Two posts in two days?! Preposterous! This post was actually spurred on after tonight's speed workout and reading my friend's blog post. His is titled "Break Your Kettles and Burn Your Boats" and it's all about fully committing yourself to whatever business or life endeavor that you deem important. (You should read it here) I love this because it definitely hits home. I've been running into some challenges at work with clients and trainers. Some people look at an outcome that they wish to obtain, but they don't want to do anything to get the results they're hoping to get. All they are doing is hoping, wishing, praying, and thinking about something. Occasionally, there is some action, but typically people just go through the motions of acting like they are trying hard, when really it's just a ruse. I even had a fellow trainer tell me to my face today that he "didn't want to put in 5 to 10 hours of work on programs" because all he wants to do is "build his business and make a lot of money". I'm sorry, last I checked you had to actually do work to get money, which would be how you make a lot of money. The same thing applies to clients who think the mere action of paying for a trainer and signing into the club will magically make them lose weight, gain speed, or increase any kind of physical endurance. The problem is that these people are not committed. They either don't want to try, or they don't want to tell anyone they're trying in case they fail.
Earlier this year I confessed that I wanted to qualify for Worlds at Muncie. Yeah it was scary because then it was out there and there was no turning back. Some people don't want to commit to a task because if they fail then they think people will think less of them for not succeeding. If your entire self worth is based solely on what people think of you, then your life must be beyond stressful and not remotely fulfilling. The best option is to not give yourself anyway out. With the idea of "break your kettles and burn your boats" the idea was that the army had two options when they went to their battle (seriously, read the link). They could either fight and win quickly, or fight and die. There was no true middle ground because they didn't have an escape route. I know a lot of clients who have "excuses", which I call "back up plans" or "reasons why it's ok to fail". They half ass their workouts, or training programs, then complain because they don't see results. They are too afraid to actually hurt and move forward, or to see what would happen if they did. Trainers work the same way. They don't want to put themselves too far out there just in case all of their hard effort gave them zero yield. It would still yield something, results to say "yep, that didn't work". Then you figure out the why. Once you know why something doesn't work you are one step closer to figure out what you need to do to make it work for the next time. Sitting back and letting someone else figure it out or push harder in a workout doesn't make you better. It makes them better because they put in the effort and weren't afraid to push themselves a bit harder than the average bear so that they see the results that they want to see instead of dreaming of results they are making unobtainable.
I'm going to break my kettles and burn my boats as I go into Rev3 Cedar Point September 7th. I won't get to qualify for their championship because you have to come in top 3 in 2 of their races instead of just one, but I can still set my own goal of 5:30 and not back off just because the workouts look like they suck. What would you push yourself to do if you knew you had to succeed, no other option?
(Again, go to Adam and Caroline's site)
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
You might be a triathlete if....
Ok, this post won't consist entirely of "You might be a triathlete if...", but it's still fun!
You might be a triathlete if you spend more time of your day being wet from sweat, chlorine/pool water, or a shower than you do dry.
You might be a triathlete if you own and wear more spandex than a bad 80's exercise video.
You might be a triathlete if quite a few of your cookbooks entail how to eat an entire meal on a bike.
You might be a triathlete if having 8 different sets of tan lines seems completely normal.
You might be a triathlete if you take your bike trainer with you to use in your mom's living room just in case it gets too dark to ride before you're done with her "to do " list.
And lastly for today,
You might be a triathlete if you buy an awesome 2013 Chevy Sonic LT Turbo but then exchange it two days later for a 2013 Chevy Cruze because your bike rack and tri gear don't fit.
