Ass: Kicked it.

I DID IT!!!  Sorry for keeping you hanging for a day, but I spent most of yesterday eating pork products and watching football.  And cake.  I ate a lot of cake.

My title for this entry is a bit of an exaggeration (shocking, I know).  The results by the numbers: 118 minutes total time, 73rd finisher out of 191 (37 dq's), 7th in age group (out of 20).  It was a really small field of participants.  My swim placement is the funniest: 155 out of 191.  My bike placement the best: 17th out of 191.  I'm very proud of my run pace 9:30.  Anything under a ten minute mile for me is SMOKIN' FAST.  When I ran relays at 26 I think I averaged 11 minute miles.  One of my biggest opportunities for improving my time is my transition.  I could have gotten in a manicure with how long it took me.

The thing I'm most proud of is meeting my personal goals of not stopping to rest/walk and push through.  There were moments in the swim I had to talk myself off the ledge.  I'm very grateful to the trainer I had in Portland who helped me learn to relax more in the water.  

I got a calf cramp immediately when I started the run and thought I was going to have to walk it.  I concentrated on running heel/toe and that really helped.  The woman who was at least 15 years older than me that BLEW BY MY SLOW ASS also really helped.  The bottom line is that anytime I started to freak out, I went back to what I'd learned and practiced in training.  Made all the difference for me.

And I learned so much through this experience.  Here's just a sampling:  Having a great partner is key (I think this holds true for life as well).  Even if you don't train together all the time, having someone else there to hold your toes to the fire (or make you go to bed) helps incredibly.  If you're reading this partner - love you!  Another thing is what we make up about ourselves that we can or cannot do.  Just go back to some of my first posts about how I "can't run" anymore or "can't swim".  Yes, some things are hard.  Some things are really, fucking hard.  But that doesn't mean we can't do them or learn to do them at any age.  I also learned that I am strong.  I've always felt fairly strong physically but now I can add mentally.  It was my mind that got me through that race when I was struggling, not my body.

I'm looking forward to taking a little break this week and doing some yoga, relaxation and boozin'.  But I'm also looking forward to the next challenge, or the next race whenever that may be.

NEVER SURRENDER!

Tri eve

Hey everyone,

It's triathlon eve.  We're in the hotel (actually in bed at this point).  We had a great day, checked in, got our numbers, ate our weight in pasta and got all the gear set for the morning.  I even took a bath.  I do need to keep this short in order to be a good training partner (mine is trying to sleep).

I feel good about tomorrow.  I feel like I can do this.  And I'm so appreciative of the support that so many of you have given me along the way.  Really, really means a lot.

So here goes nothin'!

NEVER SURRENDER!

And here we are

I'm packing my bags for the triathlon folks.  We leave tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. for Long Island (about 1 1/2 hour drive) then the actual event starts at 6:30 a.m. Sunday.  I'm going to bring my computer so I can blog before and after.  Until then, here's a nice little story from this week to tide you over:

I went to the dermatologist to have an annoying mole taken off my left arm.  It was right by my watch band and kind of scratchy.  My son (the picker) would poke at it all the time.  In other words, it bugged the crap out of me.

So my adorably cute, petite and YOUNG dermatologist comes bopping in.  I show her the mole.  She looks at it with her super hero, super power magnifying glasses and says "that's not a mole, that's a wart.  But honey, if it makes you feel better, you can call it whatever you want."  Lovely.

Whatever "it" was, it's GONE BABY GONE.

1/3 of a cherry

I'm 1/3 less of a triathlon virgin.  If I had been a member of my sorority's "v" club, I would have been "parked halfway in the garage without pulling the car all the way in."  But I digress...

I did a triathlon relay!  A totally spontaneous decision made over Vodka Cranberries, but I'm so glad I did it.  It was when I was in Portland.  I mentioned to a friend of mine from high school that I would love to do a bike leg of a relay and he said he'd do the swim and thought he could find a runner and we were off to the races!

I rode quite a bit in Portland prior to the race (even did a half-century) but hadn't really done any hill climbing.  The day before the tri, we drove the course.  YIKES.  It was a 24 mile course broken up into three, 8 mile loops.  Half the loop was uphill, a fourth or so downhill and the rest fairly flat.  Those of you who know Portland - up Naito, up Barber, up Capital Hwy and then up Terwilliger.  Three times - Ouch.

So the night before the race I tried to be good.  Didn't drink.  Tried to sleep.  Totally didn't work.  I started to get a cough and sore throat about 8 p.m.  Every time I would try to sleep, I would cough and wake myself up.  Then I started to psyche myself out about not sleeping.  All in all I'd say I got an hour.  Wake up time was 5:15 a.m.

