My very cold water swim today..

My friend Kathy and I ventured out to Cochiti Lake today to do a little swim. The weather gods apparently hadn't seen the news because regardless of what the man said on TV last nite, it WAS windy today. We did manage to swim a few hundred yards. We swam out to a bouy & I thought-wow that was easy-then turned around. holy crap! I felt like maybe some of those people at IM Utah a few years ago when the wind caused "waves". I did however learn how to breathe if a wave was smacking me in the face. Guess that is always useful! I decided after that in the future to get some kind of flotation device out there-canoe, kayak, innertube, anything that may be used for safety. The old life-guard in me said-woahh, this is not too safe-2 women out here alone. i mean how many other fools would be swimming in "brisk" water with a windstorm? I think I will err on the side of being overly protective of my middle-aged self and friends. Even Kathy & I commented if we were in a group and if MEN were present, we would feel better. I love men! The feelings of protectedness I get around them, even if it is not real, is so comforting! Now I believe in equal rights except when I need to be protected by a man..:)
I wonder how men get that protected feeling?
Anyways, I think a safety apparatus could not hurt and maybe finding a driver for it-taking turns-haven't figured that one out yet. Hartley & I are looking into it..

Thoughts on my new heroine..

I watched this amazing documentary on Showtime last nite about the woman, MUKHTARAN MAI. You can watch the Youtube http://youtube.com/watch?v=f1Pn7xvfIOE and get the gist of it but basically she was gang raped in a small illiterate village of Pakinstan as retribution for her brother's sin. She got angry and went on to bring justice to her abusers and build schools in this tiny village. Mukhtaran showed me that no matter how remote we live, there is always striving toward human dignity and equal rights. Very compelling story indeed!

Being a Grandma..

These are my granddaughters-Lane and Avery. At least once a day I ask myself how I got through those difficult parenting years and HERE is the payoff!! :)

Change in the Game Plan..

Well, I did the run speed workout today. It just wasn't the speed workout I was going to do. I couldn't breathe, I was tired, no days off since the race, etc...My ex-coach Mark Mico, when I mentioned I wanted to do BSLT this year but aren't exactly trained for a half, he suggested I do the run one min run, one minute walk. So I tried this today and ended up averaging 11/min miles. Not bad for me! Of course this is not after swimming a mile, then biking 56 in ridiculous heat..So I am right now giving myself permission to use this strategy. Hartley looked me right in the eye this morning and asked-"so WHY are you doing this??" Gosh i better be clear on that one because the Buffalo is nothing to f&*^&&k with! I did it 3 years ago, was in much better training shape, weighed 7 lbs less and still walked some of the run. So my goal could be to have fun?? Well, not sure that is possible in Lubbock unless they serve ice cream on the course and cut all the distances in half just cause they wanted to be nice this year :) OK so another goal could be to end the race feeling fairly good. Now this is a new concept for me. My daughter Becca says she remembers finishing a half marathon and actually feeling good! I thought she certainly did not get those genes from me, that is for sure! But I really have finished a couple of races this year feeling less than dead and ready to throw up. That is amazing to me. Now some may say I didn't run fast enough, or try hard enough but that wasn't it at all. I just wanted to feel NORMAL after a race. So can I do this in Lubbock? Well, stay tuned...

Milkman Race Report..

So after reading those Dueceman reports, I feel like a weeny, but here goes. I woke up yesterday feeling pretty good at the start of the swim in beautiful Lake Van. Now this race has a nostalgicc flavor for me as it was my very first triathlon in 2001. I was pretty cocky about the swim that year. I was raised on the swim team and thought i had it in the bag that year. Well, I was unprepared for the panic attack i was going to have as I started swimming so ended up doing back/breaststroke the whole way. It was humbling for my first tri. After many years of practicing getting in the water first for about 15 mins and swimming before the race, and a hypnosis session, that is no longer an issue. I did feel a bit nervous this year at the start which surprised me. I had this debate with myself in the morning. Should I wear a wetsuit or not? It was a bit chilly outside, the water felt a little cool, so I decided yes, since buffalo springs is in 3 weeks, will be good for practice..I am faster in the wetsuit, yes but transition will be slower..Ahhh, but I will be so much more comfortable in a wetsuit, all toasty and warm! So the "I just wanna be comfortable" part won. The weather actually ended up being cool by Dexter standards, cloudy, in the 70s-got sunny and warmer at the end. They use to start the race a 9:00 AM so I remember those 95 degree days-ouch!

