THE DAY AFTER...

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my last post, I feel a lot better today, in a much better spirit about the fiasco race. I was pretty sore when I woke up this morning, surprisingly, not my legs at all but my upper body (shoulders and neck). As expected my foot was pretty sore but nothing that I can't handle. I didn't wrote it yesterday but it did bother me a little in the run part of the race....

I did nothing today and it was fine by me. =)

I am trying really bad to convince my Dad to do his first 5K race on Wednesday night!!! He's afraid it is going to be too hot but the weather says 20°C (and rain) but this can all change in a matter of split seconds. So, we're going to wait and see, and he told me that if it is nice out he'd love to do his racing debut there! YAY!

Moving on to preparing my revenge...

THE CURSE OF THE INJURED ATHLETE IS...

To not feel ready for any race that you enter... yeah it sucks real bad!! Tomorrow is going to be my first sprint triathlon, after taking care of lots of pain and ache this week, I really don't feel ready for this. I ran 5K with my Dad yesterday, it went well BUT my foot is really sore... at least my back seems to be back to normal but I don't think I'll be able to swim as fast as my first/last TRI. Oh well, it's all for fun, right?!

Have a good week-end everybody =)

LONGEST RUN SINCE THE CORTISONE INJECTION

Very happy to have that done, only 4 miles but that was enough for me (and Rocky!) this morning. Close to 34 °C with the humidity, that literally killed us! We were Slow, 52 mins @ 12:58 min/mile, with a capital S but at least we were not sitting on the couch eating crap!!

I have put on 25 lbs in the last 8 months, combine the foot issues with finishing a Ph.D. thesis and that's what it does to you. I am working hard on getting back in shape and my brand new and shiny bike will be a big motivator for me.

Here's the new race target: Triathlon de Montréal an Olympic tri on September 13rd. I got a novice training schedule on the internet and this is what my plan will look like. Replacing the Tuesday with the Monday since the pool here only has lanes on Tuesday and Thiursday. Lots of fun to come =)

I SPLURGED...... BIG TIME!

Yep, my friends, you have here the owner of brand new and shiny TRI bike...... Spend a lot more than what I wanted... but I see it as an investment in my health and getting back into shape. I've come to peace with the fact that the foot cannot take too much concrete pounding right now so I had to find some alternative to get back in shape! And I defnitely got the TRI bug at the St-Lambert triathlon!

I got a really good price since one of my high school friend owns a bike shop and I got a model from 2007, they only had 2 bikes left!! He will get me fitted and teach me how to ride properly for 2h next week. I will get my new baby on Wednesday or Thursday! Very excited about this, no name yet. I gotta get a feel for it before I name it =) GOOD BYE GRANNY!!!!

It's a Jamis Comet 2007 (56 cm)

Here's all the 'SPECS'

FRAME: Aero 7005 butted aluminum frame with aero down tube, flat-oval top tube, airfoil seat tube with wheel cut-out, airfoil seatstays, rear entry horizontal dropouts

FORK: Aero road with Carbon fiber blades and 1" steel steerer

HEADSET: FSA Orbit integrated, 1"

WHEELSET: Formula X-Aero XPR-3 aero wheelset, welded 27mm aero profile rims, sealed bearing hubs, bladed spokes, 18H radial front, 24H 1 x rear

TIRES: Vittoria Zaffiro 700 x 23C

DERAILLEURS: Shimano "105" SS "105" braze-on front

SHIFTERS: Shimano Dura-Ace bar end 20-speed

CHAIN: Shimano CN-5600

FREEWHEEL: Shimano CS-5600 10-speed 11-23

CRANKSET: FSA Gossamer 53/39 172.5mm (54 56)

BOTTOM BRACKET: FSA Mega Exo external bearing

BRAKESET: Tektro dual pivot calipers with Tektro RX 4.1 levers

HANDLEBAR: Syntace Stratos 400 bar 40mm drop 410mm (54 56) with Streamliner bar extension & BioWing cups M (54 56)

STEM: Jamis 1" threadless 7D x 100mm (56) GRIPS Jamis gel tape

SEATPOST: Carbon fiber Aero 250mm x 27.2mm with seat binder

SADDLE: Selle San Marco Ponza Lux, Cro-moly rails

COLORS: Le Mans Blue/Pearl White

WEIGHT: 20.00 lbs

MY FIRST TRIATHLON IS HISTORY!

