Cap Tex Triathlon 2014

What a fantastic experience!  When we arrived to the expo on Sunday, we could feel the excitement and anticipation.  Professional and elite athletes mingled with us age-groupers. 

We had to place our bikes in the transition area the day before the race.  Yes, the race is that big.  You don't bring your bike down on the morning of the event ... it has to spend the night outdoors making friends with all the other bikes.

Our TNT coach Todd takes excellent photos of his athletes prior to and during the race.  Smart, funny, talented, and an Ironman.  Our other coach Tanya (also an Ironman) couldn't make it to the race this year, and we missed her verbal encouragement on the race course.

Todd shows Matt and Brock how to do the proper can-can warm-up.

The morning of the race, we got to watch some of the professional athletes swim and transition to the bike prior to the start of our age group waves.

Reese Power.

Putting on a wetsuit is hard work.  It's the first event of the triathlon.

Matt is ready to rock this race.

Look at his excellent form!

Relaxed and ready to have some fun!

Bombs away!

And we're out of the water ready to run .3 mile to the bike transition area ...

Matt was the only Kansas TNT athlete to finish this race, as lightning cut the rest of our races short.  He rocked his first Olympic distance triathlon in 3:08.  Like a boss.

Ready for a 9 hour drive home ...

Hell yes! Practice tri at El Dorado Lake a smashing success! (Katie)

Our tri team completed a part-Olympic, part-sprint distance triathlon yesterday at El Dorado Lake:  a one-mile swim, 24-mile bike ride (hills and wind!!), and a 3 mile run.  We all managed to bring proper nutrition and plenty of fluids, and none of us bonked or had to use our coaches' water bottles this time.  Go, team!

Here's me on my new bike!  I got the clipless pedals and shoes on Friday, and I love them! Thanks to Matt and Coach Todd and Coach Tanya for patiently encouraging me to get the proper equipment for this training.  I felt so good on yesterday's bike ride, I couldn't believe how good I felt after 24 miles.

And Matt always does well on the bike.  He can smoke all of us.  Thank goodness for the swim, so I can get a head start. :-)

We are so ready to race!!!

New bike and first triathlon of the season

Well, friends, a lot has happened since my last post.  First and foremost, I learned on April 4 that I earned tenure and promotion at my university.  Woohoo!!  After the way 2013 tried to kick my ass, I kicked right back last summer as I prepared my dossiers for submission.  The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done" served as a backdrop to my work and my tri training last year.  I still love it:

After Matt and I celebrated this accomplishment, my dad surprised us by driving down for a visit.  Then the three of us went to the Bicycle Pedaler where I did what I'd been planning to do since last summer.  In my mom's hospital room, after my last tri of the season, my parents celebrated my birthday by giving me a starter fund for a road bike (so I could quit using my hybrid during races and training).  My mom told me to go out right then and purchase a bike, but I hesitated.  Newly single and unsure of how long I'd have my job prior to earning tenure, I wanted to wait. 

On April 5, I stopped waiting, and I got myself a road bike!  I don't have a photo yet, but here's a link to an old ad for the bike.  If my mom were still here, I know she'd love it.  Matt and I went for a couple rides before the Spring Migration Triathlon this past Sunday ... a triathlon that we prepared for on Saturday by standing at 21st and Wanamaker in Topeka, raising funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Eight of us raised $2300.00 in 6 hours.  Woot!  Thanks, Topeka!

The Spring Migration Tri was a blast.  Matt, Brock, and I all performed well and finished within minutes of each other.  The swim was indoors, the bike was outdoors and flat (a little windy), and the run was hilly.  With our coach Todd, my dad, and my aunt cheering us on, we finished before the high winds, thunderstorms, and snow (!!) moved in later in the day. 

Today I had another kickass swim with my coach Angie and teammate David.  She knows how to get the best out of us with lots of strength drills, hypoxic work, and distance sets.  What a great couple of weeks it's been!

Hard core swimming (Katie)

Matt and I are both feeling healthy this week.  Yay!  While he does his workouts with the TNT group and on his own at the downtown Y, I do some of my training with the Wichita Area Masters Swim club. 