They lined us up in waves and of course I was in the next to the last wave, being a more "mature" woman. I forgot my prerace goo so just had to wait til the bike to get nutrition. that kind of threw me off a bit. So there I am in my wetsuit and the race started. I took off, for the first time ever, I went out hard in the beginning. Of course this lead to getting knocked around a bit and have you seen those huge bouys they have on the swim in Lake Van? Ha-the little yellow balls they call bouys kept running into me..Swim time was 10 min, something a minute faster with the wetsuit. Then I proceeded to lose all that time in transition- I could NOT get my wetsuit off. I looked like one of those cartoons doing to wetsuit dance. Well after about what seemed to be 10 minutes ( I think only 2 actually), off I go on the bike, feeling very discombombutlated (is that a word?). I have this new philosophy. I am not wearing a watch or using a bike computer, just going by "feel". I think I get psyched out by numbers, MPH, etc. This has helped my bike I believe. Milkman road suck, as in a bumpy, needs major repair kind of way. Two women in my AG passed me on the bike. I just could not get the last one. I really did my best on the bike. It took me 44 min, a minute slower than my last time here in 2004. OK, so better T-2 and off I went on the run. Now here is where the whole no-watch thing could have been my downfall. In my mind, I was running 9 min miles-I could have sworn to it. I am really doing good I think! My first clue should have been when my friend Kathy, 10 years older than me literally flew past me! Then at about 2 1/2 miles, I started bonking. Hunger! I looked down and the goo that was suppose to be in my goo belt was gone! It must have fallen out. That damn race belt has to go-it doesn"t hold guu! At the water station they have no gatorade so I start yelling-"anyone have a goo?" This very nice man comes out of nowhere and asks me if I want a "shotblock" Now in my state of mind I wasn't sure what that was, hoped it wasn't something alcoholic, and said yes. Out of his pocket comes this little goo cube. Ahh yes-I have had those before-God bless this man. That was all I needed to bring it home. I saw the clock at the end and it said 1:55! The waves started every 5 minutes appparently so I thought I had a 1:25! That was a PR for me-I was sooo excited! Tired but not wasted- I was so happy for about 20 minutes. Until the times came out and my time was actually 1:29. Damn!! I was 4th in my AG out of 4 women. There was only 9 minutes separating all of us! Of course I got beat on the run as usual-I was so pissed!! Our wave must have started early..

So always a bridesmaid, never a bride! I am so tired of coming in 4th. 4th at Jay Benson wasn't as bad-4th out of 10. but 4th out of 4 is humiliating!! Esp. since I thought i was running so fast! As it turned out, my run time was 32 minutes. I seem to run the same pace whether it be a 5k, 10k, half marathon, or marathon. I think I am an endurance athlete. Either that or I am really going to have to except the whole aging factor. Maybe the fact that i am still even doing triathlons at age 52 is a miracle! Maybe I need to lower my sites. Maybe I should not have gone to the dentist 2 days before the race! All of these immediate post race questions that won't matter probably tomorrow. My goal this year was to have fun doing races-bullshit! I wanna WIN-waaaaahhhhhhh...OK enough whining.

Now I know and do accept that i may be last in my age group at Buffalo Springs Half IM. I have looked at the women in my AG doing it so I have to be realistic. If I go in knowing this maybe the let down won't be as bad!

The good news is (and this is amazing and awesome) Hartley got second place in his AG, he beat my time for the first time!!

I am going to try out the shot blocks for nutrition for BSLT. Giving it a try on the bike today.