There has to be a morning after....

Here are my results, certainly nothing to brag about, but I did it feeling the way I did. My stomach felt worlds better this morning, but my head hurts again today! Hooray, that means I get to live the whole stomach thing again too!

Place Age Bib Name Swim T1 Bike T2 Run
87. 41 249 DANIELLE ROBINSON 111 20:19 23 1:36 92 1:07:30 71 1:14 75 28:55
Total time
1:59:32

I definitely know how to transition, it's the rest of the stuff I need to learn how to do better! Maybe they could just have a triathlon doing transitions!! Whooppeee, I'd do really well!

I Love the Tavern (or do I?)

Well I made it through. Not in as grand a fashion as Brad. He's awesome, such a fierce competitor, but I made it. I just wish I felt better to do this race. It was pretty intense. There were some people that had these bikes, with those zip wheel things and the helmets that look like those characters from Mad magazine Spy vs. Spy backwards, all pointy and scary looking. There were total beasts that kick butt and always take first in things like Half Ironman races. I said to Brad as we were walking, I think I am in the wrong place darling! I am so not that triathlete. I want to perform on that level, but only training for a year, I am not there. I don't know if I will ever be, but that being said, here is a race recap for anyone who wants to read it:

We got to the race early. We got up at 4am to get ready to go and get there by 5. We got there at 5:09 so my husband was pretty happy, only 9 minutes off (he's kind of retentive about things like that, especially when he's in his race zone). We get our front tires out and Joe Blow our tire pump. Time to work Joe old boy. We attach our tires to the front of our bikes, make sure the brakes are attached and start our walk from the parking lot to the race site. Let me back up a few and tell you that there is no more exciting sound on a triathlon morning then the psssssst! of the tire pump filling the tire with air. It is an awesome sound for sure. We make our way to the site, me grousing the whole way that I am in the wrong place and rack our bikes. It's a tight squeeze to get all of our bikes on but we manage, and also redirect one bike that doesn't belong on our rack to the appropriate rack. Brad and I do a slow run warm up. At the same time we are scoping out the swim course. Brad shows me the buoys and what side to swim on etc. We turn around and head back. Brad wants to do a swim warm up. Okey dokey, let's go. We return our shoes to transition, grab our goggles and swim caps and head toward the dock. Now, if you have limited experience putting on a race cap it probably isn't too different then trying to put skin on baloney. I watch one guy shoot his cap off his head and I had to laugh. I say out loud to no one in particular, that's gonna be me. This girl next to me says, "here, let me help you. Hold this part to your forehead and I'll do the rest". Okay, one, two, three and ally oop, she gets that thing on my head like she has worked on an assembly line putting caps on challenged swimmers like me. She laughs as I profusely thank her and tells me it came from years of training. Thanks again to her!

Into the water we go. Brad wants to do a 100 meters or so for the warm up and we do. We get out and wait for the waves to start. The young bucks get out there in their white swim caps. Then, Brad's wave with the red caps get in. Then finally the purple caps, that's all the women, and yellow caps, those are the aquabikers and relay teams.

There was a frightening moment when our swim started. A red cap was having trouble. Thankfully a woman near him realized what was going on and grabbed him and yelled for someone to get the kayaker attention. I started screaming like crazy and waving my arms above my head. Two kayakers came and got the guy, Chesterfield County EMS pulled up in their boat and pulled him aboard. Then we heard, after all of the hullabaloo died down, 20 seconds swimmers. On five I had my face in the water by one I was stroking like mad. I started and settled into my swim stroke. We went 450 meters up current to the yellow buoy and 300 meters down current to get out. I actually had a person or two draft on me and I didn't check up even once. I just kept going. This is where my imaginations starts to play around. I can't help it, it's so quiet, except for the sound of my breathing that I start making music with my breaths and wonder if people can hear them. Did I swim it fast, uhm, not that fast, but I did finish before other people and actually felt great getting out.

