It's raining in Texas. We're talking longer-than-30-seconds kind of rain. It rained yesterday for much of the day and all through the night. It continued to rain this morning, which I had been planning to spend biking. Instead, I ran in the rain. I did five miles, which is the longest I have run since my marathon. It's crazy to think that almost exactly three months ago I ran 26.2 miles, because...five miles was kiiiinnd of a challenge. Of course, my run this morning was made all the more challenging because of the small sidewalk-lakes I ran through and the gales of wind. I saw four other runners while I was out, and I noticed a roughly 80% increase in the camaraderie betwixt us; we were all so thrilled to discover that we weren't the sole crazy person on the planet! I grinned like a maniac when I passed the first fellow rain runner, and he grinned back at me (relax, he was old and not cute.) It was possibly the most pleasant run I have had in Texas so far; it was cool AND I didn't need a flashlight--two things that are have been mutually exclusive up to this point. Fall must be here!
I told myself when I started working that I would exercise twice during the week and twice during the weekends for a total of four days a week. That's not terribly ambitious, right? I figured I could at least do that, and probably do more each week. Sadly, I have consistently run only one time during the week, and last weekend I didn't really do much at all because we were in Florida visiting my parents and going to see Mumford and Sons (yes, they were awesome.) I did go on two three-mile walks with my dad, and I did spend a lot of time on my feet for the concert, but still...I'm not even sticking to my low goal! Here are my excuses: 1) It is freaking hard to wake up at 5:00 in the morning, especially with how much I sleep these days. 2) It is even harder to convince myself to run after spending an entire day with 21 kindergarteners. They are exhausting little boogers! 3) It's always so hot when I leave school anyway, and 4) I usually don't get out of there until 4:30-5:00 so I need to head home to make dinner for Rob and myself because it's a 25-30 minute commute. So there. Excuses, excuses. I am hoping that once it starts cooling off I can ask Rob to be in charge of dinner a couple times a week (which he has already offered to do.)
Despite the fact that I am exercising way less, I am under 130 lbs for the first time since high school. I think it's because I am on my feet most of the day, and even if I sit down it's a max time of 10 minutes before I am up again. Then there's the kneeling down, standing up, squatting down, standing up, sitting on the floor, standing up, dancing, singing, shouting, walking, stressing, etc., that comes with being a kindergarten teacher... I just think I burn more calories during the day and I have much less time to think about food (but I do eat a lot more crap food, because there is always crap food available. I had two birthdays in my class yesterday, so I had a cookie and a cupcake. Yes, I did.)
We had Open House at school this week and it went pretty well. About half of the parents showed up, but of course only one of the five parents that I felt I really needed to talk to showed up. Hopefully the rest will show up for parent/teacher conferences on October 3rd. I received a lot of nice compliments from the parents that came in about how much their kid loves me/coming to school and how glad they are that I am their child's teacher, yada yada. I even had one parent compliment me on being organized, which was odd because I don't think I am organized at all. And the students who came were all SO excited to see me, like they hadn't just seen me three hours before. All of that almost made the 14 hour day worth it! Almost.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Sprint Triathlon Race Report
Finally! A minute to write a race report! First, some pictures:
I know, as always I am super photogenic. I don't need to be told twice. Please note the two ancient men that I passed during my run...gosh, I am so fantastic.
As you know, I completed my first triathlon on Monday. Conveniently, Monday was also the day that my little head cold was at it's peak. I'm guessing I left a LOT of snot behind in that lake!
I got up at 5:00, so that we could leave by 5:30. Thanks to the dogs, we didn't actually leave until 5:45, so I made us take the tollway. Shout out to my wonderful husband for getting up that early and supporting me through this event. I am so darn lucky to have him that I almost can't stand it! Even though my wave didn't start until 8:30 or so, they closed the transition area down at 7:10, so we had to be out of there by then. Because this was my first triathlon, I really had no idea what to expect from the transition area--I had actually imagined there would be two areas, one for after the swim and one for after the bike. Luckily, the race planners were much smarter than me, and created a course of loops that allowed us to do both transitions in one convenient location.
