Twilight 5K

Last night it was my first race of the season. Coach wanted me to race at least a 5 k before my first tri. So a couple of weeks ago I signed up for the Twilight 5 k here in Charlotte. It was an evening race, so I thought it would something fun to try, as most races are usually in the morning.

I went to work, just like any other regular day; but for some reason I was sort of "nervous" all day. Yes, I have done many 5k's and 10k's, but I usually just ran them; never raced them. Big difference, at least in my book.

The work day was pretty uneventful, we are currently working on some budgets for our next fiscal year; so besides having to learn a new software in a whim there was nothing out of the ordinary. The race was going to take place about 2 blocks from the building I work at, so I brought my clothes to change in the bathroom at work. When 5:30 rolled around I was ready to go. I dropped off all my stuff in the car and went to the race site to pick up my race packet and timing chip.

At this point I could really feel the butterflies in my stomach. It was weird to be getting THAT nervous for a 5k. I kept telling myself... You are just running, you've done this a million time. I guess on the back of my head the knowledge that i would be HURTING for the whole 3.1 miles, sort of scared me.

Coach wanted me to warm up for 15 minutes and show up at the start line 5 minutes before the gun. I did as she indicated.  The place was packed and it was considerably warm (I think it was about 80 degrees at 7 pm). I placed myself towards the middle of the pack. I did not want to get ran over nor I wanted to be stuck behind people who could slow me down. Finally the gun went off. The pack started moving and it took me about 20 seconds to cross the start line.

My instructions were to pace for the first 1/2 mile and then let it go. On Coach's words: "5K is all about going fast, speedy feet, hard. By the end this should HURT in your lungs & legs." 

I ran at what I thought was a conservative pace for the first 5  minutes, I figured that would be about 1/2 mile. That put me along the same speed as the fire department team. The race had a challenge between the police department and the fire department. They were carrying banners and running like they do in the military... The troop leader would sing a verse and then the rest of the squad would repeat it. I heard some funny yet provocative verses the firemen sang about the police and was tempted to stay so I could be entertained the whole race; but I knew this race had another purpose. As Coach would say I needed to get into my hurt box. So I picked up the pace. And who would have thought that I would start PASSING people... me? Passing people? This feels awesome... So I picked it up some more... When the first mile marker showed up, I looked at my watch and could not believe my eyes... it read 8:44. WTF?!!!! My mind went crazy.. I just ran a sub 9 mile! I wanted more. I kept running, and yes, it kept hurting, but it was a good hurt. I could feel myself getting warmer and warmer. I could feel the back of my throat getting dryer and dryer. I needed water. Mile 2 showed up there was the one and only water stop. I walked I think 5 steps, enough to get one sip of water and then off I went again. My legs were protesting... Walking was a BIG mistake. The water stop was also uphill, so that didn't help. My legs complained again, I didn't listen and kept pushing. Now, don't think i was a speed demon or something. Yes, I was passing people but there were people passing me as well.

The last mile was pretty much a killer, I think about 3/4 of it were uphill. I wanted to stop really. bad. Almost did. But one thing came to mind: What would Coach do? Coach would stay in her hurt box and would push even harder just because the thought about slowing down crossed her mind. So I pushed. Harder. The last hill was the longest and the head wind made it even more difficult to climb. I put my head down and tried to control my breathing. When i reached the top of it, we had to take a left turn and there was the finish line. A mere .2 miles away. I glanced at my watch.  I liked what I saw...I could reach my goal and maybe some more. I dug deep inside and picked up the pace again. I sprinted to the finish.  I crossed that finish line and I could feel my lungs and legs on fire. Mission accomplished.

My goal was to break the 30 minute mark. I did it. I finished in 27:07. I would have NEVER thought I could run this fast. I was ecstatic. I still have a smile on my face and the race was almost 24 hours ago. I know that to some of you this is a slow pace but this is HUGE for me. I have always been afraid of my "hurt box", afraid of not being able to handle it, but I did. 

Now it makes me wonder how much longer can I stay in it. Can't wait to find out.

Friends...

I made a new best friend!!! Her name is Eleanor and she is a beauty....

Yes, I splurged and for mother's day  got a new Tri bike!!! I will post pictures later, but let me tell you I am so super excited about this new addition to my household. I can't wait to take her for a spin. Saturday won't come fast enough...

You might be wondering why I decided to name her Eleanor... Well, did you watch the movie Gone in 60 seconds? The one with Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie where they steal cars?? In that movie, there is ONE car that Nicolas Cage has always wanted to steal and he names it Eleanor. There is also a song by Low Millions called Eleanor that I LOVE, and when the tune came on Todd's ipod on the way to work, I just knew it. The name stuck with me and I could just picture my new friend every time I said the name (or thought about it)

I picked her out on monday, went to the store, rode on her for a bit and after talking to coach about wheel size (I am on a size 50 and it only comes with 650 wheels), I decided she was the one I wanted. I left the store that night with an appointment to get fitted on wednesday (today). This is going to sound super geeky and ridiculous, but I dreamt about my bike, and taking her for long rides. I could not wait! Finally today after work I drove myself to the Tri store as fast as I could (traffic was pretty sucky). My stomach was getting nervous like I was going to be on a race or something. Once I got there I changed into my tri-shorts, socks and bike shoes and got on the computrainer to get fitted. At first they did all the measurements and adjusted the seat and aerobars. We decided not to go super aggressive on the aero position until I get used to the bike; I want to familiarize myself with my friend since I have never had a tri-bike before and the riding position between my road bike with aerobars and the tri-bike is considerable different (not to mention the saddle... hello saddle sores!) 

