mini bagel, slapped some honey pecan cream cheese on it, and ran down the stairs with my bike. Surprisingly, my downstairs neighbors were outside and laughed as I tore off with a bagel in my mouth and a bike in my hands. (I dont think they had been to bed yet) I got to Tony's were we waited for Stephanie and then we all rode to Bicycle Post to meet the rest of the group. It was nice to be able to ride with a group.... It's always more fun, but usually my schedule (and personal preferences of sleep times) doesn't match up. 

After some short conversation, we took off and rode the Fiesta Biathlon course which is 15 miles. I socialized some, but knew that in order to get an effective workout, I would have to start some speed intervals soon. Once we hit the turnaround, I rode back to Town Common by myself. My miles were all sub 4 minutes, with some considerably faster. Once I met back up with the group, we all rode back to Bicycle Post, took some pictures, and then me, Stephanie, and Tony were back on the road to head back to Tony's house.  I started thinking about the upcoming run I was planning to do so I focused on faster spinning in order to flush out the lactic acid in my legs. When we arrived at Tony's house, I changed my shoes and Tony joined me on a short run. The first quarter mile always feels funny on the legs and Tony, who has never attempted a BRICK workout, laughed at how weird it was. Sure enough after a quarter mile things were falling into place. We ran the first mile in about 10 minutes, and then picked it up for another .22 miles in a pace of 9:01. I could not have done that solo so I was happy to have the company. I got back on my bike and rode the 1.5 miles back home. My neighbors who I saw at 6am were outside again and immediately said "How far did you go????" Something about saying "I rode almost 30 and ran 1.2" makes people question your sanity. I simply said that I earned Starbucks! I feel like I am back on track!

After 82 days of training, today was race day! I felt ready.... More than ever before, I was ready! Many people say they are nervous on race day. I say that you are nervous only if you do not feel prepared. I was excited because I was prepared. My training plan was consistent and I knew I was in a place were I could set some PRs.

Tyler and I arrived at A.E. Finley YMCA in Raleigh at about 6:30am. The first thing I always do is find my spot in the transition area. If I am lucky enough to have a number where I can rack my bike on an outside rack, I am happy! Unfortunately, I was numbered in a middle rack so setting up my transition area was going to take some creativity. Once everything was set up, I picked up my timing chip and started looking for the pool so that I could get a warm up swim in before the race started. In my very first tri in 2008, I learned the importance of warming up! Although it is not a super effective warmup because of the time between getting out, and getting back in to race, it is important to get a feel for the water, check to see how slippery the walls are when pushing off, and getting a taste of the water. Most pools are salt/chlorine, and if you dont know the "flavor" of the water, you might be surprised! I swam a 100 and practiced pushing off on the side of the pool that was 10 feet deep. Maybe it's just me, but 10 feet of water pushes up on my body in a way that is very different from 3 feet of water. I was glad to know all this before racing. From there, I dried off and went back to check my transition area to make sure everything was right and that nothing had tipped over while I was away.... People tend to knock things over in transition so it helps to make sure your stuff is right. Control what you can, and figure out how to deal with what you cant.

After the playing of the National Anthem, it was time to begin. We lined up in the gym according to swim rank and they called us in one group at a time. I was lined up with the 7s, meaning that I expected to finish the swim portion in 5:30. The noise in the gym was so loud and it created a high pitch siren sound (only to me apparently) so I put in my ear plugs while inside the gym. Ahh, much better!!

Finally it was time to race. I got up to the pool side and they told me when to begin. I stepped on the mat and got into the pool as quickly as possible so as to not lose any valuable time. I was conscious to not push off the wall too hard so that my foot would not cramp, which is a scary thing to have happen first thing in a race! I controlled my kick and just went for it. I dont really remember the first 100 yards because I was feeling so good. My only frustration was when a woman about 5 people ahead of me, suddenly created a jam in the pool. I dont know if she cramped, or just seeded herself to high, but at one point I was just treading water. She let us all pass her and apologized as we went past her. I was feeling good, but didn't want to pick up the pace too much because the thing with triathlon is that you have to reserve "heart beats" and not push too hard, too soon. I finished my swim leg and jumped out of the pool. I then sprinted to transition which was maybe 200 meters (maybe more) from the pool. I passed people as I ran down the sidewalk. There was a wall of people on both sides of the sidewalk so it was easy to run off their energy!

