2012 mileage

2011 was the first year that I ever run more than 1,000 miles. I had to work hard for it with a 100-mile December, and finished out the year at 1,001.

I’m happy that this December, it didn’t take until the last day of the year to cross that 1,000-mile mark. I suppose it helps that I didn’t have any injuries limiting my running this year, but I also didn’t run a 50K in 2012. My weekly (and monthly) mileage never got quite as high as it did in the fall of 2011.

Total: 1,063

Finishing the year strong, huh? That higher-mileage December was likely due to my first-ever running streak this winter. The Runners World #RWRunStreak required at least one mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. It wasn’t even that hard! Sure, I had a few late nights on the treadmill (including a four-miler on the hotel treadmill at 8:30 on Christmas Night!),  but most of the time it was easy enough to hop on the treadmill or run down the street for a quick one- or two-miler.

Courtesy of PavementRunner

You can tell running is my first love if you look at my crosstraining. I’m only motivated during triathlon season
(January – March and probably part of April would have been on spin bikes during off-season tri training classes)

Total: 443.5

Oh, I really do love swimming … once I’m in the water. It’s so tough to motivate myself to go to the pool unless I’m taking a class! (April – May: cramming for early triathlons. June-August: masters swim class!)

Total: 40.5

Total distance traveled in 2012: 1,547.

In 2013, I won’t set any firm distance goals. I just hope to keep running (and swimming and biking) and racing all year long!

race report: columbia triathlon

In the mid-April, I had a dream that I had a triathlon the next day, and I forgot to train for it. This was about a month before TriRock (May 12), five weeks before the Columbia Triathlon (May 20). Sure, I wasn’t ready yet … but I had plenty of time!

Well, that month went by fast. While I did fit in some swimming and bike workouts, it didn’t feel like enough. And after a pretty rough  TriRock 500-meter swim, I was a little concerned about the 1500 meters I’d be swimming in Columbia. I also knew Columbia’s 25-mile bike course was very hilly, and my longest training ride was 18-miles, mostly flat.

Still, I had a pretty good attitude going into the race. This was my first Olympic-distance triathlon, so I had nothing to compare it to. Automatic PR!

When race day came I wasn’t as nervous as I expected. I was really glad I did TriRock the week before, because I knew exactly what I needed to pack for race day.  I was able to get my gear together quickly the night before.

I had a very early morning on race day, even though my swim wave didn’t start until after 8am. I was in the second-to-last swim wave, with the first starting at 6:40am. We had to be out of transition by 6:45, and I had to factor in potential traffic since there’s one road in to the park. This is the same venue as the Iron Girl triathlon, and I was prepared for cars to be backed up for quite a while, but I got into the park pretty quickly.

I had plenty of time to get my transition area set up, pump tires, get body marked, put on sunscreen and eat my peanut butter sandwich. And then it was time to head to the start!

Of course I had a lot of time to kill. Much of it was spent in the bathroom line. Sure they had plenty of port-o-pots, but there was an actual bathroom, too. I decided that was the better option. In line, I ran into a woman who was racked near me at TriRock. We chatted to pass the time then, and did the same here.

The wait didn’t seem nearly as long as I expected, and before I knew it, we were getting in the water!

I knew ahead of time that the lake temperature was nearly 71 degrees. I was pretty happy about that since I was pretty sure most of my TriRock swim troubles were because of the cold water.

I’m also happy to report that I was right about that hunch. I felt amazing during the swim! It was still a little rocky at the start — I don’t like to be crowded!  But once the fast swimmers pulled away and I got a little room, I settled into a pretty comfortable stroke.  I actually really enjoyed my time in the water.

And when I got out and looked at my watch, I was in shock. I figured in a worst-case scenario, I’d probably finish the swim in 45 minutes — my slowest Iron Girl swims took 30 minutes (1000 meters), and my slow TriRock 500 meters took nearly 15.

My swim was 34:23. Wow!

I jogged over to transition and stripped off my wetsuit in a reasonable amount of time. It didn’t take long to get my shoes and helmet on and grab my bike. And I was off!

Parts of this course are familiar because of Iron Girl, but I was happy to learn one of that course’s worst hills was not included in Columbia’s course. Of course they replaced it with a bigger hill!

Yeah, that was pretty tough. There was one incline in particular that I underestimated (I believe it was that little one after mile 10). I didn’t shift my gear low enough, and got to a point where I could barely move my pedals. I really thought I was going to fall over! I was even watching the grass to my right wondering if I should head off the road for a soft landing … Fortunately, I managed to keep moving and stay upright. At least nobody was near me at the time, so  I wouldn’t have had any witnesses if I did tip over!

