For Real This Time

You might wake up one morning thinking, "Why can't you sweet babies sleep past 6:30?"  You might roll out of bed and start fixing breakfasts not even thinking about Vermont, or even knowing there is such a thing as USA Triathlon National Championships.

You might turn on cartoons and sit down to read emails with a peach, strawberry, spinach smoothie and you might open up an email that says.

Congratulations HEATHER , you have qualified for the 2011 USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals after your finish in the TriGirl Super Sprint Triathlon ranked among the top 10 percent.

You might do a little dance and be amazed since you never even knew such a thing existed.  For a few moments there might be ponderments (yes a word) about if it would be feasible to go.  After remembering the cruise that is about to happen and the 40th birthday girl's weekend coming up in the fall, you might decide to just forget all about it.

UNTIL

Until you mention it to your dad and he thinks August in Vermont sounds like a great idea.

The next morning Dad may call and say he and Mom have decided to move their summer vacation from San Antonio to VERMONT and they would be glad to take you with them!!!!!!!  (You may have the best parents EVER!!!!)

Your husband might sigh lovingly and say, "Have fun."

That's right ya'll.  I am going to the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship!!  IN VERMONT. (All the second person was kinda lame, but I was referring to myself.)

I registered and then I looked at the course maps.

 I think that little box down there represents hills.  It looks like about 400 feet.  Can someone break this down for a coastal type girl?  Is 400 feet that much??  Am I going to die?

Here is me all registered to go.

To Do List
Rent wetsuit.  It's going to be around 60 there I read.
Learn to change flat.  Wouldn't that blow if I got all the way there and blew?
Figure out how to ship a bike!!
Get faster.  I have about 50 days.

And as an added bonus.
I won't be able to do the Clear Lake Race with this.

Darn schedule conflicts.

Has anyone done one of these races before? 
Any advice?
Should I stop eating bacon and egg hamburgers now?  (Better yet stop mentioning them?)

Do you think the numbers of participants in this race is low because it is clear to Vermont and that is why the e-mailed me?  Probably.  I don't care.  Don't burst my bubble.

Matter Over Mind

I know.   It's backwards.
Yesterday I competed in the Tejas Triathlon - Sprint distance in Sugarland, Tx.

I posted a goal for this race as 1:18:00  based on my times in my last race.*
After I posted it I laughed.
Then I cried.
Then I was sickly.
Then I couldn't breathe.
It got hot out.
Then as the race got closer I kept thinking of humorous ways to write about my failure.  Thinking up failure recap posts before packet pickup has even occurred is probably a bad thing.
This race kicked my arse last year in a bad way.

The night before the race The Coach found out the next game in his baseball tournament was at 8:00 am.  He wouldn't be able to concierge** the race for me for the first time ever.  I was resigned to having a crappy race.

I trucked myself up to the race and before I had even completed the mile walk to transition I realized I was having some severe digestive problems.  (To put it mildly.)  I made three more porta can stops before I even got in the water.  (At that point I wished I had made another.)  I texted The Coach that I was having problems.  Too bad he wasn't there to take pictures of the porta shitters as he calls them.

I got into the water determined not to swim an extra 100 meters as I had at this race in the past.  I started off on the far right with the plan of staying close to the buoys.  By the time I got to the second buoy I had crossed diagonally through the wave of swimmers and situated myself in the most crowded place possible.  I am sure that was just as enjoyable for the swimmers I ran into as it was for me.  It was crowded and I tried to hang, but many people were doing breast stroke.  Getting kicked by a breast stroke kick is way more painful than a flutter kick.  It is also harder to get around a breast stroker.  I had swallowed duck poop water and had a goggle full of water, but really I should expect that by now.  I finally had to breaststroke too in order to map out a better route.  The rest of the swim went smoother.
Time: 14:40 - This is actually the time for both the swim and T1 as there seemed to be some timing glitch?
Place: ? (Probably 9)

I transitioned to the ride feeling no better about the whole race.  That is the feeling that comes when your bike is the last one on the rack after the swim. I soon started to feel better as my mph seemed pretty solid.  I saw a pack of ladies in front of me and I thought if I could just hang with them I would be doing well.  Honestly I didn't give more than a passing though to saving something for the run.  I was thinking my run would suck no matter what.  I kept the pack in sight for the first loop and then I lost most of them on the second loop.  The bike seemed to be over before I knew it and I felt pretty confident.
Time: 36:36:4
Place: 10
Pace: 21.3

