Saturday, April 12, 2008

sprint triathlons are fun


I'm doing my first triathlon of the season tomorrow: the Texas State Sprint Tri at Aquarena - 500m swim, 14mi bike, 3mi run. Sprint triathlons are fun because they are like mini versions of the longer ones. Getting done in around 1:15, they are shorter than most of my typical weekday workouts. You go through all the motions so they are good to use as dress rehearsals for longer races. I want to get all the glitches worked out before CapTexTri in May so that that more important race is not my first. I got all my stuff organized yesterday so I can relax a little today and not have to worry about that. Above is a photo of everything. I am so excited to be racing on a Felt B2 that I am borrowing from the bike shop. It is lightening fast and a joy to ride. I wrote up my race plan so I know what I'm doing for the race and I think I'm ready to nail it.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

gearing up for boston

I'm gearing up to run the Boston Marathon in two weeks. I qualified last year and delayed one year but I am really going to do it this time. Since I am recovering from a hip/IT band/knee issue, it may be more of a run/walk than a run, but I am going to go the distance no matter how long it takes. Mostly I am going for the experience of it, plus I will get to watch the women's Olympic marathon trials while I am there. I figure that I put in the hard work to qualify, so it's ok if I just go out and enjoy myself at Boston.

It's weird how I set huge goals for myself and then when I reach them it is hard to believe that I actually did. Life keeps going and it's so easy to immediately start thinking about the next goal without really enjoying my successes. Delaying Boston a whole year has given me time to let that one sink in... like, oh maybe I am a pretty decent runner. If I did Boston fast, there would be less time to enjoy being part of it. So I'd say that's the biggest positive thing about being injured: more time out on the course getting loved by spectators :)