I'm tired of banging my hand on the pool ladders every week when I swim in the slow lane. Guess it's time to move up to the next level tomorrow, where the lane is ladder-free. :)
So, as my mentor Carol from the Rocky Mountain Tri Club said, I am officially a Triathlete now! Jen (my sister-in-law) and I did the Tri for your cause yesterday at the Boulder Reservoir; which I ran for the Humane Society of the Boulder Valley. Jen’s 2nd and my first Tri; a sprint of 500 meter swim, 17 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile run. With showers of rain in the forecast I feared that my curse might be coming true (as the last 2 races (marathons) I have done with friends it has rained and my friends have threatened to never do a race with me again). But it didn’t! It was a beautiful day sunny probably in the high 60ies early 70ies, and pretty calm winds. Unfortunately the water temperature was only in the low 50ies which is why the race organizers have offered to turn the Tri into a duathlon. Jen and I decided to do it all. What do we have wet suits for and did all this training for!? We were starting with the 3rd wave, meaning that we are in our thirties (thanks for writing that in fat letters on our calf too)! There was only about 200 participants and so a lot of the feared getting kicked did not take place. Before our wave started we decided to get accustomed to the water …. and boy let me tell you it was cold. Another lady in the water pointed out, after I mentioned that my feet were really cold, that it is better to have them numb anyways! … and I did, my feet were numb until 1 mile into the run … yes, the run! - they remained frozen all the way through the bike ride until than! Now, I did have a neoprene hat, but that did littletoo keep my face from getting “brain-freeze”. When it was time for our wave -the pink hats, we got in the water waited for the signal and off we swam. I had a visibility of about 1-2 feet under water, so not too bad and the water didn’t taste that bad either, not that I tasted it on purpose. I forgot about my freezing feet and hands quiet fast. What I could not shake off was the problem breathing!!! I could not breath! Every time I put my head under water to free-style I had to stick it out of thundefinede water thinking I was gonna suffocate! This is nothing of what I experienced while training in a pool. I was not out of breath due to the exercise, in fact I barely did a few strokes! So I decided to do the breast stroke for a little (as I am pretty strong in it, not a problem). I could not submerge my head under water though or my feeling of suffocation came back. So I just decided to survive it and hang in there. I tried a few more times to freestyle without success and did a very non-aerodynamic breast-stroke all the way to the shore. Out of the water (I heard my hubby and a very awesome friend of mine Erin cheer me on but I could not make them out in the crowd) I made my way to transition, which the hardest part was the walking on the very rocky paved road- my feet really hurt and them being so cold did not help at all! I tried to get my wet suit off and get ready for the bike as fast as I could, but everything seemed like I was in slow motion. Wet suit off, sand off my feet, socks and shoes on helmet and gloves on … you get the idea… running out to where I am allowed to get on my bike and off I go. Why does it seem like I am driving with my parking break set? Really, I should be going faster than this? Gosh, my legs feel weird but it sure is good to be sitting. The bike course started with one big hill followed by what 2 weeks prior in the car when we were checking out the route, seemed like flat road but instead was just a very slight incline; enough to make you feel like you are slow and everything is so hard. There were a few more hills on the course, but the biking seemed to be getting easier as you spend more time on the bike. 1 mile into the bike ride I remembered that I left my bike pump in my car! Nice- hopefully I won’t meet any goat heads on this ride! About half way through the ride I thought how do people do an Iron man … and is this really the sport I want to pursue?! The entire bike ride and run I had that song “pump it” by the Black eyed Pea in my head. As I got back to transition ready to dismount before running in I again heard my hubby and friend … but could not make anyone out! Anyways, this transition was shorter just taking off some stuff and changing shoes. Off I go - wait , why are my feet still frozen? Wow, that is a weird sensation. This is the most dreaded part. After training for the marathon last year and now switching to Tri training I hate the running part. It is boring and now my legs feel so much heavier than ever before. Did I mention that I again feel like driving a car with the parking break set! Come on, it is only 3.1 miles that really is nothing! Why can’t I push myself more! The trail seemed endless. So, the times aren’t published yet but what I got from my stop watch it took me about 17min for the swim, 57min for the bike and 36min for the run! The main thing is, we did it! That feels really good! … and now all the doubts are gone to do it again- of course I will! Side note- Jen, being from CA earned herself the shirt saying “Sea level is for sissies”! Herdis Astwood
