Training has Begun.

As many of you know last summer I competed in my first super sprint distance triathlon (basically a quarter of an olympic distance).  I placed 4th in my age category.  I was proud!  The second race I competed in was supposed to be a sprint distance (half the olympic distance) but it got turned into a duathlon at the last minute. Boo! And I placed 7th.  I would have done better if it had remained a full triathlon because the run is my weakest leg of the tri.  But I was still really happy with my results! My transitions were good, other than losing the insole to my running shoe.  Blah!  I trained with Mommies in Motion.

This year my goal is to train for a full olympic distance triathlon (1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run).  I'm super excited to train with a new set of folks (men and women!!! woot).  Janicke is my new coach, from Millcroft Fitness.  Currently I am running with them, I go to Goodlife for spin classes and weights, and as always I am still doing hot yoga at Power Yoga Canada.  So if you are interested in my journey it it my goal to begin posting more often.  I want to share my journey.  To inspire anyone to try something new and scary, something that will make you proud!  And most importantly bring you closer to who you want to be. I want to be a mom, an athlete and a teacher. I want balance and happiness.  This is how I'm going to do it.

Ok so for the last month I have been slowly getting myself into the kind of shape I think I need to be in to actually compete in these events.  I'm not kidding myself, last summer I was racing against other newbies into the sport.  Not many triathletes stay in the short distances for very long, they move on to bigger and scarier events.  So this summer I'm going to be competing against some fierce women.  I've been working on building endurance and strength.  So that means I've been killing my legs, arms and shoulders doing super sets. That means about 300 reps alternating major muscle groups.  (gluts and legs to calves) (biceps to triceps  and (shoulders to traps)  It hurts, I swear and it takes like an hour and half.  I warm up, stretch, do the stupid long set, do some abs core and then finish with a stretch.  So I aim for 3 times a week, on alternating days I do some long cardio.  For example I might do a spin class followed by a run (I'm working up to running 10k after spinning for 50 minutes) So far I can run 7.5k.  On Saturday morning I like to do a marathon workout.  CXworks (core type class with the rubber band), then a combat followed up with a spin class.  I am aiming to be able to sustain a high level of physical activity for about 3 hours.  I'm also running during my lunches with a fellow teacher a couple times a week, and running with my Millcroft Fitness group.

Eventually starting April official triathlon workouts will begin.  And starting this week I will also be adding a swim on Wednesday nights to the schedule.  Ok so what does this insanity look like....

Monday: Run at school, legs at gym and hot yoga
Tuesday: Run with group, (possibly hot yoga or swim practise)
Wednesday: Run at school, arms at gym, swim (if I didn't do it tues.)
Thursday: Spin then tread mill run
Friday: Shoulders at gym
Saturday:  CXworks, combat and spin classes at gym
Sunday: REST!  Amen!  (if I can I will bring the kids to little pretzels and I will do a hot yoga)

This schedule will change in April as I begin to add in more training with the group and less weights (but somehow I will need to keep my legs strong to support the extra load).  As of now my teaching schedule is letting me get most of these workouts in either before school or right after so that I'm home with the kids 6 nights a week.

Three weeks in summary...

Ok let me see where to start. (In point form)
- I am still vegan and going strong (I did however enjoy some fish a couple of times in the last month though)! Meh.  I'm only vegan to feel good and be healthy, and I feel good and healthy when I eat fish!
- I've created all sorts of fun new things, like chili cheese popcorn and cashew cheese.
-I stopped drinking caffeine before my last race and just haven't drank it since, only decaf and the occasional green tea. Mostly rooibos or herbal.
- We went to Sudbury for a week and I did some extreme open water swimming with my brother Ian (the varsity swimmer), mostly extreme for me because the waves were probably 40-50cm high.
-My knee has been seizing up and causing me a ridiculous amount of pain, so I had to cut back on my running to counter that issue.  More biking and swimming to make up for that.
- This past week I have been in my school getting set up in my new office because I don't have a classroom, which I am very happy about!
- Not so happy to find out that my teaching assignment is literally to split grades the whole week. Get this I am teaching science (in french) to : a 2/3split, a 3/4 split, a 4/5 split and a 5/6 split. Yay me!~
But once I got my head around the copious amounts of science units I need to know (20 in total), at least only 5 at a time :)  ha ha I got kind of excited because I get to teach the fun stuff.  You know the outdoor lessons, the experiments, the field trips, the scientist/dorky stuff!  And because I'm me, I'm starting with the units that I love the most, plants, ecosystems, habits and human body.  I am going to have a blast this term.  I selfishly choose these units because they are by far way up my alley and they will allow me to gain my teaching confidence back.  Geeze it's been almost 5 years since I worked in a school.

