Life on the Mason Dixon Line » Triathlon

What have you Tri’d lately?

Susan — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:04:47 +0000

The 2010 fall session of Team in Training‘s triathlon season that I coached ended a few weeks ago. We had an amazing group of athlete heroes who raised tens of thousands of dollars to find a cure for blood cancers and support the families of those still fighting. One of the athletes put together a video to recap the race half of them did in DC. It will be the best 5 minutes of your day today! The other half raced in Wilmington. Here is a photo of the dinner where they gave me framed team photos:

Take note how I have coordinated my outfit to match the mat and frame!

Quitters, dropouts and failures, oh my!

Susan — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:05:15 +0000

Yup, we dropped out. I have been feeling worse each day and can hear the raspy breathing in my chest just climbing a flight of stairs. Paul had a good ride w Tamara this weekend, but has not run successfully in over 6 weeks and even then his blister issue came back. I just emailed the race production company to give our spots to someone else.

What about the motto you ask? I guess if I am ditching goals, I should ditch mottos too, huh?

OK, off to wander aimlessly through life now…

NEVER forfeit an entry fee!!!

Susan — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:30:43 +0000

As you know from a previous post, Paul was sick at Belews tri. He then proceeded to have 103 degree temp for 4 days. I thought I had dodged the bullet. Until yesterday morning. I think I was fighting it OK, but then training was intensifying and I think my body is worn down. My throat is sore, head ache, stuffy nose. The pollen continues to coat EVERYTHING here. I know it is not the swine flu b/c I do not have a fever. I fly tomorrow to Cincinnati for Elli’s baby shower. I contemplated bringing a face mask from work, but alas, that would be stealing supplies. And I think the hospitals will seriously be needing all the supplies we can use in the upcoming weeks.

So, here we are and according to the main page on our website, Paul and I race the White Lake Half Iron Triathlon in 8 days. 8 days?!?!? When did THAT happen?!?! I am only worried about my asthma now. I anticipate the race taking about 7 hours, which is hard enough w/out suffering from or recovering from respiratory illness. But alas, I have this motto…

NEVER FORFEIT AN ENTRY FEE!!!

Belews Lake Tri

Paul — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:06:27 +0000

As Susan said yesterday we raced the Belews Lake Tri, and all things considered things went well. As expected the water was freezing but it did feel a little warmer than last week when we went to swim. Other than the cold water we couldn’t have had better weather. It was sunny and in the mid 70′s by the time we finished. Susan and I haven’t done too much training lately so we weren’t sure how we would do. In the end Susan finished 2nd in her group and I finished 3rd in mine. Susan has been having some problems with her cycling shoes lately where her big toe has been going to sleep and she had that problem again today. I am going to move her cleat a little which should fix the problem but she wanted to wait until after the race to make the change (the golden rule is never to change anything before a race). Obviously a numb big toe makes running difficult but she still did well. I on the other hand had a horrible race. All three of my events were much slower than I expected (although I still finished with the fastest bike split in my group). The past few days I haven’t been feeling good, but we have had a ton of pollen out lately so I thought that is what was bothering me. During the race I felt horrible and when we got home from the race we took a nap. That is nothing unusual for Susan but I never take a nap. When we got up I still felt bad so I took my temperature and I was running a fever. For Susan to have a numb toe, me to have a fever and neither of us with much training we are both happy with 2nd and 3rd.

My friends Tamara and Bryan from work also did the race with us and they both did good also. This was Tamara’s first triathlon and she looked strong when she finished, even sprinting it out with a guy that was trying to pass her. This was Bryan’s second triathlon and he looked like he felt much better this time. All and all a good race day!

Belews Tri Eve

Susan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:58:20 +0000

We are working on packing for the race tomorrow. I am having a beer in my winners pint glass from this race last year (yes, I placed in my category). Paul is going to ROCK, he is fit and focused (and not having a beer). I updated the goal thing–check the column to the right. We both are sketchy about the freezing water. Paul is going to save so much time in transition not putting on all his cycling stuff now that we have turned him into a triathlete, he will surely win his category! OK, almost pasta time. Here we gooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, We Can Go Now

Paul — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:39:59 +0000

We have a triathlon at Belews Lake next weekend so we decided to go out there for a open water swim yesterday. We were thinking about not going because the water was going to be so cold but when we got up we had a email from the race saying the water temperature was currently 68. That was the temperature of the water when we did the race last year and it was cold but still manageable so we decided to go. Susan is scared of open water and when we got there we saw some fish jumping right where we swim so she was nervous from the start. When we hopped off the dock the water was FREEZING even with wetsuits on. They were either wrong last year and the water was warmer or they are wrong this year and it was colder because there is no way that was the same temperature. It was so cold it hurt to put my face in the water. With Susan being scared, the shock from the cold water and her asthma I could hear her having trouble breathing so I said we could go back and she quickly agreed. I think that if I ease into the water next week and let my wetsuit warm up I will be better but I am still hoping for a big warm up by the race. I am also hoping it will be warm enough for Susan to be able to breath, otherwise it isn’t going to be a fun race for her.

Hoping For Warm Weather

Paul — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:43:28 +0000

We have our first triathlon of the year coming up on April 18th at Belews Lake. I am getting a little worried about the race being so soon. Not because of the fact that we haven’t trained much (which we haven’t) but because the mean water temperature of the lake right now is 55. I don’t mind cold weather but I am a big wimp when it comes to cold water so I am really hoping for all this rain to stop and that we get some warm weather the next couple weeks! The water was 68 last year when we did the race and that was about as cold as I want to be in even with a wetsuit.