- March 18 Publix Half Marathon
- April 22 Zooma Half Marathon
- May 6 Rev3 Knoxville Half IM
- May 12 Up a Creek Without a Pedal ride
- May 20 Tour de Cure or Mountain Arts 80 miler*
- June 8-10 Triathlon Camp, Blue Ridge North Carolina
- June 16 Jackson County Brevet Century
- June 23 Eleven Lake Oconnee Olympic tri
- June 24 Hiawassee 5K swim*
- July 14 GA Games OWS 3K, 1K
- August 26 IM CANADA!!!
The training has officially begun.....
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January 30 was the official start date of the IM Canada training. It also happened to be my sister's 37th birthday (Happy Birthday sis). Prior to this week, I spent around 10 hours in training. The number would just keep growing. The weekend prior, Mary rode with us at Silk Sheets. I love that course. A lot of steady climbs. After the ride, we went to Panera Bread to talk about the training races. She also mentioned that we would ride 2 century rides and one race distance ride. It didn't surprise me because the Iron Team also did the same thing. I would rather spend a lot of time on time to make sure I'm ready for the race. This is what we tentatively decide.... drum roll please.
In Or Out?
Posted in on byDecision... decision... This weekend's weather was so not cooperating for outdoor training. Since last Monday, I kept checking the weekend weather. Most likely it was going to rain but the question was how hard. I don't mind a little drizzle. The temperature was going to be around 50's anyway, so that wasn't too bad. If it's 30's and wet, then it's a different story. After emailing Sarah and Susan on Friday, we decided to go ahead and ride in Brookhaven. I went there for Wed night run several times but had never been there for a ride. I was fine with the plan. It was a 10 mile loop, so at least, if it was pouring, we could end the ride early.
I woke up on Saturday morning and I heard thunder. I thought that was good, let it rain hard now and hopefully it was going to die down a little bit by the time we went out. That thought changed quick after I watched Channel 11. It was worse than what I thought. They had a warning for hail, thunderstorm, gusty wind... on and on and on. I wanted to ride outside but didn't want to get stuck in a bad weather. Finally I decided to ride indoor on my new (used) trainer. I guess, the good thing is I have a workout plan. I can repeat Will's workout this week and add 30 minutes to get to 2 hours. I checked with Mary yesterday. She said, not to ride more than 2 hours on a trainer for today's ride. Great! I broke down the 2 hours into 4 sets of:
- 10 minutes steady stage 70% max HR, 80 RPM.
- 10 minutes single leg drills. 1 min L/R/together.
- 10 minutes power drills, 4 mins hills with 1 min recovery.
What's a more perfect show to watch during a 2 hour trainer ride other than THE BIGGEST LOSER? I like that show even though it drags. A lot of drama for a 90 minute episode. They started with a new season three weeks ago. I watched the first one, but since it was on Tuesday night, I just watched the end of the show after I got home from Will's class.The theme is No More Excuse. Alison, the host, asked each contestant, what got them into where they are right now. Almost all of them said no time, not enough time to exercise. I know it was true, but not having enough exercise was not the main reason. To me, it was because of food, eating too much, no self control. The ratio is 80% food and 20% exercise. One thing that I learned from the show is what you are today is not a guarantee of what you will be10 years from now. I meant, there were ex NFL athlete, former Olympian, former female body builder with 10% body fat on the show. These people knew exactly what to eat and how much to eat to maintain normal body weight. It's a reminder for myself not to get cocky, I can fall off the wagon anytime if I don't consciously choose to live healthy.
The first two sets are pretty easy. I felt strong. The third set was getting harder. My left hamstring was tighter. I just took one potty break after the second set. Finishing the fourth set was not too bad. It was hard but it was the last 30 minutes of the workout... almost done. Chloe barked a little at the beginning. She wasn't used to the sound of the trainer. She was pretty patient and sat by the trainer for an hour, and then, she got tired of it and left. I was so happy when I was done. A big check mark!!!
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| Excuse the poor quality of the pic. I took it using Skype camera. |
Bad ride. Good run. All in one weekend.
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I know some days the training will go well and some days the training will not go so well. It's hard to swallow when I had a bad ride because riding was my least best of the three sports and I always worked hard on the bike. I always thought about it and kept thinking what went wrong. Last week at Silk Sheets, I felt so strong on the bike, we rode 40 miles, my average was 16.4MPH without pushing it too hard. This weekend we rode 40 miles at Harbins. The weather was completely different. This time it was cold, low 30's, strong wind, 10-15 MPH. The morning before the ride, I thought it was a good idea to drink just water and eat Cliff bars. I cut up 1.5 bars into 12 squares. Each square was 30 calories. Total 360 calories. Perfect... so I thought. Eating all solid food during a ride was definitely a new thing for me. I never tried it before. One thing I forgot is that solid food don't go down as easily as liquid calories. My body didn't absorb the nutrition as fast as liquid. We rode 11 miles to the school. Susan and I were waiting at the school but since John, Sarah and Carlos were no where to be found. We went back and finally saw them by the church. It turned out that John had a bike issue and couldn't continue the ride. So, we all waited for Carlos to get the car to pick up John and take him back to the parking lot. We were just standing around in the cold and chatting.
