Boots, Rattlesnakes, Hills and more

Well, the bad news is that Brooke's foot is in a boot. She's broken a bone, but tough-nut that she is, she is determined to compete. We have a plan to do a mock-tri two weeks before the real race, and Brooke intends to do it with us. Remember, this is the woman who had only just completed chemo when she competed the first time. Where there's a will...

Meanwhile, our training continues. I took a few days of vacation in Stehekin with friends and while hiking there, we saw a rattlesnake - photos to prove it. Meanwhile, Laurie (who is also somewhat of an animal) did a nine-hour hike to Camp Muir, base camp for climbers who want to summit Rainier. The day before I headed off on vacation, in a fit of madness Laurie and I did a whole triathlon after work. We swam 1/2 a mile in the pool, hopped on our bikes and headed to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, across and back home (about 10 miles we think), then parked our bikes and jogged over to the track where we propped each other up as we completed 12 laps of the track - it took us quite a while to complete it, but the important thing is we did it. Now we know that we can complete the whole race. The most amazing thing to me was the amount of food I consumed the next day - I could not stop eating.

So last week, we did two-thirds of a tri - swam 1/2 mile in the pool, then rode our bikes over to Pt. Defiance Park and around the 5-mile loop and back. Laurie set the pace and we peddled harder than either of us have ridden before. Had a great ride! It was good practice for the long Vashon ride we planned for the weekend. So last week's training was perhaps the most ambitious for me yet: biked 53 miles; ran 3; swam 1-1/2 miles; did three yoga sessions; and one steep hill walk. I need to give Mark credit for accompanying me on a freezing cold open water swim in American Lake on Friday. As far as I know, he didn't really have hypothermia.

We finished the week's training with the Vashon bikeride. We met up at 8:30 a.m., rode our bikes about 4 miles to catch the ferry to Vashon Island and rode 32 of the hilliest miles around the island. The guidebook said the route followed the Murphy's Law of Bicycling - all uphill and into the wind. It was a tough ride with a few beautiful spots ( but not quite enough to attract me to ever want to do it again). We made it back to the ferry in a reasonable 4 hours with stops for coffee and lunch, and collapsed on the beach while we waited for the ferry. The only flaw in our plan was we then had to ride home from the ferry once back in Tacoma. Aaagh. The photo is of our bikes on the ferry. If you look carefully, you'll see us swimming alongside .....

Will the remaining three triathletes compete?

The question of the day is "what has Brooke done to her foot?" Yesterday Mark e-mailed me to tell me that Brooke had injured her foot and may not be able to compete.



I immediately called Laurie and we said "No way is Brooke going to miss the triathlon after all this training." Brooke laughed when I called her. She didn't know what she'd done. Her toe was swollen and didn't look good but she was still in. Someone told her she'd broken a bone and suggested magnets as the secret antidote to the swelling. Apparently one magnet applied to either side of the injury would help realign her foot. Whatever. I guess we'll find out tomorrow if the magnet therapy is the magic cure.



Meanwhile I should write about the latest open water swim from last Friday. (Brooke seemed fine that night by the way.) We met Kristin, an Olympic triathlete (not as in the "Olympics" but as in "Olympic triathlon" distance, the next one up from the Sprint triathlon which we're doing). She's also a cancer survivor, as is Brooke. Kristin had graciously agreed to meet us to give us hints, tips and pointers on how to be more comfortable in the water. We met at Lake Washington at about 6:30 Friday evening and donned our wetsuits.



Kristin immediately pointed out a buoy that was about 1/8th of a mile off shore. She said we should swim out and back twice to get a sense of the 1/2 mile distance we'd need to swim in the race. We chatted about our various phobias (some of us having more than others) - feeling that you're out there adrift, fear of murky water, inability to breathe, you know, the usual type of things. She encouraged me to roll onto my back to collect myself if panic set in and to close my eyes in the water so I didn't have to look at the murk.



Her advice proved to be very sound and I actually had a great experience. We all did. We all made it out to the buoy and back t wice but not very quickly - we were passed by several other swimmers. But the point is that we made it.



We then drove to Genessee Park boat launch where the race will take place on August 17, saw where we'll park our bikes, how we'll ride to the Mercer Island floating bridge, and where we'll run and cross the finish line, victorious. We're wondering how we should celebrate the momentous occasion. Should we have champagne? Should we do it twice? Perhaps we should just go home and take a nap. The options are endless.



Anyway, then it seemed to be time to go and find a place to have a cold beer and fries to celebrate our successful open water swim.



By the way, we need a team name. So far the best we've come up with is Hells Belles. After reading this if you have any good suggestions, let us know.

