What I learned and next steps

I won’t lie and say I wasn’t disappointed and some things because for those of you that know me, you would immediately say “bullshit.”  I can say I didn’t think of anything like that during the race, and to this minute, I hold no regrets and am proud of myself for finishing.  That being said, I am not happy with certain things and know I could have done better.  But, that is what makes me go and makes me want to do another one.  It’s the complete thrill of it all.

Preparation

I think I packed everything I needed and, in that sense, was good to go. I do need to figure out better what to eat the night before and the morning of.  The 10am start threw me off because I am used to exercising first thing.  My next races (half marathon, sprint tri, etc.) are all early morning starts and I think that will be better for me.

Swim

Ugh.  I really wish I just didn’t suck at this.  Matt took a long hard look at people’s times and, except for the people that came in the top 5, most people had one or two super strong events and then fell off in one.  That made me feel better.  But, really… why do I just suck?  Why can’t I get this? It is so frustrating to me.

I know a part of this swim was my inexperience with open water, so I have signed up for some open water clinics.  The first is in a few weeks and will just give me some time with an instructor in open water.  I’m also going to try to get out a few more times where I just swim in a lake, maybe bring Ellen.  I need to do this because it was such a bad experience for me.

Type A, texting before the race

But that doesn’t help with the endurance factor.  I think part of it is just plain boredom.  This happened with running until very recently. I am SO f’ing type A (um… some of you can stop laughing).  If I wasn’t so heavily medicated with my migraine medications at night, I would NEVER fall asleep because of thinking of other things.  It took a dear friend (of now 17 years… holy shit) to suggest listening to a book on tape for me to really enjoy running.  I can completely zone out to the book.

So – where is my solution while swimming?  I start off fine. I can think of all the corrections (and there are a lot!!) I’m supposed to be making to my stroke, and I realize I’m a lot stronger than most people in my lane.  Oh… but then I get SO bored.  And my mind starts to wander.  And I forget everything.  And when your stroke isn’t right when you swim, you become inefficient really quickly.  And then you get tired really quickly.  And… it’s over.

I’ve been thinking about trying (this is a HUGE operative, “trying”) to learn to meditate.  There are courses on meditation while running.  I wonder if the same can apply to swimming.  Obviously not a deep mediation because I’d sink to the bottom of the damn pool – but some kind of mediation where I can focus better and control my thoughts and my breathing.  Focus on what I’m doing deeply.

If anyone has thoughts or has read on this, I’d appreciate insights!

Bike

Running in from the swim to the bike, my legs were pretty wobbly, but I know how to work on that. I was pretty happy with my mount on my bike.  Where I failed completely was my gears and shifting.  Luckily, I have a man who understands bikes, and a brother who is a pretty accomplished cyclist.  I feel very confident that I can greatly increase my ability in this area and therefore cut my time significantly fairly easily.

I have seriously strong legs (not bragging, it’s just a fact. I think it’s genetic because my brother does too). If I have one thing going for me as an endurance athlete – triathlons, marathons – it’s my legs. More time on my bike will allow me to use those to my advantage.  I’m trying to talk Hubs into researching and buying a bike.  He won’t buy a road bike, but is interested in exploring cyclocross, which is growing in popularity around here. I’d love to be able to go on rides with him!  And I’d learn to get my damn water bottle out of its damn holder so I wouldn’t be so damn dehydrated! HA!

Run

A lot of my struggle with this was the fact it was trail running and that I was dehydrated.  I wasn’t thrilled with my time and know I could have definitely pushed myself harder.  It was hot (oh, cry me a damn river, slacker… yes, that is another internal conversation), I really, really needed some water (that is a serious thing), and my legs felt like jello.  The whole jello thing is something I can do something about. 

I know I didn’t train well enough for transitioning between events and that was just that I don’t have enough time.  But I WILL do more bricks – where you do some of one event and go immediately into another, and do it again (ex: bike 5 miles, immediately run 1 mile hard. Repeat 3 times).  I think I did bricks two times, 1 swim/bike; 1 bike/run.  Um, yea.  Obviously not enough.

So, while I am obviously not getting more time in my life, and I start a marathon training program on the 28^th for my 1^st marathon on August 19^th, there are things I can add to my workouts that I think will make me a bit stronger for next time!

• Research what to eat night before and pre-race
• Keep plugging along with swim practice.  Look into meditation
• Participate in open water swim clinics and exercises
• Work on gears and shifting bike
• Get in at least one ride a week on bike, even if only 10 miles of speed work
• Schedule in brick workouts
• Smile and HAVE FUN!

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