Simply Stu's World Wide Triathlon

On Friday, the kids participated in Simply Stu's World Wide Triathlon. It was a first triathlon for both, so it was all about them. We started with body marking. Daisy had 8's all over and her USAT age is 8 too. I let them choose their numbers and this is her favorite she says becuase if you turn it sideways, it means infinity. Redfish, chose 6. I guess that is how old he thinks he is.
We actually did the TRI in reverse order, but for the sake of avoiding confusion, I'm going to list the times in swim, bike, run order.

Swim
Daisy: 100 meters: 8.23
Redfish (with dad helping) 50 meters: 3.35

Bike
10 blocks: 42.32 (Dad carried the bigwheel for Redfish the last block)

Run
Daisy: 1K 9.25
Redfish: .5K 6

Totals
Daisy: 59.8
Redfish: 52.07

I have to say, I wasn't very specific on the timing. I didn't do a transition split between the bike and the run (so that one is included in the time). On the other hand, I didn't count driving to the YMCA to get to the pool in a transition time either. Actu
The kids had fun. And slept well that night. When we do this next year, I'm going to do a few things differently.
1. I'm going to set it up more like a real race if I can with transition areas and a true finish line, and have them race in the correct order. This might be difficult logisitically, since There is not a great place to bike from the YMCA we go to, but I'll have to figure out something.
2. I'm going to involve more of their friends and make it more of a community event.
3. I'm going to hand-make some medals of sorts and also include water stops. I am such a cruel forgetful mother -- I forgot to pack water on the bike and run!!! OK, I'll never make it as a race director! My kids were good sports though, and got water when we finished.

I'm also sorry to say that I may have signed Daisy up for her first real race a bit prematurely. I think I over estimated her biking ability. We've got alot of work to do. Her bike is steel and it is so heavy that with the training wheels she has trouble getting it to go up the slightest hill becuase of the weight and the drag of the training wheel. I actually had to help push her back to help her get up the hills!
The PowerKids Tri is May 31st. We need to get her much more confident on her bike and in the water by then, or I'm worried she'll have a bad first race. Help! Ideas anyone?

Swimming Alone

I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to Masters swim tonight, so Redfish and I headed over the the Y. Rain is predicted for today, along with thunderstorms, so I was praying we would get neither. Not just so I wouldn't get kicked out of the pool, but also since my window is stuck in the down position. I figured I'd already be wet from the swim so if it started to pour, I'd just get wetter, but still, I wasn't looking forward to it. Not to get sidetracked here, but while I need to fix it as soon as possible, I can't figure out when I can give up my car for the entire day, and I can't seem to figure out where the $400 to fix it is coming from either.

Luckily, all the fates aligned this morning. Actually, I'm in a great mood, because of all the things that finally went right. Redfish now considers the YMCA childcare in the gym "fun." Also, as an added bonus he is learning the letters YMC and A! It didn't rain, but got sunnier during my swim. And, after I warmed up, my ribs stopped hurting. Jason, my physical therapist, picked up the slack of the past couple of weeks and really gave my injury some much needed attention. He is super good, but for some reason, recently he's been so busy and distracted, I'd been having trouble getting him to do the deep tissue stuff I needed, in the time he had. It also helped that his intern, Liz, spend about 15 minutes on me too. Anyway, I decided since I have so much trouble staying focused on my swim when I swim by myself at the Y, I decided to just swim for 30 minutes with no breaks at all and see what happened.

For the 4.4 Mile Bay Swim, I'm going to need to swim about 3 hour straight, so this really was a baby goal. Then again, taking breaks, even for 10-15 seconds at the end of a 200 is a huge help, so not having the breaks will help me get used to the reality of 4.4 miles in the open water with not a wall in sight.

The swim just kept getting better and better (as opposed to worse and worse, which is how many of my runs end up). As I put more distance behind me I focused on turning my core with my hips, bilateral breaths every 3rd stroke, and flip turns. In fact, things were going so well that after 30 minutes I took a 100 yard "break" of side stroke and then swam another 45 minutes straight. I looked at splits for my 100's and maintained a fairly consistent 2:01 to 2:09 for the entire swim. If I was better at math, I could tell you how far I swam. I'm guessing maybe 3600 yards or just over 2 miles, plus my 200 warm up. I was sort of tired of the chlorine and the black line on the bottom of the pool and all those ladies doing their water aerobics, but still felt like I wanted to swim more. Ah, I'll save it for another day. I don't want Redfish to think I've abandoned him.