This was my first purchase (of many) at bonktown.com. The jacket was windproof and waterproof. It was hard to believe since it didn't seem warm at all. I wore a base layer and this jacket. It was perfect, borderline a little too warm when I ran in the sun. The retail for the jacket was $270 but I got it for a steal, $90. I felt really good on the run. This is a payback from yesterday. I didn't run hard and tried to stay in zone 2. At the end, I ran 7 miles at 9.24 pace.
After standing around for 10 minutes, the wind really picked up and I got really cold again. We still managed to take a couple of pictures. Sarah made a smart azz comment after I took the picture. She said we should call it 2 1/2 Ironman since John and Sarah did1 IM and Susah did a half IM. Too funny.
We continued the ride after Carlos came. This is when the ride took a turn for the worse. I had no energy, my quads felt heavy, my nose was running non-stop. The wind picked up and I chickened out and didn't stay aero since I felt wobbly. The last 20 miles of the ride is just to keep up with Sarah. Susan was a head of us.
I tried to eat more. At the end, I only ate 9 squares, so it was around 270 calories. It was way too little for a 2.5 hour ride. I learned my lesson. Susan thought it was because I did Will's class twice this week. Maybe it had something to do with it but I think the major factor was nutrition. I went home, too a hot shower and napped. It felt so good.
The next morning, I braved myself and ran in the cold. It was about the same temp as yesterday. I wore my Santini jacket.
Happy Ultimate Cycling!!
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Not much happening since Jan 1, 2012. No New Year's resolutions. I don't believe in them. They always seem to die down in February anyway. I have goals and one of them, of course, is IM Canada. The second one is getting engaged... haha. Anyway, talking about IM, we're in the middle of off-season base training. Don't let the words "off" and "base" fool you. It's still 8 hours of training per week. I know it's not a lot compared to the real IM training but still it's something. I started the year with the Ultimate Cycling class. A week before the class started, we did a heart rate test. You start with 120 HR and increase 10 beats every two minutes until you can't go anymore. Based on my HR test, my max is 198. I also found out what my zones are. Last Tue, 1/10 was my first class. I felt really good and strong cycling for 90 minutes. There were about 30 people in the class. I was debating if I wanted a new trainer or not. I don't want to spend more than $150. That means I need to find a used one. After the first class, I decided to wait a little longer before deciding to purchase a new one. I didn't hate the one that I had but I didn't love it either. The trainer wasn't stable and I'm only 100 pounds so I can't imagine if a 250 pound dude uses the same trainer, it had to feel even more unstable. Or... maybe the other way around, putting more weight on made it more grounded.
Thursday was the second class of the week. This time I noticed we had more people than Tuesday. The program lets you sign up for a once a week class instead of twice a week. For new comers, the 2 sessions per week is $250, 1 session per week is $200. I thought about it. It's so not economical to choose the second option. Plus if I want to get the full benefit of the program, I really believed I had to do 2 sessions per week. This session had the same sets/ drills as the first one that we did on Tuesday. But oh man... my legs felt wobbly, it was more difficult to increase my HR, at the end I felt a little jittery. I don't know why. The only thing different was I split my lunch on Tuesday. I ate half at noon and the second half at 3.30PM, then a Cliff bar at 5.30PM. I may have to do that on Tuesday and Thursday to keep my blood sugar more even through out the day. This time around I really hated my trainer. I felt I was going to fall off the bike if I didn't hang on to the handle bar. I looked at it from the side, it was pretty level. One time I was going to get on it, and it was wobbly and I almost fell. It was not good.
After the class, I went home and felt so hungry, so I ate a lot. I shouldn't do it but I was starving and a little frustrated from tonight's class. I guess food made me better. I know it sounds so bad... like I'm a food addict. I went online and checked Craig's list for any used trainer. And there was one. I never heard of the brand before. It's Minoura RDA80. What's different about this trainer is a rim driven trainer. The resistance contacts are with the rim of the wheel, not the tire itself, so it doesn't eat up your tires. From the reviews, I found out it's a good trainer, quiet and very stable. It's Japanese made. For some reasons, most of their make are good quality. The seller was asking for $150. She bought it from Reality Bikes around $280. She just used it around 10-20 times. I felt it was a good asking price. I emailed her right away. I know trainers like this will go fast. I even said that I could stop by on Friday night after work if she was available.
She said she was coaching all weekend but would be home at 3PM on Sunday. Great! I got cash before I left. I hope she would budge on the price a little bit but I was willing to pay $150 if she didn't.
