Wake Up Call!

I had my annual physical on Monday, and the came back on Friday to discuss the results. The cholesterol numbers were rather ugly. Cholesterol is a hereditary factor in my family. My father's was bad. My two older sisters deal with it. Over the years I've managed to keep mine down with the amount of endurance training I had done for triathlons. These last few years my endurance athlete lifestyle has been non-existent. My feeble effort at this year's St. Anthony's triathlon was an exercise in going through the motions. A canceled swim was probably the only thing that save me from a DNF. My "race" report can be found here.

Winter was a miserable son of a bitch, and left me totally unmotivated to do much of anything except work on Tae Kwon Do. That has been a very positive thing for me in terms focus, concentration and coordination. I've come a long way since my first class when I swore I had 3 left feet, and couldn't even get past the first two movements of a beginner routine that most people learn in the first 15 minutes of their first class. Now I am just below black belt, and barring horrendous injury, I will attain that rank next June.

This past June I competed in the ATU National Championships and won my division, Red Belt 50+ Female. However not many women start doing Tae Kwon Do in their 50s so my competition was me, myself and I. I showed up, my competition didn't.

National Champion?!

There is a serious flaw in my Tae Kwon Do training in that I don't have the sustained aerobic workout I would get from swimming, biking and running. It's been hard for me to get excited about doing an of those three sports without specific races and goals in mind. After having a long string of successes from 2002 to 2005 I got kind of spoiled. 2005 also burned me out with all the racing and traveling.

Getting back to Friday's discussion with my doctor, his prescription; get back to doing the three sports. Biking and swimming won't be that hard for me. Running is a different story. I have to start all over again. I pulled out a beginner program, and that's what I'm going to follow.

Today was the Westchester Triathlon. My race. I worked as course marshal on the bike course. The weather sucked. It was raining, and the section of road that I was covering had a bunch of metal plates in one part and two nasty potholes. It's not a closed course but the auxiliary cop at my intersection did a good job with all the impatient drivers who had to wait for hoards of cyclists coming through. Most of the amateur racers totally ignored the yellow line rule and went outside to avoid riding over the plates. Not that I blame them, I probably would have done the same thing. The pros took the plates carefully.

As I stood out there in the raining pointing out hazards and cheering for the racers, I thought to myself "I'm so glad I'm not out here in this crap." I felt really sorry for the poor newbies doing their first triathlon. Shortly after the last two cyclists passed by I went back to my car to head back home. I caught up eventually with the sweep car and cop car tailing the last racer. I don't think we were going much more then 5 miles an hour up that hill. That's not even the hardest climb in the race. That comes later. I hope she made it through the race okay.

It's time for me to start thinking like a triathlete again. I have to get over myself in terms of what I used to be able to do. The 55 year old me is slower and heavier then the 51 year old pictured below.



Maybe I can see that weight again, but I think my days of 8:45 miles are behind me. I may have to outlast my fellow baby boomers to have a chance in my age group again. Hopefully in the mean time I can stand myself. I am finding inspiration from a wonderful young woman who calls herself The Unlikely Triathlete. She working on losing weight, and using triathlon as a tool in that journey. I've got three months to clean up my diet, and get my act together. I don't want to go on meds for my cholesterol.

I'm Alive!

I went out on my bike for the first time in ages. I only did 10 miles, but it's a start. Last November stupid me decided I would use my St. A's deferral and enter this years race. I was hoping it would motivate me to train through the winter. It didn't. I spent the winter advancing several belt levels in Tae Kwon Do. I'm now a brown belt. 7 down, 3 to go. I'm hoping I can make red in April.

Back to triathlon. I turn 55 in April. Several years ago I was looking forward to aging up, and kicking butt in a new age group. Now I don't give a crap. I'm going to suck as bad as a 55 year old as I did when I did my last race two years ago. I can probably get my cycling back to something respectable, and even swimming may come back. Running is a whole different story. My aborted attempt at making a running come back last winter left me with the realization that I'm probably going to be a walker for the rest of my life. If I do some how get running again, I'll be lucky if I break an 11:00 minute mile. Gone are the days when I could hold off the competition by staggering through the run at an 8:45 pace.

We'll see doing St. A's reignites the triathlon flame. If it doesn't perhaps I will have to change this blog to Alive and Kicking, and write about my journey to Black Belt.

Alive and Kicking!

