The End

Hi. It's Laura.

Please give me no grief over the title of this blog.

I thought it only fitting that this entry be title “The End” since my very first blog entry was titled "The Beginning".

It has been a long, difficult eight months in the form of training. I set a goal for myself, did the work and achieved my goal (and a lofty goal it was). I feel so complete and so empty at the same time.

This may be the end of this journey but believe me it is only the beginning of my multi-sport career. I already have my next race on the calendar to finish out my competitive year and I am looking forward to next year and doing the New York City Triathlon again. (It will also be nice to play a little golf this summer, finally!) I will also continue to blog but Triathlon Training will be shutting down today. I have not yet decided how or when to begin the new blog but it will be attached to the Inspired! website (yes, Inspired! has a website) and believe me, you will hear about it.

I hope over the months, I was able to inspire you to achieve your own goals with the stories of my journey.

I thank you for all your support through the months.

I could not have made the journey without you. You inspire me.

Play hard!

Laura

New York City Triathlon: The Beginning, The Middle , The Race

Hi. It's Laura.

I had mentioned last Thursday that I would be updating on Twitter during the weekend. For those of you who are not on Twitter, here is how the story goes.

Beginning on Friday afternoon, NYC Triathlon held mandatory briefings for all athletes competing on Sunday. No briefing, no hand stamp, no race packet, no race, no exceptions. Their rules, not mine. The briefing itself was pretty much the Athlete Guide with a few guidelines and tips that were not printed. The briefing lasted just about a half hour and was mandatory. Once the briefing was complete, you got a hand stamp. The hand stamp was verification that you attended the briefing. This meant you were allowed to pick up your race packet which included: bike number, race bib, triathlon tattoos (tritats), timing chip and bike helmet number. Once you received your packet it was onto the Expo.

This being my first triathlon but not my first race, I was impressed by the level of organization. The briefing was full but not chaotic and the line to get your race packet was minimal because they had it broken down into many categories of racer. I wondered through the Expo feeling pretty good.

Saturday from 2:00Pm to 9:00pm was mandatory bike check in. There is no bike check in on race day. No bike checked in, no race, no exceptions. Again, their rule not mine. I spent most of Saturday morning running around. I had a small workout Saturday morning, then off the chiropractor. With a few last minute details (like an extra tube for the bike because I won’t let a flat keep me down), I headed home to rest and hydrate.

My original plan for bike check in was to check in all my gear Saturday night then head up to the start in the morning instead of going to the first transition to set up my things on race day. Plans change. After a few things I heard at the briefing and the weather forecast for Saturday night, I realized it was in my best interest to bring everything to transition Sunday morning. I was in deep denial about getting up at 3:30 AM.

So after a good pasta dinner, The Husband and I headed home and headed for bed. Saturday night we were down like infants at 8:00PM. We both managed to fall asleep and sleep through the night (there was that whole hour of non-sleep thanks to the thunders storms) and at 3:30 AM we were up and at'em.

Everything I have learned about race day is; relax, take your time and eat breakfast. I did. Got up, had some coffee and started breakfast. I looked at the clock and it was already 4:17AM. WHERE DID THE TIME GO?! I started to panic. So while I made breakfast, The Husband applied my tritats. Why panic? I mentioned earlier, NYC Tri has some pretty strict rules. The transition area opened at 4:00 AM and closed at 5:15 AM, if your gear was not in transition by then, no race, no exceptions.

I knew it was not going to take me long to set up my transition area. I had already packed my bag and it was in the order it needed to be on the ground. We arrived at transition at 4:50 and I was out by 5:05. Transition Yellow was located at 72nd St and the swim start was at 99th St. Once everything was set up, The Husband walked the promenade with me as far as he could go.

On my own, I continued walking to the start. So far the path to the start was marked clearly and everything was easy to find. The trucks that carry your clothing to finish line were first. I opted to keep my shoes in order to go up to the toilets. My nerves being relatively calm still at this point, the bathroom area could have easily rocked me (anyone for that matter).

Listening to all the nervous chatter, people were running around and panicking. And let’s not forget the woman "getting sick" in the garbage can. I did not need to see that. No one did and apparently (I heard) she was not the only one.