I get out of the water, go up the stairs to the running path and start the .05 mile jog to the bike transition. I get my shoes on, my helmet, my glasses and start to run to the exit. I am running on the toes of my tri shoes and it reminds me of tap dancing noises. As the volunteer shows me the way to go I ask him, Doesn't it sound like I'm tap dancing? He started to laugh. I hop on my bike and take off. I wish my stomach felt better but it really doesn't. As I am hammering it up and down the hills I realize I can't shift into my little ring. The ring I use to get up that hellacious hill we rode like mental patients last Friday. Fabulous, I start using my big ring so it seems much easier when I use my center ring. I passed a bunch of people and got passed by one girl from the DC tri club. When I finally got to duh, duh, duh (here's where you imagine that dramatic music again) huge hill, I got up it, I got out of my saddle a little sooner then I had wanted, but I still made it. I didn't hop off like a lot of people did and that made me happy. I took off down that hill and clocked my top speed at 41 mph. Pretty scary, but very exhilarating and pretty much passing people. I wind up my ride busting it as best I can, losing my water bottle along the way, dismount, do more tap dancing to re-rack my bike, rip out of my cycling shoes, slide on my sneakers, take off my helmet, grab my tri belt with my number, 249 and take off for the run. I passed a whole lot of people on the run. I ran my first mile sort of slower then I usually do. I am tired of getting that awful side stitch. By mile two, I started to pick up my pace. By the time I hit the finish line, I was flying. maybe it's because my stomach was saying it needed the ladies room reeeaaaallllyyyy badly. I busted it hard and blew past the woman who was slowly jogging in front of me. It was funny to hear the announcer, number 244is coming to cross the finish line, no make that number 249, Danielle Robinson finishing strong. I literally sprinted like I hadn't been running 3 miles already, or at least that's how I thought I looked in my minds eye. I am a legend in my own mind!

So there you have it, after that, my stomach was dying and I chugged down a can of tea and about 5 glasses of water. I am still suffering from a mal stomaco. It hasn't gotten better :( Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow morning. All I know is I need to go to sleep, like now I am wiped. I guess I do love the tavern, reluctantly of course!

Race morning

It's 4:45am as I type this. My head is doing better this morning. For those of you who might read this and have ever had a migraine you'll understand what I mean when my head doesn't necessarily hurt, but the memory of it is there. It's almost as if you touch my head, it hurts because of how much it hurt yesterday. It's a pretty miserable feeling. My stomach feels just plain eeeuuuwww. Brad keeps smiling and telling me that I'll be okay, and I know I will muddle through. I just wanted my first open water tri to be a killer experience all the way around. This morning I couldn't have my usual granola and yogurt. I only ate the yogurt afraid of what the fiber in the granola might do to my innards half way into the race. I am trying to eat half of a banana but my stomach is protesting a bit. It's kinda like when you're hungover and you try to eat. You wind up chewing your food ten thousand times until it's finally small enough to swallow. But I am looking for binding and healing foods this morning. Should I make some rice, and where is my applesauce when I need it???

I am going to try and put a positive spin on this. So my morning is starting different then it usually does, it's okay. I usually only do okay so maybe this is a good omen right? Doing things a little differently and feeling a little differently might bode well for today. I will give the full report when I am done. My husband, he's a beast, I can't wait to swell up with pride when I get to brag about how he did to everyone. I hope he gets some hardware, or as was the case last time with the hoodie sweatshirt, some software this time!

