Team Timex Blog » Laura Tingle

Viva Lost Wages!

Laura Tingle — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:58:43 +0000

I love Vegas. Honestly. More than anywhere else in the world…except Memphis, of course. The first time I ever went to Vegas was for my 21st birthday, when I did my first triathlon as an adult. Then I lost my shoes, and got booted from Caesar’s Palace in a related unrelated incident in an elevator following the post race festivites. I think I have told that story on this blog before…and if I havent, then I am smarter than I look, because I probably shouldn’t share a story like that. As I was on my way out of Caesar’s, I stopped in the casino to bet my life savings on one hand of Black Jack. I doubled my life savings, cashed out, and went home with a very special place in my heart for Vegas.
I was in Vegas a few months ago for work, and as I sat at the Black Jack table at 7 in the morning, drinking coffee, making friends, and listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, I couldn’t help but think….this is it. This is happiness. When I do yoga, and we get to the end of class where we relax, and breathe, and go to our happy place- I am picturing the casino at Planet Hollywood with Gimme Three Steps playing.
So when I caught wind of my Timex teammate Daniel’s involvement in a race in Vegas, I told him I was in. Then I checked out the race date, then I checked out the race distance, then I panicked…then I went to my happy place to calm me down about the fact that I am headed to my happy place, to do this www.leadmantri.com. Hello 2012 Season! I am ready! (no, not ready at all, but half the battle is showing up…um, right?!) If you want to join me in my happy place, you can use this promo code when registering: LTFTRI15

Wednesday. At Masters.

Laura Tingle — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:22:47 +0000

When all you see is feet, flags, wall. Feet, flags, wall.
And all you feel is suffocation and burning.
And all you taste is lactic acid and chlorine.
It doesnt really matter where your pool is located. Does it?

I realize how random this is….

Laura Tingle — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 03:27:12 +0000

This morning, I told Erin that I felt like my jogging outfit for the day matched almost “too well.” She died laughing…maybe I didn’t match. I don’t see very many colors, except for pink. Which is probably why I love pink so much, I can see it. When I was 9 my family moved from Grand Island to Lincoln for the second time (don’t ask), and my mother gave my father and I the job of going to Lincoln and buying a new house. At some point during that road trip, my dad handed the job over to me. You can only imagine my delight when we walked into a house that donned pink carpet! The living room carpet was an especially cute shade of Pepto Bismal! Loved it!!! (I was 9…remember? I told you that at the beginning of this blog) and so we bought the house. My mom walked in and threatened to die on the spot. We ended up moving down the street pretty soon thereafter.
So anyway, I was wearing a jogging outfit this morning, because I was going jogging, which is a pretty exciting turn of events. I have been sick with mono for a while now, which isn’t quite as fun as it sounds. I get asked at least once a day how I got mono…from kissing too many boys, duh- every one knows thats how a person gets mono! No, just kidding, that’s not how I got it. I learned a pretty valuable lesson over the summer about energy expenditure. All energy is drawn from the same well. When it comes to the energy that our body provides, there is no differentiation between work stress, training stress, I drank too much last night stress, relationship stress, getting ready to run a marathon stress, travel stress, etc. Simply put, I got too tired. And then I got mono. And then I rested. And now I am wearing a jogging outfit that may or may not match. Things are looking up….

Emergency Shoes and Smack Talk

Laura Tingle — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:12:18 +0000

I started working at NEWTON Running shoe company a couple months ago, and it has been quite the lifestyle change. I am a 9 to 5er, actually, I normally work until 6- because business is booming. Long gone are the days of riding my bike all morning, or going for an afternoon swim. To be honest, I have never been happier. I spend my days with some of the most inspiring people I have ever met, and we are creating something that the shoe industry has never seen. As much as I love what I am doing (I am the North American Retail Sales Coordinator), I have learned the importance of “emergency shoes.” Emergency shoes?! Yes, emergency shoes. They are the running shoes that sit by my desk.

