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June 30, 2006

Running Too?

Lately I've been feeling like I'm ignoring my running a little. Or maybe I've been feeling like that for a long time. It's challenging for me to get the running in, partly because my feet limit me in many ways and partly because I have SOO much to learn about the other two sports that I don't want to spend too much time on the sport I already know about.

Anyway, today I did a tempo run and I think it has motivated me to put some more miles in. Nothing crazy, but I think I should be able to fit in at least 15 mpw (in 3 runs) with the other "stuff". The tempo run wasn't horrible by any means and in fact I actually felt pretty strong, especially at the end, but the two mile splits I took while doing my 15 minutes hard were 7:00 and 6:38. The 7 was on a slight uphill and the 6:38 was that same mile going the other way (slight downhill). That's not too impressive. I was hoping to run more like 6:30-6:40 for both. And truthfully, I should perhaps be aiming for something even faster.

I am going to try to add another run in on non-race weeks and see how my feet (and body) handle it. One of my runs is the 25-30 minutes I do off my bike once a week which doesn't really even count. Finding a balance in tri training is difficult and I think my tendency is going to be to do too much too hard so I'll have to keep and eye on myself... :) Anyway, the tempo today was 15 easy, 15 hard and then another 15 minutes easy during which I did 6 miles on our rails to trails.

Tomorrow is my first Trizilla group ride and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm going to ride the road bike (that isn't mine that I've been riding in the crits) and so my poor bike will spend another day in the garage! I will get plenty of chance to ride it next week though. Good thing too - I don't want to forget what it feels like to be down in those aerobars!

Posted by beth at 10:23 PM | Comments (1)

I've Been Tagged!

Audrey tagged me! I'm not sure what that means - but I think it means I need to answer all the questions that she just answered on her own blog...

4 Jobs I've Had
*Farm Help - I worked on an ostrich farm!
*Lifeguard
*Research Assistant - two different labs at Penn State during my summers there
*Clinical Dietitian

4 Movies I Watch Over and Over
*Sorry but I don't watch movies over. In fact, staying awake while watching a movie for the first time is quite a challenge, let alone watching it again and knowing what happens! One thing I have watched more than once though is the tape I have of last year's Hawaii Ironman.

4 Places I Have Lived
*Blacksburg, Virginia
*State College, Pennsylvania (GO PSU!)
*Broomall, Pennsylvania
*Greensburg, Pennsylvania

4 TV Shows I watch
*ER
*King of Queens
*PTI (Pardon the Interruption)
*Around the Horn

4 Places I've Been on Vacation
*Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
*Phoenix, Arizona
*Toronto, Ontario
*Cape Cod/Boston, Massachusetts

4 Websites I Visit Daily
*www.eliterunning.com
*www.trizilla.com
*www.rbc.org/odb/odb.shtml (Our Daily Bread devotional)
*www.weather.com

4 Favorite Foods
*ice cream
*peanut butter
*pizza
*raisins and spice oatmeal

4 Places I'd Rather Be
*on my bike
*in the pool
*on a run
*in my bed

4 Favorite Bands/Singers
*Third Day
*Newsboys
*U2
*The Police

Posted by beth at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2006

Crit #2 and 16x150

I rode in my 2nd crit last night and I gotta say, I'm starting to get hooked.

Usually they only race once a week but since they won't race next Tuesday (because of July 4th) we raced again last night. It was kind of a special night. There was a big picnic/cookout and ALL the races (the women's plus all 3 of the men's were held on the same night). Anyway, because there were so many races our race was only 15 laps (7.5 miles) instead of the usual 30 (15 miles).

My teammate K was also racing last night so we developed a strategy of sorts. As I've quickly learned, cycling races are all about teammwork and so riding alone can drastically change how you go about things. Coach J told us before the race that K and I should just try to take it out after 2 laps and get away from the pack - see if we could drop them and if we could run away with it and because there was 2 of us, we could take turns leading and not have to do ALL of the work up front. Unless you are a FAR superior rider than the rest of the field, I'm pretty sure you couldn't get away with doing that on your own. It's just too hard to ride away at the front while the rest of the pack is in back of you working together to catch you.

Anyway, things didn't turn out as planned because right away there was a rider who took off and gapped the field. K and I lead the chase to catch her and after about 6 laps we did so. This is when the craziness started. We just rode HARD last night, way harder than on Tuesday. I don't know if it was because K and I were trying to push it or if it was because it was a shorter race and everyone was trying to push it, but these kinds of races are just what K and I want and need because:

(1) they will likely produce a greater training benefit
(2) riding hard and taking the sprint out of people is probably the only chance K and I have at winning one of these races

And let me tell you - I really want to win one now. My competiveness has taken over.

