| 1:13:14
I was not last in my age group.
The swim went better than I'd thought- I was midpack coming out of the water.
Then on the bike, the wheels fell off. Not literally (though apparantly, that happened to one girl as she was walking her bike back into the transition area, the quick-release let go and her wheel rolled away. Thank God she wasn't riding!) I just hadn't done enough training on big hills. And the whole bike course was hills. I'm not sure how you get stuck going uphill both ways on an out-and-back route, but that's how it worked out. My average bike speed was a feeble 3:17/100m. I can do better than that. I must do better than that. I WILL do better than that.
I was 9:01 min/km on the run, which was about what I thought I could do. Strangely, this is pretty close to my best 'running' time, and I walked almost the entire course. I need to get to the point where my 'run' is actually faster than my 'brisk walk'.
As it stands, I am entered in the Sprint Distance for Chemong Lake. I am planning now to withdraw that entry, and do the 'try' event instead. I just can't do the 20km bike distance. When I get to a solid mid-pack finish in the 'try', then I can attempt the Sprint.
The whole event yesterday was just fabulous. Friends who live in the area showed up to cheer me on. They have pictures, which I'll be posting when they email them to me. She even got some video clips and is planning to play about with moviemaker and put together a video for me! How cool! I finished last of my training group (we saw that coming) but 'Coach' Jeremy and the rest of the group were there to cheer as I crossed the finish and that was really great. Everyone around the event was very supportive of those of us who FINISHED at the back of the pack (see how 'finished' is the important word there!) and everything about the day made me want to go back and do it again next year.
It was a sunny day, and I'd packed a hat for the run. (slip, slap, slop!) It was a ball cap I'd bought in Banff, two years ago. When I couldn't walk the distance from the Gondola to the Peak without stopping several times for a breather. There's only so much of that a girl can blame on altitude. I came home from that vacation and signed up for Weight Watchers. And it was January that I started thinking about triathlon (why just suck at one sport at a time?!) I was 250lb and the idea of finishing even one portion of a race (except the swim, I do have bouyancy going for me) was utterly ridiculous.
Well, it isn't ridiculous any more. And I'm not 250lb any more. And I could (and can, and do) walk for hours at a time.
Plus I have an utterly beautiful daughter, and I can give her the gift of a healthier, happier mom than I would have been then.
1:13:14. Oh yeah, baby!
[ETA: check out the new userpic. Seems there's just no way to take a flattering picture of me in spandex. And I don't care]
| comments: Leave a comment   |
| So, the upside of doing half a ride uphill into a headwind would be the other half- downhill, with a tailwind.
20 miles is still a long way, though. 1:47.
And then a 1/2 hour walk.
This was a REALLY tiring afternoon. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| OK, we're not going to talk about how I blew off the second swim workout this week.
We're going to skip straight to today's run. 9/7:1
I got out to Jackson park, and ran in the hour before twilight. It was truly lovely.
There were birds and rabbits and stuff, and the river, and trees.
And then there was me. I have settled into this pace. I can now quite accurately gauge a minute by the number of breaths I take - and it was the same for the first running minute as for the last. It's a slow but steady ~9 minute kilometer. At the end of 50 minutes (and about 5.5km) I was feeling great! My legs a little tired, and a little winded - but I could have kept going (well, except that it was going to get dark soon).
It helped that it was a cool evening- I might have been in more distress if I'd been overheating.
And - I was wearing my spiffy new running bra. So feeling great in that after 5.5km is not for nuthin'.
Let's have a little cheer for the hi-tech underwear. (gimme a 'B'!)
Some folks I know online have talked about taking grief for the offense of "Excercising While Fat". I have yet another reason to love this city, and it's fabulous recreational trails. The only people who are around to say anything at all are people who got off their asses to use the recreational trails. Yes, statistically, most of them are thinner than I am. But I get encouraging comments from cyclists and other runners. Dog walkers nod. And very little old ladies with walkers (the only people I can overtake) move to the right to let me pass.
I love this city. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I have absolutetly no self-discipline whatsoever.
I totally blew off yesterday's swim... just because I didn't feel like it. :(
Shame one me.