Even though it was a hard ride, I had a great time on the course. The weather was perfect, and the course is beautiful. Lots of farmland and amazing views.

I’ve only ever ridden 25 miles or more three times before — two rides of 28 and 30 miles on my hybrid bike on vacation last year, and a 25-mile recovery ride with a friend after her first half ironman. All three of those rides were pretty slow, so I set my worst-case scenario pace pretty low. I figured I’d be happy to finish the ride under two hours.

I finished in 1:41:29.  Pretty slow when compared with the other racers, but pretty great for me considering just a handful of outdoor training rides and minimal hill training!

After dismounting my bike, I jogged my bike back to my transition area, accidentally knocking over the bike next to mine. Oops! No time to fix! (I got back to transition before her post-race and put it back before she noticed!)

I was feeling a little discombobulated as I started to take off my hydration pack … oh wait, I still want that! I still managed to change shoes, put on my visor and start running without losing too much time.

My legs didn’t feel too bad as I started the run. I kept waiting for the jello-legs to set in, but I felt good! Well, when we weren’t running up hills …

This course was pretty tough, too. I was familiar with some of the hills from the Iron Girl course, and the additional three miles added plenty more. My legs felt surprisingly good the whole time, but the hills wore me down. I gave up and started walking up them (as did most of the other athletes on the course!), but I was able to keep moving at a decent pace. Actually, at one point I was walking faster than a girl who kept running uphill. I knew I made the right choice to walk!

The run was the only part where I had some expectations. Running is what I do, and I know my 10K pace! But I also knew that this was not going to be my best 10K, and set reasonable expectations. I hoped I’d be able to finish under an hour.

Run time: 58:39.

With all my worst-case scenarios plus transition time, I was looking at close to four hours. I’d say this was a success!

overall time:  3:21:28.21
overall place: 1327 out of 1696
division place: 71 out of 96
gender place: 377 out of 564

Not nearly as good as my TriRock stats … but far from last!

This is a tough course, and has more experienced triathletes and fewer first-timers. The numbers seem about right — I know I have a lot of room for improvement!

race report: trirock annapolis

Whoa, what’s with all these race reports?

I didn’t set out to create such a crazy spring race schedule … there are just too many great events!

May 20 is the Columbia Triathlon. I signed up months ago, and it will be my first Olympic distance triathlon. When I found out TriRock was coming to town eight days before it, at first I hesitated.

I really wanted to participate, but two triathlons in just over a week?

And then I realized what a good training experience it would be. The distances for TriRock were pretty short, 500 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 5K run, so it seemed like a good opportunity!

The location was perfect — only two miles from home. I actually packed all my transition gear in a backpack and rode my bike to the start. I was a chilly ride at 6am, but the garages recommended by the race organizers were almost as far away! And hey, I didn’t have to pay to park!

There was a bit of a line to get into transition once I got there, which I didn’t really expect, but I still arrived with plenty of time to set up and wedge myself into my wetsuit for only my second open-water swim of the year.

Oh yeah, it was also only my second time ever swimming in a wetsuit. While this was my fifth triathlon, I’ve only ever done the Iron Girl race. In August. No wetsuits allowed!

My one test swim the week before went fine, but we were in shallow water. Much warmer shallow water.

I knew it was going to be cold. I kind of dreaded the swim (in fact, the first thought I had when I woke up was, “I don’t want to jump in that water”), but was pretty relaxed as I waited for my wave to go off. I was distracting myself by chatting with some other women in my swim wave.

The five waves ahead of us seemed to fly by, and all of a sudden we were next. I still didn’t want to go in, but at that point there wasn’t a choice! Still, I felt fine as I half stepped/half jumped off the dock into the chilly water.

My feet were cold, but it didn’t seem that bad … until they sent us off and I put my face in the water. Brr! I took a few strokes and started to panic a little bit. Not in a way that would require assistance from the support kayaks/paddleboards. I knew I could handle the swim, but I just couldn’t calm myself down. I did some sidestroke — which I haven’t done for years! — and then tried freestyle again. I’d have to breathe every stroke, still not comfortable. I did some breaststroke — slow but at least I could catch my breath. I’d flip back and forth between freestyle and breaststroke, but never really got my groove. Fortunately, 500 meters is pretty short, and was over kind of quickly even at my slow pace.

