Monthly Archives: August 2011

Getting Fitted for the Bike

Riding a bike that is properly fitted to be both comfortable and maximize your power potential is nearly as important as training itself. If your bike fits you comfortably, you are more likely to ride longer and harder. More importantly, the better all parts of the bike jive with your body, the more energy you can conserve while simultaneously maximizing your abilities. It doesn’t seem like small things like a quarter-inch change in the height of a seat or handlebars could make a huge difference, but it really can.

Frame Size

Since I am borrowing my dad’s bike rather than having had purchased my own bike, I was never fit to it in the first place. Usually when you purchase a bike you are measured for the right size frame and then once you purchase the bike, the shop will give you a complimentary fitting. Luckily my dad is only 2 inches taller than me so his bike frame is the right size. You can tell a frame is the right size if you straddle the frame with your feet flat on the ground on either side and the center bar is just an inch or two below your crotch. If it’s touching, it’s too tall, if it’s five inches away, it’s too short. Obviously when you buy a bike they will measure you to figure out your frame size, but this is a good way to see if a borrowed bike will work.

Seat Height

The easiest way to measure seat height is to get on a trainer so that you can clip in and the bike is stationary. However, if this isn’t possible, you can get on the bike in a doorway and have someone hold the bike steady behind you. Remember to wear your cycling shorts and shoes while adjusting the seat. To determine the correct seat height, place your heels on the pedals and pedal backwards. If your legs are completely extended at the bottoms of the pedal strokes when your heels are on the pedals, you have the right height. Now when you move your foot into the proper pedaling position, with the balls of your feet over the pedal, you’ll have a slight bend in your knees. Spin the bike a few times and have someone watch you and make sure that your hips aren’t rocking. This is a sign that the seat is too high.

Mike happened to notice that my seat seemed a bit high just a few days before my fitting and adjusted it downward. When I got my bike fitted professionally, there was no need to change it as our guess was correct!

Shoe Cleats

Before my bike fitting, I had no idea that there was a method to putting the cleats on the bottom of my cycling shoes. From what I remember, Mike just put them on there without any measurement or involvement with the bike itself. However, nearly immediately after beginning my bike fitting, the man helping me adjusted my cleats. The cleat should be positioned so that the balls of your feet rest over the centers of the pedals when pedaling. Apparently this wasn’t the case with my current cleat position and they needed to be moved backward.

Seat Position

In order to verify that you have the correct seat position, sit on the trainer/balance in the doorway while clipped in again. Put one foot at 3 o’clock and the other foot at 9 o’clock with your feet as horizontal to the ground as possible. The front to back seat adjustment is correct when a plumb line (any piece of string with a weight on the end) hanging from the bony protrusion just below your kneecap, bisects the pedal axle.

Unfortunately, even with my bike seat completely forward, the plumb line wasn’t quite at the right point. However, the bike assistant informed me that it was probably close enough. If I felt that I was still uncomfortable on the bike, he could sell me a piece for $75 that would allow him to move my seat forward a bit.

Handlebar Reach

This was the one that Mike knew we’d have to adjust. He could tell by watching me ride that I was bending over more than I should be. I also noticed that it was pretty difficult to really hold the brakes down since I had to reach so far. However, since I’ve never ridden a road bike before, I didn’t know that this wasn’t right. According to some online research, improper handlebar length can cause neck, shoulder, back and hand pain. Since I was experiencing all of the above, the main reason was probably my handlebar reach!

To check handlebar reach, get back on the trainer, get in position as if you were riding, looking forward, and have someone drop a plumb line from the tip of your nose. The should be about an inch between the plumb line and the center of the handlebar. Other ways you can tell if you have a proper reach are being able to comfortably bend your elbows while riding, no hump in the back, a natural neck angle and equal pressure on hands and seat.

Since my handlebar reach was not proper, I had to purchase a new stem for my handlebars. The stem was a few inches shorter than the stem that my dad used, which shortened the amount of distance my body has to cover to reach the handlebars. Although it was hard to tell at the time, during my long ride on Saturday I could really tell that I was more comfortable and that the brakes were easier to grip.

Go Get Fitted!