Six Weeks and Counting Down

I'm not sure where the time went, but we are six weeks away from T-Day. It's rewarding to realize how much our activity has picked up speed since we started and also to realize the point we have reached in our training. I tallied my training miles the other day and came up with 200 biking miles, 5 swimming miles and 50 running miles since the beginning of April when I began to track.

For comparison, I said a few posts ago that the Danskin Triathlon is a sprint triathlon - the distances are 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride, 3.1 mile run. At the other end of the triathlon spectrum is the Ironman. Talk about people who must have lost their minds, these folks begin with a 2.4 mile swim, ride 112 miles and finish up by running a marathon. That's 26.2 miles. So you can see why when I learned a colleague was training for the Ironman I did not attempt to strike up a conversation about triathlons. I just walked quietly by.

So with six weeks to go, here's what my life and training has looked like. This week I've eaten an enormous amount of cookies (because I figure if I'm going to train hard I should be able to eat anything I want) I've run 3 times for a total of nine miles, biked once (~12 miles during which Brooke and I completely lost Laurie in the woods at Pt. Defiance, but saw lots of raccoons) and swum twice for one mile. One swim was in the pool and the second was in Lake Washington. I'll tell you about that later. The week began with Sunday as a rest day which actually incorporated a one and a half hour walk on the Soos Creek Trail with Vicki. You'll note in the photo that she's sporting a knee brace - it's an old injury from bull riding. She told me to write that. You'll have to ask her yourself.

On Monday I took a noon-time yoga class on campus which stretched everything out again. The training isn't all about exercise. On Tuesday night I attended a bike maintenance class. The class was free but I ended up buying a wonderfully compact set of tools, a fluorescent yellow riding vest so I can be seen on the roads and some "aren't-I-way-cool" bike gloves. The guy teaching the class took a look at my bike afterwards, juggled gears and brakes, and guess what? the next night I couldn't shift from third down to second. So it's back to the repair shop today.

Stay tuned. There's more adventure to come.

First Open-Water Swim

Saturday July 5, 2008

We knew we had to do it sometime. Although the weather was overcast and windy and the water looked choppy, we bit the bullet and donned our matching wetsuits for a parking-lot photo op. The poor guys who took our photos are still in shock - not exactly what they thought they would find at the beach on a Saturday morning in summer.

So, I'm not a bad swimmer - infact I think I'm quite a good swimmer. I go to the pool about twice a week and can swim the requisite half mile with no problem, so all along I was wondering why everyone I talk to about the Triathlon has said "if it weren't for the swimming, I'd do it." After our photo op, we headed for the water (some of us stepping on the rocks more gingerly than others with our princess feet). Brooke suggested we head for the third buoy in the distance and off we went. About three strokes into the swim, I began to hyperventilate and felt a wave of immense panic wash over me. I told the others I'd wait for them on shore and headed back to the beach. This was not quite the way the morning was supposed to go. When you swim in open water, there's no concept of distance and time - you're just out there bobbing around like a little cork (hopefully) with no railing to reach for or bottom to put your feet down on. It's eerie. The wetsuit felt great and although everyone says it adds buoyancy, I did not feel any sense of security out in American Lake.

Brooke and Laurie very graciously came back to shore and gently coaxed me back in suggesting a swim along the ropes of the marked swimming area where we could touch the bottom if we needed to or grab onto the rope in a moment of panic.

This time it went much better... one length of the rope in breast stroke. Then one back partially doing the crawl. Then another doing full crawl, head in the water and all. Eventually we figured we had completed about 800 meters by swimming back and forth along the rope without drowning. The best part of the whole thing was the three bald eagles circling above and sitting on snags as we swam. Perhaps they were hoping for a little washed up triathlete to snack on.

After the swim, we got on our bikes and rode about six miles then finished up with a twenty-minute run (followed by lots of food - this training makes me hungry.)

Bike Rides and more

On May 18, Laurie and I did our first really long bikeride with John and Dottie Selby. We rode from Millersylvania Park just south of Olympia through wonderful farmlands in parts of Washington that I've never seen before. John and Dottie graciously explained what Dan Henrys are (road markers) and showed us how to read them. The ride was almost 40 miles and pretty gruelling at the end - especially the huge hill that just went on and on. But it was nothing that a few cold beers couldn't fix afterwards.

June 29

Brooke, Mark and I rode 28 miles in the Tour to Pierce. We're crossing the finish line here. We made pretty good time (at least I think we did!) finishing in about two and a half hours and then headed for beer and burgers. So much for the weight loss program. The temps were in the high 80s and 90s and amazingly we didn't feel the heat if we kept moving. One cool moment was just as we set off from Puyallup, we crossed a bridge and in the gulch below we saw a coyote standing watching us. Otherwise we were in good bike-riding areas, but not good wild-life watching areas.