In the end K and I did get outsprinted. It was no surprise. But this time we actually sprinted too and I came in 5th (out of 15). The official results aren't up yet but I can't wait to see our times. We were definitely moving and I was definitely tired when we finished. I'm starting to realize that riding hard can almost feel like running hard...almost. :)

Anyway, I'm really loving the whole atmosphere of the crits. All the different teams are fieriously competitive and even some of the women (who are usually a little tamer than men) were trash talking during the race! K and I are the only women who ride for Trizilla but it's really fun to have a teammate (plus all our guy teammates) again and to scheme as to how we might possibly beat the other teams. In the end I think trying to break things open in the middle of the race and take the sprint out of people is our key, but we have to become a lot stronger cyclists to do that. Motivation for my rides - that's for sure!

After our race Coach J told us to stay around and watch the men's races so we could learn what we are really supposed to be doing. :) The men are so aggressive! And their fields are much larger. And unfortunately there was a big crash in one of the men's races that involved another Trizilla rider. It was bad and I'm glad I didn't actually see it since it happened at the far end of the oval. Several riders went down but the one to take the worst hit ended up okay - just with some massive road rash and a banged up bike. Yuck.

Anyway, this morning when my alarm went off I wasn't too happy. All the biking and racing this week has been keeping me up pretty late and I've been lacking on sleep. But I managed to get myself up and get my suit on and head to the Pitt pool for practice. The pool was set up long course this morning which isn't usually the case on Thursdays but is actually to my liking so I didn't complain.

We did 16x150 meters and thankfully one of the faster girls from one lane above mine swam with us so she led and I could just follow along. Leading the workout for my group is so much harder! The 150s were 100 hard and then the next 50 an easy "active rest".

We started with a 3 minute interval which was too easy, then did one on 2:30 which was too hard and then settled on 2:45 for the next 6. For the next 4 we did them on 2:40 and the last 4 we did on 2:35. It was a good workout. With warmup and cooldown I swam 3200 meters.

I learned today at the pool that there is an open water swim race in our area this Saturday - a one mile race and a 2 mile race. It sounded really interesting and is something I should probably do, but I also want to go to Trizilla's team ride on Saturday morning. Choices, choices! The triathlete has so many choices! :)

And on that front - I feel like my running is taking a major hit this week. Thus far I've ran 20 minutes this week at about 8:30 pace. Hmmm.... That just will not do! I've heard more than one person say that triathletes can really only be good at 2 sports and should just "get through" the 3rd one on race day. How sad would that be if running was my "get through" sport! :) Oh well - tomorrow I have a tempo run on tap to redeem myself. Next week I might have to try and run more than 8 miles for the week... :)

Hope everyone has a great night!

Posted by beth at 7:37 PM | Comments (2)

June 27, 2006

I Survived, I Survived!

It's late and I want to go to bed, but I also want to let you all know that indeed, I survived my very first crit. And I loved it. It was scary at times but I was okay. Very nice group of people. I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer's races!

I pray before I do a lot of things and you better believe I was praying before this race! My prayer for safety (above all else!) was definitely answered. There were only 7 riders tonight. Thank you God! It made for a nice intro into cycling races. There weren't any large packs to worry about. Usually there are 15-20 riders so if that's the case the next time I go, I'll at least have one race under my belt and be more ready to take on the challenge of riding with a larger group.

Cycling is interesting. The races aren't like running races, or at least the running races I've run. Lots of strategy and teamwork and slowing down and breaking away and riding easy and then hard and what it all boiled down to at the end was one gigantic sprint towards the finish line. As you might imagine, I didn't win. I got passed like I was standing still! But I also don't really know how to sprint on a bike so I want to work on that and try to stick with them next time.

My goal was to stay with the lead pack and to live. I accomplished both. I took the lead with 2 laps left and really tried to go hard but all that happened was the 3 riders that were left just latched onto me and drafted off me and then outsprinted me at the end. I was fourth. Good enough. I figured I wasn't going to be able to break away but I wanted to try. They didn't laugh at me - like I said - they are nice people, but they were probably thinking "rookie!" and happy to have me in there to break the wind on the last mile. :) I have a lot to learn for sure. But I'm more than happy to keep coming back and trying again!

After the run I ran a very weak 20 minutes with O and Roxy (who came to cheer me on!). It wasn't fast and it wasn't great but I need to get runs in somehow this week and since I'm racing again tomorrow I figured tonight was as good as any! There is usually only 1 race/week but this week there are two because of the July 4th holiday next week. Either way - I worried a lot about a nothing (as is usually the case for me) and had a blast tonight. The worst part of the whole night was everyone making fun of my helmet (yes - I bought it at Target and no, it did not cost $200 like everyone else's :). And the best part of the night was trying something totally new and loving it!