I run in the morning, before going into work, which is the only way that it is possible for my ADD self to sit in an office all day, and then I go to work, and put my pink shoes under my computer. They sit there as a reminder that no matter what happens between 9 and 6, I get to end my day the same way I started it- with a run. Where I am immune to phone calls, emails, lost shoes, disgruntled retailers, the lost shoes that get found in the wrong state, and my boss’s very old dog who lies by my desk, threatening to die on a daily basis. Needless to say, there has been a lot of running going on lately. With that in mind, I signed up for the New York City Marathon with Timex, one of the race’s sponsors. I have no idea what caused me to open my mouth (oh, maybe the fact I can never keep it closed), but I started doing what I do best…talking smack. Normally this is reserved for the swimming pool, where I threaten to swim people’s faces off on a pretty regular basis, but this time, my target was NEWTON’s COO, Stephen, who is also running NYC. So, we put a $1 bet on who would run faster, and then doubled the bet, and then doubled the bet. At this rate, I will have to sell my car if I have a bad in the Big Apple. When the time came to officially register, I listed my predicted time as 1 minute faster than what Stephen told me his goal time is. And with that, I have something that has been missing for the last 3 years of triathlon. I have a goal. And a full time job. And a pair of emergency shoes. I have some satisfaction in a well balanced life.

Next time, I will bring a belt

Laura Tingle — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:46:11 +0000

Last fall I was sitting in my dad’s forest, talking to him about getting away this winter. I was feeling a little restless, like I had been in one spot for a little too long. God has a funny way of working. The next day, the Byrns asked me if I wanted to go to Hawaii with them in January. With a two year old, and a man camp planned, they needed an extra set of hands. I could never thank them enough for this experience.

So here I am, in Hawaii. We have a pretty good morning routine worked out. I usually drive the 5 miles to the pool, swim, and then run or ride home. Then Monica runs to the pool, swims and drives home. As I took off down Palani to start my run this morning, my pants started to fall down. Maybe they are a little stretched out. Or maybe my butt is a bit smaller. On a related, unrelated note, I have learned an enormous amount about nutrition since I have been here. Gordo probably doesn’t realize how much he has taught me, because I haven’t asked many questions about his eating style. It has been by way of observation, how meals are timed, what meals consist of….you might be thinking, “she has been watching him eat for the past two weeks. That’s kinda creepy.” Why yes, I have, and I am. What have I learned? If I eat enough fat during the day, I will not wake up in the middle of the night starving. Go figure.

So anyway, my pants don’t have a drawstring, which has never been an issue, until I had to run down Palani and Alii holding my pants up this morning. A mile and a half in, I started to sweat. So, I did what any normal person would do and wiped the sweat from my face and tried to use it to stick my pants to me. Normal people do that…right?! Shockingly (ha) that didn’t work. And I decided I didn’t care. I know 3 people on the island, and I decided I was okay with strangers seeing my butt crack. So I carried on. Streaking down Alii. Until the men on scooters would speed past me, and then slow down, looking in their rearview mirrors, so they could put a face with the crack. Not a good look. I then got brilliant idea to use a hair tie to cinch the waist band. It worked. I pretty much did a celebratory dance down the final mile of Alii while congratulating myself on my MacGyver like abilities. After returning home, and recounting the story to Monica, I realized it would not take MacGyver 4 miles to figure out how to keep his pants on.

Yes, Yes, Huh?

Laura Tingle — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 05:58:03 +0000

One of my earliest memories was being 6 years old, at swim practice, and watching the head coach launch a folding chair into the pool because one of the older swimmers was pulling on the lane rope during a backstroke set. At that moment, I, Laura C. Helen Tingle, vowed to never EVER pull on the lane rope during backstroke.
I stuck to that vow for the next 15 years of competetive swimming. Until I finished my college swimming career, and began my life as a triathlete, I never cheated during a swim workout. At some point I became, um, hmm, lazy, for lack of a better word. I went from swimming 4000 meters of butterfly a day to zero meters of fly a year. With the exception of the occasional swim off with Gordo, or Matty Reed. At which point, if I am not winning, I will literally pretend to drown. Seriously.
For the last 5 years, my swimming repertoire has consisted of two strokes: freestyle, and lane rope pull on my back.
So, I am at a masters swim practice yesterday, and this happened:
Jane (the coach): 10 x 200
LT (that’s me): I.M.? (kidding, of course)
Jane: yes
LT: huh?
Whitney (my lane mate): yes
LT: huh?
Whitney: yes
LT (apparently pretending to be deaf): huh?
Jane: YES

