Tri-Complete!

Good news: I did NOT die during my triathlon! In fact, I did not even come close. I felt great the entire time (well, except for when those dudes kept passing me on the bike portion. I outswam them all but they just flew past me during that section. And that never feels good). During the run my legs felt like dead weights for the first half and I was tired the second half (and thinking "I'm glad this is almost over). But it was great!

And it was fun.

And I did it in under my goal. I said I'd be happy if I finished under 2 hours (since I knew the bike ride took me at least 56 minutes during training). And I finished in about 1 hour and 49 minutes.

Next time - July 17 - I'd like to finish in under 1:45. To do this I'm going to speed up my transition and cut time from bike ride. By the August race I'd like to be finishing under 1:40. There's only so fast you can transition but my bike ride is slow and I know it. If I can cut two minutes of the transition (which should be easy considering I spent two minutes this time trying to get my feet on my pedals) and seven minutes from the bike ... Here's hoping.

My times (unofficially, according to my stopwatch which, granted, I forgot to stop between the bike and run to time that transition): 16 minute-ish swim; 58 minute-ish bike; 29 minute-ish run. (excellent run time for me since you are slow coming off the bike and I never run under a 10 minute mile in training).

Now, a few pictures. Others are on Facebook.

Pre-Tri Jitters

We interrupt our "normal" programming for some pre-tri rammbling ...

As I type I am munching a bowl of my favorite cereal (Special K Red Berries), wearing my tri-suit (zoot!) and revving up my mind for the fact that in, oh, four hours (and hopefully not much longer) I will officially be a triathlete.

This is something that has been long, long in coming. I've talked about that before. But this morning, on the cusp of my goal becoming a reality, it seems ... well ... scary.

What if I drown? What if I fall off my bike (with my balance or lack thereof this is a real possibility)? What if... what if ... what if....?

Stay tuned (hopefully) for pictures later. If I don't die.

Thou Shalt Not Covet

... and, unfortunately, I think that includes stuff from REI and Road Runner Sports. Bummer.

It's back to the need v. want conundrum. ... and where "nice to haves" and "deprivation" live in that dichotomy.

Can I live without a reflective rain/wind breaker on my training bike rides? Sure. Will I continue to be cold and miserable? Yes. Does that make it a "need" or a "want?" Unclear.

I believe this is where two factors come to play: how hard core your frugality is and your budget. If you are super hard core and determined not to spend money on things that can be considered comfort items ... well, than I guess "nice to haves" are out.

But if you've budgeted for it, than slide that sucker right over to the "need" category.

At least that's how I figure it.

Now let's return to my REI/Road Runner problem. I've maxed out my triathlon budget for the season. Between the wetsuit, new running shoes, triathlon suit, race fees, goggles to replace the ones that finally broke after five years of use (miracle they lasted this long), more body glide (you always need more body glide), sunglasses, shot blocks for race day and so on ... there's nothing left for the jacket. Since that is the case I'm going to go ahead and live without the bike jacket. Maybe when we take a new look at the budget when the season is over (.... yeeeeeessss off season budget!!!).

Meanwhile I am in the market to replace the super cool "yoga jacket" (I'm not sure what makes this a yoga jacket, but OK) I'm wearing here:

Yeah, that's not a good picture. Regardless, I love that jacket. I bought it at Old Navy. And by the time it occurred to me that I Love That Jacket so much that I was going to wear it out pronto, they stopped selling it and they only had it on clearance in sizes much too big for the current rendition of Amy (or really any rendition in the past either).

So I'm looking for a new one. Yes, I sometimes wear it in training. I also wear it All The Other Times. So I'm sticking it under the "clothing" category. And guess what? I still have a budget for that for the month of June! Is it currently a "need?" No. But it will be. And since it's budgeted I'm going to go for it.

Meanwhile I just need to avoid browsing and browsing and browsing and browsing stuff on Road Runner ... because that super cool looking Puma pull over is NOT a need. Sad.

Training Update

I thought I was being awesome this week with the training schedule until it turned out ... I wasn't. Dave was sick Wednesday and .. um .. I can't remember what happened with Thursday, but exercising didn't go down. I had planned to swim AND bike on Wednesday, but no dice. And Thursday I had planned a run, but again ... didn't happen.

So what I DID do: 15 miles of running, 3 miles of swimming and 17 miles of biking Saturday to Saturday. That's not really that much, but it's better than nothing. So I'm counting it a "win."

This week was also majorly awesome for the information side of things. Friday night we got to meet with a personal trainer and running couch at the Run to Remember dinner. She was awesome and gave lots of pointers for food before and after workouts/races and stretching advice that I've already started implementing. One word: yoga.

