Race Gear

Steph and I have trained well and rested well over the past 5 months.  Overtraining is certainly a risk and running down the body’s defenses a hazard that comes with the territory.  However, i believe we skirted that fine line and both have been healthy, strong and injury free.  That is until now, race weekend.  As Steph lays crudded up her couch with both a fever and a Winston cough,  I am slowly regaining my strength and appetite from a week plagued by a GI bug.  This was a hard call for us both.  After months of training there is something so satisfying in completing that culminating event.  True, I do it all for the training.  The feeling of being strong, healthy and enjoying the journey.  But there is definitely something to be said of taking your body out for the really long spin, just to see what it can do.  Pushing yourself mentally and physically to the limit you’ve worked so hard to extend.   But alas it was decided that when you’re down, you’re down.  No matter how hard you’ve worked.  This was a smart call.  A thirty-something call.  Even if it is deflating.  So we are running a consolation race.  Over the Mountain on 5/21.  It is an International Distance that, as the name suggests, goes Over a Mountain.  Though it is a shorter distance I suspect that it will push our boundaries just the same.  We have trained to go longer.  Now we will go harder.  Onward and upward.

Encourage me.  Tell me about a time when you’ve had to make the hard call.

here’s the thing.  bodies come in all shapes and sizes.  some of the healthiest and most beautiful bodies look nothing like the ones in the magazines.  this is one of the things i love about women.  our curves.  our ability to grow a baby, manage a home, pursue a career, run a marathon, cry, praise, remember someone else, and grow older and more confident in the body graced with time.   i am 30 something and truly feel that it may be the best decade yet.  though i haven’t seen 40 something….

a friend of mine told me her son said to her recently, “i like your tummy mom, it means that you had us.”  beautiful.

don’t get me wrong.  i fall for ALL of it too.  the flat belly, botox, hair extensions, makeup, airbrushing.  who wouldn’t… it’s everywhere and enticing.  but i wish it weren’t.  so in my thoughts, in my rhetoric, in my heart where i choose what i will love… i will choose to look at the beauty that leaves it’s mark on me with time.

So, even though I am a triathlete, a cycle instructor, and a Bodypump lover, I am also just a regular old girl.  and even though one of the things I love in life is exercise and do it an awful lot, i still look just like a regular old girl.  it’s how i feel that matters.  i feel good.  i feel strong.  and i feel beautiful.  i love the way i look (most days).  curves and all.

So today I am celebrating the body i live in.  the one that, up to this point, has done a heck of a lot for me.

i sometimes look down at my legs and wonder over all the places they have taken me.  and am so thankful.

What about your body makes you thankful?  I would love to hear.

But time marches on and so do the workouts. Hopefully all will be well with both Kathryn and me between now and May 7!

Here’s a look back to the morning of the race 2 years ago!

Kathryn, Steph and Chris Bradle (he was part of the men's relay team)

Do not do an intensive kettleweight workout just prior to an outdoor bike ride (and then run). It’s dumb.

The Reebok Kettleweight workout is short but really intense! (the weight looks silly, but it’s effective.) I thought that me hobbling around was simply due to a arduous ride in the wind yesterday, but then, “ding!” I remembered what I had done BEFORE the ride. Ouch. And pass the Ibuprofen please.

Time.  We don’t have a lot of it these days.  Kathryn has less of it than me and she’s a master juggler of all the things going on in her life.  She is truly amazing.  We were talking on the spin bikes on Saturday and one thing she said has come back to my thoughts tonight:  This is just a hobby.

Kathryn and I are not competing against anyone else but ourselves.  We’re not in it to win our age group (though it would be cool) and we’re not doing it for glory.  We’re doing this triathlon thing because we love it and we love how we feel when we’re training (for the most part) and when we’re competing.  I hope I’m not putting too many words in my friend’s mouth, but I think she’ll agree.