Saturday with stomach woes

After the most amazingly annoying night of my life, I woke up with the start of a migraine. Our smoke detectors were going off from 1AM until around 2. Ask my husband what I looked like standing on our bed with my pillow, trying to wave it in front of the detector and giving up when I couldn't make the noise stop. I beat the thing with the extension of our vacuum until it was dangling like a pinata at a kids birthday party. Brad comes in screaming, That's 120 volts what the hell are you doing?? We finally got things taken care of with that, but I think it was that Black and tan my husband made me hitting me the wrong way. My head started hurting immediately after I drank it. I felt like a migraine was starting. Fast forward to 1 in the morning and the smoke alarms going off. It is right above my side of the bed and is so piercing. I was ready to scream, by then, my head hurt so desperately. I finally fell asleep around 3. It hurt to move my head. When the dogs barking to go out at 8 woke me this morning, to even open my eyes was painful. I knew it was heading towards a full blown migraine unless I got something in my belly to eat so I could take my medicine. Brad came down around 9 to find me holding my head in my hands on the couch. I hate taking the medicine I do because it really bothers my stomach. I knew we had packet pick up today and didn't want my stomach giving me trouble for that. I finally had to break down and take it, the aleve and motrin didn't work at all. Anyway, I took Zantac and Immodium with it, to no avail. I managed to control myself long enough to go get our packets and get home. My head is doing alright, but my stomach is still a mess. How the hell am I going to do this tomorrow? No humor tonight, just quiet desperation and hoping I will make it for tomorrow. If my head hurts like it did this morning I already told Brad there would be no way I could possibly do it. I think that will be okay, here's hoping that the nausea and everything else is gone in the morning.

Friday is for family

Okay, so we're supposed to open water swim tonight, and we get some pretty hellacious storms blow through. We were watching the Richmond Tri Club website until 5:15 where they decided to try and squeeze the swim in between the storms. Brad didn't want to go, and I have to admit I didn't relish the thought of getting caught 15 minutes into the swim and have to deal with lightning. So we bag it and Brad wants to go on a family bike ride instead. Three of the girls, Brad and I get our bikes ready and off we go. I had no idea how strong that first storm we had was. There were limbs, leave and trees all over the place. But muddle on we do and go to the two littler ones elementary school. There we pretend to race like professionals around the drop off loop. We are all flying around the loop like maniacs having a fabulous time. Then we decided to do a little finesse work. We do a sort of obstacle course. It was loads of fun.

At one point I had to stop and watch Heather. Holy cow is she something. Almost 6 and she has the makings of an athlete of epic proportions. My other girls try and they do great, Heather, she has the natural ability. I stop and watch her weave back and forth like her daddy on the bike. Leaning this way and that, so absolutely comfortable like the fact she is riding a bike is no big deal. She is pretending that the lines in the parking lot are cones to swerve back and forth in between. There I stand, mouth agape in total awe. I shake my head and mumble to myself how I wished I could do something like that. My balance is nothing like hers try as I might.

We got home and all loaded up the family truckster like the Brady's in their station wagon to go get hot dog buns. My kids sit in our new van, mouth slack, drooling on themselves watching the three satellite TV channels we get, Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. They aren't this quiet when they watch TV at home. So off we go, and Brad asks, Where should we get hotdog buns? Canada?? Truly it has never been that quiet in my car ever.

We be grilling Nathan hot dawgs tonight for dinner. Not necessarily the best thing for you but pretty damn good taste wise. Reminds me of my grandfather Matesy, he used to love his "tube steaks" as he'd call them. We got him a hot dog griller for Christmas one year he liked them so well. What else could you get for a cantankerous old guy who pretended to like very little. A hot dog griller of course!

Did I mention how nervous I am about this flipping race?? I have never done an open water tri, so there's that, plus the distances are longer then what I am used to. 750meter in the water and 19 on the bike. The only thing that makes me happy about the distances is they are pretty darned close to the NYC tri distances save the 10k run. The bike is off by around 4 miles and the swim is a mile. I will be okay, I know, but if we did that swim tonight, I'd probably be more comfortable. Coulda, shoulda, woulda, but didn't. Instead of worrying, perhaps I will ask my husband, the frustrated bartender to whip me up another Black and Tan. After one more I will be just fine and Loving the Tavern Tri, no problem...

