Training's in Full Swing Again

Today I had to make a big decision. Do I take a chance and 'recommit' to doing this triathlon and to raising $5000 before March 27th? Or do I bail out?

Having raised less then $500 in the past two months it's been a little daunting to think about $4500 more, and the training... well it's time consuming. It takes a lot away from my family. So what to do?



After thinking about it, praying about it and talking it over with my family I decided to step out on faith. I signed and faxed the re commitment paperwork today. I'm in...

And I swam 1.1 miles tonight ;)

If you want to help me reach my goal, as well as help fine a cure for blood cancers - please make a donation at: pages.teamintraining.org/sf/lavatri09/smuellerboddy

or just cheer me on at:

www.shawntris.com

(P.S.) I've gotten your tags guys - I'm working on following through on them! :)

Back in the Saddle

as they say.  Or in my case, back in the water.  Had a good LONG swim tonight it was also good-n-long.  Felt GREAT.  My times were pretty good for a 1850 Yard swim.  Time:  43:36  I've still got a LONG way to go before I feel I'm 'ready' for the 'big swim' but I know I could do it.  I know I'm only going to get better and faster over time.  One thing I noticed is that stroke count goes way up when I try to speed up.  That must mean that my strokes are less efficient- So I'm going to have to focus on keeping good form even while going faster.  All in time.  My best lap (50 Yards) was 1:09 -- I'm going to start tracking that and see how that improves.

It's my Birthday!

That's right - the big day has arrived - I am now offically 40.

As you know, I had two major goals with my birthday. One was to fianlly completel triathlon, and the other was to do something outside myself. Give something of myself to others. I found a way to do both. In March I will be doing the Lavaman triathlon in Hawaii - for myself and to raise money for the Lukemia Lymphomia Society.

And because of this I would like to ask you all for a very special birthday present. I would like to raise $2000 before the end of January. And you can help. You see, this email is going out to almost 200 friends and family. If each person donates just $10 (That's one day's lunch here in San Francisco) we could easily get to that $2000 mark. That's not to say that you need to donate $10 - any amount would be greatly appreciated.

Those who have already donated so generously - Thank you!

I Hope everyone has a Happy New Year

Shawn

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Well if you haven't heard it someplace else already

Now you know - today's my birthday

That's right I'm 40!

I'll take all my donation birthday presents now - thank you! :)

Oh yeah - todays stats

I'm still very frustrated when I go to group workouts at how seriously below average I am.  OK - not just below average I'm the slowest person on the team :(  I try remind myself that it's not a competition etc etc. but still falling so far behind gets a little old after a while.

My new bike did help - I was able to keep the other bikers in view - sorta.  The coaches were amazing today though.  Very helpful and encouraging

Anyway - the workout...

First Bike loop:  3 Miles, 14:33 min
First Run loop:  .72 Miles, 10:22 min
Second Bike loop:  3:5 Miles, 18:39 min (I was really hurting here (from the seat) and ended up coasting much of the end of this ride
Second Run loop:  .75 Miles, 11:45 min

I was supposed to do another Bike and another Run but I was hurting so much from the bike seat that I just couldn't bring myself to get back on.  When I talked to the coaches about what was going on they took a look at my bike and determined that the seat was tilted too far up.  They adjusted and asked if I would do the bike loop one more time.  I did, and what a difference!  yay!  I didn't time that last lap though :(

Total:  3.5 miles

so the totals:  10 miles biking and 1.5 miles running.  Not too bad a job for a first time brick - I was pretty surprised that I made it as far as I did.


.

O... M... G...

I have no legs anymore - I refuse to acknowledge them as a part of my body.  They have been disowned.

I now know the pain and suffering that is a BRICK workout.  And coach decided to teach us and teach us good.  Because we got to do 'sets' of BRICKS.  What do I mean?

Bike, then Run, then Bike, then Run, lather rinse repeat...

One good thing about it is it gives me an idea what the Escape from the Rock Tri is going to be like.  It's a weird one that makes you Swim, Run, Bike, Run.  I know what my training days are going to look like for that one.  gah!

The Garmen did it's thing perfectly and it was fantastic to not have to worry about remembering where I turned around each time etc.  It even paused itself while I was in 'transition' between bike and run.  Sweet!

Now I'm going to go die :)

Fitness Gadget Geek

I have to say, hubby did excellent with Christmas this year.  

As I mentioned earlier, I got an 'early' present of a nike+ and that was nice in and of itself.  I also got a brand new bright purple nano to go with it.  AND a Garman Forerunner 405!!!

The past two days I've given both of them a workout.. and I'm in Geek Girl heaven!

the nike+ is excellent for what I want it for.  As I'm listening to my ipod a nice ladies voice comes on and tells me how long I've been going and/or how long I've got left.  No more checking the watch every 2 minutes to see 'is it over yet?'.  It can also do other things like tell me my pace, track my miles and the like, but I've not used them yet, and I might not ever... because of my 'other' new toy.  The Garman.

The only fault I have with the Forerunner right now is that it's a bit bulky for my small wrists and frankly I've found the bezel interface very 'non-intuitive'.  But a little time 'fiddling' and I got it worked out.  But, oh the things I can do with this wonderful device.   I mean I expected that it could tell me how long and how far I had ran.  and it does that really well.  It finds satellites really quickly and doesn't seem to have any trouble staying fixed on them.  But that's not the best part, or the part that has me almost giddy with excitement.  It's the programmed 'workout' feature that I'm now in love with.  

As I've been working to get my fitness levels up, I've been doing a lot of interval work.  As you might guess that means a lot of 'watch checking' time.  I dislike watch checking.  Well I don't have to do that anymore.  In the Garman software I was able to program my workout like this. 

5 minutes @ a walk (warm up)

Repeat the following 3 times

3 minutes Slow Jog

2 minutes Fast Walk

5 minutes @ slow walk (cool down)

I then put the workout on the calendar for today and that was it.

Then, when I went out to run I simply selected 'today's workout' and everything was all set up for me.  

I just followed the prompts, and the 'beeps' When it came time to change my pace the watch would count down for five seconds with beeps and then flash what my pace should be on the face.  

When I came home it got even better!  When I uploaded my workout I found out the garmen and tracked the workout as a whole, but also tracked each 'interval' I had programed in separately (as laps).  That meant I could see my overall pace, but could also tell what my pace had been during just my 'run' intervals, or just my 'walk' intervals.  I could also tell what my workout/time and distance was excluding my warmup and cool down.  

Other features that I haven't tried yet but that look excellent are the auto lap feature and the auto pause.  Track night with the team I will be giving both of these a try.  the Auto Lap feature I've set to create a lap when I pass the same point again.  and the Auto Pause I've set to turn on when I stop moving.  That means when we do or normal workout of one lap running and then a set of strength exercises - I'm hoping that the watch will take care of itself without me having to do a bunch of button pushing.  We'll see.

Oh yeah!  I also took my bike out for the first time on the streets.  up 'til now it's been so cold and/or dark that I've been using it on the spinner instead.  but yesterday I got it out on the roads.  I am still so in love with this thing.  It's wonderful to ride - practically effortless.

Tomorrow is my first ever Brick workout.  It's going to be interesting to say the least.