Call me a Wildwoman!

I did it! I am officially a "Wildwoman"! I finished the Wildman Triathlon, and all in all am pretty happy with myself. However, I do have somethings that I want to work on... learning to bike faster is one in particular.

But first, the good parts which in some ways include some of the bad parts. The open water swim is one of the things that I both learned from and was proud of myself. I made the mistake of not getting in the water in the area that we could have warmed up in. I will never do that again. This was my first open water swim and only the 2nd time in my entire life that I have been in a lake. I ran into the water, jumped in and within a few seconds was panicked. Not just a little, but that panic where you feel like you can't really breathe. Why? I couldn't see at all in the water. I got kicked and never saw the foot coming. I'm not someone who is normally susceptible to claustrophobia, but I think I was experiencing it then. After swimming a little with my head above the water, my brain finally kicked in and I thought to myself, "You can do this. You know how to swim and you're good at it. You can do it." And then I remembered a team member who told us that she looks for her hands, so I put my head in the water and started to swim but I couldn't see my hands. So I breast stroked for a little and decided that I needed to try again and see what I could see underwater. I could see my forearms, so I watched for those and counted to 3 for my breathing, and every 8 strokes I looked up to see where I was. Even with the panicking, I swam the 750 meters in 17:15.158. I could do it a good bit faster in the pool, but since I panicked I think I did well, especially since I passed a bunch of the guys who were in the wave in front of mine!

I think I spent a little too much time in the 1st transition. We had to run more than 1/4 of a mile to get to the transition and I wasn't running overly fast because I was barefoot and it hurt my feet, but I could have run faster and will work on that for next time. In the transition area itself, I was ok. I think I will bring a bottle of water with a squirt nozzle to rinse of my feet because that will go faster than trying to wipe them off, but other than that my set up was good and I just need to practice doing the motions of getting things on a little faster.

The bike. I did well with my cadence, staying between 85-92 the entire way. But I think I need to learn how to ride better because even with a good cadence, I was only going 14 mph to 14.5 mph. I feel like I can go faster, but I don't know how to use the bike to allow for that. Maybe I was in too low of a gear? Maybe my leg motion is not as efficient as it should be? Maybe I need to sit farther back on the seat by using my core and until my core is strong enough to maintain it, check every so often so as to push myself back? I'll be getting some books, and perhaps some specialized training if I can get it. Because of this I wasn't super happy with my time: 51:39.837 for a 12 mile bike. I know I can do better. But the good part was that I didn't crash in the dismount zone! I had studied the route map so I would know when it was coming up, and I came in mentally ready to ignore everyone around me and snapped my right leg out, put the brakes on slowly and evenly and leaned forward and to the right, had my leg down, was still and snapped my left leg out, and dismounted. Go me! In fact, I was so happy that I smiled ear from ear!

Then for the 2nd transition. I did well with it... less than 2 minutes (1:58.953), but could have been a little faster in that I decided to run back and get my water bottle. I don't think I'm going to run with a water bottle again, and may opt for getting a camel back so I can use it on the bike and on the run because I have to admit that on the bike, I didn't use my water once - which is not a good thing. I just didn't know how to get the bottle out when going so fast, and while I need to learn, I also need water in the meantime. Anyway. T2 I thought was pretty good other than doubling back for the water bottle.

The run. My shin splints decided to kill me about a mile into it, so I had to walk and run a little bit. And then somewhere I hit some uneven terrain that helped stretch my calves out and the pain in my shins stopped... and I was able to run the rest of the way. If I hadn't had the shin issue, I think I could have gone faster. But I was not wholly unhappy with my time - 3.2 miles in 30:19.883. Not too shabby for a girl who is not an overly good runner (but is trying to improve) and had to walk some because of her shins.

The end was great! I felt so good and so happy... exhausted, smelling like wet goat, but I felt great for what I had accomplished and for what I learned. A total time of 1:46:38.215. Slower than I would have liked, but this one was longer than my first (the swim was almost 2x as long and the run was 1 mile longer) and I know where I want to improve and was happy with what I did well. And I had a great time rooting for my team mates still out there and congratulating those that finished before me. My Team in Training team rocks!

So when is the next one???

When the rubber meets the road...

a little too hard, you fall over. This Saturday's training session taught me that little gem, which looking at it now could really be a good life lesson as well. We did a 5 mile bike followed by a 2 mile run and then repeated. It was meant to be a transition practice as we are all participating in the Wildman Sprint Triathlon this coming Saturday as a "practice." But, for me it was more of a lesson in stopping my bike. I can get on my bike and go... pedaling, not a problem. Going fast (for me, not necessarily others), not a problem. Stopping the bike and getting off... issue laden. I have a new bike and new clip in pedals and I need a lot more practice with the stopping issue. Particularly the unclipping portion of stopping. I need to learn to snap out that 1st foot (even when approaching stop signs), stop completely while leaning to the side with the unclipped foot and then unclipping the left foot. I have the road rash to prove it... let alone the embarrassment of falling. But luckily, I am the "pick yourself up, dust yourself up and start all over again" kind of gal. I almost fell during the 1st transition (landed square on the bar - glad I'm not male) and did do on the 2nd bike transition. But, I ran the 2 miles afterward all the same and came in 6th out of the 11 or 12 of us that were at practice all the same. So, my goal for the week is to get out there a little bit each day and practice - 1st with my sneakers just pretending to be clipped in and then a little later in the week being actually clipped in. My main problem appears to be that I hold the bike too upright when I go to stop - probably because I'm scared to fall. Ironic.

And then there is the completely separate issue of feeling self indulgent and a bit selfish after this weekend and this morning. I had practice on Saturday and afterwards our coach surprised us with a woman who is battling Leukemia now but is also a practicing sports massage therapist who gave us all massages (not to mention a big Thank You to Jose from Advanced Pro Cycles for adjusting my bike seat and giving me lessons on using my clip ins). After practice, I came home around noon and showered and played with the girls a little bit and then it was nap time. The girls took a nice long nap and didn't get up until around 5 pm, so Mr. Darcy and I played a video game that I got him for Christmas and we were toward the end but hadn't played in awhile. Then we spent a few minutes with the girls and the babysitter arrived and we headed out to a movie. We had Chipotle for dinner, saw "Slumdog Millionaire" (which was amazingly good even if it was more violent than you might expect), and then had ice cream... it counted as my Sunday for lenten purposes. When we got home the girls were in bed and they stayed asleep until what would have been 7:15 usually, which is nice and "late" so we got to sleep in. Then we tried a church nearby (and the girls were angels) and then got haircuts for the girls and Mr. Darcy, bought clothes and some shoes for the girls who are now definitely a 3T, got new bike gloves and bottles, and went home for a few minutes. Then Mr. Darcy and Ladybug stayed home while Angelfish & I did the grocery shopping and came home to dinner of fish sticks and broccoli (and a cliff bar for me for desert). Watched Beauty and the Beast with the little ladies while Mr. Darcy put the groceries away, and then had bath time for the girls and attempted to get them into bed. I say attempted because the little stinkers kept turning on their bedroom light and playing until we finally took the lamp out of their room around 10 pm. Anyway, my point is that I felt guilt in a way... as though I was doing something I shouldn't because there definitely was a lot about what I wanted to do this weekend. But, maybe it is as Mr. Darcy said to me last night when I said I felt bad about watching a movie with the girls while he put the groceries away, "You can't be selfless all of the time." Perhaps I am just trying to find that right balance still, so that when the rubber meets the road it won't be too hard.