I tried to Tri!

Well, I was hoping I would have a race report to post today. I was hoping it would go something like "I executed my race plan perfectly and finished under the time I was hoping for. I feel tired but happy. The swim was great, I kept it together mentally and settled in for the ride. The bike was fun, which was what I was hoping for. The run was what it was, I ran half and walked half and my knee is doing ok today.". I actually have no race to report as it was CANCELED!!!!!!!!! The CapTexTri was CANCELED!!!!! Stupid wusses. So I went on a disastrous bike ride and then an ok swim. Yuck. Well, I have a very expensive T-Shirt that I feel like an ass for wearing. I also missed out on a really hard workout so I am doing bricks today. bleck...

Good nutrition plan

So I did a long swim today. It didn't go too badly. I went to Big Stacy pool which is 33 meters long instead of 25. I like to swim there because it is a little harder mentally as I feel like I am going so slow because it takes me longer to get from one end to the other. I did 7000 meters which is about 4.35 miles. So I made it across the bay at least in a pool. I have to say I hit my wall at about 1200m from the end but I kept going which was really fricken hard. I finally feel like I might be able to finish. I realized why I like swimming, which is nice to realize when you have a lot of it to do. I love repetitive things. They are very calming to me. Knitting, tatting, repeatedly head butting my husband.... Well swimming is like that, stroke after stroke the same. The sound of the water, the sound of your breathing, it is all calming to me once I find that rhythm. I also love the feel on my back of the water line repeatedly going from one side to the other as I roll. The sun on my back is fairly nice too. I'm lucky to live in Texas where I have been able to swim outside since March. I ate a power bar and two gels before I swam and my stomach was fine so I guess I will do that again. I also had chocolate milk as soon as I got to my car and a bagel and banana a peanut butter as soon as I got home and I'm really feeling ok. I'm guessing no one is actually going to read this because if you are reading it it must be very boring. Anyway I have the CapTexTri next Monday so I guess I should start thinking about that. That is going to be a rough day. I've only done one long bike ride and one long run. The run plan is to run .5 a mile, walk .5 a mile and run the finish. We'll see what happens. I will hopefully post pictures of The Rookie soon.
Time for sleep.

Solitary Confinement

I've been training since March and having nightmares since April. I know I can do it physically. In fact, I have already done a 4 mile semi open water swim at Barton Springs. I felt fine during, but I didn't eat soon enough and felt horrible afterward. My stomach couldn't handle what my mind wanted to eat. Bad move and I won't do it again. I need to eat and drink during the training next time. I am worried about how to eat during the race. I know there is a mythical “food boat” at mile 2 but many people seem to miss it completely so I need a back up plan. I'm thinking Jelly Belly “sport” beans tucked into my wetsuit might be a good idea. Yes, Jelly Belly makes sport beans. I talked to a nutritionist yesterday and she said I need to eat more in general. Damn it is nice to have someone official tell you to eat peanut butter!
Mentally, I'm not sure what will happen. I need to remember it takes me like 500 yards to warm up and I feel like crap the whole time. I need to be mentally prepared for the fact that I will want to give up. I'm sure everyone wants to give up several times during this race. I need to train my mind to stay completely focused on nothing. I feel best in longer swims when my mind just kind of buzzes in rhythm with my strokes. I also want to try to remember several good songs that I can sing to myself to keep me from going nuts. I am worried about the currents. I think I just need to realize that it is going to be hard to stay between the bridges but if I'm aware of my surroundings, I can do it. Two and a half hours with only my own thoughts...... that sounds bad. That is a punishment for prisoners and really, a punishment for people who are already being rather harshly punished has to be bad. I will either finish wanting to talk to everyone in sight, or proclaiming I am dropping out of grad school and trying to become a country music star even though I can't carry a tune in a bucket or wanting to hide in a corner in the fetal position. From reading others stories, I do know that I will finish by puking up gallons of sea water. I also need to know it is going to hurt. Every story I read of people's Ironman experiences talks about how much it hurt during the race and they finished by accepting the fact that it hurt, it was going to continue hurting and to finish you had to get through it to the finish. This ain't no Ironman, but I expect it will hurt.

The Beginning

I am a physics grad student at the University of Texas at Austin. I swam at Bryn Mawr College as an undergrad and was middle to back of the pack. When I was 12 one of my friends did the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim and I thought that was so cool. When I decided to make a list of the things I would like to do in life, the first three on there were run a marathon, ride a bull and swim the Chesapeake Bay. From college up until a year ago I turned into a complete couch potato. I would play Ultimate Frisbee in the summer and took Kung Fu lessons, but other than that, nothing. My friend Cindy, who I pretty much credit with overhauling my life, convinced me to do the Danskin triathlon. This was three weeks before the event and she drastically overestimated my fitness level. Well for three weeks I worked my body harder than I thought possible, often to the point of complete collapse and finished the triathlon in a reasonable time. It was an amazing experience. I got hooked and throughout the summer trained and did the Dilloman Triathlon in September and knocked about 15 min. off my time. I was then convinced to do the swim leg of the IronStar triathlon. The swim was 1.2 miles and it sounded fun. I did well and our team, Splash Grind Mosey, got third, mostly due to the amazing biking a running, but still, I helped. I was mentally rougher than I would like to admit. I'm not afraid of open water, but damn, you have a lot of time alone in your own mind when you swim for that long. I thought of giving up, not because I couldn't do it physically, but because I didn't know if I could do it mentally. There is almost no noise when you are swimming and all you can do is think. People go crazy from that! Well after that training I decided this year was the year to conquer The Bay. I signed up for the lottery, sent in my IronStar swim time and I am on the list. Let the training and nerves begin!