I brought the bike with me, so I could take a little spin and make sure the trainer was stable and quiet like the reviews said. Sure enough, I took a few minutes spinning, I was hooked. It was smooth. I asked her about the price again to see if she was willing to take $130 cash. She was fixed on the price which I would do if I were her. It was a done deal. $150 for the trainer. I was excited and can't wait to use it on the next class.
Thursday was the second class of the week. This time I noticed we had more people than Tuesday. The program lets you sign up for a once a week class instead of twice a week. For new comers, the 2 sessions per week is $250, 1 session per week is $200. I thought about it. It's so not economical to choose the second option. Plus if I want to get the full benefit of the program, I really believed I had to do 2 sessions per week. This session had the same sets/ drills as the first one that we did on Tuesday. But oh man... my legs felt wobbly, it was more difficult to increase my HR, at the end I felt a little jittery. I don't know why. The only thing different was I split my lunch on Tuesday. I ate half at noon and the second half at 3.30PM, then a Cliff bar at 5.30PM. I may have to do that on Tuesday and Thursday to keep my blood sugar more even through out the day. This time around I really hated my trainer. I felt I was going to fall off the bike if I didn't hang on to the handle bar. I looked at it from the side, it was pretty level. One time I was going to get on it, and it was wobbly and I almost fell. It was not good.
After the class, I went home and felt so hungry, so I ate a lot. I shouldn't do it but I was starving and a little frustrated from tonight's class. I guess food made me better. I know it sounds so bad... like I'm a food addict. I went online and checked Craig's list for any used trainer. And there was one. I never heard of the brand before. It's Minoura RDA80. What's different about this trainer is a rim driven trainer. The resistance contacts are with the rim of the wheel, not the tire itself, so it doesn't eat up your tires. From the reviews, I found out it's a good trainer, quiet and very stable. It's Japanese made. For some reasons, most of their make are good quality. The seller was asking for $150. She bought it from Reality Bikes around $280. She just used it around 10-20 times. I felt it was a good asking price. I emailed her right away. I know trainers like this will go fast. I even said that I could stop by on Friday night after work if she was available.
I brought the bike with me, so I could take a little spin and make sure the trainer was stable and quiet like the reviews said. Sure enough, I took a few minutes spinning, I was hooked. It was smooth. I asked her about the price again to see if she was willing to take $130 cash. She was fixed on the price which I would do if I were her. It was a done deal. $150 for the trainer. I was excited and can't wait to use it on the next class.
Flip turns are just like riding a bike....
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I started swimming seriously when I was training for St. Anthony triathlon in April 2009. Around that time, I decided to join Concourse Masters Swim, which had been a great blessing to be able to swim with other triathletes at 5.45AM twice a week (who's crazy enough to do that, right?) and I learned so much from our coach, Oliver.
In the winter, when there weren't too many triathletes showed up for the workout. Oliver had been teaching us other skills besides free style. It was actually kinda fun. We spent a couple of weeks learning breast strokes, back strokes, which was very useful because now I swam back strokes or double-armed back strokes in between hard sets, and butterflies. I could swim butterflies half of the pool length, which was not too bad for a newbie.
Lastly he taught us FLIP TURNS. I know there was no wall in the lake or ocean but it was just so cool to be able to do it. Plus it did shave a few seconds, protect my shoulders from grabbing the wall a little too hard, and the ability to swim continuously, not breaking every 25 meters. I remembered, besides me, there were Leslie and Debbie that morning. Those two could flip with no issues. They just needed little tweaks to make it perfect. I, on the other hand, just couldn't get it. I inhaled water, that was when I learned that I had to blow air out as I attempted to flip. My back almost hit the bottom of the pool as I was pushing off the wall. I got motion sickness from trying too hard and too often. I was over it. Some times, after a few months, I tried it again and made a fool out of myself. I googled and watched a few you-tube videos on how to flip correctly. I still couldn't do it. I gave it up for a while, then early this year, I made doing flip turns as my 2011 goal. I had to be able to do it while I was training for Augusta. Different people gave me their tips after they saw me flailing in the water or under the water, I should say. I was watching kids swimming and flipping at Dynamo while I was waiting for TNT swim GTS. They made it look so easy. At the end of the season, I gave up. That's it. No more flip turns. Forget about it. Who says that you need to be able to flip turns to swim well? I was at peace with my decision.
Last Wednesday, only 3 people showed up at the workout. The other two swimmers were brand new to the group. After we swam around 1,000 meters, Oliver stopped us, reviewed the flip turn theories and of course he demonstrated a couple of perfect flips. I was so over it. I didn't want to try again but I didn't say anything. He told us to swim 6X50 and we had to flip. I told him that I would do a flip at the end of the 50's, so I wouldn't mess up the work out. I told myself to just do it, don't think too hard and remember to keep the feet apart as wide as the shoulder length. I was approaching the wall and I tucked my head, put my arms on my sides and kept the feet apart. I planted my feet on the wall. I pushed off the wall in a streamlined body position. WHOAA... I did it. That was it. I did a flip turn. Did anybody see that? Of course not, Oliver was watching Sarah at the time. I told Oliver that I thought I did it right. He told me to flip this time at the end of the pool and swim to the other end. I was a little nervous because it could be just a fluke. I did another flip turn and felt so natural as my body twisted to the left and took my first breath to the right. After I reached the wall, he was quite impressed and told me that was very good. I couldn't believe I finally got it. The next set was 16X50 with flip turns. I flipped every single time. I ended my workout after flipping more than 25 times. I saw Debbie in the locker room and told her that I finally got the flip turns thing. She was excited for me, even though she probably thought I was crazy being so psyched from doing flip turns.