Good night all!

Posted by beth at 11:06 PM | Comments (4)

June 26, 2006

Quite a Day

Wow - what a whirlwind of a day! First up was my 1st pool swim in 2 weeks. I was actually nervous, like I had somehow forgotten to swim in a pool. What was I thinking? In a pool you can actually see where you are going! My swim actually felt really good although I did mess up the workout some for me and my group. That's what they get for letting me lead. I can't even add in my head let alone multiply and subtract while trying to swim hard. :)

2 sets of:

300/200/100/100/200/300

The times for my group were supposed to be based on 100s of 2 min/1:55/1:50/2/1:55/1:50 and then for the 2nd set 1:55/1:50/1:45/1:55/1:50/1:45. The part I messed up was the first set - I did 2/1:55/1:50/1:50/1:55/2. Oops. Not that big of a deal. We got less rest for the middle 100s and more for the last 300. Either way, my group kindly pointed out my mistake and I did it correctly on the 2nd set. :)

With my warmup and cooldown I did 3500 meters total.

Next up was work. Nothing crazy in particular other than it was my first day back after 11 days off. That's never a good thing people. It actually wasn't that bad other than the fact that I got notice that I was going to get kicked out of my parking garage starting next week and I spent most of the morning trying to determine where exactly it was that I was going to park instead. My choices? One lot that was less expensive but would probably add about 30 minutes to my commute each way (1 hour total) because the drive is farther and it invovles a shuttle. The other choice was somewhere that I could still park and then walk to the hospital but that was more expensive than I already pay. And I pay >$800/year to park already. Ugh. I hate to say it but I went for the more expensive option. I just can't imagine taking another hour of my day to sit in my car or on a shuttle. What a waste.

After work was a trip to the bike store. Where do I begin with this? Perhaps a short explanation that hopefully won't bore people too much...

The guy that owns the bike store where I bought my bike and go just about every other day (or so it seems), is a triathlete himself and also a coach. He has a "team" of triathletes as well as a team of cyclists. Some of his triathletes are almost to the point of obtaining pro status - aka - they are really good. So anyway, my friend and teammate from college K and I are sort of getting pulled into this little group. I think the store owner J just wants some women to claim and that's the reason why he has shown interest in us. He knows that we both ran collegiately and have been blessed with some sort of talent in that sense and I think he possibly sees some potential. I also think that he really likes to coach and truly gets enjoyment out of helping people achieve their goals.

Anyway, J wanted me to try to ride in the crits, the bike races on Tuesday nights, but I don't have a road bike. No problem in J's eyes - he will just let me use one of the bikes from the store! It's such a wonderful opportunity for me, one that I really can't pass on, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really nervous about it! A cycling race? What the heck? There is strategy and drafting and oh my...lots to learn. But I can't pass it up and so this afternoon I went to the bike store and J set me up on a pretty sweet road bike. It's not mine of course - I will race on it on Tuesdays and I will ride it on group rides on Saturdays but otherwise I'll just ride my own tri bike. K, my friend, will also be racing the crits but she can't come tomorrow so she met me this afternoon at the bike store and we both rode over (me on the road bike to get used to it) to the oval where the races are. She wanted to give me some pointers about the races as she has already done two. The ride over was about 15 miles.

The oval is a little scary. The curves aren't so bad in themselves but what concerns me is being amongst 20 other riders on those turns. I suppose I'll survive though. My goal for tomorrow is literally to survive and try not to get dropped by the pack. The races are 15 miles long. What have I gotten myself into? Don't get me wrong - I'm very excited for it and I know this will help me be a better triathlete but cycling isn't a world I necessarily feel like I fit into too well!

And that's that. I'm excited. I'm nervous. But I will re-read one of my favorite quotes:

"Unless you test yourself, you stagnate. Unless you try to go way beyond what you've been able to do before, you won't develop and grow. When you go for it 100%, when you don't have the fear of "what if I fail," that's when you learn. That's when you're really living." Mark Allen

These words really sum up my experience thus far in the sport of triathlon. I have so much to learn. And I'm scared of a lot of it. It's not safe and comfortable like running has been for the past 10 years. But with God's strength I will keep pushing through and keep learning and hopefully come out a better person for it.