If you haven’t been fitted for your bike already, I highly recommend doing it. Most bike shops will do a fitting for anywhere from $60-$100/hour, although oftentimes the fittings are based on increments of time. In my instance, I was only charged for a 15 minute fitting which was $45. Parts are extra of course. Although it seems pricey, it’s totally worth it. A properly fitted bike can take minutes off of your race time and hours of back aches!

I wrote this blog with the help of: http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

Will Bike for Pizza

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Most Olympic distance triathlon training plans peak with a 2 1/2 hour or 40-50 mile bike ride. Although we haven’t been following any type of training plan in preparation for the upcoming TriRock Olympic distance, we decided we should at least do a 40 mile ride before the race. Someone from the San Diego Tri Club just happened to organize a 40 mile group ride plus 3 mile run, starting and finishing at Pizza Port (my favorite San Diego pizza place) on the very day that we planned to conquer 40 miles and we decided to join them.

After taking a look at the route, I must say that I was a bit intimidated. Not only had I never ridden more than 24 miles in one session and never ridden in an organized group, I also didn’t have a lot of experience with hills and this course looked HILLY. Take a look at it here. Not only would we getting up to an elevation of 800 feet (nearly twice the height of Torrey Pines, the hill I consider a monster), there were miles and miles of rolling hills. If you take a closer look, you’ll notice that the course is really never flat. The entire route has 1,500 feet of climbing and 1,500 feet of descending.

After having Mike ride the route in advance and emailing the ride organizer to make sure that us newbies would survive, I was confident enough to attempt the ride. We met the group of about 15 riders at 8 a.m. and set out on our adventure. The first few miles were rough for me. We were making our way through high traffic streets and had already hit one of the steepest hills of the entire ride. Already our group was at the back of the pack after having missed a few stop lights that others made. Once we got out of the main traffic we started winding our way through some hilly, windy roads and immediately I realized I was not going to be able to keep pace with most of the group. Not only was I painfully slow going up hills, the gap between myself and the group got even bigger on the downhills because I was too afraid to let go of my brakes and just let go. I started getting really discouraged at one point, but just kept reminding myself that I’d been on a bike for only 2 months now and these people obviously had more practice.

We ended up stopping for over five minutes just a few miles into the route to wait for someone who got a flat and I was able to give myself a little pep talk and regroup. Once we started back up again I made a conscious effort to ride harder down the downhills and also I got used to shifting. Prior to this ride, I’ve never had to shift into a higher or lower front gear. However, this ride required nearly constant gear shifting and lots of shifting into the lowest gear in front during very steep and long hills. I had to learn to “spin” up hills instead of powering up them like I was used to in the past.

I started getting the swing of things and before I knew it, we were stopping at a gas station to refuel and use the restroom. I was really enjoying the group ride so far and although now that we were inland and the temperature was in the high 80s, I was feeling good and not very fatigued. I was ready to keep going! The second half of the ride went much more smoothly than the first. There were less large hills and more downhills. At one point I let myself ride down a hill at over 30 mph which was exhilarating. I also had more practice on turning on the second half as the roads were a bit more windy and narrow. Toward the end of the ride, just as the coast was coming into view and a cool ocean breeze hit us, I was nearly hit by a truck that was making a left turn from the street and didn’t see me. Although there wasn’t anything I really did wrong or could have done, it scared me and I learned the lesson to never assume that just because you are in the right of way that a car will see you or stop for you.

Although I was relieved when the ride was over, I definitely think that I could have stayed on the bike even longer. I was also very pleased to find that despite the ride taking over 4 hours (with stops, etc), I wasn’t bored! When we first started riding I got a little worried that these long weekend rides were going to be dreadfully boring, but in actuality, there is so much to think about and look at that there isn’t much time to be bored. I’m sure this is aided by the fact that there were so many new things experiences occurring at once (group ride, winding roads, hills, shifting more, etc), but I was encouraged by the fact that the four hours was actually fun.