While standing in line for the bathroom the second time, I heard the shotgun and the pros start. It was time to get to my corral. I checked my bag and headed down barefoot through Riverside Park. The Husband and I did the math on Friday and with approximately 1945 athletes starting before me, we figured my heat would be in the water by 6:43am.

Knowing that it was about 5:50, my nerves kicked in just a little bit. Once in my age group corral, I donned half my wetsuit. I opted to wear a full wet suit to swim in the Hudson River.

I met a group of women in my corral who were awesome. After chatting for a bit, I let them know this was my first tri and that I only learned how to swim last September. They were very supportive. So while we are standing there chatting, me facing the water, they are both looking behind with a little bit of wonder of their faces. The next thing I know, they are pointing at me. I turn around and see a giant picture of me being used as a sign. Really? Did you have to use that picture? [Editor’s note: She actually said that she should have been able to pick the picture. As this was a surprise, I didn’t see how that was possible.]

Just then, as The Husband was trying to talk to me, my stomach did a nice little flips. As much I appreciated the gesture and thought the whole thing was hilarious, I just couldn't talk. I went from chatty nervous to quiet nervous just like that. It did not last long, thank god. The Husband left and was headed to the other area we talked about (always good to know where your fans are).

The wave of nerves passed and next thing I knew I was on the barge. They line up the athletes 15 at a time. With the blowing of the whistle, you jump in. 15 people start every 20 seconds. I got into line at there was an open space in front me. No, no, no, not yet! I wanted to have one person go before I have to go! But no, I sat, I jumped. Here we go!

(On the barge, I am the one with the gray arm)

I jumped, I swam and the next thing I knew, I was at 900 meters. It was still a long way to go, ugh. Front crawl, back stroke, front crawl, back stroke, front crawl and then the swim was finished. All the while swimming, I was thinking “just get through the swim”, “Doing triathlon? What was I thinking” and “Am I really doing this?” Apparently I was. I remember hearing “let the volunteers at the end help you out of the water”. I did. Shaky and tired I head to transition 1. I took my time getting there, I needed to recover.

And if you must know, I peed in my wetsuit on the way there. I finished the swim in 27.48. I thought it would take me over 20 minutes to walk to T1 and strip off my wetsuit and change into my cycling gear. Apparently it only took 13:40.

Onto the bike. I think I was the last person out of transition, The Husband says otherwise. [Editor’s note: I saw 3 yellow bands go after her and didn’t stay that long.]

Up a steep incline and out onto the West Side Highway, I immediately pass two people. That makes me feel pretty good. The course takes us up the West Side Highway, through the tolls on the Henry Hudson, off ramp to Moshulu Parkway, turn around at Gun Hill Road and back down again.

My plan was not to hydrate on the way out but start consuming on the way back. There is nowhere to stop on the bike route and I didn't want to take any chances. I will say I had no idea the bike leg was going to be so hard. It was one long steep hill after another. I felt like it was never going to end. After the turn around, I looked at my watch and I was over an hour in. I realized I was not making the time I had in my head and that I had accomplished in training. Back down past 79^th Street, U-turn at 57^th Street, back up to 79^th Street and into transition two (same as transition one). I thought I would finish the bike in about 1:30 I actually finished in 1:44:53.

I am not disappointed, although I was surprised at the difficulty. Transition two, which I have been practicing for months and which is documented here in my blog, took me 4:31. It should have taken less than two minutes. Unfortunately, I had  severe pain just under my glute and just above the hamstring. Damn those hills.

I took a moment to stretch my calf, hamstring and piriformis. I headed out for the run and decided to walk the steep ramp out of Riverside Park. I finally started my run on 72^nd Street. Within just a few short minutes I had to stop because of the severe cramp on my right side. I remembered this cramp from my very first brick training. I didn't know how to fix it then and I didn't know how to fix it during the race. I allowed myself to walk until the cramp subsided.

