Oldham County Seeing 20/15

So a lot has gone on since the lame duck. School started back up and I have had to learn to find time to "train" in preparation for the Oldham County race. Luckily the schedule was light for the the first month plus of school and time was available. The weather made it hard though, with most days staying in the 90s with high humidity and I wasn't overly motivated to train in that weather. Meagan and I have been swimming together at the Y and the kids started swim lessons. Late August I had lasik done, and that was one of the best decisions I made. I can now see 20/15 without the aid of glasses or contacts...compare that to the 20/200 I was seeing before. The surgery though took almost two weeks out of training for me, leaving only one week to finish training before this race. Oh, and I had my first swim lesson in hopes of improving my technique.

So race day we woke up at 430 to get everything and everyone ready to travel the 80 miles from Lexington to La Grange for the race. Check in was supposed to be no later than 645a but we didn't leave the house until 540 due to a leak in my rear tube and blowing the replacement. Luckily my brother in law's road bike is in my garage and I was able to steal a tube from his bike so that I would be able to race. I was furious, mostly because I have been having a lot of problems with my pump and it was all culminating for disaster early the morning of race day.

We ran into some rain on and off on the drive, and the weather was iffy, with temperatures staying in the 60s for most the day.

Check-in went well and as I started setting up in transition I realized that it was probably going to rain, so I didn't bother trying to have a towel to dry with and figured to be running sockless since that to me is better than putting on wet socks to run with. My number was 263, Meagan wanted a picture of it and had time to get it since my start time wasn't until 824.


We again brought the fan club to cheer me on and other kids were there so Coen was able to play his DS with them and keep him entertained and happy. Gratefully with a pool swim they were able to watch, then go play at the park during the rest of the race.

The biggest surprise of the race should be evident by my face here...the water was freezing! It was below 60...I dont know how. The last month and a half had almost every day in the 90s with lows in the 70s and somehow this outdoor pool took your breath away when you got in. They said it only takes a night or two of lower temps to cool the pool....I dont buy it. I think they recently had maintenance done and refilled it within a few days of the race. Either way it was too cold to not have a wetsuit and everyone complained. Despite the cold temperatures I managed to swim 1 minute faster than I anticipated and turned in an 11.57 400m swim. I was hoping for better, but I lost my technique early due to difficulty breathing in the cold water. But the race was going as planned. Gratefully Meagan got a good picture of my better form during the swim. My muscles were so tight from the temp of the water that it took the first 4.5 miles of the bike to warm up and stretch the muscles out so I could really push the bike. I was hoping for a 40 minute time for the 10 mile ride, but managed to push it a little harder than I usually would to turn in at 38.22. There was rain on and off through the ride, but the roads never got ugly. The run I was unsure what to expect. It was a 1.8 mile cross country run, and like the lame duck, my calves cramped early in the race. I had been running 9 minute miles in preparation for this, but I anticipated running 10min/mi during the race. The trail was sandy, torn up and really slow. Probably would have been okay had it not been for everyone on it and the recent rain. Either way, I had to walk almost 1/4 of a mile to de-cramp and then just find a groove with any sort of pace to finish. I had left my watch at home so I had no idea how I was doing and just needed to keep moving. I knew I felt good about the swim time and knew I had a good bike time (thanks to my computer) so I knew I would be close to my 1:15 goal. Lo and behold, I came across the finish line at 1:15! Although my run pace was 11.24 I was happy with my overall performance and that I felt great as I finished.
Again I want to thank my family for their support, I know it can't be easy to manage three kids while pregnant to watch for a glimpse of me now and again, but I really appreciate their efforts in cheering me on. I was bummed that they couldn't see any portion of the bike, but still grateful they were there. Next is down to Tennessee Oct 2nd for the Lake Watauga tri. I'll really have to amp up the training for this race as its significantly longer...1000m swim, 22 mile bike, 5 mile run. Never run 5 miles in my life so we can only wait and see how much I can accomplish with three weeks to train.

Ironman Distance and Oldham County

No, I have not done anything the length of an ironman, at least not at one time. No I am happy though to have seen that upon completing my bike ride yesterday morning the odometer read 112! I think it took 6 rides and close to 8 hours to reach that point, but it was fun for me to see, especially knowing that one day I will do that in a single ride. On a bright note, training has been moving, albeit slow, but I have seen improvement. My bike average speed is already up from 13.3 to 15-15.5. Riding a couple times a week I noticed has helped my endurance with running, and at a faster pace as well. I'm now running just under 9 minute miles avg over 2-3 mile runs. Considering my time at the lame duck averaged around 12 minutes I'm happy! The Y finally filled the lane pool back up and I am hoping to get in there to start swimming more. Hopefully I will have a swim coach here quick too to improve my technique. I did get to register for the Oldham County mini tri coming up on the 11th. 400m pool, 10 mi bike, 1.8 mi cc run. With that only a few weeks to go I really need to get into the pool! Luckily, school is light so far and finding time is not a problem. Speaking of which, off to class I go, then if I'm lucky maybe I'll sneak in a swim...

