Lightning Speed

In my last post I was talking about how I was having a hard time getting faster. After my workout yesterday I can tell you a different story. Here's my recipe to a new personal speed record:

Ingredients:

• A week full of dealing with the most ridiculous stupidities at work
• Wanting to leave on time on Friday to go exercise but having to work overtime because of ingredient no. 1
• Coming home on Friday just to realize that there's no time left for a workout before little brother comes for a visit
• Watching the husband getting serious on the indoor exercise bike
• A dark park
• A 7 km long distance to cover 
• Being hungry

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together and lace up your running shoes. Get going thinking about how much easier your job could be if everybody else was properly doing theirs. Entering the park with really dim lighting and wondering about what some of the creepy looking people are doing there who are not walking their dogs or jogging. 

My Results:

• A 5:30 min/km pace as opposed to a 6:50/km pace
• Me panting like a dog
• Me wondering if I have been secretly slacking during all my prior workouts
• Me putting aside the worries about the job until next week

Competition

It's been well over two weeks since I resumed my training. I have worked out according to my schedule, have completed the hardest and longest work outs of the three month plan last week and I feel good about that. I haven't really talked about it a lot in this blog but my husband and I have picked up our triathlon training at the same time. In many ways this is a great constellation. We can train together, each of us understands that we have to make time everyday to exercise- in short: we share a hobby and goal. While I theoretically understand that women and men have different physical capabilities, it drives me nuts that my husband seems to be getting better at the sports much faster than I am. It is one thing that he is faster and stronger than me anyways, but what is frustrating to me is that he is shaving off time of his workouts all the time and I am not. We went swimming on Sunday and although we started learning the freestyle stroke together, he finishes his 1.5 km swim 7 minutes before me. Since I am somewhat competitive, you can imagine how much fun I have swimming my lanes while he's hanging out by the pool... I know we have completely different backgrounds as far as our athleticism goes, but come on! It's the same with the running and biking as well. Because he's getting faster so effortlessly, we don't do many runs together but every once in a while I'll get a "pity-run" where he goes my pace with me. He doesn't mind that but in my mind I am just obsessing about why I can't just go a little faster. I guess that the one good thing is that I try really hard to get better because I see his results. Sometimes I just wish my training partner would be another 29 year old women who just started exercising and is looking back on many years of childhood Ballett-lessons.

Finally :-)

Today was the day! I went out and did my first workout in 17 days. Yesterday I was already not feeling sick anymore and I decided that I would pick up my routine again today. This morning I got up and although it is a cold day, it is beautiful blue-skies fall day and I just had to go for a run. Since I didn't know how I would feel and how it would go, I just laced up my shoes with no real intentions for this run. I just wanted to get going and see what it feels like. I went down to the river, started to jog and thoroughly enjoyed being out and about. My breathing was good, no chest pain, no coughing and lots of sun and colored leaves. I decided to run a loop, crossing the river over one bridge and returning on another. That course is between 6 and 7 km long and I wasn't really going to check on my pace or anything. I felt so good that I was really surprised to see my heartrate when I checked it after I ran up the ramp to the bridge. The watch displayed a shockingly high 188 bpm! I don't think I have ever seen my heartrate go that high. And because I felt so good about my run I would have never guessed that it would be that high. I continued to go slower to reach an acceptable heartrate-level but it only went down to about 170 bpm which is still higher than normal for me. It took me 45 minutes to finish the run and I am happy that I went. I know that being sick can affect your heartrate and I will have to monitor it as I go on with my workouts. I wonder how long it will be until it really goes back to an acceptable range. The plan is to return to my usual 6 days of running, swimming and biking this week and I feel confident that I can pick up pretty much where I left two weeks ago. I might have to go a little slower and I am not going to push really hard but I am definitely ready to get going!

Day 9

Nine consecutive days of not exercising... And no end of this in sight. In fact I just had to cancel our swim training for Sunday morning. This is getting old! On the up side: The scale told me this morning that I have lost weight. The pounds must have found an exit strategy through my nose, I suppose. And it's official: The "Mixed Double" or "Gemischtes Doppel" is signed up for the relay marathon in Duesseldorf, Germany in 2012. The bill just got here this morning, so at least that is taken care of. Can't wait to get my shoes on and going again. The weather is pretty nice and warm for this time of the year as well. It's probably going to be raining and freezing when I am ready to tri ;-) again... Any good tips on fighting a head cold anybody??

My company these days

What I Like about Working Out

I still don't feel better since posting this- in fact I am not at work but sitting on the sofa waiting for my doctor's appointment. Needless to say I haven't been working out and am not sure when I will be able to pick up my routine again. In light of my last post where I said that I get annoyed when I can't exercise, I did some thinking and tried to figure out what exactly it is that gets me so upset. When I am fit it's not always with pure pleasure that I am looking forward to my daily workouts. I usually exercise in the afternoon or the early evening and some days I really struggle to convince myself that it is necessary for me to get up and going. When I come home from work I am hungry and sometimes tired, I see piles of laundry laying around and there's 10.000 reasons why I should not be working out. Still, that never stops me from picking up my bike or lacing on my shoes and I always do my workouts as planned. My mood and attitude towards my designated workout of the day shifts completely the second that I start it. There's no more sofa to sit on and the laundry has long been forgotten. I focus on myself, my body, my thoughts and my goals and I actually can let go and relax. When exercising I am truly with myself and all the other worries and struggles of the day are pushed aside for a little while. Especially when running I am able to let my thoughts wander and I have oftentimes been able to come up with solutions to problems or answers to questions that concerned me. In a way, my workouts are very luxurious "me times" that I have been fitting into every single day lately and I have been benefitting from them in all aspects of my life outside of fitness as well. I am definitely overall less stressed and don't let problems at work or in other relationships get at me so much. It is almost as if I am not only physically strengthening my body but my mind as well. On top of that, at the end of every workout there's a feeling of achievement that is very enjoyable. There's so many things all of us have to do every day that they don't stand out anymore. We all have to work, we all have to pay our bills, we all have to take care of a million things but at the end of the day we don't say to ourselves: "Well done! Great job taking out the trash!" At the end of my exercises I usually do that, though. I feel that I have achieved something. Even though it's not measurable, it is special to me that I have gone through the effort of doing this particular workout. That's why I miss working out and I hope that this doctor will fix my cold so that I can continue my program very soon.

