Originally, I had wanted to take the opportunity of unemployment to hike across the state on New York on the Appalachian Trail. After taking some suggestions from experienced hikers, a shorter 2-night and 2-day trip was formulated to start at the Delaware Water Gap, hike to camping on Lake Owassa, then continue on to High Point, NJ. Then came Hurricane Irene and totally screwed up my hiking party.
Not really. It turned out to be a fantastic day for a hike and a lesson to me that I am not prepared to go backpacking overnight yet. Five hours of hiking was exhaustive, feels great though.
The night before the hike Lauren, Beth Anne, and I went to go see Flogging Molly somewhere in New Jersey. It's been a while though since we've gone to a show and some essential things were forgotten. Beth Anne and Lauren forgot to wear real shoes instead of flip flops and I forgot my ear plugs. Lauren obtained a split toe nail from someone stomping on her foot and my ears haven't stopped ringing since the opening band's first song. This had an effect on our hiking preparation.
Lauren couldn't wear regular hiking boots because the toe space was too tight and it hurt her to even try to get the shoe on her foot. She decided to wear these special water walking shoes which have a large space for the toes but are a size too big. I don't actually own hiking boots so wore ninja addidas slip-ons. After looking up directions in a trail guide of the Appalachian Trail that Beth Anne bought for the hike, we headed out to Fedora Cafe to pick up some picnic sandwiches then got on the road to the Delaware Water Gap (forgetting the trail guide at home, oops).
Along the way we stopped in Buttzville for a pitstop and some snacks: Lauren got some fries and I got a whole pickle!
Continuing along, we made it to the trailhead by 1:30 and proceeded to hike the absolutely beautiful, serene, lush, and wrong trail to Sunfish Pond.
We hiked along a creek, crossing over about six times then hiked through a rock bog and climbed a slate garden to reach one of New Jersey's seven natural wonders. Once we got to the pond we looked more closely at the map to discover the true trail was much more wide and used white blazes not lichen green. Oops.
Lunch was delicious and we shared our sandwich bread with the fish and frogs and tadpoles on a bench IN the pond. While munching I saw a kingfisher dive into the water and pull up a pumpkinseed sunfish. Some hikers were walking by and were talking about p values.
After finishing our lunch we returned to the car via the Appalachian Trail, for real this time. We spotted a family of deer and chipmunks on the return trip.
At the trailhead we tried to retrace how we missed the trail in the beginning but couldn't figure out how we went wrong. Doesn't matter, we made it to the trail and we got to hike about three miles on the trail that stretches from Georgia all the way to Maine. It's kind of amazing to be there and to feel part of something that connects so many states and crosses so many borders.
There's something called desensitization treatment. It's used to help people overcome their phobias. It starts with talking about the object feared in a calm environment. Then you start talking about what it is about the object that causes the fear, the anxiety level of the phobic is heightened purposefully and then lowered by relaxation exercises. Then you introduce pictures which will heighten anxiety and then relax again.
Then you go to a place where the phobic can see the object but is far enough removed where the anxiety level is heightened but the phobic does not reach the point of an anxiety attack (hyperventilation, the rapture). Then the anxiety is calmed again by relaxation exercises.
Then you move closer,
relax,
closer,
relax,
Then you get to a point to tactile desensitization. The phobic touches the object,
and again relaxes.
Then the phobic picks up the spider and doesn't faint.
Or with someone afraid of flying: aural stimuli, visual stimuli, then tactile stimuli (sitting in the plane without moving), then active stimuli (flying with Xanax).
And this is how I managed to touch and hold a big hairy spider with really big fangs. First, I put it on this list and started talking to people about my arachnophobia. Then I went to the insectroplis and looked at pictures of spiders (after a failed attempt to go touch one at a pet store in Baltimore). Then I looked at all of the spiders in their glass tanks. They sit very still so that they a) do not attract predators and b) so they do not alert their prey; they also do not metabolize energy well. At 2:09 pm the Insectroplis holds a "Touch Presentation" of a tarantula, empire scorpion, hissing cockroach, and a millipede. I declined to hold any of the other insects and focused on not getting bitten by the rose hair tarantula, lovingly named Rosie.
People ask me what I'm doing (like the football cheerleading chant, "everywhere we go-oh people want to know-oh who we are-RRR, so we tell them!") with my time because I'm unemployed. So I tell them about the list. Some friends have decided to start their own lists, too!
Being unemployed for the past two months has allowed me to focus on training and knitting and quilting... oh and that other little detail, finding and obtaining employment. But this triathlon item didn't make it to the list within the last two months of unemployment (unlike the obtaining employment item, which has made it onto my 32x32 list). This one actually developed a little after my 18 mile ride with Matt last September. We got to go so fast and I fell in love with riding again (I used to ride all over the place when I lived in Long Beach as a teenager). In conjunction, I love swimming, doesn't matter where or when, I want to be in or on the water. When I was working at AU, I would go swimming during lunch with my buddies Kim and Bruce. Bruce does triathlons all the time and suggested that because I'm a pretty strong swimmer that I might enjoy doing a tri. A seed was planted.
