Triathlon

Two weekends ago I participated in the WIN for KC Women's Triathlon at Smithville Lake in Missouri.  The triathlon was created to promote women's health in KC.  I did this event 2 years ago with 2 women from my work, and this year there were 6 of us participating from McCownGordon.  The race consists of a 500 meter swim, 10 mile bike, and a 5K run.  It couldn't have been a better day for the race.  Temperatures were at 75 degrees that morning, and I was actually cold waiting for the race to begin, and I finished before it got too warm outside.  Greg and I had to get up at 4:30 AM in order to make it to the race on time.  We had to switch drivers on the way up because I was falling asleep at the wheel.
We were able to look up my score from two years ago, and I was able to beat it this year.

I'm the lonely girl in the back with the striped shirt looking for my coworkers.

Swim Time:  2010 - 14:47 / 2012 - 12:52
Transition 1: 2010 - 2:15 / 2012 - 2:11
Bike Time: 2010 - 36:36 / 2012 - 36:14
Transition 2: 2010 - 1:18 / 2012 - 1:14
Run Time: 2010 - 30:35 / 2012 - 29:26
Finish Time: 2010 - 1:25:21 / 2012 - 1:19:54



Yes, I am as miserable as I look...

I wouldn't say I trained all that much harder this year in order to improve my time.  I don't even know if I trained at all.  My co-workers printed off training schedules that they were going to follow (and never did), and I received a copy, and it would have the week's laid out building up to the distances of the triathlon.  So, let's say Week 1, you would spend Monday maybe biking 2 miles, Tuesday, swimming 4 laps, Wednesday, biking 3 miles and running 1 mile, Thursday, swimming again, etc.  So, instead of spacing the activities out because it seemed to easy to me, I would just bike for 5 - 10 miles, and then Abby and I would go running however long the weather allowed us to run that day, since it is so crazy hot outside.  We would do this around 3 times a week.





Abby throughout the months up to the race was call my "Triathlon Dog", and I think she knows that name means if she waits for me downstairs while I bike, then she will get to go running with me.  And yes, I trained on our stationary bike in the basement in the air conditioning while watching TV and having a fan blow on me.  It wasn't until the week before the race that I got on a real bike...  Next year, that could probably be an improvement to help improve my score more.  Greg did go out and buy another road bike in order for us to be able ride together since I was using his bike.  So, on Wednesday before the race we rode 4 miles to go get icecream, and then rode 4 miles home.  I'm not sure if the icecream helped with the training either, but it was a fun date.

Still looking miserable, but at least I'm passing some of the older women.

Everyone else seemed to be smiling at this point to the Cameraman when looking at the pictures.  He must have been hiding when he snapped my picture because he caught me at my worst moments.

Another improvement would be to go swimming more than twice.  For the race, you line up with how long you think it will take you to complete the swim, and then they allow people in the lake every 6 seconds.  Two years ago we started at the 9 minute mark, and I swam around 14 minutes.  This year I stayed back with my coworkers around 11 minutes and did pretty well.  However, I didn't even waste my time with freestyle.  I swam the entire 500 meters on my back.  I just couldn't put my head under the water because I was breathing so hard.  We went swimming in our neighborhood pool once with another couple who teaches swim lessons.  She gave me some pointers, but all I could remember was just how hard I was breathing.  It's a lot of work to swim well and make everything sync up with your arms, legs and breathing.  I just needed more practice, but every time I would swing up by the pool (okay, let's be honest, there were only 2 attempts, but I thought about it a lot more), there were just too many children and they would scare me off, and I would walk back home.

There were 1000 participants.

All in all, the race was a personal success of mine, and I'm happy again that I participated and finished.  I signed up again because I knew I could do better than the first time, and that goal was met.  I could probably improve, yet again, by more training, and my bike chain did fall off during the biking portion of the race (luckily I was able to put it back on in less than a minute), but that could give me some more time to work with.  Greg thinks I could train enough to win the entire race... I appreciate that he has hope for me, but I told him to keep dreaming...