Workout Schedule vs. Reality

Since my first triathlon is not going to be until next July I am currently not under any pressure to get my workouts in as planned. However, I am somewhat ambitious and tend to get annoyed if I don't manage to check off all the routines I have sketched out. Right now I follow a 3-month program designed to get the athlete to cover a sprint distance triathlon when finished. But when I started into the second month of this plan I got sick and had to pause for a couple of days. Things like this happen and I wasn't too worried about it. Today is the last day of a long holiday weekend and once again, I haven't worked out in 4 days because I am feeling sick. It is really hard to make the decision to stay at home for me right now, although I know it's much better to give the body a break and be completely fit before resuming the workouts. I feel so lazy and when I see people jogging, it drives me nuts. I guess it's a good thing that I want to be active and exercising but it's stupid that I can't let go and just relax while sipping at my tea. A year ago I would have never thought that I would feel this way about a few days of not working out but obviously this has changed. Originally I was going to start doing stuff again tomorrow but I think I am going to have to see how I feel and maybe still have to put it off. I just need to wrap my head around the fact that I am not losing out but that I am giving myself enough time to recover fully to be able to put all my energy back into the training. 

Marathon Plans

Hello! I am back… although, I haven’t really been gone anywhere. As much as I like my blog and talking about triathlons here, it somehow was not possible for me to sit down and take a couple of minutes to let you all know how the training has been going lately. But there are some exciting news: Some of my friends, my mom, my husband, my brother and I have signed up to run a relay marathon next spring. What started out as a (somewhat drunk) conversation about exercising at a friend’s birthday party turned into the eight of us participating in the marathon. The race is one of the biggest marathons in Germany and each team consisting of four members splits up the total of 42,195 km (26.2 miles) in four legs. Everybody will be running right around 10km (6 miles) and we decided that the slower team has to provide the beer for the after marathon-party. I guess that my run-training next spring is coming together. I will start the official training for my half marathon in early April in January 2012. After the half marathon I am going to do the relay race in late April and the first Olympic distance triathlon will be in early July. The focus on the running earlier in the year still gives me plenty of time to turn to the swim and bike training later although I am going to continue to incorporate the two throughout. It’s going to be interesting how I will manage to run and bike in the winter though. Time and weather will tell and I will continue to let you know about it here!

Back on Track

I got sick last week and couldn't follow my workout schedule as planned. My rest day last week was on Tuesday and Wednesday was really busy so I ended up not exercising on both days. As it turned out I woke up sick on Thursday and haven't been able to pick up my routine until Sunday. Finally my husband and I decided to go for a swim yesterday. It felt good to be doing something again and I am eager to continue my training today. Right now I am just sitting around the house waiting for some delivery guys who are going to drop off our new dining room table. The shipping company will be here anytime between 7 am and 1 pm according to their notification. My plan is to go for a run as soon as they have left and I am going to see how it goes. I am shooting for anywhere between 0:40 minutes and one hour depending how I feel. According to my training schedule, this week should be my recovery week which means that training length and intensity are being reduced by approximately 40%. But since I really didn't do anything this past week, I sort of already had a recovery week. If I am still feeling good after the run I will do some weight training (hyye33333333333333  dfffffffffffffffffc my cat says "Hello!") focusing on the chest and back. One of the other things on my to-do list for the day is looking up vegan Thanksgiving recipes. In Germany we don't celebrate Thanksgiving but with my husband being American we like to invite people over for both countries' holidays. We'll do a big Thanksgiving dinner this year and I want to start trying out some dishes before we'll actually serve them to our guests. The "Old Fashioned Lentil Loaf" we had yesterday wasn't bad but a little too mushy for my taste. Knowing there's going to be a lot of big dinners coming up always serves as an extra motivation for me to workout even more. Ok, off to getting my Monday chores done. Have a good week everyone!  

Inspiration II

There's no way I would be exercising so much if it wasn't for my mother in law who really got me started with all this. My husband and I live in Germany but he is originally from San Diego in Southern California where my in laws live. That means I don't get to see my mother in law a whole lot but somehow we connect through our shared interests. My mom in law is one fit lady as she has always been working out and you can tell by the way she looks. It must have been around two years ago now that she got into the p90x workout routines and when we talked on the phone she would always give me updates on her progress. She would let me know that she was doing 50 push ups in one workout but that this number was supposed to increase as she went on with the program. "That's incredibly impressive!" I thought and that I would not be able to do that. As the months passed by, my husband's mom continuously let us know how she was improving and I finally went online to look up the dvds she was talking about. The next thing I knew is that I had ordered the program and was out to buy the dumbbells and other gear needed for the routines. I still vividly remember calling my mother in law after I finished my first p90x-week, telling her that I couldn't even do many of the exercises. She was very encouraging and told me that it was fine to do less repetitions or to do a slightly different and therefore lighter version of the move. It was fun to have somebody to talk to about the workout. And it turned out to be a big encouragement for me to know that she had done the program as well. I didn't want to quit and have to tell her so. After I finished the 90 day program we visited my in laws this summer and my mother in law and I jokingly compared our results while our husbands were just rolling their eyes. While it's not easy to  live extremely far away from family I am grateful for having such a good relationship with my in laws. Despite our different cultural backgrounds we just connected and our shared passions don't end with exercising. My mother in law and I have found that it's much easier to stay slim, if we feed the calories we're not supposed to eat to our beloved pets!