There are different types of triathlons: sprints, olympics, and iron-mans. They have swimming, riding, and running components. The length of the components depends on the type of triathlon. The Nation's Triathlon is an Olympic length. The swim is 1400 meters, the bike is 40K, and the run is 10K. It happens in DC. What I didn't realize is that I had signed up for an event on the 10 year anniversary of September 11th, the year that Osama Bin Laden was murdered. oi.
Last February, triathlon training began. First, I had to put together the tools with which to train: bike, running shoes, swim cap, goggles, bike lock, helmet, running clothes, ankle socks. My buddy Sarah said I could borrow her bike. She lives in LA and the bike was on the east coast and she's pregnant (not that pregnant ladies can't ride, just that it's suggested that they don't). It's a cherry-red Schwin touring bike from 1987 made of steel. Heavy and fast. I needed to do a little maintenance on it. I went to Garrison's Cyclery for new tubes and lessons on how to change them myself. First, you insert the lever in between the rim and the tire to take the tire off the wheel. Then take out the tube, insert the new tube, only partially filled with air. Then, insert the air nozzle into the wheel rim. In order to fit the tire on the wheel, you have to use your palms to work it around, to finally roll the last bit into place. Then make sure that the tire is balanced all around the wheel and fill up the tire to the noted PSI on the tire (mine is 90, but the guy at Revolution Cycles says that on a hot day to fill it a little more and on a winter day to fill it a little less). They also suggested that I fill the tires weekly. After visiting my parents in Connecticut sometime in the spring, I reclaimed the helmet I wore when I was 15. After the Bikes and Bluegrass ride with the DC Chain Gang the brakes came to my immediate attention. They were very noisy and needed to be replaced. At the beginning of the summer, everyone and their mother takes their bike(s) to the local bike shop for a tune up, since most cyclists don't ride in the ice and snow. When I walked into Wooden Wheels there were about fifty bikes ahead of me but the guys there did me a serious solid and replaced my brakes on the spot. For a moment I thought to make the brakes (which were petrified and belonged in a museum) into a necklace, but they smelled funny.
Since March I have been frequenting the Urban Bicycle Project in the small wonderful to maintain Dottie. This is what I have named the bike, after Pee Wee's Great Adventure
They taught me how to pump up my tires again (I know, such an idiot, but I hadn't pumped up a tire in more than a decade) and how to clean the cassette which I had dirtied by annihilating a bungee cord in the teeth on 4 Mile Run. Once, I went to the Bicycle Church in Philly to tune the spokes in my wheels because they were making clicking noises. Because I transport Dottie in the back of my car, the spokes get out of tune quickly. Joe, who took me to Bike Church, says that I probably have to get new wheels anyway, but they're 27-inch wheels, which are difficult to obtain, or so I've heard.
My parents gave me carte blanc to get running equipment for my birthday. I went to the Delaware Running Company for my kicks and got a bunch of clothes on sale. They took about an hour to help me find the right shoes. Turns out, I need dude shoes because my feet are so wide (which I blame on all the barefoot summers on the boat and a general dislike of shoes and socks).
I bought a membership to the local YMCA to use their pool. The downtown pool is one of the oldest pools on the east coast, seriously. It still has the old tiles and remnants of when it was a men-only organization. The only problem is that it's a 25 YARD pool, not meters, so when I started training there I got my pacing wrong because the pool length wasn't what I assumed. Regardless, it is a fine pool and I enjoy swimming there. Most times there are open lanes and the kids are respectful and friendly. The adolescent lifeguards helped me figure out how to put on a swim cap, which I had never done before because it makes my head look small. I always imagined that swim caps kept your hair dry. Not true. They just make you more aerodynamic and give you swimmer's ear. I had never felt an ear problem like after wearing that stupid thing on my head. Lately, I've just been putting my hair in a braid.
My training was very sporadic up until May when I wrote out a training plan. I sent it to Bruce and he gave me suggestions about how to train so that I don't hurt myself. Don't run more than every other day. Start the run training by finding a baseline and then work to increase running time incrementally. So I found that I could run for two songs and every time I'd go out, I'd increase my running time by a minute from then. At my peak I could run continuously for 43 minutes then I caught a bug and lost my fitness. It hasn't been the same since. I set up to run the Philly Livestrong 10K because I thought it would be good practice. Even though I bonked around 4miles, I still completed the course.
I know that running is my weaker suit, which is the opposite of most triathletes whose weaker suit is the swim. Bruce took me to the Wilson High School pool in DC to give me some swim training in the middle of the summer. He made suggestions on how to improve my stroke. I needed to get my hand in the water like a chicken wing faster because there is less resistance in the water, making the stroke more efficient. My arms are not super-strong, so he suggested doing free-style laps with a float for my legs and to only use my arms to pull myself through the water. It's definitely improved my stroke since. He also swam directly behind me and hit my feet with his hands and then swam beside me in the lane to bump me. He didn't kick me in the face, which I heard happens all the time in the swim portion of the race. Before Hurricane Irene I did a 1.2-mile open water swim in the Long Island Sound. It was very choppy and I wasn't wearing goggles so I breast stroked the entire way and my shoulders kind of hated me for a day afterwards.
