New directions

Whenever I leave my house to go on a run, I have a general idea of the path I am going to take. And 90% of that time, my run turns out to be completely different than I had planned. This Saturday was one of those runs.

I moved to a new neighborhood in June. My old neighborhood contained a limited number of roads and paths so even an 8 mile run without repeating sections was difficult. With my new neighborhood, I can easily string together a 20+ mile run, and Saturday I had a 13 mile run to do. I left my house and decided to try running down a new road, thinking it would give me an extra mile or so before going to one of my standard runs. When I run I just usually turn at each street & see what that road has to offer. At one point, I turned down a road which I thought would give me an extra 1/4 mile and 3 miles later I was back at the turning point. The weather was beautiful, the scenery was new and nice, and it turned out to be one of the best runs I have had in a really long time, with only 4 miles of it covering ground I had run before.

Today I just got back from a 34 mile ride. I rode with Sherri, the person I did most of my half-ironman biking, and three people I hadn't met before. The cue-sheet was FOUR pages long (about 70 turns?) but it was a great ride, not too taxing but with a couple of significant hills. It felt SO good to be back on the bike again, enjoying a Sunday morning and some good conversation.

With the awesome run, and the great bike ride, I have had a fantastic training weekend and am happy with my decision to sign up for the race.

The importance of a team

Saturday morning I woke up around 6:15am and looked out my front door and saw my car and the sidewalks were covered with ice and snow. I thought about going back to bed, and literally went into the kitchen to make coffee about 5 times before actually doing it, thinking each time I was crazy and should just go back to bed. But eventually, I made the coffee and breakfast, and got ready to head to Arlington for an 8 mile run. I would have gone back to bed if I didn't know that there were other people who would be running with me (and if I had time to fit in the run at any other point that day).

When I got to Arlington, there were about 20 other people who came out for the run. I ran the entire time with people, met other people doing Ironman Wisconsin or just trying to get in shape, and got to talk to someone who had done Wisconsin before and could give me great advice. It ended up being a fantastic run (although my quads are definitely sore today from the tentative steps on the ice).

Saturday and last Sunday have reminded me of how great it is to be on a team for training. I know I am a little bit crazy. Not many people can imagine running a 5k or half-marathon, let alone adding in swimming and biking. Most people cringe when I mention I went biking in the 30 degree weather (don't worry, I cringe too just thinking about it). Triathletes in general are a little bit odd. And the beauty of the Team is that when I am surrounded by them, it makes me feel completely normal. Just like when I am with Bike and Build people, spending all day in spandex and sleeping in churches is just the normal thing to do. That's why when I signed up for Wisconsin, my next move was to e-mail the Coach of Team Z and rejoin.

What is Team Z? Team Z is a triathlon team that started in Arlington but now have branches in Reston and Maryland. It has about 400 people, ranging from people who finish after the cutoff time for races to people who are on the podium for their age group at Kona (the Ironman world championship). The Team trains for several races throughout the year and the Coaches create 12 different training plans each month designed to help people meet their goals from sprints to Ironman. It is so inspiring to see people of all levels of athletic ability training for and successfully completing an Ironman. The coaches also run group workouts throughout the week and organize rides and runs on the Weekends. Aside from all the training, they also have a ton of social events as they really are a social triathlon Team.

I found them purely by chance but without the Team, I don't think I would have even be able to complete a sprint triathlon, let alone a half and full Ironman. I did Team in Training for my first marathon. Having that team was great, especially training over the winter where having a group of people to meet up with each Saturday morning dragged me out of bed, but I didn't get the social relationships out of it that I was hoping to. Once the event was over, I knew I would need to find something else because I absolutely HATE fundraising. It makes me really uncomfortable and I promised myself that after bike and build and team in training I would not sign up for anything else I have to fundraise for.

