Saturday in the Woods

I wish I had lots of adventures to tell you about but sadly, I don't. I hurt my other hip during the triathlon and haven't been doing a whole lot of anything. I tried to run on Friday, got about 1/8th of a mile, maybe less and had to stop because of the pain. Lovely.... Thankfully, it feels 100 times better today and I think I can do a couple weeks of exercises and I'll be doing ok. So, I've been enjoying the time slowing down a lot, hanging out with the dogs, doing some yard work... basically, driving Nate crazy! :)

I typically take the dogs to a state park in South Berwick, ME called Vaughn Woods. It is all of 5 minutes from my house in a car. It is definitely on my list of the top 10 reasons I love living in Rollinsford, NH. It's quiet, it's wooded, it's empty, and it's beautiful. I took the dogs there on Saturday morning because it was the third day of raining and my dogs don't understand that rain causes one to get wet and that most humans don't like to be wet so they'd rather not spend 2 hours outside in the rain. And I have two of those really hyper kind of dogs and since I haven't been exercising a lot for 2 weeks, either have they. I decided that Vaughn Woods would be the best place because there is enough tree cover that even it was downpouring, I wasn't going to be sopping wet. Plus the dogs can run free and Scout can cover about 800 miles in the hour that it takes to do the loop. And if you think that I'm exaggerating about Scout, I dare you to go to the woods with us some time. He just runs and runs and runs and keeps on running and the only speed he has is fast. He's the endurance athlete of the two wonder pups.

The woods were looking really pretty on Saturday. The leaves are beginning to change and maybe because of the rain and fog, the colors just seemed to stand out a lot. Here are some pics of the trails from my iPhone.

Once you get through, the main part of the trail, it opens up to the river. I'm not sure if it's the Salmon Falls or the Piscatiqua (sp??) at this point, but it's always been one of my favorite parts about Vaughn Woods. I think the first time I walked the trails, I actually sat on the bench and enjoyed the river. It's just super peaceful.

It was a particular warm morning and I had no place to go (the house was asleep and sometimes I'm not sure if I'm allowed back in until at least 9...), and the dogs kept jumping in the river, so I threw a few sticks for them and they enjoyed their swimming time:

Oakley isn't quite sure whether or not she likes to swim. She lets scout do the work and then once he gets close enough, she swims out and steals the stick from him. She's a bit of a brat! :) I don't claim ownership of that characteristic... 

One of my old co-workers thinks Scout looks like a devil-dog because of his crazy eyes, so I really wanted to get a picture of him looking dopey out of the water. I don't think he looks like his normal devil-dog self, but he doesn't look that dopey either. 

Oakley decided to swim out for a stick too. I think she still let Scout get the stick though... 

Finally, a pic of the dope!! :) Steve-O, is he cute now? 

It's a rough life here in New Hampshire... I'm glad that I get to live it... :) 

Check "Finish a Tri" off the bucket list

On Saturday, I competed in my first triathlon race... EVER!! It was pretty... uh... interesting! :) It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that easy either! It was a spint triathlon so the swim was a 1/4+ mile, 15 mile bike and a 5k.

I was in the last wave to start my swim so I had a lot of time to ease my nerves and get ready for it. I knew that I wanted to be near the front of my group and I would've preferred to be on the sides. I was able to get to the front of the group, but I didn't get to a side. I was pretty much front and center. It ended up being ok. At the beginning, I could feel someone bumping into me, but I quickly started kicking and I pulled ahead. I felt really good in the swim so I just kept going. I might have paced myself a little too fast, but I don't think it mattered too much. The funniest part that happened was as I rounded the first buoy, I swam up to someone that was doing elementary backstroke. I looked up and was like, "what in the world?" The backstroker quickly turned over as I paddled past. While I was swimming through people I was really thankful for age group swimming warm-ups because that is definitely what it was like. I was weaving all around people and just kept on going.

After the swim, we had to run up the hill that Nate and I sled on during the winter. In the winter, with the boots and the sleds and the feet of snow, it is one terrible hill to climb up!!! I just hunkered up it and ended up being the third fastest non-elite female to run up it. You can see my smiling face and arm on the left of the picture below:

After the run up the hill, I put all my gear on and grabbed my bike and headed out for the ride. I put on my heartrate monitor and turned on my watch. When I got on my bike, the first thing I looked at was my heartrate which was at 150 and I was like, 'holy cow'. I didn't expect that my heartrate was that high, but I think it was more of the adrenaline then anything. I didn't feel like I was working that hard but I just tried to keep telling myself to relax and breathe. At the beginning of the ride, I was able to plow down a luna bar. I ended up juggling the last few bites and lost them! It was sad, but I was ok with it. Normally, when I ride, I don't drink any water because I forget about it, so I had to keep reminding myself to drink water throughout the ride. I tried to empty my brain and just enjoy the ride. Some of my observations was that I was getting killed on the downhill. I was constantly peddling and wasn't resting on the downhills so I'm not sure what I need to do to fix that, but I'll be working on that. I did notice that I was rocking some of the uphills. I was playing leapfrog with a few women throughout most of the ride where they would catch and pass me on the downhill and then I would work back and catch them and pass them on the uphills. Finally on the last two uphills, I got far enough ahead that I didn't see them again. Overall, my average was 17.9 and considering last year, I could barely average 16, I was super psyched with my performance.