I did pull myself together for today's brick, though- and it felt great, as bricks tend to do.
In honour of Tuesday's great run, I didn't do the run-walk for the run portion, instead of 3:1, I just ran the 8. Woot.
I would have preferred to go outside, but it was raining. I really do enjoy the Wellness Centre just before closing, when hardly anyone is there. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So Roadkill played tonight (a loss, but not a humiliation). I snuck away during the 7th inning, leaving the Nut in caring fatherly hands. Except that he couldn't get near her for all the other folks who wanted to play with her. Captain thought I'd gone to the head, and was just a little alarmed when I wasn't back 20 minutes later. Tee hee.
So, yeah, where I had gone was for a 30 minute run. 9/8:1.
OUTSIDE!
Yes! my first outside run! with hills and gravel and cyclists making comments on their way by.
It was great!
I've found my pace. It isn't fast, but it's my own.
I don't have the faintest clue how far I went. I know it was about 1km to the top of the trail, and probably close to another 1km down the trail.
And then I headed back to the field for the tailgate party.
Lite beer never tasted so good | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Back outside tonight (had to, by the time I was free for a ride, the gym was closed!). But a strong sense of self-preservation declared that finishing a 15 mile ride, tired, at dusk, on a major thoroughfare was a baaaad idea. So I strapped the bike on to the car and headed down to the path.
15 miles takes me from Hunter Street, up the trail, and along the River Road for another 4 miles... and back again.
75 minutes.
I felt pretty good about this ride- not a record-breaking cadence, but much less 'coasting'. And I'm still getting sorted about using the gears to their best advantage.
I'm definitely getting stronger. It feels good. But I *need* to get comfortable enough to drink while in motion, I can't go climbing off my bike for a sip of water every few miles, that's just CRAZY!
Headed south from there for the 30 minute walk. The Rotary Trail sort of peters out for a bit and follows residential streets, then picks back up at Beavermead. Live and learn! I don't know how far I got, but it was, indeed, active recovery. But after so long on the treadmill, It feels almost odd to have the ground staying put, and me moving.
Time to move the run outside, too. I just gotta sort out child care. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Ok, so when did I last post?
Tuesday?
I missed the Wednesday swim. I could claim that I swam Monday at the tri-clinic. But, no letting myself off- no gold star for Wednesday, so none for the week :(
Thursday was a brick. Have I mentioned that I LOVE the bricks? Solid cadence on the bike, great run, brisk walk. I came home feeling really good.
Then I did something unfortunate to my neck. I don't know how, but it still hurts.
If it's the baby-carrier, I'm going to be deeply sad, that thing is so comfy!
Friday was a swim- and the repetitive, slow movement made my shoulder feel a bit better.
Knowing that I had done 500m in 12:15 made the rest of me feel better.
Today was a run. And WHAT A RUN! 45 minutes. 9/6:1
I got to the last set of 6 and was having that little internal argument with myself 'I can't, I'm too tired"
"Yes you can"
"No, I can't..."
Then, through my headphones... "DA... DA da DA... DA da DA... DA da DAAAAAAAAA"
Yes I CAN!
Risin up
straight to the top
had the guts got the glory
went the distance now I'm not gonna stop
just a girl and her will to survive...
So, with the eye of the tiger, pushed on for the last 6 minutes and (drum roll please!)
Total distance of 5.1 km
Oh Yeah, Baby | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Run today, 9/7:1. On the treadmill. I'm not ready to take the running outside just yet.
It went really well, I thought. I was watching the tv banks, and kept my head up, and didn't worry about counting too much, and tried not to check the clock more than once in a minute.
Made it 3.5km in 31 minutes, which included some walking cooling down time. Go me. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| *sigh*
So, I missed the 400m swim on Friday altogether.
And I bailed on the last half of the 40 minute run on Saturday.
And I ate delicious but unhealthful food for 2 days straight.
And I started contemplating the difference between a 'lapse' and a 'collapse'.
This is just a lapse.
So, today, I got up with the babe and before it got too hot or too busy on the roads I took my actual real live bicycle out on the road for my first ride of the year.
