Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer for the Red Licorice Events Jr. Varsity Triathlon for kids and participate in the Champions Triathlon for adults and what an amazing experience it was! The highlight of this event for me was getting the opportunity to help kids as young as 5 years old participate in their first triathlon. These kids were absolutely precious and amazing to me. I remember when I was 6 years old, I was so shy, that I was afraid to ride my bike in the annual 4^th of july parade. To see kids as young as 5 years old doing a triathlon just amazes me. I was terrified of water as a child and to see how brave these little kids were about doing an open water swim, a bike , and a run all by themselves is very humbling. I had so much fun helping these kids set up their transition and cheering them on as they came back in. One little girl had a stuffed puppy in her bike basket, it was just too cute.

After the kids triathlon was finished, we had the adult version of the triathlon, it was a super sprint course, and I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to do a shorter length triathlon especially in this Texas heat and humidity. I have to admit, I was a little surprised at just how short the swim was. At first I though some buoys were missing. I believe the swim was only 300 meters, which is usually a warmup for me during my swim practice. Also, this swim was in shallow water, so there were several times where I walked through the water, Once my hands and feet start hitting the bottom while swimming, it becomes more efficient to walk in the water… Anyhow, it was fun and went by quickly, there was a short jog up the boat ramp to transition and I was off on the 11 mile bike course. It was a pretty flat course that went over the granger lake dam and back. On the way back, there was a bit of a head wind, but nothing too bad. Back in transition, I headed out for the 2 mile run, and it was a hot one. I’m just happy that I managed to run the whole distance in this heat. It must have been at least 95 degrees out, and there was no shade. I kept pouring cold water over my head at each aid station. I can’t tell you what a difference it makes to pour ice cold water over your head. As I came around the last turn, I could see the finish line and I was sooo happy, until I heard Adam say, that I had one more little loop to do before going through the finish chute. What??? So dejecting to be so close and ready to end, only to have to run another quarter of a mile. Ah well, I did it and finished, and to my great surprise, I was first in my age group!! I can’t tell you what an awesome feeling that is! This is my first time ever to win any kind of race and I tell you what, I feel kinda special! Thanks to Red Licorice Events for giving me this wonderful experience!!!

I know it’s been a while since my last post. I started my training officially about two weeks ago with a new coach and we are starting off pretty slow. This past weekend I did a 2 hour bike ride and that went well. Everything else has been no more than a 60 minute workout be it swimming, biking, or running. Most of my swims have been open water swims in the quarry lake at pure Austin gym. I have to say, my allergies have been wreaking havoc on me. I went to my doctor on Monday to see if there was anything she could do about it. She’s put me on an antibiotic as she says I have a sinus infection and we are trying to wean myself off of the over the counter nasal sprays in favor of flonase. In addition to the allergies, I also wanted to have her check my heart as I’ve been noticing a lot of heart palpitations or what feels like constant skipped heartbeats. So today she sent me to a heart doctor to get a 48 hour heart monitor . As I sit here writing this I have 5 different cords attached to my body with a portable button to push each time I feel it happen. I can still workout with this attached, but I can’t swim, so I guess that limits me to biking and running for the next two days. I’m sure it’s probably nothing, and the latest new bodily reaction to the stress I’ve been under. This weekend I’m scheduled for another two hour ride and a 45 minute run. My new coach is not out to kill me this summer, and I greatly appreciate that. I’m also changing my strategy for the marathon portion of the ironman in light of the fact that there was only a 10 minute difference in my marathon times between the two ironman’s I’ve done, in which I completely ran one of them, and walked the majority of the other one. In light of that, I don’t see the need to kill myself by trying to run the entire marathon portion of ironman when I can walk it just as fast. Pretty interesting. What’s kind of weird about it is that I ran the entire Coeur D’Alene marathon of ironman in 2009 and it was a pretty flat run course. I walked the majority of Ironman St George and it was an extremely hilly course, and the difference was only 10 minutes. Amazing! I was walking pretty fast too, so why run, when I can walk faster???? Considering I will be doing Ironman Hawaii through the lava fields in 90 degree plus heat, I think I will plan on walking it. More to come later….