Saint Anthony's Triathlon starts in less then 7 hours, and I'm not there. I was supposed to be. A lot happened between December 1, 2007 and April 27, 2008. Also a lot didn't happen between those dates. The things that didn't happen were miles on the bike, and yards in the pool. The miles on foot were an poorly executed attempt at going from a 6:27 marathon walker to a 5:00 marathon runner. What ever possessed me to try something like that in the dead of winter? Because I entered a raffle at the NYC Marathon Expo and won a trip to the Seville Marathon. Unfortunately the Seville Marathon had a 5 hour cut off. Okay so I didn't finish the race. I did 10K and called it a day. I had one heck of a good time in Spain for a week. While New York was getting it's biggest snowfall of the year, I was wandering around Seville with no jacket on.

What I learned in this exercise in futility was that I'm not going to ever be the runner that I once was. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to run 10K without walking a few minutes every mile. At the moment I can live with that. I just didn't feel like spending a lot of money to fly down to Florida to do a triathlon that I was going to be less prepared for then I was last year when I strolled through the race in a very pedestrian 3:27. Last year I was there with Team in Training and I had a blast. This year they didn't need me as a mentor so I would have been there on my own.

I spent this past winter learning a new sport. I'm taking Tae Kwon Do. On Thursday I passed my Yellow Belt test. TDK is challenging for me. Left and right don't come easy for me, and the movements in this sport don't relate to any other sport I've done in the last 25 years. At times it's been frustrating and I feel like a total spazz, but then there are moments where things finally fall into place and I'm right on target. During the sparring portion of the test I did manage to land a few good kicks. Here I'm spot on. My technique still needs a lot of work.

My next belt is orange. I'd love to be able to do it in a month, but we will see how I do with the new forms for that level. KIHOP!!

In the meantime the weather has started warming up, and I'm getting a few miles on the bike. The good news is I'm only a few pounds over goal weight. Those two to four pounds will go soon I'm sure.

Free Meeting!!!

Finally got back to goal weight, so I didn't have to pay. It's been slow taking the weight off this time. Though I have some interesting observations.

1. The weight seems to have come off in different spots then in the past.

2. Some of my skinny clothes still don't fit.

I'm not sure whether I want to try to get down enough to fit into the skinny clothes, though I'd like to fit into the Tommy Bahama capris. Those were too damn expensive!

I will probably maintain current points level for the time being. I wouldn't mind losing a few more pounds before I leave for vacation since I know I will eat more then normal. I certainly will be drinking more wine then normal. Can't help to do that when in wine country.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Last year at this time I still feeling the affects of three slow to heal broken ribs and the immense sorrow of losing my dad suddenly. These two events had made it very challenging to train to walk the Nike Women's Marathon for Team in Training. There had been some weeks where my training for the week simply consisted of showing up for the long group walks. Mentally it was hard to get myself out the door to go for a walk. However 2006 was the year I wanted to finally add the marathon piece to my Team in Training resume, and complete the Triple Crown. So come hell or high water, I was doing a marathon!

The long walks were difficult at times. I was slower then the other women doing Nike, so often I would have nobody to walk with until I'd regroup with one of the coaches for the second part of the walk. Thank goodness for my iPod. Music helped keep me sane on the lonely walks. The other issue was I had trouble with my feet. I had an annoying pain on the outside of the right foot, and lingering plantar fasciitis in my left foot. There were the annoying shin splints that made it hard to run earlier in the year, when i was trying to tri.

The day before my 20 miler I walked into Jack Rabbit Sports in NYC, had them look at me on the treadmill, and switched to a completely different shoe. I was so desperate that I made this huge change, and then went out and walked 20 miles the next day. That's about as close as one can get to breaking the cardinal rule of nothing new on race day. But then again, I don't always follow the sanest path. Fortunately my insane gamble worked, and the pain in my feet was easing.

Now it's almost year since doing Nike, and in less then a month I will be doing it again. I'm hoping to go faster this time. If my training walks are any indicator I should be able to easily beat last year's time. It's been interesting trying to balance cycling and walking. Last year I didn't have that issue. This year I've had to try not to over train. When you're walking 3 days and riding 3 days it's easy to go overboard. I was glad when the Empire State Games were over, because then I didn't have to fret over getting bike miles in.

Another thing that has helped this year is, I've lost most of the weight I'd put on last two years. Returning to Weight Watchers has helped a lot, even if they don't quite know what to do with people like me who can ring up 9 to 11 activity points in a day. (They suggest 4 activity points a day, 28 for the week.) It took awhile to get the metabolism going again. I was starting to think I'd never get back down to goal and would have to set an "old lady's" new goal. However patience paid off. 18.6 pounds down! 1.4 will put me back within 2 pounds of goal so I can stop paying!

