Week 3 and a Tri

Week 3 "recovery week" is complete. I feel pretty good about my performance last week. I guesss I should feel good since we did have to take it pretty easy :o) The next two week are "build" weeks and then we have another "recovery" week should be interesting since the 2 weeks of "build" means things will pick up again as far as intensity and time. We'll see how it goes.

Tri for Fun Update
Great Swim, Great Bike, Bad Run!

My alarm clock went off at 4am on Saturday. I had gotten all my gear ready on Friday night so really all I had to do was get dressed, eat and load up the car. I did all that and we were out of the house by 4:45. We arrived at Shadow Cliffs at 5:15 and to my surprise there wasn't a huge back up of cars waiting to get in the gates. We paid our $6 and found parking spot nice and close. Amy arrived a few minutes after and since we were super early we were able to have a great spot to rack our bikes and set up.

We got our race numbers, got marked with our numbers (righ arm, left leg) and then we sat around and waited and waited for the 7am start.



Do you see in the picture above how much space is between my bike (the white one) and Amy's? and then between Amy's and the guy next to her (who happened to radomly rack his bike next to us and then Amy and him got talking and he's on our team, LOL! Hi MATT!) Anyway, at Pac Grove this will NOT be happening. At Pac Grove there will be no space between our bikes and all the bikes will be squashed together along with all our gear on the ground. It's going to be madness.

The swim - 8:41
I felt great during the swim and was actually able to find a great spot to just keep swimming without being killed by any of the other people. My only probably was that I had to back off a little and slow down because I was catching up to the girl in front of me and she would have kicked me in the face if I got to close. I tried to go around her at one point but she moved over and then I got sandwiched in between her another girl so I just backed off a bit again. I was happy with my 8 minutes and 41 seconds though. I've done this race 2 other times and that was my best swim so far. I'm sure it's still slow compared to others but for me it felt good and I didn't panic this time. I guess I'm finally getting used to being in the water. Oh and it did help that I didn't look towards the bottom to see the ickies.

Transition#1
Took way too long here, I think it took me almost 3 minutes to get out of the transition and onto my bike. I'm not sure why, I was just moving way too slow.

The Bike - 38 minutes (actually it was a little over 38 minutes but I can't remembe the exact seconds)

The bike went well also. I got up the hill out of the parking lot pretty easily although for some reason I couldn't clip in my left foot so it wasn't til I was on Stanley Road where it was flat that I could actually get my foot clipped in. I was super thirsty during the ride but I still am not very stable when drinking and riding so I only took one gulp of wate and didn't try it again. I was too wobbly and I didn't feel like stopping just to drink. I felt great otherwise and felt good with my time. Again it's not as fast as it could be but of the last 2 times I've done this race it was my best ride.

Transition #2
This went much smoother and I think it only took me about a minute and a half. I racked my bike, took off the bike helmet, gloves and cycling shoes and slipped on my running shoes, sunglasses, visor and grabbed my water bottle and was on my way.

The Run - BONKED - 45:00 (or something close to that)
By the time I was on the run it was crazy hot. It was in the 80's and it did not feel good. I had put ice in my water bottle and after a few minutes of running it was all melted and my electrolytes were super warm :o( The trail we ran on is not shaded, all dirt and had quite a few hills. I walked all the hills and walked a few minutes after going through the two water stops. Needless to say my run was very very slow and I felt horrible. I started to get a headache and just wanted it to be done with.


I know my final time was 1:40 but other than my swim and bike I'm not 100% certain on exact time and seconds. I forgot to do all the splits at each sport and transition. The good news is that I've gotten better and I'm happy about that. All in all the race was good.

A special thank you to my hubby who had only had an hour of sleep because he had a gig on Friday night but he still got up at 4:30 am and was ou there cheering me on. Also a big fat thank to Olivia and Jeanette for getting up super early on their day off from getting up early to come cheer us on. It was so nice to have you ladies there and thank you for the pretty sign :o)


Congrats to Ms. Amy who completed her first triathlon and did a great job :O) 13 more weeks til Pac Grove.

We had a nice breakfast with everyone and then headed home for a much needed showers and naps. Hubby and I had planned on going to the movies but neither one of us thought we'd actually stay awake through it all. I was also not sore but super exhausted. We decided instead for a mellow evening. He dropped me off at the nail shop where I met Amy for pedicures and he headed to his favorite store, Guitar Center. Afterwards, he picked me up and we walked around Walnut Creek for a little while and then had dinner. I was going downhill fast and I think it had to do with the heat and maybe a bit of dehydration :o( by the time we got home I had a massive headache so I went to bed, at 8pm, gosh I'm old :o(

Sunday we had a scheduled team run so I headed out to Danville to meet the team. I still wasn't feeling sore but pretty tired and the air quality was icky from all the fires. No way I was going to run so I decided to walk. Amy and I managed to do a little over 3 miles and I felt pretty good so I'm glad I made the decision to walk.

Afterewards we grabbed Starbuck's and did a little shopping and then headed home. Rocky and I were going to meet Olivia, Lael and Phil in SF for a free concert at Golden Gate Park so I picked up a few sandwiches on our way home, went home, showered and then headed out again. The weather had cooled down quite a bit and when we got to SF it was like winter again. The cold was no fun but we had a great time hanging out with everyone, eating and listening to the music. We actually got home a lot earlier than I had anticipated which was nice. I did some laundry, watched a little tv, ate dinner and then headed for bed fairly early.

It was a good weekend and now it's time to get ready for week 4.