Like falling in Love again..

I did a sprint tri today!! I don't know what it is about triathlon, but MAN did I have fun out there. It hurt. Oh, yes. It hurt. But I felt strong throughout the race and as soon as I made the turn to head down to the finish, I couldn't stop beaming! It was just so.. FUN. I hadn't pushed myself like that to try to go fast in soooooo long. After a couple years of being a 'distance snob', and then going straight into all easy workouts through pregnancy.. and then I got swept up by crossfit fun.. It had just been a long time since I had embraced the pain and joy of a short race. Well color me in love. I can't wait to do it again! As in.. I could go do another one right now.. or maybe tomorrow.. OK. Maybe I'll wait a month. But I definitely had fun and am looking forward to my next chance to push myself out there and to try to go a liiiiittle bit faster. In the sprints, it's tough to make up much ground. But I have some ideas on where I can improve. First and probably the easiest would be to remember how to not transition like a boob. I forgot to put 'zip' (or whatever they're called.. the bungie thingies) laces in my shoes, so I just loosely knotted them and crammed my foot in there.. not the most efficient way to put on a shoe. Other than that, I think just remembering what I'm doing, in general, and I could move a little faster in there. Also, I waited until race morning to sign up (turns out I'm a big baby these days and I didn't want to race in the rain.. All week they were calling for storms all through friday night and saturday, so I held out. Guess what? beautiful race day morning. Yay!), so I had a high start number. This race has you 'self seed' yourself based on your swim ability, as it is a 'time trial' type start (one at a time, leaving probably 2-5 seconds apart? spreads things out better than a mass start, but can get crazy if you mix slow swimmers in with faster swimmers). Luckily, I didn't have to start way back with my number because they actually prefer that you adjust your start place based on your ability, but I still had to rack my bike according to my number. 'Why is this a big deal?', you ask? Good question.. Didn't think it would be a big deal, myself.. until it came time for me to come in off the bike.. Everyone has to follow the same direction, so everyone ends up going the same distance.. BUT. If you have a rack far away from where you dismount.. let's just say it's the longest, goofiest run you'll ever take. Trying to guide your bike and clinking along on your bike shoes (I'm not cool enough to do the 'leave your bike shoes on the pedals when you dismount'. Even with as many races and as many years as I've been doing this thing, I still haven't mastered that skill. In fairness, I only tried once.. but that one attempt was traumatic enough, so I just keep doing what I do. It's just a few seconds I'm not willing to lose my life over!).. it felt like it took forever. So. For the next race, maybe I'll try to pre-register so I can have a lower number and not have to do that long, clinking, wobbling run of shame. Anyway. So there's lots of room for improvement in the transition (I actually haven't even looked at my splits, so I have no idea how long my transitions were.. maybe I should do that before I go on and on about my race). Just checked out the actual results.. ouch. Here goes: 11:24.1 (154), 01:26.9 (115), 0:29:29.3 (20.3 mph/ 80), 01:53.0 (242), 0:22:57.8 (07:39.3/ 83), 1:07:11.1. Translation? Slllllloooooowww swim. But I knew that was coming. Sighting back to the beach was pretty rough, and that time also includes a little bit of a run. Almost a minute and a half in transition? Good lord. That is ridiculous for a sprint. Maybe an IM, that would be great! But a sprint.. move it, lady?! Just under 30 minutes for the 10mi ride, so just over 20mph.. I'm pretty content with that. I pushed pretty hard for most of that ride and feel good about it. As I mentioned, I haven't done that for a long time, so room to improve, but I'm happy with how I did today. TWO MINUTES??!! Told ya it was a long, goofy run to my spot after the bike.. Well. Upside there, should be no problem to improve on that one?! then a 7:40 avg pace for the 3mi run. I told myself I'd be happy with anything close to or under an 8min/mi pace.. so there it is! I felt good. I noticed I did a lot of 'self motivating talk' on this run.. Very cheesy, but I guess it worked. I just kept telling myself not to let up, to hold the pace I was at and to stay strong. I even started some sort of chant.. something about 'light on your feet. fast turnover. lean forward. use your arms'. I don't even know what I was talking about, but I kept repeating that any time I felt myself start to let up or slow down. I also, and guys, I never do this.. I even started to strategize passing people?! I'm very much a 'race your race' kind of gal, so this was a new one. Maybe I just needed to divert my focus from the developing side stitch? But I actually, at one point as I was closing in on a gal, thought to myself.. should I pass now, or wait until later? She's probably going to chase you down if you pass now.. Who am I? Well, I just passed..and I'm pretty sure she didn't chase.. Oh, well. It was going to be very dramatic in my mind. I did, however, come up on another gal right toward the end and was able to out-kick her to the finish. She came in just a bit behind me and I offered up a friendly 'good job', to which she ignored and walked away.. Oh, well. It was fun. Honestly. I had a great time. I had no expectations coming in, which was nice. I even forgot to wear a watch, so I had NO clue how things were going, other than a vague idea that I was doing alright..based on what..I have no idea. But it seemed like things were going ok for me, so I just went with it. Overall, I wound up with a 2nd place in my age group..which means basicall nothing, but..hey! 2nd place! Woo! The boys all came out to cheer me on and Mason looked like he was having fun watching mama like the good ol days.. He's such a big boy now, though! As we speak, he is off on a 'man-date' with his daddy at the movies. We had a pep-talk about how 'they are just silly monsters, not scary' (they're at Monsters University, or whatever), but 'if you get scared, you can just close your eyes'. He hasn't ever made it through a movie at the theaters before.. We have only tried twice, but it hasn't gone well.. So here's hoping this one is successful! So that was my race. I'm planning to do the same race again in about a month.. maybe I'll work my speed a bit more on the bike and run.. I'm not sure how much I can improve my swim in such a short time, but I'm thinking actually getting in the pool a time or two between now and then might be a good place to start (I went to college.. I know smart things like that). Crossfit stuff has gone well this week. We went a bit lighter, since our fearless leader was on vacation. Still did all the lifts and about the same quantity, but just more focus on good form with lighter weights (60, 65, 70% of our 1 rep maxes.. not way off what we normally would do, but just a slight bit lighter.. probably so we don't do anything stupid while coach is away. He went to college, too..so smart). Probably the most notable workout, for me anyway, was doing the 30 muscle ups on one workout. That has always seemed like a 'something I can't do' kind of thing.. just so many, it seemed like I would lose my arms before I could get through all 30. But the workout broke it up.. 15 muscle ups (MU's), 1mi run, then 15 more MU's..and I did it! I actually only missed one MU attempt the whole time and that was because I was talking mid MU..not a good plan for success.. So I felt pretty good about that day. Of coarse there was plenty of 'knock you back down off your high horse' moments, too.. like the other MU workout of the week (I think I already wrote about that one), or that time I tried to do an L-sit.. Well, I think that about wraps it up. Tomorrow I plan to do an easy ride and run..and hopefully get in to the gym for some kind of fun. Matt and I are officially kicking off half marathon training??!! Matt has always said he has 'no interest' in longer races, but I guess he's caught the bug, so I'm going with it! We are planning to run the Baltimore half marathon together in October.. wish us luck!!