Breathing in the Water

• 2 • Swim, Triathlon

On my way to a swim lesson and feeling panicky. We’ve been working on adding laps where I’m breathing in the water and not taking recovery, and it’s not always that fun. Feeling like I can’t breathe even though I AM breathing? Not fun.

So I’m reading this article shared with me by the swim coach for Tri for a Cure Team Strong: http://www.active.com/swimming/articles/breathing-basics-getting-comfortable-870012

And I’m reminding myself that at one point I felt like I’d never catch my breath while running, either… and now I can run for two hours without stopping and hold a conversation for most of it.

So this is going to get better. And I am getting air. And I can stop even if my instructor is telling me to keep going. Which doesn’t mean I should, but knowing I can may be enough to make me feel comfortable enough not to.

On to the pool.

 

Mother’s Day swim, bike and run!

• 5 • Bike, Swim, Triathlon

I had a perfect Mother’s Day. It was so perfect that at the end of the day I actually started crying when I was thanking Greg at dinner.

I remember my first Mother’s Day waking up exhausted to a hungry baby at 5 a.m. and then being over-scheduled and traveling… it wasn’t the perfectly indulgent day I’d dreamed my first Mother’s Day would be.

Yesterday was.

I slept in, Greg and the boys made gingerbread waffles which we had with coffee.

It started raining, squashing our plans to play outside as a family and making me afraid an afternoon bike ride I had planned with my neighbor would get cancelled.

SWIM

So Greg and I went to the pool together so I could get some type of workout in even if biking didn’t happen. We dropped the kids off in the play space, and shared a lane! It was his first time seeing me do a full length of crawl stroke.

I loved watching him swim a few lengths now that I can appreciate how good his form is.

And it was REALLY fun when we had a head on collision a few laps into our swim. I mean it, it was actually hilarious. Both of us were being a little more casual with the lane divide since we knew the person we were swimming with, and I was backstroking (which I never do when I lane share because I can’t see where I am well enough to feel comfortable I won’t hit someone) when BAM, suddenly my head was underwater with an elbow on top of it. We disentangled, we were both fine, and I learned to keep a much better eye on the buoys next to me.

I loved running into him because I collided, and survived. Now I’ll carry that memory with me on race day to ease the tension when I’m suddenly in the ocean surrounded by other swimmers.

After swimming we had a great lunch, and then the day cleared up and I was able to go for my bike ride with my neighbor!

BIKE

An experienced cyclist, she offered to go for a ride with me since I’m new to outdoor cycling and was really nervous about riding my new bike for the first time on the busy roads down here. She took me out, showed me some scenic, quieter roads, scouted ahead before turns and called back when I should prepare to unclip, pointed out obstacles in the road, checked behind us for traffic, and made it easy for me to focus just on pedaling and gear shifting and getting comfortable on the bike.

With her to navigate and call out traffic, I was able to relax and enjoy the entire ride. We went slow (which is great because I was in the wrong gear most of the time) and I never fell over – came home from a 17 mile ride without a scratch! Such a gift.  I can’t begin to describe how it feels to coast down a long hill past budding trees and green grass on a sunny afternoon in May.

I got home from the ride, and realized that because I swam in the morning and biked in the afternoon, if I just ran 3 miles I would have completed my race distance for the triathlon in July. Sure, it was backstroke at the pool and there were hours in between the swim and bike… but wouldn’t it be neat to see if my muscles could manage it all in one day, and to see what my run would feel like after my legs had done all that kicking and biking?

RUN

I only had to mention the idea to Greg and he was instantly throwing on his running stuff and putting the kids in the jogging stroller. “I’ll run next to you! Let’s do it!”

I never would have gone without him, I had spent too much time away from the family already. But he made it something we could do together, and he pushed the kids next to me for a scenic 3 miles through nearby neighborhoods and past the local pond.

And I did it. Without stopping. 3 miles at the end of a 17 mile bike ride on a day that started out with a 40 minute swim.

Whatever happens on race day, I’ll carry these memories with me. Lane sharing with Greg in the pool. Eunice calling back over her shoulder to tell me I was doing great and there was a right turn ahead. The boys laughing underneath their blanket on the stroller ride by the pond, water glistening in the late afternoon sun.

I started the day with tentative plans for a bike ride, and ended up completing my race distance over the course of the day with no pressure… just a spontaneous sense of adventure.

It was fun.

Lesson from a Triathlete: Karen Rand

• 1 • Bike, Motivation, Triathlon

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This is the fabulous Karen Rand, completing her first triathlon last summer for Tri for a Cure.

I got to hear Karen speak at the Tri for a Cure bike clinic, where I learned about bike maintenance and got advice from both experienced and first time triathletes from the previous year.

Listening to the two women who’d completed Tri for a Cure as their first triathlon last year, I was amazed at the courage, resiliency and effort they possessed.

They had to have the confidence that they could do this, and then they actually had to learn and train to do it. They went from swimming in pools to practicing in lakes and then the ocean. They biked up and down a hill in Portland, ME with a training group over and over again, cheering on the way down for people who were climbing on the other side. They made friends, learned from experienced triathletes, raised money to fight cancer, and made it across the finish line.

Karen decided to become a triathlete… and then she did it.

What I love about Karen’s story

As a runner, Karen was most nervous about the biking portion of the tri. (Well, also about the swim, but everyone’s nervous about the swim…)

She tried clipping in and out, but she never got comfortable. Some people would have given up right there, but Karen just decided to ride the bike portion not clipped in.

