Obnoxiously Long Race Report: Lake Las Vegas

This turned out to be a wonderful race and a wonderful day. I'm a sucker for pictures so I've included a few :-)
The whole family(me, Form, my sister, my niece, 2 dogs and 2 cats) were up at the crack of dawn (5am) Saturday in hopes of getting us out of the house by 5:40ish, and I think we made it. The cool thing is Lake Las Vegas is literally right down the road from us.

(One of our cute and awesome cheerleaders!)

We were surprised by a long line to get the bike into transition. Apparently, they were body marking and checking bikes on the way in so it was a little slow. But no big deal really. We got all set up and headed down to the beach.

I had a little anxiety but was holding up pretty well. I tend to get very quite and dont really want to talk which makes me about zero fun. Sorry, I just cant focus on random silly things when I'm about to go against everything sane and jump into water with no wetsuit!

The morning was gorgeous but a little humid and Lake Las Vegas is one of the prettiest places to hold a tri.

The SWIM: what can I say...was it better than Danskin Disneyland Tri? I think so but there still were moments of panic and wanting to give up. I started off to the right of everyone and felt OK for about 20-30 strokes then it became a mental game for about 200M. I was not sighting very well and swam way to the right which conveniently put me very close to the dock :-). My chip was also slipping a lot and I was worried that it was going to fall off. I was NOT going to loose my chip in the lake and not have official times. And since the dock was right there, why not hang on, rest and try to fix my ankle strap??

In hind sight, this was a mistake. I did not want to let go of the dock and I really wanted to give up at this point. I really had to fight myself to start swimming again. I could not get into any grove at this point and spent a lot of time on my back "resting". Finally at the turn around point I talked to another lady that was having even a tougher time and we gave each other some support. Then I told myself to stop being silly, put my head in the water and swim back. And I did. No stopping, no resting, just swimming. Guess what? It worked! Go figure :-) I finally hit shore and was off to do the fun stuff.

Iam finally out of the water! I know it LOOKS like I am DFL, but there is 1 other swimmer somewhere back there plus ALL of the Olympic distance people that started after us. This was a great spectator swim course. Also note the line of swimmers and understand that I was way off to the right, basically out of the picture :-). Ohh, also if you look really close, you can see that my swim safety belt matches my swim cap. Beautiful!. Other random thoughts: I really need to loose a few pounds after looking at that picture and I never, not even once thought of my swim belt. WTF! I am the one that will forget I have it and drown myself and people will be shaking their heads and saying if only she'd pulled the cord :-)

One of my great signs!! (My family calls me tia)

Off to transition which was the same distance away that I had just swim (.25 miles). I always find that amusing. It was an uphill run the whole way.

The bike was three loops (somewhere around 3.5 miles each) and I loved it. This is an area that we do regular rides so I am familiar with the hills and descents. It was a tight course with lots of riders but as long as you paid attention it was great. There are some serious hills but then you get to fly down the other side!!

Finally done and off to the run! Which was HARD for the first half. You start out of transition on an uphill then run out in the desert with more hills! I ended up walking up most of the hills then trying to make up time running fast downhill. Are you noticing a theme?? I am working on being as fast as I can on the downhill to make up for the s.l.o.w uphills. Finally once I was back onto pavement I just ran as fast as I could for the last mile (which is not really that fast). We run around the end of the lake which was really cool! And it's finally over! My sister and niece were there cheering me on and I have now finished my second triathlon.

Other random thoughts: this is a very pretty venue. The fastest Oly guy finished in the same time that I did my sprint. Holy Cow! My honey did great on his race. And we gave up watching the first Ohio State Football game of the season to do this. That is unheard of! We are big football fans. Oh, and it is our 1st anniversary weekend. What a way to celebrate! I LOVE you Izaac.

172 KELLY ROWE HENDERSON NV F3539 18:27 2:22 43:51 1:34 33:46 1:39:59

the swim time included the .25 mile run up to transition. My actual active swim time was 15:35!

which is an improvement over Danskin :-). I averaged 13.9 MPH on the bike and ran a 10:42 min/mile. My Avg HR was 173 and my max HR 185!!

I finished 172/228 overall and 12/14 in my AG.

I was second to last out of the water but managed to pass people on the bike and run. I need to get better at swimming so I dont have to work so hard the rest of the race :0

I couldn't be happier!

(sorry for the bad formatting!! I'm new to this and have spent way too long on this already)

I can do it!!

Well after the complete meltdown of my last post and feeling extremely sorry for myself all day and night Wednesday, Yesterday I decided that I either had to get through the swim or I was done with triathlons for awhile. I have already had 1 DNS this year at the Irongirl because of swimming and if I had another, well I just would have to find something else to do.

Guess what? I don't want to find something else to do. It pisses me off that I have such a mental block and I WANT to get over it.

So with the help of a half of an anxiety pill (yes, I resorted to drugging myself) to take the edge off the panic and the help of my wonderful, wonderful husband we set off to Lake Mead last night for an OWS without the wetsuit and out to the buoy line (just over 100 M offshore)

I wish we had a camera :-). I had on my swim safety belt. If you're not familiar, it's is this thing you wear around your waist and if you're in distress you yank on the cord and poof...out comes a blown up floaty: http://www.triaids.com/SwimSafe.htm. Then Form, again being the wonderful husband that he is, puts on fins and grabs not one but TWO swim noodles and a life jacket and putters along beside me. "Just in Case"

And guess what! I made it to the first buoy!! No panic, but I did stop and rest with my good friend the buoy. Then I went another 200M, rest, then I turned around and reversed the course. Yay for me!! It was probably around 700M and i even resisted the urge to stand up early. I swam until my hands were hitting the ground. Then I gave my honey the biggest hug! I finally did it :-)

Then my slave driving husband (no longer wonderful ;-) made me go out to the buoy and back again, one last time, just because.

