First Saturday of Training

Yesterday was my first Saturday training with Chicago Endurance Sports. It was rough getting up at 6am on a Saturday morning but once I was up and out, it wasn't so bad. We did a few running drills--high knees, butt kicks and 100m speed intervals before our 60 minute run. I ran with another woman who will be doing her first triathlon and we had a chance to get to know each other fairly well over the course of 6 or so miles. It turns out that 3 years ago she worked for a big competitor of one of the magazines I work for. What a small world! The last mile was a very wet one, we got poured on and I was soaked. But once we were done, the rain stopped and I felt great. It was an anomaly to be done running by 9:30am on a Saturday.  Overall, it was a great way to start and I'm looking forward to Thursday's swim clinic.

The Next Step: One foot in front of the other

It's officially official. I have spent $300 on a half-iman training program through Chicago Endurance Sports. From now on it's one foot in front of the other and no looking back! I picked up the schedule and will start training with the rest of the group this Thursday, April 23. Last weekend was officially my last weekend of sleeping in--every Saturday from now until August 2 I will be waking up at 6am to join the training group at Oak Street beach. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

The other aspect to complicate this experience my injured hip flexor muscle. I've had pain in the area that connects the hip flexor and quad for about a month. I've laid off running for the most part and scaled back to once a week. However, running is my weakest so I'm panicking a little, especially since the pain is not going away. I got new shoes about 2 months ago and I'm worried that the shoes are the culprit. They may have too much stability. So it's time to throw in the towel and spend another $100 on new running shoes and see if that helps. If not, I'm going to stock up on Advil! The bad part is that the pain is pretty bad in the evening and sometimes wakes me up in the middle of the night. As long as my leg doesn't fall off I should be okay. And even if it does, fine, its my ugly leg anyway!

Tomorrow's first group training is a 40 minute run and with a few Advil it should be pretty simple. I'll be back then!

The Stomach Drop: DREAD

A Feeling of Dread

I am not brand new to this whole triathlon thing. I started my first in 2005 in Mackinaw City, MI with an extremely daunting 800m swim by the Mackinaw Bridge, an 18 mile bike and a 5k run. 

Two of my girlfriends and I decided to tackle it together and learned a lot about ourselves (and each other) in the process. One 

of them cried when she saw the swim set up--the buoys were spaced so far apart, you could hardly even see the furthest one out. A feeling of dread overwhelmed me and I wanted to turn around, run to the car, and drive back home to Lansin

g. Then I reminded myself that I am a strong swimmer--I usually swim three times this amount in my swim practices--it just looks really long when it's all put together like this. I realized I had to fight back a few nervous tears. The next morning we carbo-loaded, figured out how th

e heck to set up your bike on the "rack" and psyched ourselves up for the race.

As a kid I was into sports and on a bunch of teams but was alwa

ys right in the middle in terms of ability. I never considered myself competitive. Well, as soon as they blew the horn and throughout the full two hours, this strong, competitive bitch broke into my body and I was possessed. 

Swim-Bike-Run

The swim felt really good and when I came out of the water running on the beach among the men in the heat ahead of me, I searched the crowd for my mom. When we spotted each other, she yelped, obviously shocked to see me much sooner than she expected to, and she let out the biggest, loudest, most genuine "WHOO HOO, GO ELENA, OH MY GOD, GO," and I felt like I had been handed that magic little pill that filled me with speed and pride. My big thighs took over the job of carrying me through the streets of Mackinaw City on my rebuilt mountain bike with road tires. I was averaging 19 mph and when the old scared and cautious Elena told me to slow down, take it easy, I said to myself, "hell with you, girl, I'm loving this rush, let me fly!" I felt like a speed racer and every time I passed a guy I was fed another magic little pill. The run wasn't the best--it's never been my strong suite. But I was inspired by the woman in her late 50s, size 14 at least, who passed me coming the other direction--she was on her way back as I was on my way out. She ended up placing 2nd overall and I will never forget the look on her face as she cheered with her kids when her place was called during the award ceremony. Coming in to the finish line I heard my crew with their cow bells and when I came by the screams and cheers turned my legs into feathers and arms into pistons, carrying me to the finish line. I don't recall the exact time but it was about 2:40ish. Damn did I feel great!

Fast-forward three years, a few sprint and olympic triathlons later to mid-April 2009. I've decided this is my year to complete my first half-ironman. To some, no big deal, but to me, it's a huge challenge. So I decided to blog about my training experience. And the first step in committing to this race is signing up for the Chicago Endurance Sports half-ironman training program, which kicks off in a few short hours. Practices every Thursday evening and Saturday mornings at 7am. Ouch. It's time to get serious.