T2 was long.  Probably because I was dreading the run.  This run kills me every year.  In order to make it less painful this year I tried to familiarize myself with the route before race day.  I do better when I can spot something I recognize along the way.  I thought back and remembered that the path along the drainage ditch is always the part that has done me in in the past.  This strategy seemed to help.  At least no one with a walker passed me this year!  I didn't see anyone from my age group pass me, but the head of the 35-39 pack blew by me in the last mile.  I just kept saying to myself,  "run, run, run".  My strategy was to skip water stations until the last one where I poured water over my head and took one sip of Gatorade.  I made the turn into the drainage ditch and tried to keep my pace under 10:00/mile.  Finally I saw the little white bridge that signaled proximity to the finish.  I kicked in it probably too late I could have started running faster sooner.
Time: 28:34:8
Place: 12
Pace: 9:31

Total: 1:21:11.9
Place: 11/20

The reason I call this Matter Over Mind is because my mind had highly underestimated what my body was capable of .  I so badly wanted to do better than last year.  And I did.  I improved on my time by ten minutes.
I didn't think I would though.
I thought I would suck.
There is a difference between psyching yourself UP and psyching yourself OUT.  I did the latter.  My body had to override my mind this time and prove myself wrong.  If those two would ever get together I might be phenomenal.
I don't know that I could have hit my goal time, but I probably could have shaved off another minute in transition and maybe another minute in the run if I had been in a better mental state.

So to recap the recap................

On the pro side
Good bike. (Must have been a fast route all the times were good, but that's cool.  I can live with that.)
Did my first race solo and lived, or more to the point didn't get lost and mugged.
I realize I have got to spend some time working on my swim which used to be my best leg.

Con side
No pictures as I was solo.
Sucky attitude caused me to forget to enjoy the first half of the race.
Drought caused lake to extra duck poopy.
My son called me in the middle of my post race nap.  Grrr.

*Apparently when I originally set my goal I failed to factor in that last year is was an 11 mile ride.  12 miles at 19 mph should have been 40 minutes.  This would have made my goal time 1:24:00.


**Term stolen from Rock Star Tri who is currently on hiatus.

So.  Overall all, not bad at all.   

What experiences have exceeded your expectations lately?

Mother's Day Goals

My goals for Mother's Day are:
1. To sleep late without anyone bringing me breakfast.
2. Rake in a lot of gifts. 

Kidding of course.

I have a race Mother's Day morning so I will not be sleeping late.  I would like to get up and drag all the kids and The Coach to the race with me, but we have a logistical problem.  Five kids, two adults, a bike and a double stroller don't all fit in the Armada.  I could drive a separate car, but I don't drive so well and it's early, plus that would be irresponsible gas usage.
This race is a super sprint so it is fairly short - a 200 meter swim, 8 mile bike, and a 2 mile run.  I did pretty well last year, but I was slowed down by the two minutes it took me to get my helmet on.  (Thanks whichever kid was messing with my helmet the day before.)
This is the first triathlon I ever competed in back in 2008.  It is nice to see that all that working out has paid off and I can actually almost sprint the entire race when my previous goal used to just be lurching across the finish line so I could have a Coke. (And a donut, who am I kidding?)

Last year I did the race in 57:24.5.
I am going to go out on a limb here and put forth a goal time. 
54.00

Whew.  I wasn't nervous until I actual wrote that down. Now I am a wreck.  I think that is going to be a real stretch.

Here are some things that may work against me.
1. Swim - It is unusually rough in Lake Houston this time of year.  The first year I did the race ladies were having to be pulled out right and left.  (Their screams for help made it really hard to concentrate.)
2. Wind - It has been REALLY WINDY here lately.  I fail to understand how I can go for a ride and be against the wind both out and back. 

Here are some things I have going for me.
1.  I have been riding in the wind a couple of times a week so hopefully I am used to it.
2. I have been doing way more speed work than I have at any other time in my triathlon training, so I am thinking an under 20 minute run is possible.  I will keep telling myself I gave birth to five kids, surely I can run fast for twenty minutes.  (Right?)
3. I know to check my helmet before I leave transition.

So that is my goal.  Barring that I hope I at least do better than last years time.  It would be discouraging to do all these workouts and then not be any better off than I was last year. 
Regardless it will be fun.   My in-laws are in town and they are going to come watch the race.  My Sweet MIL says she will take some pictures.  I am pretty sure there won't be any pictures of other women's boobs on my camera when she is done.

What are your Mother's Day plans?
(And........Ya got any triathlon tips for a sista?)