Trainingless Thursday due to car issues

Today was going to be a day where we had to train separately. Brad took the girls to tri team this morning. He ran the trails while the girls biked. I had to bring the animal of the week to the CBS TV studios to film the segment Paws for Pets. I got to bring a lab mix named Simone. She was a good little girl and I love helping the animals. Volunteering at the Richmond Animal League is my most favorite thing to do on Thursday nights. The doggies are so appreciative for the few hours of walking and loving they get from us. Besides that I am a mean kennel cleaning queen. I can scoop, bleach and scrub with the best of them. Then you get to play with the dogs and walk them. I can't think of a more rewarding thing to do. It does make me sad though, we gets hoards of puppies and kittens too. I wish people would fix their animals and realize that animals aren't disposable. I will get off of my soap box now.

So anyway, that took all of my morning. When I got home my husband asked me if I would like to finally trade in my ever failing car, affectionately known as the Polar Bear. After dropping almost $1000 to get through this last problem, when the check engine light came on immediately after, we knew it was time to stop the bleeding. We went and got a, gulp, sputter, gasp, a a a mini van! God deliver me from this land of mini vans, here I am, drinking the Kool Aid, and getting one. The kids are thrilled, it's that one with the satellite TVs in both rows, you can hook your playstation up to, with the swivelling middle captain chairs, and the table that fits between the back seats. It has every bell and whistle imaginable, but still, much to my chagrin, it's a mini van none the less. It is silver and I haven't named it yet. So I don't feel particularly attached to it yet. I can't decide if its a boy or girl. Does everyone live in my world where even inanimate objects need to be named? I bid a sad adieu to the Polar Bear. She was a good girl for the first 100,000 miles. These last 20,000 have been killer on her and subsequently my wallet. I wished her well on her journey hoping someone nice gets her.

So anyway again, that took literally 5 hours. We had a nice sales person. He really liked his job and did it well. I actually got to deal with the owner of the dealership. We needed to have the towing hitch added to the car. Our salesperson wasn't too keen on asking for it but thought maybe if I did he'd throw it in. No problem, I told Mr. Layman we needed the hitch, that was it, not one that could tow a boat, just one my bike rack could hook into. I said we "needed that girl part so the boy part of our bike rack had a place to fit". Then I told him if he could do it I would by the van that very minute, otherwise we'd go elsewhere. It's amazing what they can do when they know they have a sale that could walk away. The hitch is on order I am proud to say. Maybe I was Turkish and lived in a bazaar in a previous life, I do like haggling.

I kept telling myself I would get that run in, but I knew it wasn't happening. It was 94 degrees when we got home with the car and I won't run when it's that hot. We have an open water swim with the Richmond Tri Club tomorrow evening, I think that I can do an easy 25 minute run in the morning and the swim at 6 tomorrow evening without hurting my competing on Sunday. We are taking Saturday off. I keep telling myself that you have to go easy the week before a race anyway.

Here's another thing I won't admit out loud to many people, I actually like open water swimming. I like not touching the pool wall and pushing off. No matter how hard I try not to do that to mimic open water swimming, you still do. I like swimming for 1/2 hour straight pushing myself as far as I can go. I swim slower, but that's okay. I like the rhythm I set for myself, my mind sort of wanders and I like practicing siting. I imagine myself looking like a Nile crocodile with just my eyes peeping up. I probably look like Humpty Dumpty (due to the swim cap) with graves disease (due to the goggles)!

I am off to bed, where I will have visions of crocodiles eating endocrinologically challenged eggs for breakfast.

Wednesday with Wonder Woman

So Wednesday is basically a carry over from Tuesday so much to do, so little time. I stumble downstairs around 7 and tell my husband they are interviewing the Naked Cowboy in Times Square. I am fasicnated by a man walking around in his skivvies playing the guitar, more so since we are doing the underwear run that is open to 300 NYC Tri participants the Friday before ther NYC Triathlon. I just ordered my Wonder Woman underoos to run in. This is my kind of race. A mile and a half run through Central Park in your underwear. Does this mean I am a closet exhibitionist?? I imagine it will be extemely liberating running in my underwear in the city. I almost fell over when my husband sent me confirmation that he signed us up for the race. This is way outside my husband's box. It would be like wearing a tutu and viking horns as our team uniform for the Muddy Buddy like I want us to. I hope my thighs don't get a rash from rubbing together. They are usually covered discreetly by my running shorts. But not this time!