PS I also bought a heart rate monitor today too because - what the heck?! - why not try to learn a whole new way of training while I'm at it. First step - learn how to make heart rate monitor watch display anything other than the current time. I told you I have a lot to learn... :)

Posted by beth at 9:05 PM | Comments (2)

June 24, 2006

Home Sweet Home

Actually, I'd rather still be on vacation, but home isn't that bad either. :)

Summary for the week:

Sunday - Charleston Sprint Tri (1:08:32) 0.3 mi swim/13 mi bike/5K run
Monday - off
Tuesday - 25 minute ocean swim (am) and 22 mi bike (pm)
Wednesday - 45 minute run w/15x1 minute hard w/1 min easy, body weight circuitx2
Thursday - 43 mi bike, 2x25 pushups and 2x100 crunchers
Friday - 30 minute ocean swim
Saturday - 60 minute run, body weight circuitx2
Sunday - off (!)

Posted by beth at 9:54 PM | Comments (0)

Hickory Hills

This morning O and I went for a run in Hickory before we head back home to Pittsburgh. Hickory is a nice little town in the eastern part of North Carolina and as we learned today, is pretty hilly too! O was scheduled to do a 13 mile run so I ran the first 60 minutes with him and then sent him on his way for another 45 minutes or so.

I felt pretty good running although an hour is (sadly!) quite a long way for me now! :) It was a nice morning, much cooler than the past week in South Carolina and so that felt really good. Right now I'm icing my feet and waiting for O to return from the 2nd part of his run so we can hit up the continental breakfast. It doesn't take much to get O and I excited and let me tell you - a continental breakfast in a hotel/motel can do it!

The game last night was fun although it was delayed close to two hours because of rain and thunderstorms. We didn't stay for the whole game but did see a few innings and got ourselves some Crawdad t-shirts. Most importantly we saw Conrad the Crawdad which was quite a sight in itself. I like it here in Hickory. Very friendly people who all have a southern accent. Can't beat that!

Posted by beth at 8:57 AM | Comments (1)

June 23, 2006

High Tide

This morning before we started on our way home (boo-hoo!) we went to the ocean one last time. I probably won't see ocean again for a while. Sob, sob! :) I wanted to swim again in the open water with my wetsuit and O went for a run on the beach. My mom walked along side the ocean shore and made sure I didn't drown.

Unlike last Tuesday when I went for an ocean swim, this morning there was a high tide. And that meant the "waves" were looking much bigger and menacing. But I just went out a little farther and it wasn't too bad. I sort of just rolled along with the swells. It was actually pretty cool!

I swam for a little over 30 minutes, nothing special or hard, just practicing sighting and swimming in a straight line. My mom assures me I was swimming pretty straight. She might just be saying that but it made me feel more confident. :)

After we got home and showered and packed O and I headed towards home. We are now in Hickory, NC where we are spending the night and going to see a Hickory Crawdads game. They are the A team for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Later in the summer we are going to see the Pirate's AAA team in Indianapolis. And then tomorrow we will complete the trip home to Pittsburgh. Boy did vacation go fast. But it was very fun and relaxing and great to see my parents again!

PS Thanks to everyone who wished O and I a happy anniversary and also for everyone's posititve comments about my first triathlon! Everyone is so positive and encouraging. I appreciate it very much so!

Posted by beth at 5:03 PM | Comments (1)

June 22, 2006

4 Years Strong

Today is O and my 4th wedding anniversary. I can't even believe it has already been 4 years since we tied the knot!

The day we got married was much like today - hot, humid and sticky - although it was in Pennsylvania, not South Carolina. We had a great day regardless! I remember everything going so quickly that day. The last 4 years have gone quickly too!

Regardless, this morning I did a 44 mile ride on our 4th anniversary. Actually, it was only a 43.15 mile ride but wouldn't 44 have sounded better? :) It was a great ride - I averaged 18.8 MPH, but again there was not even a little itty-bitty hill and so my speed was likely more related to that than me cycling faster. :) It took a little over 2:17. When I got back I was absolutely soaked in sweat and had more than a few bugs plastered on me. Yeah I know - very nice. :) As hot as I was, I know running would have felt worse so I was glad to have a bit of a breeze on my bike!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Posted by beth at 3:51 PM | Comments (7)

June 21, 2006

HHI

O and I always joke that HHI really stands for hot, humid and icky instead of Hilton Head Island. Man oh man was that no joke this morning! I know it's not even hot down here yet compared with normal southern standards but today this northerner was hurting. :)

The problem was we kind of slept in and when you don't start running until 9:15 am or so, you're going to pay the price. That's okay though, it was worth the extra zzz's. :) We went to the beach again, this time for O and I both to run and my mom to walk.

