September 6, 2008

2nd overall, 1:08!

That is the short version of my race report. Holy cats, it was awesome!!! What a great event. I can't wait to do it again next year. Great organization, great course (the bike course was FLAT as a pancake which was super cool), great prizes - a sweet glass in the shape of a cowboy boot and $100 off a VO2 Max test - great race overall. I don't have my official splits yet but I know I PRed on all three events - I think my swim was 12:16, I don't know my bike time but I think my average was 23.9 MPH (I wasn't kidding, it was SO FLAT), and my run was around 20:30 which is actually a post-college 5k PR. I really, really, really want to run a 5k once my season is over just to see how fast I can go now.

Once the results are posted (and once I have time) I will post a full report. But overall it has been an awesome day!!

Posted by barb at 3:48 PM | Comments (2)

September 5, 2008

remembering how to race

This is what my week is all about, remembering what racing is like. My last race was on July 20th. It is now September. What is that, like six weeks? I don't know, it seems like a lot. Anyway I am racing tomorrow, in the smallest tri I've ever done - there are only four waves! All the female age groupers are in one wave. It is going to be so cute. I kind of messed up on this one as they do have an elite wave which includes pros and anyone who thinks they can finish in the top 50 overall. Um, I probably can do that, but I didn't ask to be moved until yesterday, when it was too late. However, realistically I'd rather be in a position to pass a bunch of people than to get passed (the elite wave goes off first, and the female age groupers go off last).

Once again I have been ridiculously busy this week, so I would not say that my stress level is as low as it should be the day before a race, but I do feel that every day things are looking up more and more. In my taper for my A race I am going to work on tapering my workouts and my general life stress. I am also going to try to eat less dessert. I think I have a serious sugar addiction!

I rode my bicycle for an easy 45 minutes this morning and later on I need to swim for about 10 minutes and run for 20. I also need to go to Boulder and pick up my packet at some point, hopefully at a time when traffic is not unbearable. I am really excited to race again - I hope my training will pay off! I don't really anticipate being much faster on the swim or bike than I was in my last race but I do hope I can run at or under 7:00 pace. I was kind of stressed out by my decision to race this weekend, but I think ultimately anything that helps with my nerves for the A race is a good thing.

Not that much else has really been going on outside of training and the usual insanity of my life. I was in LA this past weekend which was super fun. I had a great time running on the beach, although my word it is humid there! I couldn't believe how soaked I was afterwards. Traveling for two weekends in a row was pretty tiring, I'm glad I don't have to go out of town again until Portland. Which I guess is only three weeks after my last trip, but it seems like a nice break. After that I also have a trip to San Francisco in October and Betsy and I have been talking about going somewhere warm for Thanksgiving. Then, because we love to plan, Michelle and I have been obsessing about where we should stay for Timberman. We are so excited, it looks like there are a ton of great options! We have very different ideas about lodging - Michelle likes cheap places and I like fancy places - but I think we have come up with a great compromise. Michelle promised me we won't stay anywhere with 'Motel' in the name, and I promised her we won't stay anywhere with 'Spa' in the name. I think this will be a great way to find a middle ground.

I think that is about all that's up this week - I am off to visualize my race, do some work, etc., etc. I will try to write about how the race went sooner rather than later.

Posted by barb at 8:47 AM | Comments (1)

August 27, 2008

crazy travel, crazy training!

I have been so busy I do not even have time to think. I know it's a recurring theme these days but really it is at the top of my mind as I am always racing from one workout, event, etc., to the next.

There is that theme and then there is the I love running theme. I had another killer workout this week, I seriously could not believe myself. I ran 2.8 miles at 6:08 - 5:56 pace, and then ran 2 x 200 as fast as I could, which is not that fast as I am more of a long twitch kind of person. I think my faster one was 38 or 39 seconds. But man, it hurt! Now I am just dying to know how fast the 5k in my sprint next weekend will be. I am thinking about starting out around 6:40 pace if I don't feel too bad. That would be crazy, at this rate I'm thinking about trying to find a regular running 5k race to do this weekend just to see if I can break my post-college PR which I think is just under 21:00. In fact maybe this would be a good idea, if I broke 20:00 I think I would probably have a heart attack I would be so excited. Alison probably knows this, but the only time in life I have broken 20:00 for a 5k was back in my sophmore year of college (Alison's senior year), when she, our friend Laurie, and I ran all our races together. That was so much fun. I still have a picture of us after our big race at NESCACs on my bookcase. I had a bit of a breakthrough after a long, awful winter of injury, and ran all my fastest times - my 5k PR of 19:26 and my 10k PR of 40:55. I have never gotten even close to those times in the intervening 11 years, and I really never thought I would again. But now I am becoming hopeful!

So that was the excitement yesterday. I had a pretty bad swim actually, just felt rough and slow in the water, and I was swimming pretty slow. I am not sure what that was about as on Monday I had one of my best swims yet. We'll see how tonight's swim goes, I am hopeful but not optimistic!

This morning I did a speed bike workout and my heavens was it tough. I am staying at my mom's right now and I really wanted to ride from there so I could pick up dry cleaning on the way to work, so I did. My mom lives in a super hilly area, I do not think there was an inch of flat ground to be found. This meant the downhills were nice but the uphills were absolutely brutal. They just hurt! It was probably a really good workout to do as my A race course is rolling, but it kinda freaked me out to be honest. I am not sure how I'll handle those rollers in a race situation. Hopefully I will have enough adrenaline to carry me!

Right now I am heading off to run and swim and then run 5 million errands. I was in Vegas this past weekend which was fun but exhausting and this weekend I am heading to Southern California, which I think will be really really fun and much less exhausting than Vegas, which is great! I cannot wait to run on the beach!!

Posted by barb at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)