I never thought I would write a blog because who cares what I have to say about anything. I suppose this will just be an online journal of sorts and an experiment to see if I actually keep up with it. If you are reading this I need to warn you up front I am a terrible writer. There will be grammatical mistakes and run on sentences. Although I was always a straight A student, creative writing was my biggest weakness. Give me a technical paper any day and I will do just fine but writing is not my forte. I am a Scully not a Mulder.
So, now that my lame introduction is out of the way, I guess you are wondering about the name of my blog - I suck at all 3 sports. I will detail my athletic career in another post so you can read it or skip it if you choose.

Ok, so why do I suck at all three sports? In 2008 I completed my first triathlon - Irongirl. I was scared to death but made it through and became a triathlete. I have continued “tri-ing” since then and have completed 3 sprint distances (400-600m swim, 10-18 mile bike and a 5K(3.1 mile) run), 2 Olympic distance relays (I swam and 2 other people biked and ran), 3 full Olympics (1500m swim, 40K (~25 miles) bike, 10K run (6.2 miles)), 2 Half Ironmans (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) and last year I completed an Ironman on my second attempt (2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run). I still struggle with each part and wonder if I am encouraging mediocrity by simultaneously training for all 3 disciplines instead of concentrating on one. So let’s break it down by sport.

Swimming - I have become a pretty good swimmer and love open water swims. The drudgery of the pool and chlorine can become quite tedious so give me a lake to swim across any day. I learned a painful lesson at Ironman Coeur D’Alene this year that being able to glide through the water relatively effortlessly is of no help when you are faced with choppy water. Combine that with a relatively small frame in a buoyant wetsuit and you get a big cork. I could not power my way through the chop and ended up a DNF on the swim - something no one predicted, not even my pessimistic self. So, even one of my better sports needs work. I need to work on getting more power in my stroke and picking up the speed.

Biking - this is by far my worst discipline. I am slow, slow, slow and I hate it. I don’t know if I hate it because I am bad at it or I am bad at it because I hate it. I am also scared of it. I had a pretty bad accident last year which did not help matters. No major injuries just a black eye, some cuts, scrapes and major bruising. I was very lucky I did not break anything. I was already nervous on the bike before the accident but it took a while to get any bit of confidence back. So many awful things can go wrong on the bike not to mention cars, dogs, road debris and other cyclists that can cause you to have a very bad day. I also don’t feel like I have great control of things and every movement to get a drink, wipe sweat off my face or try and eat something is cause for concern. I wish I was more comfortable on the bike. I also wish I didn’t have to work so hard to go so slow. The only advice I get on how to fix these things is to ride more. So, I ride more but I still struggle. It just seems to come so easy for everyone else that it makes me wonder why I can’t ride as fast and as comfortable. Last year I was able to gain some more speed and get much better at climbing but I still feel like I am a big slowpoke.

Running - when I am in shape I am a decent runner but have never broken a 60 minute 10K despite coming very close. I never really have pushed myself in this discipline and wonder if I had the time to do intervals, hill training and tempo runs if I might actually become a “good” runner. I love trail running and have completed 2 ultras so there is no doubt I can run forever but I would like to run longer and faster. I prefer trail running over roads. I would rather do a 50K (31 miles) trail run over a road marathon any day. The best part about running is that if you get tired or feel bad you just walk and there is no danger of drowning or crashing at high speeds.

So, here I am starting another 6 month ramp up to Ironman Wisconsin. Most days I wonder why I ever signed up for another one. The biggest problem is you have to sign up for these things a year in advance and you tend to get swept up in the madness. I enjoy the group training and communal misery but when the alarm is going off at 4:45am to drive to spin class in the rain you feel like you need your head examined. It would also be another thing if I was perfectly buff and toned after all this exercise but in fact I think I weigh more currently than I have in almost 10 years (and it’s not muscle!) I seriously need to eat better and I have been trying to incorporate some strength training in my regimen. I am currently starting about week 8 on that score with not much noticeable improvement. I will also be adding a second spin class to my regimen - a weekly strength class to balance my intervals training in hopes to gain speed. My first real bike ride of this year was a painful reminder of how out of shape I have gotten in just a few months. 25 miles was painful, slow and pitiful. Swimming has been almost non-existent in the past few months so I need to get cranking - I foolishly signed up for a 5K (3.1 mile) swim and then encouraged 19 other people to join me so there is no backing out now. Running is going OK - I have the endurance down - I managed to haul my ass through the mud for 33 miles 2 weekends ago so yes, I can still run forever and while I was not last (my first 50K I was the last finisher) I was no where near the middle of the pack. So, I need to work on speed. 