I did 45 minutes of total running, 11 minutes warmup, 15x1 minute hard w/1 minute easy and then 5 minutes cooldown. It actually went okay, I was just really feeling the heat and humidity. Luckily on the way back the ocean breeze was in my face and it felt really good. Truthfully my hard intervals probably weren't slowing down too much, but my easy jogging rest - oh my was I shuffling along! O was doing a 3 mile tempo run and so I was really glad that I wasn't doing that. :) After the run we all walked along in the water for another 25 or 30 minutes and then headed home. The cool ocean water felt really good on my weary legs.

And so goes the life of the vacationer! What a life! Today we are being lazy bums - watching movies and World Cup soccer and playing games - all in the nice cool comfort of air conditioning. :)

Posted by beth at 1:30 PM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2006

Ocean Swim

In my "running" log (which has now turned into a running/swimming/biking log), I always list the place where I do my training. For example, if I ran my Harrison Hills loop I list as such, or if I rode my Ekastown Road loop I write that in. Today's entry for my swim? The Atlantic Ocean. Pretty cool huh?! :)

This morning when we got up my mom, O and I drove over to the ocean. O went for a 5 mile run and my mom walked along the ocean while I swam in it. Swimming in the ocean is pretty...um...different! The waves make for an interesting challenge and the salt water - oh the salt water! After swimming for about 5 minutes I felt like I had been licking a salt block continuously for the past 10 years of my life! I had fun though and it was good practice. If I ever do a tri with an ocean swim I'll know what to expect plus I wore my wetsuit to get some more practice in it. I swam for about 25-30 minutes, just parallel to the shore, keeping an eye on my mom the whole time to make sure I wasn't swimming out towards sea... :)

O played "big" golf (vs mini golf) at one of the courses in the plantation where my parent's live this afternoon. I went along to play caddy. I don't know how to play real golf so I just drive the cart and watch. The courses here are so nice but boy does it get hot out there! His tee time was at 1:08 pm so you can imagine. I drank 2 bottles of water, 1 bottle of Gatorade and 1 can of pop and I was still thirsty when he was done, and I wasn't even doing anything! It was fun though. I'd imagine I would be pretty bad at golf. I better just stick to driving the cart.

When we got home we went to eat at an authentic Mexican resturaunt and it was majorly yummy. I was so hungry, I inhaled about 2 bags of tortilla chips before my meal even came! That didn't do much to help my dehydrated state or the salty taste in my mouth but boy did it taste good. :)

When we got home I waited for my food to digest some and then went out for a bike ride. Hilton Head Island is only 12 miles long in total but in my parent's plantation alone there is something like 76 miles of roads. It's crazy. Anyway, O made up a loop for me which I tried desperately to remember and follow. I did pretty good with it, I just kept passing up this one road. Either way it was a good ride - 22 miles averaging 18.7 MPH, faster than usual but also much flatter than usual. There is not a hill to be found in this area. Really.

So now it's time for some more relaxation, something I'm getting very good at here on vacation...

Posted by beth at 9:03 PM | Comments (1)

June 19, 2006

A Tribute to My Dad

So in the general hubbub that was this past weekend with our travel to SC and then the race, I didn't get to post my tribute to my dad on father's day. I'm a day late. Oh well. The way I see it, that's better than two days late. :)

Anyway, just like when I wrote a tribute to my mom back in May, I wanted to do a similar thing for my father.

My father is a civil engineer - the type that builds bridges and dams and other such things. Up until the time when my parents moved to South Carolina he was the guy that was actually on site, pouring the concrete and getting dirty (both literally and figurtively) out in the field, not the one in a nice building somewhere drawing up plans. He was up early and home late, in the extreme hot and frigid cold, working incredibly hard for 30+ years of his life. And so it's easy to see that the thing my father taught me was that anything worth something in life was worth working hard for. If it came easy, it wasn't going to mean nearly as much. This has been an important lesson for me, not only for running and sports but for school work, my career, and for relationships too. I'm highly motivated by challenging myself to do something better than I ever have before, which I'm sure comes from my dad.

I've always had a lot of respect for my father. He's not one to talk your ear off. In fact, long conversations were quite rare, so I always felt like when he did say something it was really important to listen. Now that he's semi-retired and perhaps a little more rested, he can be a little chatty at times. This I like also. He has a great sense of humor. :) And really he has a lot of compassion, something that it's always readily apparent but that can be seen if you know him pretty well.

But really, the quality that best exemplifies my father in my eyes, is an unwavering work ethic and a refusal to give anything less than his best. That's a hard trait to emulate. And I have big shoes to fill if I want to try to live up to his standards. But luckily I have a good teacher. :)

I hope you all have as great of a father as I do. I couldn't have asked for better parents. (and I would post a picture of him but one other trait my father has is total camera avoidance so I don't have any digital photos of us!)