"I've gotta follow that dream where ever that dream may lead..." Okay you probably don't know that song unless you are a die hard Elvis fan such as myself. But this is one of my mantras that I keep in mind during the tough time. The dream for me began nearly 25 years ago as I watched on my little 6" b/w TV in my college dorm room one of the first televised Ironman competitions. I watched it several times that year as it was repeated on probably Wide World of Sports or something of the like. I decided right then and there that this is what I wanted to do. I recall telling myself later that year or the next that I'm going to run an Ironman when I'm 72 (don't ask me why I picked 72, it just seemed like a good number) and that I had 52 years to train. Well, nearly 25 years have passed and I am finally signed up for my first IM. Nov 1st just 5 days after my 45th birthday I plan on joining the “Iron Circle” by completing IM Florida in Panama City. I have a lot of training ahead of me these next 6 months. But for me “It’s Now or Never”, the way I see it. A lot has happened in these past 25 years and I am now an able bodied disabled person. This means I’m on a limited fixed income. I had to cash in bonds prematurely (costing me a couple hundred extra right there) to have the money to enter the race. So I can’t foresee that I’ll have the money to enter another IM any time soon. But I decided that this is what I wanted to do to mark reaching middle age. (It’s hard to think of myself as middle aged, but hey 45 is half of 90, so if I live to be 90 then I’m definitely middle aged.) Although I’m not 72 (maybe by the time I am, I can save up enough money to enter another IM or two along the way) but my knees are as bad as my dads, if not worse, and he turns 68 this month. Friday I started another session of synvisc injections. This is my 3rd round on my left knee and my 4th on my right. Synvisc is injected into my knees to help alleviate what I call “crunchiness", because when my knees grind it sounds crunchy. (My dad will begin his first series of synvisc injections sometime this month in one of his knees.) So my knees are worse than my 68 year old dad’s. It’s amazing how a few years of running incorrectly and even more years of carrying too much weight can deteriorate the joints. I watch others run and in my wild imagination I’m running like I have wings on my shoes, but in reality I mostly walk, at times on the track or on soft ground I’ll muster up a jog. But I have to be careful. I want my knees to be as healthy as possible come November. So I’m trying to race walk. Besides, I never really was fast to begin with. I was always last in the 50 yard dash on field day in grade school. Actually I was more than last, as if that was possible, but not only was I last, I was usually 5 or 10 yards behind the last girl in front of me. It was very humiliating. And my younger brother has always been faster than me. It was a great source of shame for me at 4 when my 3 year old brother could always beat me when we raced to the end of the driveway, or across the yard, or to the backyard fence… So at a young age I realized I wasn’t blessed with speed so I’d have to work on endurance. In ninth grade I ran Cross Country. At the time it was a relatively new sport and they didn’t have separate girls and boys teams. I went to a small parochial school and we didn’t have a great pool of athletes, we really had only one true varsity runner. The rest ran JV times and I would have done well if I was running on the C squad, my times were consistent for a freshman, but because of our limited number of people most of our JV runners had to run varsity and I had to run JV. I finished last in every race that year. In a couple of races I was lapped by an entire mile. There were a few times when I actually passed some of the guys on the trail. But everytime I passed someone they dropped out of the race, so I still finished last. Back then as I do now I try not to be discouraged. Taking my example from the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, I say “Slow and steady FINISHES the race”. And that is the goal, to finish. Oh sure I’d love to break the tape just once in my life. But unless I’m the only one in the race, the odds of that happening are slim and none. It is my hope that as I continue to tell my story and my ups and downs of training that many will find encouragement. I’m the one out there that is the slowest on the Track days and usually last on the bike days. I do a little better in the pool but, not so well considering that I swam on my HS and college swim teams. But then again I was always the slowest on the team. Any time I would start to get faster than someone, they quit the team. So even though I improved I remained the slowest on the team. Being the slowest on the team is something I’m accustomed to, but it doesn’t mean I necessarily like it. But I’d rather be the slowest than not completing/competing. Because as I’ll discuss in future blogs, there were times in my life that my health made it look like chasing after my dreams was next to impossible. TTYL Orlinda, La Tortuga
The post-swim feed zone last night was My Brother’s Bar. Food was pretty good. Mostly burgers. @ one point the conversation @ one end of the table took an UGLY turn to an unpleasant topic coincident to the latest cover of Westword. In desperation ! turned to the other end of the table for solace. It was to no avail. Just incomprehensible gibberish from the geeks. Not a bad little place all in all. Next week it’s off to Zang’s ! believe. We’ll work our way through the list until we find a couple to do regularly. Matty Matt suggested the brew pub up in Highlands. About 32nd and Tejon? Don’t miss out on good times w/ YOUR team. The post-run feed is still @ HandleBar and Grill PS Andrew managed to get a parking ticket so watch the parking wherever we go.