I had planned all week to make today a big day gear wise. With low 60-degree temperatures in the lake we'll be swimming at, I need to have a triathlon wetsuit. But of course no one down where we are sells them (stupid) and so a trip to Seattle was in order.

I made some phone calls yesterday to find a shop that had multiple brands (even though I was pretty sure which kind I would want/need). As it turned out one of these shops was holding a demo day and swim clinic TODAY. Excellent!

So we trotted up to Lake Washington this morning (even though it was FREEZING COLD, around 50 degrees with a stiff breeze outside) so I could try on and then swim in a triathlon wetsuit.

And thus:

Now, let's talk about how bad I look.

I figure, hey, people are going to see me in this so I might as well just come out of the closet now. But if there was ever a time that I was certain that "oh yes, I AM pear shaped." Meh.

But this sucker is AMAZING, folks. Even though the 57 degree water was so cold that as soon as I put my face in the water I got a full on brain freeze, I could tell that this thing is going to make a HUGE difference in my speed. And while I didn't swim long in it (CAN YOU BLAME ME?!), they tell me you don't even really have to kick your legs while doing tri swim because the suit makes you float so much! It's like it SWIMS FOR YOU. Bonus!

And here is really the most exciting part about this. This is the suit I got. It's listed here on sale for $224. And that really is about the cheapest I've seen for this sort of thing. But today we got it for $150.

Woohoo!!! And you know how much I loooooove a bargain.

Now here are some more pictures of me freezing my tail end off. Seriously, it was So. Cold. I couldn't feel my chin.

At the moment this photo was taken I was thinking "wow. I can't feel my ears."

And here I'm thinking "I want to die. Someone come warm me." Also, please note how much skinnier I look in this photo. That's because of all the weight I lost keeping myself warm for five minutes.

Training Update

We've had some (off and on) beautiful weather, or just beautiful enough to allow me to run outside with Dave on an almost daily basis. I've been working up my mileage and am up to 5.5 and totally feeling like I can do more. Considering that it wasn't that low ago that I wasn't sure I could even WALK after a two mile run, this is pretty great.

Today I did a brick, biking 5.5 miles and then running just under four immediately after. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. This is fortunate as in the race I have to ride 14 and then four. Scary.

... did I mention that I am absolutely exhausted now? So much so that I can't even form the words to write about how I put together my grocery list. I guess I'll do that tomorrow.

Sundry Stuff

A spattering of sundry information for your ... well, unclear what it's for. But here it is:

-- Got on the bike for the first time. Yes, I've owned it two weeks. But alas it was raining and then I had The Disease ... so I couldn't ride it. But today I did! It was beautiful outside, so I took the bike onto post and rode the triathlon course. 14 miles. And I didn't die. But it did take me just under an hour. So I need to cut down on that.

-- My back is now hurting from the bike riding. Yowee. I also learned that biking and the running is hard. So that's another thing to work on.

-- After many moons of resisting I've decided to give cloth diapers a try. I just can't get past the idea that at our current rate I will spend at LEAST $700 on diapers this year, and that's only if he remains the same size ... which he won't ... so it will be way more because the bigger they are, the more they cost. So despite our retarded washer/dryer and despite the fact that the concept kind of grosses me out, I'm going to try it. So at least I can say "I tried."

-- Closing ceremonies? Stupid. I want to watch more ski jumping!! A conversation that Luke and I just had about the closing ceremonies:

Us: watching opera singing guy

Luke: Is that the Prime Minister?

Me: Singing?

Luke: Yes.

Me: Why did you think that was him singing?

Luke: I didn't.

Me: I'm confused

Now there is a lady in a pant suit. Whoa crazy times here.

-- Tomorrow we are going to the commissary. We need like 10 things. It's going to be a good week for the Grocery Envelope. No wait, I lied. There are 15 things on my list. Whatever. I'm cleaning out the freezer and pantry this week (thus the stir fry and rice a roni), so here are the things I am making for dinner:

- Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti (and rice a roni)

- Birds Eye Stir Fry

- Butternut Squash Flatbread (new recipe from Real Simple)

- More Birds Eye Stir Fry

- Tilapia

- BBQ chicken (more rice a roni)

-- Speaking of envelopes, this is the first month on full time budgetness. I already mentioned above that I'd love love to eliminate that diaper line item. Stupid expensive diapers. Seriously! It's like highway robbery. Or ... armed robbery. Or something bad like that. You HAVE to have a diaper on your kid (because the alternative is not acceptable) and they are at LEAST .20 cents each ... and thats the really cheap ones! It's making me mad just typing about it. Meh.

-- A new delicious vegetarian recipe I used last week that was SO GOOD: find it here ... seriously, SO GOOD. (and cheap!)