That last one, yep, that happened to me this past week. I was driving on borrowed time with my 2004 Honda Civic for about a year and a half before I finally called it quits. The Civic had treated me fairly well, ran like a champ while leaking oil like crazy, didn't balk at any kind of snowy terrain I drug her through, and just in general dealt with mine and my husband's driving. Red and I had been talking about getting a new car for quite a few months now, but the money just simply wasn't there yet. Well, on my most recent trip to and from Bellefontaine the Civic decided that it was going to learn and show me some new tricks. My personal favorites were when it would feel like I was driving over a rumble strip while sitting still, and trying to stall out while going 65mph down 75 South. When the car began to get dangerous to drive down the highway, which we do a lot, it didn't matter what our projected timeline was to get a car, it was now officially time to get a car. I called Red and told him to pick his favorite place and that we were going car shopping the next day and the Civic wasn't coming home with us.
We get to the car dealership and everything is peachy. Well I get sidetracked easily, and I saw a black Chevy Sonic Turbo. I sat in it and a salesman asked if I wanted to take it out for a test drive. OF COURSE I DID! Woot! So we head out for a 20 minute ride, and I'm in love. Forget the fact that we came to the dealership to specifically look for a Cruze, I was now in love with a Sonic. Great handling, great pick up, smooth shifting (manual), phenomenal response to any task I threw at it. Yep, I was a happy camper. We came back from our ride and I announced that the car was going to become mine! Small problem, the one I test drove was $23,000. Nope, not happening. We were then shown a step down model, which was the exact same thing but didn't have heated leather seats, or other random nonsense that I didn't really need. It still drove like a champ and was a blast to drive. Fine, so we took THAT Sonic. Red and I are happy as can be, enjoying our new little car, and watching the MPG increase regardless of how hard I pushed her. This was all fine and dandy until we decided to put the bike rack on the back and load up the car for our weekend trip. Virtually none of our stuff would fit. We could put my bike in the back seat if we put the seats down, Red's bike had no hope of fitting. We couldn't fit Zo's cage, golf clubs, suit cases, or much else than people and back packs in the car. Fooey. So Red called the dealership to see if we can exchange the car or if we were stuck. Thankfully the salesman was able to stop the paperwork in time so we could exchange the Sonic for the Chevy. Yeah, that was pretty much an impulse buy that went south. I still love the way the Sonic drove and handled, but we definitely needed something that could carry all of our nonsense for triathlon training. This was quite evident when we ended up going to Bellefontaine after the exchange and we had the bike trainer, mat, stand, my bike, both our backpacks, plus my triathlon bag, all in the trunk with room to spare.
We definitely could have made the Sonic work if we weren't triathletes. But, Red and I are very much on the go triathletes who virtually live out of our cars, so the Sonic was not going to work. So yes, you may be a triathlete if you exchange a phenomenal car for a bigger car simply because your tri gear doesn't fit.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Ironman Muncie Race Report
Ok, well first off, I have the best cheering section/supporter ever! Yep, Red came, he saw, he cheered, and he got a stinky, sweaty hug in return. Gave me something to look forward to on the run though!
So in the past couple of years Muncie has been unbearably hot! When I did it in 2011 it was 103 by the time we got off the bike and onto the run. I was miserable and finished in 6:45 dehydrated, unhappy, and feeling nauseous. My friend did Muncie last year, 2012, and Ironman actually shortened the course to an Olympic distance because the temperature was 105 with a heat index over 110. This year the temperature was nearly perfect. It was about 68 degrees when I headed out in the morning, the water temperature was 76 even, which made it wetsuit legal. I was super excited about the prospect of wearing my wetsuit! It makes swimming virtually effortless which makes me a happy midget. By the time I was done for the day it was about 85 degrees. There had been a slight breeze all day, and a few clouds, which meant that even in the 80's everything was completely bearable. On to the race!