The week before the marathon I was googling triathlon teams in the area. I thought it would be cool to do one but I really needed help with the swim. I happened to stumble upon the website for Team Z and saw they were having an info session the week after the marathon. Then, during the marathon I spotted people with the Team Z shirts & confirmed that it was a legit group. The next week I went to an info session and found out that it was exactly what I was looking for and that summer was great training with them and making new friends with the same athletic mindset as me.

I fell out of the group after the race mainly due to my job getting crazy and the cold preventing me from getting out there. Then when I bought a house I realized I needed to cut costs and since I hadn't done anything Team Z related and didn't want to commit to both biking and running eah weekend, I quit the team. Unfortunately, this past summer was not the same without them. I missed getting out on my bike and being surrounded by like minded people. I signed up with a local running shop to train for the Marine Corps Marathon but it just wasn't the same.

I am excited to be back with the Team and to catch up with old friends. But I was also very excited that the bike this morning was cancelled (we're crazy, not stupid) so I got to sleep in. Unfortunately, after spending two hours this morning on my trainer I realized the cold is really not that bad after all.

Confessions and a pleasant surprise

I have a confession to make. In 2011, I rode my bike a grand total of 3 times. I can remember each distinctly. The first was January 1st, where 30+ bike and build alum and I dressed up in costume and biked 30 miles from West Palm to Ft. Lauderdale to end the week long Chris Webber Memorial Ride. The second was in March, with a friend who was doing bike and build that summer. We rode only 18 or so miles along the W&OD trail cause she was sick. The third and final ride of 2011 was a 28 miler Labor Day weekend, when I finally had a three day weekend to get caught up on sleep, do my Marine Corps Marathon long run, and ride my bike.

So what happened? How did I go from doing a half-ironman in November 2010 to not riding my bike at all? To put it simply, it was work. I was an auditor and my client's year end was March 31st. Typically, we are done by May 15th or so. Unfortunately, due to some struggles on their part, a new methodology on our part, and a mini-audit within an audit that got thrown in at the tale end, I was working til 9 or so January-March and til 10 or 11 (with a couple of midnight-2am nights!) from April until June 15th. When the weekend came during that time, I was working usually one day and I ran the other since my goal race for the year was the Marine Corps Marathon. When busy season finally ended, I was very sleep deprived and the summer heat was intense. I couldn't get myself to get up early BOTH Saturday and Sunday to run one day and bike the other. So biking took a backseat to sleep. And now, it will have to be a focus if I plan on biking 112 miles September 9th because I have confidence in my ability to run. (We won't mention swimming this post). Another confession, the longest I ever rode my bike on bike and build was 99.7 miles so I have never done a century (I was sick during our longest rides).

With this complete lack of biking (other than spin classes which while they are good, are not the same), I went to this morning's bike ride a little apprehensive. First, yes it was FREEZING cold and I rode my bike. I luckily found a great sale on fleece-lined bike pants yesterday and a new team member (new to me) lent me a beanie for my head so my ears wouldn't freeze (which was a LIFE SAVER). Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my toes which were FROZEN the entire time as the front of my cycling shoes have small vents. When they warmed up in my car after the ride the pain was pretty intense. I will need to get some booties for the next ride.

The ride this morning was a time trial in Prince William Forest Park (PWFP). For those that don't know, a time trial is where you ride by yourself (no drafting) over a set distance and you just see what you can do. Some people work on pushing it to their limit, other people will not go as hard as possible but will rather try to keep a consistent speed. PWFP has a BEAUTIFUL 7 mile loop that is perfect for this (once you get through the incredibly hilly 2.5 mile ride to the start of the loop). It is a false flat the first 3.5 miles, then beautiful road you can pick up the pace on for 2.5 miles or so, and then a series of hills that really test you to get to the end. Team Z had 75 people out in the freezing cold this morning and people did anywhere from 1-3 loops. (The beauty of being on a triathlon team is everyone around you is crazy too so you feel a little more normal). Based on my lack of time with my bike, I was expecting a bit of a disaster. I thought I would be super slow, getting passed left and right. I wanted to do 3 loops but I told myself I would be okay with two.