Sigh! I suck at all 3 sports!

My boring ass athletic history

My athletic career really started when I was 30 and began a desk job. I found that I could not maintain my normal weight without exercise so I started running. I ran a little bit in college but never very far or very seriously. As a kid I did gymnastics, ballet and some dance but I also had been blessed with really good genes. Where they came from I do not know since both my parents and my brother have had struggles with weight whereas I was always called “skinny”. That 30th birthday and the sedentary job changed all that and I decided I wanted to try running and signed up for a 5K. Well, things progressed from there - a 5K became a 10K, which became a half a marathon and finally became a full marathon in 2000. I did not finish in record time and probably barely missed getting swept off the course but I did finish a marathon. I signed up to do it again the following year but the death of my mother and the herculean task of cleaning out a house occupied by a borderline hoarder, the selling of a business and finding homes for 6 cats and a dog kind of took over my life. Then grad school got in the way and well running was only done in fits and starts.
In 2007 a friend told me about a running group that met 2 miles from my house and every Saturday. I checked it out online and was a bit concerned about the cost but decided to dive in and if I made the financial commitment then maybe I would stick with it. So, I joined Get Fit Atlanta. I soon realized this was a half marathon and marathon training group - neither of which was in my plans but decided to just run whatever the planned distances just to stay in shape and have company. Well, I soon got on the band wagon and decided to sign up for the Baltimore Marathon. My husband John had already completed multiple marathons and really wasn’t interested in running another one but agreed to run this one with me.
Part of Get Fit Atlanta’s training included post running seminars. One morning there was a seminar on triathlons - something I secretly wanted to do - and my ears perked up a bit. I came home all enthused and told John all about it and in his ever encouraging way told me I should see how the marathon goes before trying a triathlon. Maybe he knew something I didn’t but once I hit my 14 mile benchmark I started having major pain in my right anterior calf that began to flare up after 1 or 2 miles and eventually kept me from running my marathon that fall. Numerous doctors, chiros and physical therapists later no one ever really figured out the cause except for a possible muscle strength imbalance.
That winter I bought a bike because I was bound and determined to try this tri thing. I rested my leg and started trying to swim and bike in the spring. Now, I can ride a bike but learning about pedal clips, navigating traffic and climbing hills were definitely new to me. My past bike experience involved riding my bike 500 feet to the neighbors to play or riding on homemade bike trails in the woods beside our house. As for swimming well I can breaststroke and dog paddle with the best of them but freestyle was another thing. Between Total Immersion videos and working with Coach Mike at Get Fit I eventually became a decent swimmer and could swim several laps without gasping and sputtering. Well, low and behold but the swimming, biking and a little bit of trail running seemed to have “fixed” whatever was wrong with my leg. I was still scared of running too many miles in fear of it returning so I kept my distances to under 8 miles. In 2008 I completed my first triathlon - Irongirl. I was scared to death but made it through and became a triathlete. I have continued “tri-ing” since then and have completed 3 sprint distances (400-600m swim, 10-18 mile bike and a 5K(3.1 mile) run, 2 Olympic distance relays (I swam and 2 other people biked and ran), 3 full Olympics (1500m swim, 40K (~25 miles) bike, 10K run (6.2 miles)), 2 Half Ironmans (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) and last year I completed an Ironman on my second attempt (2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run). I have even done two 50K trail runs (31+ miles) so apparently my mystery leg problem has been resolved.