The Swim: 38:48
Like I said, the swim was wetsuit legal, which made me very happy. I think nearly everyone brought their suit just in case the weather played in our favor, but there were still a few that didn't have them. I like my wetsuit now because it makes my swim super easy. I still have the issue of the collar part eating my neck, but I'm hoping to figure it out soon. Red was laughing at me because I was trying to put my suit on in the chute while waiting for my wave to go off. They were spacing us about 5 minutes or so apart, so I had PLENTY of time because there was a wave of red caps waiting to take off, then a sea of orange caps, then my wave of purple caps. When I was finally situated in my suit I placed myself closer to the start of the group than I have in years past, and I think it paid off. I normally don't feel like I'm super fast, but I usually have to swim around a lot of other people to get to clear water, so I thought I would give the front a go, and it was ok. I ended up sprinting about the first 500 yards because the girls in front are super fast. Once we all settled out I spent most of my time realizing how much I suck at sighting, swimming straight, and staying on feet. I would find a set of feet and draft like crazy but then lose them almost as quickly as I found them. At one point I popped my head up to see where I was going and realized I was about 30 yards inside the buoys, doh! I corrected and decided to pop up a little bit more frequently. I caught a large portion of the orange wave that was in front of me, tried to keep my eye on the fast purple caps, and ended up even catching some of the red caps. There was a group of blue caps, pretty sure men 30-35, who ended up catching some of us, because they're freakishly fast! They weren't the nicest either because they didn't care if they swam over you or not, but it wasn't too terrible. In high school we would play sharks and minnows where you could drag people under and over the water, so fighting in water was normal to me. I was able to hop on one guys feet for a bit but then ditched him because he was following the buoys in and it was a much faster straighter line if I just went to the finish chute. I finally got up to the finish chute and wasn't dizzy for a change! Woot for seeing straight!
Transition One: 4:06
I took off my suit, threw on my sunglasses, helmet, and shoved my nutrition in my kit and was off. I ran the whole way up to transition and was so quick that Red actually didn't even get to see me because I ran faster than he did.
Bike: 2:56:02
I broke three hours!!! Woot!! The bike is by far my least favorite part. I've been working really hard trying to get faster and stronger and it is finally paying off! I typically come out in the top 1/3 of my age group on the swim, then I usually drop to the bottom 1/3 on the bike and have to run my way back up through people on the run. This time I only lost 1 spot on the bike! Wooty woot! I set an alarm on my watch to remind me to drink every 15 minutes. This isn't a normal problem for most people, but I get side tracked and worry so much about trying to keep moving that I forget to drink or eat. I solved that problem and it made a huge difference! I could have asked for a much better course though. The roads were horrible. Within 5 miles my front water bottle cage broke from all the bouncing and BMX looking moves, and I didn't even wreck! We headed out to a main road for about 15 miles, then hit a road that was so small and so pot hole covered that they dubbed it a no pass zone for a mile. Yep, in the middle of a race you couldn't pass. Ugh. We then turned on to "Bob's road". It was beyond bumpy, tiny, pot hole filled, gravel covered, and ridiculous than 95% of the roads I have ever encountered. We had to go out 8 miles, and back 8 miles on this nonsense, and no one was happy. I jokingly asked someone what they thought and they launched a slur of expletives that made it PAINFULLY clear that they were far less than pleased. One guy saw me trying to not die on an especially bumpy part and decided to take his time passing me to tell me "good job", and be nice. Well some other girl decided that she wanted more room on the road and didn't wait to see if she cleared him before passing back into my lane and clipped his front tire with her back tire. This sent him flying across the road into the cornfield on the other side. The people in the front are mean! There were quite a few people who were just trying to get in front and didn't care if they took you out in the process. I'm used to being farther in the back where everyone is nice and encouraging because they know you're hating life because you're slow. I now know that I need to get even faster so I can be farther in the front where there aren't nearly as many people!
Now thanks to the way the course was made, there weren't too many places for drafting, which is good and bad. It's good because then we were all equally screwed, it was bad because then we would get penalties if we were caught drafting and also had to work super hard. There was one part during the last 5 miles of the race where drafting was a strong possibility. This is the only place that I saw a Draft Marshall. They weren't messing around either. There was a group of us of about 6 or 7 people, all trying to figure out who was passing who when the motorcycle showed up. The person on the back literally took out a stop watch and slowed down to monitor a girl as she passed a guy who was refusing to be passed. I ended up saying screw it and just slowed down instead of fighting a head wind and a stubborn mule just to potentially get a penalty in the last 5 miles of a bike. I was very happy to get off my bike and even happier when I looked down and realized I had a strong potential to get under three hours! I came into transition and Red let me know that I was in fact under three hours and told me I looked great!
