Sunday, May 19, 2013

Stomach cramps suck

As if my body hasn't been through enough lately (triathlon, fitness test--rocked it, ITB issues, etc) it had to go & get sick this weekend too: stomach cramps, the works. One blessing was that I burped all night instead of puking all night. But those stomach cramps really wear me out. And why is it that I never seem to get sick during the day? It always seems to hit at night, so I'm extra tired. And once everything has "passed" there's the discomfort of my gut refilling & wondering if that's really all I'm feeling out if I'm going to have another round of it. I don't have time to be sick.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

New Gear

I finally got a new heart rate monitor! Yay! It's the Polar RS300X. The price dropped by more than half; I guess the new model's out. It's a little bigger than I was hoping, but it's comfortable.
Somewhere in this post is a picture of it on my wrist next to my day-to-day sports watch. I was trying to insert the photo after that first paragraph, but I'm blogging from my phone, so I don't know how it's going to turn out. I'm going to have to manually adjust my max heart rate b/c it's not 220 - my age; I went for a steep uphill walk this evening, but I was *not* walking at 97%.
The fabric chest strap is comfortable too, much more so than the old plastic one which used to push into the top of my stomach & make me feel a little 'bleh'.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Rio Grande Triathlon

I got pretty nervous in the days right before the race. I didn't have anyone to go with! It was just me, all by myself. I didn't make it over to the Rio Grande pool before race day, and I missed the beginner's meeting at packet pick up b/c DH was working on the car ("it'll only take me 15 or 20 minutes" ha ha).  I bought a new tri tank top for the race and, when I got home, spent the next 30 minutes (or more) figuring out what to wear and how to layer it. I set my alarm for 4:30am and didn't get to bed till after 11pm.

I woke up on time--I hit snooze once just because. After getting dressed I had a couple of hard boiled eggs, toast, and a cheese stick. Oh and some 5 hour energy  (not the whole bottle, maybe 1/3). I was planning on leaving at 5:30; I got out the door at 5:45.  The drive was nice and easy, hardly any traffic. As I approached the area where the pool was, a car with a bike on back turned in front of me. Aha! Another triathlete, so I followed that car the rest of the way and got a great parking space just across the street from the transition area. I'd gotten an email saying the race was full, but I had no idea how many people that meant. I figured I'd try to get into transition as soon as it opened at 6. I guess I was plenty early!

                                                                   After the race
The first wave started at 0730...all the fast people. My wave started at 0750 and the fastest of the runners were headed out of transition by then. Oh, and this was a "retro" race: 3 guys wore Speedos, the little kind. (It was also a reverse tri: run, bike, swim.) The Saturday before the race I finally went out running (yeah, I know); my right knee started hurting around mile 2. Unfortunately, whether I did out and back or a loop, I still had 2 miles to get back home. I didn't run again until the race and sure enough, around mile 1, my knee started hurting again. My run time was >43min. At T1 I shucked off my gloves and arm warmers, less than a minute. The bike ride was about what I expected at around 55 minutes. The hills actually were find, it was riding into the wind that was hard. T2 was >2min; I had to pull off my calf compression sleeves (which were just fine through the race and didn't feel to tight anywhere) over the timing chip. Then I had to walk all the way across transition to the exit (my spot being close to the entrance) on old asphalt in bare feet, then around behind transition on the sidewalk before crossing the next mat. The swim turned out to be 9 laps, 450yd, instead of 8 laps. I was able to swim it pretty steady in between 15 and 20 minutes. There was a lot of drag between the timing chip on my ankle and the pockets on the back of my tank top. My total time was 1:55:50 (or real close to that). (I don't have the results page up, and I don't remember numbers all that well.)

                                                              Finisher's metal