The next challenge would be getting out of my wetsuit. I had a bit of a wetsuit fail during our practice swim, when I got stuck at the ankles. I tried practicing at home, but it’s a lot easier when it’s dry! I was happy that on race day, I didn’t have too much of a struggle.

The bike ride went well. It was a bit of a hilly ride, but it was expected. Part of the course was a double loop that included going over the Naval Academy bridge and back … twice. It wasn’t too bad, though. Even though I had way too much of my training on spin bikes and not enough outdoors, I felt pretty good out there.

Still, I was happy to rack my bike and put on my running shoes. The uphill start up Main Street was a little bit of a rude awakening — my legs were definitely feeling the ride! I did my best to keep moving and ignore any protests from my legs. I felt decent enough, but I didn’t really have a good grasp on how fast I was running.

I had my Garmin on the whole race (I have the waterproof 310XT), but in multisport mode it kept my time and distances cumulative. Huh? I was sure I’d used multisport mode before and it would reset as I changed sports. But this time, the time and mileage stayed from the previous sport, and it just said “BIKE” or “RUN” in the bottom right field. Well, that’s a good way to make sure I’m not obsessing over the pace!

I had no time goals, anyway. This was my only triathlon at this distance (Iron Girl is longer), and it was a training race, anyway!

Since the  run course was an out-and-back, it ended with a downhill. It was a fun, fast finish!

The finish line festival was great — breakfast burritos, two free Red Hook beers, and an AC/DC cover band playing from the top deck of a boat. I had fun chatting with both friends and strangers in the beer garden!

TriRock was a great event. I’m really glad I did it!

I’m disappointed that my swim was so uncomfortable, and am a little bit freaked about Columbia’s swim. I’m trying to stay positive, though. It always does take me a while to warm up during the Iron Girl 1000 meter swim. Perhaps I need a 500 meter warm-up, and I just wasn’t there yet!

I’m happy with my results, though. Rankings below are out of 65 in my age group.

Swim: 14:58 (45*)
T1: 4:00 (30)
Bike: 46:29 (27)
T2: 2:16 (28)
Run: 27:00 (22)
Total: 1:34:45
#31 in age group
#572 overall**

*actually, I kind of expect to be in the bottom third. The swim my weakest even on a good day!
**it doesn’t say out of how many.

race report: iron girl triathlon

On Sunday I completed my fourth Iron Girl triathlon in Columbia, MD. It was a great time as always, and I think I had even more fun this time around!

I haven’t been too good about training updates this summer (or blogging in general, oops!), but once again I trained with a women’s triathlon group through the rec center. And actually, I’ve been signing up for their training sessions since the winter. It’s been working with coaches and training with a great group of women!

I took my swimming up a notch this summer, too. One of my triathlon coaches also taught a beginning masters swim class that met twice a week … at 6 a.m. Well, I learned I actually can get myself out of bed and into a pool by 6 in the morning, and I really enjoyed it!

It made a huge difference in my Iron Girl swim this year. Between all that swimming in the pool and a few good open water swims with my triathlon group, I felt a lot more comfortable in the water this year. I was less panicked at the swim start (it’s still a little nerve-wracking!), and was able to swim freestyle most of the time. Yes, I did still revert to breast stroke a little for sighting or to get out of a crowd. But I needed it much less than usual.

And it showed — my time was about three and a half minutes faster than I’ve done on that course in the past! All three races were approximately the same, right around 30 minutes. 26:35 this year!

When I got out of the water and looked at my watch, I was shocked and ecstatic!

The feeling lasted throughout the bike course. I was so excited about my swim. And more than usual, I really enjoyed this challenging bike course.  Well, except for the killer hills that I could have trained better for. (Ouch, my quads!)

In my tri class, we did do speed training on the bike, which showed me how much more I could push myself. I was more comfortable on the hills and didn’t need to brake on the downhills like I usually do.  If you go by my Garmin time, my bike time was four minutes faster than last year.

(The official results are only two minutes faster … but they have my bike-to-run transition time as only 18 seconds. Yeah, that’s not right. I’m trying to get them to fix it!)

Going into the run, I felt great. I started out with a pretty quick mile — not quite my normal 5K pace, but still under nine minutes. And then the hills started, and my calves were aching. I decided to walk up a couple of hills, but I was able to recover pretty well. My run was a little slower than last year, but I beat  my first two years!

Very happy with my finish!

