Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Race Report- The Race That Wasn't - Fall Creek Falls

   So I was supposed to race Tri Fall Creek Falls last Sunday.  It's an Olympic distance race in one of Tennessee's beautiful state parks - Fall Creek Falls.  This was supposed to be my last warm-up race prior to the Augusta Half-Ironman.  But unfortunately, it got rained out.  And when I mean rained out, I mean crazy lightening, no visibility, scared to even drive kind of weather.   So the race directors made the right call by canceling.
  Of course, we didn't know the race was going to be rained out when we woke up that day.  It was actually a perfect day for racing about a 1/2 hour prior to the start time.  A little cool and overcast.  In fact, it wasn't even raining when the race was supposed to start.  I had JUST gotten in the water to warm up when they called us all out because of lightening.  When lightening is sighted, the race directors have to postpone the race for at least a half-hour.  It was obvious that the storm was getting closer and closer so Dudley and I went back up the hill to the car to wait it out.  Since the lightening was going to postpone the race for a while, the race director thought about changing the race from a triathlon to a duathlon; substituting the swim with a two-mile run.  Though I would have raced it, I wasn't really interested in that because the main reason I wanted to do the race was for the swim.
   But then all hell broke loose.  Seriously.  CRAZY CRAZY rain.  I had already gotten my bike and gear out of the transition area because I didn't want to be hanging around a bunch of metal racks in the middle of a field during a lightening storm.  Once the storm really hit, I decided to turn in my timing chip because even if they did decide to hold a duathlon, I thought the course would be too dangerous / slick to race.  Call me wimpy but I don't want to get hurt doing something stupid a month out from Augusta.  Turns out, I wasn't the only one who thought it was too dangerous to race.  The Park Service did too and they cancelled the race.
   So - this is the race report of the race that wasn't.  It would have been nice to race, but there wasn't any way we could have with that weather.  Of course, it was perfect about an hour or so later.  Oh well.  What can you do?  Next up - Augusta!!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

A Good Week

  I have to do a little bragging this week as it's been a good one.  First off - I have to give some love to the East Nasty Potato to Tomato 5k participants who raced the Tomato 5k this past weekend.  We had a HUGE group of participants in the program this time and they did GREAT.  It was a hard, hilly course but they did it.  I'm so proud I was a part of helping them achieve their goal!

East Nasty For Life!!  

   I actually didn't run the race.  I was planning on it, but two things kind of took precedence.  One - I sang the National Anthem immediately prior to the race and I was still a little too shaky from nerves to run and Two - I wanted to take photos of all of the East Nasties as they crossed the line.  (Check out the East Nasty Facebook page if you want to see them.)

Singing the National Anthem

   But another reason why its been a good week is that I'm seeing progress with my training.  For the first time ever, I ran three consecutive sub 9-minute miles during mile repeats last Tuesday.  YAY ME!  I'm not a crazy fast runner so these times are excellent for me.   I also, for the first time, swam 3,000 meters.  Let me repeat that.  3,000 METERS!  Do you know how far that is?  Yes, I know - 3,000 meters, but it's 200 meters short of two miles!  That just blows my mind.  I doubt I'll ever swim that far in a race (as I have no plans on doing a full Ironman), but swimming that distance was a great mental boost.  Granted, I have no idea how this will translate to my tris.  Probably not too much for the races this season, but if I keep it up, I bet I'll see a huge difference in times next season.
   Next up - the Fall Creek Falls Olympic tri this Sunday.  Not expecting too much as I'm still continuing my HIM training rather than tapering for the week so I'll be tired on race day.  But if I do better than I did in Chattanooga - I'll be happy.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

I Must Be Crazy

   So I've had a couple of interesting workouts recently.  Some of the questioning my sanity, "what the hell am I doing out here" type of workouts.  Now that the race is a mere 50 days away, the workouts are getting longer and harder.  And they're kicking my butt.
   Over the past few weeks I've been getting up before 5:00am on Saturdays so I can be riding by 6:00am.  I've gotten stuck in a horrible rainstorm 20 miles away from my car.  I've run in 98 degree weather with 110 degree heat index.  I've gotten on my indoor trainer at 10:00pm because that was the only time I could ride that day.  And today I started my 8-mile run KNOWING I was running into a rainstorm, possibly a really bad one.
   But I've done them all.  Some of the workouts haven't been pretty.  Some of them have been slow (OK - most have been slow).  But at the end of the day, I can look at my workout log and check off the workouts as "Done" and there's something to be said for that.  Of course, I'm not sure what that is yet...  Hopefully, I'll figure it out by the time I hit the finish line in Augusta.