Endurance Turtle A journey through this turtles triathlon adventures

So last night, George and I were eating at The Habit and discussing what all couples talk about…our upcoming training schedule for the Spring/Summer. We realized that the Nautica Malibu Tri is about 5 months away and Strawberry Fields is 3 months away. We also know that we would really like to improve our performance this year and challenge ourselves. So I put the following together, what would an Endurance Turtle post be without an Excel screenshot!?!

This is just a preliminary schedule and we will get a bit more granular as time goes on. Specifically, we are going to put each workout in our calendars so that we actually get reminders each morning of what is on the schedule that day. We are actually backing off of the training on the swim a bit and will pick it up more as we start to do more open water swimming. I feel like the pool is hard to compare to the open water and I much rather spend the time training in open water than a pool. We are really turning our focus to the bike and the run and then from there really focusing on running. We will integrate some speed work in there as well as some tempo stuff. I am hoping this will help with our overall fitness. A couple of other things we are cutting out is excessive drinking. We don’t drink much now, but we will be more aware of what we consume. We will also be focusing on rest and recovery. PTC has their weekly bricks on Wednesday’s and after they usually go to a restaurant to eat (and usually includes margaritas). With our new little regimen, we probably won’t go out too often. Still trying to keep to that budget (budgets are no fun….but necessary), trying to cut out drinking and rest we will be the social butterfly’s of the season! Not sure why George and I are taking this a little more seriously this year, I guess we just want to get better…what a concept…

So, as you may know, George and I are planning this little event…called a wedding…and we have to be very careful with the money we do spend. Therefore, races every month are just not in the budget! However, one thing that is in the budget (because it is free) and totally fun, is volunteering at these races! To add to my list of volunteer events, this Saturday I will be helping out at Oceanside 70.3. I am driving down with a fellow PTC’er (Nicole) and we are going to help out somewhere…not exactly sure where yet, I just know I get a free shirt. One of my goals is to complete a half ironman. Not sure exactly when it will be happening since next year is going to be busy, so it just might fall in 2012 and George and I can do it together. I hope to really see how everything works at a half ironman, not sure how different it is from a regular tri…but I guess I get to see

I will also be conveniently cheering for everyone that is racing and is in the Pasadena Tri Club. I am also hoping that I get to see a couple of really cool pro’s, Michael and Amanda Lovato. I follow her blog and it would be cool to see her in person, maybe even say hi to her and act like an idiot (which I do so well with famous people…or pros).

Another reason why I volunteer is so that I can give back to the sport that I love so much. If it wasn’t for all those people that volunteer their time out there for our races we really wouldn’t have a race. So I want to be one of those people!

That’s all I got, till next time.

Let’s get to the bottom line first, then I will fill in everything else:



Because I over analyze things, here we go (where is my powerpoint clicker)….I went up in over all division ranking, in 2009 I place 9th in Athena and this year I placed 5th. I was slower on the run, but faster in the bike and swim. The part that killed me was the INSANE bike to swim transition and the entirely TOO long of a run to get to the pool. I would also like to point out my bib numbers were a palindrome both years

So this is how it went, on Friday I went over to Whole Foods out at Hastings Ranch and volunteered. I got assigned to the goody bag area outside and camped out there from 4-7pm. It was fun seeing everyone and I was answering a lot of questions that people had about the triathlon. The group I was with were all runners, so when someone had a random question about transitions or clothing…I was the designated person to ask. As a suggestion to the race organizers, I think there should be an “Ask Me” table where people can go up and ask their last minute questions about triathlons. There are a lot of people that make this their first triathlon and they do have an Intro to Tri Clinic, but it is sometimes hard for people to make it out. I also have some other suggestions for the race organizers that I am keeping to myself for the moment. Let’s just say it got a little ugly….and I got a bit bitchy….

Moving on!

Saturday morning, George and I head out to the Rose Bowl. We got there with plenty of time to spare and never felt rushed. We got to say hi to a bunch of friends and our goal was to stay warm for as long as possible. I was a little nervous about my blister, I had it covered up and came to the conclusion that wearing my custom orthodics would just rub the blister even more (since that is what I was wearing when I got the blister). So I made the last minute decision to just wear the regular insoles that came with my New Balance shoes and took the risk. This isn’t the best thing to do on race day, but I had to take a little risk…I also had to avoid getting overly body marked. George and I had a wedding to go to later and I would be wearing a dress…They wanted to put my number in permanent marker on both arms, both hands, my thigh, and something on both of my calves. I told the little young volunteers that they were being lied to and all I needed was my number on each arm and my age on my calf. Once 8AM rolled around, George and I stripped down to our tri gear and we jogged to the start line. I am glad we did this, I think it helped warm us up a bit and get us ready for the race…not like it helped my run any…but I definitely didn’t feel like I was going to die on the run. This year was a little different and we had 3 waves. 1st wave was the 5k, 2nd wave was the men (bye George!) then the 3rd wave was the women.

