Rebecca's 'Turning Forty' Triathlon: First Team Training

Saturday, May 16, 2009

First Team Training - A bike ride at Sauvie's Island

Today was amazing! It was our first team training and the Triathlon Gods were with us....beautiful, sunny weather on our first ride of the season at Sauvie's Island. We met at the Sauvie Island School at 9am to begin our first bicycle 'clinic' (a technical term for "the time and place where you will stop being clueless about what you are supposed to be doing out there!") Today's clinic was about cadence. Any idea what that's about, and why its important? Cadence is basically how fast your bicycle tire is spinning, similar to RPM. Its critically important to understand the effect of cadence when you are a triathlete because the only thing that will save your legs enough to run when you get off the bike is high cadence. This is in contrast to mashing the gears (of course, you knew that!). Mashing the gears is a bad, bad thing to do as a triathlete...it's what we all do when we want to go fast....we raise the resistance by shifting and pushing really hard on the pedals, right? Wrong! Unless you want rubber-legs when you start the run...so, we are going to learn how to smoke everyone by riding with a high cadence instead.

We practiced a high cadence ride around the island, and I got to try out my new bike which I haven't named yet...I'm taking suggestions!

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WHAT YOU WILL FIND ON THIS BLOG

This is a diary (complete with photos) of my experience training with Team in Training for the Pacific Grove Triathlon on Sept. 12, 2009. I am participating to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and to get my ass in shape! There is nothing that says turning forty shouldn't herald the best damn decade of your life.

I hope you will visit often. If you do, you might just catch a glimpse of my team running with pringles between our fingers, or on the pool deck doing plank in our speedos!

Although this triathlon is a personal fitness journey, it is more importantly an opportunity to give back to the community by raising money for an incredible organization, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). LLS is helping children, families, and individuals fight the battle against blood cancer; all of us at one time or another have known someone who has struggled against Leukemia, Lymphoma, or Myeloma. In my life, its been my grandmother Virginia, a little boy who goes to school with my kids, Zachary, a grandson of a co-worker, Ethan, a sister of a dear friend, Cindy, and the brother-in-law of a colleague, Tom. Now it is also our team's honored teammate, Dean who is in remission, but is struggling to surmount the side effects of his treatment. You can help out too. Please donate to my fundraising campaign by following this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/or/pactri09/rramsay . All the money goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and then to children, adults and families who need all the support we can give them.

I am participating in memory of my grandmother, Virgina Wrigley, who died of Leukemia.

Tri.ath.lon

A triathlon is a multi-sport endurance event consisting of swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall course completion time, including timed "transitions" between the individual swim, bike, and run components.The demanding nature of the sport focuses primarily on persistent and often periodized training in each of the three disciplines, as well as combination workouts and general strength conditioning to ensure the highest levels of endurance, strength, and power possible come race day. Proficiency in swimming, cycling, and running alone is often not sufficient for success in triathlon.....truth be told, what is really needed is an almost unnatural capacity for denial and an unruly belief that anything is possible...(a good masseuse, buckets of himalayan bath salts, and an iron stomach capable of tolerating extremely high doses of Ibuprofen are the other critical prerequisites).