The next morning I went back to the pool after running 4 miles. I had to make sure what happened yesterday wasn't just a one-day Christmas miracle. The first few turns I was a little bit too deep in the water as I was trying to come up for my first stroke. Something wasn't quite right, then, I remembered something important. Keep the feet shoulders apart. That was it. I tried again and it was much better. Perfect. Bill was in the pool too, so of course I told him about my accomplishment from yesterday. He watched me did a couple of turns and said that I did great. Maybe he was lying but I still liked the compliment. Flip turns are just like riding a bike. Once you do it right, you get it. That was my Christmas present from God this year. Merry Christmas!!!
In the winter, when there weren't too many triathletes showed up for the workout. Oliver had been teaching us other skills besides free style. It was actually kinda fun. We spent a couple of weeks learning breast strokes, back strokes, which was very useful because now I swam back strokes or double-armed back strokes in between hard sets, and butterflies. I could swim butterflies half of the pool length, which was not too bad for a newbie.
Lastly he taught us FLIP TURNS. I know there was no wall in the lake or ocean but it was just so cool to be able to do it. Plus it did shave a few seconds, protect my shoulders from grabbing the wall a little too hard, and the ability to swim continuously, not breaking every 25 meters. I remembered, besides me, there were Leslie and Debbie that morning. Those two could flip with no issues. They just needed little tweaks to make it perfect. I, on the other hand, just couldn't get it. I inhaled water, that was when I learned that I had to blow air out as I attempted to flip. My back almost hit the bottom of the pool as I was pushing off the wall. I got motion sickness from trying too hard and too often. I was over it. Some times, after a few months, I tried it again and made a fool out of myself. I googled and watched a few you-tube videos on how to flip correctly. I still couldn't do it. I gave it up for a while, then early this year, I made doing flip turns as my 2011 goal. I had to be able to do it while I was training for Augusta. Different people gave me their tips after they saw me flailing in the water or under the water, I should say. I was watching kids swimming and flipping at Dynamo while I was waiting for TNT swim GTS. They made it look so easy. At the end of the season, I gave up. That's it. No more flip turns. Forget about it. Who says that you need to be able to flip turns to swim well? I was at peace with my decision.
Last Wednesday, only 3 people showed up at the workout. The other two swimmers were brand new to the group. After we swam around 1,000 meters, Oliver stopped us, reviewed the flip turn theories and of course he demonstrated a couple of perfect flips. I was so over it. I didn't want to try again but I didn't say anything. He told us to swim 6X50 and we had to flip. I told him that I would do a flip at the end of the 50's, so I wouldn't mess up the work out. I told myself to just do it, don't think too hard and remember to keep the feet apart as wide as the shoulder length. I was approaching the wall and I tucked my head, put my arms on my sides and kept the feet apart. I planted my feet on the wall. I pushed off the wall in a streamlined body position. WHOAA... I did it. That was it. I did a flip turn. Did anybody see that? Of course not, Oliver was watching Sarah at the time. I told Oliver that I thought I did it right. He told me to flip this time at the end of the pool and swim to the other end. I was a little nervous because it could be just a fluke. I did another flip turn and felt so natural as my body twisted to the left and took my first breath to the right. After I reached the wall, he was quite impressed and told me that was very good. I couldn't believe I finally got it. The next set was 16X50 with flip turns. I flipped every single time. I ended my workout after flipping more than 25 times. I saw Debbie in the locker room and told her that I finally got the flip turns thing. She was excited for me, even though she probably thought I was crazy being so psyched from doing flip turns.
The next morning I went back to the pool after running 4 miles. I had to make sure what happened yesterday wasn't just a one-day Christmas miracle. The first few turns I was a little bit too deep in the water as I was trying to come up for my first stroke. Something wasn't quite right, then, I remembered something important. Keep the feet shoulders apart. That was it. I tried again and it was much better. Perfect. Bill was in the pool too, so of course I told him about my accomplishment from yesterday. He watched me did a couple of turns and said that I did great. Maybe he was lying but I still liked the compliment. Flip turns are just like riding a bike. Once you do it right, you get it. That was my Christmas present from God this year. Merry Christmas!!!
Meet your coach!!!
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Sometimes I do watch MTV, not the Jersey Shores or Real World... can't stand those. I like the show Made, it's basically MTV following the journey of teenage kids who try to become somebody that they never think they could. Half of the shows are about not-so-sporty kids that want to excel in sports. In the first 10 minutes of the show, they meet their new coach and the journey begins there.
