Race recap – Lincoln Park Triathlon

Awake, but exhausted. Allons-y!

So, I did it! I completed my first triathlon, the Lincoln Park Triathlon. It was a Sprint Triathlon with a 500 meter lake swim, 10 mile bike ride and 5k run. My overall time was 1:39:05. This was about what I expected, based on my training, so I am not too surprised. I was last in my age group (12/12), to which I stick out my tongue, but not last overall (209/242). It’s only up from here!

I'm ready.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the weather could not have been more perfect. We had to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn (5:00am to be exact), which I loathe, to get there in time. My husband and son came along to cheer me on and by the end they were more tired than I was. We are not morning people. When we arrived, the first parking lot was full, so we had to park in the second, which was a decent distance away and required us to walk about 10 minutes to the check-in.

Checking in was very easy and smooth, since I had picked up my packet on Friday. I only had to get my timing chip, get body-marked (my number 299 written on me in Sharpie), and set up my transition area.  Then, it was off to the porta-potty for the 8^th time. Haha.

Swim: 9:58.8

Swim!

I was in the orange wave of swimmers: 44 and younger. Thank you race director, for not making me feel too old. I was hoping to be one of the faster swimmers in my wave and I might have been, except for a few miscalculations on my part. The first mistake was that my over-confidence got the best of me and I put myself in the front at the start. In my prior open water swims, I had followed the advice to hangout near the back and then catch up, in order to avoid the chaos, since after a bit, people spread out. I really should have stuck with that strategy. Once I was in the water, everyone was so close together I ended up getting pummeled repeatedly, just as I have read about, and it really threw me off, much more than I expected. I switched to a breast-stroke to see my way out of the crowd and, in doing so, lost a bunch of time. As a result of getting kicked and hit, my heart started racing too and I had difficulty calming back down. In addition, I had pulled my groin muscle on my last 5k and when I did a frog kick at that point, the pain flared up again. (Thankfully, I just avoided doing it again, so it was not a problem for the rest of the swim.)

I was finally starting to find my rhythm when I got to the middle buoy.  During my earlier practice at the lake, we were allowed to swim in an enclosed area, but during the race we went further out into the middle and I was surprised by the amount of seaweed at that point. With each stroke I was pulling chunks of it, like hair from a drain, and it was it front of my eyes and in my mouth. Yuck.  Also, at this point, my goggles started leaking badly and I had to stop and fix them. I had known before this race that it was time for new ones, but had put it off. I should have known better.

I know I could have gone a lot faster in this section, so I was disappointed by my time.  I was hoping at least to gain a few minutes from the swim, but that didn’t happen.  Then, it was time to move onto the transition to the bike.

Bike: 48:47.3

Bike!

From the lake, we had to run barefoot to the transition area over concrete and my delicate feet could not take it, so I walked. It took me a while to clear off the sand and get my socks on, which made me realize I probably should have brought a water bottle to rinse my feet off. I think I may have done that for my prior Aquathlon. I can't recall. That would have saved me some time, which I badly needed, because what came next was not pretty.

As expected, this was my worst section. I’m fairly certain I was the slowest biker out there. “On your left” was all I heard as people flew by me, again and again, for nearly an hour. I felt really alone on the bike course, as I was by myself for a good portion it (aside from when I was being passed). Since the course was not closed to traffic, I had a few moments of fear as well. One driver forced me onto the sandy shoulder at one point to avoid him. and near the end the cops were so bored that they were talking to each other and not paying too much attention to directing bikers or traffic. I had to yell to get their attention about which way to go a couple of times. That was slightly annoying.

Because this was literally only my sixth time ever really riding on my bike since I got it,  I don’t feel too badly about my time. I am still just a beginner and I need to ride more frequently and on the roads, even though they scare me. It’s as simple as that. Thankfully, my upcoming race is an Aquathlon and I won’t have another triathlon until the end of the summer, so there is plenty of time to train.

Run: 34:15.4

Run!

The transition here was easy, because I don’t have clipless pedals yet. I already had my sneakers on, so all I needed to do was hop off my bike, rack it and take of my helmet. No problem. I dawdled a bit and ate a gel and drank some Gatorade too. I have read that this is a "newbie mistake", but after that slow bike ride, a few seconds wasn’t going to matter. When I first started to run, that groin pull kicked in big time and I thought "damn, I might need to walk this course." Thankfully, it went away after a little bit. But, oh my god, did my legs feel like jello after I got off the bike! I expected this feeling to disappear after a little bit, but the entire run I felt like a turtle running through molasses. I seriously thought I was clocking a 16 minute mile. It turns out, however, I was actually going my normal speed and I finished the 5K portion in my usual time. In fact, my time was 25 seconds FASTER than the regular old 5K I had done the week before where I had so much more energy. I was very happy with my run time.