The new kit is in. Denny is hoarding it. Looks good (the gear, not Denny). The shorts made my thighs look huge and powerful. The running shirts especially look cool. ! couldn’t get a large one over my head.
Spring is here. It's time to get out and play again. As you all know it snows in the last week of April and then we are all done. There were snow flurries Saturday in Tech center. It's all play time now. My advice to you is to quit your job (just think how badly they'll meed you in 6 months)and go swim, bike and run every day. Use those recovery days to play the other outside sports. ! know Denny will be taking his Wii out on the balcony to play golf. Let's have fun this year. Doug!!
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So, as my mentor Carol from the Rocky Mountain Tri Club said, I am officially a Triathlete now! Jen (my sister-in-law) and I did the Tri for your cause yesterday at the Boulder Reservoir; which I ran for the Humane Society of the Boulder Valley. Jen’s 2nd and my first Tri; a sprint of 500 meter swim, 17 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile run. With showers of rain in the forecast I feared that my curse might be coming true (as the last 2 races (marathons) I have done with friends it has rained and my friends have threatened to never do a race with me again). But it didn’t! It was a beautiful day sunny probably in the high 60ies early 70ies, and pretty calm winds. Unfortunately the water temperature was only in the low 50ies which is why the race organizers have offered to turn the Tri into a duathlon. Jen and I decided to do it all. What do we have wet suits for and did all this training for!? We were starting with the 3rd wave, meaning that we are in our thirties (thanks for writing that in fat letters on our calf too)! There was only about 200 participants and so a lot of the feared getting kicked did not take place. Before our wave started we decided to get accustomed to the water …. and boy let me tell you it was cold. Another lady in the water pointed out, after I mentioned that my feet were really cold, that it is better to have them numb anyways! … and I did, my feet were numb until 1 mile into the run … yes, the run! - they remained frozen all the way through the bike ride until than! Now, I did have a neoprene hat, but that did littletoo keep my face from getting “brain-freeze”. When it was time for our wave -the pink hats, we got in the water waited for the signal and off we swam. I had a visibility of about 1-2 feet under water, so not too bad and the water didn’t taste that bad either, not that I tasted it on purpose. I forgot about my freezing feet and hands quiet fast. What I could not shake off was the problem breathing!!! I could not breath! Every time I put my head under water to free-style I had to stick it out of thundefinede water thinking I was gonna suffocate! This is nothing of what I experienced while training in a pool. I was not out of breath due to the exercise, in fact I barely did a few strokes! So I decided to do the breast stroke for a little (as I am pretty strong in it, not a problem). I could not submerge my head under water though or my feeling of suffocation came back. So I just decided to survive it and hang in there. I tried a few more times to freestyle without success and did a very non-aerodynamic breast-stroke all the way to the shore. Out of the water (I heard my hubby and a very awesome friend of mine Erin cheer me on but I could not make them out in the crowd) I made my way to transition, which the hardest part was the walking on the very rocky paved road- my feet really hurt and them being so cold did not help at all! I tried to get my wet suit off and get ready for the bike as fast as I could, but everything seemed like I was in slow motion. Wet suit off, sand off my feet, socks and shoes on helmet and gloves on … you get the idea… running out to where I am allowed to get on my bike and off I go. Why does it seem like I am driving with my parking break set? Really, I should be going faster than this? Gosh, my legs feel weird but it sure is good to be sitting. The bike course started with one big hill followed by what 2 weeks prior in the car when we were checking out the route, seemed like flat road but instead was just a very slight incline; enough to make you feel like you are slow and everything is so hard. There were a few more hills on the course, but the biking seemed to be getting easier as you spend more time on the bike. 1 mile into the bike ride I remembered that I left my bike pump in my car! Nice- hopefully I won’t meet any goat heads on this ride! About half way through the ride I thought how do people do an Iron man … and is this really the sport I want to pursue?! The entire bike ride and run I had that song “pump it” by the Black eyed Pea in my head. As I got back to transition ready to dismount before running in I again heard my hubby and friend … but could not make anyone out! Anyways, this transition was shorter just taking off some stuff and changing shoes. Off I go - wait , why are my feet still frozen? Wow, that is a weird sensation. This is the most dreaded part. After training for the marathon last year and now switching to Tri training I hate the running part. It is boring and now my legs feel so much heavier than ever before. Did I mention that I again feel like driving a car with the parking break set! Come on, it is only 3.1 miles that really is nothing! Why can’t I push myself more! The trail seemed endless. So, the times aren’t published yet but what I got from my stop watch it took me about 17min for the swim, 57min for the bike and 36min for the run! The main thing is, we did it! That feels really good! … and now all the doubts are gone to do it again- of course I will! Side note- Jen, being from CA earned herself the shirt saying “Sea level is for sissies”! Herdis Astwood
