Hi Everyone,
I was thinking today during an open water swim session at Lake Grapevine that it was exactly two years ago this weekend I ventured into the lake in a wetsuit for the very first time. It was Easter Sunday 2009 when I met up with fellow running club members Marty and Gary. Gary was in the kayak and Marty was swimming to train for upcoming triathlons which eventually led to his first IronMan. I remember taking three strokes and if lucky making it to five strokes. I was very afraid I was going to drown. Note, I was in four feet deep of water. I laughed thinking about how silly I was (and of course ingested lake water…bleh) since I ended up standing in the water more than swimming that day. Even then, I knew I was going to go for an IronMan.
Today, my husband sat in the kayak and my daughter hung out on the shoreline watching and taking pictures. Even with my wetsuit filling with water since it is now too big along with the non stop wind and lake water with a steady current, I swam. Instead of fighting the water, I glide through it. Instead of stopping, I kept going. I made it. I focus now on getting better and not just surviving. That my friends is pretty special.
In other news, coming off of a two week travel, race, travel, camp period, this weeks workouts were pretty typical yet strong. There was another activity that increased and that was sleep. I napped everyday this week which is quite rare and slept well at night except for one (but that was just a busy mind trying to solve problems that I ended up realizing I could not instantly fix...duh). Being tired is to be expected at this point and it feels great to have that down time. Taking 15 minutes out of your day to put your feet up and stare at the inside of your eyelids is magnificent. Waking up and being recharged to knock down the rest of the day is a perfect stress reliever. So I am off for a nap…try it out sometime and I am sure you will see the difference!
Talk to ya next week,
Janet
Friday, April 22, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Journey to a Texas IronMan
Hi Everyone,
This weekend, Dr. Crane and I attended a tri camp in The Woodlands, Texas to learn more about IronMan racing and preview the Texas IronMan course. It was a very busy weekend to say the least.
The camp consisted of roughly 18 or so athletes all with varying abilities. Attendees were from Texas, throughout the U.S., Italy and Mexico. An interesting thing I learned was how much we really already know about triathlon including the IronMan race. All in all, tips were taken, we learned better swim techniques for open water and had a good preview of the the bike and run course.
The weekend was a solid workout session. We both learned that our legs were tired from racing the weekend before. It was frustrating to me I could not power like last weekend however was reassured by experienced athletes I should not be all out hammering and to get back into the training mode. I laughed at myself at how I was ready to go, go, go but the body said no, no, no. The body was right as this was a camp, not a race. Fun mental stuff eh?
The weather was very cool for Houston in fact, locals stated it was down right cold. I thought this was a positive as the cooler weather allowed us a chance to focus on each discipline’s route and not worry about the weather. I will say, riding through the heavily wooded areas brought on a chill in the early morning. We were glad to have gloves on which is nuts for this time year in Houston. I kept thinking if only race day temps would be this cool. Something tells me we don’t stand a chance at that request. A huge accomplishment was yours truly actually had a long run this weekend with no foot pain. Okay, it’s sore as I type this blog but it was exhilarating to be able to run again.
Overall, the course is beautiful. As far as the water, well let’s just say “not so much”. After looking at the canal and all it’s glory I figured what the heck, after swimming in lakes with snakes and all the other water friends, what’s the point in grossing out? What the challenge will be is the humidity, heat and wind. That is okay with us. When we both race at the Kona IronMan in the future, we will be saying the same thing “One time, in Kona, just like Texas blah, blah, blah…..”.
So the next few weeks will be focused on nutrition and planning for race day. I don’t want you to think the course will be a snap, after all it is an IronMan event and what I have learned after four half IronMan races is there is always something to challenge you. Like people say, if it was easy, everyone would be an IronMan.
Talk to ya next week,
Janet
This weekend, Dr. Crane and I attended a tri camp in The Woodlands, Texas to learn more about IronMan racing and preview the Texas IronMan course. It was a very busy weekend to say the least.
The camp consisted of roughly 18 or so athletes all with varying abilities. Attendees were from Texas, throughout the U.S., Italy and Mexico. An interesting thing I learned was how much we really already know about triathlon including the IronMan race. All in all, tips were taken, we learned better swim techniques for open water and had a good preview of the the bike and run course.
The weekend was a solid workout session. We both learned that our legs were tired from racing the weekend before. It was frustrating to me I could not power like last weekend however was reassured by experienced athletes I should not be all out hammering and to get back into the training mode. I laughed at myself at how I was ready to go, go, go but the body said no, no, no. The body was right as this was a camp, not a race. Fun mental stuff eh?
