Training With The Ladies

How is training going? Still good.

 The miracle is not that I finished, the miracle is that I began.

2009 Kitsap TriBabes at Seattle Danskin
I missed this photo but there were about 90 of us in that race.

 Two years ago Lan told me about a newpaper article he read about the Kitsap TriBabes, a group of women who train for triathlons together. I Googled them and found http://www.kitsaptribabes.com/ and made it a point of joining the group.   There have been about 400 TriBabes in the last 10 years!



Lisa, our leader




At Wildcat Lake

 At our weekly swims, so many ladies show up.

Group practice start

Our fearless leader is Lisa "Tri Turtle" Ballou. She motivates us like you wouldn't believe. Lisa starts our training in early June, we do a 12 week course and at the end of it we're ready to compLETE the Seattle Danskin Sprint Triathlon in August. She has us go to Wildcat Lake every Tuesday to learn to not only swim but to do it as a huge group so we're ready for the kitting, splashing, kicking and stuff that will be going on in the water. There are usually about 50-100 ladies swimming at one time, we scare everyone else away from the beach.  She starts us out with 2 laps around the pilings and at the end of the 12 weeks we're swimming half mile across the lake.



At the BRICK on a Saturday



On Saturday mornings we meet at a local church and do a BRICK       (Bike Run ICK). She starts us out with about 5 miles on the bike followed by a half mile run. At the end of the 12 weeks we're easily doing the 13-ish miles on our bikes and running the 3.1 miles.  Every week we do the swims & BRICKS and you WILL get in shape and you WILL compLETE the Danskin.



Our reward for 12 weeks of hard work

TriBabe jersey

Lisa sends out weekly emails with our training program, rest days, swim days, running, cross training. She tells us how far to go and what type of things to do, either hills or long easy run/ride. She puts on classes for us, she has taught a lot of ladies to swim, ride and run!  She coordinates sales events at local running and biking stores so we can all save some money on equipment. 

This year will be my 3rd year as a TriBabe and I can't wait to do it. Maybe I'll volunteer more or something, last year I was second fastest on the bike and hope to kick ass this year too. I can ride my turn then help with the slower ladies. By the time of our first BRICK I should be able to run the half mile in record time (for me).

I am not going to participate in the Danskin this year as its the same weekend at the Leadville Trail 100 that Lan is trying to get in to.  Keep your fingers crossed.