Saturday, March 24, 2012

Triathlons

My life basically revolves around two things right now, Eli and triathlons. Now that I have updated you about Eli, I will update you about all my triathlon madness.

 Back in December I joined a triathlon racing team called CK Elite Racing lead by world Ironman championship competitor(multiple times), Keena Shaerrer. She is an amazing coach, and just qualified last weekend for this years Ironman 70.3 world championships. She has given us all the goal to qualify for olympic distance age group nationals in Burlington Vermont in August. To qualify we have to come in top 10% of our age group during a sprint or olympic distance race. That means most races either 1st or 2nd place. There are a couple of races I am doing that have more people participating, so I would need to be top 15. In the bigger races, my times would still need to be as fast as the smaller races though. I need to be able to do the a 3.1 mile run in about 24 minutes, 12.4 mile bike in about 38 min, and 300 m swim in 6.

 I am currently training 2-2.5 hours a day with all the workouts Keena gives us. It is kind of a lot and sometimes is a little overwhelming, but it has been good for me. I have lost a lot of my baby weight,and gained a lot of fitness. But most importantly I have gained a lot of confidence seeing all the improvements I have made so far. She tests us monthly with the run, bike, and swim to see how we are progressing. The most exciting thing to see is how much my run has improved. As you all know, I have a herniated disk in my lumbar spine, so a lot of people say I shouldn't even be running. I have had to work up to becoming a fast runner at a slower pace than my teammates. It is sometimes very frustrating. If I feel my back start to twinge I have to slow down, otherwise I will do damage that takes months to undo. Not to mention the pain is excruciating. I will do just about anything to avoid it. So I have to listen to my body and slow down.

 I have worked very hard these past the past 10 months to get my abs and back muscles back in shape from my pregnancy, so I could even handle the run. When I started in December I was running 12 min miles and barely able to even get through 3 miles. I am now happy to report that I am running 8:20 miles and am running an ave of 5-6 miles each time I run WITHOUT ANY BACK PAIN! This is huge for me. It isn't the 7 min miles I was running when I was first in college, but I think I can get back there within the next 2 months. Regardless, I am getting close the running times I need to have to qualify for nationals.

 My first race of the season is next weekend. It is the Icebreaker put on by the Timp Tri Club in American Fork. I have been looking at my times and last years winners times, and I think I actually have a fighting chance to get on the podium and possibly even qualify for nationals at this race. I am very excited for next weekend! After Icebreaker I am doing RAGE in Las Vegas April 21, Irongirl in Las Vegas May 6, and Woman of Steel in AF May 21st. My goal is to qualify at Irongirl, or Woman of Steel. I think I can realistically do it. Hopefully I will be able to qualify at Icebreaker, and then I won't have to worry. If you want to follow my journey to nationals, our team also has a blog that we update. http://ckelite.wordpress.com/

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