KRand16c

It’s sheer brilliance.

How many times do we let our expectations of what we think something “should” look like stop us from attempting it?

I’ve heard people say they would never run x distance because they’d be embarrassed to come in slower than a certain time, so they won’t do the event. If you don’t want to train for an event, that’s fine! But it’s sad when we let other people’s accomplishments or expectations keep us from embarking on a journey we would love and benefit from.

Don’t be sad. Be Karen. Unclip and ride your race your way.

Like any sport, if you look at the first finishers of a triathlon, it makes the sport look pretty unapproachable.

But it’s not, really.

You don’t need to be clipped into a $3,000 bike. You don’t need to do freestyle the entire way without stopping. You can backstroke for a bit. In many races, you can stop and rest on a kayak and then keep going. You don’t need to have compression socks and finish a half marathon in under 2 hours. Trust me.

Check your race regulations to see what time the course closes and what the requirements are for equipment, and I think you’ll find that many races are open to and welcoming of beginners.

If you want to use a race to motivate yourself but there’s just one thing stopping you, ask yourself if you can work around it.

What can the experience do for you?

There are times when I want to succumb to my embarrassment that Greg has to wait over 45 minutes for me to finish a half marathon and just not race. But I don’t. Because being a half marathoner has done so much for me that I’m willing to do it my way.

If you want to do something, do it. Let it improve your life. Don’t worry about other people’s relationship with the sport.

Make it your own.

Thanks, Karen, for the inspiration and for letting me share your story and photos on my blog!

You can donate to Karen’s Tri for a Cure fundraising page here because guess what?

She’s doing it again 🙂

 

Swim – Tackling the Breathing

• 0 • Swim, Triathlon

Is your body saying no… or your brain? I had a moment getting into the pool where my mind was singing me a little song about how ridiculous this was because I ran 9 miles yesterday and I should not be expected to do more than a few laps of freestyle and then some nice easy backstroke.

But I figured out it was my mind talking to me, not my body. My body was fine. My body was like, ooh, freestyle! pull the water, pull the water….gentle kicks, flop flop flop… It was my mind that was freaking out.

My mind was panicked because it knew I was planning to swim as many laps of freestyle as possible today. And when I swim freestyle, I feel like I can’t breathe. I start out ok, and gradually become more and more oxygen depleted as I cross the pool, until I feel as though I’m drowning by the time I’m 3/4 of the way there.

Mental? Physical? Technique? Probably a combination of all three.

But if I want to swim this race, I’ve got to swim through it. So I’m going to have to freestyle over and over again until I get the hang of it.

I’m doing it one lap at a time right now, because I know I can make it one lap. I get overly panicked trying to do 50 meters or 75 of freestyle without resting, so today I did more 25s. Over. And Over.

Today’s swim: 14 repeats of (one length freestyle, one length backstroke recovery, 20 second rest). That’s 14 lengths of freestyle – over halfway there! I just need to start transitioning those recovery laps from backstroke into freestyle and delete the need for recovery time in between. It reminds me of Couch to 5k, where I worked on my walk/run increments until they finally became continuous running.

New goal: I’m never leaving the pool without having completed at least 24 pool lengths of swimming. That’s down and then back a minimum of 12 times, and it’s the length of my race in July. My instructor had me do 15 continuous lengths of backstroke during our last lesson to work on adding distance, and it made me realize I can do more than I think. Backstroke is a nice way for me to add some distance because I can breathe the entire time, which is my mental struggle with freestyle, but it still works my legs and arms which will translate some to freestyle.

Next step will be another lesson Wednesday to keep working on technique, and then it’s back to adding distance, reducing recovery, and breathing… breathing… breathing.

I can do this; I will do this.

Just keep swimming… just keep swimming…

PS – I also got awesome new goggled designed to be sturdy enough for open water swimming… they don’t leak. It’s fantastic.

Never Try Anything New on Race Day

• 5 • 13.1 Training, Running, Triathlon

I was at a Bike Clinic for Tri for a Cure this weekend, and they reminded all of us of a golden rule of racing; don’t try anything on race day you haven’t used during training.

You don’t want to find out at mile 9 that the cute tank you bought just for race day chafes.

You definitely don’t want to discover that your GI system and GU packets don’t get along.

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See this awesome new fuel-belt I got? It bounces like crazy and the velcro gives out. It’s worse on some outfits than with others, depending on how slippery my shirt fabric is.

I ran a half marathon in a cute new jacket one year and had such bad chafing from the zipper hitting my chest while I ran that it actually scarred. It took over a month and a half to heal, and I can still see the mark on my chest.

So I guess you could say not testing my gear has scarred me for life.

Try. Everything.

And in the combinations you plan to race with, too. I can take Vega gels if I have water, but I can’t stomach them without water.

Do your sunglasses interfere with your bike helmet straps? Does the top you’re planning to wear work well with those shorts? Do your tri-shorts fit under your wetsuit? Is the sports bra you plan to wear too absorbent and going to stay wet for the entire bike and run? Do you have room in your pockets or belt for the nutrition you’re planning to use?

Whether you’re training for a 5k, half marathon, or triathlon, now is the pre-season to try it all out.

Write down what works in different temperatures so you remember.

Test your nutrition plan.

Make sure your gear plays well together.

Nothing is worse than bloody feet because you picked socks that can go three miles and didn’t realize they’d start rubbing your feet raw at mile 5!

I know you can’t plan for everything, but if you put a little thought into testing your gear and nutrition on training runs, you’ll increase your chances of a seamless race day 🙂