The weather was very cool for Houston in fact, locals stated it was down right cold. I thought this was a positive as the cooler weather allowed us a chance to focus on each discipline’s route and not worry about the weather. I will say, riding through the heavily wooded areas brought on a chill in the early morning. We were glad to have gloves on which is nuts for this time year in Houston. I kept thinking if only race day temps would be this cool. Something tells me we don’t stand a chance at that request. A huge accomplishment was yours truly actually had a long run this weekend with no foot pain. Okay, it’s sore as I type this blog but it was exhilarating to be able to run again.
Overall, the course is beautiful. As far as the water, well let’s just say “not so much”. After looking at the canal and all it’s glory I figured what the heck, after swimming in lakes with snakes and all the other water friends, what’s the point in grossing out? What the challenge will be is the humidity, heat and wind. That is okay with us. When we both race at the Kona IronMan in the future, we will be saying the same thing “One time, in Kona, just like Texas blah, blah, blah…..”.
So the next few weeks will be focused on nutrition and planning for race day. I don’t want you to think the course will be a snap, after all it is an IronMan event and what I have learned after four half IronMan races is there is always something to challenge you. Like people say, if it was easy, everyone would be an IronMan.
Talk to ya next week,
Janet
Monday, April 11, 2011
The Journey to a Texas IronMan
Hi Everyone,
This past weekend was the Texas IronMan 70.3 race in Galveston. It was a warm up/training race for IronMan Texas next month. Here’s a little recap on the event.
Kicking things off was a smooth drive down to Galveston. Dr. Crane and I are pretty good travel partners so we took shifts in driving and enjoyed the ride. We arrived at the hotel which By the Way shall remain nameless. In a nutshell, it was awful. How this chain allowed that property to exist, is still puzzling to us. Worried we would have to stay at this location, we headed over to the host hotel to try our luck on finding other accommodations.
As expected, the host hotel was sold out however we lucked out as the concierge found us a beautiful property called the Hotel Galvez. This hotel is celebrating it’s 100th year, completely remodeled to celebrate the century anniversary. It is just beautiful and we both give a big thumbs up to the property.
The winds were the topic of the weekend as the seawall was the entire bike course. Just for fun, as I wrote this blog, I compared weather from last year's race to this year's race. This year, the wind was much stronger making the bike portion more of a challenge. Even the pros struggled with the wind.
Saturday, we headed out for a short ride with our friend Sonia. I learned that wet pavement which included a trolley rail does not mix with race tires. Dr. Crane and I fell off our bikes at the same time, in same direction yet had different body scrapes. Bikes were fine, knees and elbow were scraped and Sonia stared at us puzzled on what just happened. We were laughing so hard the rest of the day about the fall, it removed much but not all of the pre-race butterflies.
This was my first race swimming in salt water. I learned it is much different than lake water and really different than the pool that is for sure. We dabbled a bit in the water with our speed suits and the water was okay. I decided to use the wetsuit on race day just in case as I am still not the strongest out in open water as opposed to the pool.
Finally, race morning arrived! A lovely 4:30am wake up call kicked things off. As we arrived to transition, we were instructed to park a further distance away due to last year’s apparent parking challenge. Walking the distance made us both really miss a Sherpa, the person who hauls everything and does everything for us. Half way through the walk to transition, I was thinking a little red wagon would be awesome to carry all of our stuff but I don’t think race officials would allow this in transition.
We were the last wave of swimmers to get in the water…ugh. The race started at 7:00am and after waiting 1.5 hours, we were ready to begin. At this race, we had to jump off the pier and bobble in the water until we were allowed to start swimming. I was worried at first then I just jumped in and hoped for the best. All I can tell you is that I was glad my goggles stayed in place and I did not freak out. One thing I learned is my wetsuit is now too large resulting in a lot of movement aka chafing –ouch.
I knew all along the day was a training day so I decided to play with the waves and try to get a rhythm. It was okay although I still drifted off course a few times. I have added this to my list of things to work on for the open water swim. My time was slower than expected but I didn’t worry about it. After awhile, I got into a groove and just had fun with it. I just kept going looking for the next buoy…nice and easy.
Transition one was a snap. I jumped on Celeste and off we went for one windy ride! My bike computer was not working so I had no data what so ever. Funny, without stats, I was actually faster on the bike. This race gave me a PR on the bike even though I felt like I was plowing through each mile thanks to the wind. On the return, we had an okay tail wind but faced the wind once again when we were back into town. Overall, there was a tremendous growth in strength from last years cycling and that is pretty groovy.