Posted by beth at 10:36 PM | Comments (2)

Oh Yeah - I'm On Vacation!

The whole drive down to Charleston, SC and over the weekend I was so focused on the triathlon that I think I forgot that we would be on vacation in Hilton Head the whole rest of the week visiting my parents. What a great realization on Sunday night when we arrived at my parent's house, our final destination! Even better was sleeping in this morning until 8 am and getting 9.5 hours of sleep! AHHH!! :)

This morning I wasn't feeling too bad other than my left hamstring that is apparently very mad at me for something. My feet are a little sore too. I am taking the day off though and after some stretching and walking around my hammy is feeling better. The hamstring could be sore due to my total lack of cooldown yesterday. Hey, I figured a 5K run at around 7 minute pace was cooldown enough... :)

Instead of doing my own workout this morning I went over to the local high school track to watch and time O's for him. He was doing 6x800 w/90 seconds rest and looked quite fine in doing them, especially given the fact that the humidity here seems much worse than at home. He did them all between 2:55-3 minutes. I must say, I far prefer timing and watching workouts to actually doing them. It's much less tiring. :)

Regardless, the official results were posted from yesterday. Unfortunately they include transition times (which is odd because they had the mats positioned as such to not do that) and so my swim time includes my T1 and my bike time includes T2. I really would have liked to see what my T1 time was, and also just my bike time by itself. Either way, the good news is, my run time was pure. I really was 5th overall.

swim + T1 = 9:21
bike +T2 = 37:44 (~20.5 MPH average including transition time)
run = 21:29

So anyway, today we went minature golfing and I lost. What's up with that? O won. Of course I told him that I let him win for 2 reasons:

1) yesterday was his birthday and
2) he's playing a "real" round of golf tomorrow and I wanted to help his confidence along some

I'm such a nice wife. And I let my mom beat me because...um...because she paid for lunch. Yeah...that's why. :) I started out beautifully but things got ugly towards the end when I took some 5s and 4s. Oh well, I guess there is always a next time.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Posted by beth at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2006

I Am a Triathlete!

The pictures tell it all. :)

I loved it! I have found myself a new sport, that's for sure. Much better than just straight running. I suggest you all give it a try. :)

I don't have the exact results or my splits yet. They will eventually be posted on the race website but as of now they aren't there. Roughly, my time was 1:08:32 (0.3 mi swim, 13 mi bike, 5K). My swim was about 9 minutes, my bike 39 or 40 minutes and my run 21:30 or so. I won my age group but was about the 5th women overall. I do find tris very confusing results wise. I was entered in the age group division but my time was faster than some of the elites but there were also other ages groupers (I think 2, one of which was over 40 yrs old!) that were faster than me. Weird. It's kind of a strange thing since you don't all start at the same time and you don't really know who you are racing or not. I guess you're just out there racing everyone!

The Swim

I was so scared of the swim. I think I've heard or read about every horror story of getting beat up, swam over, under, around, etc... We were started in waves and I started with about 30-40 other women of around my age. I started way to the left (we were swimming clockwise around bouys) so that I wouldn't be on the inside where everyone was heading. I think I may be a little better swimmer than I think because I didn't really run into trouble. Either that or I just went out so hard they all thought I was crazy. I certainly wasn't the first one of my age group out of the water but I wasn't swimming in the midst of 40 other people either. It must have thinned out pretty quickly. I did much better with the sighting and swimming straight than my practice swim last week but per my parents, O and my sister and brother-in-law who were watching on shore, I was swimming a little wide! Either way it was really neat. It felt really long. When I got out of the water my heart rate felt like it was around 550. :) I chose not to wear my wetsuit because the water was so warm. It probably would have helped me a little for buoyancy sake but any time I saved there would have been lost in transition. :)

T1

Before the race the race announcer kept reminding everyone to not forget where their bike was. Yeah buddy, like I"m going to forget where I put my bike. Well that was no joke. I didn't forget where my bike was but I was pretty disoriented when I got out of the water. Hmm... :) I had about a 100 meter jog to get to my bike, part of which was on concrete. Yeah - my feet didn't like that. :) I survived though and felt like I did an okay job of getting my gear on and getting going. I did not attach my shoes to my pedals and put my shoes on while biking. That's a task to learn later on. My goodness I can only imagine how ugly that might have gotten. I also wear socks because I know I would get blisters otherwise. Real triathletes don't wear socks. :)

The Bike

I was humming on my bike. I was loving life. I felt good. I will be interested to see my split for that. Definitely faster than I've ever gone but the course was also flatter than a pancake so I'm not sure I will ever be able to duplicate this feat! I was passing people left and right on the bike (one benefit of starting in the 5th wave of swimmers - lots of people to go after!). I started to worry that perhaps I shouldn't be passing so many people - like they knew something that I didn't. I wasn't exerting all my effort but I was certainly working and I didn't want it to come back to bite me. I was able to stay down in my aerobars except for a few sharp turns.