So our training today was on our bikes. I love my bike, it's so pretty. It's light blue, a Trek 1600. Not all carbon but some carbon components. It is very light, but not light like Brad's rocket tri bike. I don't have to worry if my bike falls over though, his we have to tip toe around. Heaven forbid his should tip, it could crack. Anyway, back to my bike, it isn't a tri specific bike, it's a road bike we fitted with aero bars. I have had her for a year almost now, I call her Bonni Blue Bell when I am riding her and we talk when I feel like I can't go another mile further. And did I mention my shoes? The last time we did race packet pick up at 3 Sports I spied a pair of Shimano while pearlized leather and catch this, light blue tri shoes. Hello gorgeous, I thought when I saw them and of course I had to buy them. After all, they match my bike!!

All of our tri equipment is named in case you're wondering. My wetsuit is Delilah. I call Brad's Fred. So Brad let me know after we discuss our favorite underwear sporting cowboy, that today's ride is just a hour long. "We'll go down to Duval and back, that's around 20 miles". Sure, no problem, what I fail to mention is we have to cross Hull Street Road. I am not the biggest thrill seeker in the world, but I imagine jumping out of an airplane with no parachute would be less stressful. We cross at a light, which would seem okay, but it is a new traffic light, installed in the last year and people seem to "forget" it's there. There have been some pretty horrific accidents and I don't want to become one of them.

We start our ride, it's warm today and a tad more humid then it has been. I just had Bonni tuned up so she is changing gears like a champ. Off we go through our subdivision, then we get to "the light" duh, duh, duhhhhhh (imagine some extemely dramatic music here.) I am hyperventilating almost, I am talking to myself again, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. And of course, with Brad at the helm at this point, I do make it. We travel some extremely windy and hill roads, and finally hit Duval. It's a nice quiet road, save some maniac moms and their freaking mini vans, there is almost no traffic. After we get to the top of a particularly nasty hill my ever helpful husband wants to know what's the matter with you? I was pedalling slowly and trying to slow my heart some. This is Mr. I-ride-40-miles-on-Sunday boy. I look at him acerbically and snap at him that I am not him and to lay off pretty much. Ugh, it's gonna be one of these rides I guess, if I were better at sharp turns, I might have turned around like when we run and it stinks...So I tell him to do his ride and I'll do mine. His averages 24 miles an hour, mine is 18-19. We did practice keeping a pace line and drafting and I am getting pretty good at it. I was keeping a 20+ pace with him up and down the hills on the way back. Brad, God bless him, is a great coach to me, but sometimes he comes off as a High School footbal coach tired of his team screwing around, "Hey you guys, quit playing grab ass and start paying attention to what you're doing!" (That's the part where you imagine an overweight guy with his belly sort of hitched over his belt, whistle around his neck, bad 70's looking sweatshorts, barking at a bunch of kids). He means well, but he doesn't seem to know when not to bark at me and when it's okay to offer his help. His help, I always listen to, it's when he gets that exasperated "what the heck is wrong with you" tone in his voice that I shut down like a Brady during one of Mike's uncermoniously long sermons. We did go over a few helpful hints for the race on Sunday, and even went nosing through a new subdivision being built to sort of take it easy on the way back. I am duly unimpressed with Magnolia Green by the way.

I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow. I believe it will entail a run of some sort, which is good, I haven't run since Sunday. I am starting to get my race butterflies already too.

Twilight Tuesday, the Twelve Days of Tuesday and triathlon training

Happy Twilight Tuesday to any other person who might read this and is as obsessed with those books and future movie as I am. I needn't explain myself if you are one of those geeky people like me. If you look on MTV.com on the movies blog section you'll see what Twilight Tuesday is and probably not understand how a grown woman could be so enrapt with these books, this movie, but I totally am.