After we got all my stuff organized around my bike, we sat around for an hour and a half watching the waves for the Olympic Distance depart. Then they let almost everyone else go before the Women Under 35 group for the Sprint Distance. Finally I got in the water and waited for the air horn to announce it was time to start swimming. The swim part a pretty simple "V" course that cut off most of the 1500 m course the Olympic distance participants completed. It was terrifying. All those people kicking and splashing and pushing in the water, and I couldn't touch the bottom! I seriously almost hyperventilated. My panic attack didn't end until I crawled up on the bank again, and the only way I even finished the 400 meters (which is absurdly short--most Sprint tri's are 750m) was by rolling over on to my back every 30 seconds or so and doing a couple of backstrokes. I was not at all prepared for the chaos of the swim. In perfect honesty, my first words out of the water were "HOLY SH*T!!" The volunteer helping me up laughed and said, "Honey, you're just getting started." Awesome.
The swim was so bad, that I said I would never do another tri because of it. I would gladly do dualathons (run/bike) but NOT another tri...until I spoke to the science teacher at my school, who had a similar feeling about triathlons after her first one. She said what she learned to do was start at the back of the pack when they release your wave. Then she let everyone go, and if she lost a minute off of her swim time she knew she would make it up later on the bike or run. It was a very compelling argument. Soooo...maybe. Maybe another one.
The bike was great, except for right at the beginning. I tried to get on my bike and realized the chain was off. I'm sure I could have figured it out on my own, but once again I panicked and yelled, "Can anyone fix this??"" Thankfully, there was a volunteer there that put it back on in a jiffy for me, and (bless him) didn't laugh in my face. After that it was great. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty decent biker. Even without the fancy clip shoes that let you push and pull while pedaling and with a heavier aluminum frame, I was passing a lot of people (I passed a girl on a beach cruiser too, so I didn't have the heaviest bike on the course by any stretch). I think the reason I feel like a strong biker is because I just love biking. It is very rewarding to go so fast using only your own energy and a fairly simple machine. Plus, by that point I had cleared all the snot out of my system. I only wish I had brought some water. I really thought my throat was blistering inside. It got to the point where I almost asked a girl I was passing if I could have a quick shot of her water, but I thought she might not appreciate that.
The run was okay too, and there was a lot of water along that part of the course. They also decided to put two GU stations up there, which didn't make sense to me. Why in the world would I want two GU's to finish a 5k? Even the 10k runners wouldn't need that. I would have put one GU station at the swim-bike transition myself, but who am I? I finished the race strong, which felt great. The only problem was that by that point (10:00-10:30ish) it was definitely Texas Hot again. I am shocked I didn't get a sunburn (forgot the sunblock). I was running with another lady for a little while and she seemed to be struggling too, so I said "The run after everything else is brutal!" She chatted with me for a few minutes and then sped up, and that's when I saw the Ironman tattoo on her back. She probably thought I was a serious wimp.
I had expected to finish around 1:20:00-1:30:00 not including transitions, so I am pretty happy with my 1:32:11 total time, especially because of the head cold. I went home and showered, didn't even brush my hair, and laid in bed for the next five hours. I didn't sleep much because I suck at napping, but I still rested. I'm definitely on the upswing now, but I'm still coughing up a lot of gross stuff. TMI, I know.
Next on the agenda is the Birmingham Mercedes Marathon in February, which means I don't officially start training until the end of October. That is a wonderful thing, because I feel like I have no time around this crazy job right now. It will get easier, and hopefully sooner rather than later. I will be aiming to do four days of exercise (biking or running) per week until then, but it will be much less pressure. As always, thanks for reading.
As you know, I completed my first triathlon on Monday. Conveniently, Monday was also the day that my little head cold was at it's peak. I'm guessing I left a LOT of snot behind in that lake!
