Four on the Floor

I think I've finally switched gears. At least what has lately been an uphill battle has become a much more manageble gradual uphill slope with the occasional much needed leveling out. Thursday night despite the misty weather and occasional passing rain cloud I managed to slowly but steadily run a full 4 miles. I know I'm only 3 and a half weeks from my crazy goal of having to run almost 7, but at least I'm finally moving in the right dirrection. My ipod, a flat course and the towering rainbows arching over the parkway were all contributing factors to my success. I also find fellow runners motivate me to keep going because I don't want to hang my head in shame and walk in front of them. I know I have a long way to go but I was pretty proud of my new bench mark. I just hope I can keep it up!

Listening to: Gravity/ Stephen Kellog and the Sixers

Bring on the Rain

Running might just be defeating me. Six and a half miles might as well be a marathon at this point. It seems no matter what I do I'm just getting worse.

Negativity riddled rant over, time for a positive plan of action that will bring about desired results:

Let me know if you have any ideas : )

Sunday Angela and I took a break from running to get back to our favorite leg of Triathlon, biking! So off we went casually ignoring the threatening clouds looming in the not so far distance. If you've ever had the pleasure of being caught out in a torrential down pour while riding a bike you'll know why you don't see many cyclists out when the weather looks gloomy. First off the position you keep on the bike lends itself quite nicely to streamlining large amounts of rain water directly into your cycling shoes which coincidentally happen to act much like a sponge and seem to be able to hold about twice their weight in water. Second, dirt and sand somehow are able to defy gravity in the rain and both make a fantastic effort to climb up your legs and spray up your back tire to completely cover you in grit. Third the pooling water and newly flowing steams rapidly growing in size and velocity make any sort of quick retreat back to the comfort of dryness nearly impossible and quite frankly dangerous. When you combine all these factors and look over at your riding buddy drenched to the bone beside you it all becomes fairly comical... and after all it's only water. We had a good laugh and I'm sure all the passing vehicles on the road were highly entertained as well. I'd still take a monsoon while biking over any day running.

Maybe someday I will find the humor and enjoyment in running as well... til then I'll be grinning and bearing it for the next few weeks.

Listening to: Days Like This/ Van Morrison

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!