Weekly Workout Totals 01/19-2009-01/25/2009 and First Race of 2009!

I'm pretty sure I won my age group handily yesterday, although official results haven't been posted yet. There was one woman in my AG who hadn't raced yet when I left, and I stalked her up and down the Intertubes and can't find any race results for her, so either she's a total ringer or I have nothing to worry about.

EDIT: Yeah, I won my AG and was 7th woman overall. I have some work to do on the bike next time to advance in the overall standings. Two of my men buds each got 2nd in their AG to very tough competition. I know fast people...

I had SO much fun yesterday--sure it's just a little sprint, but it's the middle of winter, and what else are you going to do? Plus, I got to reconnect with some tri friends, go really hard, get in additional working out on the day, and renew confidence in myself that maybe I am not slowing down yet.

Even though I wouldn't call myself superstitious, I do have a number of rituals and things I do before a race that "put me in the mood." On Saturday afternoon, I got a Brazilian wax, and while in process, my "girl" remarked that I didn't seem to wince much from it. I told her it was nothing compared to the pain I'd be in the next day!

Saturday night I fixed up 300 calories of Ultrafuel in my now lucky Hip Hype bottle that I got at Ironman Brazil in 2006. I don't know why it's become a special bottle to me, but it has, and it only gets used for Ultrafuel. I set the coffeepot, but didn't put it on auto, as I knew I'd wake up in plenty of time.

I ended up waking up around 3:30AM, but since I'd gone to sleep pretty early (bored; nothing on TV, full day, why not?), I'd have had enough sleep, but I stayed in bed just thinking happy thoughts for about a half hour. I began drinking coffee out of my 2004 Ironman Hawaii mug, which I like to use on race mornings or the morning of an important workout.

I hadn't chosen race clothes, so first thing was which swimsuit to wear? I have a large drawer full of them--about half are fitness bikinis and the rest are "look good hanging out at the beach" bikinis. I bought 4 new fitness suits at the end of last summer that I hadn't worn yet. I began trying things on, and was surprised that none of the bottoms were the least bit tight, but some of the tops were! This I attribute to my now steady diet of chinups. I settled on the red suit because the top wasn't too constricting.

Next, I began trying on bike shorts. It's been a tradition with me the last 4 years or so to wear my really low cut Desoto bike shorts to these races (I leave the swimsuit top on, take off the bottoms and put on the shorts before beginning the bike) because, well, they look good on me (I hope!) and again, it's the middle of winter, so why not see how low I can go? But I haven't felt particularly in shape, and my back injury has messed with my lower abs, so I wasn't sure how they'd feel or look. I put on the lowest cut black ones and just wasn't ready for them, although they didn't look bad. I settled on some gray ones made out of that Carrera fabric, which is kind of silky feeling.

I chose a pair of socks that I had worn at Triple T last year, so they felt lucky to me as well. For my street clothes, I had just finished sewing a pair of flannel pants that are white with small red lobsters on them, my black NOTHING t-shirt, a red sparkly thong that Shelley gave me a few years ago, and my striped pirate knee socks. To cap it all off, I decided to wear my silver Converse flats.

OK, so all of this stuff is making me feel ready to race and even a bit optimistic. In years past when I did these races, on the day before I'd do a hard long ride and brick run, but this time, I thought I'd move that run to Friday, because I was going to effectively do a brick on Sunday anyway. So Friday I ran sort of easy for 30' and then did 15' hard on the track, and Saturday I did a 2-hour trainer ride and kicked out some really good power.

My legs felt good, I stretched about 10', drank the Ultrafuel, went into a short insulin coma, mixed up my race nutrition--1 can of Ultra Violence and about 12 oz. of Gatorade Glacier Freeze, packed a cooler (since I'd be running after my race), and drove to the race venue (stopping on the way to gas up my car), which is about 3 miles from home. Sweet!

When I got there, I went to register, and the volunteer was getting the participant list ready when he said, "And you are?" My answer was, "AWESOME!" I was feeling pretty good and he got a laugh out of it, and I told him I thought I could do OK today.

I put my stuff in a locker and went to go check out the bikes. Turns out they had older model Precors which I hadn't been on in years, so I got on one, and it seemed easier than the newer models. That could be good or not. I only did 5' on it, which seemed enough for a 20' ride, eh? I never did do a run warmup, but for the next race, I think I'll at least jog for 5', then get on the bike.

I went and watched one wave swimming, still in my street clothes, and it was interesting to chat with some spectators and racers. Everyone is trying to figure out who is a newbie, who is experienced, and we all encourage one another. I have so much fun acting somewhat incognito, like I've never done triathlons before, just to see what people will say. It's tough to tell when I'm in loose street clothes what's going on underneath, although I was wearing my Ironman USA red fleece pullover, but it's got a subtle logo, and unless you're looking for the Ironman thing, you probably wouldn't notice. I had fun picking out who I thought would win that wave I watched, and I was right. I called him "Powerbar" because he wore a Powerbar swimcap, and he won handily.

Now it was my turn to suit up, so back to the locker room, and I put on my red bikini and sauntered onto the pool deck. Now people are looking at me because, well, a) I'm wearing a red bikini and b) I look pretty damn good in it (OMG am I narcissistic!!!). Sorry no pics, but let's just say I was a little noticeable. When I went to get bodymarked (yes, they do that for these little races--all part of the ritual, right?), the volunteers recognized me from years past, even though I skipped last winter because my Dad had just died.