T2/The Run

When I dismounted my bike I made an effort to sit down, change my shoes and take a DEEP breathe. I got a drink, I grabbed my hat and I started running. And my legs told me they were NOT happy with me. It's a hard feeling to explain. I really felt like I was running so slow but I was still catching people. I kept telling myself "you are a runner and they are not" but I was hurting. By my estimation my split was around 21:30 so I'm actually pretty pleased with that, but I literally felt like I was shuffling along at 9 minute pace. I would pass one person and then focus on the next to try and get them. One guy passed me and I tried to go with him but he was clearly running faster than me. Let me just say - I was happy to be done!

Overall it was a great time. I REALLY enjoyed it. And overall I would say that the triathlete community is very friendly. I think it's likely to be even more so in the longer tris. A "we are all in this together" type of attitude. The best part was the bike. The hardest part was the run. The most fun part was getting your number marked on your body (although they don't come off too easy!). All in all a big success for me. The top woman was around 1:02. I'm not sure I could shave 6:30 off my time. Perhaps some time off my bike but not that much! Not much off my swim and none off my run. I guess that's what hard training is for!

Summary for the week:

Sunday - off
Monday - 3500 meter swim w/12x200, core/feet exercises
Tuesday - 42 minute run, core/feet exercises
Wednesday - lift
Thursday - 21 mi bike, 2x25 pushups, 2x100 crunchers
Friday - 30 min run, 4x20 second striders, core/feet exercises
Saturday - 8.5 mi bike, 10 min run (checking out the course some)
Sunday - Charleston Sprint Triathlon (0.3 mi swim, 13 mi bike, 5K run)

Posted by beth at 7:54 PM | Comments (8)

June 16, 2006

And Away We Go

Soon we will be off on our South Carolina adventure! Very fun!

We got up this morning around 6 am. It's so easy to get up in the summer when it's light outside and you can hear the birds singing. Around 6:45, Roxy and O joined me on a 30 minute easy run. Other than O tripping over a root and biting the dust, the run wasn't too eventful. It's a beautiful morning. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. When we got home we did 4 striders up and down the street just to get those legs moving a little.

We drop Roxy off at the kennel at 9 am and then we'll be on our way! I've been dreading taking Roxy to the kennel though. We got her from a shelter in Philadelphia. Someone had dropped her off there and so now I don't want her to think we are abandoning her too! The truth is, she probably won't care one lick, as long as she gets fed. But I feel so bad! We keep telling her she's going to "camp". Is this what it's like to drop your child off at college and leave them behind for the first time? :)

I'm getting nervous for my first tri. Only 2 days away! Here goes nothing... :)

Posted by beth at 7:35 AM | Comments (3)

June 15, 2006

Good Stuff

I had a great bike ride this morning. The weather was beautiful! Sunny, big blue skies, about 65 degrees with low humidity. I was just so glad to be alive!

I felt like riding 120 miles instead of just 20, but I was good and turned around when I was supposed to. :) I felt pretty good - averaged 18.3 MPH over 21.05 miles exactly. It was such a beautiful morning and I was in such a groove. Not even the gazillion dump trucks that kept passing me and pushing me off the road could bring down my good mood! I live for days like these!

And so it goes. I have some more laundry and cleaning to do today and then PACKING! I dislike packing like you wouldn't believe, I think because I'm always worried I'm going to forget something. But once it's done we will be ready to go for tomorrow morning! I had planned to swim tomorrow before we left but when I called my YMCA to see what their pool hours were, they informed me that the pool is closed. Oh. That shows you how long it's been since I've been there! Instead I think I will do a short and easy run and then we will be on our way!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Posted by beth at 11:21 AM | Comments (2)

June 14, 2006

Peanut Butter Mess

I just got back from lifting at the Pitt gym and now I am eating a peanut butter bagel in the office for lunch (among other things of course). I have peanut butter all over myself. I love peanut butter but it sure can be messy. Not that that stops me from eating it of course!

Regardless, I wanted to comment on the comment that Corrado left on my entry from yesterday. He asked: "Aren't you just totally overcome with joy that you have started cycling?"