Transition Two: 3:14
I hung my bike back up. Chucked my helmet and bike shoes, hooked on my bib number/spi belt and headed out of transition. I was actually feeling really good and I remembered what Miller told me about the beginning and decided to try it out.
The Run: 2:04:21
Miller wanted me to stay around Zone 2 during the first part of the run then hit Zone 3 and stay there for the second half because he thinks that I have the fitness to hold Zone 3 for extended periods of time. Well, it was pretty warm, and I was pretty tired, but I was also quite determined. I refused to let myself walk at any point. I learned during the Flying Pig that I feel better when I just take water and such on the go and don't walk aid stations. I was able to watch the very front people come in instead of the middle people slog along. I didn't know where I stood anymore for the race, but I kept checking calves trying to see ages. I realized that the look of the people around me was very different than what I was used to. All of the people around me were fast looking guys, not many people walking, and very fit looking girls. Turned out that I was closer to the front than usual. I don't know what people will look like if I ever get to the real front! The aid station volunteers were wonderful! One girl had a cup of water and a cup of ice and I asked for ice water, she handed me the ice and said it would melt. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer. It was fine though because the ice felt good. I figured out the easiest way to feel good was to drink a cup of water, then dump a cup of water and ice in my top and shorts. Best. Plan. Ever. I asked another volunteer for ice water and she dumped the two cups together so I didn't have to juggle a million cups. It's the little things during the run that make life SO much easier. I knew I was slowing down, but I was trying to keep my heart rate up and according to my watch I was only in Zone 1.9 while running 9 minute miles at mile 8? Yeah, remember all that water I said I was wearing? Apparently it doesn't ruin my heart rate strap, but it does stop it from registering my heart rate to my watch. Oh well. In my head I thought I could push faster, and probably seeing that Zone 1.9 on my watch rather than Zone 4 kept me pushing harder the last 5 miles. I was 2 miles from the finish before I needed some real self talk and not let myself walk, which was totally worth it.
In the end I finished in 5:46:31, which was nearly an hour faster than 2011. I was very tired but I felt better after sitting. I came out of the water in 23rd place in my age group, I came off the bike in 24th place in my age group, and by the time I finished my run I had ran myself up to 17th place in my age group. Now I just need to increase a bit of my speed and potentially find a way to take in more actual nutrition during the run, and hopefully that will let me get under 5:30 like I wanted to. Will I run Muncie again? Not unless I absolutely have to. I raced well, but the logistics, the course, and only seeing spectators at transition makes this a course I would rather never do again. There are a ton of other half ironman distances that offer much better things than this one does, it's just the closest M-Dot race, but I'm thinking the others will be worth the travel.
What's next? Hopefully learning to blog more often, but definitely Rev 3 Cedar Point! September 7th is my next big race! Yeah!!
So in the past couple of years Muncie has been unbearably hot! When I did it in 2011 it was 103 by the time we got off the bike and onto the run. I was miserable and finished in 6:45 dehydrated, unhappy, and feeling nauseous. My friend did Muncie last year, 2012, and Ironman actually shortened the course to an Olympic distance because the temperature was 105 with a heat index over 110. This year the temperature was nearly perfect. It was about 68 degrees when I headed out in the morning, the water temperature was 76 even, which made it wetsuit legal. I was super excited about the prospect of wearing my wetsuit! It makes swimming virtually effortless which makes me a happy midget. By the time I was done for the day it was about 85 degrees. There had been a slight breeze all day, and a few clouds, which meant that even in the 80's everything was completely bearable. On to the race!
