I have not been perfect in sticking to my training plan, especially because I've done a fair bit of travel over the last 16 weeks that I've been training, however I've made every effort to stay on track - from renting a bike in San Francisco, to running along the Seine in the rain in Paris, to (accidentally) lap swimming with the city-wide swim team at the West Boise YMCA. It has not always been fun, and very rarely been pretty, but I have grown and transformed over the past few months, not just physically but mentally too.
I have an attraction to setting goals that seem out of reach, because it's the only way to learn what your limits are, and to face things that seem scary or impossible. As embarrassed as I am to admit it (especially to more experienced triathletes) I have only done one triathlon, a sprint distance, 2 years ago, and it did not exactly go well. There is something about open water swimming that really freaks me out. (That something being squishy mud, murky water that you can't see the bottom of, fish, and plants that grow on the bottom of lakes and try to reach up and grab your ankles while you're swimming). In my first race, I was under-prepared for the swim, had a huge panic attack as soon as I hit the cold water and choked on my first breath, and ended up doing the backstroke the whole way. (Which, as you might imagine, makes sighting difficult). After that, I wrote off the triathlon, and especially open water swimming as "not for me".
Last year I focused heavily on running - posting my fastest half and full marathon times by far, and did a 60+ mile bike ride. For each of these endeavors, I had training plans, and committed myself to them as much as possible, but what I realized is that they lacked balance. I was getting sick of running, because I felt like that was the only thing I could do while marathon training, lest I get injured cross training. I kept reconsidering the triathlon, but at a slightly different scale. I had already done a sprint distance, so I wanted to go further. And the portion I was most concerned about - the swim - is only slightly shorter in the mid-range Olympic distance (.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) than the half-ironman distance (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). When I selected my goal race (http://mititanium.com) back in December I figured I've run plenty of half marathons, I've ridden my bike further than 56 miles before, and the swim will work itself out, right? It definitely was a stretch, but one I wanted to take, to test myself, my determination.
With countless hours in the pool and 4 long open water swims under my belt, I know that I will never be a fast swimmer. I may even be the last one out of the water for my distance (there's also a full Ironman - yes, double those numbers! happening at the same time, and hopefully some of them will take longer to swim twice as far as me). But I know I can do it, and I'm pretty confident I can do it without having a panic attack or resorting to the backstroke.
Yesterday I drove out to Grand Rapids, where the race will take place for an on-course swim/bike training put on by the race directors. It was such an awesome opportunity, since I probably would not have made the 2 hour trek to check out the course otherwise. The lake is gorgeous and the water is cool enough for me to use my (shiny, new) wetsuit, which is definitely a major security blanket. The bike course is pretty hilly, especially at the beginning and the end, but now I know and can mentally prepare for that. While a 7+ hour endurance event cannot quite fall into the category of "fun" I am looking forward to the race, and the chance to see what I'm capable of.
Plus (and Kevin's favorite part) I got a new bike out of this:
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| Right when I got 'er home from the store. |
And for those of you who are primarily interested in the cooking aspect of this blog, never fear! I've also been testing the limits of how much food I can consume in a given day. Training leaves me famished much of the time, and I work from home, so I have a pantry and fridge full of ingredients to work with any time it strikes my fancy. Plus we have a fabulous farmer's market here in Ann Arbor, and I've taken advantage of seasonal produce to try new things.
Such as garlic scapes! They're green stems that grow above ground on garlic plants, and while I had read recipes that used them, I had never seen or eaten them myself. When they showed up in the farmer's market earlier this summer I snagged some, without any idea what to do with them. I ended up making the pesto in this blog post: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/the-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html and sautéing the leftover scapes with asparagus:
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| (Store bought) ravioli with garlic scape pesto and sautéed asparagus/garlic scapes |
We also get an abundance of blueberries around this time of year, so I have been buying them weekly, mostly for snacking or to eat with my morning oatmeal or yogurt, but I also decided to make a blueberry crumble. I used this recipe: http://leitesculinaria.com/81109/recipes-blueberry-crumble.html just added lemon zest and lowered the amount of sugar in the filling. It was delightfully tart and delicious warm with ice cream or room temp for breakfast (not that I tried that…)
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| Blueberry Crumble |
I promise more food and life updates once this triathlon is done!
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