Our Intention: Bravery and Joy

"This is where we need to remember to be a little bit brave." - Rachel, explaining the narrow bike shoot leading to T2 at the Triangle Triathlon.



"Wheeeeeee!!!!!!" - A 5-year old girl learning how to dive off of the blocks at the Durham YMCA pool last Friday afternoon



As we prepare to race this weekend, we're thinking about the question that our coach and yoga teacher always asks as we settle into her yoga class: What is your intention for practice? The intention is not necessarily a goal, but is instead a focal point for reflection, a reminder, a question we return to as we move from pose to pose. This weekend, our intentions are to be a little bit brave and remember the joy!

During Saturday's race, this means:

• Experiencing the pre-race anxiety- and encouraging ourselve to Be five. Go Play. Wheeeeee!!!!
• Feeling the swim gremlins creep up or a fellow swimmer get a bit too close - and thinking with All is well. I am calm and smooth.
• Being unsure about how much we can push the pace - and saying Possibility.
• Hearing our bodies say I hate this! I'm done after T2 - and responding with This is what I've worked for. Downshift and take the next step.

At the end of yoga class, we're asked to simply remember our intention - not judge how well we remained true to it. We'll be doing the same after our race.

Ride for the Land

This weekend we joined two of Ray's co-workers in participating in the Ride for the Land - a beautiful 45 mile tour supporting the work of Triangle Land Conservancy. The ride took us to new cycling territory throughout the deep river region of Chatham, Moore, and Lee counties.



A few notes from the day:

• The day started off with a strange bang when a male cyclist who was getting up there in years looked at us with a glimmer in his eye and dubiously asked if he could help us put sunscreen on. Ummm....no.....!!!
• We twice poured one out for our homies who unfortunately gave the ride's resident bike mechanic a few early morning projects.
• One of our rest stops was the House in the Horseshoe, a house that survived the American Revolutionary War and still sits on acres and acres of incredible farmland.
• Our legs and hips were still feeling the effects of plyo!
• After the ride, Robyn headed over to Genesis Home for some refueling at the shelter's annual summer party for residents and staff. 20 kids who happen to be homeless, forgetting their cares, playing joyfully on the slip 'n slide, and stuffing themselves with ice cream. What could be better!

You Should Have Been There....

...when we met up with our coach at the track at 6:15 this morning for our first session of plyometric exercises!

We were hopping, jumping, and skipping our way down the 100 yard line -- building power, improving body awareness, and attempting not to laugh hysterically at our sometimes questionable form, as we were passed by seasoned runners who were also awake and beautifully bounding 'round the track.

If keeping workouts interesting and engaging is one key to performance improvement, we're there, as this week's training plan calls for plyometric work in each of our three sports.

A New Endurance Sport

According to Have Fun*Do Good, bloggers around the world are entering the endurance arena!

Blogathon 2007 will launch on July 28. For 24 hours, bloggers around the world will post every 30 minutes to raise funds for organizations they believe in.

Between work, school, training, and the other areas of our lives, 48 blog posts in one day seems like a bit more than we can handle -- but we love the idea!

Race Report: Triangle Triathlon

"I don't want to be anything other than what I've been tryin to be lately /All I have to do is think of me and I've peace of mind / I'm tired of looking 'round rooms wondering what I gotta do /Or who I'm supposed to be / I don't want to be anything other than me."
- Gavin DeGraw

First things first: We're back from a fabulous family vacation where soaked up some summer sun, played lots of games, kayaked through the intercoastal waterway, read several books, ate tons of seafood, and got in a little bit of training -- including Robyn's first ocean swim!

Now, on to the race report!

On Sunday, July 8, the song quoted above was playing through the loudspeakers soon after we crossed the finish line. It truly summed up the attitude with which we tried to approach this race.

We joined 1,100 fellow triathletes -- including our coach and several friends -in the Triangle Triathlon. The race took place just down the road from us in Lake Crabtree County Park. The weather was hot, hot, hot -- but beautiful.

The Swim
The flat 750 yard swim took place in Lake Crabtree -- where interestingly enough, swimming is normally not allowed due to contamination (hmmm....motivation to swim fast!!).

As usual, Ray positioned herself as the front of our wave and swam like the swim champ she is, quickly making it out of water just a few second slower than last year.

Robyn, on the other hand, positioned herself in the back of the wave and freaked out a bit during the first half of this her second open water swim. Goggles leaked, breathing was uncontrolled, and the first buoy couldn't come soon enough. Things calmed down significantly after she made the turn for home.

Rachel - 12:04
Robyn - 17:01

The Bike
After a short run out of the water (We've learned that skipping with knees high helps us move from water to land most quickly!), we were both off on our bikes. The 15 mile course was a clover leaf of constant ups and downs. We saw several folks pulled off the course with gear issues and were thankful to have made it through the ride unscathed.

Ray made her debut performance on her new tri bike. Although the ride is taking a little getting used to, she felt super fast and efficient. Unfortunately, she was dogged with a 2:00 drafting penalty somewhere on the course -- although she was deliberately working hard NOT to draft, especially during narrow sections of the course. After penalties in both of our last two races, we certainly hope we're done with that for the remainder of the season!

Robyn gave it her all on the bike, posting her fastest bike times of the season. Unfortunately, it may have been a bit too much, given how her legs felt during the run.

Rachel - 48:10
Robyn - 47:45

The Run
As the temperature started to rise, we were thankful that the majority of the double loop 5K run took place in the shade.

Rachel ran consistently and passed two guys in the finish line shoot! Check out the pictorial evidence here.