Braun and I were talking about serving tonight. Not serving dinner, but serving others.  Sometimes it’s so hard to fit just one more thing in, but we know we are called to serve people. So, what do we do and when do we do it? What we end up sacrificing at times is actual time with our husbands, kids, our friends and our community.  Where do we make the sacrifice?  What is truly important when it all comes down?

So I’m reminded tonight that triathlon is a hobby – an awesome one — but it’s not my job; no one is paying me to do this. I’m choosing it and I have to remember that there are going to be times when I need choose time with my husband over fitting in that run.   Or, skipping that class because I’ve committed to this group of people once a week. A lot of times I can fit it all in, but not all the time.  So I’m taking this time to remember and to get perspective. I lose it sometimes!

Ready.

Friday evening I hit the road for Wilmywood — that’s what we used to call Wilmington due to the filming there of various movies and tv shows.  It’s my college town and my hometown up until 2002.  I love visiting and seeing all the ol’ stomping grounds.  They bring back so many memories, most of which are good ones!

Well speaking of stomping some ground, the purpose of this road trip was to run in the Half Marathon at Wrighstville Beach!  I’ve only suffered through run 2 Half Marathons previously — the one wrapped into the White Lake Half Ironman and then the Dowd Half Marathon in Charlotte - both in 2009. One I was trained for, one I ran just because I thought “surely I can do this even though I really haven’t been running that much.” Ouch.

Well, to be honest, I wasn’t very excited about this race.  My longest run up to this point in training had been 11.5 miles.   At the end of that “easy” run, I was tired.  Really tired.  Thankfully, I had an awesome support crew lined up for this race: Rodney and Diane Stoner.  Diane was supposed to run the full marathon but got injured a few weeks ago so she was sidelined.  BUT, they drove down to cheer me on and offer support. How awesome is that?  I was honest with them about my anxiety and lack of enthusiasm for the race and let me tell you, Diane is an awesome motivator.  She kept telling me to race hard, put it all out there, push myself, prepare to be uncomfortable, and most of all,  have fun!  I was reminded of these words time and time again during the run!

The run started at 6:37 am.  It was dark and cold as the gun went off.  I felt really good in my first mile and ran it at an 8:10 pace.  I knew I couldn’t sustain that but I was determined to push myself for the entire race.  By mile 2, the sun was up and it was a beautiful thing to be running at this time of day.  I was feeling pretty good until mile 10, but I kept pushing through even though I asked myself more than once, “how in the world and I going to sustain this pace?” 

This run was tough, but I made it through!  I say it was tough because I really did push.  The last 4 miles were a total mental game. I had to keep telling myself to not walk, to not give up and to remind myself that my cardio was fine even though my legs were getting tired. 

I finished the 13.24 miles (yeah…not 13.1 exactly)  in under 2 hours which was my goal.  I’m proud of what I did on Sunday.  I feel confident that I’ll get faster and that I will keep pushing myself to go beyond the limits because a lot of times, they’re self-imposed.

So there ya go. Hopefully, I’ll have actual race photos to post soon.  Rodney is a pro photographer and said he got lots of shots from the race day!

the spin blur is in effect, but i wanted to share my studying strategies with you. and though my notes are getting sweaty, i am pretty sure they are also getting through.   according to John Ratey MD, exercise and brain function are long lost loves.  one flourishes with the attention of the other.  go figure.  i am inclined to believe him.  not because he is a super brainiac at Harvard Medical School and wrote the amazing book  Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise, with oodles of  research to support things like exercise actually growing and changing my brain for optimal performance (trust me, i need it), but because i have experienced it first hand.

If you have a moment, or 4, watch the video below.  It’s an interview with Dr. Ratey and gives a good synopsis of his neurological research of exercise and the brain.

Just as I’m getting into a swim groove, the pool closes and I have to get out due to Childress Klein’s new policy of closing for 15 minutes at 7pm every night.  So I got 25 out of 40 laps in. UGH.

But tonight was different!  I was hydrated, I had my earplugs in and I felt strong.  And no headache! So the groove is back and I hope it’s here to stay!

Do any of you ever get into swim ruts?  What do you do to get out of them?