Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon Race Report

Results: 13.5 Swim Lengths, 13.6 miles on bike, 1.97 miles running

On Sunday, my cousin and I completed the Fridley Lifetime Indoor Triathlon with the NF Endurance Team. I'll break it down by event:

Swim- We had 10 minutes to swim. Neither Steph or I trained in the pool--at all. I used to really suck at swimming in high school and I don't think that has changed. Steph kept swimming ahead of me and then saying, "Come on Rachel...you can do it." It was tough. If I ever do another triathlon, I will need some serious time in the pool. I was exhausted by the time that we got out of the pool and still had 2 more events to go!

Bike- We had 30 minutes to complete the bike portion. Steph spent a little too much time in transition and we were late hitting the bikes. Everyone had already started. I was really thrown off and didn't take the time to adjust my bike. BIG mistake! I had a rather painful ride due to the seat riding up by butt and the awkward leaning that I was doing. Midway through the ride, I got confused and thought the instructors were telling us to get off the bikes. I stopped pedaling and lost some time there. Steph put on her crazy face in this room and was drumming to the songs they were playing and singing. When we only had 5 minutes left, one of the facilitator dudes came over to tell us we had 5 minutes by putting up his hand--Steph thought that he was trying to high five her so he high fived him. He then high fived me as well and then made sure he put his hand on the other people's bikes to tell them they had 5 minutes left. We were also the only ones to get high fives at the end of our bike portion--thanks to my crazy cousin.

Run- We had 20 minutes to run. I wanted to finish this portion strong because all of the other events really did not go so well. I started out running way too fast (around a 9 min mile) as I was trying to make up points and quickly lost my energy. I had to crank my speed way down for a minute to get my breath back before moving it back to 10 min mile.


All in all--it was a fun event. The jury is still out on whether I will actually complete a "real" triathlon someday.

I'm Running, Running, Running!

Distance: 5.85 miles, Time: 1 hour

Woohoo!!!!

YES!!!

Finally I got a run in! Albeit slow, it was a run!! Nearly 6 miles in an hour. The trick was taking the risk and pushing past the "bone crunching noise" that was inhibiting me before. I was afraid of causing further damage and stopped every other time I tried to run. This time I pushed through and hoped for the best. The crunching noise stopped after about a minute and then I was golden! I kept the pace low and wound up finishing up 5.85 miles.

Sooo excited!

Two Wheels Stuck in Neutral

Bike Time: 20 min 58 sec, Bike Distance: 5 miles, Eliptical Time: 30 min

Unfortunately, my knee is still in what I like to call "crummy condition". I have an indoor triathlon on Sunday and it is looking more like I will be walking the treadmill portion than anything. How embarrassing! We will see what happens before then though. Right now I can't run. It feels sort of like two bones jamming into one another when I even attempt it. I did make it about 4 strides the other day on the treadmill while I was testing the knee out--it didn't go so well.

Yesterday I figured I would try to build up my bike skills on the stationary bike at the gym. Something about being on a bike sitting in neutral is just not real exciting to me. But somehow I made it more exciting by trying to go as fast as I could maintain speed. I completed 5 miles in under 21 minutes and I'm not entirely sure whether that is good or not. When I hopped off the bike, my knee felt like it was stuck in one large cramp. I figured I must have done a decent job at working the muscles in my knee but this is just me estimating things as I don't know the first thing about how to heal a bruised knee. I didn't even know a bruised knee could affect mobility until I took my stumble up the stairs.

I also have not done any training in a pool. This is the downside of belonging to an Anytime Fitness. So...that portion will be rather intersting. I figure it is only 10 minutes and if I make a fool of myself--then it is only for 10 minutes, right?