The Swim: 38:48
Like I said, the swim was wetsuit legal, which made me very happy. I think nearly everyone brought their suit just in case the weather played in our favor, but there were still a few that didn't have them. I like my wetsuit now because it makes my swim super easy. I still have the issue of the collar part eating my neck, but I'm hoping to figure it out soon. Red was laughing at me because I was trying to put my suit on in the chute while waiting for my wave to go off. They were spacing us about 5 minutes or so apart, so I had PLENTY of time because there was a wave of red caps waiting to take off, then a sea of orange caps, then my wave of purple caps. When I was finally situated in my suit I placed myself closer to the start of the group than I have in years past, and I think it paid off. I normally don't feel like I'm super fast, but I usually have to swim around a lot of other people to get to clear water, so I thought I would give the front a go, and it was ok. I ended up sprinting about the first 500 yards because the girls in front are super fast. Once we all settled out I spent most of my time realizing how much I suck at sighting, swimming straight, and staying on feet. I would find a set of feet and draft like crazy but then lose them almost as quickly as I found them. At one point I popped my head up to see where I was going and realized I was about 30 yards inside the buoys, doh! I corrected and decided to pop up a little bit more frequently. I caught a large portion of the orange wave that was in front of me, tried to keep my eye on the fast purple caps, and ended up even catching some of the red caps. There was a group of blue caps, pretty sure men 30-35, who ended up catching some of us, because they're freakishly fast! They weren't the nicest either because they didn't care if they swam over you or not, but it wasn't too terrible. In high school we would play sharks and minnows where you could drag people under and over the water, so fighting in water was normal to me. I was able to hop on one guys feet for a bit but then ditched him because he was following the buoys in and it was a much faster straighter line if I just went to the finish chute. I finally got up to the finish chute and wasn't dizzy for a change! Woot for seeing straight!
Transition One: 4:06
I took off my suit, threw on my sunglasses, helmet, and shoved my nutrition in my kit and was off. I ran the whole way up to transition and was so quick that Red actually didn't even get to see me because I ran faster than he did.
Bike: 2:56:02
I broke three hours!!! Woot!! The bike is by far my least favorite part. I've been working really hard trying to get faster and stronger and it is finally paying off! I typically come out in the top 1/3 of my age group on the swim, then I usually drop to the bottom 1/3 on the bike and have to run my way back up through people on the run. This time I only lost 1 spot on the bike! Wooty woot! I set an alarm on my watch to remind me to drink every 15 minutes. This isn't a normal problem for most people, but I get side tracked and worry so much about trying to keep moving that I forget to drink or eat. I solved that problem and it made a huge difference! I could have asked for a much better course though. The roads were horrible. Within 5 miles my front water bottle cage broke from all the bouncing and BMX looking moves, and I didn't even wreck! We headed out to a main road for about 15 miles, then hit a road that was so small and so pot hole covered that they dubbed it a no pass zone for a mile. Yep, in the middle of a race you couldn't pass. Ugh. We then turned on to "Bob's road". It was beyond bumpy, tiny, pot hole filled, gravel covered, and ridiculous than 95% of the roads I have ever encountered. We had to go out 8 miles, and back 8 miles on this nonsense, and no one was happy. I jokingly asked someone what they thought and they launched a slur of expletives that made it PAINFULLY clear that they were far less than pleased. One guy saw me trying to not die on an especially bumpy part and decided to take his time passing me to tell me "good job", and be nice. Well some other girl decided that she wanted more room on the road and didn't wait to see if she cleared him before passing back into my lane and clipped his front tire with her back tire. This sent him flying across the road into the cornfield on the other side. The people in the front are mean! There were quite a few people who were just trying to get in front and didn't care if they took you out in the process. I'm used to being farther in the back where everyone is nice and encouraging because they know you're hating life because you're slow. I now know that I need to get even faster so I can be farther in the front where there aren't nearly as many people!
