Training is on it's way

After training for the Danskin triathlon two co workers and I decided to continue to push ourselves further. I am now training for the Nike Women's Marathon. I am participating in the full Marathon until I physically need to drop down to the half Marathon training. This weekend I will be running 5 miles at South Mountain. Since the Nike Marathon is in San Francisco We need to practice hills.

I will be running with the Leukemia and Lyphoma Society's Team in Training. we will raise awareness, funds, and hopefully help find a cure.

To learn more about Team in Training please checkout my webage at http:/pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf09/bhadleycq9

Race Day Pictures

Here we are after the race in the now empty transition area. We finished and have received our medals. It was an amazing experience and I cannot wait for my next race. Maybe a half marathon next. We finished in 2 hours, 45 minutes, and 10 seconds. Not bad for our first TRI.

This is a shot of the transition area prerace. It was a mad house. This is were you returned after each leg of the race to prepare for the next leg.
Here we before the race. The water looks so inviting doesn't it. It was 77 degrees the morning of the race.

Finished!!!!!!

I made it. We finished the race successfully. We felt great at the end and now I have a hot shower calling my name then a nap. More to come later including pics.

12 hours and Counting

In 12 hours I should be entering the water to begin the first lag of my triathlon. I am so excited, I have my bag packed and tri-suit laid out. I have a friend coming over to give my bike a once over and then I am going to hit the sack. I am excited and nervous all at once. I have to trust my training and will be successful.

Thank you for your support and encouragement. I will hear your cheers while competing tomorrow.

Preview Picture of Saturday's Race

I received a wonderful treat in the mail yesterday. I homemade card from my friend Erin Matyak. She drew out the scene that will occur Saturday in her famous Stick Figure style. Thank you so much. Your words of encouragement are greatly appreciated.

10 days and counting

So this week I have increased my training and have been pushing myself to my limits and boy can I feel it. It has been hard to keep on track especially in the morning when all I want to do is stay in bed. However, it helps that I have been getting encouraging messages from friends and family. I was very excited to receive a special email yesterday. My cousin Chris sent me a Good Luck email from Iraq. Man, now I have to do well, he said he was going to follow this blog when he can. I am also lucky to have a great friend here at ASU who keeps me motivated and joins me in the pool on occasion. Thank you, Katherine for the all your support. Katherine will also be my contact person at the race. She will have my cell phone so go ahead and give her a call if you want live updates on race day. Remember AZ is 3 hours behind Ohio and Michigan.

Race for the Cheetah- My first 5K

Tina and I signed up to run the Race for the Cheetah 5K to practice for the triathlon. We planned to run the race... I say planned because I made one mistake. When planning to run a 5K race DO NOT leave your inhaler in the car!!! It will make it very difficult to run and breath at the same time. So we mostly walked. But is was a great start to the day and I will make sure to have my inhaler for the triathlon in two weeks.

First Open Water Swim

The dreaded open water swim. Literally sink or swim there is no stoppping halfway because your in the middle of the lake! I swam, slowly but surely, I completed the 400 meter swim. Half of the swim for the Danskin Tri. Things I learned:
1. Open water swim is scary. It is very disorienting to put your head underwater and just see green/brown water infront of you.
2. If you panick at first keep going. It only gets better, I promise.
3. Since the portapotties have long lines everyone uses the lake just before the race (YUCK!!!).
4. It's okay to grab onto a kayak if you need a break. Just don't tip them over. (I did not experience this but it was shared. I did not take a break!)
5. At the end the race I can officially call myself a true "TRIATHLETE". Tim said so, so it must be true.
Words of wisdom from Tim: Write notes on the refrigerator or computer that say: "I am not scared, I'm excited and I LOVE to swim! I am like a dolphin slicing through the water with ease and grace. I will not fight the water I will work with it." Believing is 99% of any successful achievement.

No longer the SheROX triathlon

So the SheRox Triathlon has merged with the Danskin Triathlon and so now I am running the Danskin Triathlon. It also explains why the swim is 800 meters this year instead of the 400 meters it was last year. All of the Danskin races are 800 meters. Man, I joined during the wrong year. Well I think the swimming is going well either way I guess I will find out friday at the practice swim. Today Tempe Town Lake is 74 degrees, the SRC pool is kept between 78 and 82 degrees I am happy I did not spend the money to rent a wetsuit. I think I'll be fine.

20 Days to go....

And the count down has begun. I am so excited about the up coming race and nervous. I really want to do well and hope all the training over the past months pay off. I will bee doing a practice swim on Friday night and a practice 5 K on Saturday. So then it will just be putting everything together. I have to reach how to transition from sport to sport though. I will post again after the practice swim and race.

Completed first half mile swim!!!!!

So today I went to the pool with the intention of trying to swim 14 laps. A half mile/ 800 meter swim is equal to 18 laps. I finished all 18 laps and maybe 19 laps. I lost track and went low to be safe. i also finished the swim in about 45 minutes. I am super excited. I need more practice and would like to be able to easily swim 22 laps by May 9 to prepare for the open swim but I am thrilled so far. I also need to remember to stop swallowing the pool water.

Training- the swim

I love the workouts most of the time though. I struggle with building up my swim endurence but really enjoy swimming. I think the life guards at the pool get a good laugh at my lack of technique though. I basically will do anything to keep moving forward.

How to post comments

Thank you all for the supportive emails I have received. I realize for some of you this blog might be new to you. A few of you have asked how to comment to a posting. Basically left click on the # comments hyperlink. This will take you to a page where you can type and post your thoughts and words of encouragement. I cannot tell you how motivating it is to know my friends and family are supporting me. It pushes me that extra mile (literally). Thank you again and hopefully you will check back for updates. I hope to get some pictures up soon. Maybe my Mom will take some while she's here over the next week ;-)

I am definately lucky to be working towards the triathlon while living in AZ. On Sunday it was sunny and in the high 80's. I decided to go biking. I rode 13 miles around Tempe Town Lake. It was so nice out. I did find that I need to carry more water with me, however. It was time to get a Camelbak anyway. You cannot hydrate enough in the desert, between the heat and the dryness I drink a lot.

Why a Triathlon?

As many of you know I moved to Arizona in July of 2008 and after the hot summer the weather cooled down and I was drawn out doors. I began thinking of an activity to inspire me to spend more time outdoors. I looked in to running first. I could not picture having the motivation to run marathons or even some shorter races. Then I found the SHEROX triathlon. The SHEROX tri is for women and is an sprint race where I will swim .5 miles, bike 13 miles, and then run 3.1 miles. With 2 months left to prepare i believe this is something I can do. My goal... to cross the finish line.