And so it was. 10 x 200 IM.
I think it is important to occasionally take inventory in life. My health is good. My head is good. My personal life is good..ish. For the life of me I could not come up with an excuse for faking drowning. I have learned, if nothing is holding you back, than start sprinting forward. I swam my butterfly with all of my arms (2), instead of cheating with one arm. I didn’t pull on the lane rope at all, and with a little encouragement from my lane mates, we got the work done.
So I guess all of this is to say, if you don’t have a valid reason to pretend to die during your workout today, go a little nuts, go a little “too hard,” try something new, or something old, or even try something scary.

Like Family

Laura Tingle — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:25:38 +0000

I like to make at least one out of every 20 blog posts somewhat serious. Bare with me. I am sure my next 19 posts will be filled with stories of squashing prairie dogs with my mountain bike, and big horned sheep trying to bite my face.
I have been with Timex since the end of my first season of the sport of triathlon. When I got the call that I was on the team, I was absolutely speechless. And honored. Not because I had acheived something great and was being rewarded for it. In the world of professional triathlon, I hadn’t scratched the surface yet. I was honored because an absolute stranger was putting his faith in my potential.
My first race on the Timex team was Ironman Arizona. I got to the race site and found the mechanic, Doug, working on a bike at the team truck. “Excuse me,” I squeaked. No response. “Um, sir, excuse me.” Still no answer. Maybe he is hard of hearing. “EXCUSE ME!” He turned, and said “shhhh, I am listening to the bike.”
Doug swears he doesn’t remember it, but I will never forget it for as long as I live. From that day grew a friendship, followed by familyship (sometimes I make up words, work with me here). What is the difference between a sponsor and family? They love you just as much on your worse days as they do on your best days. I have had a lifetime’s worth of bad days in the last 3 years. But still, every time I look around, they are still there, just as supportive as they were on the first day they decided to sponsor me. I can’t quit on this sport as long as they haven’t quit on me. And I love them for that.
That being said, I am pretty stoked for 2011. I am excited about my stable health, my stable head, and my game plan. I hope every race is a good one, not for me- but for the guys at Timex. I can’t think of a better way to thank my family.

Glad it didnt eat me

Laura Tingle — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:57:47 +0000

I am not sure if I have more bizarre animal encounters than other people, or if I am just more likely to talk about it. Anway, the last two weeks have been more animal-ey (why yes, they did teach me that word in Journalism school) than usual.
It all started a few weeks ago when I was riding my bike down a canyon, probably in the 40ish mph range, when I hit a bird with my face. Yes, my face. It was disgusting. I didnt even realize what happened until the wing was in my mouth. As a previous vegetarian (for 18 years) this was not okay with me. I was absolutely traumatized, and am still not sure how I didnt fall off my bike backwards, despite the fact I was descending.
The next week I was riding up past Jamestown (same canyon) when I saw what I thought was an albino devil goat with a beard. The thing was fugly plus a little more ugly. As I rode past, it pointed its head down, with its big devil horns pointed right at me. YIKES! I had a hard time describing the encounter to my lane mates at the pool that day, but I think I convinced them that I had seen a majestically white ram (?!) The next day, as I told my friend Brookie Cookie (not her real name….did you think it was?!) anyway, I told Brooke what I saw and she informed me that it was a big horn sheep. They are fairly common in that area. I liked it better when it was an albino devil goat….
This leads me to today. I had a fairly busy day of run, swim, coffee date, work, strategic planning with JD and Bob (his cat), and then a bike ride. I rode up the right side of the canyon, and then up the left side, and then over the backside. I was riding down the backside of Lee Hill, a pretty screaming descent, minding my own business, when I saw a bear running up towards me. I froze. I had zero options at the moment. I could keep descending and ride right into it, or turn around and go 6 mph back up the canyon. What to do…What to do….I have a life motto. I have always lived by the words “if you dont know what to do, do nothing.” The jury is still out on this motto, but until I replace it with something better, it is how I operate. So I did nothing. And watched it charge in my direction. Just than a car came around me, and slammed on its brakes. At that point the car was in between me and the monster. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably 5 seconds, it walked in front of the car, and down the other side of the canyon to the creek.
I flew down the canyon in a blur of emotions, stopped at the first intersection in Boulder…and threw up. I cant really explain that part of the story. But that is what happened. I rode through town, shaking and hyperventilating, got home, took off my shoes, called my dad, and told him “no…I am sorry…I didnt have a chance to take a picture of the bear.” I will have to keep that in mind the next time.

