Me? A future Ironman... AND a Rookie? Yes sir-ee!

This Sunday I will be competing in Jack and Adam's Rookie Triathlon!

http://www.therookietri.com/

And I have been pondering the question, after 4 or 5 triathlons and duathalons, am I still a Rookie?

When do you go from Newbie (or my preferred spelling Noobie) to Rookie to Amateur to Experienced to Age Grouper to Pro? Where am I in the grand scheme of things in the triathlon world? After about about 5 minutes of pondering, I'm going to say that yes, I'm probably still a Rookie.

As a Rookie though you are always learning. As a Rookie you are always improving. As a Rookie you are always asking the right (perhaps crazy) questions and finding answers. How could that be bad? Heck, I'm a Rookie Future Ironman, and honestly I'm so excited about that. Rookie-Future-Ironman. Could that be the new name of my blog? No, I don't think it's catchy enough.

The Rookie Tri this weekend is just a little dip in the water, about 300 meters, then the bike is 11.1 mile over flat terrain and I've heard a few and rolling hills. The run will be fast, so I've heard -- it is flat and short. I will have it in my head that I'm doing a 5K and I'll actually be doing 2 mi. I'm gunna kill it on the run. I am totally stoked. I'll report how I do on Monday!

Oh and I want to mention how cool it is that the slowest swim time will WIN a free swim clinic courtesy of T3. That's neat.

Anyway, wish me luck!

Current book I'm reading: The Wednesday Letters and Superwomen by Jodi Buren

My First "What Was I Thinking?" Moment

Dear Self,

The illustrious Britney Spears said "I'm a smart person, what ... was I thinking?" when reflecting on her recent psychological trauma and strange behavior. I am saying that to myself after seeing the elevation of the run and bike courses for Ironman St. George. The 112 mile bike course contains two, eh-hem, hills, er--I really mean MOUNTAINS that climb up to almost a mile high. Basically, 1,700 foot elevation gain on the bike. Then a 500+ foot elevation gain on the run. Now when they said that St. George was at 3,000 feet, I took that literally, and I knew I could operate at that altitude. I did not take into consideration the massive hills they might throw at us. And if you take a look at the map pictured here of the St. George bike course, you'll see they are quite massive. I did not expect to be biking at 5,000 feet. Alas, as it turns out, I am. Or, I will be. I'm freaking out just a teeny-tiny bit.

The good news is my first response to seeing this course was "well, at least there are huge down hills after all of those huge up hills." That's my response and I'm sticking to it! Up hills with subsequent kick-backs make it worth the work. I will work, too. Super duper hard. And I will stay positive! I will search for the positive and squeeze every good-thinking bit of energy I can out of it. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it!

In other news, I felt like a wild animal during my workout at Quarry Lake last night. I did a fast 750m wet suit swim in the open water of the Quarry and then a 2+ mile run. For the first time in a long time, I took only 5 seconds to jump into the icy 65 degree water of Quarry Lake. Granted, I had a wet suit on, so it should have been easier to take the initial plunge, but I have to admit even when I have a wet suit I take upwards of 2, 3 to even 5 minutes to get into cold water. I have a sinking sensation that this cryophobia (fear of cold) will not bode well at the upcoming Lonestar Quarter Iron. I know that I will need to be able jump into the cool water of the Gulf. And so I have to find a way to make myself do it. So, I devised a very complex plan in order to bribe myself into getting into cold water. In my head, I said "Ok, Mercedes, if you don't all OUT JUMP into this water in 5 seconds there will be NO POST WORKOUT SMOOTHIE for you!" And so I counted down, part-way through wondering if I would actually jump in, and by the count of 5, I was in, and I felt SO STRONG in the water. On the run afterward, I used the 1.1K loop to help me do a tempo run. I ran the first 1.1K slow, in about 5:30. The next loop was 5:09, the next loop was 4:30, and the next loop was 4:00. Then I did a long cool down. I used the same complex bribing tactic as I did to get myself into the water quickly. In my head I thought "if this repeat isn't at least 20 seconds faster, no SMOOTHIE for you!" And needless to say, I got the smoothie. And it tasted even sweeter than I thought it would.

Current book I'm reading: The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

It's Official: May 1, 2010 - I will be competing in Ironman St George

I did it. I just signed up this morning for the Ironman. I signed up for Ironman St George in Southern Utah. I had heard a bit of buzz about it through friends and on the internet, and I had been thinking about it for a couple of weeks. Since I was 12 years old I have wanted to do this event. I wanted to do an Ironman before I ever even thought about doing a marathon. And so when I found about this new event in Utah, I was extremely excited. So far, I believe Southern Utah is the most beautiful place, aside from Kona, of course, that Ford Ironman has chosen to hold an event. Plus, the date, May 1, 2010, is right before my 27th birthday. I just had a lot of positive, driving-forward and invigorating-type feelings associated with this particular race. So yesterday I found out that it was officially announced. When I read the article, I started to tweak out a bit. My insides were alight. And then when I found out that online registration was open for the inaugural event, I started getting even more nervous. It was all I could think about. I got the exact same feeling that I got when I first read about the Austin Marathon years ago. The moment I read about it, I knew I wanted to do it. I was sure, 100%. Back then, I felt a very poignant mixture of fear, joy and excitement. Today, I felt the same sheer, pure joy was flowing through me as I thought about signing up for this Ironman. I called my mom, and she asked a lot of details about the distances, the nutrition, the training. I stopped her and I was like “Mom, I’m not asking you if you think I can do it. I’m asking if I have your support.” And of course, she said yes. And she said “I think it’s a good idea, but don’t quote me saying that.” I laughed, remembering I had a similar conversation with her the day I decided to do the marathon. And then I said “Mom, I’m going to remember you saying that forever.” This morning, I woke up, hopped online, and signed up for the IRONMAN. I’m doing the Ironman.

2.4 miles swimming

112 miles biking

26.2 miles running

May 1, 2010

I am exhilarated. I just took the first step of many, many more on this journey.