Now thanks to the way the course was made, there weren't too many places for drafting, which is good and bad. It's good because then we were all equally screwed, it was bad because then we would get penalties if we were caught drafting and also had to work super hard. There was one part during the last 5 miles of the race where drafting was a strong possibility. This is the only place that I saw a Draft Marshall. They weren't messing around either. There was a group of us of about 6 or 7 people, all trying to figure out who was passing who when the motorcycle showed up. The person on the back literally took out a stop watch and slowed down to monitor a girl as she passed a guy who was refusing to be passed. I ended up saying screw it and just slowed down instead of fighting a head wind and a stubborn mule just to potentially get a penalty in the last 5 miles of a bike. I was very happy to get off my bike and even happier when I looked down and realized I had a strong potential to get under three hours! I came into transition and Red let me know that I was in fact under three hours and told me I looked great!
Transition Two: 3:14
I hung my bike back up. Chucked my helmet and bike shoes, hooked on my bib number/spi belt and headed out of transition. I was actually feeling really good and I remembered what Miller told me about the beginning and decided to try it out.
The Run: 2:04:21
Miller wanted me to stay around Zone 2 during the first part of the run then hit Zone 3 and stay there for the second half because he thinks that I have the fitness to hold Zone 3 for extended periods of time. Well, it was pretty warm, and I was pretty tired, but I was also quite determined. I refused to let myself walk at any point. I learned during the Flying Pig that I feel better when I just take water and such on the go and don't walk aid stations. I was able to watch the very front people come in instead of the middle people slog along. I didn't know where I stood anymore for the race, but I kept checking calves trying to see ages. I realized that the look of the people around me was very different than what I was used to. All of the people around me were fast looking guys, not many people walking, and very fit looking girls. Turned out that I was closer to the front than usual. I don't know what people will look like if I ever get to the real front! The aid station volunteers were wonderful! One girl had a cup of water and a cup of ice and I asked for ice water, she handed me the ice and said it would melt. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer. It was fine though because the ice felt good. I figured out the easiest way to feel good was to drink a cup of water, then dump a cup of water and ice in my top and shorts. Best. Plan. Ever. I asked another volunteer for ice water and she dumped the two cups together so I didn't have to juggle a million cups. It's the little things during the run that make life SO much easier. I knew I was slowing down, but I was trying to keep my heart rate up and according to my watch I was only in Zone 1.9 while running 9 minute miles at mile 8? Yeah, remember all that water I said I was wearing? Apparently it doesn't ruin my heart rate strap, but it does stop it from registering my heart rate to my watch. Oh well. In my head I thought I could push faster, and probably seeing that Zone 1.9 on my watch rather than Zone 4 kept me pushing harder the last 5 miles. I was 2 miles from the finish before I needed some real self talk and not let myself walk, which was totally worth it.
In the end I finished in 5:46:31, which was nearly an hour faster than 2011. I was very tired but I felt better after sitting. I came out of the water in 23rd place in my age group, I came off the bike in 24th place in my age group, and by the time I finished my run I had ran myself up to 17th place in my age group. Now I just need to increase a bit of my speed and potentially find a way to take in more actual nutrition during the run, and hopefully that will let me get under 5:30 like I wanted to. Will I run Muncie again? Not unless I absolutely have to. I raced well, but the logistics, the course, and only seeing spectators at transition makes this a course I would rather never do again. There are a ton of other half ironman distances that offer much better things than this one does, it's just the closest M-Dot race, but I'm thinking the others will be worth the travel.
What's next? Hopefully learning to blog more often, but definitely Rev 3 Cedar Point! September 7th is my next big race! Yeah!!
Thursday, July 11, 2013
3 days..
I only have three days and 3 workouts before Muncie! I'm actually pretty nervous and excited at the same time. Part of me is nervous because I said I want to qualify and now I find 52+ fast girls in my age group. That's almost double what was there in 2011 when I first did Muncie. I'm really excited though because I know I'm much faster and much stronger than I was 2 years ago. If I can focus and keep my head on straight then I should be good to go. I'm forming my nutrition plan, I have people strategically placed on the course for cheering, and my workouts are all coming together. This looks to turn out well, now I just pray and see what happens! It's all going to be ok.
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