Run – 36:49:09

Not super impressed with my run. I was 1 minute slower than the year before and this is where I really wanted to improve. I hope the reason why I didn’t do well here is because I couldn’t run the week leading up to the race because of my blister…maybe if I could have at least gotten one run in I would have been a little better. Not sure what my splits were here, just know that their mile markers and my Garmin did not sync up! Their 1 mile was my .80 mile and their 2 mile marker was my 1.80 mile. Blister never bothered me, so I made a good decision with the insoles…phew!

T1 – 1:14

Very satisfied with my T1, it went smoothly and I got out quickly. The chute for the bike exit was small and I got a slow person in front of me, that was annoying. Mount line was a little too close to the chute….but I got on my bike without hitting anyone or falling over. Win for Kristen!

Bike – 35:52:01

Faster on the bike! YESSSS! Maybe the aero bars and embarrassing disc wheel worked! Or I just rode faster this year…. My big problem with the bike is the level of inexperience there is in reference to the riders. I had to yell at a guy for drafting off of me and there were numerous times I had to swerve in order not to crash. In larger races, you stay to the right of the road and only pass on the left. In this race, they have the whole street shut down and everyone is everywhere. No one stays to one area and you have to pass on the left and the right in order to pass anyone. I tried to tell people I was coming as much as possible, but it is what it is. I also noticed that people on mountain bikes tended to swerve a lot…I don’t own a mountain bike….but is it hard to ride in a straight line with those things? This will forever baffle me. The first loop felt great, I was hauling ass. Second loop didn’t feel as good and I started to feel a slight tinge of cramps in my calves coming on. By loop three I was holding off those cramps like nobody’s business. I wanted to keep those damn things away! The only time I cramp is when going from the run to the bike, so I don’t think I have any duathlon’s in my future. I finally get into transition and feel good about my time.

T2 – 4:14:03

WORST TRANSITION EVER! I get back to my rack and there is no room for my bike (other bike were poorly racked). I spend half my time trying to get my bike racked. I really couldn’t throw it on the ground…just couldn’t do it (my inner USAT rules angle was yelling at me over my shoulder). A guy was calling out places for me to put my bike and I finally got it racked. Threw my shoes off (put my crocs on), took the helmet off grabbed my goggles and left. Half way through the transition area I realized I still had my glasses on. THANKFULLY, Tammy, a fellow PTC’er and Disney Tri Team member was volunteering at the end of the transition area. I asked her if she could take my glasses and she did. Not sure if that is against the rules…but there was a lot going on in that whole race that was against the rules so I don’t want to hear it. Now, if you are quick you would have noticed I mentioned something about my crocs. Before the race, George and I were looking at the run to the pool and he said he would wear his sneakers because he is tender footed. I agreed and decided I would wear my crocs, GREAT DECISION! As I was RUNNING AROUND THE WORLD to get to the pool, I never thought about my feet…especially over the rocks, pavement and wood chips. Right before I got to the pool area I threw them off at Monica (fellow PTCer) and ran into the pool area. P.S. Thanks Monica for moving my shoes out from the middle of the path!

Swim – 4:14:03

Jumped in the hot tub and swam my 3 lengths. I had to catch my breath a few times and probably should have trained a bit more in the pool. I was definitely feeling it by the end of the 1st length! Ran out of the pool and crossed the timing mat/finish line! DONE!

Overall, I really wanted to podium in this race…and I didn’t. I will try again next year and I know if I could just knock off 5 minutes off my run I would be there. I am glad they had timing chips this year, that was a big bonus. I will always love this race because of the overall fun of it. There are so many people yelling your name when you are out there on the course and it is great. Thanks to all the volunteers out there, you guys were awesome! Pictures to come later.

So my big surprise was that I was planning to do a 5k in my own backyard (G-Dale)…it just turned out to be crappy.

