1:03

I missed hardware by ONE minute THREE seconds.  This is the kind of thing triathletes obsess about. When I left the race I was happy with my swim, OK with my bike and disappointed in my run. I knew I finished 4^th and I wasn’t incredibly disappointed until I realized I missed 3^rd by 1:03. I woke up Monday morning haunted, it was the first thing that came to my mind and stayed with me all day. I should have found that minute.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Here are my pace numbers for Bridgeland by year:

2009 – Swim 2:47/100, Bike 16.67 mph, Run 14:13 pace

2010 – Swim 2:17/100, Bike 18.26 mph, Run 12:44 pace

2011 – Swim 1:59/100, Bike 18.85 mph, Run 12:38 pace

My goal for the run was to perform during the race the way I do in training. I wanted 11:45 pace. I am slow, that is for sure but I am getting faster, not fast, but faster ever so slowly.  I can swim faster than this, bike faster than this and certainly run faster than this but the key is can I do them as fast as I can all in a row on a specific date and time?

It is nice to be able to look at the same race three years in a row and compare the numbers. It is not exactly apples to apples, the run course has gotten a little longer each year but it is as close as you can get when racing the same race. The weather is always the same HOT and HUMID, the only variable is the wind which we had more of this year. It wasn’t bad but after the second U-turn I definitely felt it.

In other more exciting news I was one of three triathletes profiled in Cy-Fair magazine, pretty darn cool.

Coming Together

I was feelling a bit behind in my training for Bridgeland and after a few crappy runs my confidence was low.

I cannot tell you how much I have learned from Beginner Triathlete, a couple of posts I read last week really turned it around for me. The first was about running easy often and sometimes hard. This was my plan but I wasn't sticking to it. The idea is to run as often as you can but most of them should be easy runs with shorter distance and less intensity. When I do this I don't hate running nearly as much and I feel good about getting out there. Another bonus is it helps stave off injuries which keeps me training. The second post I read that helped me a lot talked about running with a higher cadence and shorter stride. I have super long legs and when my stride widens I get winded easier and it also leaves me more prone to injuries.

I ran six times last week and felt much better about my run in general and the upcoming triathlon. All my runs were short, the longest was 4 miles. The goal is to have a good race at Bridgeland, remain injury free and pick up the distance going into the Houston Olympic in September and the Half Ironman in November.

I rode most of the Bridgeland course three times this past week. Yesterday I rode 24 miles and felt good enough to run after so that gives me confidence knowing the race is only 13.5. There is no doubt the run will be tough, it will be hot and is a mostly sunny course. I am hoping for an overcast morning. The forecast right now is partly sunny and a high of only 97!

Lesson Learned

Training cannot be crammed. If you blow off a training day or two and think you can make it up you are usually wrong. I have a training plan I created for myself but I haven't really been paying attention to it lately and the result is not pretty.

Summer is hard for everyone because of the heat. Summer is hard for me because I love hanging out with my kids. My boys are 16 and 18, I know they will not be around forever. The good news is for the most part they like spending time with me too so it's really hard to leave for a training session sometimes. Training also means having coverage for the girls so one of the boys has to be home or sometimes I can take the girls to the YMCA while I run or swim. Making everything a bit trickier is the kids activities. Cory is working but not yet driving, Brendan is taking a driving class at the local community college and band practice has begun, the girls are involved in cooking class, swim lessons, swim team, volleyball camp etc. I am a taxi Mom. So now that I have laid the ground work of excuses......

Yesterday I did not train, my Mama plate was very full so I got on the trainer around 8:30pm. I knew it wasn't going to be a long ride so I pushed it pretty hard. When I was done I ate some blueberries and a dollup of greek yogurt. If I was going to run today I had to do it before the cascade of activities started. Due to my stellar procrastination skills the run started at 10:15. The lesson I learned today is that a hard trainer ride the evening before + no breakfast + running at 10:15 in July = Disaster at the agonizing pace of 13 and small change.

Good Runs & Bad Runs

It happens to all of us, the horrible run. Maybe more likely to happen because here in Houston we are running in sauna conditions (with more humidity) a good part of the year. It is sadly surprising how much temperature and humidity has an effect on a run.

I am NOT a morning person, everyone knows this. However, I was coerced into a 5K on July 4 at 6AM! Of course by coerced I mean somebody said 'hey I'm doing a 5K, you should come' and even after learning it was at 6 AM rather than PM I agreed.