I've started thinking about doing a triathlon since I've been injured with plantar fascitiis (8 months ago!!). I am also very inspired by a close friend who is training for her first half IRONMAN and she inspired me to go forward with this sillyness! Lisa, you're the Best. =) Since I got back at my parents' house, I've worked hard on the bike and at the pool to be able to do this. Sorry, if this is long, like any other 'first' it is great to write a lot so you can remember it and see your progress as you move along!

Pre-race

I ended up having stomach issues yesterday and did not feel very well for part of the day, not sure IF it was due to pre-race jitters or just a bad spinach salad I had for lunch... LOL After 2 bottles of perrier water I was finally feeling better. Carb loaded on a wonderful chicken pasta recipe (yum make it!). I went to bed early but did not sleep well, kept dreaming of getting lost in transition or missing something to go on the bike and run... yeah everytime I woke up I told myself that's enough now! But would start dreaming the same thing again... I rarely get like that with running race anymore, seems the unexpected is frightening!

The cheering squad and I got up at 6AM, brekkie and we're out the door by 6:45AM. Here they are in all their glory! Thanks for coming out with me.

We got to the race site no problems, I went to get my race kit, my chip and get marked but the girl at the registration booth did not tell me there was a board where I could check which rack to put my bike on... I knew there was 2 waves of try-a-tri and she said to another volunteer: wave 1 red cap. So, I tought it would be written, Wave 1 Try-a-tri somewhere... We went the transition area and the bike racks were separated between Wave 1 to 12... so I had no idea which wave I was in really (I knew it wasn't the 'real' first one tough lol). I asked a bunch of girls at Rack 10 if they were doing the try-a-tri and they didn't even stop talking to answer me... only one guy turned and said he wasn't.... hum friendly! So I then ask someone who was in charge of transition area and he didn't know, so about 15 mins later and going back to check a board near registration. I knew which one was my bike rack (5th wave!!). I felt I looked so so clueless but this all new to me!

I meet up with a friend that I went to Université de Montréal with, Élaine, she was also doing her first try! It was great to see a familiar face and we went through this event together, it took some of the nervousness away. She said we were very lucky to be in the middle of the waves with a start at 9:10AM as they usually put the try-a-tri last, thank god because it was a HOT one today!

Off we went to the pool for a little warm-up and we anxiously waited our wave to start. We had a little race meeting and it turns out I was on the first wave of the try-a-tri. Most of the people in my wave we're doing their first one too! I was in Couloir 5 and Élaine went to Couloir 6.

Anxiously waiting for the start of my wave above!

Swim (300m in 6:52 with T1)

I believe I'm a good swimmer, my technique is not perfect but I am like a fish in the water so I knew this was going to be faily easy for me. My tryouts at the pool were close to 9-10 mins for 300 m so my goal was to go sub-9min, so I was delighted to see a sub 7 mins!!

I'm in the red cap, the girl in the green cap, asked me what my 300m time was and she tought she was faster so I let her go first... after 1 lap I had to pass her cause she was going to slow! This time included a run of about 200m =) It was a pretty weird feeling to just start running after you've been in the pool, I was definitely out of breath when I reached transition! I was 17th overall when I got out of the pool.