- Topic change!  I just made a butternut squash soup (squash, a few stalks of celery, 1 onion, 1 large carrot, a sweet potato and a handful of garden herbs -thyme, savory and sage) and the coup de resistance was that I added some coconut oil to it and some cremed coconut at the end, just a tbsp or so.  And WOW!   sooooo creamy and good!

-Topic change AGAIN! My big race! The culminating event of my entire summer's worth of training....was this Sunday and it wasn't what I was prepared for or anticipated. At all.  The evening before the event they sent out an email telling us that we couldn't swim in the water due to bacteria levels, so they were changing the triathlon to a duathlon.  So that meant I would run 2.5k, bike 20k then run another 5k.  I was really upset when I found this out because I am a strong swimmer and between swimming and my fast biking I would have a good enough advantage to possibly place.  The other thing that I found out was that most super fast runners are terrible swimmers (grrr) so I lost my advantage while the runners gained theirs.  The day was hot (in the 30s) and it was a bit windy (not too bad).  All in all I did ok.  I placced 7th, the bike portion was amazing.  I was flying and feeling really good.  The first run part was awful, I felt like garbage, and the transition from run to bike was really sloppy (since I had never done it before).  And the second run was better than the first, in fact I think I got negative splits (go figure, I gues it takes my body a while to get used to the idea of running).. Anyway, Mark and the kids tried to cheer me but they missed most of it because they didn't have an attention span long enough to stay in one spot.  They saw me off. and that was about it.  They missed the finish because I arrived before the mc was even calling out ppls names... ( I guess that was a good sign).   But I now know that duathlon is not for me,  7th out of 49 I think.  The other thing I figure is if I had done the shorter distance, based on my times from the last tri/and yesterdays times I would have come in either 2nd or 3rd!  So all in all not a bad race day!

So that pretty much sums it up.  My first day of work in 5 years starts tomorrow, Mark is home full time with the kids (the two that aren't in school full time) and I will be getting back into some type of gym routine again! With the addition of swimming, spinning and running at least once a week.  OH that reminds me, my knee is much better since a week ago someone pointed out to me that runner's are in fact supposed to land on the balls of their feet NOT their heals... like I was.  Duh I wonder if that was causing my knee pain.  Well I worked on that and didn't feel a single twinge during my run on Sunday.

This is a picture from the Niagara race.  For this race I got Scott from Rock and Road cycle to put red tape on my handle bars! (they have magic I've been told) Placebo or not, I loved the bike portion of the race!

Appreciation.... Motivation...Inspiration

I finished my race! sigh... I finished it, but it was just the first step on my journey.  I'll get to that later in the post though.  First and foremost I want to say a huge and resounding THANK YOU!!!!  To everyone that supported me and cheered me on, and sent me special little surprises in the mail.  (you know who you are)  I can't beleive how many people are behind me on this goal.  Unbelievable, you know... you don't need to be an Olympic athlete to feel the love and support, I felt it!  Folks I didn't even know were cheering me on at the race, me (not the person behind me) but ME!  How cool is that, strangers cheering me on!  And all of you who sent me support via fb or in person, I used it, it drove me!  I was racing for all of you! 

Tonight I was chatting with a friend about motivation to exercise (she is pregnant and still given'er at the gym - can I hear a "woot woot"), and I think neither one of us actually wanted to come out and say it but we do it to inspire and we use that positive energy for ourselves, to drive us!  Does that make sense? At first when I was working out the idea of motivating others, to motivate myself, I thought it made me sound full of myself, or full of pride... But that's not the case.  I am fueling myself on the positive energy that I put out! And others are also benefiting.  Either way it's a win-win.  I keep going full tilt knowing that people are looking to me as an inspiration, but it's not stressful because I can go full tilt knowing everyone has my back with their love and support.  Sheesh this is confusing, does it make sense to you?

 Here is an example of when I was pregnant how I was driven by everyone's compliments: complete strangers would come up to me and give me sincere props for working out at the gym being massively pregnant, this made me feel good, so I would go back the next time.  (I'm kind of an endorphin junky as well but anyway...)  My close friends would "oohh and aaahh" at my strength and stamina, so I kind of used that as fuel/positive energy to get me through the tough stuff, knowing that I was also setting an example that "if I can do it, so can you!" But it's the feedback that felt really good, because fellow gym-bums would tell me how I inspired them to do more.  Probably some type of positive feedback loop stuff (out of my realm of phych knowledge).  

So back to appreciation, I want to show you a picture of what I keep in my kitchen in my most used cupboard (spices and tea)...  These are little messages of inspiration that friends and family have given me over the last little while.  (Not included are obviously all the emails and msg from family and friends),,, I should print them though!

Now onto the race.  I did amazing (I'm waiting for the pictures from the race photographers) but here are a few silly shots from the transition area.