Heading back into transition I joked around with Dr. Crane and then she headed out for her run and I got ready for a lovely 4 loop walk. I have to say, as much as I wanted to run, I kept telling myself to keep my promise and walk it or my coach along with my foot would have let me have it. I walked past a lot of folks jogging and kept thinking…if they walked, they would actually be faster. It was long, but it was the smart thing to do.
Finally, after four loops, I crossed the finish line and completed my fourth half ironman race. This day was tough yet we both had a great time. I am still wondering how the heck I had my best time for a half ironman given I walked the run course. Cutting 30 minutes off was huge. That is pretty groovy also.
All in all, it was a great weekend. It was a huge confidence builder and turned out to be a lot of fun. Congrats to Dr. Crane, Sonia, Lee and all the athletes who participated in this windblown race.
Talk to ya next week,
Janet
This past weekend was the Texas IronMan 70.3 race in Galveston. It was a warm up/training race for IronMan Texas next month. Here’s a little recap on the event.
Kicking things off was a smooth drive down to Galveston. Dr. Crane and I are pretty good travel partners so we took shifts in driving and enjoyed the ride. We arrived at the hotel which By the Way shall remain nameless. In a nutshell, it was awful. How this chain allowed that property to exist, is still puzzling to us. Worried we would have to stay at this location, we headed over to the host hotel to try our luck on finding other accommodations.
As expected, the host hotel was sold out however we lucked out as the concierge found us a beautiful property called the Hotel Galvez. This hotel is celebrating it’s 100th year, completely remodeled to celebrate the century anniversary. It is just beautiful and we both give a big thumbs up to the property.
The winds were the topic of the weekend as the seawall was the entire bike course. Just for fun, as I wrote this blog, I compared weather from last year's race to this year's race. This year, the wind was much stronger making the bike portion more of a challenge. Even the pros struggled with the wind.
Saturday, we headed out for a short ride with our friend Sonia. I learned that wet pavement which included a trolley rail does not mix with race tires. Dr. Crane and I fell off our bikes at the same time, in same direction yet had different body scrapes. Bikes were fine, knees and elbow were scraped and Sonia stared at us puzzled on what just happened. We were laughing so hard the rest of the day about the fall, it removed much but not all of the pre-race butterflies.
This was my first race swimming in salt water. I learned it is much different than lake water and really different than the pool that is for sure. We dabbled a bit in the water with our speed suits and the water was okay. I decided to use the wetsuit on race day just in case as I am still not the strongest out in open water as opposed to the pool.
Finally, race morning arrived! A lovely 4:30am wake up call kicked things off. As we arrived to transition, we were instructed to park a further distance away due to last year’s apparent parking challenge. Walking the distance made us both really miss a Sherpa, the person who hauls everything and does everything for us. Half way through the walk to transition, I was thinking a little red wagon would be awesome to carry all of our stuff but I don’t think race officials would allow this in transition.
We were the last wave of swimmers to get in the water…ugh. The race started at 7:00am and after waiting 1.5 hours, we were ready to begin. At this race, we had to jump off the pier and bobble in the water until we were allowed to start swimming. I was worried at first then I just jumped in and hoped for the best. All I can tell you is that I was glad my goggles stayed in place and I did not freak out. One thing I learned is my wetsuit is now too large resulting in a lot of movement aka chafing –ouch.
I knew all along the day was a training day so I decided to play with the waves and try to get a rhythm. It was okay although I still drifted off course a few times. I have added this to my list of things to work on for the open water swim. My time was slower than expected but I didn’t worry about it. After awhile, I got into a groove and just had fun with it. I just kept going looking for the next buoy…nice and easy.
Transition one was a snap. I jumped on Celeste and off we went for one windy ride! My bike computer was not working so I had no data what so ever. Funny, without stats, I was actually faster on the bike. This race gave me a PR on the bike even though I felt like I was plowing through each mile thanks to the wind. On the return, we had an okay tail wind but faced the wind once again when we were back into town. Overall, there was a tremendous growth in strength from last years cycling and that is pretty groovy.
Heading back into transition I joked around with Dr. Crane and then she headed out for her run and I got ready for a lovely 4 loop walk. I have to say, as much as I wanted to run, I kept telling myself to keep my promise and walk it or my coach along with my foot would have let me have it. I walked past a lot of folks jogging and kept thinking…if they walked, they would actually be faster. It was long, but it was the smart thing to do.
