Less is More

Have you ever wondered if you’re the person reading Runner’s World or Triathlete Magazine or The Internet who is missing ALL the important details, and picking up only the wisdom that doesn’t apply to you at all?

I don’t wonder any more.

I know.

“It says here that Almonds are a health food.”

“I don’t think they mean for you to eat a pound of almonds a week.”

And

“I don’t worry about over training because I don’t work out that much.”

“How much do you work out?”

“5-6 days a week at 50- 60 minutes a day on the week days and 2-3 hours on the weekend days.”

“That is a lot.... Who works out more than you? I mean, what are you basing this on?”

“My friends are all IronmenWomen & Marathoners... so....”

“Omg, you are so weird."

And

“Well, I thought if I dropped some weight I might be less injury prone,” I said to a medical professional who happens to be a Triathlete of epic proportion.

“Uh, WHAT? Where did you get that idea?”

“um... Runners World?”

“That applies to people who are obese and take up running. So... no. You ...” exasperated sigh, “YOU need to eat better to be less injury prone.”

And so, as though a light bulb went on at the exact right moment, I realized recently that I have a history of working out a lot more than I need to be even when I’m not training. Not going to say, “too much”, because there’s definitely a threshold for every athlete that is higher for some and lower for others. Constantly pushing myself at that level wasn't helping me build a base, it was breaking me down so that I was coming into my "actual training" with muscle tears and injury.

Lately, because of my summer schedule and vacationing, I have missed a few workouts.

A lot of workouts. 

I’ve been hiking, playing with kids, painting bedrooms, building sand castles, sleeping in, reading a novel... or five.

And let me tell you, my body LOVES having an extra day off every week. Fo’ Shizzle. In some respects, I look better and feel better than I ever did when I was working out 6 or 7 days a week in the name of fitness. That’s not to say I’m as strong as I was... no way. I’m not buff and rippling and able to scale a 40 foot rock wall.

I’m just lighter. And less stressed. Maybe those two things are the same thing.

I love having that pressure to "Get It Done" removed.

And so does my body.

Of course, yeah... I’m jonesing for a 26.2 fix even as I type this...  but until I’m ready to commit to the training, and accept the stress and responsibility that comes with it, I need to just keep my eye on the long-term picture. 

And right now, that means an extra day or two of rest every week.

'Cos sometimes less is more.

Lame Lane Swimming

Last night I broke down and went to Master’s Swim.

"Forgive me Coach... It has been 24 years since my last group swim practice..."

Though I've been toying with the idea for a long time, I never have had the guts to go. I just always assumed I didn't belong there. Masters Swim is for epic swimmers like my Qualifying Aunt, or Ranked Mother. or my friend Alex who breaks NC Records, right?

I'm not that. 

I always feel like a poser at the pool.

I'm a good swimmer, but I don't have it. 

There is no magic when I slide into the pool, pinned between lane lines, sloshing through my strokes as the other swimmers glide effortlessly through the water.

To say this adventure was outside of my comfort zone would be a severe understatement.

Besides, swimming is a solitary sport. Why bother going to a class where you are likely going to be exposed as a not awesome swimmer poser?

Um. Because...

Holy Freaking Fun, Batman!

Yes. It was Fun. And freakisly hard.

Y Coach - "Ok, swim 300m warm up, then 4 X 100 swim/FTD/swim/Kick, 400 descending, 4x 50 descending, then 10 X 100 descending with 4 @ 2:05, 3 @ 2:00, 2 @ 1:55, and 1 @ 1:50...  Go."

Me - empty stare.

Y Coach - "Go ahead."

Me - "Can you repeat that, in english please? This is only my first day."

Y Coach - "What!?" He shook his head in disbelief.

I nodded and said, "First day. For real. Please explain." 

Y Coach - "You don't swim like it's your first day.... " But he did explain what it all meant.

I wasn't terrible.

But I wasn’t awesome, even in my Awesome-girl swim wear. 

Halfway through Masters Swim I was sucking wind (or water, but air is better, FYI. I would know, I've checked both). At a lot of points I struggled, trying to keep up with the people in my lane. They have a lot of endurance. I have a little speed on them, with no endurance what so ever. It's not an ideal combination.

It’s an interesting feeling, swimming in a circle pattern with a group. I always feel hunted in the water until I start to see my lane mates ahead of me. Then, I become the hunter.