I didn't wear the purple MIM (Mommy's in Motion) purple shirt while racing. I just had my tri suit on. I opted for the shorter race, partially because I'm a wimp and was too scared to attempt the unknown with a bigger than usual sprint distance (it was like 3/4 of the Olympic distance), and I wanted to test the waters out on a race that I knew I could accomplish physically.  I estimated that I would place something like 7th, based on previous results and my approximate times.  But I did much better than that.  I placed 4th out of a huge age group (women 30-39) 72 people! I placed 31st over all out of like 300.  My swim time was a bit slower than I anticipated (because I didn't know they count the run out of the water to the transition as part of the overall swim time), but my bike time was faster than I had estimated, and the run was in fact a bit faster than I had estimated.  I figured I would do a 6min swim/20min bike/15min run/and I figured about 4 minutes in transitions. So my estimation was 45minutes to do the super sprint triathlon.  If you care here are the official results.

Place: 31/325
Official chip time: 42:39.7
Category: F30-39
Category place: 4/72
Gender place: 9/203
Swim time: 7:45
Bike: 18:52
Run: 14:01
T1 (first transition, swim to bike): 1:13
T2 (second, bike to run): 0:51
Just for interest sake, I studied the top athletes and my transition times are very much within the range of top 10 (overall), and in fact my bike time would have placed me 13th!  (cool- yay to super fast new bike)!  Anyway I'm sure I've lost some of you to all these stats, but I care because in 3 weeks I will be doubling my distance at the Women's Milton Triathlon.  And I want a shot at some hardware! Or at least a good time with a good story!  I will be training really hard for the next 2 weeks.  Yesterday was my triathlon and today I already went out to train and did a 7k run. (I noticed my right knee is getting sharp pain so I will investigate strengthening my gluts to support my knee).  Tomorrow is my hot yoga in the AM and 2 hour Tri-practise with MIM (Mommy's in Motion/Babe's in Motion) group.

 So please keep sending me your love because sometimes I need it!  Some days I don't want to train, but knowing that I've got all of you sending your positive energy and motivation, it is what inspires me to push out of my "comfort zone" and go full tilt.  I am blessed to have the opportunity to train, I have an amazing husband who takes care of the kids, so when I leave the house with either my bike, running shoes or bathing suit (or all of the above) I work hard knowing that my time is precious! I appreciate so much what everyone has done so far! And I hope in turn I can motivate you, through my journey (mom of 4, returning to work after being home for 5 years with the kids) and my story!

Thank you!!!

Triathlon in T-2 days!

Hear me out now... Fair warning... This is a bit of stream of thought... Well yesterday I got reprimanded by both my husband and our marriage counselor about being to hard on myself and setting unrealistic goals.  She told me I had to change my attitude before my triathlon or it would be a complete flop!   Blah :p What's the point of applying yourself to something this time consuming and not set high goals?

Ok so maybe I looked at the results posted from last year!  So? I just wanted to know what type of competition I'm up against? Nothing wrong with that right?  And so what if I noticed I'm in the top 3 for swim/bike but my run I drop down to 7th or 8th.  Did I mention I hate running and will only do it fast to end it sooner!  (eyup great attitude I know)... I'm kind of annoyed with myself for not being able to run faster.

Yaaaa so perhaps the counselor and Mark have a point!  I should celebrate the fact that I am actually doing a triathlon (please note I am not doing an Olympic distance race this Sunday, only a 1/4 of the real thing).  My next one will be 1/2 the Olympic distance.  Anyway I actually find it really really hard not to be hard on myself? Is that a type A thing?  I also feel that since I've spent so much time away from my family and had to rely on Mark to pick up the extra slack that I want to "show" them that it was worth it.  You know... that their toil wasn't in vain!  I've been struggling with feeling guilty about doing this triathlon... and wanting to do it again next year.  In fact I've got my heart set on looking for sponsors in late fall... Because the costs are so high and I don't want it to burden my family any more.  But again more stress... I want to have a good "story" to sell right? 

"Mom of 4 does her first ever triathlon and takes home hardware!!!!"  How super awesome would that be!  Mom of 4 does her first ever triathlon and places 7th...just doesn't have the same... You know "Omph" to it!  Again I think I'm being hard on myself, but truly I want to rock this so that it's been worth all the effort, I want to rock this so that I can have an awesome story so that I can have some free equipment... I am totally fine being a walking advertisement for a company if it means I didn't have to spend the 60$-100$ on the bike jersey or shorts! 

So here I am 2 days before the race, today I got in the pool and timed some of my splits!  I am happy with the pace that I was swimming and the times I was making.  Tomorrow I have a massage/ART (active release techniques) and I'm bringing my bike for a pre-race tune up! Saturday I plan on just chilling and getting lots of sleep and eating lots of healthy food.  (well actually I've been eating super healthy food all week, plus added an iron supplement and cut out caffeine).  My plan is to have a kick ass strong yerba mate tea a half hour before my race and hopefully enjoy the benefits!  Ok I won't lie to you, it has sucked not having caffeine, for 2 days now I've been dealing with headaches, but I think tomorrow will be better.  Wow that stuff is addictive!  But I don't think I'll give it up, just try to minimize it near races dates!

