Somebody, Please!

Stop Me! Oh, what have I done? I'll give you a hint...


Need another one?


Oh, crap. Ok...last hint... [click image to see larger]


Yep, you guessed it. I registered for another tri. But this time, oh please help me, this time, I registered for an Olympic Distance. What?! Holy friggin' cow! Oh Lord, I'm scared. Seriously, who the heck do I think I am? Enough with the freakout, here's the details from the website...

Marin County Triathlon: Olympic distance
Swim 1.5k (.93 miles)
Bike 40k (24.8 miles)
Run 10k (6.2 miles)

McNears Beach County Park, San Rafael
Sunday Morning, October 26, 2008
8:00 am Start

Swim
A 1.5 k open water swim around the pier at McNears Beach. At near high tide, this is a challenging plunge in the cold waters of San Pablo Bay. At the start, participants will swim out about 150 yards, keeping the buoys on your left. Then let the current glide you around and past the pier for about a half-mile before heading back towards the shore and along the easy shoreline route to the swim exit.

Bike
After the first transition, this 40 k tour will take you through the rolling hills of China Camp State Park, the beauty of rural Marin County and a passing view of some back roads in San Rafael. This is not your typical Sunday ride with the family. Lots of elevation changes. This route will take you past the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Marin Civic Center, out along the pristine Lucas Valley Road, along the campus of Dominican College, climbing up into some rather higher elevation roads of San Rafael and then back down into the park, completing one unique, and very Marin, 24.8-mile loop.

Run
After the second transition, this 10 k run follows the road north along the bay, before heading back on the Shoreline Trail in China Camp. As you run back, feel the soft trail beneath your legs, pay attention to the San Pablo Bay you have already swam in, the road you had earlier biked on and the many types of trees, plants and wildlife you will encounter along the way. Downhill and fast, ending into the Green Village Expo, this will be one of your most memorable finishes ever.

This event is not an easy walk in the park. Please be experienced and/or take advantage of our professional triathlon-training partners. They will have you ready for race day.

Not a walk in the park indeed. I've been flirting with this triathlon ever since I stumbled upon it the day after my first TRIumphant event. I am going through many of the same feelings I went through after registering for that event, except on a deeper level. Holy shit. Can I do this? Will I finish? Am I nuts? Do I even want to do this? Am I strong enough? They note above, "Please be experienced." If by experienced they mean you've completed one "fun" sprint tri in which they didn't even keep track of your time then I'm good. Something tells me they mean more than that. Oh boy. Will I need a wetsuit?

So after registering I had a little mini-meltdown during which I spent over an hour searching out training programs online. Ok, two hours, but who's counting? What did I come up with? I found a 16 week Olympic - 2x Balanced training program on Beginner Triathlete. The "2x" means each sport is done twice per week. I calculated it out and I will finish this training two weeks before the tri, assuming no glitches. But life always has glitches so I have a two week buffer to play with. The 16 weeks includes the taper too so I feel confident I have enough time to complete it. I feel confident? Ha! Even typing that my little evil self-doubter laughed at me. SHUT UP! I've had enough of you, little evil self-doubter voice. Aaaannnyway...

So in perfect freak out mode I called Miguel and told him in no uncertain terms that I will now be getting serious about training. I told him to expect crappy dinners and little of my time. I told him the time he does get with me will be crappy because I'll be in a bad mood. I told him he better train with me whenever I ask or said crappy mood will be inflicted directly and purposefully upon him. Nah, I didn't say all that. But I did ask for his help.

So on Sunday, before registering for this tri and before fear set in my heart, I rode my bike to the pool. It was about 6 miles and I tried out the Garmin. Here's just some of the awesome info from the trip to the pool. Red is heart rate, Green is elevation and Blue is speed.


The ride was not a piece of cake as I would have expected and I found myself wondering if riding would ever get easier. Anyway I got to the pool and swam for about 30 minutes and then lounged. Swam some more, for about 20 minutes, lounged a bit more. Rode home feeling calm, cool and a little sunburned.

Then Monday morning at work I can't explain what came over me but that's when I registered for the tri. I think I was tired of thinking about it and tired of trying to decide. Little did I know this would give me even more to think about. I should have been able to figure that one out. So I came home from work and showed Miguel the training schedule. Mondays are gym days but I know this training will mean my whole routine is going to change. Day 1 has a 24 minute swim and a 48 minute cycle. My back is actually a bit red still so I can't swim, plus I just went yesterday. So we went on a ride, but a 2 hour one instead of 48 minutes. We did the 22 mile out and back trip down to the Point Reyes-Petaluma road. Here's the Map My Ride route.


And here's the Garmin data. Again, Red is heart rate (which is FAST), Green is elevation and Blue is speed (which is SLOW by the way).


Tuesday (today) is a day off but since he also suggests weight training at least twice a week and since I didn't do it yesterday like I normally would have and since I don't want to lose the muscle I have currently I'm going to go today to do upper body weight training. No cardio other than to warm up my muscles. Actually, I am really looking forward to going to the gym just to do weights. Weight training is my favorite part of gym time so it's like getting to eat chicken-pot-pie without the peas and carrots. Huh?

I'll give you a sneak peek at the rest of the week because this post just isn't long enough. Wed = 40 min swim, Thur = 24 min run (I need to start running outside!), Fri = 80 min bike, Sat = Off (something fun!), Sun = 40 min run (ha! run/walk maybe). I plan to sneak in a few weight training sessions in there too. Maybe I'll do the Thursday runs on the treadmill at the gym and weight train after and do the Sunday runs outside. Yeah, I like that.

Food has been so-so. I've been dealing with hunger a lot lately and it sucks. I don't know if I will lose again this week but I hope I do. You can rest assured I'll post it either way.

Any wise words of wisdom from all you hard core triathletes out there? My adrenaline is revved up again. I'm doing this for fun, I'm doing this because I like it, I'm doing this not to prove anything to anyone or myself but because I enjoy it. I'm doing this for fun. I am. Really. Right?