So anyway after I check my Twilight Tuesday update on MTV.com, I get to my Ice Zone work and ask my husband tentatively, as nonchalantly as I can, "So what's in store for today with our training?" Brad responds brightly, with this almost sardonic smile on his face, just some swimming. JUST some swimming??? Okay here is his JUST some swimming, a 300 meter warm up, followed by 750 at level four intensity, then another 300 meters. Then he says more quietly and we have a half hour run today. So now I have figuring to do. I have a stack of payables that absolutely, positively must be entered or our vendors will come banging down my door pitch forks and torches in hand, checks to print from them, approximately an hour worth of swimming, three kids begging to go to the pool, two dogs that need to be fed, a yard that needs to be mowed, groceries that need to be bought, a half hour run, laundry that needs to be done, lunch needs to made for my family, Heather needs new sneakers for tri camp and (sing along with me now) a partridge in a pear treeeeee! How in the bageezus am I getting all of this done.

Okay, I enter the payables and print my checks, get into my swim suit, sunscreen myself down, get to the pool, sans the kids, they want to go and play so they agree to wait until after I am done working out and I will take them to the pool with the slide, and jump into my swim work out both feet first!

You know, it's hard to tell Brad that he's right when he says, "it wasn't so bad now was it?" The 300 meters for warm up were simply that, a warm up. The 750 I imagined, well I imagined a lot of things but the one pertinent thing was I imagined it was the race on Sunday and fell into a pace for the race. Not the fastest I have ever swam (or is it swum??), I did it in 16 and a half minutes or so my husband told me, then those three hundred slow afterwards are so easy to do after a harder 750. I did wish there was a current to swim against in the pool to mimic the open water better, but I imagined that and almost drowned myself laughing at the carnage that would ensue, the poor, unsuspecting pool goers being swept into the skimmers by the current. My husband insists I think way too much when I swim, I guess I will never tell him I also imagined what it would be like swimming with vampires ala Twilight, they are supposedly very good swimmers don't you know?

I made it home and got lunch for everyone, hey that 4 of my Twelve Days of Tuesday things that need to be done! Got the kids sunscreened and to the pool where I breathed, fashoo! I get to sit for a few. The few lasted for a few hours and it was almost 5 when I got home. So here I sit, 5 things down, do I do the rest? Or do I take a rest and the rest will get done when I am done resting? These are the questions that truly need answering in my world! By the way, the dogs did manage to get fed!

Manic Monday, it's my fun day?

Who didn't like that Bangles song? My Monday began mundanely. Today is our off day from training. With the pre-tri we did on Saturday and the long run yesterday, our bodies need a day to heal.

So up I get, read the news that my all time favorite comedian, George Carlin, died and went on to email a cousin who shared my love for him. Who could ever forget Hal Sleet the hippy dippy weather man, with all the hippy dippy weather, man? Or observations like, how come people who drive slower then you are idiots but that drive faster then you are maniacs??

After that I went about waking up three of the girls, they had tri camp today. Am I seeing a theme for this family?? Even my youngest loves them, I guess it's like anything in this world, if you can't beat it, join it right? Our world is so filled with all things triathlon (and now marathon) that our girls, save the 16 year old, hop on board willingly.

Of course our day couldn't be completely devoid of things regarding our tri training. We brought my bike to Three Sports for a tune up before our triathlon this weekend, it shifts the big rings far to clunky and the little rings aren't smoothly transitioning while I try to use my gears getting up hills, not good when you're expecting help getting up those hills and not getting it! I also got a pair of Richmond Tri Club tri shorts for the NYC triathlon. I'll be rocking the shorts this July. I understand there are twenty or so of us doing this triathlon from the Richmond Tri Club. I am pretty stoked about that! I wish they had the top in my size, but they only had extra large.

So now my day is filled with work, laundry and kids begging to go to the pool. I have to admit, I am getting a littel antsy not doing anything physical. I can't wait to see what training tomorrow brings...