Ok rant complete!  I just felt like I had to share my stress with everyone!  And I feel better now!

 Thank you!!!

Vegan Update

In 2 days I will have been vegan for two full weeks.  I think I passed the ultimate test this past week.  Saying no to both bacon and GF non-vegan treats.  Actually I truly don't miss the meat.  I've been eating so many new dishes because I'm being forced out of my comfort zone.  I realized that if I really wanted bacon, I could make it from young coconut.  Or just go to the Naked Sprout, they have a vegan BLT!

 Anyway I wanted to share with you that being vegan in a house of meat eaters isn't that hard.  Last night I made nacho's for 5 of us.  Mine was vegan, Patrick's was dairy free, Luke's didn't have tomatoes, Mark's had no peppers... you get the point right.  Everyone likes their food just a little different from the other.  Sooo this is what it looks like in my kitchen on a typical diner!

Right: ground chicken with garlic and chili powder... Left can of aduki beans, mushrooms, chili powder and garlic

I heated it until the mushrooms wilted and turned dark.

The assembly station. 

In the oven at 350F for 20 minutes. 

So just for the record, I didn't go vegan because I have any animal right's issues.  I've gone vegan to try to clean out my system.  I want my body to run as efficiently as possible and from everything I read meat as a source of protein just isn't what I want.  I am amazed at how much my training has improved over these last few weeks.  In fact I can't even remember the last day that I took off training.  I've done something every single day and doing it well at that.  I biked 52km yesterday and today ran 7km.  Tomorrow I've got a 25k planned and a short run. Tuesday is power yoga and tri-training with the club, Wednesday is swim/bike....you get the picture!

 I'm eating tons of seasonal fruit (I love that I can do that) I am not hungry because I eat often and really well, my body is shedding the extra weight it gained in July, I am able to run further, bike further/faster, swim faster, with less rest needed between, and all while keeping a lower heart rate!  All in all, not to bad.  I've also been reading Brandon Brazier's The Thrive Diet book and learning tons of fun new tips.  Like how yummy nutritional yeast is, but to boost it's already awesome nutritional content, put it in the coffee grinder with raw sesame seeds, place in a shaker and add as a "cheesy" topping!

 Tonight I made air popcorn, melted coconut butter over it, and used my new topping (plus a dash of salt)... wow it was amazing! I also put a bit of chili powder on it to see if I would like them together... Duh! of course they went well together, chili cheese popcorn!  Clean and healthy!

SHOES!!!!

I am thrilled to finally have new shoes.  This triathlon training is expensive but I think I've been doing ok.  I sold my blue steel bike yesterday, and with that cash, plus a bit of money I made selling some of the kids clothes earlier in June.  I walked into The Running Company with my 200$ cash. They were wonderful!  Amazing actually, I tried on about 7 pairs of shoes and ran in each of them (down the block and back)...yes I think I did get a bonus workout today! Greg knew how much money I had, knew that I was with the Mommy's in Motion tri group, and checked out my feet/gait/stride and wear patterns on my old shoes. He did his job and found me a pair of racing shoes (he must have told me 10 times that these are ONLY for races)... lol.  Aren't they cute!  Plus they installed the shoe laces and told me how to use them...  I know it sounds dumb but I wanted to know what to expect coming off my bike (without socks) getting into these.  I practised in the store, under their tutelage!  I am that lame! But aren't they super duper cute!

 And these more hearty shoes are my new training shoes.  I added the red laces to spiff them up a bit! They are great for me, apparently I have a good arch. But from the multiple shoes I tried on Greg deduced that I like a snug fit on my heal and I have a wide toe heal.  Um ok thanks!  But the shoes are very comfy. I'm by no means an expert but I think paying 202$ (with tax and the laces) for 2 new pair of shoes is pretty darn good! And really who cares if it's the placebo effect, but I plan on running stupid fast in the race in my new pretty pink shoes!

 

ps.  The Running Company sells triathlon gear and clothing!

Scattered Thoughts...

I am overwhelmed by the thoughts floating around my head these days. They are all bound and wound up together so I'm just going to put them on here and hopefully clear up some space! Sheesh. 

Here are the random words floating around my head...

transitions....50 shades of hotness...cooler 1... argh... kids who don't fall asleep...tea...(oops, very strong tea now... it's been steeping for 10mins)...running shoes...GF beer (New Grist)...missing popcorn...cravings...shoes on or off...running in the rain...laundry (wet)...peaches...weight gain...

Here is the stream of thoughs... in real time!

