Tour de Loop

Rockin the new Jerseys

This morning Kris, Angela and I rode in the 30 mile Tour de Loop. The course covers most of our go to bike route but it's quite the hilly hike after that. It was a beautiful day for a bike race and it looked like they had a great turnout.

After a trying week that left me feeling like I had been in a head on collision between a roller coaster and a brick wall I'd have to say I needed a good two hour battle with some monstrous hills. Up and over I went wondering why I put myself though the torture that is bike racing. Of course I don't think it's all torture, the volunteers are awesome, being outdoors and active with other like minded people is fun, I like the competition even though I'm light years behind and I love that last mile or so when you get to race for the finish and pat yourself on the back for getting through it.

I even managed to meet my goal of coming in under 2 hours: 1:56:34.257

Which when you consider there were 50 Milers that did it in just over 2 hours makes me think I might want to start picking up some pointers from someone : )

Congrats to Angela placing 2nd in her age group and Kris placing 5th in his!

Listening to: Life is Life/ Noah and the Whale

What goes up...

Today was not my best display of athleticism. I made the attempt to follow in the wake of the local bike group that gets together a few times a week in hopes I might pick up a few tips or at least push myself to improve. Tonight just wasn't my night. As a relative newbie I was a bit scared to even show up but people seemed very friendly and I found myself riding with some fellow lady cyclists, I'm sure could have wrecked me but thankfully they stuck with me and rode the 17 mile loop instead of the 30 miler.

I was pushing myself more than usual but I knew I could handle it. Unfortunately despite my ok stamina and cardiovascular abilities when out biking you still have to know when to change gears when you ride up hills. So my temporary lapse in cognitive reasoning left me in too high a gear pedaling up too big a hill from a slow start. So first my chain got stuck because I didn't have enough momentum to change gears as fast as was necessary for me to maintain a forward motion. I tried to rectify the problem by putting all my strength in to the pedals until a calf cramp ripped through my right leg and essentially paralyzed me as I was clipped in on my bike unable to do anything but fall... and that's exactly what I did. Right in the middle of the road. Luckily no cars were around and my riding buddies alerted the cars to my predicament before I became road kill.

As I lay on the ground, both feet still clipped in, I remained unable to move my cramping calf muscle and was finally forced to punch my heel to get out. I could barely put weight on my leg. Limping, I hung my head in shame as I walked my bike up the hill. Once at the top I hesitantly clipped in and rode for the next 4-5 miles with my toe pointed down trying to stretch my calf muscle out and keep pressure off it as it threatened to give out again. As we looped back we decided to attempt the little hill again and I swore it wouldn't defeat me. After all, as a long time equestrian, if you fall off the horse you get back on! Only off came my chain and I tipped over again. This time I was lucky enough to unclip one leg and fortunately fell in that direction so I caught myself this time. One of the other women lost her chain as well and we both stopped to pop them back on and managed to finish our ride without any further problems.

What a way to make a first impression. I'm hoping I got all the kinks out before the race and the 30 miles will go by as smoothly as possible.

For the rest of the week I'm taking a multi vitamin and drinking as much as possible to hopefully stave off these killer muscle cramps! We'll see how it goes...

Listening to: The A Team/ Ed Sheeran

Rant and Relay

Kris, Angela and I went out on the 30 mile Tour de Loop course tonight. Some major hills and some major distance. Nothing we can't handle though and it'll feel pretty awesome to finish it next weekend. Might go easy on the hills over the next week though... I have enough problems without messing up my knees too! I need to get another water bottle holder for my bike I think it might be frowned upon to stop at Ontario Orchard for a gatorade during the race itself : )

Looking forward to rocking my Ireland Jersey during the race!

On a side note, a-holes who find enjoyment in driving their cars too fast and too close to cyclists deserve to also drive their cars too fast and close to the nearest speed trap/ giant pot hole/ flock of gastrointestinal sickened birds! Share the road, it's more than big enough. They manage to fit two cars in one lane in Ireland, so we should have no problems here with one car and a cyclist!

Rant over, I've made my peace...

In the realm of running, I just signed up for the Empire State Marathon relay with Angela, Elyssa and a friend of Eylssa's who's name I will learn as soon as possible. We have to come up with a team name and decide who gets the short straw with the up hill portion of the relay... Not it!!!

Ice Ice Baby

The last two nights I have been trying to focus on running. I gave myself two nights rest and now my sights are set on my 6 and a half mile run during the Empire State Marathon weekend in November and not completely embarrassing myself in the Tour de Loop 30 mile bike race next Saturday. At the moment I seem to be suffering through a hopefully minor setback as both of my lower calf muscles are so tight it hurts to walk.