I still haven’t figured out the sunblock thing. I had applied waterproof sunblock before the swim with plenty of time for it to sink in, but definitely could have used a reapplication before the run. I now have a slight sunburn. I’m going to have to read up on how to manage that in future triathlons. Maybe use the spray kind and just mist myself at transition?  It was also very fun seeing my Gold Coast Triathlon Club teammate, Diane, out on the course and her “good jobs” on the bike and high five on the run were a nice pick me up when I was feeling tired.

Overall, I am proud of myself and I look forward to working hard and getting faster for the next one. My husband asked me how this compared to other races I have done and, honestly, I think it was easier than both my half marathon and Spartan Race. Unlike the half marathon, the different sports really broke up the monotony and unlike the Spartan Race, it wasn’t a full body workout. Plus, zero burpees makes everything easier! After both of those races, I needed a few days to recover. Right now, I feel like I could workout again tomorrow.

I would definitely recommend this course to other beginners. It really was pretty flat and the lake was very calm and warm (80 degrees, which was not wetsuit legal, but for a person like me, who gets cold easily, a welcome thing.) There were also delicious box meals at the end courtesy of Applebee’s and a very pretty finisher medal and t-shirt. It was well organized and well staffed and everyone was super nice. I really had a fun time.

Now it’s time to take a nap!

One step, two step, getting closer

My first triathlon is a little over two weeks away, and I have to admit I have been getting a little nervous.

For one thing, I don’t know how I will do when each event is combined together. The distance is a Sprint, with a 500 meter swim, 10 mile bike and a 5k run. My last swim was 1.2 miles, my last bike ride was 16 miles and my runs are generally around 4 miles, so I know I can do them each individually. However, I have yet to complete a brick workout and am worried about how I will feel when all of them are stacked together, particularly the run after the swim. My legs usually feel a bit like jello when I get off the bike. I have a brick workout scheduled for Monday, so hopefully it will go well.

The other thing which was making me nervous was finding a tri suit to wear. The stores around here did not carry any in my size, and judging from their selections, you would think female triathletes only come in two sizes: Athena and waif. As a short but curvy girl, I had to resort to shopping online. It took three tries to find a tri suit that fit me.

The first one I ordered was an 2XUComp Trisuit. It was nearly perfect - except I'm not 5'10". It was great in the bust and hips, but had 2 inches of extra fabric in the middle.

The second one I ordered was a TYR Sport Competitor Trisuit. Apparently, Tyr thinks women don’t have hips and are pretty much straight up and down. I couldn’t even get it over my hips at all, despite the measurements online saying it was my size.

My third, and thankfully final, attempt was the Louis Garneau Pro Suit. And, luckily, it fits. So, now I have one less thing to worry about. The material is really thin and light, and quite stretchy, despite it supposedly being a compression garment. I have yet to test it out in an actual workout, but hopefully it will be good and won’t chafe or anything.

The only thing else I am still worried about is getting up so early! I am so not a morning person and I really hate that every race starts at an ungodly hour. Unlike many triathletes, I usually workout in the evenings and rarely wake before 8:30am. The whole getting up at 5:00am thing does a number on me and fills me with dread. I need to start altering my sleep schedule soon so I can deal with this and I am not looking forward to this aspect at all!

A Day Of Healthy Eating

Every day you hear people talk about “eating healthy” and, like many things, this means different things to different people. As a person who loves nutrition science and tends to read a lot, over time I have come to the following understanding of what it means to “eat healthy”:

First, I try to eat a diet which is as close to this pyramid as possible:

IMHO, this is a pretty good representation of the diet I think science supports for a long and healthy life. In relation to food, by “healthy life”, I mean one which minimizes your risk of chronic food-based diseases (like diabetes, heart disease, liver disease and certain cancers) and which provides you with enough energy to live productively. I think you can avoid diseases and still be unhealthy, if you don’t have energy and feel unwell all the time. It is important to have both qualities.

Second, I try to eat very little packaged/processed food. Mainly, because packaged foods tend to have too much salt, too much sugar, fewer nutrients and lots of chemical ingredients which, as far as I can tell, haven’t been tested enough to know their long term effects on the body.

 

Third, I try to eat foods primarily for fuel and not to feed negative emotions. This means being conscious of when I am not really hungry, but instead upset. When this happens, I try to workout instead. I do eat food for pleasure, since I can’t imagine a life without wine, cheese or bread!