I can't beleive so many women are reading the 50 Shades trilogy, is it every hot and totally educational.  I mean I've read erotica but this is like hello Twilight meets Clan of the Cave Bear (by Jean Auel) with a spinkle of Anne Rice (her Sleeping Beauty trilogy).  By the way when you read on an ebook, teehee no one knows what you are reading :)   And insert baby crying again....  ohhh god who just made the 3 year old wake up crying.... who also doesn't want to sleep!  Arrggg ever!  It's like he has ants in his pants... He is twitchy at bedtime???  I mean I swear the other two kids didn't give us that hard of a time falling asleep. And yes we are doing everything to help.  His room is like a cavern of darkness, no toys in the room, no tv before bed, he's been playing and running lots during the day.  O... that wasn't bad they are now quiet.  But in the brief silence I'm reminded of my trip this morning to Exhibition place in Toronto to watch the Toronto Triathlon.  While I was waiting for the train, I could hear the birds chirping.... the birds!  That is silence my friends!  No screaming excited children, by the way I am actually looking forward to the end of summer vacation (3 weeks home with the 4 kids is long enough for me... I'm just saying)... Ah right back to the silence, I beleive I texted Mark something like "basking in the sweet silence".

So now onto the triathlon, before today I was really nervous.  In all honesty I have never even watched a triathlon on tv.  All I knew is that it involves 3 events with 2 transitions between each of these.  But now I feel pretty confident.  My first triathlon is Aug 12, something like 3 weeks away!  I'm ready for it!  Mostly because I've decided to do the shorter distance.  Then the next one is Sept 2nd and it will be the sprint distance, which is 1/2 the Olympic distance.  I was paying close attention to how the swimmers "look" in the water, are they kicking each other in the face, where would be the best place to position myself (either I swim fast and make it up front) or go on the outside of the group (that way I can pass as I want).  Anyway then I watched them as they got out of the water (no one fell over!) I've gotten dizzy when I get out the pool too fast and start to run.  They know where their bikes are, obviously they paid attention to the row and such when they were setting up.  There were something like 1200 participant so that many bikes in the transition area... Could be confusing.  Anyhow, I did observe many different methods of transitioning.  Some people didn't have to do much, they were swimming in their tri-suits (no wetsuits) so they just took off their cap, while running to their bikes.  Put on their helmets (some put on socks), and off they were.  Some of these super fast athletes already had their shoes clipped into the peddles, other people ran in their bike shoes, some people ran barefoot up to the start.  I think I'll run in my shoes.  Even though it sucks to do that, better than falling on my butt trying to put my feet into my bike shoes as I'm peddling! Ok so that's transition #1, the  second transition is from bike to run.  Again I watched many different dismounts, shoes, no shoes...etc... I think if I will have enough time I will try to take the straps off my shoes while I'm biking (I've tried with success), peddle with my feet on top of the still clipped in bike shoes, then just jump off my bike before the LINE.  This is a penalty line, at this triathlon if you missed the line you had to sit out for a 2 minute penalty.  I thought that was funny!  But anyway.  Get to the bike rack to rack up my bike, take off my helmet and put on my running shoes.  Which by the way I still don't have yet!  I need shoes!  So many options to choose from. 

Next stream... food... drinks... ahhh beer. You know since going gluten free I haven't been able to drink beer.  I've been drinking apple cider.  Which is delicious with ice on a hot day.  But that is the problem, I'm usually so good about keeping my diet really clean. But now I've been drinking a few "cold beverages" every couple of days.  And when I do that I then get the munchies for my favorite -junk food- popcorn (smart food)... stupid name, it is not smart... it is absolutely terrible for me. Mostly because I always have like 5 cups at a time.  Something like 900 mg sodium and 25g of fat.   As I re-read this paragraph I realized I know why I'm drinking so much more, I'm spending all day with my kids and when I'm not with them I'm training (or doing yoga).  I'm so wound up tight that the booze helps me chill out and enjoy the season.  And then I found New Grist, a GF beer that is made with rice and sorghum (i think a grain?), it is sooo good!  But again, not for me.  I've consciously tried to tighten the belt with processed foods (or anything with refined grains in general).  ps. I just checked wiki and sorghum is used for sugar.  Ahhhh sugar!  Evil sugar... It lurks everywhere!    So here's the thing I can live without almost no refined sugar, very little salt (mind you I do have electrolyte drinks) but cooler 1 is so strict when it comes to fruit.  And tis the season of the most amazing fruit/berries.  Strawberries/blueberries/raspberries and peaches!  ohhh the peaches are amazing right now!  Our house is on our 3rd basket of peaches this week!  I know fruit has tons of sugar, granted with a lower glycemic index than refined sugar.  But how to say no to seasonal fruit???   Well I wonder if part of my weight problem, not that it's a really big problem, but the scale is very slowly climbing up.  I'm up 4 lbs in 2 months.  Is it the different training, the massive water retention because it's hot (my clothes generally feel the same), my friends have said I'm looking beefier??  (I know that's weird even for me to write it), or lets be brutally honest... Booze + smart food = weight gain??  