Final time: 2:13:53 — nearly 10 and a half minutes faster than last year’s time. 94/278 in my age group, 517/1631 overall. 925 in the swim, 751 in the bike (should be a little better if they correct the time!), 303 in the run.

Yep, I’m still a runner.

While I loved this whole race, I’m happiest about the swim. Sure it’s still my weakest. I may always be slow.

But finally feeling comfortable in the open water makes me think  I might be ready to tackle some longer races!

race report: iron girl triathlon

Yesterday was the Iron Girl sprint triathlon in Columbia, MD. It was my third time racing in this event, and once again I loved it!

I got to bed early on Saturday night and managed to get a good amount of sleep before my 3:30 a.m. wake-up call. I was pretty well organized with everything I needed packed and ready to go, but I still needed the hour I gave myself before our departure time to wake up and prepare myself for the day!

A friend and I were on the road by 4:30, giving ourselves plenty of time to get through the pre-race traffic. The main road into the park tends to back up. We think we arrived earlier than last year since traffic wasn’t too bad. We were parked and headed to the transition area around 5:30 a.m.

And it started drizzling a little bit.  Uh oh!

It wasn’t too bad at the time, but I was glad my choice of transition bucket had a lid! Last year I used a kitty litter bucket (like this one) and it worked out great, so I did the same this year. Big enough to hold everything I needed, easy-to-carry handle, and doesn’t take up too much space.

Since it was raining, I didn’t lay that much out like I normally would. Instead, I reorganized my bucket, layering everything in the order I’d need it. I may have lost a little time in transition doing that, but I’d rather have dry shoes!

I got body-marked, pumped my tires, ate my peanut butter sandwich, and headed towards the swim start to hit the port-o-pots a little after six. No line that early! We didn’t have all that much time to kill. The transition area closed at 6:30, and the elite athletes were in the water at 6:40. Once waves started going I decided I needed one more restroom stop. There was a line this time, but not so bad. My wave was at 7:01 and I had plenty of time.

I was happy to have an early start time. It’s hard to have to wait around watching wave after wave of women start. But this year, it was time for me to get into the water before I knew it!

I know I’m not great with open water swimming, but I think I’m getting a little better. Not faster, it seems … but I felt fairly comfortable the entire swim. Usually I feel a bit panicked and have to breast-stroke a lot to regulate my breathing. Sure I still did a good amount of breast stroke, but this time it was more to sight or when it got too crowded to swim comfortably.

Halfway through the swim it started raining. While it doesn’t matter when you’re in the water, I would be on the bike soon. Riding in the rain isn’t fun. And I’m afraid enough of the fast downhills without wet roads!

I hoped for the best as I finished my swim…

Swim (1K / .62 mile): 30:09
2009: unknown (since they lost all my split times (grr), but I’m guessing it was in the 30:40s based on photos of other girls in my wave.)
2008: 29:57

I happily got out of the water and took my time getting to my bike. I probably should have run, but I wasn’t that concerned about transition times. I also like to rinse and dry off my feet. If I wasn’t such a princess, I’m sure I could transition quicker!

T1: 5:55
2008: 6:33 (But I lost my helmet!)

It was still raining. I’m actually glad my husband and I got caught in the rain on a ride last week, otherwise I wouldn’t have known I preferred wearing rain-soaked sunglasses to getting raindrops in my eyes!

We had to climb a short, steep (and wet!) hill to get out of transition. A little tricky in bike shoes! But I was quickly up and on the road.

I was familiar with the hilly course from the past two years so nothing came as a surprise. I tried to let go on the hills despite the wet roads, and actually it wasn’t too bad. I took the turns very cautiously, but I think I did pretty well on the hills!

I was definitely not enjoying the rain, but thankfully it let up a bit towards the second half of the ride. Usually you dry off during the bike ride, but  not this time!

Bike (17.5 miles): 1:13:27
2009: 1:14:43 (Garmin time, actual time would probably be a little bit slower.)
2008:1:24:16 (on a slower bike)

I changed into dry socks at transition — my feet were soaked and I was happy to have packed an extra pair. They wouldn’t stay dry for long with the on-and-off rain, but at least I was comfortable at the start of the run!

T2: 3:57
2008: 3:31

Some triathletes dread the run. Not me! I took off at a decent pace, but it’s a hilly run and my calves were screaming at me. I gave in and walked a couple hills, but I still managed to beat both of my previous times by a lot. I think marathon training helped me out here. I was able to move quicker on my tired legs!