My super fit mother in law and her Corgi

 My belly cat

Finishing in Hawaii

As we gathered in front of the computer at 7 pm on Saturday to watch the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, the athletes started off their long day at 7 am local time in Kona with the swim in the clear Pacific Ocean. We had some friends over who are not into triathlons and it was fun talking about the sport in a larger group and telling them what the Ironman was all about. The pro race was going to take around 8 hours for the men and closer to 9 hours for the women. Our friends still had other plans for the night and left long before the winners of the contest would be revealed but my brother, husband and I were set on following the whole pro race. To say the least, it was more than impressive to see how fast those guys are going! Man, they barely slow down at the aid stations to grab some water or other nutrition. Seeing the athletes either excel or fall apart during the marathon was really intense. But at 3 am and after 8 consecutive hours of staring at the screen, any sporting event can be only so fascinating. The Pina Coladas definitely didn't help me staying awake and I went to bed after the male winner of the race was established. My brother stayed over that night and during breakfast on Sunday morning we turned on the computer once again and watched the age groupers finish. 14:30 hours after we had initially started to watch the Ironman, we picked up again and followed the athletes crossing the finish line. Those people, as little as I know about them, will stay in my memory for much longer than anything I had seen the night before. There were the two 45 and 50 year old friends dancing together as they crossed the finish line. Many people could barely walk as they came in. One lady was crying in pain and couldn't stop but she had refused to give up before she completed the whole race. There was the guy who held a "Will You Marry Me?" sign and the man who tripped and fell inches before the line. The oldest competitor came in at 84 years old and an 81 year old men won his age group minutes before his 80 year old competitor. The crowd went insane for every single finisher and the female pro athlete and winner of this year's race, Chrissie Wellington, was right there at the finish line to hug and congratulate most of the finishers. Finishing the race also means that the famous announcer Mike Reilly  calls out the finisher's name and oftentimes a short story about that person, but what everyone wants to hear is him screaming out "You Are An Ironman!". The most heart-breaking story of the night was the lady who came in just 4 seconds after the cut-off time at 17:00 hours. Mike Reilly was running next to her to get her over the line and the crowd was pushing her down the final stretch with their chants but the poor lady couldn't make it in time. I don't think she was so happy but the audience and the announcer called her an "Ironman in our hearts". That's what I like about triathlon: it's not about winning, but about getting out and being part of it. After watching the Ironman my husband and I went out for a run and talked about how we felt inspired by what we had just seen. These people and their finishes were by far the best part of the whole broadcast and maybe I will change my Ironman-watching-approach for 2012 and turn it into a Hawaiian brunch.

Clothes / Girls' Stuff

As many of you might know I have been losing quite some weight lately. And don't get me wrong, I am more than happy about that fact. Then again, I have serious problems when I am standing in my closet trying to find stuff that fits me anymore. And I am not fishing for  compliments here, it has really become hard for me to assemble my daily outfits. I know there's a solution to this problem: go shopping! Buy new clothes! "Yeah! Fun!" You might think, but not, if you have actually been doing this for quite some time and you constantly need more new clothes. Let me clarify by telling you this little anectdote: On April 29, 2011 (I precisely remember this because that's the day that Prince William and Catherine got married and my mom and I met up to watch it on TV) I showed my mom bags full of pants and shirts I had just bought for the summer. All was exciting and fun because I had already lost weight at that point and after the long winter I was getting my wardrobe ready for the warmer time of the year. I had found shorts and cute tank tops and they were all a size or so smaller than the clothes I was wearing before. My mom liked the stuff I picked, I was happy and we poured another glass of champagne and went about our wedding celebration brunch. Then we went to visit my in-laws in the US a month later and I did some clothes shopping there because everything was so much cheaper. Again, I could go down one size and I was thrilled. After we returned from our trip I continued losing weight and the clothes I bought in April started getting somewhat too lose on me. Slowly but surely this slimming waist of mine was becoming a serious financial burden. It's nice to buy clothes that you can actually wear for a season or two, but if their obsolete after a couple of months? I told myself that I would buy one nicer item each month and get a few cheaper basics so that I would have enough outfits for work at least. That's what I have been doing since. I am writing this post today because I am sitting here in my newest "nice item of the month": a pair of Levi's jeans that I have purchased today. The thing is that these pants are actually too tight, I think. Because all the apparel was too big so soon after I initially got it, I thought today that I should just buy the next smaller size for once. Of course they fit and they look good but when I sit down they're just a little too tight to be comfortable. I hope this will serve as an extra motivation to lose another pound or so. That should be enough for me to be able to breathe in deeply in October's "nice" purchase!

Getting Ready for Hawaii

I am really excited because I will be watching the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii Saturday night. It's the first time that I really pay attention to this event and I am looking forward to a night of Hawaiian snacks and great sports on TV. Because of the ridiculous time-difference the broadcast here in Germany starts at 12:50 am. My preparation plan definitely calls for a Saturday afternoon nap! Shouldn't be  too hard because I will also do a swim early in the morning  and that should tire me out enough. My race plan also calls for some coconutty and pineapply refreshments in solid and fluid form. I am not quite sure yet what exactly I am going to make, but we'll probably have some cocktails and fruit platters. Pineapple cupcakes and a coconut-mousse might be whipped up. Isn't that a relaxing preparation plan for the Hawaii Ironman?

