It's been awhile!

It has been quite awhile since I last updated. The day after I ran the Wolfe Island 5k, I discovered that a new family member would be joining us in about 8 months. Baby anners is due on March 17, 2010.

I was okay about keeping up my running at first. I ran 5k about 3 times a week. Gradually, I am noticing that I become short of breath more quickly and my legs get tired with (relatively) little exertion. To put it simply, I am slow slow slow. Now I am running 3-4k twice a week and trying to supplement with bike trainer rides and dog walks. Walking still counts, right? :)

I'm hoping that I can keep up with my running (shuffling) for another couple of months, but we'll see how it goes. I will be doing the Run for the Cure on Oct 4, but most likely will walk it with DH and puppy Lily (who is one year old already! Can you believe it??). I am quite excited to participate in this event again, especially with my growing family! (By the way, if you are interested in supporting me, let me know! I haven't been soliciting for pledges at all. I should really get on that...)

Wolfe Island Classic 5k - quick report

I ran the 5k of the Wolfe Island Classic yesterday. Briefly, I forgot to wear my Garmin and had to run by feel. And so I did...felt like crap the whole way, just like one is supposed to during a 5k race ;). End result: 25:52, 6/40 in AG, 16/137 women. A new PB!

Wolfe Island is a hard course. I don't enjoy the hills. I just go to see the golden retriever kennel at the finish line. My furbaby liked visiting with them too!

A day at the beach

I've been bugging Cliff to go for an open water swim with me, and since he is now tapering for the Peterborough half iron, he graciously obliged.

I picked up a rental wetsuit from Running Free on Thursday. Because this way my first time wearing a wetsuit, they suggested that I try a sleeveless model, "purely from a comfort perspective." Okay. Since I have heard horror stories from friends trying on wetsuits, I asked DH to come with me to help me squeeze into it. I tried on a large Zoot Women's Fuzion Sleeveless. To my surprise, it went on easily and I hardly needed help at all. Was it too big? I modeled it for the store staff and they said it looked fine. Okay, I guess I'm ready to go! When they asked which event I was doing this weekend, I felt a little strange telling them that I was just going for a practice swim. But really, I didn't mind paying for the rental to have the wetsuit/open water swimming experience. Also, their website says that if you decide to purchase a suit within a year of the rental, they will apply the rental fee to your purchase. Sounds good to me.

I met Cliff at Cherry beach this morning. The water felt really cold when we first waded out! We took our time getting in, then did a short out-and-back around a couple of markers. It was probably about 100m. The first round didn't go very well...I ran out of breath quickly and my face felt numb from cold. I ended up flipping onto my back a few times. This was what happened to me at Lakeside during the race. Cliff was great...he kept an eye on me and kept making sure I was okay. Once we got to the shallow water, I told him what happened and he suggested that I come up for air more frequently if I wasn't feeling comfortable. In the pool, I usually take a breath every 5 strokes, alternating sides. We went for another lap, and this time I took a breath every 2nd stroke. It helped me in terms of not running out of breath, but since I was always breathing to the right, I veered off course...haha!

At the end of the second lap, we made our way back to the beach. It was rocky near the shore and very hard on my feet. When I stood up, my legs felt like jello and I couldn't find my footing on the rocks. I fell over several times. It probably took me 10 minutes just to get out onto the beach...talk about longest transition time ever!

We went for two more laps after that, with the second one being slightly longer. I guess we did about 500m in total. My confidence improved each time, and my swimming became smoother. Slow, but at least I kept myself going.

It would have been very helpful if I had tried that before my give-it-a-tri! Had I known that the cold water would affect me so much, I would have done a better warm-up. The wetsuit also helped a lot. I might have to think about buying my own!

DH came down with me with his bike, so after the swim we biked for about 14k into Tommy Thompson park. Beautiful day for a ride. He kept up with me on the way out, but couldn't keep up on the way back. This gave my evil ego a bit of satisfaction. If DH could have kept up with me on a mountain bike when he is out of shape, I would have been quite discouraged. Apparently, my cycling training has not been all for nothing!

All in all, a great way to spend the morning!

Riding and traffic

I woke up at 6am on Sunday to head out for my long ride. I covered 30.5km in 1:26, which I was pleased with. My previous longest ride was 25km, and the conditions were windy (by my standards). There wasn't much traffic early on a Sunday, but I still felt some fear riding on the roads. I winced every time a car went by me, even though they didn't come all that close. It seems like most cyclists I know have had a traffic incident at one time or another. I am way too scared to try doing a bike commute (35km for me). I guess avoiding traffic is a good incentive for me to get up early on the weekend to get my long ride done.

Tonight, I headed out for a short 30min ride in my neighbourhood...with hardly any wind, I averaged 23.3kph. I think I'm improving a little.

I'm renting a wetsuit this weekend in anticipation of an open water swim...woohoo.

How can I get faster on the bike?

First attempt at pushing harder on the bike yesterday...10 min easy, 10 min "hard" effort, 10 min easy. Ended up doing 12.66k in just under 36min (21.3kph). Speed during "tempo" portion was 24kph. Okay, it's a starting point...and it was quite windy out there. Would be nice if I could average around 25kph over 20k during a tri. Then I wouldn't be quite so far behind starting the run :)

New goals

I thought about my goals as I did my long-ish run this morning (while realizing that I haven't run longer than 5k since Sporting Life...eeek!)

I would like to do a sprint tri at the end of the summer (750m/20k/5k) and go for a sub 2-hr half in the fall. My race times at shorter distances seem to indicate that I can do this...I just need to build my endurance back up.

So, the plan for the summer is:
Swim - work up to 2000m and practice open water swimming (longest swim to date 1250m)
Bike - work up to 2hr and do some "faster" riding during short rides (longest to date is 25k/70min)
Run - work up to 90min until the tri, then 2-2.5 hours until the half (been there, done that, but current comfortable distance is 8-10k)

I'll have to think about scheduling my workouts. I seem to end up trying to do my long swim, bike and run all on the weekend, which is probably not the best idea!

I'm hoping to do some open water swims with Cliff

I'm thinking of either the Milton women's tri on Sept 6 or Wasaga beach on Sept 12. For the half marathon, I'm looking at the Goodlife Toronto half on Oct 18.

I'm looking forward to looking like a hottie this summer with all the training! Haha!

Gotta modify my name...

...I'm (tri) Marathon Anners now ;)