Once we racked our bikes on the back of Mike’s car and changed into running shorts, we set off for a quick 3 mile run down the coast. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a 9 min/mile pace wasn’t hard. The worst part was the heat – it was now past noon and VERY hot. After the run we changed out of our sweaty clothes and met up with the rest of the group at Pizza Port for a delicious pizza and beer lunch. A woman on the ride had just completed Ironman Couer D’Alene and some of the other riders were Ironmen and they were all more than happy to give us training and race day advice. I must say that I was pretty happy sitting on my bar stool eating my favorite pizza, drinking cold beer and knowing that I had just accomplished my first Ironman training ride with my favorite training buddies.

Overthinking the Swim

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So Much to Think About!

The more I read about Ironman and triathon raining, specifically the swim portion, the more confused I get. Although I am a strong swimmer for a beginner, I know that I have a lot room for improvement, and have therefore sought out some help via my favorite resource, the Internet. In swimming, even more than most sports, technique takes precedence over strength or natural ability. This is why I am able to outswim men that are easily able to out run and out bike me.

The complicated part about swim technique is that although working on your form is paramount for improvement, you can’t watch yourself in a mirror so oftentimes you aren’t even sure what you are doing wrong. Each week I try to make it to at least one saster’s swim workout put on by the SD TriClub. The swim workouts vary week to week in nature but in general consist of a warm up, main set of intervals (no longer than 200 meters at a time), and a cool down. Sometimes we work on sprinting, sometimes on breathing less (i.e. ever three, five, seven, etc strokes), sometimes on drafting, etc. Although we do have a coach, the coach is not there to help with technique or many drills at all for that matter.

A couple of weeks ago during a master’s swim session that involved A LOT of sprinting (i.e. I was tired and my form probably suffered), the swim coach (who I had never worked with before), stopped me to point out that I needed to work on my catch. He said that instead of pushing water backward when my hand first entered the water, I was pushing it downward, which slows me down. I was glad to get some feedback and was eager to work on it. I asked him another questions after one of the later sets and he was able to answer it, but honestly I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. I went to YouTube the next day to research proper catch technique and although it was probably useful, I’m still not positive that I’m doing it right.

I purchased the book Going Long which is a training guide for completing an Ironman and have read the swim chapter. I also have done online research and watched various YouTube videos on proper form. There is so much information that it is hard to process it all. Last night at master’s swim I found myself over thinking everything. I’d think about my catch, then my hip tilt, then my head position, then my streamline, all within one 50 meter swim. It was overwhelming and in the end I think I swam worse for it.

The conclusion I’ve come to is that I need to take a private lesson. My friend Asia took a private lesson with a swim coach that does a video analysis. I definitely think that I want to do this. I also spoke with my friend Miranda who swam in high school and college and she is willing to work with me. TriClub’s Monday/Wednesday swims also offer a technique class in addition to the master’s workout. I tried the technique the first time that I went to the TriClub swim, but found it to be too slow. I was impatient and wanted to just swim (plus I was cold from standing halfway in the water in the cold night listening to instruction). However, I think that it would beneficial for me to take this class a few more times so that I can focus on just one thing at once, rather than swimming like a mad woman and over analyzing every little movement. Another good practice would be to focus on just one element of technique for each 50 meters or longer during master’s swim class, rather than trying to think about everything at once.

Have you ever over thought your techinque in a sport to the point of it having a reverse affect on performance? Any swim tips for me?!

AFC Half Marathon Race Report

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On Sunday I ran my 5th half marathon of my life and my 3rd of this year – of organized races, that is. While I trained for the Rock n Roll Marathon, I ran 13.1 miles or more nearly every weekend for two months. Since the marathon, long distance running has a new perspective. For example, a couple of weeks ago I went for a 10 mile run before work. No longer is a 7-10 mile run a “special run” that involves a pasta dinner the night before and is only reserved for Saturday mornings. This is a huge change from my perspective while training for this same race last year.

AFC 2010 vs. AFC 2011

A lot can change in a year and a ton of progress can be made! Not only did my mental attitude toward long distance running shift, my physical performance improved. Last year I ran the AFC half marathon in a disappointing 2:01:59, so close to my goal of breaking 2 hours. Last year I tapered the week before the race and actually only worked out one time in the week leading up to it due to a bruised foot. I carbo-loaded, rested and prayed. The day after the race I was wiped out- exhausted and sore for days. This year I completed 7 workouts in the six days leading up to the race and finished in a 1:52:24 and was less sore the day after than I was after P90X Legs and Back and previous week. Could it be – half marathons are becoming easy?

