Triathlon Training

Clear Lake International Triathlon

Saturday, August 27, 2011

7:00 am (cst)

About This Event

4th Annual Clear Lake International Triathlon on Saturday, August 27, 2011 with a new location and host hotel-South Shore Harbor Resort & Marina in League City, Texas!!

• Sprint-
• .5 K Swim
• 20 K Bike
• 5 K Run

http://out-loud.org/clear_lake_triathlon.htm

Day 27: Woo-hooo!!! Up at 3:30, left by 4.  Didn't use half the stuff I brought with me but had a blast doing the tri!  The adreniline rush and feeling of accomplishment was wonderful.  A few years ago when I first started running I couldn't even do half a mile.  My bestie and I worked our way up to doing that, then one day we did a whole mile.  Then came 2 miles.  When I got to Houston and found Memorial park. I was thinking there is no way I could do 3 miles, then one day I just made up my mind and did it.  In the process of all of this Eliz and I did the Houston 5-k and I saw several "I tri" t-shirts.  I didn't even know what a triathlon was, but I wanted one of those shirts.

So I finished the whole thing in 1 hour 54 min (mission accomplished!!!)  There were 900 participants, and 28 in my division. 
Swim: came in 27th @ 21min
Bike: came in 27th @1 hour 3 min
Run: came in 22 @ at 24 min

Just proud that I finished.  Lots of room for improvement and I learned so much in the process.  It was TOTALLY worth it. Def. looking forward to doing another one with my sweet b/f. 

Day 26: They say nothing new on race day, but I will be on a different bike, and trying energy gels.  Took the bike for a spin and went shopping for some last-minute items.  My list so far:

Arriving with: Lucky bracelet, swim suit (top AND bottom!) swim shorts,swim cap,swim goggles,hair scruncii.hair clips. tri tats already applied,sunscrean,bike w/ number.

Transition I: New pink bag ,towel,shorts, sports top, race belt w/ # ,fav. visor,sunglasses, socks, shoes, bike gloves, helmet w/ #, water bottle

Transition II: Gatorade, power bar, energy gel, PRAYER

Post- Race: Water, Gatorade, Finisher T-shirt, shorts, undertank, baby wipes

The plan is to leave my place at 4am.  My sweet boyfriend gets the super-trooper award cuz he's the one who's driving me down there.  Anyway I need to get to bed. 

Day 25: 600m (ish) swim. Learned the breast stroke! Much better with goggles.

Day 24: Packet pickup. Drove around for an HOUR looking for the right place (South Rice Ave not South Rice Blvd!) Then stood in line for 30 min in a room full of extremely muscular, type A personalities, all of whom had an opinion as to what could be done to make the process more efficient. This type of thing takes a lot of discipline & drive, so I suppose it goes with the territory. The lady in front of me had to be at least 55, and proudly wore her finishers jacket- from the last olympic Tri she'd done (Olympic Tris vary, but they are at least double what I'm doing) Intimidating much?? But by the time I got home I realized that even Miss Thing had to start somewhere. All the 'veterans' had to, at some point, do THEIR first Tri. Just want to get this over with so I can do my next one and not be the newbie.

Day 20: This is my last weekend before the Tri.  Between work, school starting = pool closing , and everything else I need to do,I can't seem to get any workouts in. 

 Day 16: 500m swim @ turtle pace....I get super self-conscious about the swim so I try to go to the pool when noone else is around. Except this time there was- errr!!!

Day 15: Researching triathlon gear and recommendations for newbies.at tires to getting kicked in the face there are a lot of things that can go wrong (yikes). My sweet b/f talked me out of buying a super expensive triathlon "singlet" Good call, babe! I'll do this event, and look at getting various tri accouterments for subsequent races. This stuff can really add up! Ps 25 laps today (625 meters) woo-hooo!!!!

Ok stayed up late again, BUT I did roll out of bed as planned and was on the trail before 6am. 82 degrees outside :-) but pitch black :-( what's a girl to do?? There is no way I'm going to ride my bike in the dark (even with the headlight) there are too many downhill/turns/bunnies and I would end up as one of those All State commercials. So I went for a jog instead. But still, that little voice in the back of my head was nagging at me the whoel time: this was nooooooot a good idea!!. I try to be proactive about safety when I run. I stay hydrated. I tell my roomie when I'm leaving and when to expect me back. I don't wear dark colors, usually white (and never, ever pink) I don't listen to my mp3-player. I have a basic knowledge of self-defense. I've stopped short of carrying mace or anything stronger than taht-let's face it, I have the hand-eye coordination of a duck. So mostly I have to rely on that little voice in the back of my head. It's usually right. After today I will be making some serious changes to my workout, especially since joining a gym is not an option. Ps- I really hope all those guys on the trail are aware of how lucky they are to get to go running whenever they want without having to worry about anything more important than gatorade vs. powerade. errrrr!!!!