Finally, after four loops, I crossed the finish line and completed my fourth half ironman race. This day was tough yet we both had a great time. I am still wondering how the heck I had my best time for a half ironman given I walked the run course. Cutting 30 minutes off was huge. That is pretty groovy also.
All in all, it was a great weekend. It was a huge confidence builder and turned out to be a lot of fun. Congrats to Dr. Crane, Sonia, Lee and all the athletes who participated in this windblown race.
Talk to ya next week,
Janet
Sunday, April 3, 2011
The Journey to a Texas Ironman
Hi Everyone,
There is a lot of talk these days about drug testing triathletes. A practice once geared toward the pros has now evolved to encompass all participants. I see both sides of the issue however I still question if this change will truly deter age groupers with the win or go home attitude from using drugs. Something tells me not to bank on it.
The WTC recently announced drug testing will now be a random selection for all participants. The thing is there is a cost involved. Given each test averages $500.00, one would think not only is the test random….it could be seldom. What I have come to learn is the majority of triathletes I have had the privilege of meeting are honest, focused individuals. They want to see just how far they can push their body and are truly dedicated to the sport.
So what can we do to control the abuse? Nip at the core and start with yourself. The way I look at it, in 20-30 years from now, who is really going to stop the presses to revisit and honor the moment you won an age division? How can someone honestly live with themselves knowing they lied? Seems to me that would make most folks stop and think. The repercussions are another factor to think about. Triathlon is a tight community of athletes of all levels, shapes and sizes. Imagine if someone won your age division unethically by taking performance enhancing drugs? Once caught, the level of embarrassment, loss of relationships up to being banned from the sport just doesn’t add up. I could not think of anything more detrimental than to risk it all just for a piece of bling. My statement to the drug users: Grow up, be true to yourself and others. Otherwise just get out of our sport.
On another note, it’s race week! The Memorial Herman IronMan 70.3 Texas is next Sunday. Both Dr. Crane and I heading down to south Texas to give this race a whirl. Dr. Crane is ready for a fast race and that is a good thing. I listed out goals for myself and where I wanted to focus on improving. This race will be my very first salt water swim and look forward to giving it a “tri”. I am anticipating quick transitions then have a blast on Celeste the super tri bike and Dimples the helmet will make her debut. Lastly, the goal for the run is to see if I can run more than walk although the foot is still being a tad goofy. Worse case….I walk it and that’s okay. I wish all participants a fun, fast safe race and if your not racing, have a great week of training!
Talk to you next week from lovely Galveston Texas!
Janet
There is a lot of talk these days about drug testing triathletes. A practice once geared toward the pros has now evolved to encompass all participants. I see both sides of the issue however I still question if this change will truly deter age groupers with the win or go home attitude from using drugs. Something tells me not to bank on it.
The WTC recently announced drug testing will now be a random selection for all participants. The thing is there is a cost involved. Given each test averages $500.00, one would think not only is the test random….it could be seldom. What I have come to learn is the majority of triathletes I have had the privilege of meeting are honest, focused individuals. They want to see just how far they can push their body and are truly dedicated to the sport.
So what can we do to control the abuse? Nip at the core and start with yourself. The way I look at it, in 20-30 years from now, who is really going to stop the presses to revisit and honor the moment you won an age division? How can someone honestly live with themselves knowing they lied? Seems to me that would make most folks stop and think. The repercussions are another factor to think about. Triathlon is a tight community of athletes of all levels, shapes and sizes. Imagine if someone won your age division unethically by taking performance enhancing drugs? Once caught, the level of embarrassment, loss of relationships up to being banned from the sport just doesn’t add up. I could not think of anything more detrimental than to risk it all just for a piece of bling. My statement to the drug users: Grow up, be true to yourself and others. Otherwise just get out of our sport.
On another note, it’s race week! The Memorial Herman IronMan 70.3 Texas is next Sunday. Both Dr. Crane and I heading down to south Texas to give this race a whirl. Dr. Crane is ready for a fast race and that is a good thing. I listed out goals for myself and where I wanted to focus on improving. This race will be my very first salt water swim and look forward to giving it a “tri”. I am anticipating quick transitions then have a blast on Celeste the super tri bike and Dimples the helmet will make her debut. Lastly, the goal for the run is to see if I can run more than walk although the foot is still being a tad goofy. Worse case….I walk it and that’s okay. I wish all participants a fun, fast safe race and if your not racing, have a great week of training!
Talk to you next week from lovely Galveston Texas!
Janet
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