Race Report: Triathlon #2 = sprints are fun

Two weeks ago I completed my 1^st of 3 Sprint triathlons and a week later I finished my 2^nd of 3 Olympic triathlons. This brings me to the mid-point of my 3-3 triathlon challenge. Now that I know what I’ve gotten myself into, I’m alternatively freaked out or excited. Below is the race report on the sprint tri.

Benaroya Research Institute Triathlon at Seafair (Sprint) – July 14
.5 mile swim, 12-mile bike and 3.1-mile run.

This triathlon was a ton of fun – there were over 2,200 participants and the energy was really good. There were lots of fast people and lots of first-time triathlon people. I ran into a bunch of people from team in training, it was nice to see familiar faces.

Since it was a local race, I got to sleep in my own bed. This was tough! I hit the snooze button many times – and only left for the race at 5:55 am after brushing my teeth and packing my tri-bag (a timbuk2 messenger bag) in a flurry. I was lucky I didn’t forget anything – like my bike! I arrived at the race site ~20 minutes before they closed the transition area. Which basically gave me enough time to find a location for bike + gear and lay things out and check the air pressure on my tires.

Swim:The swim was not warm, but it was short enough that the temperature didn’t slow me down. I had that initial “ohh, it’s cold I can’t breathe” feeling for about 50 yards and then I warmed up and it was fine. The hard part of the swim was the milfoil. This is a water plant that basically grabs onto you while swimming. It was scratchy and a little unnerving.

Bike:The bike was shorter than I thought and when I got to the turnaround I was surprised. That’s it? Oh man, I should have pushed harder!

Run: I think this may have been my best run all month. Even with walking up part of the steep hill at mile 2, stopping for water and needing to go to the bathroom…I ran my fastest 5K time in the recent past. I think it was partially adrenaline and partially just the realization that it was going to be quickly over..and hey, that wasn’t so bad.

Things I learned:

There are mistakes you can make in a sprint distance that you might not be able to get away with at longer distances. In this race the biggest mistake was probably nutrition. I ran out of the door so fast I didn’t have time for breakfast. In an Olympic or a long bike ride, I’d be recovering from that throughout the race…not so in this case as the race was over before I got hungry!

Taking the time to prepare your stuff the night before makes a lot of sense. During my transition from swim to bike I had to attach my race number to my tri-top. Having to open up teeny-weeny little pins and attach them to yourself when your hands are a little bit stiff from the cold water is, uhm, not so easy. I also forgot to untie my shoelaces on my running shoes…so before the run I had to untie them before I could start running. These are the kinds of things I could have skipped with a little preparation.

Triathlons don’t require a lot of “stuff.” Before this race I pretty much believed that in order to be in the right mind set I needed to have the perfect towel, a bunch of water bottles for rinsing post swim and lots of extra foods (i.e. alternate flavors of gu and shot bloks) and general stuff in order to be prepared for the “worst case scenario.” This time I had the bare minimum: some basic nutrition, 2 water bottles on my bike (only one with Nuun, the other got multi-purposed for rinsing), my running shoes, my clip-in bike shoes, socks, a towel and suntan lotion. That’s it.

I like races with lots of people. Since I’m slow I’m not in the “pack” and can sometimes be out on my own (esp on the run!). This race was crowded the whole time – and I loved it. I was in the third wave, of I think 12. This meant that there were lots of fast people after me – and it was fun to see them zoom by and it made me run faster to have them next to me on the run.

I highly recommend this race and definitely plan to do it again next year. Just, you know, faster.

travel tune hell

right now, i am buying music on iTunes that i already own.

Well, ok, some of it is new -- specificaly this new order/ bizarre love triangle/ remix is new -- but the other songs, i so own them!

THE STORY...

So why am I doing this? Well, my ipod nano died.
So i i went to the apple store to get it replaced, since it's new and it should work but it doesn't. My appointment with the guy at the "genuis bar" starts out fabulous. They can replace it. No charge! But.... they don't have any in stock. So i need to have one shipped. But they can only ship to the store. oh, and i'm in chicago.. and the nano will arrive "3-4 business days from now" when i'll be in NY. They can't have it sent to NY or Seattle. I have to call Apple Care. Because, apple clearly cares.

Well, I still need music.
I mean I HAVE TO RUN! I have a freaking triahtlon on the 15th of July and another on the 22nd and I have been a total lazy bones since I completed my first olympic tri earlier this month. So. I need NEED music. I mean if I had music, I'd be working out all the time right? It's the lack of music that's keeping me lazy. really. So. I left the apple store with a lime green ipod shuffle. I really had NO choice! Well, I considered the orange one (aka the little mandarin).

So now i'm downloading music to "Swish".
Swish is the name of my lime green shiny ipod shuffle. Music downloading hit a predictable snag: I'm on my PC. All my music is on my Mac. At home. In Seattle. Yep. So here I am. I need music. I have Swish. I download, repurchasing songs I have so already bought on iTunes -- but never transferred to my PC because, well who has the time to copy them to CD and reburn them here? i hate this DRM stuff. I hate transferring. I hate paperwork (yes, just for good measure i'm throwing that one in!)

...
Somehow, even with all this apple evil-ness, i'm still sorta thinking about those "june 29th: The wait is almost over" t-shirts all the apple employees were wearing at the store. i know. i know.

Race Report: Olympic Distance Triathlon #1 - Complete

I hope to update this entry with a longer, more detailed post on the King's Trail triathlon -- but for now here are the highlights:
(1) it was hot and humid
(2) I almost bumped into a sea turtle on my swim
(3) I biked all of the bike
(4) I ran more of the run than i expected, but i was still slower than i expected
(5) i feel fantastic!