I've had two good long walks so far, but I've had to do the last miles alone. Last weekend I did 15 miles. I had company for 10 and did the last 5 by myself. This weekend I again had company for 10, and had to do 7 by myself. The 17 miler ended the same way the 15 miler began last week. Walking in the rain! I think my last mile was the fastest because I was worried about my iPod and cell phone getting wet. I sure never had those issues 25 years ago when doing long runs in the rain.

Last week I picked my "Race Music" play list for my final 5 miles. It's got music that I've liked to listen to before races over the years. It's a mixed bag of rock, classical, new age, and jazz. It was what I was in the mood for last weekend. This weekend I was in the mood for something a little more spiritual so I opted for Handel's Messiah. How many people train to oratorio music? Actually I find Messiah very uplifting, and some of the choruses have good tempo for my walking pace. I could not have timed it better though. As I was completing my last mile the "Hallelujah" Chorus came on. "Hallelujah, Hallelujah! I did it, I did it!" I got through the 17 miles at a consistent 15 minute pace. (My apologies to Mr. Handel.)

Two more long walks to go. 14 miles next week, and then the big 20 the week after. Then the week after that John and I leave for a week's vacation in San Francisco and wine country.

Thanks to Volunteers!

Tonight there was a dinner for the cycling volunteers for the Empire State Games. I was invited even though I only helped a little at the criterium when my race was done. Though I guess volunteering to subject myself to four days of Open Division racing for the sake of having a Hudson Valley women's team was something.

It was nice to meet a number of the people who were out there each day making sure the riders were safe. I met the people who would blow a whistle when I came down the snaky descent on Cat Ridge Rd. This was their way of letting people down the hill know that riders were coming, or in my case most of the time, a rider was coming.

I was talking to one woman and we introduced ourselves. When I told her my name was Polly she said "Oh you're Polly on the Lightspeed. I was the one on the corner who was cheering for you, and you told me your name." I told how much I appreciated her cheering for me as I came by each time. It turns out she rides a Lightspeed too, so it was an easy way to spot me, and cheer. Thanks Mary for cheering me on in my lonely moments of riding OTB. (off the back)




I was not the only one at the dinner who had raced. I also got to meet Pat, who is 73 years old and did the time trial. In some ways she reminds me of Sister Madonna, the 74 year old triathlete who I want to be like when I'm in my 70s. Pat shared her story about Mark taking her out on the time trial course and building up from 4 miles to the complete 10. Her time was 32:43. My time was 28:32. 4 minutes seems like a lot of time, but considering the twenty year age difference and she just started doing time trials this year, I thought that was damn good. If I only 4 minutes of my time in 20 years I'll be thrilled. I've already lost well over 4 minutes on my 10K run time from 2003 to 2005. I don't even want to think about much more I will have lost when I start trying to run again in earnest.

Special thanks go to Mark Lalloo and Marlene Perez for gathering all these wonderful people to come help out. Without volunteers, races don't happen. So next time you're racing remember to say thanks. If you're not racing, then give something back by being a volunteer.

I guess I'm going to have to ride some extra miles tomorrow because the party ended with this:

Post ESG Thoughts and a Few Pictures

Today we did our Team in Training walk from Kensico Dam Park. It's funny, I've lived in this area for over 25 years, and this is the first time I've actually driven my car up here. A few times in the 80s when I ran marathons we would run from Eastchester to the dam and back for our 20 miler. I also did the first Danskin Women's triathlon in New York. It finished at the dam. I hadn't been back there until a few weeks ago when the Empire State Games opening ceremony took place there.

The Games had been pushed to the background as I became chess geek for a week, and I refocused on my walk training. However Hudson Valley's hometown massacre never quite goes away when you have guys like JP looking for women for 2008 already. I'm guilty of that too! I'm looking to retire from Open competition and go back to winning medals in Masters, so when I rode with Lynn on Sunday and Monday, I'm thinking "young fresh blood". When I mentioned racing at Empires in 2008 to Lynn she tells me JP said the exact same thing.

I got a "Certificate of Athletic Achievement" from the Westchester County Executive for participating in the Games. Woo hoo! If he only knew what I went through for four days. Maybe instead of mailing out certificates to all the participating athletes they could have taken the postage money and spent a couple more dollars on our uniforms. Sorry I'm being a little snarky, but geez the home team getting their butts kicked kinda sucked. As Mark aptly pointed out, our guys know the Bronx River Parkway, and how did Western come back from 5th place and win the team competition short two riders? *sigh*

Here are some pictures from our club time trial, and the "Tour de Torture" (ESG road race) taken by Jodee Novak. Great shots. I can't believe she took the road race shots from the top of Oak Brook Rd. I'm actually smiling in some of them.

USI Time Trial:
Oh crap this hurts!!!
































Empire State Games Road Race:
Are We having fun yet?