I will tell you it is not helpful to hear the crowd yelling "don't quit". I was NOT quitting, I was walking and it was a planned timed walk at that. I was not happy. I did not want a cramp. I wanted to finish this race. I also reminded myself over the weekend that if I walked, it was not failure. I kept my walking timed so I would not get too lazy. I allowed myself to walk for one minute intervals and kept the run intervals as long as I could.

At least I knew the course. Once in Central Park, there were no surprises for me. I was grateful for the aid stations and the spray stations keeping us cool. I even had one volunteer pour water down the back of my shirt without my asking. (Thank you whoever you are!)

First up the big hill and then the second big hill, then the east side was the home stretch and it never felt so long. I swear the road was lenghthening the closer I got to the finish. Lo & behold, there it is. The crowd is thicker. The cheering grew louder and my emotions were over the top with sheer determination to finish.

And finish I did. The run took me 1:15:55, 12 minutes longer than it usually takes me.

I really thought it was taking a whole lot longer but 12 minutes longer with a one mile swim and a nearly 25 mile bike ride in front was not bad. At the end of the day it took me 3:46:45.

I found The Husband in the family reunion area and cried. I was hot, tired and happy. We still had to go to the transition area to get my gear and bike. After all that, you would think I could send The Husband to get it all but only participants may have access to the transition area, NO WRIST BAND, NO BIKE, NO EXCEPTIONS. We get the gear and bike and head for home.

This was truly one of the hardest things I have ever done and the answer is yes, next year we do it again.

We had a few people over after to celebrate. When everyone went home, I melted into the sofa. I went to bed at 7:30 PM Sunday night and slept through till 6:00AM Monday. I expect a few days before I am fully recovered.

Play hard!

Laura

Two Days Left!

Hi. It's Laura.

As exciting as this all is, I wish today I could be more excited.

This morning I woke up with severe knee pain or should I say severe knee pain woke me up.

Before I went to swim this morning, I iced the front and the back of the knee and swallowed a couple of Advil. The swim itself was not so bad although I did expect a more quiet pool. I don't kick very much during my swim. I mostly use my arms, training myself to save my legs for the riding and running portions of the race. Post swim, the pain has diminished some but I still can't straighten out the knee completely.

This will not stop me. I have been training for this race for eight months with the heaviest part of my training in the last 16 weeks.

I have done the work and I do not believe this pain will last past today (fingers crossed). With this said, I would like to share some stats with you.

In the last 16 weeks, I have swum 1,020 laps, biked 194 miles and ran 204.5 miles in preparation for Sunday (no wonder I have knee pain!). I have short bike ride tomorrow and a "quick brick" on Saturday before the race.

This is my last blog until Monday but I invite you to follow me on twitter for status updates over the weekend. You can follow me on twitter as @inspiredbylaura.

On Sunday, if you can't make it to cheer me on, you can track my progress on the Aquaphor New York City Triathlon App for iPhone or Android. My race number is 2344.

Play hard!

Laura

Nothing New on Race Day

HI. It's Laura.

Happy Fourth of July!

In order to keep to the mantra of nothing new on race day and keeping myself rested, I am practicing my “everything”.

As far workouts, I am tapering. But there is so much more that goes on with triathlon and so much equipment. On Monday I started running down the list of things I will need to either attach to my bike or bring with me on race day.

Starting with what I will be wearing to ride/run in then onto my wetsuit, sneakers, bike shoes, running shoes, heart rate monitor, goggles, swim cap, Vaseline, race belt and the list goes on. So to say I am concerned that I may forget something is not an understatement. I have a couple of lists. One is near my computer and one is in my bedroom and one that I carry with me so I can add things that I think of while I am out and about.

After my jaunt around the West Side yesterday visiting all the race sites, I came home to practice tire changing. With a big ole hiss, I let the air out of my own tires in the middle of the living room. The Dog and the two cats, have never heard this sound before. The cats ran away and the dog tried to protect me from the offending bicycle.

I do not understand why I was nervous about changing my own tires in my own living room but during the whole thing my hands were shaking. Once I got through the entire process, I decided shaky hand were a good thing. On race day if I get flat, I know my hands will be shaky. Scratch that off the list.

Moving on from changing tires it was time to practice the one thing I have not done yet: T1.