Last Thursday was my turn. I met my new IM coach. I went to see Mary. This is our first meeting. I was going to wait until she was done with IM AZ, but she had time for me this week. I took the opportunity, the sooner the better. Before the meeting, I had to fill out athlete questionnaires that were long and had many questions about my athletic background, which wasn't much, my current workout, previous race results etc. The questions really made me think about my journey from the first day I picked up running in Feb 2006 (yes I remember that day vividly since I hadn't ran for ages and out of the blue, I decided to run one day) until today, 3 Half IM's later. I had a lot of questions about the training program for IM. I like the facts that each week can have a different focus. One can be a swim focus week or bike or run. It breaks the monotonousness of triathlon training. We also talked about the timing the long run and long ride. Most of the times the long run is the day after your long ride but we would mix it up a little bit during training. The long run may be mid week or a day before the ride. This new concept is to get the feeling of running with fresh legs and minimize injuries.
We are also going to use Training Peak, it's an online software that posts the the training schedule. I will need to log in to enter the length of the workout that is completed and any comments about the training. It's great for accountability and for Mary to monitor my progress.The training will officially start in mid Feb to be exact 24 weeks before the race weekend. For now, I will use her base training schedule to make sure I have a strong base. I'm so glad I started doing P90X 6 weeks ago. I felt I have a good routine for upper body strength training. My pulls during swim are a lot stronger also. For lower body strength training, I'm happy with the combo of Lance workout and P90X. What I need to add right now is riding outside again. Ride 30-40 miles in the cold, which I'm not too fond of because my nose is like a hose. I need to blow my nose every 10 minutes. I will start that soon with the Spring team.
Last Thursday was my turn. I met my new IM coach. I went to see Mary. This is our first meeting. I was going to wait until she was done with IM AZ, but she had time for me this week. I took the opportunity, the sooner the better. Before the meeting, I had to fill out athlete questionnaires that were long and had many questions about my athletic background, which wasn't much, my current workout, previous race results etc. The questions really made me think about my journey from the first day I picked up running in Feb 2006 (yes I remember that day vividly since I hadn't ran for ages and out of the blue, I decided to run one day) until today, 3 Half IM's later. I had a lot of questions about the training program for IM. I like the facts that each week can have a different focus. One can be a swim focus week or bike or run. It breaks the monotonousness of triathlon training. We also talked about the timing the long run and long ride. Most of the times the long run is the day after your long ride but we would mix it up a little bit during training. The long run may be mid week or a day before the ride. This new concept is to get the feeling of running with fresh legs and minimize injuries.
We are also going to use Training Peak, it's an online software that posts the the training schedule. I will need to log in to enter the length of the workout that is completed and any comments about the training. It's great for accountability and for Mary to monitor my progress.The training will officially start in mid Feb to be exact 24 weeks before the race weekend. For now, I will use her base training schedule to make sure I have a strong base. I'm so glad I started doing P90X 6 weeks ago. I felt I have a good routine for upper body strength training. My pulls during swim are a lot stronger also. For lower body strength training, I'm happy with the combo of Lance workout and P90X. What I need to add right now is riding outside again. Ride 30-40 miles in the cold, which I'm not too fond of because my nose is like a hose. I need to blow my nose every 10 minutes. I will start that soon with the Spring team.
World Wind IM FL Trip
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Since I had never been to an IM before, it was a good idea to volunteer at the race to see what was going on. I needed to see how the transition worked since everything seemed to be pretty complicated. Leading up to the weekend, the plan was to ride with Carmen and Raquel to Panama City Beach on Friday afternoon. It would be too late to attend the volunteer meeting held at 5PM but we had to wait for Raquel until she was done with her clinical. On Tuesday morning, Raquel sent me a FB message, she decided not to sign up since her nursing school class schedule would be super crazy next year. I knew it was a tough decision since she was so excited about doing an IM. That left me with Carmen to drive to FL. Carmen then asked me if I could drive. I hate to drive that long, 6.5 hours one way, 13 hours in one weekend. Before I called her back, I talked to Frank to see if Eddie could fit two more people in his car. He said it was not a problem. After talking to Carmen, we decided to split. I rode with Eddie and 3 other people and she rode in a different car since they left at 10AM so she could drop off her kids first before the trip. Problem solved.
This trip was so not me. I don't know Eddie, I saw him a couple times at the training rides this summer. I never met Brett. The only person that I know was Frank. And I would be stuck with them for at least 13 hours... Nice! Don't get me wrong. I was so thankful that they were kind enough to let me tag along with them. It's just out of my comfort zone since I like to go on a trip with people I know well. The lodging situation was a little crazy also. I shared a condo with 10 other girls/ women and the only people I knew were Carmen and Stacy. I was prepared to sleep on the floor so I brought a thick blanket and sleeping bag with me. I thought about not going for a second but I knew the benefits would outweigh the uncomfortable situation that I would be in. Anyway I wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the condo. Just to sleep and shower.