I made it to transition and got ready for the bike. Most people walked their bikes to the mount line but I was running. I had done this before and I knew that seconds mattered! I jumped on the bike and I was off! Yesterday I rode the bike course in my car so I knew where the hills would be. There was one hill around mile 7 that I dont remember being so difficult in the car. Funny how hills seem like nothing in the car, but once you get on a bike it's a different story. There were people on both sides of the road cheering and helping us to reach the top of the hill. Unfortunately, I can not get my bike into the smallest ring so I was basically without a granny gear. Some people were walking the hill and I cheered for every single one of them as I passed them. "Come on! You can do this! You are tougher than this hill! Go get it!" Something about cheering for my competitors helps me in my own performance too. There was one downhill where I did get a little scared. I was able to hit 38.1 miles per hour on my bike! I had to say aloud, "Hold on, hold on!" as I rode over rough pavement. I was feeling like I was unstoppable! I knew that I had to reserve some energy for the run, so I tried to keep control of my excitement.

Finally I was back to the transition area and I was ready to start the run. Since I have not moved over my clips from my old bike to the new bike, I spend a few extra seconds in transition with having to change my shoes and orthotics. I racked my bike, threw on a visor, and RAN out of T2. As I crossed the mat, I began to put on my racebelt. I discovered that you can save precious seconds simply by running with the race belt in your hand rather than clipping it IN transition. I am learning new tricks here and there and everything adds up (or subtracts down, depending on how you look at it) The run was a two loop course, in which several people were disqualified because they ran only ONE loop. Did they forget simple directions, or did they really think they could get away with a two mile run time of 7:25? Unbelievable. I did my best to smile through the pain but I was disappointed that my run time was slow. In training, I have averaged 9:45 pace per mile after dismounting the bike. Why was this so different? After reflecting on this, I think that the difference is that I must be pushing more on the bike in a race, which leaves me with less energy on the run. I will find a way to fix this problem. Hello summer vacation and two-a-day workouts!!

After I crossed the finish line I felt amazing! I love triathlon and I think I have finally found my sport of choice. I went to the results board and found my time: 1:06:13 I almost cried. I knocked off nearly 5 minutes from a similar distance last October. FIVE MINUTES!!! I couldn't beleive it! I began thinking about all the time I spent at the pool, the late night run/rides, the social events I missed for training, and the hours of work I put in each week. It was all worth it. I earned 16th in my age group out of 60, and 109 of 509. I have never placed that high in such a large group. My previous best was three weeks ago when I earned 5th out of 14. (See Girls Run the World Results by clicking here.)

Needless to say, the Garmin plan worked. Now I just have to step up the training a bit. Summer vacation is coming up soon and I will have so much more time to play with. It's so tempting to take a week off and then hit up the workouts hard next week, but I have 7.5 weeks until the next triathlon, so there isn't much time to take off. I will just have to play it by feel for the next week. I am unsure if I will compete in another Ramblin' Rose event. They are fantastic for beginner triathletes but I finally feel like I am ready to move up to another race. Ramblin' Rose takes a lot of credit for making me the athlete I am today. I love helping new athletes so I would consider volunteering for an event. I volunteered at the Chapel Hill race in 2009 and enjoyed it just as much as racing!  My favorite place to help is in the transition area. It is now time to go back to the drawing board and begin a new training cycle! Rex Wellness Triathlon: I am going to kick your asphalt!