Transition one is the transition from swim to bike. "They" say this is an easier transition because you are mostly using your arms during the swim and from bike to run you get lead legs. It is also more difficult to practice because I cannot bring street gear into the pool at the JCC and there is really no body of water to practice coming out of. So I needed to practice on dry land. It just occurred to me, I could have jumped in the shower but that would have just been silly.

It is bad enough I had on my full wet suit, swim cap and goggles on in my kitchen. Why the kitchen? So I could run through the apt to reach the chair in the bedroom where I had my transition area set up as I think it will be set up on race day of course.

I ran through the apt, with the dog chasing me, to the bedroom where I stripped down into my tri suit and donned my helmet, sunglasses, socks, riding shoes and race belt grabbed my pretend indoor bike and pretended to ride off. Then I made believe I rode and came back to the T2 and went off for the run. I have this one down cold. I have been doing it for months. Again, I practiced T1 until I was so sweaty and tired from putting the wetsuit on and off I decided it was time to rest (which I was supposed to be doing in the first place).

I am way more comfortable having practiced the first transition a couple of times. I am happy to know what I believe my transition area will look like even if the animals in the apartment think I am crazy. You should know the dog chased me every time and the cats sat on the sidelines watching the whole thing. If they could talk I am sure they would have nothing good to say about my crazy behavior.

I know now that I have practiced everything that I can in order to prepare for Sunday. I am confident that I have practiced everything. Now I just have to do the race.

3 days to go!

Hope you see you all out there cheering me on.

Play hard!

Laura

Getting Ready

Hi. It's Laura.

It's only been one day of tapering and I am already going a little stir crazy.

So I am busying myself with reading about tapering, resting and how necessary it is for you. Since I am planner, I already have my plan for next week, not my next race. I was thinking about a next race but I really need to see how Sunday goes before I commit to another Tri.

So while everyone else is heading out of town to enjoy the July 4th holiday, The Husband and I will remain here in the city and enjoy the peace of quiet of the mass exodus and practice changing tires on the bike.

This morning was my second to last ride before Sunday. I took the normal route for me up Riverside and decided on my way back to check out the technical turn of the course out of T1. On my way down the ramp at 79th St. the path was blocked by a truck (grumble grumble) until I saw what they were doing: setting up HUGE spot lights along the pathway. I was wondering why they would need them for the fireworks for tomorrow then I realized, DUH! These are not for the fireworks, they are for the Tri. The spot lights are lighting up T1 because most of the athletes will be arriving between 3:30 and 5:00 am when it’s still dark outside. Oh, exciting. I continue down to 72nd street to see if they started to repair the giant hole on the ramp there and on my way I found this:

What is this you ask? This would be the workers and volunteers setting up one of the transition areas. I wasn’t sure at first but then I read some of the signs, “Sharp Turn Ahead” and “U Turn”. Then I was sure. They were laying black tarp for the bike stands to rest on. Then I got really excited. I waited around for a few minutes to see what other signs they would be carrying out. I saw 1200 meters & 800 meter signs. Just in case I was still not convinced, I saw these:

Since it is the Aquaphor Triathlon and RCN was one of thesponsors, I knew. I finished my ride to 72nd Street and was disappointed to see they were not setting up the transition area there yet. Also, they had not yet touched the pothole. At that point I decided to see if they were working on anything else. So I rode up to 96th Street where I think the swim start is located. I had to actually whip out my phone in order to find the exact location because nothing is set up there yet. There is no sign in the park marking the street either.

Although I knew approximately where the start of the swim would be I figure today was as good a day as any to take a look and here it is, the swim course.

lf you look off in the distance you can see the 79th Street pier where we exit. After I saw this, the course grew very long for me. It’s only 20 city blocks, piece of cake right? Fingers crossed.

Still kind stoked about the whole course being set up thing, I headed to Central Park to see if anything was happening there. There was nothing yet. I know they start building the finish line at least a week before the marathon so I was a little disappointed to see nothing.

Looking at the signs and the course, I was excited. I sit here writing to you about it and I am scared to death. This keeps happening. Moments of sheer panic and moments of absolute confidence. I can do this! If I can stand in the ring and women try to knock me out, I can take this course.