After the bike came my least favorite part. Nate said that I seemed to transition really quickly and I did notice that I was able to get out of the transition area a lot quicker than a lot of girls that came in with me. The run started with a downhill section. I didn't wear my watch for the run, so I had no idea how fast or slow I was going or what my heartrate was. That was probably a good thing. I was passing people right and left and I felt pretty good so I just kept running. After about a mile or so, I noticed that my breathing was extremely labored. I felt like I was either going to hyperventilate or have an asthma attack or both... Whatever happened, I knew I didn't want to slow down. But then I got an insane cramp in my side. So, let's reflect what my training has been like for running. In the beginning of July, I was cleared to start running, but just a mile. I was told that I needed to slowly work up from a mile to 1.5 within a few weeks. By the end of July, I did an Aquathon and ran 1.5 mile twice and that was the first time I ran more than 1.5 mile in a day. After that day, I decided that running more than 2 miles was ok. So for August, I started running more than 2 miles and I think before this triathalon, I only ran 3 miles once and I had only run under 8 minute mile pace once and they weren't at the same time. I knew that the running portion was going to hurt but this was hurting bad. I tried to keep my mental edge up, but I wasn't doing so well with that either. Troughout the whole run, I didn't get passed by anyone so I was doing swell. Then some man yelled out, "you have less than a mile left" and I was like, "SWEET!!". Then, out of nowhere, I hear, "is that Jenny?" It was a very familiar voice. It was Annie and she was in my age group and one really fast runner. She said her hellos and then just kept on going. My cramp was in full force. It sucked, but I just kept on running.

This is me at the beginning of the run. Yes, I'm still wearing my riding jersey. Yes, I was sweating like mad. Yes, I have learned for next year, no riding jersey!! :)

The most annoying part of the whole race was at the end. You run up to the transition area, then run around it, then turn a corner and then run down a grassy hill. I had no idea about the turn and keep running so as I turned the corner, I saw my friends and I was like, 'sweet! this is over'... and some lady was like, 'you are almost done. keep going'... keep going???? and yup.. keep going, it was down the hill... so I did it!! :) My running average ended up being 7:45 min/mile which after the little running training I was able to do, I was super duper psyched!!!

This is me entering the transition area near the end of the run... when I felt near death... :) So, I'm a little dramatic!! :)

This is little ole me crossing the finish line. My boobs aren't leaking. I was wearing my swim suit underneath and it looks very inappropriate!! :)

Hip Hip Hooray for a third place finish!!! That is Annie, the uber fast runner, in second. The girl that got first flew by me in the bike. I looked it up and she averaged 19+. Definitely something to work for for next year!

And the little video of me crossing the finish line!!

Final results:

Swim 6:55 (1:10 pace) - 1st in my age group

Bike 46:52 (17.9mph) - 9th in my age group

Run 23:12 (7:44min/mil) - 2nd in my age group

Total  1:21.44 - 3rd in my age group

Before the shout outs, lessons learned...

1) They give awards for the fastest female age group swimmer... Yup, I might train a little harder for next year since my 1:10 pace didn't cut it.... all I can do is giggle about this... :)

2) I need to figure out how to go faster on the bike. That might involve training a bit more over the winter, riding a few more times during the week, getting better at hills, getting stronger, etc. etc.

3) Don't get injured for running...

And now time for the shout outs...

1) Definitely to the Nate-man, who as I have said many-a-times, should be sainted for putting up with me!! I am not the best at being anxious and I'm really not the best at keeping my mouth in check while I'm anxious. He has been super duper patient with me over the last... oh... 11 months since I decided to sign up for this race. He was super supportive and definitely helped me train in the bike and kept me sane during my injury. xoxoxo

2) Jen, at Access Sports Med, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!! I was able to run pain-free because of Jen and I sincerely appreciate her patience!! I guarentee that I am not the best patient out there and I was so frustrated by the time I started seeing Jen about my hip. I was resting my hip but the pain was not going away. She got the pain to go away and I was able to train for a month to run! So thank you!!!!

3) I can't believe I'm thanking this person, but thank you Bian McCracken for giving me a reason to sign up for a triathlon!! I didn't beat you this year, but I wasn't that far behind!! I'm going to try and stay injury free for the next 12 months so you better watch it!! I'm gunning for you... AGAIN!!!! But a sincere thank you for showing me the course and riding and swimming with me. Also if I saw you or Nate on the hills during the ride, I was going to thank you for making me do all those hill rides!!! :)

4) Thank you to Cassie and Anna for coming to watch the race. Thank you to Cassie for trying to keep me calm before the race!!

5) A big thank you to all the ladies during our mountain bike nights, especially Judy and Brianna for teaching me how to get up those stupid hills!! I still need to work on my biking so I'll definitely be out this fall and then again next spring. I'll leave the winter riding to the experts!! :)

And for the last photo of the day... Annie, the ghost runner!! Gotta love the HD iPhone pics!

I'm looking for suggestions on what my goal should be for next year... either a new accomplishment (last year was the century ride, this year a sprint triathlon) or a time to do in the sprint. Besides beating Brian McCracken in a spring tri, I was thinking either trying to break 20 minutes in a 5k (which might help me beat Brian McCracken) or maybe doing Extraterrestrial Full Moon Midnight Marathon. Throw out some suggestions... Nate's worried that I might get a bit ancy without a goal for next year..... :)