Run (3.4 miles): 30:50
2009: 34:16 (Garmin – should be pretty accurate)
2008: 34:44

Overall: 2:24:16
2009: 2:28:14
2008: 2:39:01

I’m really happy to beat last year’s time, even in the rain! But I was a little disappointed when I saw the official results online. They posted incorrect results at the event and for a few hours, I thought I really killed last year’s time with 2:19:16 instead!

I had a blast. Registration opens for 2011 on November 1!

to celebrate national running day …

I went swimming!

My legs needed a break after a tough workout last night. I was back on the track, this time with 16x400s with 200 meters recovery. I wasn’t really expecting to run all that well after a pretty miserable Monday run, and the 80+ degree/88% humidity weather wasn’t helping!

It also didn’t help that I started out WAY too fast, running with another member of our group. I knew she was faster than me, so I shouldn’t have tried to keep up!

But that didn’t last long …

1. 1:52
2. 1:54
3. 2:00
4. 2:00
5. 2:03
6. 2:05
7. 2:05
8. 2:04
9. 2:06
10. 2:07
11. 2:01
12. 2:05
13. 2:10
14. 2:02
15. 2:02
16. 2:06

Uh, yeah. I couldn’t really keep up with my 2:02 goal pace yesterday. But at least I was out there, and I finished my workout. I’m totally blaming some of those slower intervals on all the non-runners out on the track. It was really crowded last night. Walkers in the fast lanes, toddlers wandering around, kids on bikes, etc. It was driving me crazy!

My legs definitely needed a break today, so no run for National Running Day. But I did finally get my butt back to the pool to start prepping for Iron Girl!

I was pleasantly surprised to find it pretty quiet at the pool tonight — I got my own lane for the entire workout. I grabbed a kickboard and pool buoy and got to work.

I don’t usually follow a planned workout, though I should probably try that sometime. I just like to get in there and knock out the yards!  I alternated 100s with the  kickboard or buoy with freestyle and breast stroke for the first 1300 yards, taking breaks often as I got used to being in the water.

I was feeling great. I swam the last 300 yards freestyle almost continuously, and felt like I could have kept going. I figured 1600 yards / 55 minutes in the pool was plenty for my first swim of the year!

holiday weekend workouts

Gotta love a long weekend. I was happy to schedule an extra morning run when I’d usually be working!

This morning I met up with a couple friends downtown for a  casual run. We started later than usual, meeting at 9 a.m., since one of our friends suggested the time. And then she didn’t even run! I think she was worried that everybody would be faster … but I would have loved to slow it down today. It was hot out there!

I dragged behind my other two friends the entire run. After four miles when one of them had to move on, M and I decided to power through for a couple more miles. We took a short walk break before starting up again, but the momentum was gone. There were a lot more walk breaks in our final 2.5 miles!

Part way through the run, I figured out why I was struggling. Sure, the heat was a factor. And yeah, I did go to a boot camp workout on Saturday.

But yesterday I joined my husband for a 15.3-mile bike ride. It was only my second ride of the year. Yeah, I bet my legs were a little tired after that!

I’m ready to start swimming again, too.  I’m going to try to hit the pool this week. Less than three months to Iron Girl!

looking forward

Since the Goofy Challenge in January, there hasn’t been too much on my plate.  The only other race I ran this year was this month!

Things are going to start picking up. At the end of May, I’ll be running the Maryland Half Marathon. I love the half marathon distance and wanted a spring race, so this fit the bill. It’ll be a hilly course so I probably won’t be going for a PR, but I’m still hoping for a strong race!

In June I’ve signed up for another hilly race, the Baltimore 10-Miler. I’ve heard great things about this event, and they are known for their excellent premiums!

The next big event (so far!) doesn’t come until late August, when I’ll be doing the Iron Girl sprint triathlon for the third time. To help me train, I’ve signed up for a triathlon class at the rec center. It starts in June and runs until the week before the race. While I did well training on my own last year, I didn’t get nearly enough brick workouts in. This once-a-week class seems like the perfect solution!

We’ll be ending our summer once again in Virginia Beach, where I’ll be running the Rock and Roll Half Marathon for the sixth time. My training for this race has been a little lacking recently, since my focus over the last two summers has been the triathlon instead of distance.

But this year it’s going to be different. I’m going to have to incorporate a lot more distance training over the summer to prepare for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 31.

In addition to all these big events, I’ll be participating in one or two 10Ks and quite a few of these 5Ks throughout the summer.

I’m excited!