Nutrition

This bell pepper-sweet potato-tomato soup is what I just had for lunch. I made it from scratch for last night's dinner and topped off the leftovers with some arugula today. In my day to day life I pay relative close attention to what I eat because I am vegan and eat no animal products. I adopted the vegan diet over three years ago, so I know pretty much exactly what I can eat as far as that goes. When it comes to the nutritional requirements of my new more active lifestyle, I find that I am somewhat clueless oftentimes. In every magazine and workout-book you find the same information: the body generates energy from carbohydrates during an endurance workout. During the exercise muscle tissue breaks down and the body needs protein to be able to rebuild the tissue and become stronger during that process. On top of that one needs to ingest "good" fats. That's basically a very short wrap up of the things I've learned about nutrients and their role in fueling the body. And then I am left with a million questions: How much energy do I burn during a one hour exercise? (I rarely exercise longer than 1:15h/day.) Do I burn the same amount of calories during a swim and a run? How big is the difference in calories burnt? How long before an exercise should I be eating? What source of carbs is the best one? The list goes on and on and while I am wondering about all this, I still want to lose weight before I start in the triathlons next year. Because I am the type of person that likes to plan everything out (you should see my workout plans and journals...) this confusion regarding my diet gets a little frustrating. I feel that I could be doing better if I just knew exactly what to take in at which point.  Based on the books, the right nutrition for a specific athlete is usually figured out by trying different things based on the scientific knowledge that's out. Not everybody reacts the same way after eating or drinking the same foods during training.  For me that means that it's basically going to take some time to learn what works and what doesn't. My quest must be to pay close attention to the signs I receive from my body and somehow connect those to my specific nutritional needs at the time. This notion is new to me since I have usually only paid attention to whether I was hungry or not. And all this writing about nutrition and food has made me kind of hungry now- I guess it's dinner time!

Training Recap

This weekend was a special one as far as my training goes because it included two 'first times'. As I've told you in my last post I started off this weekend doing my first brick workout on Friday. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I did a 1:50 h bike ride followed by a short 10 minute run. I dropped my bike off, changed into my running gear and dashed outside the door for the run. I know that I am not a fast runner but I felt as if I was going incredibly fast at first- way too fast. I had read before that coming off the bike, the runner's legs want to go faster than they should and that it takes some time to adjust the rhythm. I experienced that and found that I was just starting to feel more comfortable when I was almost finishing my jog around the block. I was still happy to be done after two hours of working out and am looking forward to getting more experienced at my bricks in the months to come.

Saturday morning I went for a swim at a local public pool that I had not been to before. It opened at 8 am and I was there shortly after. There were already quite a few swimmers, but it wasn't crowded and everybody could comfortably swim in their own lane. My plan called for a 25 minute swim only but I was so glad to be having so much space in the pool that I stayed in the water and did the full 1.5 km (0.9 mile) Olympic distance swim for the first time. It took me 45 minutes and afterwards I was very pleased with my work outs so far. Although I was considering to take Sunday off, I did a short 40 minute run first thing in the morning. It was another beautiful warm morning and I just enjoyed to be out in the still sleepy and quiet city. The fellow joggers and people walking their dogs in the park all seemed to be fairly content themselves. At least that's the impression I got and it sent me off to a perfect fall-Sunday.

Transitions

The transitions between the swim/bike and bike/run leg of a triathlon are often called the fourth discipline of the sport. You have to train for a long time to shave off a few minutes of your swim, bike or run but if you mess up your transition and add precious minutes to your race, all the training goes down the drain. That’s why triathletes have to practice their transitions. I will do my first brick training today, meaning that I will combine two of the sports in one workout for the first time. My training plan calls for an hour long bike ride followed by a short 10 minute run. This training is supposed to get the body used to consecutively doing the different sports. My living room is going to serve as the transition area where I will set up everything I need for the run. I am also going to get everything ready that I might need during my transition such as a towel and something to drink. Knowing me, I will also have to incorporate a short bathroom visit. Since that extra stop would really add some time to my overall race results, I should probably start training not having to use the restroom for an extended period of time…

Motivation

Clearly I am not the type of person that is motivated to go out and exercise for no good reason. Obviously being fit and healthy is a very good reason but it has always been easy to deny these facts. That way I have been trying for many years to get into a steady exercise routine. But somehow the fit, healthy and skinny argument wasn't strong enough to get me going and I always ended up quitting my exercise routines after a short while. Since I came up with my plan to get into triathlons, things have drastically changed for me. Whenever I feel that it would be much nicer not to put on my running shoes, I think of the race I want to do and I get moving. Before starting a run, bike ride or swim, I always have a distance in mind that I want to go on that day. Pretty much every single time that I am in the middle of my workout, there is a little voice inside my head that tells me to stop running or cycling before I reach my designated goal. "Why don't I do 30 km instead of 40 and get home earlier to start cooking?" The debate goes on but so far I could always convince myself to continue and finish my workout as planned. Being so involved with this inner monologue probably helps me finishing the workouts because I just go on while I am debating. While thinking of me doing the triathlon next to my husband and brother really gets me off the sofa, I have come to realize that working out has become a daily habit just like brushing my teeth. I don't really think about wether or not I will exercise, it's more a question of when I can fit it in. Being active more often actually makes working out easier. Another thing is that I don't stop working out anymore because I skipped my routines for a while. Knowing that it's not a big deal when I am super busy and can't exercise for ten days is a great relieve. I will hopefully have many years to come with plenty of time to work out. No need to quit right away. 

With that said here's some tricks that work for me when I need to convince myself that I should be working out:

• Come up with a goal to be reached by a certain date and remind yourself of it (lose x kg, do 10 push ups, run 10 km etc.)
• Put on workout clothes first thing in the morning/right after work. Once I wear my gear I am more likely to workout later.
• Make a plan and put it up where you can see it. Cross workouts off the plan once they're completed.
• Let people know what you're up to. Tell co-workers, family and friends what you are doing. They'll ask you how it's going and you need to stick with your routine to be able to tell them.
• Do something you would have never thought that you could do. You might not become the best tennis player or triathlete but you can always do your best. It's more fun when you prove to yourself that you can do it!