Rest in peace George Carlin!

Today was a marathon training long run

So Brad was supposed to go out for his multi hour/mile bike ride with this group that gets together early on Sunday mornings. EARLY is key with training on the roads here, it keeps you from getting squished. I had a long run planned for today. Anyway, he overslept I guess because when I came down trying to shake the sleep out of my head at 7, he was still here. He said he did indeed oversleep, could have made it, but didn't want to get out of bed (I am divine to snuggle with don't you know?) and rush. He was all excited that we could do a long run together. His coach had him at a two hour run sometime today too.

Typically, I like running with Brad. We did have this one time, once upon a while ago, that wasn't so good. What started the whole argument, I don't remember and the best part was he didn't realize I had turned around and started running in the other direction because I was sick of arguing. When he did catch up to me, we wound up having a pretty good laugh about it. It was one of our most memorable runs and if we are running together and not getting on so well, we say it's one of those runs where I am going to turn around. Believe it or not, we do kibbutz back and forth like the old married couple we are when we run some days. I believe it expends a lot of energy that I don't have to spare when I run. I keep my Ipod on pretty loud on the days when I can tell we won't be saying anything remotely useful to one another. But anyway...

I decide I am doing the Galloway marathon training plan. It is good for training in the heat, which it was New Dehli hot today, and preventing injuries. At my level of running I run for 8 minutes on the Galloway plan and walk for one, run for eight, walk for one. I did this for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I have to say I had some gas left in my tank, to coin a phrase, but it was blistering hot and I felt like it would be in my best interest to stop and cool down. I did and I stretched a ton. I think I am a swami when I stretch when I am all warm like I am after running. Holy cow, I am flexible then.

I was pleased enough with the results today that I think I will run like this with my long run next weekend. I am hoping to run a 4:30 marathon, and it can be done on this plan, so I think I will stick with it at least until the heat of the summer is over and I can run in the cool.

A mixed-up triathlon

Okay, today was supposed to be a pre-ride for our upcoming I Love the Tavern Tri that is next Sunday. Great, I wasn't familiar with the course, just that freakin' hill we went up and down like dementia patients yesterday. Hey didn't we just go up this hill, why no I don't believe we did, well we better go up it, hey didn't we just go up this hill, why no, I don't believe we did, well be better got up it.... Point being, I needed to ride it and get a strategy together. I knew how to handle that hill, but the rest of the course was a mystery to me. Robious Road is definitely not something I relished riding. It is busy, narrow in parts, has 288 intersecting it and is just plain scary....


Anyway, we get there, my stomach is literally hurting because I am sizing everyone up around me and thinking, I am not amongst my peers. I need people on tricycles to make me feel comfortable. I am gonna get left in the dust like a bad habit. No, no, no, I am too scared to do this. Remain calm, look like you know what you're doing, you belong here, this is what the little man in my head is trying to tell me.


Laurie, who is leading our ride today, gets there and is just one heck of a nice lady. I start to relax with her welcoming demeanor. When I see there is someone on a mountain bike, I know I won't be left alone in the back and relax some more. There are a few road bikes like mine and tons of rockets like my husband's. You have the loud braggadocio guy who says he is "gonna hammer it" and other people I notice looking a bit nervous like me with every loud proclamation he makes. So I start to relax a little more, I might not be so all alone. No there aren't any three wheelers. Just then my husband whispers to me that there are a lot of people on my level of riding. I still won't stand straddled over my bike like everyone else. I am afraid I will do something stupid and fall, so I stand holding my bike against my leg, trying to give myself a pep talk about how things will be great. Laurie asks for volunteers to lead the front, fast bikers, the middle bikers (which I figure I am a part of) and the slower, newer bikers. Okay, I relax even more. So we all don't have to ride like Lance to be in this group, alrighty then, I'm good or something sort of like good.