I found my lane, and got in and the water felt really nice--cooler than my Y has been in months! So that would be a good thing. I haven't particularly been doing any intense swim training lately--I've been focusing on my bike and run--and wasn't worried about what I'd do in the pool since these races are won on the bike anyway. Several of us chatted about this and that, and I singled out a woman who looked like a swimmer, and I made that comment, and she looked at me and said I looked like "an all arounder." Whatever that means! I guess that is where my weight lifting pays off--while I'm pretty lean, I have some decent muscle, and thanks I like it that way!

The horn went off and I started swimming. All I cared about was that I swam with good form, stretching out my stroke and taking good pulls. I'd told my awesome volunteer, Stacy, to yell at me with 5' to go, as that was when I intended to try and pick up the pace a bit. I must have been lollygagging for the first 5', but those second 5' I was feeling it. I suppose I should just try and kick more, huh? Anyway, I did 550 yards in 10', which was fine.

Quick shower, strip off my swimsuit bottom, change into bike shorts, socks and running shoes, grab hat and iPod and off to the bikes. I put tunes on and so I guess I didn't hear the announcer dude say when to start pedaling so the volunteer could hit start, but my bike didn't fire up right away, and so I demanded I get 22 seconds after everyone else, and this guy is cool, and recognized me from years past, and he said, yeah, you get 22 seconds!

Well, even though I got a late start, I just fired up the legs and thought, "Let's see if I can make the first mile anyway." And I did. And I could just tell this was going to be a good ride, so I played around with different resistance levels, and even coasted when I took a sip out of my UV/Gatorade mix, and with 5' left, I knew I'd hit at least 6 miles, which is good stuff for these bikes for a female. To give you an idea, the overall female winner for several years running has been Lauren Jensen, a pro, and she does just around 7 miles.

I hit each new mile before anyone else did, and I think there may have been 1 other person in my wave that hit 6 miles, and I was over 6 at the 20' mark and then I had my 22 seconds, and I ended up at 6.65 miles, which is the most I've ever done at one of these races! Huh--guess my little fake taper thing was working!

But I got off the bike and had to lay on the floor for about a minute because I was pretty wiped out, and when I got up, my hamstrings didn't feel great because of the wide bike saddle, but as I began walking and shaking my legs, I felt OK.

Onto the track to run. The only man in my wave, a pretty young guy who must have gotten in by requesting an earlier wave than he was assigned, asked me how I did that on the bike, commenting that I was "really cruising." Of course, we didn't have much time (5') between bike and run, so I just smiled, thanked him, and lined up.

At this point, friends of mine were showing up to race in later waves, so I actually had a few people cheering for me, and then some girls that have worked on me at the massage school were next to the track, too, so in a way, it was good to know I was being watched.

I had told myself earlier in the day to really hold back for 2 laps (the track is 12 laps to the mile), but I guess I just threw that out the window and decided to see what I could do and how long I could hang on. I'm sure I slowed down the last 5 minutes, and I was off by about 1/2 lap from what I thought I could do. I did 22 laps, but I've done 23 before, so that's the objective for the next race.

At any rate, I really doubted anyone else would match my bike time, and that's what wins these races, so I felt pretty good. I cooled down a little bit, hung with some guy friends who were warming up for their race, and headed to the treadmill and ran for an hour. Now it was my turn to root for others, and I'd brought my camera, so I just snapped away while an elite wave of mostly guys was going off including friends of mine. The pool was like glass before they started, and then it was just boiling. Pics are here.

While they were biking, I got in another 15' on a bike before I began yelling at them for the last 5' of their ride, and then it was onto the track. It started out one guy wasn't wearing a shirt on the bike, and then three other guys removed theirs, and I was like NICE! And when they started running, all four shirtless guys were in a pack together, but it spread out a little, with the 2 fastest ones running neck and neck. One of them is a friend of mine, so I was really cheering hard for him, and knew he could take the other dude eventually, which he did.

After all this, we all went and grabbed some food and were just talking a mile a minute, and even though it was such a short little race, we were all talking about how we could do better at the next one! I said to someone, "I know what you need to do next time--GO FASTER!" I will be OK with the same swim and bike, but want to go a little further on the run. I might be able to do a bit more on the bike, too, which is cool, because the bike miles win. So I'm excited about the next race in 2 weeks!

After all that, I went home and tried to nap but mostly just laid there smiling and thinking how good it had felt to race and how auspiciously I am starting 2009 on a high note. Then I got up and read a little of the Sunday paper, made a meal of eggs and rainbow trout (YUM!), and relaxed and capped off the evening by splitting a bottle of champagne with a friend to celebrate our first race of the year!

Life is freaking good...and I'm tired today but I expected that and will be more than recovered by tomorrow--today is an easy day. Off to the pool!

Weekly Workout Totals	01/19/2009-01/25/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by racing and KICKING ASS
Swim:	7800 yards (4.43 miles) in 2.68 hours; 20% of weekly workout time; approx. 939 calories burned Canadian: 7132.32 meters
Bike:	Approx. 101.37 miles in 5.4 hours; 40% of weekly workout time; approx. 3034 calories burned; Total TSS=370 Canadian: 163.14 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 24.4 miles in 3.75 hours; 27% of weekly workout time; approx. 1698 calories burned Canadian: 39.27 kilometers
Strength:	1.83 hours; 13% of weekly workout time; approx. 458 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 130.2 miles in 13.66 hours; approx. 6129 calories burned Canadian: 1 kilometers
Sleep:	7.29 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.8 hours. Massage: 1 hours