I can't wait until Friday to put in some more time in the pool. Now, all I need is some company to draft off of! And, I won't miss you guys too much tonight while you are at Masters while I'm babysitting the kids and Mr. Preschool is off seeing DJ Spooky at the Modlin Center, cause at least I got in a good workout today.

Swimming to Swim

Swimming more and posting less. That about sums up my last couple of weeks.

The TRIgirl swims with awesome Coach Annie have started. I officially joined the YMCA this week and the Master's Swims with Ironwoman Canada and the rest of the Butterfly Girls continue to kick my butt. Friday mornings mean gym time for Redfish and more swimming for me at the Y with one of my super cool little sister TRIgirl J.

My chest/rib injury still bothers me...and based on how it feels I go back and forth between thinking I should go back to see Dr. Dec or just training through the minor pain I am in and making it through to the 4.4 MileCheasapeake Bay Swim and then hoping it will take care of itself as I ease back on my mileage. I continue physical therapy for at least a few more weeks, and whenever I find the time to do my exercises on my own I feel much better.

It feels great to have a race to focus on. Between training and reading Swimming To Antartica, by Lynne Cox, I feel much more confident about the race....but I also wish I had some kind of training schedule to follow. I know I need to do a few 7,000 to 8,000 meter swims in the next month or so, but the thought of doing that in the pool is more overwhelming than the actual race to me. Redfish and Daisy already keep asking me what that new smell is....and I know they are talking about my entire body smelling like Chlorine!

Swimming with the Masters

Well you know it was a good workout when it takes more than 24 hours to recover enough to post about it! (Actually, that is not entirely true, I've been really busy with some other commitments, so that accounts for the delay.)
Masters swim with Ironwoman Canada was awesome. She was really down-to-earth, had a good sense of humor and made a newcomer like me, feel welcome. Apparently word of mouth has gotten around Richmond -- and especially the TRIgirls about what an excellent coach she is. We took over the entire pool! Ironwoman Canada put me in the 2nd to slowest lane, so I could be with some of my TRIgirl peeps and not feel totally like a fish out of water. Actually, everyone in my lane was either a current or former TRIgirl.
We swam about 2,500 meters. (Well, except for the break I took to go find a drink of water because I forgot mine.) Let me just say, that won't happen again! I was wondering around the Y dripping wet, with no towel looking for a drink, and people kept telling me to go into the gym to get it. Not likely! I guess that is why I missed a whole 150 meters while I was gone.

Jason, my physical therapist, said not to overdo it and to increase my pool mileage slowly. I guess I overdid it just a bit -- as I'm still sore 36 hours later. It's just that one area near my chest that has been bothering me. But, I think the full extension is helping because this week instead of my ribs being turned posterior, he said they were turned the opposite direction and were anterior.
I fell right to sleep after the workout, but then awoke in the middle of the night, and couldn't sleep! When my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. for my run, I hit the snooze. Only one problem. There is no snooze alarm on my watch. I scrambled out the door to the Thursday morning run, late, but still felt lucky to get a work out in. I turned it in to a fast 2 mile workout instead of the planned 4, because Mr. Preschool was waiting for me to get home so he could be on time for work.
Today, I'll rest and prepare for tomorrow's long brick.

Back in the Pool

This week I finally got the go-ahead from my physical therapist to get back in the pool. I was so excited! Dr. Dec was worried I'd do more harm than good if I started swimming before I regained full extension of my arm and shoulder, so we were taking it slow getting back in the water. I dropped Redfish off at the Y's daycare in the gym and decided to just take it easy and see how things felt when I got back in the water. I could definitely feel my chest muscles not wanting to cooperate with all of the new movement, but managed to get in a mile anyway. Still a bit sore 2 days later, but it's all for the best. I've got some catching up to do . Another report after Masters tomorrow.