It's possible I'm over doing the running... as I sit here with an ice pack on each leg : )

I just want to get better so badly that I think I can run through the pain. Only it keeps getting worse. I'm going to look into protein supplements or pool running, just something that allows me to train without hurting myself for once. Maybe I'll ride my bike and see if I can abuse another set of muscle groups tomorrow night!

On the up side of running, I gotta say I'm loving the cooler breezy late summer nights we've been having. It's nights like these that really make me feel strong, alive and well!

Listening to: The Heart of Life/ John Mayer

Results are in

Here's the breakdown:

Final Time: 1:52:14

In the 1047 Finishers I placed 258th... top 25%

20th out of the 79 girls in my age group

Swim: 17:12 (319th over all) Considering I hung on to the side of a kayak for a good minute I'll take that : ) and I swam a lot more this year I think... though I did take a few strolls here and there.

T1: 2:53 (there was a long run this year, but I probably could have been faster here)

Bike: 1:00:19 (305th over all) 17.9mph average. I can forgive myself the 19 seconds because I think the course was slightly longer, so I sort of met my goal... I'm going to learn to make the most of those pedals soon though!

T2 1:07 Not bad here... I did my hair while running this year, next year I think I'll hack it all off before the tri : )

Run: 30:43 Since I was pretty beat at that point I can say I'm ok with my ~10 minute mile pace, hopefully I'll get that down soon too... BUT I did run the entire thing!

I'm happy with my times, there will always be room for improvement but that's what the off season is for! Time to concentrate on the Tour de Loop, and our Empire State relay Marathon ~10K race!

I also have to mention that Elyssa got 2nd in her age group and came in 31st overall! Very impressive for only her second Tri, I think she'll be one to watch in the years to come! Congrats!

Yellow Caps and Yellow Jackets

4:15 AM came a little too quickly for my liking this morning. After a night spent mostly dreading the looming morning swim I woke up more nervous than I've been in a long time. I went with a rice flour waffle with honey, a handful of cherries, and black Irish breakfast tea for breakfast. After I arrived precariously close to the closing of transition and set up T1 & T2 I broke out my vanilla Honey Stinger Waffle for a snack. Stinger Waffles are my new favorite work out food, I highly recommend them!

I made my way down to the water and swam around in an attempt to calm my nerves. It wasn't really working too well but I had a decent warm up anyways. Shortly after I found myself standing at the edge of the water listening to the National Anthem and watching the first wave start. I found a fellow triathlete to talk to and calmed down a bit. Before I knew it I was trudging into the water to begin the swim. I thought it sort of looked long but maybe my nerves were just playing tricks with me. As the swim started so did the panic. I made it to the first buoy without too much trouble, half walking half swimming. By the second buoy I was getting kicked and swam over, smacked repeatedly, splashed in the face every time I breathed, it was basically a cluster F#@%. I managed to round the far buoy and make the first right ok, I got a few strokes in here and there and then inevitably someone would use my chest to kick off of or throw their arm over my back and push me under. So I finally had to make the decision to swim to a kayak and re coop. Once I got there I took a minute to catch my breath and let the more aggressive swimmers go by. Finally I returned to the underwater wrestling match and almost got shoved under the next buoy but at least it was the final right turn for home. The rest of the swim I zigzaged my way back to the beach and finally pulled my sorry self out of the water 17 minutes 12 seconds after starting...

The run back to transition was rough, running on asphalt sucks and having your calf muscles cramp up the whole time doesn't help. I had a little trouble with my socks but I got ready pretty fast and as soon as I jumped on my bike I clipped in and took off. I have to learn to be a little more aggressive and ride around the women who are not really racing because I waited a while before blowing by them. I was loving the bike portion and making pretty good time until somewhere around mile 8 a yellow jacket flew into my left arm, lodged himself into my shoulder and I had to flick him off after he stung me. Like I really needed that. I had a few choice words and then was forced to grit my teeth through the rest of the bike course while the stinging sensation slowly turned into a throbbing pain in addition to the stinging. Fun.

Back at transition I flew through racking my bike and switching to my running sneakers. As I took off for the run my body was screaming out in protest to stop and walk and put an ice pack on my sore arm. I ignored all this and told myself it would all be over in 30 minutes. I was utterly disappointed when I realised what I thought had been the 1 mile marker was really more like a half mile point. I thought the turn around would never come. Finally I saw it and fought off the urge to walk. 15 more minutes... I tried singing "Good Life" by OneRepublic to myself a few times which worked until I didn't know any more words. Then I tried to think about Boomer being all excited to see me when I got back and finally I turned to my cheering section for inspiration and thought they might like to see me at some point rather soon... so I kicked it up a small notch and when the beach came into view despite wanting to keel over I sprinted up through the finish line. I then went directly to the medic tent and got a nice cold ice pack for my arm. It's now been over 12 hours since I got stung and it still hurts... that little effer! Although to be fair, I'm sure I ruined his day as well.

