Randomness Tuesday

Man, the thoughts are rolling this week as the Syracuse 70.3 slowly creeps up on me!!

1.  It would be nice to be a natural born athlete.
2.  Today I ran in my bathing suit only and felt so free. I would never do this in a race though
3.  I bought an Adamo Century X seat and Hate it. Switched back to my old saddle for now.
4.  I think I finally nailed my nutrition needs
5.  I have been looking at Ironman distance events to do next year!!
6.  I wish everyone had my schedule so they could train with me..
7.  I hate training alone unless Im in a bad mood
8.  I ate way too many Oreos this week.
9. I need to find a coach

Only 9 things this week....Im sure there is more but my mind is too tired to think of any more.

Happy Training!!

Caz tri and my next adventure!!

Yesterday I had the chance to be a Volunteer at the Cazenovia Triathlon Held every year in good 'ole Cazenovia, NY. It is our Triathlon Club's big event!

The night before I had a chance to help set up the transition area and holding corral for the swimmers. What a time-consuming duty!! Good thing we had a dozen people helping. Not to mention the best food from Bella Domanis to help quiet our hunger!!

Fast forward to race day. Up at 4:30, out the door by 5AM and to Caz by 5:30a. I felt like I was racing here! But no need for pre race meal, etc. etc. I was the run Coordinator which was a big job for 1 person to do so of course I had a few of the guys help me out! We set up all the tables, water, cups , strawberry HEED, Cones up on the 3mile run and the 6 mile run as this was both a sprint and olympic distance race. We had a half dozen kids from Chittenango Run club helping us out. Nice group of kids.

I was very fortunate to see alot of fellow CNY tri people come my way, yelling at them to push!! They just grunted at me of course!! But it was nice to be on the other end of the Triathlon world and see what goes on behind the scenes to make a race run smoothly. I was a bit jealous I wasn't out there racing but felt good giving words of encouragement!

This weekend I will be Competing in my FIRST Olympic triathlon!! I am so excited, nervous, jittery about the whole experience!! I am competing in the Lake Delta Olympic Tri which is an inagural race out in Rome, NY. The description stated it was a calm lake, flat and fast bike and a flat run in the park. Sounds like a great race to me as I said before I am a better athlete on flat races!!! :)

Training

One of My weekly sessions is being a supporting cast to a Training Series. Every Wednesday Evening we gather all our training gear and head Down to Oneida Shores for a few hours of training. What I love about this is meeting new triathletes and how excited they are to be trying the sport out. One of the local Triathlons hitting the scene in August is Iron Girl. If you haven't heard about all the races of IronGirl check it out on Irongirl.com.

One girl came up to me and asked me where you would change after the swim. I kindly said you wear tri shorts and a tri top or a race suit so there is no need to change in between.

Another girl came up to me congratulating me on my AG win at Henderson Harbor. I was like how do these people know what I did?? I guess its a good thing to have followers.

Another girl asked me to help her change her tire as she didn't know how to. I quickly showed her how to change that flat. I think I was under 5 min. (maybe)

Oneida Shores Training Series

The tri training series consists of 600m swim, 12 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run. You can do any portion you want as long as you are back by the designated time which is 2 hours. Last night I did a 2 loop swim in 21 min. I came into transition, took my time getting on my bike, tried keeping my shoes on my bike but got nervous with all the runners in the area running as well, didn't want to crash. I ended up keeping a 22mi/hr ave speed, went out for my run and back in 25 min. When I got back to the table a lady came up to me and asked me if I did the whole bike ride. I said yes. She sighed and said, I don't know how you did it when you were just putting along in transition. I was floored. I have to admit, I am a good bike rider. I have bee racing bikes for 4 years now. I love speed and the faster I go the better I feel. I looked away and then looked back at her and said. Its all about gearing and cadence and if you put those 2 together correctly you will have speed and its about training as well. I decided to also tell her that I did 2 swim loops. Nothing more was said.

Training Series

Everyone is eager to learn, every one has determination written on their faces, possibly a little female rivalry as well with IronGirl Coming up. Last night we had over 200 people training!!! Wow! To think our Tri-club has tripled its number of members in 1 year. This goes to show you how much the triathlon world has exploded here in Central New York.

IronGirl is next weekend and my goals are to beat my times from last year. I am not going to worry about any other woman. Beating the clock is what its all about.

Ithaca Outing

This morning I got up and headed out for my run early in the morning as to not take away from the day ahead. I set out for a 10 mile run but ended up doing 8.5 miles due to time constraints. I finally felt really good on my long run!!!! Progress!! Well it does help that the humidity was low and the temperature was low 70s this morning with a great breeze.

I felt great the whole run until I got home and started making a recovery breakfast. My stomack was very queesy. I thought about my last run and what I had done differently this time. This time I used PowerAId instead of my PowerBar drink. Ill never do that again. Need to stick with what works.

Took me 2 hours after my run to feel better.

It took us about an 1 1/2 hours to get to Ithaca and I was so excited to go. Because today I was going to get my Tri bike fit for me!!! I have been having some saddle soreness and also feeling too outstretched on it so felt it was worth the trip.