"I've gotta follow that dream where ever that dream may lead..." Okay you probably don't know that song unless you are a die hard Elvis fan such as myself. But this is one of my mantras that I keep in mind during the tough time. The dream for me began nearly 25 years ago as I watched on my little 6" b/w TV in my college dorm room one of the first televised Ironman competitions. I watched it several times that year as it was repeated on probably Wide World of Sports or something of the like. I decided right then and there that this is what I wanted to do. I recall telling myself later that year or the next that I'm going to run an Ironman when I'm 72 (don't ask me why I picked 72, it just seemed like a good number) and that I had 52 years to train. Well, nearly 25 years have passed and I am finally signed up for my first IM. Nov 1st just 5 days after my 45th birthday I plan on joining the “Iron Circle” by completing IM Florida in Panama City. I have a lot of training ahead of me these next 6 months. But for me “It’s Now or Never”, the way I see it. A lot has happened in these past 25 years and I am now an able bodied disabled person. This means I’m on a limited fixed income. I had to cash in bonds prematurely (costing me a couple hundred extra right there) to have the money to enter the race. So I can’t foresee that I’ll have the money to enter another IM any time soon. But I decided that this is what I wanted to do to mark reaching middle age. (It’s hard to think of myself as middle aged, but hey 45 is half of 90, so if I live to be 90 then I’m definitely middle aged.) Although I’m not 72 (maybe by the time I am, I can save up enough money to enter another IM or two along the way) but my knees are as bad as my dads, if not worse, and he turns 68 this month. Friday I started another session of synvisc injections. This is my 3rd round on my left knee and my 4th on my right. Synvisc is injected into my knees to help alleviate what I call “crunchiness", because when my knees grind it sounds crunchy. (My dad will begin his first series of synvisc injections sometime this month in one of his knees.) So my knees are worse than my 68 year old dad’s. It’s amazing how a few years of running incorrectly and even more years of carrying too much weight can deteriorate the joints. I watch others run and in my wild imagination I’m running like I have wings on my shoes, but in reality I mostly walk, at times on the track or on soft ground I’ll muster up a jog. But I have to be careful. I want my knees to be as healthy as possible come November. So I’m trying to race walk. Besides, I never really was fast to begin with. I was always last in the 50 yard dash on field day in grade school. Actually I was more than last, as if that was possible, but not only was I last, I was usually 5 or 10 yards behind the last girl in front of me. It was very humiliating. And my younger brother has always been faster than me. It was a great source of shame for me at 4 when my 3 year old brother could always beat me when we raced to the end of the driveway, or across the yard, or to the backyard fence… So at a young age I realized I wasn’t blessed with speed so I’d have to work on endurance. In ninth grade I ran Cross Country. At the time it was a relatively new sport and they didn’t have separate girls and boys teams. I went to a small parochial school and we didn’t have a great pool of athletes, we really had only one true varsity runner. The rest ran JV times and I would have done well if I was running on the C squad, my times were consistent for a freshman, but because of our limited number of people most of our JV runners had to run varsity and I had to run JV. I finished last in every race that year. In a couple of races I was lapped by an entire mile. There were a few times when I actually passed some of the guys on the trail. But everytime I passed someone they dropped out of the race, so I still finished last. Back then as I do now I try not to be discouraged. Taking my example from the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, I say “Slow and steady FINISHES the race”. And that is the goal, to finish. Oh sure I’d love to break the tape just once in my life. But unless I’m the only one in the race, the odds of that happening are slim and none. It is my hope that as I continue to tell my story and my ups and downs of training that many will find encouragement. I’m the one out there that is the slowest on the Track days and usually last on the bike days. I do a little better in the pool but, not so well considering that I swam on my HS and college swim teams. But then again I was always the slowest on the team. Any time I would start to get faster than someone, they quit the team. So even though I improved I remained the slowest on the team. Being the slowest on the team is something I’m accustomed to, but it doesn’t mean I necessarily like it. But I’d rather be the slowest than not completing/competing. Because as I’ll discuss in future blogs, there were times in my life that my health made it look like chasing after my dreams was next to impossible. TTYL Orlinda, La Tortuga