We all met at Eddie's house at 7.30ish then headed out around 8AM. I took Dramamine less drowsy formula just in case I felt nauseous. It wasn't funny if I got carsick. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbuck's. Time flew pretty fast, maybe because I took a little nap. We ate lunch at Wendy's. The weather was windy and cold. I was hoping the temp tomorrow was warmer than today since I didn't bring long pants and a thick jacket. We got to Panama City Beach around 3PM. Well... actually it was 2PM since it was central time, which I totally forgot. We went straight to the Expo. I saw Newton's tri top which I liked and surprisingly they had a special edition tri top for IMC. It was to benefit a non-profit. I would have had bought it but it had an IM logo. I don't want to jinx it. Around 4PM, we headed back and the guys dropped me off the condo where I was staying. Apparently I wrote the suite's door code wrong, so I couldn't get in. I went downstairs to the lobby. Thank God, the repairman was there and he heard my conversation with the front desk. He told me right away what the correct code was. When I got in, some of the girls were there. I found out that I would sleep on the pull-out couch, which was fine by me. The suite was nice. A spacious 3 beds/ 2 baths with kitchen and living room. The balcony faced the beach. The carpet in the bedrooms had some stains. It wasn't the top of the line clean. It was a good thing I bought a sleeping bag and bath towel with me.
We went to the volunteer meeting at 5PM. It was chaotic. My guess was there were over 1,000 volunteers in the ballroom. We split up according to our assignments. When I chose the volunteer duties, I was looking for something related to T1 or T2 so I could work with the athletes and saw what they did at the transition. T2 gear bags was my assignment. Some tidbits about IM.. Each athlete had 5 bags: 1) Morning Clothes bag, where you put your goggles, wetsuit and after you change, you put your sweater/ sweatpants in the bag. 2) T1 Swim to Bike bag where you put helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses, bike clothes and nutrition. 3) T2 Bike to Run bag where you put your running stuff and nutrition. 4) Special need bag for bike, normally it's at the half way point of the course. 5) Special need bag for run which can be picked up at the turnaround point for the second loop. Changing tents were new concepts for me since they were only at IM races.
We didn't get much directions from the captain. I got my volunteer T-shirt and we all went to dinner. I had a small side salad and boiled jumbo shrimps with cocktail sauces. They were awesome. I got back to the suite and not long after that, the girls came back from dinner also. One girl, or I should say woman, drank a little too much at dinner. She was talking about going skinny dipping at the ocean. Her friends told her no. As I was laying on the pull-out bed in the living room, she asked the girls the code for the suite.... three times. It was a little comical. I felt asleep not long after but woke up a little bit when another girl took a shower and blew dry her hair at 4AM. Luckily I could tune out the noise, I felt back asleep. My body got enough rest and I was up at 5.30AM. The pros start at 6.50AM and I wanted to see them start. The condo was about 0.5 mile away from the start, which was convenient. The mass start was 10 minutes after the pro's. It was amazing to see the mass start, the athletes looked like a bunch of seals with black wetsuits on. The water was surprisingly calm, it was night and day compared to Gulf Coast Half IM that I did in 2009. After I saw the pro's finish their first loop of the swim, I called Mike, another UPSer, who came to see his buddy, Billy, race. We met up and hung out by the changing tent. We saw the first pro who came out of the water. The rest followed. A lot of athletes finished between 1.10 and 1.25. I got to see Cheryl. She was surprised to see me and I gave her a high five. Not long after that, I saw Jessica. I was glad to catch her. We then walked to the bike-out. I saw Bob as he was passing through. Great start of the day. Below is the first pro who just finished the first lap of the swim, he was about to swim his second lap. Swim time 44 mins... smoking fast.
Around 9AM, Mike, Doug (Billy's friend) and I went to eat breakfast. We didn't want a long wait so we drove to a diner about 5 miles away from the start. We sat and ate. I wanted some pancakes but felt guilty since they were too much sugar. I opted for an omelet instead. We killed time a little bit after we ate. I still had an hour before I started my volunteer assignment at 11AM. I found out that Doug did several IMs before, but it had been a while since his last one over 15 years ago. He also volunteered this weekend so he could sign up for IM FL 2012 when he turned 50.
