Description

An admitted shoe geek waxes philosophical about running, triathlon, and life in general.
Comments welcome!


Friday, September 7, 2012

Introducing...the wife!

As I had mentioned a couple days ago, my wife has stolen the keys to my blog and is hijacking it for her own purposes this month (not really -- she asked first). Here is her first installment.

Hello all of brider readers! I am Mrs. brider. (Which means bike rider, not anything to do with being a bride.) I am also known as The Mrs. T or Lisa.

I asked Dave if I could "hijack" his blog this month. His birthday is in a few weeks and I thought I might give him some time to work on a few ideas - and get them ready for October!

A little background about me. (I'll try to keep this short but I am not one known for brevity...or the use of under punctuation...) I played team sports growing up - basketball, softball and soccer. Soccer was my favorite, I believe. I've always struggled with weight - thanks to Dad's side of the family. So after being in the work-world for a few years and not having easy access to team sports AND having an indoor pool in my apartment building - I started swimming. I had tried swimming before but had never got the hang of it. Did a little bit of reading and even watched a DVD. Hey! This isn't so bad! Now that I had swimming "down" it only made sense to do a tri - I had ran and biked before!

First triathlon was in July 2009. This was when I still lived in the Chicago area. The chosen event was the Trek Women's Tri in Pleasant Prairie, WI - which is just over the Illinois border. I rode my 15ish year old Huffy Mountain Bike - with slicker tires - and finished! I did my 2nd tri that August. I did my 3rd tri in May of 2010 - after just moving to Washington. That was a bad, bad tri for me. The water was sooo cold, the bike was flat - except for the start. I wasn't used to clipless pedals and couldn't get clipped in and up the hill. Riding your bike and crying/hyperventilating isn't easy. By then my race mojo was gone. I finished the race and since there were only 3 Athena's - I got 3rd!

I said I was done with racing. However...I wasn't. This past January I rode a ladder down from our roof - a 1 story drop. My only injury was "just" an ankle sprain. I'm guessing it was about the worst sprain you could get. Grade 3 + really, really bad. I was in PT for about 5 months. In PT I decided to have a goal and train for a tri. I did a(nother) sprint at the end of June. Dave raced with me and it was the best tri I ever did! Dave and I were literally dead last - but it was actually enjoyable! I decided to up my training (had pretty much none before that) and do an Olympic distance for the first time. So from July 1st to August 31st I was building up the distance to Olympic. Two weeks from race day I realized I'd be able to finish the distances, but I wouldn't be able to finish it in the 4 hour time limit. I had tweaked my knee and my left shoulder was bothering me - I could do the sprint, but not the Olympic.

Race day came - just this past September 1st. The air temperature was in the mid 50's to start. The water felt fantastic! It was 69-70 degrees! I got into my full-sleeve wetsuit, a new purchase, and I was ready to swim! That was one of the hardest swims I had done. I'm not completely sure why. However - and I declared this when I exited the water - I wasn't last!! My race report is on BT. Dave has said I was too hard on myself, but I was really disappointed with my performance. I wasn't last this time and I even had speed improvements on the bike and run from the June tri! The recent tri was on a MUCH harder course.

It's a little hard to keep in mind to "race my own race" when you have a husband who is fast. I'm very proud of him, of course, but it's still hard not to compare.

I'm hoping over the next few weeks I can impart a bit of wisdom for those who aren't so fast and may be newer to the sport/exercise.

3 comments:

derscott said...

What a cool idea! Great post, Lisa.

Unknown said...

Really enjoy Dave's posts. I'm sure I'll enjoy yours as well. Looking forward to reading more. Aloha!
Dianna

Unknown said...

I really enjoy reading Dave's posts. I'm sure I'll enjoy yours too! Looking forward to reading more. Aloha, Dianna