From my driveway to the Rotary trail, up to Nassau Road, and back.
And wouldn't you know it, the computer is malfunctioning. **Grrrrr**
It was still showing 0:00:00 and 0.00 for time and distance when I hit the bottom of the Trail. But the Odometer was still chugging away (bizarre, no?), so I know that instead of the scheduled 15 mile ride, I only managed 13. But I still get my gold star because:
I MADE IT UP THE HILL AT MONAGHAN ROAD WITHOUT GETTING OFF THE BIKE!!!
I don't think I've ever done that before.
So, the whole trip took something like 80 minutes, which is not great. But I knew I was taking a more recreational pace- far too much coasting and a slow, unsteady cadence. There's just far too much demand for my attention outside- cars, other users on the bike path, potholes, and the remains of someone's cat. (yeucch) Plus my chain came off- yay me for fixing it. I can work on getting up to speed, especially if I can do bricks outside in the evenings, or catch the group rides with Runner's Life.
For now, it just feels really good to get outside. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Swim days are boring... I go, I swim, I come home. So I didn't bother logging on yesterday to report that I went, I swam, I came home.
But today was a brick. I LOVE the bricks, I come home so energized! I love the 20-minute walk, cuz it keeps my heart rate up and doesn't hurt anything and makes me feel good. I love that I have great new music playing- Johnny Cash, baby! Folsom Prison Blues makes me want to run outside. Guns'n'Roses, the Killers, Eurhythmics, Depeche Mode... and a bunch of other stuff that just shouldn't all work in the same mix, but it DOES. Yay for the Ship of Fools
It was also nice to be able to come home after Bouncing Babies, eat, feed the Babe, and go back in the afternoon for my Brick. Mr. Millur is off this week, and is happy to hang out with her (apparantly, she slept for about 3 minutes after I left, then woke up and cried 'til about 3 minutes before I came home. That's my girl!!)
Ooh- I just learned how to edit links in the source code. I feel special. One more nice thing about mr. Millur's week off, he's around to answer my stupid computer questions.
I'm such a masochist. Registration for the summer sessions starts next Thursday, and I'm going to try signing up for more Bouncing Baby self inflicted torture aerobics classes.
AND aquafit. Cuz, well, what else do I have to do all day? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, the whole mp3 player thing got sorted out, finally.
And I got movin' to some great tunes, for a 30 minute run today.
But it ended up being a 24 minute run - I bailed on the last set of 6:1 because I HURT. Not any place I'd expect to hurt while running- my right shoulder. I tried to ignore it for a while, but it would NOT be ignored, so I guess I need to stretch more than I'm stretching... and body parts that it never occured to me I would need to be stretched.
Live and learn.
I'm giving myself the gold star for today, anyway. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Ok, so some people have suggested some great tunes for running/biking.
Finding them was fun.
And the attempt to download them has now eaten up 2 hours of my life, and I seem to have buggered my mp3 player.
DAMMIT. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| There's a road somewhere, paved with good intentions.
I *intended* to actually GO OUTSIDE today for my ride.
My bike is newly tuned, the computer magnets re-aligned.
I even dug out the water bottle that fits in the cage.
I just couldn't find my helmet, and other excuses.
So, off to the gym for my 12 mile ride.
38 minutes, but that's a fairly meaningless statement, since they were all virtual miles.
I'm working now on keeping cadence in the high 80s, rather than the low 80s, and I'm able to keep it up during the 'uphill' portions of the virtual 'random hill' workout.
By the time I was headed home, it was rainy- so maybe it was all for the best.
I have one week to find my helmet.
We've lived here for 15 months now, maybe its time to clean out the junk that's been abandoned in the garage since we moved it from where it was abandoned in the other garage.
My mostest-bestest-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world* was here this afternoon with a cheerful and delightful but still scary example of toddler energy. One more reason to keep training: a year from now she's going to be mobile, and I'm going to have to keep up.
And now I'm off to Amazon in search of some 80s dance music, because after going through my entire CD collection for something to synch to the mp3 player, there's nothing there that can hold a candle to 'Wake Me up Before You Go-Go'.
