Ramblin' Rose Chapel Hill Race Report

So, my morning started this morning at 5:45am when the alarm went off. I have a penchant for hitting it and rolling over. Not this morning. I had a triathlon to race. My last of the season, unless I do an indoor one at the gym or something. I'll be keeping my eye out.

I arrived at the race site at around 6:45 this morning ate my breakfast of oatmeal and coke in the van. I don't do coffee for the fact that it sets my intestines in high gear and that is the last thing I need during a race. I got my transition area set around 7:40 and then roamed around until my start time. I had about an hour to kill from the start, my start time was 9:09:10 and I was amazingly relaxed this time. My first tri I was so nervous I was watching everything, taking it all in and getting so overloaded that I had an asthma attack in the pool. It didn't help that the water temp was like 64 degrees. (Freakin' cold as hell.)

Anyway, so I started out at 9:09:10 and without gassing myself, I actually passed someone in the pool. WOOHOO!! I was loving the all women's environment. No men running me over in the pool, grabbing my ankles because they seeded themselves to slowly, or myself too fast. I was actually seeded perfectly. I will have to remember that. The woman in front of me was breaststroking the pool and I caught her on the second 25 and she looked at me and kept going, so on the third 25, I started tapping her foot for the pass and she let me pass at the end of the lane. From that point on, I was good until the end and then passed another woman in transition.

So, heading out on the road, I always have to remember to keep my breathing under control. Chapel Hill is called Chapel HILL for a reason. It is very hilly, mostly rolling, but some long slow hills also. In the first 1/4 mile, is the first hill, that sucked, but you have to go somewhere. As many of my cycling friends know, I am great on downhills, I hit my big gears and just rock. It can be a very slight downhill, but I know how to make time on them and make up for my uphill times. I HATE HILLS, I am getting better at climbing, but had I been training for more than 3 weeks, I would have been in better position. If I can do that with little to no training and just maintaining my base fitness, holy crap, look out for me with a full off-season of training. I will be faster next year. So I made it to dismount and almost fell over because I hammered the bike. I was actually cramping up my calves on the bike...not good. As I am headed into transition I hear "Go Oddball!!!" Some friends I know from when I volunteered for a pro soccer team in the area. That was my mascot assistant nickname. Then I hear Bryan, my sister's brother-in-law, yelling at me to go and way to go. My bike split was AWESOME!!!! 9 miles in 44:11...YEAH!!! Into transition and then off on the run. I had to put my socks on because I had cycled without them.

Jacket off, socks and running shoes on and race number on, (I almost forgot my race number and had to turn around and get it.) I headed out on the run/walk and had to start slowly because of my legs. I was jogging when I could and walking when I had to. On my way back from the turnaround to the finish there was a crosswalk that was on a speedtable (speedhump) and as I crossed it, I tripped, fell flat on my face rolled over, got up and kept right on going. I was not stopping at that point. I get up just across from the finish line and one of the people I talked into racing with me, jumped out on the path with me and started jogging, so of course I had to jog too. Thanks LP. I ended up beating her time by 25 seconds. Had she let me walk, she would have placed ahead of me. Total time for my tri was 1:27:06

With everything I have been through this summer with my neck and 3 months of no training, I am quite happy with how I finished. 11/17 in the Athena class.

I will post pictures once I receive them from Uncle B. Enjoy the post. I enjoyed reliving it again.

Finalizing

Okay, so I am #350 on Sunday and my start time is 9:09:10 and I am a little anxious, nervous, scared and freaked right out.

I haven't really done much training. I have ridden my bicycle, I have done some swimming, but NO RUNNING. That has been out of the question until the last week. I still haven't done it.

Well, as long as I finish that is all I want. If I finish top half of my division, that would be awesome.

(Non) Taper week

Well, here I sit after having said I would not be tapering and yet, I am tapering....for my neck. After my almost wreck on Sunday my neck really flared up and I ended up back at the physical therapists today. She showed my hubby how to work on my neck and help me out. That was huge, I haven't been able to sleep well the last couple of days because of my neck and my body is screaming. I am so exhausted that I fell asleep trying to get my niece asleep. At least she fell asleep at the same time.

I plan to do some swimming tomorrow am, it is an interval class called Aqua Tread and Shed. The gym runs a treadmill class that is called Tread and Shed. I don't do that one because of my knee. I hope my neck allows me to finish the tri on Sunday. It would suck to barely make it back in time to barely train and run this and then either hurt myself again or worse or just not finish.

K~

Rest day stress

Okay, so I am sitting here today and i don't know if it was the almost wreck or the stress of the last week finally getting to me, but my neck is starting to hurt again. I did not wreck, but I feel like I might as well have.

I also need to take the bike in to have the back wheel checked out. I hope I didn't bend the rim or bust a spoke.

Supposed to taper, but I won't

Considering I haven't really trained in like 3 months and my training since I came back has been haphazard and sporadic.

Today I went out to ride the bike route for the triathlon next week and let's just say it was spectacularly shitty. I had two flats before I even headed out onto the road and a third, about 1.5 from the end. IT WAS ONLY A 9 MILE ROUTE!!! WTF!!!

So, my stash of spare tubes in the van is now shot. I need to go buy some tubes this week. I may also be buying a swim snorkel. My neck is still giving me issues and believe it or not, turning my head on the swim is giving me issues. I end up turning my whole upper body and not just my head. I know you are supposed to roll your shoulder out of the way, but I feel off and compensating. Let me know what you all think.

Beach ride

Okay, so today I had to take a big dose of HTFU juice, (Harden the F&%^ up.) Well, I decided to break out the bicycle today here at the beach and ride. It was a damn tough ride. Winds at 16 mph with gusts up to 21-23 mph. The headwinds were brutal. I had one gust that almost took my front wheel away and put me down. That was scary. I don't like the idea of wrecking...I guess the good thing was I was going into the headwind at that point so my speed was down to like 13 mph. I was cruising about 23 mph.

I almost puked when I got off the bike, but I know I can do it now when it comes time on October 19. I am participating in the Ramblin' Rose Triathlon in Chapel Hill and it is a women's only triathlon.

Now for the good news. I have reached and far surpassed my goal for my MS150 fundraising. I am at $1284 and change. Thank you so much for your donations, thoughts, prayers and support. They are much appreciated.