hlon at the end of Aug.  I’ve had all summer to train for it, but like a true procrastinator I do my best work when faced with a deadline.  This is going to require some serious rearranging of my schedule.  I head to Academy then Walmart and get a new running buddy MP3 player-still sweaty and gross from the walk- my apologies to the people behind me in line.   

Day 11: Stayed up talkin to my roomie/couldn't sleep last night...no 6am biking for this girl :-(

Day 10: Diana Nyad called off her swim 1/2 through. It sounds like that was the safest plan under the circumstances, but I was very sad to hear she won't be finishing. Still...29 hours in the water and 50 (ish) miles is an amazing accomplishment. Went to the pool afterwork. Had a hard time consentrating with all the people there. I did 125 meters but it was awful cuz I was so self-conscious. Went back to my place and switched to the smaller (vacant) pool there. Between you tube videos and seeing myself on video (thank you to my roomie!) I'd say I'm improving. Still have a long way to go.

Day 8: When my alarm clock went off at 5:30 this morning I had a choice of working out or getting to work earlier. Given the way things are with my job right now, I went with the latter of the two. BUT I will try the swim once I get home....wish me luck

Day 7: 3 miles!!! The jogging part I've got down; the bike is difficult, but do-able, the swim is going to be the most challenging. There's only 20 days left so I'm thinking I'd better start 2-a-days this week. I can bike in the morning and swim on my way home from work. The heat and dehydration are major problems, so I'm trying to make friends with powerade/gatorate (yuck!) At first it was hard to make this a priority and keep up with everything else I've got going on, but now things are starting to gel. Being disciplined in one area makes it easier to be disciplined in other aspects of life. More on that later. Ps. I should get my biking budding back on Thurs!

Day 6: my first try at the 500 meter swim. My b/f was in town this weekend and gave me some pointers on my form- which needs a lot of work! I never really learned proper technique (I didn't even

learn how to dive until I was out of college!). At first, I was mostly flailing around-using a whole lot of energy but not really get that far. By the end of the afternoon I had a better understanding of the basics and I feel confident that I can practice this correctly over the next 3 weeks. I also realized how much I was underestimating all the work this is really going to take- yikes!

Day 5: It occurs to me that I can't workout every single day. Taking this one "off"- I'll need to build some rest days into this schedule. (Otherwise I"ll never have time to clean my conodo!)

Day 4: 5 mile bike in about an hour.

Day 3: In bed by 9:30and ready for a morning bike with my dad. Woo-hoo we did 6 miles!!! We started around 5:45, and apparently all the sprinklers in Houston come on by 6:30, good to know… Looks like I need to get some bike shorts and possibly a bike rack for my car. Lugging the bike up a flight of stairs should count as a workout in itself. Adding a bike lock to that list. Oh, and I still need to program my running buddy MP3 player.

Day 2: No time for a morning run.  Tried to do one in the evening (when the heat index is not set to Hell) but ran out of daylight. There seems to be an inverse relationship there. All I could do was some core exercises and a sprint.

Day 1: Up at 5:30 for a 2.5 mile jog. Ok half jog/ half walk. Need to do better than this...

Day 0: (Preparation) Due to a fluke in my car’s temperature gauge I am tricked into thinking it is only 82 degrees outside & head to the park. After a 3 mile walk I decide to really commit to doing this triat

Day 14: Not sore :-) but I didn't go workout cuz I just did my hair :-((

Day....I can't even remember. (13, yeah that sounds right). I did all three events, for the first time ever! I'm super proud of myself and also relieved to know that I really can do it. Granted, I took significant breaks in between but I don't have much time left to train so if I couldn't make it happen this weekend I was going to have to reconsider doing the Tri. To give you an idea of JUST how fast I was going....I was passed up by an elderly man wearing a knee brace on the jog. On the bike trail I was overtaken by a group of guys who looked like they weigh upwards of 250lbs, then at the pool there was a 5 & 7 year old I couldn't keep up with if I tried! yikes!

Day 12: Cheesy theme song I know, but I love it (ps does anyone know how to embed sound in a blog from a 3rd party site