Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
I just finished a 600m open water practice swim at the Aurora Res. Aurora is great because they actually keep open water swim buoys set up just outside the swim area for racers to come train all summer.
This morning my friend Ali and I headed for the water only to be joined by close to 8 other women. We asked what they were training for and the answer was their own private tri.
I had total appreciation for this for a number of reasons. Often times the entry fee to races precludes people from participating. Often times their schedules or other committments (I.e. Raising children or cleaning houses) might. This group of women said screw all that. They have weekly group trainings with one another at times that work for them. And then a few times a year they stage their races.
It isn’t for sponsorship, or times, or goodie bags. It isn’t even necessarily for the sake of competition. To me it seems it is more for the building of community through common experience. And in this case, it is for the love of the sport, triathlon.
Go Girls!!!!!
This is my taper week before doing a sprint triathlon(my first) on Sunday. I will be doing the Rattlesnake tri in Aurora with a group that I’ve been triathlon training with from Qi fitness in downtown Denver. So after my swim this morning Steve and I headed out for a short run.
Given the lack of trees in our neighborhood and the August sun we decided to drive to Bluff Lake Nature Center nearby and run mile loops around the lake. Our thought was it would be cooler and provide a fair amount of cloud cover.
The heat really got to me today as well as my attempts to keep in step with my speedster husband. Two miles in, I announced I would have to slow down and he could run at his own pace. He gleefully sped along.
The little hill climb on one side of the lake seemed steeper as I called out my go to running mantra to power me through it. Inhale strength. Exhale doubt. I made it up the hill but not without a large degree of urpiness and a promise to myself, “I’ll curb the midday runs in our area until the fall.”
This morning as I swam back and forth and back and forth staring straight down at the black lane line below me I found myself wishing I was instead swimming in open water.
For me, this was a major break through as the swim portion of a triathlon has always been the dreaded start, necessary to suffer through so I can get on to the fun part. The idea of swimming indoors was never exciting, but it beat the alternative. The thought of having to submerge myself in murky water I can’t see in, then get hit or kicked by those around me all while trying to swim was more than I could handle. Add to that the claustorphobic of a wetsuit and I was a mess.
This summer has brought many more open water swim opportunities than I ever knew existed. We also vacationed for a week in Hawaii next to a lagoon so I could swim in the open water every day for a week. These open water swims coupled with the indoor total immersion swim training we did this winter have gotten me past the point of just suffering through.
Heck, last week when doing a short open water swim(600 m) in very murky water with no goggles (I forgot them) I was not only doing it, I was enjoying it. I even caught myself thinking….. I could this for 2.4 miles some day:)
Full disclosure, my first tri has yet to officially occur. We have staged a number on our own in training, I have completed years of runs, rides and indoor swims. I recently did my first organized open water swim race/run and am registered to complete my first Sprint this August, The Rattlesnake Triathlon at Aurora Reservoir in Colorado. Yet as of today, I have not crossed the finish line of an organized official triathlon. So how did I get to this point?
After my husband got in to the NYC marathon he started a consistent running regimen. I started to see him change, get to know Central Park(we lived in NYC at the time) and consume any and every food he desired. His health was better and he seemed happier. This all made me want to run too. I would drag myself to the park to run and I say things like, “Ok, I’ll run, but never a marathon”. Time passed quickly, I would crave my runs while at the office during the day. I ultimately trained for and completed the Disney Marathon in January 2006 with my husband and other family members. All the while listening as my husband’s interest in triathlon began to brew.
So then as we would happily run, I would say things like, “Ok, I’ll run a marathon but I will never do a triathlon.” Yet somehow in the late Spring of 2006 my husband and I signed up for Team in Training and began to train for our first Olympic Distance Triathlon. Hmmmmmm, a pattern seemed to be developing.
Bike rides on the loops of Central Park dodging strollers and tourists, carriages and oad apples and loving it most of the time. We purchased our first training swim wear (I love Splish) and swim caps and would take the subway North to the far reaches of Manhattan to swim with TNT once a week. All the while running along our trusted routes in Central Park as well as sometimes up North in Westchester county of New York.
A couple of months in to this process after getting seriously lapped on a training ride then nearly passing out in the pool we found out we were expecting and I was benched. The race we were going to complete together was now a one man show for my husband, and I have to admit, I wasn’t terribly disappointed:)
All this being said I am doing my first official race in August, The rattlesnake Triathlon in Aurora, CO. and….. I am looking forward to it.
I was asked this question a couple of times this week, so I figured i would just answer it here. As many of you know, I am (by profession) a contact lens specialist and deal with all aspects of contact lenses. Personally, I absolutely love contact lenses because they correct my vision and I don’t have to go through risky surgery in order to see. My issue with glasses is that I lose my peripheral vision, so for biking, they are out. For running I find them incredibly annoying, and for swimming, I would need prescription goggles. Read the rest of this entry »
This year was my first year participating in the Boulder Peaks Triathlon. (July of 2008) and overall it was a fantastic and well supported event. Unfortunately, this year there were a couple of hiccups. Read the rest of this entry »
We go to Core Power Yoga, my wife goes more than I do, and I go whenever my schedule allows. Today we went to a C2 class at the stapleton studio. I have gone to many c2 classes and they vary in intensity. (they are always good, however the actual physical intensity can be different from day to day) Read the rest of this entry »
We knew we would be out of town for the evening of the 4th and then the morning of the 5th, so I decided to do my long Saturday run on my own, Friday morning. I usually head out with the Runners Edge of the Rockies Saturday mornings, which is Read the rest of this entry »
I hauled myself out of bed bright and early today to get to the “stapletons master swim” program. I have not participated in masters swim before, and from what I understand, the stapleton program is a very light-weight version of Read the rest of this entry »