David Does His First Tri at 50, and No Events For Barb

This year I was forced to be a spectator and picture taker during the Gretna Tri.    After losing 12 pounds in November and December on the Yoli Better Body System, I was excited to be running pain free in January.. I thought it might be my best season ever!  Then I was rear ended on icy roads on the coldest night of the year, and could not swim for a few months due to back spasms.  A lingering foot and lower leg injury has prevented running as well.  Although frustrated, I am determined to stay active and have taken up a combination Yoga / Pilates Class once a week which I love; it's great for stretching and balance.  I continue to ride my bike as much as possible and despite riding only once or twice a week, have worked my way up to 17 miles in hopes of doing the 30 mile Tour of Richmond in October.  My times are decent averaging 12.5mph last week on the hills and 13 mph this week on an easier route.  Every long ride is followed by a day of intense foot pain, so we continue to work on it hoping it will eventually subside.

In the fall we purchased an Endless Pools Swim Spa including an underwater treadmill along with an Aquashield, so we could swim or water jog year round.  David, my husband, said in December he 'might' do a Tri this year.  Upon researching the best open water technique for swimming,  he decided to learn the Navy Seal technique known as the military side stroke.  I gave him some pointers on breathing and by comparing his form to the you tube videos, helped him as much as possible.  About 2 weeks before the Gretna Tri, David announced that he had ordered a wetsuit and signed up, to which I replied "WHAT?".  Although his swim stroke seemed strong, he had solely trained in the swim spa, I knew I needed to get him to a "big pool" to see if he could do the distance required.  Mary, my awesome swim instructor gladly granted my request, knowing my concern.

The first trip to the big pool did not go well,  David went out too strong and ran out of gas, breathing heavy and needing to take breaks.  Mary and I were worried, because you can't run out of gas in the middle of a lake, especially during a Tri.  Mary kindly explained a lot of technique and basic swimming principles to David, but when he went into the locker room she said, "I don't think he should do this, I am worried".  But David was persistent and after listening to Mary's guidance about pace, being comfortable in the water, buoyancy, and lengthening his stroke to glide and breathe easier... the second swimming session went much better.  I swam next to him, bumping and splashing him, to prepare him for the race.

The big race day came, and I took the above picture as David headed to the transition area, hoping this wouldn't be that last picture I took of him.  I was still nervous about his swim, he did not have the stamina or experience to do this swim - but he did have the guts so I figured he would manage I just didn't know how.  I realized it was a good thing I was just a spectator this year, because all of my energy was focused on preparing him for the race.   Mom and Dad brought their good luck bells, and I brought St. Jude, the patron Saint of Hopeless Causes.  David survived the swim by canoe hopping his way around the lake, which fortunately is permitted.  Coming back towards shore, the water isn't as deep, and the race volunteers kindly guided him and a few other rookies to the shallow area so they could walk/swim their way to the shore.
I knew David would have no trouble with the bike portion since he rides these hills all the time, but I was worried about the run.  The previous week he had done a 'trial tri', and could not run even a few blocks due to calf cramps.  Well, David made it to the finish with a strong stride, all 3 legs of the Tri completed successfully!  He approached Mike and I still waiting for Cathy to transition from Bike to Run, and announced that this was probably 'the stupidest thing he had ever decided to do' - mainly because he can't swim well, and hates to run.  But the huge grin on his face told me he was proud of his accomplishment, and glad for having done it at least once.  Honestly I think he had decided last year that if I could do a Tri, he could do it too!  Cathy remembered her helmet leaving the transition area this year, and Mike had a fantastic race.

Some homemade protein bars made with Yoli YES whey protein shakes revived David, Cathy, and Mike after their successful Tri.  We enjoyed a family dinner Saturday Night, and I took Cathy and Mike on a little recovery ride Sunday on the back roads between Mom and Dad's new place and our house.  Great weekend of fun and family, even if I was on the sidelines - someone has to be the photographer!

Hoping to back  at it for next year, I found a few sprint tri's in Richmond and Delaware - plus a few others with a pool swim that look like fun.        



           

Training Follies

 

Destination:  Aquinnah

Mike and I celebrated our 20^th Wedding Anniversary this week!  We re-watched our wedding video, laughed at hair styles and big glasses, and recalled our minister’s message to us – sometimes things don’t go according to plan.

This week’s follies began on Wednesday, the actual day of our anniversary.  We both decided to do our Blackberry 5K loop (a perfect 5K loop run on Blackberry Drive in North Stamford), but since our schedules didn’t align, we left the house at different times.  I returned home first, mindlessly locked the front door upon my return and had to jump out the shower when I heard loud knocks on the door.  I suppose locking your husband out of the house on your 20^th anniversary doesn’t get you the nomination for wife of the year!