When I started and throughout the ride, I surprised myself. I went out hard and I kept it up for 3 loops. My splits were ~28 minutes (15mph) for each of the three loops and I never felt like I wouldn't make it or was in too much trouble, other than the hills of course. I was thrilled with both the speed AND the consistency! I also only got passed by about 10 people the entire time, which was NOT what I was expecting at all. This ride gave me so much confidence in my biking ability! While I think I was about 10 minutes slower than the last time I did this ride, the last time I had an ENTIRE summer of biking behind me. I am really excited to see this time only improve as I pick up the training (including through the rest of the winter...brrr). It was also nice to be back with Team Z after taking a year off. I met new people, said hello to the old, and was reminded how nice it was to be surrounded by people who's hobby is triathlon.

This year is going to be a great one.

So I signed up for an Ironman

December 30th, 2011 I had a crazy moment and signed up for Ironman Wisconsin. A week earlier, my friend whom I biked with all during my half-ironman training in 2010 had facebook messaged me to say she had signed up for it. From the moment I read that message and then realized entries were still available (for 2X the price for "charity"!) I knew that I would end up signing up as well in order to check off the #1 item on my bucket list.

What led to this? Well, it has truly been a journey of a lifetime leading up to this. I have always been a bigger girl. During high school, I managed to lose a bunch of weight and started going to the gym. My senior year a local gym offered a scholarship opportunity for which I had to go to the gym 3X a week and I got hooked. I ended up going 5-6 times a week and realized I had a love of exercise.

Unfortunately, in college I forgot about that and I gained way more than the freshman 15 and didn't exercise the first two years. The summer after my second year of college I rediscovered my love for the gym and also took up running which I kept up the rest of college, doing two army ten milers with my dad.

Then, my fourth year of college I made a decision that truly changed my life. See, the summer before I followed my friend Graham's journey as he biked across the country with an organization called bike and build that raises money for affordable housing. Although I hadn't ridden a bike since I was 8 or 9 and really didn't remember how, I signed up to bike from Boston to Santa Barbara after my fourth year of college before becoming a real adult.

That summer was filled with ups and downs (you can read my blog from that time for all the painful details) but it was such an amazing learning experience for me. I learned that I was capable of biking 80 miles day after day (which has really altered my definition of a "short" bike ride to 20-30 miles). I learned that both physically and mentally I was strong enough to push through adversity and it gave me such confidence about myself.

The hardest part of the summer was getting sick for 2-3 weeks of the trip and being unable to bike those days. It ended up leaving me feeling slightly unfulfilled. I think that actually is the greatest thing that has happened to me. Since coming back from the trip (and after a year of not working out and navigating the working world), I started going to the gym before work and have worked out 4-6 times a week for the last 2 1/2 years. I have run 2 10 milers, 2 half marathons, 3 marathons, and have done 1 sprint triathlon, 2 olympic triathlons, and one half-ironman. As my brother says, I can't do things half way.

So now I have signed up for an Ironman September 9th, 2012. When I joined Team Z (a triathlon training team I will write more about later) a year and a half ago, they were training for Ironman Wisconsin and since that point it's been in my head. It's goes through wonderful scenic farmland and is cooler than several other options. It is also nicknamed Ironman "Moo" and has a bunch of cow print apparel. After years of saying I want to do an Ironman, I realized that now is the best time to do it. I changed jobs this summer and left public accounting so I finally have time to really train and won't have a busy season that goes until May. I have friends but no kids or dogs that I have to worry about making time for. And while I may not be in public accounting, my job will only get more all-consuming as I gain more experience so my free time to train in the future will be limited. Based on all of this now is the time to do it. Plus the world is ending in December so I better do it now!

I am excited for this summer but still overwhelmed at all of the training before me, especially considering how tired I already am. Due to my horrific memory (I barely remember most of my life), I am hoping that this blog will be a way to track my journey and to remember it in the future. I hope that whoever reads this blog enjoys coming along on this journey with me.

More to come...