Once again, the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon was my “Official” Triathlon Season Opener…and it still amuses me to say season opener. I participated in the Sprint Distance event with three of my AKA Sorors (Nineteen69, R.Pitts & Bailey) along with some new friends, one being James – the official PRAYER WARRIOR of our group.
What did I learn from this race…I STILL have work to do – not just the physical, but primarily in the mental area. There STILL was nothing earth shattering about my finish – EXCEPT I finished 6 min faster than last year. In the scheme of things, I had a 10% improvement in my time. TEN FREAKIN’ PERCENT. When I look at it that way, well, HOT DAMN, not freaking bad for an middle age chick! Nevertheless, I could have perhaps made that a 15% improvement if I had pushed through my discomfort or “perceived” tiredness instead of remaining in a “I’m comfortable” zone & crusing.
I am committed to working on the mental and I have “checked in” with my coach and requested more “check in time”. Coach Torture is a great coach…for me and when I’m with him or at least talk to him about my training for the week, I seem to do better, work harder, push myself past that mind hump I wasn’t going past.
SOOOO…while I learned that I STILL have some work to do…I HAD A FRIGGIN BLAST during this race. Can you tell?:
I have to say, I AM ADDICTED to Triathlon. I don’t know if it is just the sport, the challenge, the endorphin rush – I KNOW it’s the bling – I don’t know. What I DO know is that the friends I have that I’ve conned into this adventure, the friends I’ve made, the absolute fun I have, my family support…I just can’t get any better! Check out the Tri-AKA’s:
I LOVE MY SOROR’s. I LOVE MY SHIRT. WE ARE TRIATHLETE’s. I am so proud of my ladies (Nineteen69 & Pitts) who came back to tackle the race again! But even more inspiring is Bailey! That chick learned how to swim in 3 months and came out here and DID THIS DAMN THING!!! WHAT. WHO DAT! She is my SHERO! If she can conquer the water, learn to swim where there was no ability before and then bust out a Tri – AND NOT COME IN LAST AT THAT! – what is any of our excuse for not achieving our dreams/goals? SERIOUSLY? What?
And then there was JamesB…Who I met last year at a party in Philly for the first time and literally PUNKED this man into doing the tri with us. AND HE DID! Let me tell you…this man is a PRAYING! man. Our prayer warrior.
He gathered us all around, Tri-AKA’s, Uche, James &…(sorry if I missed someone) and he prayed – for super natural strength, for God to be a fence in the water – to walk on the water beside us, to protect us and thanked Him for blessing us with the ability to swim bike run when so many others can’t. WOW! I have decided that I have to figure out a way to skype/call with the Tri-AKA’s & James so I can have a prayer session before the start of my IM 70.3 Cozumel in Sept. HAVE TO!
THE SPRINT COURSE
.8K swim / 25.3K bike / 5K run
.5 mile swim / 15.7 mile bike / 3.1 mile run
SWIM: BEST SWIM EVER!!! I don’t know what else to say about it. After last years fiasco panic attack swim, this swim was just AWESOME! I never stopped. I was steady, even – slow perhaps, but I got out of the water and felt GREAT! After reviewing the time, I knocked off 10 min from last year. GO ME!!!!!
BIKE: I felt fabulous. I thought I was doing something and had gotten stronger/faster when I was able to maintain my cadence in the big gear on front/mid range on back --- EXCEPT on the hills. After seeing my time, I realized any gains I made on the course, I absolutely LOST on the hills. Take-away – HILL WORK, Strength training. Wish list – new bike (yeah, that’s not happening soon) so – HILL WORK, Strength training.
RUN: I felt okay…and I cruised. I didn’t even start breathing hard. And when I should have been kicking it in…I wasn’t. I didn’t. And when I finally realized that I was malingering on this run when the damn race was practically over, it was too late to make it up.
Another take away – I will NEVER train or race without my HRM/GPS or speedometer again. EVER. If I had them on me, I would have known that I had to take it up a notch, kick it in and stop pussy footing around. LESSON LEARNED.
Congratulations LISA STEPTOE!
Here are your results for the 2012 Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon:
Swim 27:23
Bike 1:06:43
Run 42:16
Final 2:26:16
I AM A TRIATHLETE!