Bruce also had me on a bit of a diet and it seriously fucked with my serenity. I've tried a bunch of different ways to screw around with my diet and haven't found a solution yet. For a while I went gluten-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free. For another little while I was trying to stay with the diet Bruce suggested which was 6 servings of protein, 4 servings of vegetables, 2 carbs, 2 fruits, and 1 serving of dairy. But I found myself bingeing and fantasizing about purging. After a 40-mile ride Labor Day weekend, and a week of eating a lot of sweets, I realized I needed to eat healthy for the week before Nations. I was seriously dragging ass, which wasn't the case when I went on similar rides earlier in the summer when I was eating healthy.
On the Nation's Triathlon website they told me I'm in Group 28, Bib #4843, which scheduled to get me in the water in between 7:45 and 8:30AM. All competitors had to reach the 7.5 mile mark (which is a little bit beyond the DC border on Canal Road) by 10:30 AM. My buddy Tiffany is competing in the race with her Team in Training from LA. She's in Group #26 though and super fast. In my head I always imagined that we'd be swimming together and that she'd slow down so that we could do the whole thing side-by-side. After the Philly 10K, I realize that fast people don't want to go slow. I have to get faster!
Then, total bummer, the swim portion was cancelled due to rains during the preceding week. They a) make stronger currents, b) flood sewage plants and make the yuck spill into the river. But, it meant that all the athletes could complete the entire course and no one was cut off!
I stayed with the Greater Los Angeles Team in Training in Woodley Park. The day before the race, we went to the expo at the hotel to pick up our race packets and I bought a triathlon suit (it matches my shoes, which I actually think I need to get replaced). Then the team got on the shuttle bus and I rode Dottie down to the transition area (West Potomac Park) and we picked up Tiffany's bike from the transportation people. We slapped on the pedals, pumped up the tires, and took them out for a spin down Independence Avenue. We then left the bikes in the transition area and walked back up to Woodley Park through Foggy Bottom and Dupont Circle. I felt like my tour-guide skills maybe were like payment in kind for putting me up all weekend.
On the day of the event we woke up at 4AM, I ate cornbread and fried chicken for breakfast and Tiffany had her race-day-fare of yogurt and fruit (which would make me so ill. To eat dairy before exercise? YUCK-O). We were on the shuttle bus to get to the transition area by 5AM. Set up my stuff, checked out the exits, got my number written on my left arm and my age tagged on my left calf, went for a run to warm up, stretched, met up with Bruce, waited until 7AM when the first corral of athletes was allowed to line up at the start gate. Then, everyone progressed in waves (34 total, based on age and sex). Once the wave got to the start gate, we were let into the transition area in groups of 15 every 15 seconds. All athletes were wearing chips on our ankles to keep our personal times.
Once the whistle blew, we ran to our bikes, picked up the bike, put on my helmet, and started to walk the bike out of the transition area (which smelled worse than the portapotties from rain saturation). By the time my wave got to the transition area, the first wave of athletes was already returning. Basically, I got onto the course around 8AM.
The ride took us onto Rock Creek Parkway then to the Whitehurst Freeway, took a left onto Canal Road, then another left onto Clara Barton Parkway, out past the creepy government buildings (we were actually kind of close to the Billy Goat Trail but not as far as dinking I think) then back again. Critter report: deer, monarch butterflies, speed demons. A coach from Virginia died by Chain Bridge from cardiac arrest; he was rushed to Sibley Hospital but was DOA. The turn around on Clara Barton was pretty tight and I saw a few people with scrapes from taking it too quickly. The best part of the race yesterday was coming out of the turn on the Whitehurst Freeway heading towards Foggy Bottom and the road was empty save for bikes. The sun was hazy on the horizon of an alternate universe where there was no such thing as a car.
The run was nominal, my ipod broke while I was in Connecticut a few weeks ago and my phone also broke the day before the race, so I had nothing to listen to and couldn't get into a rhythm, walked most of the way. Lastly, I started to recognize people by their butts.
Crossed the finish line and was given a medallion, water, and a cold wet towel. Dazed and walking around, Melissa directed me to where I could find the Team in Training tent. Met up with Tiffany, Audrey, and Aaron and INHALED a plate of black beans and chicken. We got our times from the timing tent. My initial transition was 0:03, ride was 1:25, transition to run 0:06, and run 1:27; for a total of 3:01. This is not the most awesome time, BUT means that next event I am going to shave significant amounts of time off!
We wandered to the transition area and picked up our bikes, Tiffany dropped hers off with the people who are sending it back to lala and then we sat around and tried to figure out the logistics of getting back to the hotel since I still had Dottie. One of her mentees, Art, offered to ride Dottie up to the hotel if we would transport the cases of Muscle Milk they grifted from the recovery tent. Agreed to that deal, with alacrity! When we got back to the hotel, we showered and layed around in towels on clean sheets for about an hour. When I tried to get up and out of bed, I lost my balance and bounced off the bed onto my bubkuss. then I went shopping.