And then it was time for the "real" test. They turned on the computrainer... Let my just say: HOLY SH*T. I loved the thing!!!!! it gives you such a realistic feel. Un-freaking-believable. Anyhow, they wanted to see what I looked like when I was really into pushing hard; so that they could gauge if I needed to be adjusted differently.  We decided not to for now.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. I have wanted a Tri bike for so long! And to top it all off, when i got to the store, I discovered that my in-laws had called in and got me a gift card! I have not spent it yet, since I KNOW I will be needing more stuff... I always do :)

I will take pictures of Eleanor and post them over the weekend... If I can figure out how to do it :)

The weekend is here!

What a whirlwind week it has been. It was rest week, but I really did not rest much.

I work in accounting and this week was month end. For those of you that don't know, month end is kind of crunch time for us accounting folk. Deadlines and more deadlines piled up on top of each other plus any "new" projects that the people we support figure out they need NOW... the last day of the month. And of course they needed it by yesterday... Go figure.

We got back from MN on Sunday evening after a very short an busy weekend. We saw family, friends, visited some places that brought back memories and got new tattoos :) Todd's cousin is a tattoo artist, so we always go to him when we get our new art. My new drawing is so little it literally took him longer to prep than to tattoo me (all of 5 mins). Megan's sleep schedule was all messed up the entire weekend, so by the time we got home sunday we were all crabby and super tired.

Rest week also saw me retesting on the 3 disciplines. I actually did 2, the swim and run, the bike is scheduled for today when my daughter is taking her nap (she got up at 5.30 am this morning, and yes, it is SATURDAY!). I think the other 2 went really well. 

The first time I did the swim test Coach had me do 10x50 with 10' rest in between. She had offered 10x100, but said that 10x50 would be ok too, since she did not know what my swimming endurance was. I replied along the lines of "I will stick with the 10x50 since I do not want to be an overachiever from day one". She replied: "Oh really? Next time is 10x100 then. You will learn to love me for things like that" Let me say, lesson learned. So she stuck to her word and prescribed 10x100 for my swim test. I was able to keep a consistent pace compared to when I did the 10x50. She said that was great because it is not easy to do, but I still felt a bit disappointed. Here is my dilemma. I want to get faster at swimming, and I know it will require extremely hard work, which I am ok with doing. I know nothing good is easy, but at the same time I am scared. The water is super intimidating to me, and that has a BIG role in my ability to swim (or not). I know it is all in my head, and I am working on overcoming my own self set limitations.

When I did the run retest I thought I had killed it. I knew I gave it all I had and was hoping I had gone a much longer distance. It turns out that I didn't. My HR was a lot higher than last time but my distance was the same. How you ask? Well, when I did the test the first time I could not get the HR monitor to work properly. It would not pick up my signal. I had to stop and restart the test at least one time. So this leads me to believe that the data I got the first time was all wrong and I have been training in WAAAAY lower HR's than I should have (I have since changed my chest strap and I am now able to get a HR read as soon as I turn my watch on). I started thinking (maybe over thinking... one of my pitfalls) that all the training I had done this past 4 weeks didn't make me improve at all and actually made me weaker/slower. I was really upset. Coach said that now we have ACCURATE data and I will be able to run faster since the data we had before was super wrong (over 20 bpms difference). I decided to forget the past and focus on working harder going forward. What's done is done and can't be changed, but I can affect how my training goes next week.

I am officially signed up for my first Tri this year. It will be June 7th and it is just a nice little sprint. I am looking forward to it. I know it sounds crazy, but I am looking forward to feeling the butterflies in my stomach the morning of (I ALWAYS get nervous before a race, even if I have done it numerous times... I think it has to do with the swimming). I can't wait to get my season started. Fun times are coming.

I discussed with my Husband and after we get some minor bills paid off, I will be able to get a new bike!!!! I am already drooling over a couple of nice looking ones. Like the Quintana Roo Dulce, or the Orbea Ora Ultegra, or the Quintana Roo Chicqilo. Todd even said I might be able to have it before my 1/2IM distance tri at the end of september. Can't wait! When reading bike specs I have no idea what it all means, so I will have to ask Coach to share her expertise with me, so it helps me make a nice informed decision.

Speaking of decisions, I have made up my mind to do an IM in 2010. I do not think I will have the time or be physically ready to do it in 2009, so I gave myself some extra wiggle room and came up with 2010. Which one? Florida. A fellow blogger said she would do it with me. Anybody else game?