Is this post too long? Ya I think so too!  I should post more often!  I'll get on that. 

Cheers

ps. space significantly cleaned up!

Tri-training Update!

I realize it's been a while since updating everyone on my triathlon training.  Today is a good day to update you since I did the equivalent of a sprint tri this morning.  It was great!  Ohhhh and I'm not sure if I told you either but I got a new bike (well used) but still nearly new.  It still had the stickers on it.   I got it for 880$ (which is a shit load of money, I know!) But since I'm going back to work in September I used that leverage to get a real road bike.  I love it!  It's a 2008 Trek Pilot 2.1... which basically means it's about 15lbs lighter than my old road bike!  I've learned so much since starting this venture, words like carbon forks and seat stays.   Which my new bike has.  The bike weights 18lbs...  hee hee! So awesome... anyway I digress...

Today I started off suiting up in my new tri-suit. (pretty much the cheapest one I could find) 90$. From Foot Tools   They did a great job, I only had 120$ left after my bike purchase and they did what they could for me!  I got a discount because I am part of the Mommy's in Motion group! So suit and a pack of socks (you know fancy shmancy running/biking socks) not cotton!

 Sports bra (that is not cotton)...  I wasn't paying much attention to the seminar on sports bars but I did remember the comment don't run in anything cotton!  Those are my bike shoes which I got for stupid cheat at least, 1$ at the Mountain Coop Bikefest earlier this year, the clips were on another pair of shoes that I bought for 5$. Normally these things are about 75$+15$.  Are you keeping track...  I did not exactly pick the cheapest sport to get into.  Anyway,  got on my bike...

 Packed my camel bag (a water bag to put my few things in and lots of water). It was hot today around 37C so I had about 2L of water on me.  I rode to the outdoor pool and brought my bike right on deck (they were nice about that, because I didn't want to bring a bike lock).

 I swam 800m pretty fast (well fast for me) in about 13mins, then got out, ripped off my cap and goggles, stuffed them in my pack, put on my shoes and helmet and off I went.  It was actually the first time I swam in the tri suit, it wasn't that bad actually!  It's a nice snug fit so nothing was dragging.  Good investment for now, I do not plan on wearing a wet suit, so I should save some time on my transitions, going from lake to bike with only this suit on!

My swimming pass (for lap swimming) at all Burlington pools was 70$ for the summer months.

On my bike I did a nice loop around Burlington doing around 28km, I added a nuun (electrolyte supplement) to my water bottle on my bike so that helped. I ended up at my house, scarfed a larabar, put on my running shoes, drank more water and went out for a 5K run.  To be honest this was the leg that I was dreading, the bike was awesome, the water on my skin kept me cool at first, (I didn't dry off, no room for a towel) then the nice wind kept me going.  The scenery changing was wonderful, biking on Lakeshore for about 8km then going up North and doing the same on quiet roads with rolling hills.

 The run, is tough. There is a reason why we do brick workouts in training.  It is because you are doing these perfect circles with your legs on your bike for a long ride and then suddenly you are off and stumbling into a running gait.  Not so easy. (You feel like you are running with bricks in your shoes) At least I didn't fall!  I've realized the key is to take a few really short steps until you feel like you can actually run! Anyway...  I did it!  Swim/Bike/Run

Triathlon training con't: step 4

Just to review steps 1-3 were,1- find a group to train with, because everything is always better in a social group, 2- find a bike (preferably a road bike, but doesn't have to be) and 3- get in the water and swim.  Today I'll be addressing learning to ride a bike!  Disclaimer: I am not a certified tri coach (obviously) so don't take my word as the law, at one point in my life I was a competitive swim coach, but that doesn't mean I know how to train for a triathlon! So moving along...

Step 4:  Learning to ride a road bike.  I guess because I had no idea what I was getting myself into, so NO preconceived notions of the difficulties in riding a road bike (really stupid of me, btw) I just bought a road bike, got the peddles changed, put on my spin shoes (the ones I had been using at Goodlife to do the RPM -aka spin classes) and got on the bike, tried to clip in annnnddd FELL!  Soooo not the romantic start to my biking career that I had envisioned.  Then I decided to back up a few steps, again I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before falling, but this time I got Mark to adjust the seat.  From what I understand when positioning a bike (again from my RPM days) is that you want your leg that is pushing the peddle all the way down - while you are sitting- to be almost straight, and when your foot is up at the top, there should be a like a plumb line running from your knee joint down to your ankle.  Disclaimer: I don't know if this is in fact the true measurement for a road bike, but it is for a spin bike.  Now this time I took it for a spin around the block using my running shoes!  Much better idea.  I literally went around my block 10 times, playing with different handle bar positions, learning to change my gears.