I went to the transition area around 11AM. I saw some other volunteers but their assignment was changing tent. There was nobody at the T2 gear bags. But since the first pro wouldn't get there until around 12.30PM, there was no hurry. I just waited around and finally around noon, the captain showed up. There were a lot of high school kids that volunteered also. I don't know if it was required or not. I stationed myself in the front rows. I was in charge of 1201-1250 and 1601-1650 bags. As the athletes came in, somebody at the front yelled his/ her numbers and if the number was mine, I had to grab the bag and hand it to them. It sounded easy but when they came in every 2 seconds, I had to concentrate hard not to miss my athlete's number. We were slammed for 3 hours and it slowed down a bit after that. After standing for 4 hours, my feet were killing me, I wanted to take off my shoes so bad. My shift ended at 5PM. Right before I left, I saw Bob and he saw me and smiled. He seemed to have a great day. I left T2 to get some food. I still didn't know who won the race. Bree Wee finished first in swim and bike, and she had 4 minutes lead time out of T2. I remember last year's winner was Jessica Jacobs but I didn't know if she was defending her title this year. It turned out that she did and she won again. I guess I didn't recognize her when she came in to T2. She was amazing, an ex-Army who turned pro, and her husband was still in Iraq. I think 2011 IM FL was her first IM win. She also won IM Wisconsin in September. This weekend was her third win.
I was tired and cold after I ate... It was pathetic... I was tired from standing for 5.5 hours and there were 2,800 athletes out on the course that had swum, biked and finishing their run at the time. I met up with Mike again and we walked to the turn around point for the second loop of the run. Not long after that, Billy passed us. I was spectating until around 7PM, then I decided to go back to the condo, which was right in front of the turn around. Out of nowhere, I saw Bob again. Unbelievable... God put me there for a reason. I yelled "Go Bob, keep it strong". He smiled and waived. I crashed after I took a shower. It had been a long day.
The next morning I was up around 5AM, it was Fall back Sunday, so we got an extra hour to sleep. The girls were up also. They were planning to go to the 2012 IM registration at 6AM, three hours before the registration opened. One of their friends was already there at 5.30AM and said there was a line already. I called Frank. Luckily he picked it up. I told them that they'd better got ready and go. Last night when Frank told me that they were going there at 7AM and I thought they were crazy. After they left, I went for a run. I ran a few miles on the IM run course in a residential area. There were sponges and cups on the ground, but not that many. It was a beautiful weather to run. I ran a little over 5 miles and got back to the condo to take a shower. I got my stuff packed and we headed back to ATL at 8AM. It was a world wind weekend. I'm so glad that I went. It was so motivating to see. I will play this weekend's scenes in my head when the training gets hard. Keep my focus on the prize. With God's strength, I cross the finish line in Penticton on August 26, 2012.
This trip was so not me. I don't know Eddie, I saw him a couple times at the training rides this summer. I never met Brett. The only person that I know was Frank. And I would be stuck with them for at least 13 hours... Nice! Don't get me wrong. I was so thankful that they were kind enough to let me tag along with them. It's just out of my comfort zone since I like to go on a trip with people I know well. The lodging situation was a little crazy also. I shared a condo with 10 other girls/ women and the only people I knew were Carmen and Stacy. I was prepared to sleep on the floor so I brought a thick blanket and sleeping bag with me. I thought about not going for a second but I knew the benefits would outweigh the uncomfortable situation that I would be in. Anyway I wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the condo. Just to sleep and shower.
We all met at Eddie's house at 7.30ish then headed out around 8AM. I took Dramamine less drowsy formula just in case I felt nauseous. It wasn't funny if I got carsick. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbuck's. Time flew pretty fast, maybe because I took a little nap. We ate lunch at Wendy's. The weather was windy and cold. I was hoping the temp tomorrow was warmer than today since I didn't bring long pants and a thick jacket. We got to Panama City Beach around 3PM. Well... actually it was 2PM since it was central time, which I totally forgot. We went straight to the Expo. I saw Newton's tri top which I liked and surprisingly they had a special edition tri top for IMC. It was to benefit a non-profit. I would have had bought it but it had an IM logo. I don't want to jinx it. Around 4PM, we headed back and the guys dropped me off the condo where I was staying. Apparently I wrote the suite's door code wrong, so I couldn't get in. I went downstairs to the lobby. Thank God, the repairman was there and he heard my conversation with the front desk. He told me right away what the correct code was. When I got in, some of the girls were there. I found out that I would sleep on the pull-out couch, which was fine by me. The suite was nice. A spacious 3 beds/ 2 baths with kitchen and living room. The balcony faced the beach. The carpet in the bedrooms had some stains. It wasn't the top of the line clean. It was a good thing I bought a sleeping bag and bath towel with me.
We went to the volunteer meeting at 5PM. It was chaotic. My guess was there were over 1,000 volunteers in the ballroom. We split up according to our assignments. When I chose the volunteer duties, I was looking for something related to T1 or T2 so I could work with the athletes and saw what they did at the transition. T2 gear bags was my assignment. Some tidbits about IM.. Each athlete had 5 bags: 1) Morning Clothes bag, where you put your goggles, wetsuit and after you change, you put your sweater/ sweatpants in the bag. 2) T1 Swim to Bike bag where you put helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses, bike clothes and nutrition. 3) T2 Bike to Run bag where you put your running stuff and nutrition. 4) Special need bag for bike, normally it's at the half way point of the course. 5) Special need bag for run which can be picked up at the turnaround point for the second loop. Changing tents were new concepts for me since they were only at IM races.
