What a journey! I guess it started last June at the
Pflugerville Tri.. How? Well, as I was
racing I was passed up by one racer who just blew by me, and then another, and
they wore the same jersey. Their jersey
had a Moxie Multi-sport name, and I was like Whoa, those dudes are fast! A few miles into the bike a third racer
passed me, and I tried to hang, but had to get smart and backed off.
I ended up doing the Pville in PR fashion,
but first thing on Monday I looked for this Moxie Multi-sport and met my soon
to be coach, Blake Uptain. I started
training with Blake and Moxie in July of 2012, and I had a goal in mind and
that was too do my first Olympic Distance and then a Half-Ironman followed
eventually by a full Ironman.
For 8 months I followed Coach’s training and
changed up my diet dramatically. I began
to eat clean, and my workouts were longer but not as intense. Coach showed me how to rely more on my HR
rather than just going all out. In fact,
he had me running at times where I was running a 12 minute mile, keeping my HR
at a 115-120, and that was super hard. I
think it was harder for me to keep my HR low and slow than to go all out and
have it sky rocket.
After a few months of training, and changing
my diet I quckly lost about 10 pounds and really saw some great gains.
Completed my first Olympic Distance challenge
in September at Tri-Rock and targeted for 3 hours or less.. Completed it in 2:56
so my first PR was set. Shortly after,
headed to Kerrville for my second Olympic Distance, and did even better,
finishing at 2:51.
Lets just say at this point I was
hooked. At this point, my goal was my
first half-iron and was targeting the Longhorn at the end of October, but Coach
said I could finish but probably not do great so we moved my first half to
April, the Galveston 70.3 Ironman. The
training continued and I trained for the Austin 3M Half Marathon and then
followed it up with the Austin Livestrong.
At the Austin Livestrong I let it all out and managed at 1:54 which was
my PR.
The training continued during the long winter
months, and spent a great deal of time in the Pool, running and of course
biking. Many days were spent on the
traininer and my stretching also improved to new highs.
Finally in April the race came and I could
just not wait to get this race under my belt.
I was mostly nervous about the swim, and that ended up being the easiest
part. Rocked out at 36 minute 1.5 mile
swim (Best Ever), and then jumped on the bike for my 56 miles of fun. The nutrition was on point, and I maintained
the HR that Coach had me shoot for. I
kept my hydration up, and managed to ride at over 20 MPH for the 56 miles. The wind was a bit tough on the way back, but
the course was pretty flat. Sure helped
to train on Parmer where it is windy and Hilly.
Coming off the bike, the day got hot and
began the run. The only mistake I really
made at the race was my shoe strings. I
wore my Yankz and had not trained in them, and so one of my feet was a bit
tight and my foot fell asleep. Being
that there was no way I was stopping, I kept trucking and stuck to the
plan. I was shooting for a 10 minute
mile, and managed a 9:59. This is much
slower than my speed, but wanted to make sure I finished and had a good time.
Overall I finished at 5:40 and beat my
targeted time by 20 minutes.
What did I learn during this experience is
that I can achieve anything, and with proper training and nutrition, the end
result is limitless.
Now off to do my first century ride this weekend, going to be participating in The MS150..