Here's to a great race this weekend for Izaac and myself!! And yes, I will be wearing the swim belt since it is USAT approved...still got to have some sort of safety blanket. Hmm...Do you think they'll let Izaac follow me with a swim noodle!!

Disappointed and afraid

I decided to sign up for the Lake Las Vegas Tri about a month ago, Izaac is doing it and I thought, why not? It's time to get into the water again so to speak. (I have a very healthy apprehension about open water if you didnt already know that!)

Now, I knew going into this that there was a chance that wetsuits were not going to be allowed, but so far the water temp has been ok. Even so, I decided to try to swim without my "safety blanket" over the last few weeks. How hard can it be!!?? I only have to go 500M! I've done way more than that. Well, I got my answer... for me, nearly impossible. Every time I try, I am consumed with panic about 50M off shore. Nothing I tell myself makes it go away. The fear wins again and I hightail it back to shore with great disappointment. Try again and again...no luck.

I actually started to feel like I no longer could swim in open water. Decided to go back to the trusty wetsuit and look at that, I can swim again! Fine, I'll just be the dork that wears the wetsuit in the 80 degree water at the tri. Who cares.

Guess what? Just got the email today that wetsuits WILL NOT be allowed Saturday. Fu**!!!

Instantly, I am overwhelmed with panic and disgust because I cant swim in open water without my wetsuit. As I sit here this morning I now have to battle with all those inner demons about the fear of swimming and the fear of failure. How come I cant out talk my mind? What is the big deal? What am I missing that other people have when it comes to strength and determination? Do I just give up now or when I have to be pulled out of the swim at 50M offshore? Is all this disappointment and stress really worth it? Will I feel like a failure if I dont do this or cant do this? Why to I doubt myself? And Why oh why do I fear water so much!?



I just dont know.

The heat wins...

So the weekend brings us lots of training...good, bad and everything in between.

I started off with a planned run of 5 miles on Sat. Which I was very excited about doing. My mind has not really been into the other two disciplines so in response I decide I LOVE to run and I am GREAT at it!!

After Saturday, I no longer have a love affair with running. Just when you start to gain confidence in something, this sport quickly brings you back to reality. Form and I started off around 8am (which yet again is TOO late for this time of the year, with the temp already around 90ish and climbing). Then, since I'm feeling so cocky, "honey...why not try a tough, hot, uphill run through the desert?" The first half of the run is uphill but THEN you get to turn around and run downhill, so no biggie, right!? All of this happens in what feels like desert quicksand, sounds great! Yep, Until about mile 2 when my HR skyrocketed to high170's and stayed there for the remainder of the run.

The result was a disaster, I overheated, my legs felt like mush and I ended of crying in the middle of the downhill part and throwing my water bottle (hmm, might need that later) as I stomped out the rest of the mile. How my honey deals with this on a pretty regular basis is beyond me.

On the positive, I struggled my way home and we then added an extra mile for the heck of it :-). However, my stellar pace was 14.32 min/mile for 6 miles Average HR of 167!! High HR of 182 . And don't forget yet another cry fest in the middle of training. WooHoo!!



More to come on the "good" part of the weekend training later :-)

And thanks to all my comments from my new, bloggy friends!!

Jumpin on the blog train

People all over the world (everybody) Join hands (join)

Start a blog train, blog train

People all over the world (all the world, now) Join hands (blog ride)

Start a blog train (blog ride), blog train

The next stop that we make will be soon

Tell all the folks in Russia, and China, too

Don't you know that it's time to get on board

And let this train keep on riding, riding on through

Well, well People all over the world (you don't need no money)

Join hands (come on) Start a blog train, blog train (don't need no ticket, come on)

So I have finally decided to hop on the blog train! There are many reasons I have resisted and many reasons why I finally caved. One of the biggest reasons I have decided to create a blog is because of this great triathlon community of blogger friends that I see developing. There has been a lot writing about this lately (my honey, Stef, Calyx, RBR to name a few). I have had the pleasure of meeting a few fellow bloggers in person and developing a couple of good friends and training partners as a result. What I notice most is the instant camaraderie that we all have with technically "complete strangers". It's like we have known each other for ever, and in a sense we have through their personal sharing via blogs.

I have enjoyed reading numerous blogs since Izaac joined last year and feel like it's finally time to get to know these wonderful people in person (over the computer of course ;-)).

The other reason stems from one of these meetings with Calyx. We were all at dinner and discussing various things one of which is how fast some peoples training times are and how fantastic they are, etc. There are a lot of really good racers out there who have spent years training to get where they are or just have god given talent and they are truly inspiring but what about the rest of us? The average joes. You honestly dont see a lot about those of who are slow and back of the pack and just starting, those of us who may never compete in an Ironman, or be fast at a sprint.

I honestly stuggle with this all the time, I am SLOW, I need to getover it, who cares, right?! Maybe by sharing some of my times and training and struggle I can help someone else out there who may feel like they cant do this because they are slow. In turn, maybe I can help myself realize that it is ok to be slow and possibly last, the point is I am doing it.

So with that thought, I am now officially a blogger. More on my slowness later!

(p.s. I have no idea how to create links to others blogs yet ;-)