Obviously no race is “easy” since by definition a race pushes you to your brink. Admittedly, although my time dropped 2 minutes from my last half marathon in La Jolla, this race was more difficult for me than that one. The final two miles were pretty brutal and my running partner Asia ended up dropping me like I was hot going up the hill and finished 30 seconds ahead of me. I finished La Jolla strong and probably with some reserves left. AFC took every ounce of energy from me. Although there could be several reasons for the change, the feeling that I have is that it has to do with my diet. Prior to the last race I was eating very healthy and following the P90X nutrition plan semi-religiously. This time I was following the nutrition plan haphazardly and not thinking twice about “cheat meals,” which have become a 3 or more time a week occurrence these days. Specifically, my office went to the races on Friday night and I ate a bunch of kettle corn, chips and dip and cookies and then Mike and I had burgers for dinner. Not exactly the best pre-race fuel. In general, I’ve let my healthy eating habits slip due to vacations, weddings, bridal showers, bachelorette parties, BBQs, etc. I’m about 2-3 lbs heavier than I was on race day last time as well.

Race Details

View of the City From the Start

I’ll spare you the mile by mile details, but I will say that perhaps getting to this race is more difficutl than running it. Since we now live in North County San Diego, we had to wake up at 3:15 a.m. in order to leave our house by 3:45 a.m. to guarantee a spot in line for the buses by 5 a.m. (if you aren’t in line by 5:30 you aren’t racing). A main freeway to the start was closed and we anticipated heavy traffic. However, we ended up taking a side street shortcut and arriving at 4:45. It was still dark even after the 20 minute or so bus ride to the start line.

We got our two bathroom stops in with plenty of time to make our way to the front(ish) of this mass start race. I started the race with Asia and Jen, and we didn’t spend nearly as much time weaving in and out of people as we did last year when we started at the back (due to bathroom lines). The first four miles or so are mostly rolling hills with a net decline. Our average pace coming out of them was a 8:15 overall and although at times I felt we were going a little fast, I felt good. The goal was to stay below 8:40 in order to PR. I took a GU at about mile 5 and ended up having to wait a mile or so for water to wash it down with.

Our pace crept up a bit during the flat portion and by the time we exited Harbor Island we were up to a 8:25 overall average pace. Somewhere on Harbor Island we gotten ahead of Jen. I still felt good at this point, although not as great as the start. I took a GU around this time and ended up regretting it because I was without water for nearly 1.5 miles again. My mouth was dry and I had yet another side cramp (I had about 4 during the race in total). At around mile 10 I was starting to have some negative thoughts due to my dehydration and cramping. Luckily soon after I complained to Asia about this, we hit the water station that has a water mist gauntlet just ahead of it so I was able to cool off and down two large cups of water.

As we entered downtown, I started feeling a little better. I could tell that Asia was feeling better than me though, and at this point I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep up with her if she picked it up once we got to the hill. We made it through both train crossings without having to stop (wait times for passing trains/trolleys can be up to 2 minutes if you are unlucky and get stopped!). I continued to feel pretty good going up A street but once we got to the steepest portion I slowed down a bit. When we turned onto 6th, the last 1/2 mile or so of hill, I just tried to keep my head up and think positive thoughts. All of the water and GU in my stomach was not sitting well, however, and this was the first and only time during a race that I thought I may actually throw up. I think maybe taking both of my GUs without water wasn’t a good idea.

Asia crept further and further ahead of me and at some point I just told myself to focus on my own pace. The hill was pretty miserable but once it was over I got back into stride and made my way through Balboa Park. Although I coudl see Asia ahead of me, I couldn’t pick up the pace enough to catch up to her. I wasn’t feeling nearly as great as at the end of the last race, but I was still making good progress. When I saw the final turn, I turned it up a notch and tried to sprint despite my exhaustion. My watch time showed 1:52:26 over the course of 13.2 miles (extra .1 miles for weaving/not taking the most direct course, which is typical).