We didn't get much directions from the captain. I got my volunteer T-shirt and we all went to dinner. I had a small side salad and boiled jumbo shrimps with cocktail sauces. They were awesome. I got back to the suite and not long after that, the girls came back from dinner also. One girl, or I should say woman, drank a little too much at dinner. She was talking about going skinny dipping at the ocean. Her friends told her no. As I was laying on the pull-out bed in the living room, she asked the girls the code for the suite.... three times. It was a little comical. I felt asleep not long after but woke up a little bit when another girl took a shower and blew dry her hair at 4AM. Luckily I could tune out the noise, I felt back asleep. My body got enough rest and I was up at 5.30AM. The pros start at 6.50AM and I wanted to see them start. The condo was about 0.5 mile away from the start, which was convenient. The mass start was 10 minutes after the pro's. It was amazing to see the mass start, the athletes looked like a bunch of seals with black wetsuits on. The water was surprisingly calm, it was night and day compared to Gulf Coast Half IM that I did in 2009. After I saw the pro's finish their first loop of the swim, I called Mike, another UPSer, who came to see his buddy, Billy, race. We met up and hung out by the changing tent. We saw the first pro who came out of the water. The rest followed. A lot of athletes finished between 1.10 and 1.25. I got to see Cheryl. She was surprised to see me and I gave her a high five. Not long after that, I saw Jessica. I was glad to catch her. We then walked to the bike-out. I saw Bob as he was passing through. Great start of the day. Below is the first pro who just finished the first lap of the swim, he was about to swim his second lap. Swim time 44 mins... smoking fast.
Around 9AM, Mike, Doug (Billy's friend) and I went to eat breakfast. We didn't want a long wait so we drove to a diner about 5 miles away from the start. We sat and ate. I wanted some pancakes but felt guilty since they were too much sugar. I opted for an omelet instead. We killed time a little bit after we ate. I still had an hour before I started my volunteer assignment at 11AM. I found out that Doug did several IMs before, but it had been a while since his last one over 15 years ago. He also volunteered this weekend so he could sign up for IM FL 2012 when he turned 50.
I went to the transition area around 11AM. I saw some other volunteers but their assignment was changing tent. There was nobody at the T2 gear bags. But since the first pro wouldn't get there until around 12.30PM, there was no hurry. I just waited around and finally around noon, the captain showed up. There were a lot of high school kids that volunteered also. I don't know if it was required or not. I stationed myself in the front rows. I was in charge of 1201-1250 and 1601-1650 bags. As the athletes came in, somebody at the front yelled his/ her numbers and if the number was mine, I had to grab the bag and hand it to them. It sounded easy but when they came in every 2 seconds, I had to concentrate hard not to miss my athlete's number. We were slammed for 3 hours and it slowed down a bit after that. After standing for 4 hours, my feet were killing me, I wanted to take off my shoes so bad. My shift ended at 5PM. Right before I left, I saw Bob and he saw me and smiled. He seemed to have a great day. I left T2 to get some food. I still didn't know who won the race. Bree Wee finished first in swim and bike, and she had 4 minutes lead time out of T2. I remember last year's winner was Jessica Jacobs but I didn't know if she was defending her title this year. It turned out that she did and she won again. I guess I didn't recognize her when she came in to T2. She was amazing, an ex-Army who turned pro, and her husband was still in Iraq. I think 2011 IM FL was her first IM win. She also won IM Wisconsin in September. This weekend was her third win.
I was tired and cold after I ate... It was pathetic... I was tired from standing for 5.5 hours and there were 2,800 athletes out on the course that had swum, biked and finishing their run at the time. I met up with Mike again and we walked to the turn around point for the second loop of the run. Not long after that, Billy passed us. I was spectating until around 7PM, then I decided to go back to the condo, which was right in front of the turn around. Out of nowhere, I saw Bob again. Unbelievable... God put me there for a reason. I yelled "Go Bob, keep it strong". He smiled and waived. I crashed after I took a shower. It had been a long day.
The next morning I was up around 5AM, it was Fall back Sunday, so we got an extra hour to sleep. The girls were up also. They were planning to go to the 2012 IM registration at 6AM, three hours before the registration opened. One of their friends was already there at 5.30AM and said there was a line already. I called Frank. Luckily he picked it up. I told them that they'd better got ready and go. Last night when Frank told me that they were going there at 7AM and I thought they were crazy. After they left, I went for a run. I ran a few miles on the IM run course in a residential area. There were sponges and cups on the ground, but not that many. It was a beautiful weather to run. I ran a little over 5 miles and got back to the condo to take a shower. I got my stuff packed and we headed back to ATL at 8AM. It was a world wind weekend. I'm so glad that I went. It was so motivating to see. I will play this weekend's scenes in my head when the training gets hard. Keep my focus on the prize. With God's strength, I cross the finish line in Penticton on August 26, 2012.
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