Off to practice changing my tires!

Play hard!

Laura

The Beginning of the End

Hi. It’s Laura.

Happy Monday!

Last week The Husband suggested the title “The Beginning of the End” for another blog entry. And when I read it in the email he sent me, I started to cry.

I started to cry because I realized my journey is really coming to the end and that end is this Sunday. I have been sharing my journey with you for the last eight months. I am really going to miss you and sharing my experience. But every journey must come to end and this one is less than a week away.

There is still work to get done this week but not nearly at the level where I have been training. This week is all about tapering. So what is tapering?

Tapering is reducing the strain on an athlete’s muscles and allowing the athlete's muscle to restore them in preparation for the big day. Workouts do not stop completely but the duration and the intensity level decrease. There are so many ways to taper and depending on your coach, your sport and your fitness level will determine how long your taper should be. Some can be as long as four weeks and other can be a short as one week.

This for me is the hardest week of all. Race day is Sunday so what better way to work out some nerves than go for a run. Except I can't. I need to rest. And if you know me at all sitting around and doing nothing for the next six days in nearly impossible.

Instead of spending two hours on my bike, I will be practicing changing my tire in case of a flat. Instead running for two hours, I will be practicing taking off my wetsuit and the transition from swim to bike. Instead of swimming for hours on end, I will be at the chiropractor and massage therapist working out the last kinks. There is plenty to keep me occupied instead of obsessing over race day (which I will probably do anyway because that is what I have been doing for the last eight months).

I am highly anticipating some post-race blues. All the months of prep, then the race then what? I don’t know yet. I can tell you it will NOT be a marathon (even if it is in Paris). Let's see how Sunday goes and then I will let you know.

Play hard!
Laura

Rocked It!

Hi. It's Laura.
Happy Friday!
Yesterday I did my ocean swim once again. I will say it was the complete opposite from the last time.
Last week as I drove down to Jersey I was nervous. I was the chatty kind of nervous and was even a little shaky. Getting my wet suit on was difficult and once in the water I had difficulty breathing.
I needed to rest a lot throughout the last swim and, although I did the required swim by the USAT, I certainly was not going to be great on the swim leg during the tri.
Yesterday, I arrived at the beach and had not even thought about the swim until I actually got out of the car (and maybe when I was packing my wetsuit and goggles). I had a lovely relaxed conversation with my brother and his coworker discussing fruit and juicing.
I got half my wet suit on and waited in the shade (the shadow of the lifeguard stand) until it was time to go. I stood around and thought about everything except the swim. I was very surprised about how relaxed I really was.
Bored with standing around, I started to bug my brother, let's go, let’s go. I even pushed the envelope a little and started out into the water on my own (I know, shocker). He followed. Out past the breaking waves we go and started the swim. About half way to our destination, I hear him start in. “Keep your head down, keep your head down.” At the turning point again he says “Keep your head down”, “You’re wasting energy”.
We swam to the same bunch of rocks that we swam last week. The difference this week was, instead of running back, we swam back. And what did my brother have to say on the way back? “Breathe when you lift your head out of the water not when you stick it back in.” (Gee thanks!) Other than that, radio silence. I guess I was doing things right. I found my pace and stuck to it.
Once on shore, I practiced taking down the wet suit. Although it doesn't sound like a difficult task, it can be when you are shaky from a work out. It is a lot like taking off skinny jeans if that helps [Editor’s note: Not really]. Done! And it felt so good. After the swim yesterday my emotions tipped in the other direction and I feel ready for July 8th.
Beginning next Friday and through the race weekend, I will not be posting blogs. Instead, I will be posting tweets about where I am and giving status updates. You can follow me on Twitter as @inspiredbylaura.
Twitter is free. You need to set it up on your home computer and download the app for your smartphone. If you have any concerns, you don't need to follow anyone else and you don't need to post anything but if you’re curious as to what is going on join twitter and follow me. If you need help, let me know and I can help you with that as well.
Next Friday begins the events for the triathlon including the Expo at the Hilton in midtown which is open to the public if you want to attend.
Enjoy the weekend!
Play hard!
Laura