Tonight I went out for a run. It felt good to hit the road with the cool air. I didnt get started until after 9pm. Honestly, this is when I like to run the most. No distractions, cool air, in my own head... it's wonderful. I actually negative split my run over the four miles. I will admit I listened to music while I ran. It was soft, so I could hear the cars. I wore bright colors, a reflective belt, and a head lamp. Anyone paying attention could see me!! But it's the other ones you have to watch out for so I am highly aware of my surroundings, particularly at night. My run took me on a couple hills, but not as many as I would have liked. My triathlon kicked my ass on the run because I wasn't ready for the amount of hills in the race. I want to fix that this time. Another change for my next race is that I am looking to drop some weight. I only have 2 more weeks until the race and I am being smart about my weight loss. I am not doing anything that can hurt me. It might hurt business and stock at Starbucks, but that's okay! I then will continue a weight loss plan until I can reach my goal. I wont say what my goal is, but I have a ways to go. I am not doing anything drastic, unless you count eliminating 90% of junk food (cant take it all away or I am doomed to fail!) and I am increasing my water intake. The exercise part is not the problem. The problem is that I eat when I shouldn't. I know what I should and shouldn't eat. I am back in the habit of writing everything down and I must say that it brings awareness to what's really going on! I've lost 3.5 pounds already so that it encouraging! Anyway...

Tomorrow I have another brick workout. I only have a few more hours before I begin so I am off to bed to catch some much needed ZZZs!

Workout Summary:

Total Distance: 4.01 miles
Total Time: 42:04
Average Pace: 10:29

Today's Mantra: Run smart!

So here's the thing... I have been staying faithful to my training but my blogging has taken a backseat in life. This is mainly because I blog best on my laptop which takes forever to start up so I find it easier to blog from the app, but it's not as pretty and I can't use pictures. I'm sure I could, I'm just not sure how to. Not only that, but uploading my maps and workouts takes a considerable amount of time and by the end of the day I am spent and would rather be on bed. I will go back later (yeah right) and fill in some gaps.

Since I stopped blogging a month ago I have been very busy. Not only did I do some training runs in Boston (I was there to watch the marathon) but I completed my first triathlon of the season. I competed in Girls Run the World in Raleigh, NC. It was awesome! There was so much support from other competitors and I found myself as the 'go to' person for the newbies. I love having that role in this sport. I love helping other people have a great first tri! I almost like it more than I like competing! Crazy, right? This course was hilly... The bike and run both finished on an uphill which was pretty miserable. I ended up finishing 5th in my age group. Originally I thought I got fourth and missed 3rd by 40 seconds. At the end of the day when results were tallied, I ended up 5th. I am happy with that, as it is my top finish in a race. I credit my new bike for helping me to cut off major time on the bike leg. I credit my time drop in the swim to the master swim class I am taking every week, and my run... Well, I don't want to take about that. It was my slowest time, but also the most challenging course. I race again in 2 weeks where I hope to set some more personal records.

Tonight I went to the pool and stayed until closing time. I was the last person out of the pool... I love it! I got in about 2200 yards and completed some pyramids as my main set. I have a ways to go, but after having Tyler video my swim last week, I have a better understanding of my issues in the water.

I have been attending triathlon webinars for the last couple months and I am convinced now that Total Immersion is the next step in forward progress. I purchased the book and tempo trainer and look forward to applying both in my swimming. I will be sure to review both one I use them.

I'm exhausted... I want to write more by I am so tired I just might fall asleep while typing... Before I forget, today's mantra is- zzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Today we got out of school early because the tornado threat was so high. Turns out the worst of the weather was last night.  Today really wasnt bad. We really didnt get anything bad HERE. Funnel clouds were in the vicinity but never hit Greenville, fortunately.

My biggest frustration is that the gym closed at 5pm because of the weather. It rained, but was never threatening. Im upset that my swim practice has been cancelled.... wimps. I guess I will just have to find a good workout to do independently on Friday!

Today's Mantra: Be happy to be alive.