The great news is Ken and Brendan volunteered to race with me. This was a small neighbrhood gathering at our local YMCA of 15-17 runners. The good news is we all placed in our respective age groups :) The BAD news is I was DFL=Dead Flat (or substitute your own F word) Last! Most of these folks run together on a regular basis but I also run on a regular basis. There is no point to making excuses when it comes to a race it was either good or bad but I will confess the tummy issues definitley slowed me down. Making sure this run didn't include runs took some inner strength for sure.

Fast forward to Wednesday, traditionally my 'long' run day. I started running all over again going shorter distances/less time but running more often. I had a 45 minute run on my plan. Wednesday we were blessed with some much needed rain and that was all I needed to talk myself out of a run. Of course it stopped raining hours before I planned on running. I told myself I would hop on the trainer instead but I'm not sure how dedicated I was to that idea either.

At 8:00 when I was trying to look busy on the computer it occurred to me I didn't have a reason not to run. I am not injured and I've been doing a good job of sticking to my plan so why stop now? I got my running clothes and new Zoot shoes on and headed out. Turns out I had one of my best runs in a very long time. Unfortunately, the shoes were pretty tough on my feet and I am sporting some blisters today but I'd rather have a couple of blisters then regret skipping a workout.

New Focus

It has been a while since I posted last. I will admit I suffered a bit of burn out and have had some starts and stops in the last few months. The good news is I had a great sprint in May after a miserable Oly in April. Even better news is my new inspiration. How could anybody look at this photo and not be inspired? My new goal is to look like this in T2. Kerianne did her first triathlon May 14, she was 8 years old. This weekend she will do her third trithlon at 9 years old. What would our lives be like if we had started this early with her determination?

It's Double Birthday Day!

Yes, I have two children born on the same day 12 years apart! When I tell people this most assume the 12 year old was annoyed or inconvenienced when he got a little sister for his birthday. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we told the kids we were having another baby and told them the baby was expected around March 20 the first thing Brendan said was "Have the baby on my birthday Mama." I told him he needed to pray about it because his Mama doesn't control these things.

All of my children have birthdays with 3's in them 30, 23, 13, 31. So when I went into labor March 3, we thought the timing was perfect. However, after a little test run we realized it wasn't perfect timing, just a nice dry run to make sure we were ready.

When labor started very late at night March 22, we realized March 23 would carry a double blessing. My labors with both children could not have been more different. With Brendan I had a lot of pre-labor starting around 28 weeks and spent the last 3 weeks of my 37 week pregnancy 5cm. One would think this would lead to a faster labor but you would be wrong. After 12 hours in labor at the hospital at 6cm I was sent home. I returned 4 hours later and Brendan finally made his appearance after 22 hours of labor. The worst part was how managed my labor and birth were. Every decision was made for me and against my will. Thankfully Brendan was born healthy at 5 pounds, 12 ounces and I took him home less than 24 hours later.

Lilia's labor was peaceful surrounded by people who loved us, she was born at home in our bathtub. Brendan had paved the way, because of his birth I vowed to not have any more children in a hospital if at all possible. She was born into Ken's hands weighing 9 pounds 3 ounces and to my shock she was a girl!

Shortly after the birth Ken ran upstairs to Brendan's room and announced "Happy Birthday Brendan, you have a baby!" Brendan could not be more pleased, he thinks it is very cool his baby sister was born on his birthday, he is her "Birday Brudder"

Watching my baby boy and baby girl blow out their candles last night I remembered watching Brendan blow out 12 candles while holding his new baby sister, I couldn't be more proud.

Starting Healthy

Sometimes it seems the hardest part of endurance racing is getting to the start line injury free, this is always my #1 goal.

Training for my upcoming Olympic distance race was going very well. My run is really coming along this season, shaving 1:30-2:00 off my pace. In the off season my coach and I worked on my form to make me faster and hope to keep me injury free.  Well, I got faster, 1 out of 2 isn’t bad, right?

A few weeks ago I noticed a tinge in my right shin, this is an all too familiar feeling. It was tight at the beginning of my run but would get better as I went so I wasn’t too worried. About two weeks ago I noticed the pain lasted longer and bothered me while walking the day after my run. I knew it was time to give my ART (Active Release Technique) guy a call.

I got to his office and told him what was up, it was obvious immediately that I waited too long. I honestly thought this was a preemptive appointment and I would nip it in the bud…. Not so much. The good news is I still had some time to get better before my race and with help from Dr. Cadena I am confident I can get to the start. I also have a great coach so I have plenty of fitness already in the ‘bank’ so having to cut back on my run the last week shouldn’t affect me too much on race day.

Reoccurring injuries are very frustrating. The first step is trying to prevent them and taking care of them as soon as possible before a minor injury becomes something season ending.