Thanks to my cheering section, Angela, Kris and my Dad... seeing you guys at transitions made it a lot more fun for me! And also to everyone who was there in spirit : ) And a big Thank You to everyone for supporting me through all my training and racing too! And Congrats to all Iron Girls out there past and present : )

Tri Time!

New clips and shoes, so far so good...

Boomer "helping" with transition set up

My Bike is racked, my nerves are shot and my bank account is suffering.

This morning I took the bike out to make sure everything was running smoothly after it's tune up. As I pulled into our usual cycling spot I noticed a group of fellow enthusiasts who did a double take while I drove by. A few minutes later one of them came over and told me about their group that ride together about 3 times a week. I'm really excited to ride new routes and hopefully learn from the more serious riders. They seemed really nice and even though it'll be hard to keep up with them I think it'll be good for me and Angela. The girl I was talking to suggested I take my bike out for a 10 mile ride before the race tomorrow so I took her advice, I hope she's right!

My bank account has been suffering with all the new equipment and the new tri suit I bought today. I'm hoping they were all good investments, since Angela and I are planning on a big bike race and a 10K run this year and 2 Triathlons next year. With any luck the suit will be comfortable and dry fast... I'm pretty sure it's more than a little see through so I'm going to cross my fingers no one notices but me!

Rockin the Lime Green Handle Bars

I guess it's time to talk goals. I remember last year saying I would never do another tri when I rolled out of bed, when I dragged myself out of the water, when I was trying to catch my breath out on the bike course and every time I knew I had a whole lot longer to go. This year I hope I can enjoy it a little more. Just like last year I hope I don't drown or panic, and I especially hope that I can swim well and not walk like last year. For the bike portion I'd like to shave 5 minutes off my time from last year. If there's wind that might not be possible, but I'd like to be in the top 33% of my age group in the bike at least. I've been neglecting the bricks this year so I'm a bit worried about a run after pushing so hard on the bike. I'm going to try like hell not to walk during the run. A lofty goal would be to run the course in under 30 minutes. Probably a little tough since I average about a ten minute mile during a 5K. I'll try my best and that's all I can do... til next year anyways : )

My play list on the insanely early drive to Oneida Shores tomorrow includes:

Good Life/ OneRepublic

Keep Your Head Up/ Andy Grammer

Faster/ Matt Nathanson

Free Fallin'/ Stevie Nicks Version

Chasing the Light/ Mat Kearney

Wetsuit/ The Vaccines

Learning to Love Again/ Mat Kearney

Bottom of the Sea/ Matt Nathanson

Just Stay Here Tonight/Augustana

Shot in the Dark/Augustana

This is your Life/ Switchfoot

Science & Faith/ The Script

Free/ Zac Brown Band

Free Fallin'/ Stevie Nicks Version

She Got the Honey/ Mat Kearney (really loving his new cd!)

I might throw the theme from Rocky in there just to pump myself up... but mostly I need chill music to settle the inevitable nerves.

So that's it for now, time to watch Harry Potter, wind down for the night and hope tomorrow is a fantastic day : )

Clipped in and Carb Loaded

T minus 3 days.

Oh crap. I'm terrified to swim. My solution: just wing it. Can't wait to Bike! Running will most likely be torture. I've come to realize Triathlons are sort of about how long you can stand putting yourself through physical agony at an ungodly hour of the morning. But I still somehow think they're a good time and well worth the hours put in... I'll let you know if my opinion changes at 4:15 AM Sunday morning.

This week has been rough. Too much work, too little training. It's taper week and I'm tapering and eating my usual over dosage of carbs. I'm hoping bad practices equal good races. I did a pretty pathetic swim the other day. Thanks to the constant furniture and photo equipment moving my arms have become weak useless apendanges that flail around hopelessly in the water. Running tonight took a while to get into and my ankles feel like the bones are grinding together. Most likely from the 12 hour days spent running around on concrete floors. The one bright spot in my training has been my biking. I made the plunge and had the guys at my local bike shop hook me up with clipless pedals. Angela and I went out for a ride to see if they made much of a difference and she seems to think they do. I hope they help me out on that long and flat and seemingly neverending tri course! They're also putting some hot handlebar tape on for me, I'll post pictures soon! For now I have to get some sleep, this tri has once again approached at warp speed.

My carb loading secret weapon: Irish Brown Bread : )

Listening to: Hey Mama/ Mat Kearney