120$ for 25 year old steel road bike!  Needed new inner tubes and tires!

 Ohhhh the gears!!!!  stupid gears!  I was totally spoiled on my hybrid bike, because all you had to do was turn a little dial and voila! gears changed, nice and smooth.  Well not so much on a 25 year old road bike.  I have these two levers between my handle bars, and they like to stick, and make noise and they do not like me very much!  so that aside, I rode in circles until I felt confident on my new seat position and bent-over-arms-reaching position.  Then I put my spin shoes on (they have a little metal thingy on the bottom).  I sat on the bike, holding onto the van door and just practised clipping in and out.  I've done it a bit in the past on a stationary spin bike, you have to torque your heal outwards to unclip.  However again spin bike..., stationary... road bike... being held upright by two tiny wheels and MY BALANCE! 

Gear shifters!  I am not a fan! But can't complain for such a cheap bike!

My 2 year old spin shoes that miraculously fit in the pedals I got at Bikefest for 1$

Took the old pedals off and put these on, you can still ride with running shoes too!

Now I was ready to take my bad boy (because it's steel and blue) out for real test ride with shoes and clips.  I was smart and did take off and practise getting in and out on our front lawn, then I just got on the road and went around the block another million times.  In terms of speed I didn't notice a huge change.  And I do remember seeing road bikers pull up the the curb to unclip so they keep one foot in and balance on the unclipped side, so I practised doing that! 

Fast forward a few days and I am not setting out for my first "big" ride, something far from home!  My plan is to ride to Mountain Equipment Coop because it's has a bike shop and they are open till 9PM.  So shoes on - check, helmet on- check, water,phone and credit card in camel pack - check, cute lululemon shorts- check, MEC long sleeve moisture wick shirt on- check, black fleece overtop- check... I take off...  On back roads to get to Brant street.  Now little did I know how steep the freakin incline is on Brant street (here in Burlington), I've always been in a car!  What a shock! My bike speedometer/computer was clocking me going nearly 50kms an hour!!!  (ok really 47km and hour) but still.  Holly cow!  I was fn petrified I was going to die, seriously seriously scared.  I did push my breaks a bit, but then I got scared they wouldn't work properly (which was why I was heading to MEC in the first place to get a tune up).  So I did the only thing I could think of... flex my abbs like I was going to die...  I just locked everything in, had a death grip on the handle bars, and hoped to GOD I wouldn't hit some grate in the road or something else.  And finally I made it to the store!  In one piece!  So by now it's about 8:20, not dark out but overcast and rainy.  I got them to look at my bike and do a half tune up on the spot (because for a real tune up, they would have kept my bike for a couple of days).  Since I was at MEC anyway, I decided to buy a pair of bike shorts (because even that short 10K to mec- downhill) was enough to convince me of their value.  Another thought that occurred to me was the fact that I didn't want to get hit by a car, so I looked for the brightest vest they had (I could have worn one of those orange targets - you know the crossing guard ones- but couldn't bring myself to the dorkyness factor of that) so settled on a really bring yellow one!   Good heaven's, I bought the cheapest shorts and vest and the cost was almost as much as I paid for my bike! 

Anyway, now I am the proud owner of some swanky bike clothes, a steel bike (aka... really heavy), and shoes and clips.  As a side note, last weekend was Bikefest at Spencer smith park held my MEC so they were getting rid of bunch of second hand clothes and equipment,(you know returns and such that they didn't want to store anymore) and I totally scored a stupid amount of amazing gear for next to nothing.  Got my bike peddles for 1$ (a 50$ value) just to give you an example.  My camel pack was a prize won my my super awesome daughter for a bike runner race they had!   Note to self!!!  must return next year for Bikefest to stock up again!

Holds 2L of water!  and it was FREE!!!!  thank you MEC

You can't really tell but I swear the yellow actually glows it is so bright in reality.

Tuesday night was our first "official" practise for the tri-club.  It was a 15KM hills ride and a 2.5K run.  Apparently this type of workout is called a Brick workout, because after biking your legs feel like bricks!  And as I mentioned before I didn't really notice the difference the bike shoes made, until this practise!  They were sooo useful on the hills because they make the "up-stroke" so much easier.  I was passing people going uphill on mountain bikes!  And I'm not a very good cyclist remember I just learned to ride!  But the clips made all the difference, and on the way back to the track, I continued focusing on the "up" motion of my feet and wow again a huge difference in speed! So much more power to be had.  Everyone can push down that's the easy part, but now add in the element of pulling up and pushing down = magic.  And I also had to force myself to shift down and stay sitting while going uphill.  This was new because I like to muscle my way through stuff, but as Coach Nancy said "triathlon training is different because we are doing 3 consecutive races, we need to focus on saving our legs!  So gear down down and increase your pedal speed while climbing a hill".  (I think that the right way, still not sure of the lingo yet, gear so it's easier to pedal going up hill, and more difficult to pedal going down)