.

And Y Coach said to me at the end of the night, in a where in the heckfireandshoot did you come from kind of way, "So... You've been swimming alone? All this time?"

"Yes."

He smiled, and I recognized a kindred spirit. "If you come back, you will get faster... So.... see you next week."

It was not a question.

And he might just see me next week.

After all... if we know one thing about me, it's that I am addicted to speed.

Ground Force IT Power Sprint Tri 2013

"No worries, the first rule of Triathlon is to NOT DROWN. I've so got this."  ~ spoken with far more confidence than I felt about 8 minutes before I jumped into the Shady Grove YMCA pool.

me, IronBill, DeNiece

On a starless Sunday morning in May, I got up well before any sane person in the world, and went with varying levels of dread and excitement to meet my TriWife DeNiece so we could head to our first TRI of the season. Lot's of folks we know raced Ground Force IT Power Sprint, including Potter, King, and Catalyst J. Everyone had an amazing day in one way or another.

I'm the fool who seeded myself on my best 300m time of the season. I admit, a week before the race, I was pretty nervous about my swim seed position. I mean, if everything went PERFECTLY I would be fine and could make the 5:29 goal. <~ when does everything go perfectly on race day?
right.

Still, an hour after sunrise I found myself standing in gooey mud waiting to swim with only 86 people swimming ahead of me. I chatted with the guy behind me and wondered whether he would catch me. Always my fear in the pool. So my strategy on this length TRI swim is to go all out for the first 100M, settle in for the 2nd 100M, and don't drown in the 3rd 100M.

I lined up in the doorway with T-15 seconds till start and listened to the hollow sound of churning water. The volunteers rinsed the mud off my feet, and "GO". I jumped into the dark chop, pushed off, and went for it.

At about 200M I caught and passed the swimmer ahead of me.

By 250M I wondered if life wouldn't just be easier if I sucked in a lungful of water and died rather than maintain the brutal pace.

The swimmer behind me never caught me (or the guy I passed).

I flopped my nearly dead body onto the cement deck, gasping for oxygen and staggered to my feet... oh... freaking yea. I'm running to transition now. At that point I had NO clue how fast the swim was... you lose time when you catch the swimmer ahead of you, because you have to pass them at the wall and there's a loss in "fluidity". And I never timed myself jumping in and swimming and then climbing out of the pool with dead limbs. But still, it didn't feel like the swim of my life. bah. WTFC? I was glad it was over.

05:53 Swim Split very slow compared to every pre-race time trial.

Transition felt fast. Didn't look at my watch - that woulda taken time. Shoes, helmet, bike, go. I decided to take a lesson from my son & race without socks.

Swim to Bike 02:09

Also, I was still muddled when I went to mount, but I got on and got moving. The bike was great. I freaking love my new bike. Did I mention that? 

"Keep pedaling, Beautiful!" I heard as Catalyst J passed me going about 9087 mph on his yellow bike.

Catalyst J - 1st in A.G! So proud of you friend!

I passed a few people, got passed by a few people, passed a few more. It wasn't the sufferfest from my last TRI ride. It was great. Did I mention...? 

I paralleled the run course, and there was Catalyst J again! He looked strong and fast!
"GO Catalyst J!"
"GO Beautiful!"

38:11 Bike Split holy freaking bike ride batman! It's a 4 minute bike PR on this course! 19.2mph!!!

Before I knew it, I was back in transition pulling on my shoes, visor and race belt so I could go for a run.

Bike to Run 01:25

As I ran out, I heard my name, looked up, and there was The Good Dr taking my photo. Right in front of him were my 3 awesome cheerleader kids. It was sweet.

Remember when running was my favorite sport?

It's so not my favorite sport any more.
That was wicked hard. My achilles started to whine about 1 mile into the run. Every step felt in slow motion. I watched the time click away on my watch. I knew it would be like this, because I haven't been running in weeks... but still...

Thankfully it was a 5k, so despite my pace, the finish came quickly.

27:43 Run Split so incase you wondered, that was 1:43 slower than I'd hoped to pull off.

And the MC felt like interviewing me for some reason as I was having my chip removed. It went like this:

"VIRGINIA FLYNNnnnnnn, FROM HENRICOoooooooh, JUST FINISHED. VIRGINIAaaaaaa, HOW WAS THAT RACE FOR YOU TODAY?"
~gasp~ "it was" ~gasp~ "a great day" ~gasp~ "out there" ~gasp~ "today".