Adventures of a Klutz: Falling Up

So...Sunday night I had a bit of an accident. These things tend to happen when I am super hyper and in the best of moods as was the case on Sunday. I was in search of a missing Diet Coke. I had just gone out to the garage in my socks to see if I could spot it in my car. It had not been in my car so I started up the stairs. Somehow my footing wasn't right. My sock slipped on the step and I came crashing down. It wasn't a small crash either. My knee banged into the step with a great force. The pain was intense and Andy rushed down the steps to rescue me. He helped me up the stairs as I was having a hard time walking. I sat down on the couch and sitting on the floor next to the couch was my darn Diet Coke.

Anyhow...I had a hard time walking on it all night Sunday night. I figured I should go into the doc Monday to make sure all was okay. The doc said my knee was just very badly bruised and sent me on my way. He said it is so swollen that he couldn't really see a lot but if it isn't 90% better in 2 weeks to go back in. Well, today I can walk on it better but going up and down stairs still hurts pretty bad. I haven't attempted a serious run on it (I'll admit that right after it happened I tried to just run in the living room to see if I could). The doc said to stick to the bike for now. I have the triathlon in less than 2 weeks so I'm hoping that it heals quickly.

Mental Mind Games

Run Time: 32 minutes, Run Distance: 3 miles

Yesterday I managed to make it to the gym in between work and class and only had enough time to run for half an hour. Which was okay because the gym was packed. It was another struggle of a run but I played some mental mind tricks to keep myself going. You wouldn't even believe some of the thoughts and slogans that were going through my head. Humor me...here are the "tricks" I played to push my mind through--

First I started thinking about all the people walking on the treadmills around me and imagined that I was winning a race. This was especially helpful when the old dude 2 treadmills over decided that if I could run--he could to.

I then envisioned myself as a motivator. I could tell this poor guy running was not a runner and had not intended to run before he saw me running. I only know this because he only lasted about a minute before he decided that he didn't like it too much--that and he kept watching me. Anyways, I envisioned myself as a motivator beyond the moment at which this guy had stopped and was clearly no longer motivated (if he ever was). I thought of the way my dad tells me that I am inspiring and the way that he picked up running as a result of my own running adventures.

Then these thoughts weren't working anymore. I had to think of something else. Somehow I got the "John Jingleheimer Schmidt" song stuck in my head because that appeared to be a similiar rhythym to what everyone was thumping the treadmill at. Don't ask me. Quickly this song wore out and I didn't like the idea of getting it stuck in my head. So what better song to start singing in your head than, "Tearin Up My Heart" by NSync. This one makes more sense because I used to be an insane Nsync fan back in the day. But of course, I could only remember the chorus. So...that got old fast.

Next I started throwing running slogans out there. "Blast those hips" and "Rachel you can do this", or the one I find the most humurous..."I'm so proud of you." Proud...of myself? Where did I get this nonsense?

Somehow I made it to the end of my run. And I'm thinking that I need to charge my Ipod soon. Because my creativity in mental mind games is going to wear thin!!

What are your mental mind games???

Something to Report!

Run Distance: 3 miles, Run time: 32:00, Eliptical: 20 minutes, Bike: 5 minutes, 3/10 Above Arm

I'm going back to the log at the top of my posts just so I have something that I can look back to. Yes, I finally have something that I can actually report. The run went as well as I could expect for missing almost 2 weeks. I seem to be having a bit of a respiratory issue that kind of effected this run. I've actually had it much of the winter and went into the doctor about it but they kept telling me that it was dry air. It was focused primarily in my nose so I believed them. But it really is starting to make my throat hurt. And not just in the morning--all day. Anyways, nevertheless my throat was burning midway through my run and I was having a hard time ignoring it. I did stop and walk for 2 minutes so thus the slow time.

I was hoping for a little longer of a run but settled with 3 miles and decided that perhaps the eliptical would be better. I was still having the same symptoms. Anyways, spent 20 minutes there and then decided to finish off with 5 on the bike. Despite all of this...I really was happy to just be at the gym.

I am hoping to get a work out in tonight in between work and class. We'll see how that goes.