Bonking in the Alps

I spend the last week on holiday in the german Alps. My parents, brother, husband and I went to the small village of Oberstdorf from where we embarked on long hikes each day. After the many hours of hiking we rewarded ourselves with delicious bavarian food and lots of beer in one of the traditional german restaurants in town. Obviously I didn't get any of my usual training routines in but we all burned tons of calories every day and even tried to fit in some core training during our hikes as you can see in the picture.

Somehow my brother, husband, and I thought that it was a good idea to hike to the top of the highest mountain in the area on the last day of our vacation. My parents opted to stay in town when we started our 10 km (6 mile) long journey to the summit of the "Nebelhorn". Oberstdorf is situated at an elevation of 828 meters (2716 feet) and we had to climb 1396 meters (4580 feet) to the summit. We did basically follow the cable car that brings tourists up and down the mountain. The first stop of the lift is at 1280 meters (4199 feet). There's another station at 1932 meters (6338 feet) before it reaches the summit at 2224 meters (7296 feet). On the sign in Oberstdorf it said that it would take hikers 5 hours to get all the way to the top. Off we went with our semi-professional hiking gear. I was the only one wearing hiking boots while the two guys put on their regular running shoes. The first part of the ascend was a so called "Geological Teaching Path" and it was situated right next to a waterfall. It was misty and wet and we had to jump over big tree roots and climb rocks and ladders that had been installed so that one could cross the  stream. This part of the hike took us up to the station at 1280 meters from where we continued to walk on a well maintained hiking path that was wide enough for cars to drive on.

You cannot see the summit of the mountain in the picture since it's to the left of the frame. The path continued to go straight for a little while before it would then wind its way up in very steep slopes.

From that point of the hike on it was nothing but up up up. We would soon be above the timberline and I fell behind my husband and brother.

It was a tiring walk but it didn't feel different from a run at first. I was sweating and my heartrate went up and as usual I was slower than the guys.

We got higher and higher and our first goal was the second station of the cable car that you can see in the picture below.

As we got higher up I started taking rests after each serpentine to catch my breath for the next slope. And then something that I had only read about to this point happened to me. I was bonking. When an endurance athlete bonks the glycogen stores in her liver and muscles are depleted. This condition causes sudden fatigue and loss of energy. That is exactly what I experienced- the key-word being "sudden". My legs started to shake and I felt the need to just sit down. By that time we were about 10 minutes away from the station where they had restaurants and shops. I knew that I couldn't just stay at the side of the road and I also knew that eating something would fuel me up again. I obviously made it to the restaurant and in record speed ingested a pretzel, an apple, two candy bars and an energy drink. Another record was the prize the mountain-restaurant charged for this snack... Before we left in the morning all I had was one bread roll and I had really underestimated the strain a hike like this would put on my body. After this much needed food break (the boys ate something as well) we continued our trip to the summit. By now we were on a rocky road that took us all the way up.

Despite our break it only took us three hours to reach the summit and the beautiful view was well worth the effort. Since we came back from our tour and descended the mountain by cable car, I have researched a little online and I found out that they do a run up the mountain every year. It took the winner just under 53 minutes to get all the way up in 2011. Now that is impressive! 

Distances

Friday night I went to my brother's going away party since he's going to move out of town to go to college. The cool thing was that a lot of people at the party came up to me and asked me about my training because they had read about it on this blog. That gave me plenty of opportunity to talk about triathlon and I was a happy girl : ). One of my brother's friends said that he had to look up triathlon distances when reading about my goals so he would know what I was actually trying to do next year. I am sorry for causing confusion and having people second guess what an "Olympic" distance triathlon is. So here's the stats for everyone:

Sprint distance:
Swim: 0.75 km (0.5 miles)
Bike: 20 km (12 miles)
Run: 5 km (3 miles)

Olympic distance:
Swim: 1.5 km (0.93 miles)
Bike: 40 km (24.8 miles)
Run: 10 km (6.2 miles)

On another note: I had mentioned that exercising makes me sleep like a rock here. Well, I had a few drinks at the party and mixed with my post-training fatigue that made me fall asleep in a deck chair that night. My brother transferred me to his bed which I don't remember and the next thing I know is that I woke up when it was light out. I was fully dressed next to a strange man and it took me a second to figure out where I was. It turns out that I slept through the whole rest of the party and when my husband wanted to wake me up to go home I didn't respond at all. Him and my brother decided then to let me stay there. Of course my brother was the strange men next to whom I was waking up. I then walked home at 7:30 am in the morning and was pretty well rested. 

Note to almost 30 year old self: Make sure to closely watch what you drink when you haven't had a lot of alcohol due to increased physical activity lately...

Expectations

As I entertained the thought of taking up triathlon training, I expected my daily routine to change. I knew that I needed to make more time to work-out. I figured that I had to focus on what foods I take in. All these things I had read in books.

Here's a few things that I did not anticipate:

1. I sleep like a baby- or better: a rock. Since I started training my bed time went down from around 11 pm to between 9 and 10 pm and I fall asleep the second the light is turned off. Oftentimes I used to wake up before my alarm goes off in the mornings but now I am literally catapulted out of my dreams every morning by my wonderful cell-phone alarm.
2. Body lotion is my new best friend. It turns out that skin gets somewhat dry from taking two showers a day and swimming in chlorine water all the time.
3. Any type of sport seems so much more interesting to me. When I come across other people playing soccer in the park, I stare at them as if I was trying to find an endangered species. I even caught myself watching a Darts tournament on TV the other day.
4. I know what numbers the sports channels are on.
5. There's always tons of laundry waiting to be washed. Bike stuff, running stuff, towels... It never ends. Especially if you don't own 10 sets to change for each sport.
6. I have a more realistic understanding of what it takes for a woman to be muscular. When I see a toned and fit woman I won't think of her as a freak of nature but I respect her for the hard work that stands behind that look. That also means that I have not excuse anymore. Unfortunately I have to stop claiming that "I am just not that skinny"...