Triple Crown Finishers!

My stomach was still not happy with me when I stopped running. It took about a half hour before any type of food even sounded remotely good. I’m not sure what happened but I hope it doesn’t again! Once we found all of our friends, we stood around discussing our individual races. Asia, Jen and I all PRed and the boys were just a minute or two off of their La Jolla times. At the finish line Jen, Mike and I collected our Triple Crown medals, which signified our completion of three specific San Diego half marathons in one year. We celebrated the race with a massive breakfast at one of our favorite San Diego breakfast establishments, the Mission Cafe.

Final Time/Ranking

I don’t plan to race antoher half marathon for at least a year due to triathlon training. Perhaps we will run AFC next year in order to keep us busy after the Ironman is over. Maybe next year I’ll drop another 10 minutes and come in at 1:42!? We’ll see!

6,753 Total Finishers – 20th Percentile

3,543 Women – 11th Percentile

695 Women 25-29 - 11.6 Percentile

Overall Place	Sex Place	Div Place	First Name	Last Name	Sex	Age	City	State	Time	Pace	Bib	Gun Time	10K Split	Year
1365	395	81	Nicole	Woyski	F	27	ENCINITAS	CA	01:52:24	8:35	2224	01:53:21	52:06:00	2011
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On My Way to a Triple Crown!

Balancing P90X and Race Training Isn’t Easy

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Balancing Half Marathon, Triathlon and P90X is Hard!

So if you have been looking at my workout log at all, you’ll notice that I haven’t been getting more than 3 P90X workouts in a week lately. Although we are following the P90X calendar and are technically in Week 2 of Phase 3, we have missed several workouts due to triathlon training, half marathon training and vacation. When we first started P90X again, we were more focused on building muscle and really I was focused on looking great for my Vegas and Dominican Republic trips. However, once I raced in the Solana Beach triathlon, I became more motivated to work on skills that would directly help me improve in races. Unfortuantely this meant that P90X had to get pushed aside a bit.

We have, however, managed to get in both of the upper body workouts each week (plus Ab Ripper) and we’ve managed to do Legs and Back about 5 times (out of the 7 times we were supposed to have done it). We’ve done Plyo about 5 times as well, but our Yoga disc hasn’t hit the DVD player since Recovery Week of Phase 1! I know the importance of yoga but in the end, it is the workout that gets left out. It’s just so long! Another reason why we’ve skipped Yoga is because we spent our recovery week on vacation doing other cross training activites rather than the prescribed Yoga, Kenpo and Core Synergistics.

So, although I still plan to take my after pictures and finally complete the Fit Test, I don’t really think that my results are going to be 100% indicative of someone going through the program. Not to mention that I only follow the nutrition plan about 4 days a week. However, I have seen improvements in my strength during this phase (although since our vacation I haven’t seen any improvements from the previous phases) and I certainly think that it is continuing to improve my running speed.

Is P90X Conducive to Multi-Sport Training?

Although the first time that I did P90X I was training for a marathon simultaneously (and improved my half marathon time by over 5 minutes in 12 weeks!), I don’t think that it is a good idea to do P90X in conjunction with a triathlon training program. A triathlon already involves three very different disciplines and any good training plan incorporates at least two workouts in each area each week. If you add on 6 days of P90x (or 5 in our case since we left out Kenpo), that’s 12 workouts a week. Not an easy feat for anyone. Not to mention that someone like me whose weakness is the bike should probably be biking three times a week or more, not just two. At times I’m torn and want to just continue in one direction and drop the other. I’ve considered just dropping P90X all together since I have an olympic distance triathlon coming up, but in the end, I decided to continue with my crazy dual training plan. I know that I can finish the distance of the olympic triathlon and right now is a great time to work on my strength before I go into full-time Ironman training in December.

In sum, although I believe it is possible and probably beneficial to train for a half marathon and do P9X simulatenously (as long as it’s not your first half marathon and you are in good shape to start with), I don’t think that training for a triathlon or marathon in conjuction with P90X is feasible. Unless perhaps you are unemployed and can sleep between workouts!