The Good Dr & T were at the finish to greet me. And I got a few sweaty hugs before covering my injured achilles with ice. I watched DeNiece finish and walked up to her to wipe black... mascara? off her face...?

And she laughed and showed me her hands. "I threw my chain. This is bike grease!"

Anyway, with Catalyst J's EPIC results (first place AG finish!!!), hot showers inside the Y, bike grease, Bouncy Houses, Potter (AG place as well), and all kinds of food stuff flying around, I never really even looked at my time or rank or anything.

I couldn't be bothered. For some reason, I wasn't pleased with my race. I think it was because I was shooting for an A, and I got a B.

And then I remembered something right as I fell into bed for a mid morning nap:  Oh yeah. On March 17 I was standing at a post race "party" coughing so hard I pulled a muscle. I couldn't take a full breath. I was using an inhaler 4X a day and sleeping 18 out of every 24 hours ... It's only May 19. I maybe need to cut my sorry self a little slack on this, and be happy with my race today.

So I realized that a lot of variables went into the race... but the ones that matter are that I have an amazing support crew. I am lucky. I am able to get off the couch and race.


I finished:

8 of 27 A.G.

35 of 143 Female

140 of 325 Overall

01:15:21

That happens to be a PR for me.

Also, as a side note, Richmond Multisports put on a great race this year. It was the smoothest I ever recall and the Rev3 timing was great. Thanks RMS.

A Galactically Bada** PowerKids Tri Re-Cap

This is not my recap to re-cap. Thus I'll turn it over to quotes from my son all day...

"I'm a little nervous" - 0645 on what turned out to be a very rainy chilly Saturday morning.

"Oh. Sweet." - 0705 Walking to transition, showed him how to walk his bike by holding the saddle with one hand.

"I've got this"- 0715 setting up in transition, in response to, me shouting at him to put your cycling shoes in front of your running shoes!

"What?" - 0730 upon being told we needed to go pick up his chip.

"What's the chip for Mom?" - about 2 seconds later.

"I want to wear my swim cap now" - 0745 (<~ his race started at 9a.m. and he was in a late wave)

"Wait, how long?" - in response to my indicating that it would be a long.long.wait.

"I am not going to do the swim cap" - 0900

"Let's get in line." - finally, 0930, we wandered over to where the kids with his numbers were huddled for warmth.

"What if I win?" - right before he left me to get in the pool... to which I said, well G, the point of this is to have fun. Just do your best and see what happens.

1009 G hit the water with a splash, and I gasped when I realized, hey, my boy is swimming in a triathlon, and... he's kicking it!

omg! G's out of the pool 2 minutes ahead of what we thought! um... WOW! (he was the 3rd kid finished in his swim wave, and he passed the other boys on the run into transition!)

Catalyst J, Did you see that transition? (a blistering fast transition put Gregory on the bike faster than any of the boys in his swim wave and most of the kids in the wave ahead of his)

"Seriously, he clipped in faster than I do" <~ a quote from Catalyst J, who came out to spectate G's first race.

PICK IT UP G!!!! ATTACK THE HILL! MOVE THAT BIKE! <~ probably not my best parenting moment ever, but what ever, stop pretending like you wouldn't have been yelling that to your child if he'd been racing....

Holy what? He's done on the bike already??? Catalyst J & I ran for the transition, but by the time we got there, OC (G's bike) was racked and he was gone.

He really brought it on the run..

And then, before I knew it, we were watching him finish.

I didn't even think to look at the clock. And neither did he.

He proudly showed me his 3 Bike Hash marks from the bike course, and the Red Run mark from the run course. (Sharpee markers & volunteers kept 300 kids on course today)

"My entire body hurts" - a few minutes after the finish. to which I said, well that means you did it right.

"That was fun. I can't wait till the next one!"

 "A little kid crashed into me coming into transition off the bike". He had an outside chain tat, which he says might have been from the other kid's bike. "I just didn't stop. I got up and got moving."

Love.this.kid.

M

Henrico

VA

Male 11-12

11 of 43

18 of 97

31 of 187

5/18/2013 10:42:40 AM

00:33:40.173