Bike (13.2K in 36:18 with T2 -garmin says 33:44)

After crossing on the mat, I reached my place and was pretty quick on putting everything on. Got the garmin on Auto multisports (thanks to Leanafor pointing that to me!). More running and off I went, hop on the bike. I had to do 3 loops of a 4.4K course. Élaine passed me about 2 mins in the bike ride! She has a neat bike =) It took me about half a loop to get my breathing under control, I think I pushed a little on the swim lol Granny was doing good, I had no clue of my speed as the multisport just says Bike and doesn't give you a speed... oh well, I went by perceived exertion. It was a flat bike course, great volunteers cheering too. I had lots of fun, one of the bike marshall even said to me it was great to see such a great smile. =) My goal was to go sub 40 mins so I'm very please with Granny's performance, however, she's still pretty old and rusty so I went from 17th to 35th but I'm ok with that. I knew my bike had limitations and I wasn't there to win any speeding contest! Off from the bike and run about 300 m again to my bike rack, I was out of breath really bad, I had to walk and take it easy there (as you can see in my exhausted face!).

Run (2.5K in 18:11 -garmin says 18:26 for 2.61K)

I knew I had hit lap too soon for the run so that explain the extra garmin time, guess what, I was excited to start running! Soon realised my legs felt like lead... oops Plus, I had loosend my shoelace A LOT so that it would be easy to put them on in transition but they were too lose... so yeah no time to stop and undo the crazy knot I did LOL

Heard my Mom cheering me a lot at that point and that really helped cause I felt I was going SO slow. First mile poped up at 11:22 and I was happy it was under 12 min/mile, I felt I was going much slower tough! As soon as I saw the finish line I speed up and heard my family cheering =) Total time 1:01:21!

It was a great experience and I'm very happy I went through with it. I liked it a lot, I do find it is a very expensive sport and that might prevent me from doing a lot of it... oh well, I'll have a job someday =)

Thanks for reading up to the end!!!

I FINISHED! I'M A TRIATHLETE =)

Swim/Bike/Run got done! 1:01:21 and very happy of my day! More to come later, after a nap and this nagging headache is gone!! Thanks for all the support guys!

GRANNY HAS WEIGHT ISSUES....

She does NOT fit in the car!!! AT ALL!!! I was near a major breakdown when my uncle who has big huge truck came to the rescue (thanks Fernand!!) MAJOR PHEW! I will be on the starting line tomorrow! =)

BORING DETAILS + STRESS...

3 days till my first triathlon and I'm getting pretty nervous about little stupid stuff:

-Do I wear my bra under my bathing suit?
-Do I swim without a bathing suit and with shorts and a top?
-How to I prepare my transition area?
-Do I bring a bottle on the bike ride
-Should I bother with the garmin?

For now, that's pretty much it, I have a friend who answered all the others (more stupid) stuff!!

Training so far this week:
Monday: 10K bike /1.6K run
Tuesday: 2K bike / 1750m swim

I asked the lifeguard if my technique was ok and she said it was good (I never took classes). I just need to adjust my breathing which I will work on next time. So, I'm pretty happy with that =)

I left 'Granny' at the bike store so it will get a much needed maintenance!! And new tires! Woohoo look at me, I'll be Speedy with Granny on Saturday! lol

Oh also, I have an appointment on Monday to the physiotherapist so I can get some laser treatment. My coverage ends on August 31 so I'm trying anything I can before that.... Thanks everyone for the good words on my last post. It's been really hard to not be down about this. I've had to deal with the PF since November last year...

QUEEN OF CROSS TRAINING!

Well at least today ;-) It might have something to do with the 10 days of prohibited running or with an Event that I will soon participate in!! Missy here will be doing her first Try-a-Tri on July 12th! It will be 300m swim -13.2K bike - 2.5K run.

I have no money to invest in this sport at this moment, so a new bike was out of reach but my Mom offered me her 1987 Road bike and that will have to do! I haven't named the bike yet but I'm thinking it'll be something like "Granny" or "Oldy"... any ideas?

Other than that, I went to the pool for the first time since my first year in University (that was a long time ago!) and was able to do 1K of crawl non-stop in 28 mins. I'm pretty happy since I'm really rusty but I'm like a fish in the water so I wasn't worried about the swimming part.

Counting the days till I can run again! (7 if you were wondering)