Bare Bones Swim Race

Laura Tingle — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:53:18 +0000

I did my first ever open water swim race last week. It was a disaster…
I thought I would illustrate my disaster in poem form. Enjoy!

I was very excited for the Bare Bones Swim Race,
Denny was there, I was going to swim off his face,
So when it came time to take our place,
I stood directly in front of his personal space.

The starter was counting from ten to one,
But I left on two, right before the gun,
I thought I had the swim race won,
When in reality, the battle had just begun.

I spun my arms and kicked my feet,
The whole time thinking it would be sweet,
to laugh when Denny finished in defeat,
because my false start was too hard to beat.

It wasn’t until 250 meters was swum,
that I realized what I had done,
I sprinted to the second buoy after the gun,
While the whole field swam around the first one.

Then a kayaker came over my way,
and pointed a paddle and went on to say,
“Hey pink cap girl, you went the wrong way!”
Karma will always make you pay.

At least when Denny finished the race,
he had some kindness, and a lil grace,
to wait while I finished in 60th place,
so he could announce he swam off my face.

I did this….and then I did that

Laura Tingle — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:33:44 +0000

My last post was the morning we were headed out to Memphis in May, so I will pick up where I left off. We got into Nashville (flights there were a third the price of flights to Memphis) to find that our bikes were stuck in Chicago. Which was odd considering we had a direct flight from Denver. Airlines are funny….and not funny “haha.” So we had lunch at Trader Joes, and then swam at the Tracy Caulkins Natatorium, my kind of day. The whole time I was swimming, I had a feeling of “I have been here before.” The next day I called my dad and he reminded me that I raced there when I was 10. Oh geez, at this rate, I am never going to get to my Memphis in May race report. That is okay, the race can be summed up as, “I swam on Blake Beckers feet, and then rode my bike better than last year, which wasnt hard considering I crashed my bike in the hotel parking lot the day before the race last year, but that probably didnt matter because I was riding my bike like a donkey in 2009 anyway, and then we got out on the run and everyone was doing the skeleton dance because it was a million degrees, and I finished 4th pro woman which wasnt really good or bad. The end.” On to more important things, I did not pee from before the race Sunday morning until 4 pm on Monday. That is how hot it was. That is VERY hot. Despite the hot, the fellas I traveled with all had great races. Blake finished 4th in the pro men, Justin was 6th and had the fastest run split, and Denny was one of the top age group men.
This past week, I mentioned for the 1,235th time to my parents that I would like to be the mayor of Louisville in 2035. My mother thought it would be a good idea if I became more involved in the community, so she signed me up for the inagural Louisville Half Marathon. Her, my dad, and the mother of my god baby, Erin, ran the 5k. It was a pretty fun day on a super hard course. Most of the course was gravel trail, which is good for making a fast recovery, but bad for running a smoking time. I was the first woman to finish, which means I have the course record! It probably doesnt count when it is a first year race…but..I am claiming it, haha. After the race, I was schooled on the mountain bike by my dad, some things never change. I ended the day with going to see Robin Hood (which totally made me want a bow and arrow, like, seriously. Seriously) and eating mexican food with some of my favorite friends. Things are going well.