Monday, October 29, 2007

SOMA highlights

There is only one way to describe how SOMA was yesterday - and that is HOT. My overall time was 5:37. I was on track for 5 hours until the afternoon, when we reached record temperatures of 97 degrees and it killed my run.

The swim was long, everyone's times were a lot longer than 1.2 miles should have taken them. Starting out swimming West was a breeze, until we had to turn around and swim East into the sun. I couldn't see anything and I'm sure I zig-zagged all over the top of the 70-year-old men that were in the wave ahead of me. It was probably my favorite of the three events though, considering it was cold and somewhat relaxing. My swim time was 40 minutes by the time I got pulled out of the lake, almost broke my leg when the guy dropped me on the platform and ran around to the transition area. I averaged 18.6 mph on the bike, which is slow but still an improvement for me from my last race. There were tons of u-turns and the hills slowed me down a lot. After a three-hour bike I was so excited to start the run. I kept saying to myself, "you are going to kill this run!" Heading out of transition I was running under seven-minute miles and people were warning me to slow down, but I was feeling awesome so I kept running strong. They had aid stations every mile and I kept pouring multiple cups of ice water over my head at each one of them. That is, until mile 4. No aid station at mile 4! All of a sudden my body started to heat up and I felt like I was running through an oven. It was hard to breathe and it drained all my energy. After mile six I started dieing. Every time I drank gatorade it came right back up, but I knew my body needed electrolytes, salt and calories or I would be face down in a mile so I kept drinking. By mile 8 I was probably running 9 minute miles. I have never ran that slow during a race. I passed Ted, then Jorge and realized everyone was suffering from the heat, not just me. I could hear sirens in the background and could see ambulence lights flashing on the road by the finish line. I finished with tears in my eyes and muttering "I want to die" as Brian ran next to me to the finish. My half marathon time was 1:51 by the time I stumbled over the line. I couldn't hardly eat or drink for some time afterwards.

So all in all, this race was an experience. I knocked off almost a half hour from my time at the Great Illini half Iroman, which is very surprising considering the weather. As they say, no pain, no gain. Give me a year or two, I'll be killing everyone out there! As for now, I think I'll just lay around for the next couple days!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

SOMA tomorrow!

So SOMA is tomorrow. I am pretty nervous, but more excited. They changed the direction of the swim, so we are now swimming West first and turning East to head back with the sun in our eyes. it looks far, but to me it always looks far. There are 10 swim waves and I am in wave 9. Brian is in wave 5. I will start at 7:21 a.m. behind almost everyone except the 35-70-year-old women. My goal is to swim under 40 minutes, which was my time at the Great Illini Challenge. They have changed the bike course a few times over the last couple weeks. It is very confusing with lots of u-turns and out and backs. My biking isn't yet where I want it to be, but I hope to average 19 to 20 mph for the day. That would be a huge improvement since the September race, but we have been doing 70-mile rides on the weekends so hopefully I can bring my game. The run will be a hot, yet flat, run. We will run two loops clockwise around Tempe Town Lake. My only concern the run is the temperature.
It is 8:22 p.m. and everything is packed and I am ready to go early tomorrow morning. We had a birthday party for Brian at his mom's house tonight and we brought spaghetti. I had sweet potatoes and pineapple as well. Hopefully my stomach holds up for tomorrow.
So it's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run again tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Friday, October 26, 2007

It's Friday

Today is Friday. It is pay day, which I like, but an off day, which I don't like so much. I am getting nervous for SOMA, and when I get nervous I always think I should have trained more. I have the urge to just leave work and spend all day swimming, biking and running until all my limbs fall off, but I know that's not the best idea because I probably wouldn't do very well on Sunday. So today I walked to the office, as I do every day, and will walk to an interview I have today as well just so I don't go crazy!

When I got to the office this morning, one of the ladies in distribution had a litter of 10-week-old yorkies by the front desk. I'd say every employee here huddled in a circle around these adorable dogs. They were probably the cutest dogs I have ever seen in my life. It also made me think of my cat, Madison, who I miss a lot. I can't wait to have a pet again.

This afternoon I am interviewing a 10-year-old girl who is collecting "gently used" halloween costumes and distributing them to less fortunate children. It's amazing to me how charitable the young people are in this community. When I was that young all I cared about was who's house I was going to sleep over at on Friday night and the latest Mariah Carey hit.



Thursday, October 25, 2007

SOMA is Sunday. It will be my third triathlon. I am excited for it because I did a half ironman in Illinois in September and the conditions were not as expected. This course should be easier, but hotter, and I am not good in the heat. I started swimming in the Spring and biking in the Summer, so I will not be too upset if my times are still not up to par. It is frustrating, though, being slow when I am so used to being faster than the average woman when I run.
Taper weeks really bother me. I love long workouts and they are stress relievers for my busy days. Today I swam 1000 yards in 250-yard increments. I tried to swim 200 before Brian passed me on his 250, but that is still really hard to do. Running was awesome tonight though. I ran about a 5-mile loop from the Y at 7 minute mile pace. It felt awesome.

Hello World

My name is Corinne Frayer. I am 22 years old. I graduated from Arizona State University in May 2007 and currently am a health and education reporter at the Ahwatukee Foothills News. My life revolves around writing, my amazing boyfriend, Brian, and training for running and triathlon events.

The passion I have for being active changed my life. I am so thankful for all the experiences and people brought to me through racing and training over the past couple years.

I created this blog so I can share these life experiences I charish. Welcome to my life!