Mike has been diligently training for his first half Ironman in September, so our training schedules have been somewhat misaligned recently (let’s just say I opted not to spend 6 hours training in jellyfish infested waters and pouring down rain last Saturday and instead recorded the times of all of our races into a perfected, filtering spreadsheet).  Net-net, I haven’t been getting a lot of bike time in lately so on Saturday I pleaded with him to go with me for our 40 mile ride across Martha’s Vineyard and back, which he agreed to do as long as we took it easy and took a beach rest since this is a rest week for him before his peak training week.  We wanted to time our ride such that the Chilmark Road Race on our favorite biking route was done (around 11:30) but before President Obama arrived at the airport (around 12:45) as the Secret Service don’t exactly care about proclamations like, “but your ruining my pace”.

We should have known we were doomed when we hadn’t even gone 3 miles and Mike got a flat tire.  Two cyclists inquired if we needed help, but we were well prepared.  “Well, every training session has a purpose,” I optimistically declared as I proceeded to insist he let me change it for practice in the event I ever need to do it in a race (a task I didn’t quite successfully achieve as the tire was really hard to get off and on and I eventually acquiesced to his man hands).

After 20 minutes, we were off, wondering if we would now be delayed as President Obama was arriving to the Island soon and the state police had whizzed by us but we made it past the airport and were well underway as we saw a helicopter above.

We continued on and were rewarded with a beautiful day’s ride and the spectacular up-Island ocean views that are well worth the hills that go along with it.  By the time we got to Aquinnah beach, we were famished and gobbled down our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cooled off in the ocean and went for our favorite walk under the cliffs, trying out the photo capabilities of Mike’s new Samsung phone.  We forced ourselves to end our rest break at 4pm to make our 20 mile trek back.

“Where’s the bike key????”, Mike asked as we went to unlock the bikes.

“I know I put it in the outer pocket – it MUST be in there,” I declared.

We looked multiple times and expanded the search to all pockets in the backpack.  We then returned to the rock we had used as our “chair”, only to discover the tide had come in so that if the key had been there, it was surely washed away by now.  The only other possibility is that it had fallen out during our beach walk, but the chances of finding it we knew were slim to none.

Being we were Up-Island, we were on Wampanog Indian ground and the tourist gift shops were probably not going to include lock cutters in their retail inventory.  We knew our only option was to try and get the bikes on the Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA) bus (at least we didn’t lock the bikes to the rack – just to each other but we weren’t sure if the lock would prevent us from fitting them on the VTA front bike rack).  The next challenge was the bus stop was about 1 mile uphill from the beach and so began a new form of the “three legged race” as we walked them up the hill in our bike shoes (for a split second we wondered if we could ride them side by side but we nixed that idea!).  I knew the bus only ran once an hour so with one in view, we tried to pick up our pace and flagged him just as he was pulling out.

Since there was only 1 bike on the 3 bike rack, we thought we were golden….until he said, “I can’t wait – these people have to catch a ferry,” as he pulled away.  Thirty seconds later, he stopped, honked and came chasing us down.  He had radioed the other bus to take his route so that he could make his an express bus to Vineyard Haven.  The bikes racked just fine and we were off.

After past lessons learned of not carry emergency money – or enough emergency money – we had $40 with us, plenty for the $8 fare for both of us, but with a $20 bill and a requirement for “exact change” this was going to be one overpaid ride.  The nice gent beside us yelled to the entire bus, “does anyone have change for a $20”.  Some passengers looked to no avail, but one kind woman managed to come through with ten ones and a ten.  Enroute, we strategized where the bike shops or hardware stores are.  The clock was ticking close to 6pm so we weren’t sure if we would find one or just have to get another bus back to Edgartown and deal with the lock later.

“Stop!” we declared as we saw a bike shop open at 5:55pm.  I ran across the street while Mike unloaded the bikes.  As he struggled, the nice gent got off and helped him.  After waiting 5 minutes as the bike shop owner talked the ear off of the customer ahead of us, and another 5 minutes of chitchat with us, we finally came to the conclusion he did have a lock cutter.  Just before cutting the lock, he said he’ll have to charge us $5.  “Whatever…..”  (most bike shop owners I know would not charge for something so minor…..and we always tip them anyway and vow to return for a real purchase).

Bad Martha's is a great way to end a forlorn training day!

After another 10 minutes of “Island time” chitchat, we were on our way - until I realized I was holding Mike's sunglasses but missing mine. We searched the store to no avail.  As we checked the backpack, the owner suggested perhaps I was already wearing them....and I was - on top of my head under my helmet.  "We're full service," quipped the owner.

Ending our ordeal at Bad Martha’s, the new, local brewery around the corner from our house seemed like the optimal conclusion this story (and we had $27 of emergency money left over).  And, there we found “the nice gent” (an off Island police officer we learned) and his two friends – all runners and one Ironman so we exchanged stories over beers and told them they should join us for the Vineyard Triathlon. 

Yes, things don’t always go according to plan.  But when they don’t, it’s fodder for a good story and new friends.