On the other hand, during the first five minutes of the run, Robyn had the conscious thought of wanting to sit down on the curb and cry - just a little bit! She didn't and her weary legs came around after a slow first loop, but the run was her slowest of the season and she let a fellow age grouper get away during the last couple hundred yards. Note the pained look here.

Rachel - 26:32
Robyn - 28:15

The Bottom Line

Rachel - 1:31:41 (22/42 AG) -- 45 seconds faster than last year
Robyn - 1:35:51 (27/42 AG)

At first, we were both a bit disappointed with our overall times. We've been training so hard and would be lying if we said that we wouldn't LOVE to see huge drops in our times - instead of incremental progress (Who wouldn't?!). But -- then we chatted with our coach who reminded us that (1) this race was not our goal....instead, we have our eyes set on a different prize; (2) because this race was not our goal, we weren't rested; and (3) incremental progress is the name of the game.

So, we thought of the finish line song, drove straight to the beach, and remembered that we're in this for the long haul!

Things we're keeping in mind when we race again in two weeks:

• Exhale!
• Tap into the fire -- cadence, cadence, cadence!
• Find another gear on the run. We know it's there.
• Keep those quick transitions.
• Smile -- this is FUN!

Special thanks and blogging love goes out to Ray's husband Dave and his brother Chris for motivating cheering as usual (and some tri sherpa-ing back to the car after the race) and to our local "teammates" with whom we warmed-up, cooled-down, and enjoyed lots of pre-race company.

Post-Race Vacation

We interrupt these pre-race blog posts to let our loyal readers know that IMMEDIATELY following our sure-to-be dominating performances at Sunday's Triangle Triathlon, the Tri to End Homelessness sisters will be joining our parents for The Annual Beach Trip to Isle of Palms, SC.

We'll be spending a week enjoying sun, sand, and surf -- and getting a little training in! Reports on Sunday's race will be posted after we return home.

Something's Changed

"Confidence comes from training" - Peter Reid, Ironman World Champion

Something's changed.

When we started this season back in January, we wondered what was possible. We had high hopes, an ambitious new year's resolution, a solid training plan, a motivating coach -- and some serious, deep down, super secret, highly irrational internal doubts:


What if the plan doesn't 'work'? What if we can't do it? Maybe we're just built to stay where we are. Maybe we don't really have what it takes to improve. Yeah, we've run a long way before, but this is different...this isn't just gutting it out - this is giving all we have....and what if that isn't good enough? What if we aren't good enough?


With all of that inside, we dove in and since the start of our 2007 training, we've:
- Biked over 98 hours
- Run over 82 hours
- Swam nearly 150,000 yards
- Practiced over 25 hours of yoga
- Lifted weights for over 30 hours


With that effort, we've seen real improvement - our technique is becoming more efficient, we're more in tune with our heart rates, our endurance has risen several notches, and our times are coming down.


But more than any of those external changes, something's changed on the inside. The attitude with which we approach our training and our racing is completely new. More than ever, the training represents our intention to live our best lives -- everyday.

Now, there are still days (like yesterday for Ray and today for Rob) when training just feels like work, one more thing to do...but still, even on those days, there is inside us a glow, a revived authenticity, a lightness, a knowing, a new ability to take it all in stride. And for that we are thankful.

Race Week!

"My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win... channel your energy. Focus. -
Carl Lewis"

After completing three weeks of BIG volume, we're excited to race this Sunday in the Triangle Triathlon - a local open water sprint, attracting 1,000 athletes.

Five months into our tri year, we're both feeling strong, focused, in-tune, and ready. We know we can go the distance. We know we can go faster than ever before. We know we've put in the time. We know that our coaching has helped make a huge difference.

One never knows what will come up on race day....but we're ready for that which we can control.

Our Kids

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family:Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." - Jane Howard

For use triathlon is a family-affair. We're sisters. Our husbands are our training partners, cheerleaders, and bike mechanics. Our parents send emotional support. Our multi-faceted tribe motivates us to keep going....and we race in celebration of our extended Genesis Home family -families who are working to move into lives of stability, instead of homelessness.

In that spirit of family, Kristen McClarin is one of our kids. Kristen is one of the 600 young people in North Carolina who will turn 18 this year, age of out of foster care, and be left on their own.

The statistics are grim. According to this week's paper:

" Most former foster children fare badly. They're more likely to end up living on the streets or having babies before they're ready. A quarter end up in jail within two years of leaving foster care, one study found. Another study found less than 3 percent attained degrees by age 25. That's compared with about a quarter of young adults who didn't come of age in foster homes."

These statistics and Kristen's story demonstrate for us how critical initiatives like Genesis Home's Independent Living Program are. ILP helps kids just like Kristen continue to find their way -- when a family isn't around to show them.

That's What We Want

"Press on- nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent. " - Calvin Coolidge

What a weekend!

On Saturday we joined our coach Sage, her husband Wes, Ray's husband Dave, and our tri/yoga buddy Ruffin for our longest training ride yet -- nearly 50 miles through beautiful Orange and Alamance counties. Reaching a road by bike that we usually only see off of the interstate by car puts the distance into a whole new perspective!

At the end of our 3 hour tour, we noted that our legs were definitely starting to feel a bit fatigued -- quads yelping, hips tight, toes a little numb. Sage wisely reminded us that "That's what we want!" We're training to be able to confidently complete 3 hours of racing and keep going when we start to feel tired.

Later that evening, Robyn and Ryan also had a "that's what we want" experience when they ran into a family that recently graduated from Genesis Home's Family Matters Program. The family - once homeless, but now successfully working and living in a home of their own -- was hanging out together and enjoying a street festival in downtown Durham. THAT IS what we want!