On the way to the race I checked my resting heart rate which is an indicator of your rest, health and training levels.  My resting heart rate is usually 57 or so.  That morning it was 93.  In other words I WAS FREAKING OUT.  I think I was more scared of the unknown than the physical challenge of it.  That and my friend from high school drowning because he hadn't swam in over 5 years and was going out with zero training (yes, we're crazy).

We got there and got marked up.  The left side is the bib number, 

the right your age:

The adrenaline factor is pretty amazing.  My tiredness

 seemed to be gone and I really wasn't thinking about my cold either.  Somehow, incredibly, my teammate finished the swim in good time without dying.  It was my turn.  I'll let the air out of the balloon now.  I did not finish in record time.  In fact, I was so worried about finishing that I held back a lot and finished with a pretty crappy time.  But you know what?  I'm good with that.  I had zero in the tank and that 3rd time up the hill was ugly.  But I did it.  Our runner rocked it and we ended up 7th out of not so many more teams (like 9).  But hey, we didn't train, and we did it to finish.

I'm not so freaked out by the whole process anymore and frankly pretty inspired by it all.  There were people out there in the Willamette River who had no business swimming but they were.  There were people 30 years older than me.  There were machine-like humans doing it so fast it made my head spin.  This 39 year old was just glad to be there.

Go Team Mojito!  

Vewy Vewy Tired

Hi guys. If it's possible to sleep a negative amount of hours, I accomplished that last night. The boys and I had to get up at 4:30 this morning to get to the airport and I did the whole worry about the alarm clock, look at the searing red numbers thing all night.

But we're in Oregon now (hooray!). I'm so excited to catch up with friends and family and soak in some Portland kindness and weirdness.

I do have another guest blogging installment on Fitness for Mommies today! Please hop on over to catch up on my training adventures if you'd like. I need all the help I can get!

Tri-ing my patience

For those interested, I'm doing my second guest blogging installment on Fitness For Mommies today.

Check it out and tell me how to deal with my damn foot!  Please?

Going for the gold

As many of you know I'm training (which means I'm talking a lot about training) for my first triathlon in September.  I'm very frustrated right now because I'm dealing with Achilles tendinitis that I actually believe has been caused by my beloved flippy flops.  The problem started over Spring Break in Florida, where I went directly from wearing winter shoes to nothing but Havaianas.  Before I can start running, I have to get this thing healed.

Anyhoo, last night there was a training party in NYC that my girlfriend and I were going to.  As I was racing around the house, barbecuing chicken, trying to get to the dentist to grind down my new filling, get boy #1 to do his homework and simultaneously get ready for soccer practice all in time for a 5:47 train he asks me "so WHAT are you going to?"

ME: "Sarah and I are doing a triathlon in September and this is a training meeting to help us learn how to do it right."

HIM: "Is it a running thing?"

ME: "Yes, running, biking and swimming."

HIM: "Oh, so you're doing the mom Olympics!"

Love that.  I also love Sally Edwards the spokeswoman for the Trek Women Triathlon Series.  "Inspiring" is not an adjective worthy of this woman.  She's 62 years old and has been doing tris for 30 years.  She completes every event as the "last" finisher - so no entrants ever finish last.  Her passion for living a fit life is infectious and yes, OK, inspiring. 

After meeting her and hearing her stories last night I am totally committed to doing this training thing right, getting past my mental "I can't do this" blocks and pushing my fitness to the next level.

NEVER SURRENDER!

Fitness forays

Hey there!  I am playing Jay Leno to Fit Mommy's Johnny Carson today on her awesome blog Fitness for Mommies.  Click to read my article on my (so far) pathetic attempt at triathlon training.  Then continue reading her blog to find out how real athletes actually train for things, as opposed to simply e-mailing people about training for things.

Or, if you have no interest whatsoever in sportsy stuff, here's yet another cat in a box.  Where do the Japanese find their cats and why are they the cutest on the planet?  Brilliant marketing idea for the Japanese: Sell cats IN boxes to rest of the world.  Economic recovery: Done.

What I am getting for my birthday

Actually, I already got it.

Now we need to name it.  Maybe after a black porn star?  I don't happen to know any by name, but if you do feel free to submit them.  Anonymously of course.  Or not.

I also entered my first triathlon.  It's a little one, part of the Trek Women's Series.  It will be two and an half weeks before my 40th birthday.  Couldn't be more perfect.