But nonetheless, here is my report. I did this race last year and wasn’t too impressed by the overall race organization. This year was a little better (they actually had my name on their list) and they had timing chips. I also feel as though I paid less for this one ($23 vs. $35 last year) but I can’t remember if I actually paid $35 last year… Anyway, I was planning on waking up at 7AM and almost screwed everything up by forgetting about daylight savings. Fortunately, we got a reminder e-mail from El Presidente of Pasadena Tri Club and I quickly reset my clock. Needless to say, I still overslept and ended up waking up at 7:40AM. I honestly don’t even remember hitting to snooze button, guess I was tired.

I am going to rewind a bit here…On Friday I did a run around the Rose Bowl and then rode twice around. Well, on my run I wore my Zoots sans socks and gave myself some little blisters in my arches. They didn’t hurt much, so when I got home I put one of those blister covers on and didn’t think much of it. Later that night I went to take the cover off and when I got to the part where the blister was the little cover was stuck to the blister! I tugged and tugged and that damn thing wasn’t going anywhere! I then decided to just cut around wound and leave the cover there. I figured it would fall off eventually and till then the cover would protect it. The next day (Saturday) I went on with my day, then that night I was pulling my sock off and not really paying attention, when all of a sudden I feel the cover rip off my skin and take the top part of the blister with it! It was very painful and I wasn’t expecting it to happen. The sticky part of the blister cover had stuck to the sock particles and that’s why it ripped off. So now I had this exposed blister and it was hurtin! I soaked my foot in Epsom Salt for 30 minutes then left the wound open to dry. It woke me up a couple times throughout the night and when I woke up it still hurt. Regardless, I decided to go ahead and go to the race. I put a new cover on (because there was no skin for it attach to now…) and put my socks and shoes on.

So now we are back to race morning. I get dressed and head out around 8AM, the race started at 8:40AM. I get down there and quickly find a parking spot a block away from the start and remembered this year where they block the streets off so I knew how to get around quickly. Once I parked, I headed over the registration and picked up my race bib and chip. No real solid goody bag, just a really crappy t-shirt. Got back to my car and put the bib and chip on, drank some water and headed back to the start. It was here when I started to feel “the urge”…I figured I could head back to the race start and find a porta potty. So I jogged over and my blister was feeling okay. I get to the start area and I didn’t see any porta potties… I think that I can manage and just line up to start. I stood there for a while, and they were doing the warm ups, I am not a huge fan of the warm ups…I have already stretched and I really don’t need to do all these various goofy things with my arms, so I just stood there and turned on my music. Here is a picture of the start:

The gun went off and everyone started….walking :-/ I guess I was too far back because everyone was moving in slow motion. I finally figured out that the best place to be was on the side and started passing people instead of wasting my energy zig zagging. I get about a half mile in and can start to feel the pain of my blister,  I think to myself that if the pain stays there I will be okay. Well, a little over a mile into the race I could feel myself compensating for the blister and running on the side of my foot. Between that and having to poop (yes I said it…get over it), I was done. I knew that if I kept running cadywhompus that I would hurt myself and be all screwed up for the Pasadena Triathlon. This is me and my sad face when I finally called it quits:

I proceeded to walk over to the timing people and told the guy that he could take my chip First race I have ever DQ’d….thankfully it was just a 5k…

After that, I grabbed a bottle of water…got sucked in to talking to a nutritionist that told me to eat healthy and take my vitamins (thank you for the obvious) then I headed to the car and went home (where I finally got to “take care of business”). I then got ready for church and that was it for the morning. Later that afternoon, George and I made a cake for our friends Andy’s birthday:

Merlot Chocolate cake with a blackberry Merlot glaze and a chocolate glaze on top of that to seal it all in. I made a little mini bundt for George and I…just to make sure it tasted okay.

Then we headed over to the Rose Bowl and met up with our friend Amy. Pasadena Triathlon will be her first triathlon so we have been  jam packing her brain with WAY too much information! George ran the  loop with her (since I can’t really run at the moment) and then I did two laps with her on the bike. It was a really beautiful day for riding and I am glad we had the chance to get out. After that we went to the Pasadena Triathlon Club meeting, I didn’t win anything, but the pizza and company was good!

My overall race summary: They need to make sure they have porta potties and while the race is local…not really sure if it is worth it…going to really try to resist the urge to do it next year!

As a follow up to my post below, here is how my day went…in pictures!

First I woke up at 8:07 (I had a picture for that and it mysteriously disappeared.) A little later than 8, but close enough. Plus, who could leave the bed with this little creature cuddling next to you!

I finally got up and started getting ready, first thing on my list was cleaning out my car. Not sure how everything just magically starts to pile up…but it does.

Classy.