We start and I am up front with the leaders of my pack, we travel that blasted Robious Road, which was just as scary as I had imagined it. I see all manner of road kill and see myself on the side of this road, Xs for eyes, arms and legs stiff in the air from rigor mortis, tongue lolling out of the corner of my mouth. So I start to pray, I bargain with God, Dear Lord, if you let me live through this Robious Road part, I will never take your name in vain again. Little did I know what would come flying out of my mouth while I was trying to take that hill again. I told my husband, I was like foul mouthed teen, cussing under my breath, Gd d*mn, son of a b*tch, and other assorted expletives, (feel free to insert your favorite swear on my behalf) when I started to climb it. I kept reminding myself, stay in your saddle til you hit the white driveway, then stand and hammer it the best you can. My legs are saying, are you freakin kidding us? We did this 9 times yesterday, do you really expect us to do this again???? Yes, of course I did. I did make it, not as grandly as I had hoped, but I did, and started pedaling like a maniac once I got to the top. I wonder to myself, whose bright idea was it to pave a road with hills like this woven into it?

I make it back, I rode the 19 miles in around an hour. Not bad I think to myself. It's the first tri I will do with a distance longer then 12 miles, so I am stoked, especially with my legs being as trashed as they were from the day before. If my legs were fresher, if I had that adrenaline rush you get from the competition, it might be faster. Here's hoping, but then after the whole pack of Tri Club members get back, Laurie announces we are going to run the 5K course. Alrighty then again, let's go. The run was a non event for me. I had to stop at one point and stretch out my left leg. It was bothering me. I hadn't properly warmed up and stretched, so I did it mid run. No problem, I finished and caught up with the group. Laurie announces we are going to do an abbreviated swim. So instead of the 750m, we swam for 20 minutes. Ten minutes up, ten back. As I am getting out onto the dock, someone screams, "get out of the water, there's a snake!" I did the Christ walking on water thing I got out so fast. I think I sprang from swimming horizontally to standing on the dock. And I was afraid of piranha fish!

When we were sitting in the car on the way home I said to my husband that we just did a dyslexic triathlon. We biked 19 miles, ran 3.1 and swam for about 400 or so meters. We were supposed to just do a stinking pre-ride!!! Ah well, I survived road kill, knee problems and snakes. All of that aside, I can't imagine how mundane my two hour marathon training run will be tomorrow....

My first post!

When I heard that I had gotten into the NYC marathon via the lottery, I had to start a blog. My husband teases me, he calls me the reluctant triathlete. I am petrified to ride the roads near our home on my bike, I might get hit, I was terrified to open water swim, I still freak myself out thinking, are there piranhas in the James River that might get me? At the very least there has to be a snapping turtle out there dreaming about my toes and how they taste....

Now, I am the "Reluctant Marathoner" I want to get a shirt made up with that so I can run the Marathon in it. My husband said one day, hey Dee, do you want to put our names in the lottery for the NY marathon? I say, Yeah sure, thinking to myself, my chances are slim to none that I would get picked. As luck would have it, I got picked and my husband didn't. Ever the resourceful man, he had a contingency plan if he wasn't chosen lottery style. He picked a charity he liked and is fundraising for it to get in. So now we are raising funds to help a very worthy organization and here we go with our training.

Actually we tri trained today. We did hill repeats on our bikes on a quiet road in Powhatan. Very little traffic so I didn't feel like a squirrel with her days on the road numbered, and a pretty wicked hill. We got to hammer it up this long hill five times! Whee! Then we got to do just the steep part as hard as we could five times. I kind of blew it on that though. I couldn't break fast enough to stop at the steepest part of this blasted hill and wound up doing 6 long hill climbs and three short, nasty bursts up the hill. More like a mountain by the last time for me, my legs were like lead and I was having a hell of a time getting out of the saddle to make the last part of this hill. Did I mention that on the downhill part I was going 36 miles per hour??? I was amazed that I could be on a bike going that fast and not get hurt. But I did, and my husband promises me it is the work outs like these that will make me a better athlete. I think they are the reason for me being reluctant.