That’s really it. Sometimes, I drink more alcohol than I should or go on vacation and eat a lot of Anderson’s Roast Beef. It’s part of being human. But, I don’t do that every day.

I think many of the articles about nutrition overly complicate the matter and can leave people with a sense of confusion about what they should be eating. In the past, I have Googled “a day of healthy food” in search of examples and nothing useful ever came up. So, I thought I’d show you what a healthy day looks like to me. This is what I ate yesterday.

Breakfast:

1/2 c. whole grain oats, cooked with 1 diced apple, 1 tsp. brown sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Coffee

Calories: 256

Lunch:

Salad made up of 2.5 c. spring mix, ¼ cucumber, 1 c. grape tomatoes, ¼ c. walnut halves, 1 tbsp. light ranch dressing
Water

Calories: 308

Snack:

1 Orange

Whole grain toast with 1 tbsp. maple almond butter

Calories: 255

Dinner:

Wheat Berry Chili* with ¼ avocado and 1 oz. Greek yogurt, 1 corn muffin

Calories: 764

* I substitute one of the cans of black beans for kidney beans and add carrots.

This is not a “perfect” day by any means, nor would I eat this every day. In fact, I'm not sure such a thing exists. Some days, I have more meat and some days I have sweets. In fact, I think this day was a little light on calories. But, it was a rest day and since most of these foods were very filling, I really wasn’t hungry. Today, I ate a bit more.  I try to eat a wide variety of foods and so, for example, today, I ate a total different breakfast.

Breakfast:

1 c. Greek yogurt, 1 c. blueberries, ¼ c. granola

Calories: 358

While I am not a chef, I do like to cook and I think it is essential to have at least some basic cooking skills, if you would like to eat healthfully. Most of the foods I had were really simple and didn't take much time or skills to prepare. I think that is important, since I'm a pretty busy gal. Also, most of these meals were not costly, since I don't have a ton of money. I buy many of the items in bulk from Costco and they last for several (if not, many, in the case of the oatmeal!) meals.

I am always open to tips and new recipes, so if you have a favorite you'd like to share, leave the link in the comments!

Hit the Road Jack

My new ride

I finally got a new bike and am very excited to begin building up my mileage. It is a Specialized Allez Carbon 2, which I acquired from a fellow member of my tri club.

It is very different riding on a road bike than it is riding on a stationary bike at the gym and there are still some aspects I need to get used to. Yesterday, I took it out for a ride down and back on my block and it was a little scary, since, as I mentioned, I live on the side of a mountain. But, I managed to survive. It took me a few seconds to figure out how to get my feet in the pedals while moving, how to handle the brakes and how not to go so fast I thought I was going to die. I still have to master the whole changing gears thing and properly turning around corners.

Freshly re-tapped bars

Thankfully, the bike was in good working condition when I got it and I only had to do a little bit of basic maintenance to get it on the road. I replaced the back brake pads, re-taped the handlebars and put some pedals on it. I also adjusted the seat. I plan on eventually getting some clipless pedals and cycling shoes, but for now, I just opted for cheap pedals with straps, so I could get going.

However, the whole situation did get me thinking about the fears which hold me back. Bicycles are really not all that complicated, but some people manage to make them seem really intimidating. It is in my nature to read all that I can about a subject before diving in and there is a lot of information available on bikes online, very little of which pertains to actually riding them. I am trying hard (though not entirely succeeding) to not get sucked into reading all about bicycles, rather than just riding. Reading can definitely assuage some of my fears, but it can also raise new ones I never knew I had.

I really want to take the bike out again, but I am still very fearful of riding on the street and getting hit by a car. I just don’t have enough skill yet. It helps to remind myself that I rode everywhere as a kid and that I also rode a bike through traffic in Denmark and wasn’t scared at all. So, I think some paths and group rides are my next step in building up mileage and experience. Allons-y!

Race Recap - Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon

The Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon was my first half marathon and I am very proud of finishing. Even though I knew, from reading the course map and other people's reviews online, that the course was going to be hilly, it was still a bit hillier than I expected. We started out on a slight incline and right off the bat headed up a very steep hill. I ended up walking quite a bit more than I expected, right out of the gate. It was a constant up and down for the entire race.

The most entertaining parts of the race were the signs of encouragement along the way that must have been created by the race volunteers. There were pictures from movies and silly sayings through the course to keep us motivated. It’s fun to be greeted by a picture of Will Ferrell saying “Wanna streak to the finish line?” when you are tired and need a laugh. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the signs as I was too busy running.