1st Morning Run

Training for a triathlon I have to make time to swim, bike, and run plus I do strength training and stretching. When I go to work in the mornings I do leave the house shortly before 7 am and I usually return home between 2 and 3 pm. That gives me enough time to do my workouts in the afternoon but lately I have been skipping other chores by always putting my workouts first. Right now I am staring at a huge pile of laundry that needs to be ironed just to give you an example. I figured that I have to fit in some of my workouts before I leave for work to get all the things done that won't just disappear because I am into exercising. Well, I wouldn't say that I necessarily am a morning person and I have been hesitant to set my alarm earlier just to go running. But yesterday was the day that I gave a morning run a shot. To be honest I must admit that I didn't have to go to work normal time. I did have to leave the house for a meeting at 10:30 am. So I wanted to be back from my run by nine to be able to shower and eat before leaving. I decided to just go for a very short 3 km run down by the Rhine river. When I left the house at around 7:50 the streets were busy with people rushing to work. School kids were everywhere and I felt great because I was on my way to do something nice. I got to the river and settled in to a nice slow jog. There were just a few other people in the park. Some were running, others were walking their dogs. I would say that I definitely have to get used to be working out so early in the day but although this was just a very short run, the overall experience was great. I even stayed down there for my stretching which I usually do at home because I don't feel comfortable stretching in the park around all the other people but yesterday, I was pretty much alone and having a great time. What I hadn't expected was that the whole rest of the day I felt great because I had already gotten a workout in and didn't have to worry about when I would be able to do it.

It was a great start of my week and I am sure that I will be slowly trying to do more of my workouts in the mornings. Even before I have to go to work.

Ironman

A lot of people seem to associate triathlon with the Ironman. The so called Ironman-triathlon is a long distance event consisting of a 3.86 km (2.4 mile) swim, a 180.2 km (112 mile) bike ride topped off by a marathon (42.195 km/ 26.2 miles). It was first held in Hawaii in 1978 and was still called the Iron Man back then. By now Ironman is a trademark and only races licensed by the World Triathlon Corporation are officially called Ironman. All other races covering the same distance are not "Ironman" races but long distance triathlons. To be able to participate in the Ironman World Series in Hawaii one has to qualify by placing high enough in their age group in one of the other Ironman-events that take place worldwide. Many more athletes try to get into the prestigious race in Hawaii each year than will actually be able to start there. The German triathlete Andreas Raelert holds the world record over the long distance with 07:41:33. However, he established that record in a race (Challenge Roth, Germany, 2011) not licensed by the World Triathlon Corporation and subsequently did not qualify for Kona (triathlon-slang for the Hawaii Ironman) that way. I am sure he's not too worried about it since the professional athletes plan their seasons according to the races they want to do and if he plans to do Hawaii this year (October 8, 2011) he probably has his act together and knows what he's doing.

Coming back to my opening sentence, I will take you through a typical conversation I've had with co-workers, acquaintances, friends etc. since I started telling them I was attempting to do a triathlon next year:

Me: "I've been pretty active lately and hope to be doing my first triathlon next year!"

Other person looking me up and down checking out my waistline and overall physique: "Really?! That's insane! I am really impressed. But don't you have to train like A LOT for that?"

Me: "Yeah, but I think I can do it. I mean I need to see how I like it but I want to start off doing a sprint distance first..."

Other person somewhat confused: "Wait, you mean there's other races than the Ironman?"

Me: "Of course! There's all kinds of distances and I want to get my first experience doing a..."

Usually by that point I notice a very, very sharp decline in interest in the conversation. It seems that a lot of folks seem to think that any other than Ironman-distance triathlon is somewhat boring and for sure not the real deal. Sometimes it seems like a "why do you even bother to tell us" type of deal. Of course I am exaggerating a bit here, but you would be surprised to see how many people give me that reaction. I am not trying to talk about people not knowing the technical details of triathlon race distances. What I find funny is that my attempt of getting off the couch and doing something seems not worth mentioning to some. In fact it would be sensational news if I trained for the 140.6-mile race (and subsequently probably killed myself), but a mere sprint or Olympic distance tri is really nothing to brag about.

What I realized in pondering about this reaction I have received is that exercising is a very egocentric thing to do. You take time just for yourself. Household chores, errands, social gatherings may all come short because you decide to invest time to reach your personal fitness goals. It's about you, your body, your mind. Do you feel like getting out now? Is it too warm or cold for you? Have you eaten enough before? Should you wait and digest a little longer before you go? Do you go for an hour or two? How do your legs feel? Does your shoulder ache? In this microcosmos everything revolves around the person exercising and that's the perspective one has to take a step back from when talking to others. Nobody else is so wrapped up in the training and goals to be reached. That's why a short race like a sprint triathlon might not seem as interesting to the athlete's social environment. (That could be a reason for an "athlete" to write a blog.) 

So, I guess I just thought it was funny that I triggered the initial thought in many people that I want to do an Ironman in  just a few months from now. Imagining the thought process evoked in peoples' minds during the split second after I mentioned my goals makes me smile. Other people with a stronger will to reach the unthinkable might set their goals as high. But for now I am sticking with my plan and am happy to be getting off the couch everyday!

Inspiration

Q: How do you come up with doing triathlons if you're a person like me? 

A: You need to spend time watching your younger brother racing!