(*Although we've grown apart, the title was granted in 1987 and never revoked.) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 40 minute run today. 9/4:1.
It went surprisingly well. But at 4.4km, was a hundred metres shy of my goal. Alas.
I don't think I could have done much better, I ran every one of the appointed minutes, and kept the walk brisk.
Heart rate was high, but not as high as it has been - and an hour later, I'm neither exhausted nor hurting.
For the moment, I'm feeling very good about this whole process.
The gym was totally empty, so much so that the only other guy in the room, on a bike, told me (quite rightly) that I was gasping and to breathe more evenly. I assume that's the gist what he said, I had music going. And I assume he said it to me, there was nobody else there. Both assumptions are supported by the fact that when I evened out my gasping, he distinctly said "that's better".
I'm not sure how I feel about random strangers talking to me at the gym - but I'll take whatever coaching I can get. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 1. This was my first Friday with anything scheduled, so it's like a bonus.
2. A long hot shower while the Babe was safely tucked away at child-minding.
3. Coming home in clean street clothes and not sweaty workout clothes.
4. 400m in 12:30.
5. Realizing my watch is waterproof, so I *know* it was 400m in 12:30.
Things I didn't like about Today's Swim
1. Running into people I know from Church while we're both naked. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the Brick workouts.
15km on the bike portion (30 min) then just a hair over 3km on the combined run/walk (30min)
This, after our class. Except my baby has *brilliant* timing and demanded second breakfast just as the class was doing bizarre and painful things with stability balls. That's my girl!! I don't think I'm going to bother with another session of that, I just can't keep up. But we'll do the mommy&me aquafit in the summer session and see how it goes.
[edited to add: hey Lis! Guess who's in our class. I'll give you a hint... she doesn't *need* math...] | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 300 yards, in some indeterminate amount of time.
I don't like just swim days. All that hassle: packing, driving, parking, public nudity, bad shampoo... all in the name of a 15 minute swim. Hardly seems worth it. Still. 'tis done. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Short run today- only 20 min. But it was 9/5:1
I tried to increase speed a bit, knowing that it wasn't an endurance challenge today.
I was pretty happy with the results: 2.2km, then 3 minutes walking to get my heart rate back out of the stratosphere.
I LOVE how the babe comes home from the gym and sleeps 'til lunch, exhausted from her nap in the child care centre. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Big plans for Sunday- regular service, then off to a big thing for the afternoon, so my ride had to get squeezed inbetween special Mother's Day breakfast and Church.
10 miles 33 minutes.
Looking back at times and distances from last spring- there's just no way this is reflective of any kind of real times on a real bike. I'm going to have to be prepared for what looks like a setback when I actually get outside.
Did the first night of the tri training tonight- mostly talking. The group did a short run, but I had to get home. Next week I'll make sure there's a bottle in the fridge if she needs it so I can stay out. The training works towards a try-a-tri in Guelph in 6 weeks. I'm thinking about it- a shorter (slightly) distance than Chemong Lake.
Chemong Lake is a go- handed over the money today.
And took the bikes in for spring tuneup.
And have 2 weeks to get enough weight off that I can get into my wetsuit. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 40 minute run today. 9/3:1
4.3km.
About halfway through, I got thinking I wasn't going to be able to finish.
Ha! I showed me!
I had to slow down a bit at 28 minutes. But 'slowed down' was still under a 10 minute km.
Goal for my next 40 minute run (too tired to check when that might be): 4.5km
While I was out, I picked up a registration form for the Chemong Lake Triathlon.
I'm going for the 'sprint' distance, rather than the try-a-tri.
And while I was there, I registered for 5 weeks of triathlon training.
And found out that the instruction in that will count for the 'learn to ride' sessions that I can't really do on Sunday mornings, and I'll be able to do any of the RLM group rides. Assuming there's any hope of me keeping up. I'm definitely faster and stronger than I was last May, when I did the learn-to-ride sessions.
My shirt (and both bras) are soaked in sweat. I'm tired, and thirsty, and my feet hurt a little.
And I feel abso-freakin'-lutely GREAT! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
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