My First Podium Race Since High School

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Growing up I played a lot of sports but I wasn’t particularly great at any of them. I tried dance (tap and jazz), gymnastics, ice skating and softball during elementary school, and basketball and track in middle school. Although my dad was a great coach at each sport I took on (providing me with lots of knowledge and a technique book for each sport I participated in) and I did try to do my best most of the time, I think deep down I believed that all my peers that were better than me at sports were just naturally gifted. I didn’t really realize that although they did have some natural talent, in the end they probably just practiced more and stuck with it. So I would try something, find that I wasn’t miraculously amazing at it, and quit.

Swimming My Way to Gold

Freshman year of high school I had two choice - join a sport or participate in 7 a.m. 0 period gym class. I chose sports. I had wanted to try out for basketball but after hearing rumors that only people who had played club basketball and did the summer basketball clinic would make the team (I didn’t do either), I was disheartened and didn’t even try out. Somehow a friend convinced me to come out for water polo. However, I realized I didn’t really like that either, and ended up just joining the then off-season swim team in order to avoid a 6 a.m. wake up call.

I found that for a beginner, I was fairly good at swimming. I’ve always had broad shoulders and my mom would always tell me that I should join a swim team. Although I was familiar with freestyle, I spent the off-season learning the proper technique in all four strokes – freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and fly. I found that I liked breaststroke the best. Once swim season officially started and we began to compete, I found that I was also best at it. Sometime midway through the season, I started coming in first or second place at nearly every swim meet in the 50 m breast stroke. I was also pretty good at freestyle and often competed in it, but breaststroke was my best stroke. At the end of the season, we started to prepare for the CIP championships which was the final swim meet of the season and included swimmers from every school in the league. After the first round of competition, I was placed in the lead heat of the 50 m freshman breaststroke; however, my qualifying time didn’t place me in the center lane (reserved for the fastest swimmer).

I had never been so nervous as I was standing on the block waiting for the buzzer to go off. When I heard it, I jumped in and swam with everything I could and in the end, I came out on top. I was shocked as my teammates helped me out of the water, squealing and shouting that I had won first place. I had hoped for top three, but hadn’t expected first. I was thrilled! For the first time, I felt that I was good at a sport! Nothing felt better than that “podium win” as I like to call them now.

Another Podium Win

Transition Area

This past weekend I participated in the TriClub’s Beginner Triathlon for the second time. You can find my first post on this race here. Last time I raced in a beginner tri, It was also my first time riding a road bike. Mike taught me to clip in on Tuesday, I learned to shift on Friday, and Saturday I raced 7 miles on the bike. Last time I swam without a wetsuit and started at the back of the pack. This time I positioned my wetsuit-clad self front and center for the swim and had about 10 good rides under my belt.

Exiting the Swim

I swam the 300 meter swim fairly calm considering it was a mass start. Starting in the front had a big advantage because I wasn’t being pummeled by other swimmers. I actually barely interacted with other swimmers and found my own area to swim. I reached the shore and confirmed that I was one of the first to finish the swim. I ran over to my transition area and quickly stripped off my wet suit and put on my bike shoes and helmet. As I was just about to leave, Jeremy showed up and said “You’re so fast!” It’s fun to outswim the boys (mostly because they usually can outbike and outrun me – which Jeremy did and ended up getting 1st place!)!

As soon as I got some momentum going on the bike, I was stopped by a stop light (since this is a beginner practice race no roads are closed). Unfortunately I JUST missed it, and I had to wait at least two minutes. It seemed like eternity. The left hand turn lane seemed to have an endless stream of cars. Where were these people going at 7 a.m.!?!? By the time the light turned green a crowd of at least 20 had formed behind me, including Jeremy who whizzed past me as I was getting clipped in. At least 10 of the 20 behind me passed me in the first mile or so, which was disheartening. My lungs were screaming as I tried to keep up but it was really difficult to pedal hard. Eventually I got in to a rhythm and even passed a few people. It was entertaining to play cat and mouse with some of the guys on the course because they did NOT like being passed by a girl. As soon as I passed them they would speed up to try to pass me. There was one guy in particular that really didn’t want to let me go.