Once I got all that cleared away, I drove over to one of those gas station car washes and gave her a little rub down….

Once that was all done, I headed out to El Monte to pick up my aero disc covers. Vikki showed me how to take the cassette off and then we put the cover on, here is what my ride looks like now…not sure if it will help or not! (but I think there is a little cool factor going on….)

Fancy huh?

From there I went to Sears and picked up a mini bundt pan, I found the same one at Sur La Table for $37 and Sears had it for $17 (sorry Sur La Table, this baker is on a budget!)

Then I finally got to the Rose Bowl. My goal was to run the loop (3.2 miles) and then bike 3 laps. The idea would be to get ready for the Pasadena Triathlon next Saturday.

The run didn’t go so well, I was having a hard time breathing and all in all took me about 35 minutes. I did a quick transition to the bike and was off -

I managed to get 2 laps in on the bike (little over 6 miles) and then called it a day. I was starting to get hungry and was tired. I think I am going to have to plan to take a gel toward the end of the run, just so that I have enough energy to get through the bike and swim.

I loaded everything back up on the car and headed over to My Vegan for lunch, I had a lentil burger with a small salad, it was yummy!

After my nice meal there, I went over to Salvation Army and dropped off some clothes.

Then I proceeded to head home, once I got home I knocked out! No baking for me! I woke up around 4:30 and it was time to get ready and pick up George from work. We went to Barney’s Beanery in Burbank, pigged out on some Irish Nachos, some good beer and veggie pizza then went to see Shutter Island (very good movie!)

All in all it was a really good day, my favorite part was date night and I am glad I got to get in a run and bike in. We are a week away now from the Pas Tri, going to do some more training tomorrow and throughout the week. No need to taper for such a fast race. I also have a little surprise in store for you tomorrow, George doesn’t even know about it!

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from work, I love work…don’t get me wrong…but sometimes it is nice to have a day off when everyone else is working because no one is breathing down your neck. So what am I going to do you ask?

1. Sleep in, probably till 8…which is later for me…
2. Drive out and pick up my disc covered wheel for my bike.
3. Go to Sears in Hastings Ranch and pick up a bundt pan for little mini bundts. 
4. Go to the Rose Bowl and do a reverse brick: This will consist of me parking very close to transition and basically doing a run through for the race on Saturday, March 20th.
5. Eat
6. One thing that I would like to do is go on a little hike and bring my camera. We have had some nice winds here and I think I could get some great pictures. So if I have time I will go to Brand park and bring my camera and tripod.
7. If I have time, I would like to bake something…not sure what though.
8. Then date night with Georgie, might throw in a couple beers with dinner

I might be trying to shove too much in one day…but that is how I roll! If I can’t do something I won’t be butt hurt…I still have the rest of the weekend.

What are you doing this weekend? Any cool training rides or runs that you can’t wait for?

So, back in December at the Pasadena Triathlon Club End of Year party I won a couple of things:

# 1  - A personal Chi Running lesson from Steve Mackel

#2 – Aero Disc wheel covers (here is a picture of me very excited about getting the big black discs…)

#3 – This hot guy…his name is George and he came home with me…hopefully it wasn’t because of all the cool stuff I won…

With the Pasadena Triathlon coming up on March 20th, I was ready to cash this stuff in!

So yesterday, George and I did a 2 hour Chi Running session with Steve. He went through all the fundamentals and watched us and we learned how to run up some hills and stuff. Is that the worst summary ever??? If you want to know more, you should schedule a lesson with Steve, going rate is $150 and I have to say it was a GREAT experience and I really want to see what it will do for my running form.

The second item is the areo disc covers, I sort of promised myself I would never use these until I got faster…but being that they were free…screw it! I am going to use them! George got a set too so this week I am going to go out to their shop and have our wheels fit with the wheel disc covers. I will be taking them out for a test ride this weekend (because you never do anything new on race day) and then I will use them for the Pasadena Triathlon. The disc covers are from one of our sponsors www.wheelbuilder.com, they have a bunch of other awesome wheels that I can’t afford but they look very cool!

As for the hot boy, I get to have him for the rest of my life so I cash that in all the time!

I am going to attempt to run today, I am not really feeling it because it looks cold out I know all you east coasters probably want to ring my neck because cold is 57 degrees….But I am also thinking of baking another cake and would like to pick up some more baking supplies as I am REALLY getting into this. So don’t be surprised if you get a bundt cake from me…because I just can’t eat all of them myself. Made this one on Saturday for a friends birthday, Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese frosting:

It was yummy