We got to the Science Center first and spent a couple hours being amazed by little science projects. I think I tried to put a puzzle of 7 blocks into a square about 80 times and still couldn't figure it out!!! We touched some star fish and hermit crabs, walked onto musical stairs, magified our skin, hair and pants to 300x. There was also a outdoor exhibit where my daughter lifted me off the ground with a lever pulley!! Strong 6 year old!! LOL!!

After our Science trek, we went to the Ithaca Commons for a nice Mexican Lunch then hit the Fingerlakes Running and Triathlon Co. This place is a little shop located in the Commons. This is where my bike fit was. I met one of the owners at a Running Mechanics talk he gave to the CNY tri club a while back. We got there early and perused the store. Not too shabby!! Has some great stock and I wanted alot in the store but knew if I needed anything for my bike, I should wait to make any purchases.

I got on the trainer and we spend a good 30-40 min just on my saddle!! This was most of the problem of course!! It was a toss up between 2 saddles but I decided to mount my bottom on a Adamo Round series Century X seat. I hope it will hold up for the long mileage!!! My seat was also sitting a little too high, but other than that my form on my bike was perfect!! I left the store happy with my purchases. I even got some nice smelling odor control for my tri shoes...PEEEUUUU those things stink!!!

I think I might need to save and purchase some new shoes next!!! ;0)

Swimming and Biking

Today was the first open water swimming day for the Total Immersion group we put together through the CNY tri group and the help of Coach Karen!! We had about a dozen and a half swimmers in Green Lakes water today learning tips, techniques, anything to make them more efficient and better at swimming. I too was in the water today getting tips from the experts!! It was great fun. We swam for a total of 2 hours!! I still have a lot of technique to work on but have come a long way since last year in my abilities to swim. I am less claustrophobic in my wetsuit, I am calmer when people want to swim on top of me, a better sighter(well getting there!!) and all the other cool stuff that comes with open water swimming.

Karen worked on having high elbows, being relaxed, having a patient leading hand and how to sight. We also got videotaped which I will share when it becomes available!!

Total Immersion Swimmers

After our 2 hour swim, we hopped on our Bikes and Did the Green Lakes Triathlon Bike Leg. I rode with a newbie triathlete trying to skill her on the wonders and joys of biking, shifting, etc, etc. I love biking. I love the feel of being so free seeing the horizons in a new perspective, seeing the chipmunks run out in front of you, seeing the squirrels and birds in the trees, all of nature. Kelley (the newbie) said to me, thanks for staying with me and riding. I said to her, I want you to enjoy riding your bike as much as I do!! It should be easy to ride a bike not hard!!! Over the course of 4 years and plenty of practice and a great cycler boyfriend, I absolutely love riding my bike, hills and all!! Today was a proven fact!! I made it up the "hill" without even panting!!!

Coach Karen!! We had so much fun with her!

Balancing Training and Family time

One of the Hardest things for me is balancing time I spend training with the time I spend with my Fiance and Daughter. I find myself getting up earlier and earlier every morning to get in a swim, weights, whatever I need to do. I am up at 5am to get an A.M training session in and then up until 10 P.M to get a scond training session in. My weekends are the same. Getting up at 5 AM to get in a 3 hour ride before my daughter has risen from her slumber. 

I am ending my 3rd week of Half Ironman Trianing and feel as though I have not given enough effort. I think I should be training more.

Friday morning I woke up to the sun peaking through my bedroom window at 5 in the morning. I always wake up at 5 no matter what. No alarms to wake me up, just my own body telling me I cannot sleep anymore. I headed out to Williams Beach for a swim with Some other CNY triathlon members that are training for local tris in the area. The biggest being Syracuse 70.3.

The skies were clear and the wind was calm giving the 8 of us a nice conditions to swim our hearts out.

                                                                Williams Beach

I swam a good 30 min while the others swam 40min. Felt good in the water but I was having difficulty sighting because my goggles kept fogging up. I really have to work on this!!! I am also a bit worried that my new Blue Seventy Reaction Wetsuit might not be the right size for me. I followed the sizing chart but it still feels too big. Im very disapointed as I love this suit.

After a great day at work, we loaded up the car and I had a chance to sit back and let my fiance swim and daughter play. I was anxious just sitting and watching, but I needed it.

Caitlin posing at Oneida Shores

Andy coming out of the water after his swim

Some days you just have to relax and remember there is more to life than training!!

New WetSuit

I finally got my new wetsuit in the mail this week. I have been drooling over the Blue Seventy Reaction Wetsuit for a long time. I finally told myself I want it and Im going to get it!!

I tried it on and it made me feel like a traithlete. I felt strong and empowered (Probably because this one slips on me without me having to bathe myself in PAM before I can get into it!!) I finally felt not restricted and free.

This leads me in to thinking about the Triathlon Swim Clinic that I have been taking for the last 8 weeks. Tomorrow is my last day and I have to admit I am sad that it is ending. I really have enjoyed being in a group atmosphere and learning better swim technique and of course competing against other people in my lane. I really think that this swim class has helped me gain confidence in the water. I have shaved minutes off some of my times from taking this class.

Tomorrow will be video analysis again. I cannot wait to compare my videos from the first day until now!! I have learned to enjoy swimming and not stuggle with the water. I cannot wait to test the waters out in a few months on my First 1500meter swim of the season in June!!!!