We've been following a training program that the YMCA has put together for triathletes and while we don't go with their group, we are right on schedule with them. Each week, I'm swimming half a mile at least once a week, taking a bike ride that is usually about 15 miles, and running twice a week, usually three miles each time.

A few weeks ago, to hone our running skill, we decided to run the Sound to Narrows 5k race. Laurie and Brooke and I ran together (Jana and Jenn have decided not to continue with their training). Laurie, the speedster, took off and completed her 5k with 10 minute miles coming in fifth in her age range (the same as mine). Brooke and I crossed the finish line together running 5k (3.1 miles) in 33.15 minutes - considering I only started running about six weeks earlier, I was really pleased with that.

This week, Laurie and I ran 4.2 miles in 44 minutes, the furthest distane I've run yet. And to round out this week's activities, I rode my bike across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge yesterday (this is the bridge that collapsed in the 1940's - Galloping Gertie - and a Youtube video of the collapse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI )

The bridge crosses the Puget Sound towards the south end, and there's a spectacular view of the Olympic Mountains ahead of you as you ride across and to the North and South are great views of the Sound. It took a little over an hour to do the ride from my house - I'm slowly discovering the bike-friendly roads around Tacoma. Here's a link to the bridge today:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/photolibrary/

So, we're doing well with bike riding and running. Our next challenge is open water swimming.

The first few months...

What makes a middle-aged woman decide to be a triathlete - especially one who has little or no athletic ability? What a great question. Tom and Sally say "Mom's having another mid-life crisis," expecting it to pass eventually. My friends have said "Good for you," while secretly thinking "she's losing her mind." And I may be losing my mind, but I am having so much fun and a lot of new experiences with my training that I thought you could join in the fun and keep up with it.

It's all Brooke's fault, actually. She's the one who has called me religiously for the last three years to ask if I'm going to sign up for the Danskin Triathlon this year? Brooke is a veteran - a breast cancer survivor, she completed her first Danskin Tri shortly after finishing chemo. She's an amazing woman. This year, when she called no-one was more surprised than me when I actually said yes and paid my money before she did - and I roped Laurie into joining me too.

YOu can read about the Danskin Triathlon at http://www.danskin.com/triathlon.html

We were committed but August seemed like a long way off in February, and we thought we had tons of time to get in shape. The Danskin is a Sprint Triathlon (I didn't even know the different types when I started) - we'll swim a half mile, bike twelve miles, and run 3.1 miles. The last time I ran until this year was the year I turned 40 - which was a few full moons ago.

I began by losing a stone (14 pounds) and getting my mountain bike fixed with a comfy saddle and street tires. Brooke, Laurie and I joined with two of Brooke's friends, Jana and Jen (we thought the more "J" names, the better) and our training started. We did a few 3-mile walks at Chambers Creek; a five mile bike-ride in the snow at Pt Defiance Park, 18 miles on the Foothills Trail;, again in the snow; and a hike up Mount Peak in Enumclaw. I walked around the Nisqually wildlife refuge with Daryl and Mark (that's Daryl with binocs aboe), and shortly after that I visited Sally in San Francisco. We did a little hiking in Marin County.

Then I suffered a swollen ankle and strained tendon and had six weeks of physical therapy. Sally gave me a book about triathlon training which freaked me out, but I hoped for the best.

I started to tell people I was going to do the Triathlon so that I would remain committed inspite of the injury. I did a lot of swimming in the pool on campus and continued to go to yoga at least once a week, and in early April went on a fantastic three-day hiking trip to the Sol Duc Hot Springs on the Olympic Peninsula. We didn't break any distance records, but the good news was my foot didn't hurt - and we got to make snow angels.

I didn't have any apprehension about the swimming part - I can swim forever in a pool, and knew I could build up to the bike riding. But I was quite worried about the running.

Friends rallied (as they always do) and began offering to help with the training suggesting bike rides, and offering wet suits for the swimming and a variety of training tips.

One of the cool things about this is that the Triathlon also raises money to support breast cancer. So not only am I having a blast and getting healthy, but you can make a pledge in my name and help other people. If you'd like, you can support breast cancer by making a donation online below.

http://timberlinetiming.com/index.cfm?action=dspClientHome&clientid=29&showBanner=1#inst4

Regardless, I hope you'll enjoy watching the progress of my/our training as we continue over the next six weeks.....