Today our coach (Angie) gave us a timed 1000m swim with each 5th 50 being a non-free stroke.  Even though I will  never do backstroke in a triathlon (breaststroke is my recovery stroke of choice), I opted for backstroke because it allows me to breathe freely, stretch out my arms, and work opposing muscles from my freestyle.

Today, my teammate David was there, and since he's pretty competitive, we pushed each other on this timed event.  We started off fast, and we didn't let up--even on the "recovery" 50s.  I felt good and strong, and we both had fun stealing the lead back and forth from one another.  He's a stronger freestyler than me, but I am stronger at backstroke and breaststroke (I think we're about even in butterfly). 

Normally on long distance freestyle swims, he takes the lead and I can never get it back from him, but today we were neck and neck the whole way, which made both of us swim faster.  We finished in 17 minutes, 25 seconds. 

And that was just part of our 3000 meter workout today.  The hardest part.  But not the only part. 

Matt and I are looking forward to going for a swim with my dad tomorrow.  He swam in high school and college but hasn't been in the water for awhile.  After my mom got sick last year, he spent most of his free time with her in the hospital (his strength is amazing!).  Even though I know he's nervous about people seeing him in his swimsuit (he doesn't need to be), I think he's also excited about getting back into the water ... and even maybe swimming in the Sunflower Games this July in Topeka.

It's going to be a fun weekend!

Training Update (Matt)

I got Monday off from training. Tuesday I swam 1000 yards in 25.17 minutes. Today (Wednesday) I did spin for 30 minutes (123454321) -- tough.  Then we ran 30 minutes. Good workouts -- got me feeling like I did something. Tomorrow is 1 hour swim. Friday is 5k for time.

My (Matt's) swim today at the downtown Y

Jumped into the pool by 2:00 pm.
started with SKIPS (free, kick board, breaststroke, pulls, free) 100 yards each.
Next was sets of 100s
I swam a total of 4 sets = 2500 yards including SKIPS
Done by 4:00 pm
It has been a good day. Plus, the Shockers won. Everything is right in the world.

Tallying our Totals

As of today, here are our training stats (keeping in mind that we've both spent several days battling colds these first three weeks):

Distance swum
Katie: 20,500 meters
Matthew: 10,750 yards

Hours cycled (indoors)
Katie: 3 hours
Matthew:  3 hours

Miles run
Katie: 13 miles
Matthew:  23 miles

I think we're both over our colds, so let the hard core training begin! 

Let the real training begin ... (Katie)

Yesterday's bike-run was twice as long as last Sunday's, and my legs are feeling it today.  We were on those spin bikes for 90 minutes, followed by a 20 minute run.  Whew!  Matt and I both had a tall glass of chocolate milk after practice.  Best recovery nutrition out there, according to Coach Todd.  Today is a "recovery day," so I will recover by shoveling a bit of snow--hopefully the last of the season. 

Week 2 (Katie)

Well, Matt and I have both felt a little sick this past week.  Matt took most of the week off from training to recuperate, and I took a day off and took some days easy.  But today we both did our swims ... Matt swam a full mile, which is pretty amazing considering that he just began swimming a few months ago!  I did my regular 3000m distance and felt pretty good about that.  My masters swim coach Angie gave me a great swim workout yesterday morning too.  Tomorrow, we'll do our Sunday cycle-run at the Y after church.  Probably no Five Guys after the workout this week.  Maybe some homemade chili instead.  The cold weather has returned, and chili sounds pretty darn good right now.

Week 1 (Katie)

Matthew and I survived week one of training.  Matt actually did ALL of the prescribed workouts, including several mile-long swim workouts, two bike-run workouts, and a long run.  I, on the other hand, have been getting over yet another cold, so I took it easy this week.  We did, however, complete the Sunday afternoon bike-run workout with Coach Todd. 

Then we completed the third part of today's triathlon: dinner at Five Guys.

Special thanks to TNT teammate Kate Foss for snapping this picture of us chowing down!