After a number of climbs, the race leveled out for a bit, for a long stretch along the highway. I don’t think this is the typical route of the race, as it was changed at the last minute because of unusable trails. For me, this part was just straight and boring and my least favorite part of the race. However, it was a nice break from all the hills and it also gave me a chance to eat my gels and get a second wind to tackle some more hills.

 

The last part was along the waterfront and as expected, it was very chilly. But, thankfully, I was prepared for that having done two prior runs along the waterfront.

The final mile headed back up a hill. That had me swearing just a little. Nothing like having to run uphill at the very end when you are the most exhausted, particularly when you hate hills! 

Overall, I felt my strategy and training went very well. I was grateful to have my nutrition belt, so that I could drink whenever I wanted and I timed my gels right, so I never felt too tired. At the end, my legs were very sore, but I was not so sore that it took me too long to recover. For a first half marathon I thought it went very well and I look forward to doing another one in the future. Maybe this time with less hills!

Just Keep Running

Riverside Park

If you want to train for a marathon or half marathon, you’re going to have to do long runs. This means each week, you are going to have to head out for a significant amount of time and just run. While speed work is fun for me, I often dread the long run. One of the hard parts of this, for me, is simply finding the time. Since I am home with my son for part of the day and there is not enough time when he is in school, I have been doing my long run on Sunday mornings. However, another hard part is getting over the mental block of believing I can run for that long. 2 and half hours sounds like a daunting amount of time to run.

Because I am only a week away from my first half-marathon, this meant that last week, I ran over 10 miles and I was running for half the afternoon, while my husband took my son to the American Museum of Natural History.

I did this long run along the coast of Manhattan at Riverside Park. I started at about  72^nd Street and ran up to 132^nd Street, turned around and ran back down to 54^th Street, then back uptown again. Heading uptown on the waterfront was a bit chilly, but manageable, with the wind at my back. Running downtown, however, was icy! The cold wind was in my face the whole time, along with the sun.

Sandy Hook

I had the same thing happen the week before, so I was somewhat prepared. I did my 9 mile run on the path at Sandy Hook and it was a gorgeous sunny day, but windy as well. However, there is nothing I love more than running on the waterfront.  I did that run as an out-and-back, as well, which meant I ran from the entrance gate to Fort Hancock and back to the gate, with the wind in my face when I started and at my back on the return.

I’m glad that the weather is getting warmer, so I can run outside these days. Three weeks ago, due to the weather, I was forced to do my long run on a treadmill at the gym. 8 miles on a treadmill is BORING.  To break it up, I thought of it as merely 4 – 2 mile runs and actually got off the treadmill and did a lap of the gym between each. That made it a lot more manageable.

I think it’s very amusing how on these long runs, I go through alternating stages of “Oh, god, I can’t go on!” and “This feels great, I could go forever!” Sometimes, at the end, I feel like I have another couple miles in me, and have to force myself to stop because I don’t want to create an injury I don’t have. This is pretty exciting and makes me look forward to my race next week.

No time like the present

My new bike rack is here and I am beyond excited. A whole world new bike riding world has opened up to me. As you may recall, I live on the side of a mountain. So, I haven’t really been able to ride my comfort bike anywhere.

There are times in life when you put off buying things that you really shouldn’t. This was one of them. One of the first things that I should have bought, when I got a bike, was a bike rack. Instead I put it off and my bike has basically sat, barely, used in my patio. With a bike rack, I can now take my bike down the Shore to ride or even just over to the Reservation. (Both of which have nice fairly flat paths.) I’m not sure why I waited so long, aside from just procrastination.

I did the same thing with the jogging stroller, which I never ended up buying, and to this day I regret that. I should have bought a jogging stroller the minute my son was born. Instead, I tried to run with his clunky regular stroller and ended up in regular disagreements with my husband over who was going to push the darn thing while we ran. When you wait on this sort on thing, you start second guessing buying it at all, because there is only a short window when you can actually use it before your child outgrows it. With the jogging stroller, I missed that window.

But, a bike rack is a different story. I will, hopefully, be able to use this for years to come. About a year ago, I actually got a great deal on a hitch style bike rack and bought it. However, it turned out that it was going to cost several hundred dollars to put a hitch on my car. I decided at that point to start researching trunk mounted bike racks. My only requirement was that it had to hold 3 bikes and have good reviews. I didn't want to be driving and have all of the bikes tumble to the road. Ultimately, my decision came down to a Thule rack and the Saris Bones. After asking a few of my friends, the preference seemed to be for the Saris. So, now it is here and I can’t wait to try it out.

Another great thing about having a bike rack is that now I can finally buy a road bike. I've been looking at a bunch of different ones, but have put of buying one because I had no way to get it home. Now I do. Yea!