On the way back from the bike I got stopped at the SAME stop light! Luckily it wasn’t for as long this time, maybe 30 seconds. However, a girl who was behind me caught up and passed me at the light because she didn’t have to unclip and I did. At this point I wasn’t even thinking about who was behind or ahead of me, I just wanted to improve my time from last time. However, as I got off the bike and started complaining to Mike (who was watching me from the sidelines) about the stop lights, he told me that I was the 4th woman at that point! I had a chance to finish in the top 3 women if I could pass one during the run.

I ran through transition and took off my helmet and bike shoes, replacing them with a hat and running shoes and quickly made my way out of the transition area. A man shouted at me that I was the 4th woman and luckily after I turned the first corner I could see a woman ahead of me. And the best part was that she was definitely running slower than me. I kept my eye on her and tried to keep a good pace and catch my breath before I caught up to her. I didn’t want to catch her and have her speed up when I wasn’t prepared. I caught her at about the half mile mark and quickly passed her. By the time I rounded the 1 mile marker, she was far enough behind that I was fairly confident she wouldn’t catch me. There didn’t seem to be anyone too close behind her either. I picked up the pace anyway and checked behind me a few times to make sure that no one was gaining on me. Only about two or three men passed me on the entire run course so I knew I was keeping a good pace. the pace was not easy to maintain, however. My lungs were burning and I wanted to slow down but I also wanted the title! Even though it’s just a beginner triathlon, I’m competitive enough to care about losing my third place spot, especially at that last moment!

Finishing Strong!

The official results were just posted and here’s where I stood (not everyone that competes has a timing chip – when I finished I was told I was 20th overall and 3rd woman, but according to official chip results I was 16th out of 89):

300 Meter Swim (including swim to bike transition): 7:48 – 5th overall

7 Mile Bike: 24:18 – 45th overall – those stoplights killed me!!!

2 Mile Run (including bike to run transition): 14:55 – 15th overall

Overall Time: 47:01 – 16th overall, 3rd woman

My overall time improved from 52:15 to 47:01, over 5 minutes. I don’t have the splits for my first race because I didn’t have a timing chip yet. I did briefly hit one stop light during the first triathlon but it was much shorter. If I shaved off the 2 minutes for the 2 stop lights, my time would have improved by over 7 minutes! Although this was the last beginner race and therefore I don’t have another opportunity to race one this season, this would probably be my last regardless. I feel that I’ve officially graduated into real triathlons now!

Unfortunately, my first triathlon “podium” win didn’t actually have a winners ceremony, so there was no podium to stand one. One day I hope to get up on that podium at a real race!

Meeting the Voice of the Ironman

Training on Vacay!

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You may have noticed that I have been blog MIA! I’m usually good at posting 3-4 times a week and now haven’t put something out in over a week. But it’s for good reason. Last week Mike and I flew to the Dominican Republic and stayed five nights in an all-inclusive resort in order to celebrate our good friends’ wedding.

After my trip to Vegas in mid-July for a bachelorette party, I wrote a blog about how to not blow your diet while on vacation. Well, although I did follow a bit of my own advice, I failed big time in the drink and food department. All inclusive resorts where a new round of friends arrive each night are NOT conducive to moderation. I’m not going to beat myself up about it – I enjoyed every moment of indulgence!

However, with a half marathon coming up on August 21 and an Olympic distance triathlon scheduled for September 11, I knew that although I wasn’t going to hold back on dessert or drinks this week, I could at least maintain my fitness level with some good workouts. As for P90X, luckily this week was our scheduled recovery week. Although we didn’t get any Core Synergistics or Yoga in, we ”recovered” by taking it easier and not lifting heavy weights.

Front Loading Workouts

We didn’t leave for our trip until Sunday evening, so we were able to get some solid workouts in the weekend before we left (one of the tips in my vacation survival blog). We started Saturday morning with a 12 mile run, followed by a 18 mile bike ride on Sunday and then a Dailey Method class Sunday at noon. If you don’t know what the Dailey Method is, check out my good friend Allison’s recent blog post about this fabulous workout here.