I would assume that not many people just go out and say "I am going to do triathlons!" if they have never done endurance sports before. I think that I wouldn't if it wasn't for my brother who did his first marathon in 2010 and has been racing in triathlons since. He is actually 6 years younger and contrary to me seems to just have that gift to be very good at endurance sports. Of course he is training hard and our mom always worries about him going a little too crazy with the running, cycling and swimming.

This season he did two Olympic distance tris. He finished his first one in 2:30 in July and last Saturday he came in 14th in his age group and 64th overall (out of over 500) in 2:18. It was a really hot day and his wave started at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Poor triathletes! 

Before the start

Off they go

It is so much fun watching him and I am always very very nervous when I am at his races. My husband tells me that he's doing fine, which - of course - he is, but I just wish I could be out there and make sure everything is a-ok the whole time. When he came into T2 on Saturday (transition from bike to run) his calf was cramping and I think I had bigger issues with this than him.

Cramping

T2

I was such a wreck that I ended up taking pictures of a fence when I was trying to capture him. 

Happy finisher!

What is great about him being so involved with the sport is that I always have my personal go-to guy for any type of questions and concerns. He is more experienced with all aspects of the sport ranging from nutrition to stretching and I am extremely happy to have my personal advisor. He is also tremendously encouraging and patient with his older sister. He would never tell me that I am too slow or doing bad. I am looking forward to being in races together with him next year. It will be great to have him standing by the course after he finished to see his sister do the rest (read: major chunk) of her race. So this post goes out to my favorite little brother! I am so proud of you and I love you more than you think! 

Lessons Learned

As you probably know I did my first run yesterday. It was a so called 'company run' and one could only sign up as a team of at least three from a company. 61 people from my company did it but I only knew one whom I never saw because it was so crowded and crazy at the place.

So here's the stats:

Course length: 5.78 km (3.59 miles)

My finish time: 00:37:56

Minutes per km: 06:54

Km/h: 8.70

My finishing places are as follows:

• All racers: 2972 out of 3727
• Women: 588 out of 1030
• Women in my age group: 85 out of 146

Positive Aspects:

• I reached my goal of staying under 40 minutes.
• I ran a steady pace and felt pretty good throughout the run.
• I was not nervous or intimidated.
• I met two women from my company who run marathons and do triathlons.
• I got a medal!
• After the run I congratulated a girl who was running right in front of me the whole time. I tried to catch her in the end but couldn't make it. She was really happy that somebody acknowledged her accomplishment.
• The run showed me that I seem not to be a naturally gifted runner (I kind of knew that before) and that really encourages me to train more and do better next time.
• I thought it was fun being in a more competitive race situation.
• I did this after only two months of running.

Something that really bugged me:

• A million people passed by me during the race.
• The people that I ended up running by didn't look as athletic as I had hoped. I was part of the *funny* crowd.
• It was freaking cold! That wasn't a problem during the run but right before and after.

Lessons learned:

• Don't live in Germany if you want a real summer.
• Train more if you want to be faster.
• Make sure there's a bathroom close by right before the start!
• Check on your camera before leaving!

Freestyle Swim

After I decided to pick up triathlon-training I realized that I had to learn how to swim Freestyle. An instructional book was purchased, many videos were watched online, and of course I went out and got myself a fancy Speedo swim suit, a pair of goggles, and a swim cap. After all, that was what the people in the videos were wearing. Since I always felt pretty comfortable in the water, never had any issues with diving or breast-stroking longer distances, I figured it wouldn't be so hard to learn how to do the Freestyle stroke. Before I hit the pool on my first training day I looked up three specific exercises that I was going to do that were supposed to get me used to the stroke. My plan was to start off with one part of the technique and add more and more components until I had it down before starting actually attempting to swim longer distances. I had read that a good command of the technique is key to achieving speed and distance goals later.

I felt very fancy getting into the water at the local community pool with my gear on (btw: the swim suit colors match the bike). That fancy feeling didn't last for so long. Doing the individual moves was pretty easy and came natural to me, but whenever I tried to put it all together and attempted to swim a whole lap I was totally spent. I was gasping for air and felt  incredibly slow. After about one hour I left the pool and was completely demoralized. I couldn't fathom being able to be swimming any type of distance that way. Although I know that professional coaching would be a tremendous help with my biking and running, I knew that the swimming would be going nowhere without a trainer. Again, I went online but this time I didn't look up "how-to-videos" but personal trainers that would help me with my swimming. I found a coach who is a triathlete himself and he offered to meet on a Sunday morning at 8:30 for an evaluation of my capabilities. I was honest with him and told him that my Freestyle stroke at that point resembled a paddling dog in the water but he was cool about it and said that he has seen a lot and wasn't going to be shocked very easily. So we met up and he made me swim a couple of laps to see where we would be starting. Of course this guy looks insanely muscular and fit and when he moves his pinky-finger ten muscles twitch and show all over his body. Needless to say I felt pretty awkward performing my Chihuahua-Freestyle in front of him... I don't know if he was just being nice or if he was honest but he said that my swim didn't actually look so bad and he started coaching me by giving me one movement to focus on and then swim a lap with that move in mind. I have since had two lessons and will have three more consecutive meetings with him. After this initial intensive coaching phase he suggested a check-up meeting here and there until I will actually be racing next year. So far, these two tiny meetings have made a world of difference. I cannot believe what an impact it had to have him evaluate and coach me! I have since completed a 1,25 km (0.8 miles) Freestyle swim (remember: I initially was barely swimming two laps!) and I feel confident about what I am doing. Of course I am far from perfect but I know what problems to tackle and how to go about it. It's unbelievable and in my early stages of this whole endeavor gives me confidence that I can improve my performance in all disciplines. The work with a coach in this particular area also shows me that it will probably be a good investment to incorporate professionally supervised training units for all three disciplines. It's so easy to spend money on gear and gadgets while in many cases just a few hours with a coach would be 1000 times more beneficial!