I'm excited that this first triathlon is over. I now have all this data and information and I can't wait to make HUGE improvements on my next 5. WooHoo.

3 - 3 Triathlon Mania

I've decided to do 6 triathlons this summer. Below is my schedule. I'm still kinda in shock that i'm really doing this...but here i go.

Date Distance Race Location
10-Jun Olympic King's Trail Maui, HI
15-Jul Sprint Sea Fair Seattle, WA
22-Jul Olympic ChelanMan Lake Chelan, WA
26-Aug Sprint SB Tri Santa Barbara, CA
16-Sep Sprint Kirkland Tri Kirkland, WA
23-Sep Olympic Black Diamond Enumclaw, WA

Additional Races
28-May 40 mi (bike) 7 Hills Kirkland, WA
24-Jun 10K (run) Pacific Crest Sunriver, OR

whirlwind weekend

some weekends are just "one of those" weekends -- and this weekend was one of them.

(1) Minnie came to visit! It was just awesome to have her in town and visiting - even if she was here for less than 24 hours. It's just really nice to get to hang out with someone I've known for so long and to get to show them around seattle and all my new habitats.

(2) I got a flat tire on the first leg of the multi-brick workout on Sat. Yep. full on blow-out. We pulled over to the side of the road and luckily i had an extra tire in my bike-pack. Phew. This was the good news. The bad news is that it was the back wheel and changing the tire was hard! Thankfully "jason" -- a friendly seattle rider stopped and helped us switch out the tires and get going. Unfortunately my back tire just wouldn't fully pump up... so i rode it slightly less inflated than ideal back to base camp. I ended up doing 3 of the bike sprints and 3 runs (instead of the 5 I was supposed to do). I really need to focus on triathlon training. Also, see #6.

(3) KT and I went to see "The Queen" -- at this random theatre in northern seattle. I say "northern seattle" because i really have no idea where we went. We were practically in shoreline. But get this -- the movie was only THREE DOLLARS! I didn't know you could see a movie at a non-matinee time slot for under $5. We got some candy which brought the total entertainment bill to $4. I loved it. The movie was good to. But i didn't love it as much as JB or my mum.

(4) My dog got LOST. She's in California with my mum and step dad. Apparently when the meter-guy came by he left the gate open. Cuba, being an escape artist, ran away this morning. My mom called me after they had been looking for her for an hour and couldn't find her. I, uhm, FREAKED out. Seriously. My dog is super precious and losing her -- particularly when I'm so far away -- completely freaked me out. I booked my flights home so i could help with the search -- or be at the hospital should she be injured. Luckily, 4 hours later she was found at the next door neighbors. She'd been hanging out there while the lady tried to figure out who she belonged to. She came back home to us safe and relaxed after her morning adventure. PHEW. Thanks to KT for coming over and consoling me while i was, well, a wreck.

(5) Boys. I finally called one of the 4 boys I've been flirting with and asked him if he had a crush on me or not. This was NOT an easy thing for me to do since, well, I avoid intimacy and vulnerability at all costs. I am also pretty judicious about how i spend my time -- and who i spend my time with -- and this thing had just gone on long enough. Sadly, there's no mutual love-connection. I felt good about the conversation though -- it's important to be up front about one's emotions -- even if they aren't reciprocated. I can definitely relate to this post by eric.

(6) I learned to be true. My bike had been making a sound ever since the blow out. This sound made me nervous. I decided to check it out and made a make shift bike holder to play with the mechanics of my bike and figure out what's going on. Turns out that I seem to have bent my back wheel -- so I now have to get it "re-trued" -- i.e. aligned. *sigh* i love my bike! i am pretty sure with some spoke adjusting it will be just fine, but i'd hate to have to buy a new wheel.

(7) I forgot my dad's birthday. Seriously. And I called him this morning (his-b-day was yesterday) freaking out about the missing micro-mutt (see #4 above) and still completely forgot. I think my family thinks i'm insane.

(8) I realized I'd never survive seattle without KT. Friends are so important, and this girl just rocks. She's been here for me and all my crazy drama this weekend -- with laughter, insight, and just generally being a great friend. I have lots of friends that helped me this weekend -- all of them so special, and some of them such long-time friends (V, JB, kyle). But, it's super nice to have someone local, and I'm lucky to have KT.

rob lowe

i love that rob lowe is playing a candidate for president on brothers & sisters. Maybe he should really run for president. the next Reagan!

dating rule #1 "don't date the coffee guy"

My friend adam recently posted an entry to his Blog yesterday about the "levels of a relationship." His post has images from ppt! this is a guy after my own heart and as a result of his post we've been bantering back and forth about different relationship thoughts. I shared my spreadsheet and some of my core philosophies. He challenged me to blog them -- and before he went to he bed he gave me a 400 word challenge! so here i am blogging about my first dating rule ever.

Rule: Don't date your coffee guy.

History: I came up with this one in High School when my coffee guy had a crush on me (he was very cute too! and a good tennis player...) and i realized that I was going to have to make some tough choices. Do i go for the cute boy? or do i keep the coffee shop where i spend an inordinate amount of time?

How it works: Essentially, my reasoning was that if you date your coffee guy (or in college, your bartender) you have to be willing to give up going to the coffeeshop / bar if you break up. This means I had to evaluate which was more important to me -- keeping my coffeeshop or a new boy. In most cases, at least for me, it seemed that the boys who were interesting tended to work at the places i frequented. I attribute this to having more interaction and so I could see their coolness... This lead, in most cases, to me determining that the shop was more important than the boy.