Hit Me Baby One More Time.....

Ooops, I did it again...

I stealth raced.  Low flying aircraft. Under the radar.  Closet participant. I'm getting to like this!

Round two:
 Show up at intended race. Lay out my little transition towel,  spit shine my sunglasses, put my head down and see what my body has in store for the day.  That's it.

No pressure.
No expectations.
No pre-race chatter days beforehand about what I expect of myself or any specific goals except keep moving FORWARD.

Show up, punch the time clock and and get to that finish timing mat as quickly as possible so I can sit down.   Now we all know this can't go on forever, especially I know this. But for now, it clicks for me. It keeps me from over thinking and more importantly, it keeps it FUN.

Fun doesn't come without a price though and you can be certain, I want my money's worth having fun yet
putting some effort into my journey back. Effort meaning, getting my arms and feet to go FASTER in the water and my pedals to turn faster and my feet to stop doing the old lady shuffle.
But fast= discomfort and I have a confession:

My fairly thick  mental and physical tenacity callouses i call them, have worn off completely. Here's a good example:
.

TGP Before all this injury stuff: " I will mow you down"

   TGP After 3 years of mushy racing and injury  

                                                        
This weekend it was The Kennebunk Fireman Triathlon(s) OLY and Sprint distances In Kennebunk Maine.
Now ya'll know me  enough at this point( I hope)that you can guess easily which distance I chose.
Hint: It's wasn't the Olympic. A 6.2 mile run?  Ummm.. no.

 Yet who thinks of  WALKING during a measly 5k run of a sprint triathlon?  That would be me.
Seriously.
I had no real reason for wanting to do this except for the simple fact of how it hurt my muscles and made me breath really hard. I'm just not used to this suffering even 3 months into consistent training. The mental toughness is right behind the fitness, slow to come but I'm sure it must be there. One can only hope.

As to not bore you with detail. This race was a bit more high profile than last weekend. USAT officials, wrist bands, lots of rules warned of and enforced, well organized. Fun ocean swim and beautiful sea side scenery with  a pancake breakfast post race.

Ok, so like last weekend's first attempt,  I  swam, I biked, I ran (insert more suffering this week than last weekend here)
I ate blueberry pancakes.

and I did score another little tricket for my suffering.Woop Woop!



                                             and I shall leave you with a funnyTrigirlpink Fun Factoid:

I went to High School in Kennebunk.  Now if I could just dig up where I put  this"I will mow you down" look....

Oh... and by the way, Britney was still on Enfimil when I graduated. Oh baby, baby..

One In The Books

Finished,terminé,finito

After almost a full year of sporting a big fat ZERO in my racing log, I finally removed the velcro attaching my feet to the side of the ledge I was firmly secured to and......

jumped!

It felt WEIRD. I'm a spectator.
A picture taker. 
A volunteer.
A participant??.......did I say it felt weird? It did.

I had a stupid little smile on my face as I filled my jet stream bottle and

set up my neat and tidy square of a transition space. Good.. I haven't forgotten that.

Was I nervous? Strangely no.  Not in the least.  I have a good feeling of where my fitness is at this point and this was purely  "testing the water"  just getting out there and moving from the chronic injury sidelines to doing what I love and miss.

Granite Man up in Wofeboro NH was my testing ground this past Saturday.  I like to refer it to THE-WE DIDN'T GET INTO TIMBERMAN- BOO HOO -Race on the other side of Lake Winnipesaukee. The Fray. The old school,non-conformists, the anti M-Dot crowd.  Not me so much as Timberman is one of my favorite races but the rest of the racing field certainly felt that way.  I was HAPPY as a clam to blend in to 200 athletes who I've never met or raced with.  No whining was heard about the non-wetsuit swim, the sandy beach transition, the limited food selection or the non printed swim caps. None of that. Just the simplicity that comes with a non corporate small home town race venue. No wrist bands, no long porta potty lines, no USAT card/ID needed at check in.

Granite Man is in it's 29th year. Just a fun simple, chip timed, no frills  (wicked hilly..gasp)race


I  swam.
I biked.
I ran.


I finished.
I smiled.

I scored  some Granite.
I have much to work on but SO happy and thankful to be out there
again.

Is Anybody Really Reading This?

I guess I should update this thing for the 3 of you faithful lurkers hoping for some really good drama.


I got none.

I'm SUCH a bore these days.  Instead of racing ( I relate this to holding my finger over a hot flame) I've been hanging out on the sidelines too chicken to test the waters.  Soon.  Maybe.. But as I confided in a select few, I'm not telling if, when or how.  I'm a closet trainer and I shall be a closet participant of any event I might jump into.  But no worries!  I'll share the carnage (post race) in full detail if and when I get up the nerve.


My training is churning along.  I LOVE my workouts, my schedule and everything is coming along nicely. It's just that it's coming along nicely at a rapid snails pace.  More than 1/2 the fee I pay for coaching goes for weekly whining I have no problem dumping on my coach because I'm not where I think I should be. I'll share  a typical response I get: Please note, I've added some "response whining" in red below to my coaches comments

Here’s today’s hard lesson:




When on the come-back trail (really anytime, but particularly then), we are frustrated with where we are (slow), and just want to get where we’d like to be (fast). There are 3 choices at this point:



1. Say “screw it” and just jump to the paces you’d like to be at. Just be aware that it is a long commute to Portland for physical therapy should you choose to get injured again (oops, I mean jump to the fast paces)


2. Say “screw it” and give up on sports. I truly hope you just laughed at the ridiculous nature of this option (I know I have many many times)

3. Say “humbug” ....more appropriate " f*ck it...", have a mini breakdown as needed, and be okay with where you are (slow). Training at that point will enable you to get to where you want to be down the road (fast).

Keep the faith, girl. It’s a long road from a lengthy setback or three. You mean my labral hip tear, my foot stress fracture and my hip stress fracture? Three IS a charm!! Consistency is the key. Staying injury free keeps you moving towards where you want to be. Moving there too quickly just sets you back further.

On another subject,I am having fun with my camera. If I chose not to race, I'll take some pictures and this weekend I put my newest SLR camera to good use.. I'm embarrassed to say I know how to turn it on and that is about it. SHAMEFUL, but I'm making the commitment to learn a good part of what it has to offer instead of guessing and using the wimpy auto-mode over the next month.

Here's a few (just got lucky) shots I took this weekend at a race in Gloucester MA. I have a lot to learn but it's really fun experimenting.

I like how this came out by just playing around with the aperture setting

This was a total-right place at the right time- shot. I love this!!! I was using one of my two lens- a 55-200 zoom lens as I sat on the pavement on an uphill.  I had no idea what I captured until I downloaded this image. I don't even recall team mate, Dave Nerrow standing there as Karen started out on the run.  BTW: he is encouraging her to go *chick* one of our team mates who's famous for smack talk and could use a bit of humbling.

A dripping, muscular, display of maleness. Nuff said.

A man in a wetsuit..... It CAN be a good thing. I've found that you can oogle at the 
opposite sex without looking obvious with a camera in your face.  :-)

You see the pattern here, no?

The end