Goals

By now you know that I want to participate in a triathlon next summer. I figured that I should specify what events I want to do. This list might be expanded but in posting it here, I am also trying to hold myself just a little bit more accountable for what I am trying to accomplish!

1. 5,5k run this upcoming Thursday. The run is going to be my first "official" race! Am very excited! Anything under 0:40 minutes will be a good result for me.
2. A half marathon next spring.
3. A sprint distance triathlon just to get a feel for competing in a Tri.
4. Participating in a Olympic distance triathlon in early July 2012.
5. If that goes well and I didn't break my leg by that time and I find that I enjoy the sport, I would like to do one more Olympic distance race later in the season.

Now it's official. I better get going...

Bike Anxiety

One of the first major investments I made after deciding to pick up triathlon training was a road bike. In fact, this is the first bike I ever bought since the ones I had before were city cruisers that I got from my parents as a child or that were somehow passed on to me. It was pretty exiting to go to the bike store and tell the guy that I wanted to do a triathlon but figured I would start cycling on a road bike since they are cheaper than the actual tri-bikes and I didn't know if I was going to stick with the sport. After the guy measured me an told me about the different sizes of bikes I ended up purchasing a basic road bike from the German company Cube. It is in fact a "Cube Aerial" with an aluminum frame.  Additional purchases that day were a bike helmet, pedals, spare tubes, a pump, bottle holders and bottles, a bib and bike pants,  and after my first ride on the bike a saddle that would allow my sit bones to actually fit on it. The funny thing is that the saddle is more like a mountain bike/touring model but it's really comfortable and I figured that for somebody like me who is just learning to handle a road bike it's not going to have any negative effects as far as speed and performance goes. So here I go, all proud of my new bike and ready to ride. Well... what I've since figured out is that I am uncomfortable riding the bike around the many other bikers out there. I mean the guys (I rarely see other women) that just look so professional in their gear and on their crazy bikes. I always feel very intimidated like I don't belong out on the road with them. I am really still learning the basics such as properly shifting my gears and I don't wear the clip-on-pedal-shoes yet. The fastest I ever went on the bike were 34kmh (21mph) and it makes me feel anxious and awkward to be out there. It's not actually a fear of riding the bike itself, it's more of a fear of making a total idiot of myself pretending to be road biking... I have talked to people about it and everybody said that I shouldn't worry about it but somehow I can't help myself but feel a little lost on the bike. Although I am not a swimmer and runner either it just feels more natural to be in the pool and the park. A big difference is that I can actually see what the other people around me are doing since they are not just passing by me in lightning speed which gives me more of a perspective on their and my abilities. This bike anxiety is not going to stop me from learning to handle and race my bike but so far it makes the riding the hardest part of my triathlon experience. I will keep you posted on my progress and hopefully will be able to overcome this unique condition!

The Beginnings

It was a weird thing for me to say "I am training for a triathlon!" To be honest, it was weird just to be thinking that. That is because I have never had any ambitions (after my brief Judo-career between the age of 8 and 9) to compete in any type of sport. Outside of PE classes I have not been a very active kid. Sure, I would play in the backyard. I owned a bike, roller skates (the Inline skates of the 80s), and a skateboard but those were the toys that, after I unwrapped and used them for about a week, would be sitting somewhere in a place that my mom found because they weren't supposed to take up any room while I didn't use them. I should also take some time to talk about PE classes very briefly: Do you remember how they made two kids pick the team members for the games in PE? Well, I would say I wasn't always the last kid picked but definitely amongst the last 30% chosen to be on the team. It's not that I was completely untalented. I guess I was doing okay but I didn't have that natural ability or gift other kids had who were just good athletes. The yearly track and field contest held, that all German elementary schools do would point out my mediocracy. I would never get the silver- or gold-status so many of my fellow students would regularly obtain. Every year I would come home as a "Participant". Yeah! The one thing however, I was relatively good at was dancing. I did Ballet and Jazz Dance for many years and my flexibility was above average. I stopped taking dance lessons when I was about 16 and didn't pick up a steady work-out routine until basically now. Of course there were the occasional gym-memberships and Aerobics classes. I did Pilates and went jogging here and there but there's nothing I can list here that was an outstanding achievement as far as exercising goes.

Looking back, my recent interest in health and sports was probably triggered three years ago when I went vegan. I stopped eating all animal products and that in turn made me eat a lot of carbs. Much more than I had eaten before. And slowly but surely those extra pounds crept on until I weighed about 8kg (17lbs) more that I ever had before. Finally I decided that this excess weight was not acceptable anymore and about 6 months ago, I started a work out routine that was introduced to me by my mother in law. She had been achieving great results as far as weight loss and overall fitness with the help of the p90x work out programs. It's a regimen that consists of 12 work outs on DVDs. You're supposed to do them 6 times a week for 90 days to complete the whole cycle. I figured that I could give it a shot and as cheesy as it sounds, it worked. I vividly remember the first day of my journey sometime in February. There I was, standing in my living room in front of the TV, the curtains closed and the dumb bells ready. Man, that thing kicked my butt! Sometimes I would just be sitting in front of the TV laughing because I couldn't believe what I was supposed to be doing. "Walking push ups?" Sure! But I stuck with it and trusted the instructor guy when he said "Rome wasn't build in a day..." This fitness program, as silly as it sounds, made me realize that I can do anything, if I just took up the training. Nothing is going to happen over night and I might not be naturally talented but I have two healthy legs and arms and I can swim, bike, and run if I want to. After finishing the p90x I am now in pretty good shape. I lost 10kg(22lbs) so far, I do push ups and pull ups and most important, I feel fit and enjoy working out. It has become and integral part of my life style. Six days a week I make time to exercise and it's fun! So here I go, planning to do a triathlon next summer!