Fitness Classes Abroad

After we rested up the first day of our arrival in the Dominican, we checked out the classes offered at the gym. Our all-inclusive resort included not only a gym with cardio equipment and a weight room, it included five workout classes per day – 2 spin classes, yoga, pilates and an aerobics class. After figuring out that the spin class was offered at 8 a.m and 5 p.m., we decided to check out the class on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

I’ve never done a spin class in a foreign country, so I knew this would be interesting. Our instructor was a muscular Dominican man dressed in pants and a long sleeve shirt. I, on the other hand, was wearing short shorts and a tank top, as the 90 degree, 90% humidity weather dictated. Although the gym was moderately air-conditioned, the group exercise room was not. Mike and I were both sweating profusely into the warm up and stretch. Our stoic instructor led us through a 40 minute sweat fest that consisted of pretty simple moves but got the job done. Although it wasn’t the most riveting spin class I’ve ever attended, the 40 minute workout left me very sweaty and tired.

We repeated the class the next morning at 8 a.m. with the same instructor (this was difficult to wake up for after the fun we had the previous night). This time I did my own core workout afterward and incorporated some of P90X moves – plank, push-ups, Mason Twist, Oblique V-Ups, Crunchy Frog, etc.

On Thursday it rained all day so we headed the gym once more, this time around 11 a.m. Once a treadmill freed up, I put myself through an interval workout that consisted of 1/4 mile hard/moderate intervals. The treadmill was reading kilometers so it was hard to figure everything out. I based my 1/4 mile intervals on the image of the track that lit up as you made your way around it. As for speed, I wasn’t exactly sure how to convert the numbers, but I figured out that I was averaging at 9:15 min/mile total – including fast intervals and slow. After doing this workout I have even more respect for Mike who completed his Ironman in Cozumel, where humidity and temperatures are similar to Dominican Republic (it was high 80s with 90% humidity). Not only was I super sweaty, my legs felt heavy and it was much harder. I’m glad our Ironman day temperate should be well below this.

Our last workout of the weekend was yet another 8 a.m. spin class on Saturday, the morning we left the Dominican. This time we had a female instructor who spent 90% of the class off the bike. This made it difficult to understand what she was trying to get us to do since we couldn’t mimic her. However, she made it easy for us at times but coming over to our bikes and increasing or decreasing the resistance! A spin instructor in the US once told me that is a big no-no in the spin instructing world – but apparently that rule doesn’t cross over into all-inclusive resorts in the Dominican.

Our favorite fruity drinks - tasted like a orange creamsicle!

Although these workouts definitely couldn’t come close to compensating for the calories consumed in food and drink over the weekend, i was able to maintain my fitness level while on vacation and also feel a little better about my splurges. Plus, I just love the feeling of getting in a good workout and I can’t imagine 5 days without it – vacation or not! Usually I take vacations that involve a lot of outdoor activities or at the very least, a lot of walking, so going to an all-inclusive resort and lying on the beach and drinking and eating all day is not normal for me! I’m glad that the resort had facilities available to satisfy my sweat craving.

Business as Usual

Now that we’re back, we’ve just started phase 3 of P90X. However, since we have a half marathon coming up in less than 2 weeks and an Olympic distance triathlon in september, we are focusing more on triathlon and running and less on P90X. It’s starting to look like we’re not going to be able to get in more than 3-4 P90X workouts per week, and perhaps even only 2 this week! Although I want to dedicate myself to P90X, triathlon just have to take priority at this point so that I’m not miserable on race day. At this point I still plan to take my after pictures and do the fit test, but my Round 2 results aren’t going to be 100% reflective of a typical round of P90X (not to mention I’m not following the nutrition plan this time).

Have you ever worked out on vacation? How did you find it different from your normal routine?

Fitness Fatale

Conquering Fitness Goals One at a Time

Monthly Archives: August 2011

Getting Fitted for the Bike

Overthinking the Swim

AFC Half Marathon Race Report

On My Way to a Triple Crown!

Balancing P90X and Race Training Isn’t Easy

My First Podium Race Since High School

Meeting the Voice of the Ironman

Training on Vacay!