I got up at 5:00, so that we could leave by 5:30. Thanks to the dogs, we didn't actually leave until 5:45, so I made us take the tollway. Shout out to my wonderful husband for getting up that early and supporting me through this event. I am so darn lucky to have him that I almost can't stand it! Even though my wave didn't start until 8:30 or so, they closed the transition area down at 7:10, so we had to be out of there by then. Because this was my first triathlon, I really had no idea what to expect from the transition area--I had actually imagined there would be two areas, one for after the swim and one for after the bike. Luckily, the race planners were much smarter than me, and created a course of loops that allowed us to do both transitions in one convenient location.
After we got all my stuff organized around my bike, we sat around for an hour and a half watching the waves for the Olympic Distance depart. Then they let almost everyone else go before the Women Under 35 group for the Sprint Distance. Finally I got in the water and waited for the air horn to announce it was time to start swimming. The swim part a pretty simple "V" course that cut off most of the 1500 m course the Olympic distance participants completed. It was terrifying. All those people kicking and splashing and pushing in the water, and I couldn't touch the bottom! I seriously almost hyperventilated. My panic attack didn't end until I crawled up on the bank again, and the only way I even finished the 400 meters (which is absurdly short--most Sprint tri's are 750m) was by rolling over on to my back every 30 seconds or so and doing a couple of backstrokes. I was not at all prepared for the chaos of the swim. In perfect honesty, my first words out of the water were "HOLY SH*T!!" The volunteer helping me up laughed and said, "Honey, you're just getting started." Awesome.
The swim was so bad, that I said I would never do another tri because of it. I would gladly do dualathons (run/bike) but NOT another tri...until I spoke to the science teacher at my school, who had a similar feeling about triathlons after her first one. She said what she learned to do was start at the back of the pack when they release your wave. Then she let everyone go, and if she lost a minute off of her swim time she knew she would make it up later on the bike or run. It was a very compelling argument. Soooo...maybe. Maybe another one.
The bike was great, except for right at the beginning. I tried to get on my bike and realized the chain was off. I'm sure I could have figured it out on my own, but once again I panicked and yelled, "Can anyone fix this??"" Thankfully, there was a volunteer there that put it back on in a jiffy for me, and (bless him) didn't laugh in my face. After that it was great. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty decent biker. Even without the fancy clip shoes that let you push and pull while pedaling and with a heavier aluminum frame, I was passing a lot of people (I passed a girl on a beach cruiser too, so I didn't have the heaviest bike on the course by any stretch). I think the reason I feel like a strong biker is because I just love biking. It is very rewarding to go so fast using only your own energy and a fairly simple machine. Plus, by that point I had cleared all the snot out of my system. I only wish I had brought some water. I really thought my throat was blistering inside. It got to the point where I almost asked a girl I was passing if I could have a quick shot of her water, but I thought she might not appreciate that.
The run was okay too, and there was a lot of water along that part of the course. They also decided to put two GU stations up there, which didn't make sense to me. Why in the world would I want two GU's to finish a 5k? Even the 10k runners wouldn't need that. I would have put one GU station at the swim-bike transition myself, but who am I? I finished the race strong, which felt great. The only problem was that by that point (10:00-10:30ish) it was definitely Texas Hot again. I am shocked I didn't get a sunburn (forgot the sunblock). I was running with another lady for a little while and she seemed to be struggling too, so I said "The run after everything else is brutal!" She chatted with me for a few minutes and then sped up, and that's when I saw the Ironman tattoo on her back. She probably thought I was a serious wimp.
I had expected to finish around 1:20:00-1:30:00 not including transitions, so I am pretty happy with my 1:32:11 total time, especially because of the head cold. I went home and showered, didn't even brush my hair, and laid in bed for the next five hours. I didn't sleep much because I suck at napping, but I still rested. I'm definitely on the upswing now, but I'm still coughing up a lot of gross stuff. TMI, I know.
Next on the agenda is the Birmingham Mercedes Marathon in February, which means I don't officially start training until the end of October. That is a wonderful thing, because I feel like I have no time around this crazy job right now. It will get easier, and hopefully sooner rather than later. I will be aiming to do four days of exercise (biking or running) per week until then, but it will be much less pressure. As always, thanks for reading.
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