The Lame Duck

So race day started out with a terrible night's sleep (I had more anxiety for this race than for doing injections at school for the first time) and by getting out the door 1/2 hour later than I wanted to. My intentions were to get to the transition area as early as possible to get help in setting up. Instead we had a .8 mile walk to transition and had to look around to see what everyone else was doing.

After setting up to the best of my ability, skill, knowledge, or copying, I felt more relaxed and ready to go. At 730 I got in line for the nice pontoon boat ride across the lake to the swim start. They let us in the water a little after 830 and we all were treading water for the start. It didn't take long before I was on my back stroking my way across the lake, wondering what I got myself into. I don't know if they were concerned for me or if I was just lucky to have a boat and kayak near my side the whole swim. Didn't need them as I finished the .54 in a wonderful 28 minutes.


It felt good to finish the swim and see Meagan and the kids on the dock to cheer me on!
Transition was easy for me since most people were already on the course I didn't have to fight the crowds and was able to get out for my most prepared event, the bike. The course starts out with a solid climb but I managed to push hard up it and really boost my confidence. It took until the sixth mile to finally get a stretch of flat and it felt good to be pedaling at a nice 21.5.

Coming back to transition I ended up behind an ambulance and took the last .5 mile downhill slow to not hit the vehicle, turning in a 41 minute ride over 9.1 miles. Getting off the bike my right calf cramped and I knew I was in for it on the run. The run starts up the same hill as the bike and I did my best to try to run up the hill with cramped legs. Once again my fan club was there to cheer me on and it really motivated me to keep going.


It took walking and light jogging over most of the first mile to stretch out my calves to where I was ready to run my pace and the next .8 I moved at my anticipated speed. Once I passed where we parked our car I knew there wasn't much left and I looked at my watch to see how close to my goal of 2 hours I was. I couldn't tell as the watch resets the chrono every 30 minutes and the race start time I was uncertain on. I knew though that I could finish before 1030 and did my best to push hard through the last .8 miles. I crossed the finish line at 1:46.59 and excited to see my family there to greet me. Turns out my run was a horrible 31 minutes, but for never having run after biking or swimming and not training to run those hills I was happy to turn in 13 and change under my goal time, and I finished, which was what I really set out to do.

Thank you to the Lame Duck for the awesome experience. There were volunteers everywhere to keep us safe on the technical course and overall the race experience was one to remember. Thank you to Meagan for her support in my albeit minimal training and for her and the kids cheering me through every bit of the race. Having a personal support crew rocks! I can't wait for the next race I will be doing, hopefully a September 11th sprint in preparation for an October 2nd intermediate distance. Keep pushing, keep working and have fun!

Preparing to be a Lame Ducker

So after reading some blogs of friends and fellow racers I decided to write my own blog, to remember for myself the journey I have started and hope to travel in the world of triathlons.

Meagan has for a time talked about one day doing a triathlon as she grew up in a very active family who has always been involved in Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I didnt know much about triathlons other than it involved running, which I never liked outside of organized sports like baseball or football. Last year I had some friends run the Ironman and I learned a lot about the sport, but starting dental school and having a family I figured I wouldn't have time to get involved, and I still hated running, until this year.

At a friend's daughter's birthday party in June a buddy of mine suggested doing a sprint tri somewhere around August. Sounded great, so I said I was in, and only days later we headed to Idaho to be with the in-laws for a month. For most people that would be hard, but my in-laws rock so it was a great trip. I also had to start "training".

The first step to training was to watch IM CDA, which was awesome. One of my buddies from high school qualified for KONA so that was just awesome. Then came my running. The first run I did I figured just go till it hurts, which was a mile. The next two runs though were 1.8 and the last run I made was a good 3.3. The run was going well, and my in-laws made sure to get me on a road bike to practice for that portion of my race. My first ride was almost 13 miles through the hills of Hayden on a bike much too large for me. Since I survived that ride they decided I was ready to ride 25 miles around Hayden lake....trial by fire. Lucky for me I was able to make the ride twice before leaving Idaho.

We made it back to Kentucky with 2 1/2 weeks to prepare for the Lame Duck sprint that I signed up for. I ordered a new bike, the Tommaso Coltello, through Giantnerd.com. I must say this bike is awesome and I couldn't have got a better bike. Giantnerd is an awesome store and Tommaso puts together some sweet rides for an affordable price. I was able to ride some 50 miles in the two weeks I have had the bike for a total of 120ish miles in preparation for my tri, The only hiccup with the bike was that it had a bent deraileur hanger, but the shop took care of that no problem. I'm excited to race the bike!

Swim training has been the hardest for me. I love to swim, but my technique is designed for floating on surfboards and playing with the kids. I went to UK's pool and the first day swam 300m before having to call it quits. Two days later I went back to the pool, hit 200m freestyle and the other 650m needed for the race were done with a modified back stroke. I was able to put it together for a 24 minute time to do just over a half mile. I hope to reproduce that, but training in the pool was over because the pool was shut down till September for annual maintenance.

With three days to go to the Lame duck I'm running 2.6 in 25min, biking the 9.1 in 40ish, and swimming in 24. I have yet to do any block training, but with the race and the start of school only days away, it is what it is. My goal, to finish, better yet to finish under 2 hours, and if I can put everything together in training time it should be close to 1:30. Time will tell!