Training for a Tri: Step 1-3 (of many more)

Step 1:  Find an awesome group to train with, and even better a group that has a coach!  Sigh*** I love coaches, they just make me feel so warm and fuzzy on the inside, like everything is going to be ok!  I imagine my affinity to "coach" comes from a decade of competitive swimming.  I'm thrilled to share my group with all of you (it's not to late to join, all levels welcome) On facebook look up Mommy's in motion/Babe's in motion and the website is http://secondwindconditioning.ca/.  I loved when they introduced themselves and then told us that we would be split up in two groups on the first day of training, groupA - been around before  groupB- S (squared) - aka.  scared shitless

Step 2: Find a bike (and make sure you have a helmet), and get on that bike... NO FEAR!!!!  Ok so realistically I can ride a bike, I know how to use the gears, I know most road signals for turning, and I'm not afraid to bike in the bike lanes on the road, I am however nervous as hell to ride around other people.  You know the Tour de France epic crashes, well I get antsy when I'm biking with my 6 year old because she could crash into me.  I am also irrationally afraid of "curbs", not the big ones, the ones that are only about 2" high, those are the ones that freak me out because I've fallen off my bike trying to get up on one while I was biking.  And now I've just learned about another "potential" hazard... Grates!!!  Apparently your road bike tires can get caught in it.  So right... No Fearrrr!!!suuurrre... 

Step 2.1 Buying a bike.  Oh lord, will someone just take my money and find me an appropriate bike, and by money I mean like 150$, which apparently you can only find a "ok" bike if you add another "0" to that number.  Sheesh.  So let me tell you what I've learned from two days of road bike research and shopping.  Bike stores want you to buy "their" bikes, new ones of course.  And the base model, or entry level model will be about 800-1000$ (but then you still need shoes and clips), these bikes have lower end parts and the bike is mostly made of aluminum (which is heavier than the carbon frame ones).  The better version would be about 400$ more and that will get you better components but still not a lighter frame.  When you get into the 2K range then you are looking at a carbon frame (which weighs all of 2-3 lbs less).  So for an extra thousand dollars you get a bike that is a few lbs lighter.  Wow! 

I am not buying a new bike, I've scoured kijiji and pinkbike to find something more in my price range (next to nothing) that will suffice for this summer (and possibly next).  Again the range for used is basically 100-750$ (that is for an entry level model).  I've managed to locate, a bike that is going for 75$, but I'm not sure the seller will sell to me... Hello Kyle!  please rsvp to me...sending out my intrawebnet-tellapathy vibes...  He has responded once to my reply to his add, but nothing since.  Ugghhh I am so impatient.  I have actually checked my email 3 times since starting to write this post.   I will let you know as soon as I get an actual road bike, it will be very exciting and interesting!

Step 3:  Get in the water, so simple and yet still ridiculous.  Today is supposed to be my rest day, but at about 8:50, while I was lying down beside Patrick trying to get him to fall asleep, I remembered someone from the training group mentioned that Tansley Woods Rec centre has lap swimming mon-thur from 8:30-9:30.  So what the hell, if I decided something on the spur of the moment, then I don't have time to physch myself out, I jumped out of bed, put on my old training suit, stuffed a towel, some underwear, shampoo and goggles in a bag and ran out of the house.  The rec centre is about 5 mins from my house, so I made it there by about 9:03, they didn't charge me but told me I could hop in and swim.   COOL!  free swimming, I need to remember that!  So I just walked on deck, stripped off my pants and sweater, grabbed my googles (my hair was in pig tails because I don't have a cap) as a side note, did you know swim caps melt with age.  Seriously gross!  I walked up to the 'medium speed' lane, but noticed that the slow lane only had one swimmer, so instead of joining a group of 5 swimmers I had my own lane. The thoughts that raced through my mind as I hopped in, dunked and started up a rhythm of strokes. 

1- wow I feel good, this isn't that hard, 2- don't forget to kick, don't just drag your legs and 3- WTF... why is my bathing suit nearly falling off!!!!  Like we are talking butt billows here, and I'm sure a few times the girls came out, and I tucked them back in during a flip turn.  I need a smaller bathing suit, oh great Mark is going to love the next expense to this venture.  A suit that fits is pretty important.  Even though I had no physical problems swimming 800m (the sprint tri distance is 750m) I was extremely distracted by my suit being too big.  It never really occurred to me when I was putting on my suit that I needs to be tight (really tight) When I've worn it before it was tight, which was 6 years ago.  I'm about 40lbs lighter now.

  So if nothing else, when you buy yourself a bathing suit make sure when you are trying it on, it feel like you are trying to get into something that is way to small, drag is good for training but not good when you want to "feel" the water. 

So these are the first few steps of my journey towards a triathlon.