Now I'm not sure if he was being sarcastic or not but in all seriousness I want to answer with a resounding yes! I really am glad I got a good bike and am slowly getting more and more into cycling. Of the three sports that comprise a tri, I most look forward to riding my bike. I really like swimming too but because it's inside, biking wins out. Perhaps when it's cold and winter and I'm stuck inside on the bike, swimming will be winner. This of course leaves running which I haven't mentioned. I love to run but I spent 15 years of my life loving running so it's some other sport's turn. :) Luckily cycling is probably where I need the most work so I have plenty excuse to spend a lot of time on my bike.

Blister update: (I know you've been hanging on the edge of your seats for this...) It's definitely doing better but one little crack where my foot kind of bends just will not heal! Flexing my foot rips that darn spot open every time and it's kind of hard to go through the day without flexing your foot. It's still painful to have running shoes on but I think I will be fine on Sunday. It's amazing how annoying such a little break in skin integrity can be!

Today is my last day of work before vacation! This is so exciting. We aren't leaving until Friday morning but I took tomorrow off too just to have a day to get ready, pack, do laundry, etc... South Carolina here we come!

Posted by beth at 12:19 PM | Comments (3)

June 13, 2006

Fresh Legs and Crits

I decided at some point over the weekend that I was only going to run today instead of doing a bike/run brick, so that's what I did. I was pleasantly surprised to see how good my legs felt. I usually only run twice a week, once after biking and once where I do a "hard" workout, both of which can lead to some dead legs. Today was a nice change of pace. I ran after work when it was 80 degrees and sunny but it actually didn't feel too bad. The humidity is probably low. I ran for 42 minutes and then called it a day.

I just got back from watching my friend race in a criterium or "crit" as everyone seemed to be calling it. I'm not really sure what that word means but the race was a cycling race on a 1/2 mile track that's banked. It was awesome! It was 15 miles (30 laps) and somewhat like watching a 10K on the track only a little more exciting because there seemed to be more movement. Plus they had these laps where they would ring a bell and if you won that lap in particular you got a prize. I really think they should institute that in track and field. It would make things more interesting. :) Anyway, the whole scene was a hoot. K, the friend I went to watch was my teammate at Penn State and she too is now getting into triathlons. (she's also a dietitian so we are a lot alike) She cracks me up constantly because she is as clueless as I am when it comes to cycling and swimming. We have no idea what's going on. She really held her own against all the other women who clearly had a lot more experience though. She was in the lead with 1 lap to go but got outsprinted right at the end. I guess that's the strategy. But neither of us were sure. :) Anyway, it looked like a lot of fun, albeit scary. I would actually like to try it myself but I don't have a road bike. No tri bikes allowed! I just need to convince the bike store guy (who got K into these races in the first place) to give me a road bike for free to race. Um yeah, somehow I don't think that's going to happen. :)

Hope everyone has a great night!

Posted by beth at 8:26 PM | Comments (1)

June 12, 2006

Repeat 200s

This morning in the pool we did repeat 200s and thankfully the pool was set to the 50 meter version! The workout was 12x200 like this...

1x200 on 4:00
1x200 on 3:55
1x200 on 3:50
1x200 on 3:55
1x200 on 3:50
1x200 on 3:45
1x200 on 3:50
1x200 on 3:45
1x200 on 3:40
1x200 on 3:45
1x200 on 3:40
1x200 on 3:35

Needless to say it was hard to keep track of and I had to lead my group and that means my little pea brain had to do a lot of computing while trying to swim hard. I managed to keep things on track though. That was probably more of a victory than completing the workout! :) It was pretty tough. There really wasn't a lot of rest, especially (obviously) as the workout progressed and I was getting more tired but less chance to recover. I suppose that's the purpose 'eh? :) My total swim was 3500 meters with my warmup and cooldown. And I really enjoyed it, especially considering I could see where I was going and didn't get entangled in lakeweed (a close relative of seaweed :)

Hope everyone has a great rest of their day!

Posted by beth at 4:16 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2006

Random Thoughts

1) The ice cream truck came by our house today! We didn't live here last summer so I didn't know we had an ice cream truck. This is very good news. Roxy went crazy when she heard the blaring ice cream truck music. Next time it comes, I'll be ready with some cash. (not as if we don't have plenty of ice cream in our freezer, but somehow ice cream truck ice cream is so much better :)

2) Today O and I had lunch with one of my college roommates/teammates. She is actually the one who introduced O and I. They went to high school together. She lives in Key West, Florida now. That, my friends, is pretty darn awesome.

3) I took today off as usual. I was glad to do so. I've been having a hard time deciding what to do this week leading up to my first tri on Sunday. These are the kinds of times I wish I had a coach. I don't want to back off too much but I want to back off some. I may err on the conservative side since I've been feeling a little fatigued lately. No bricks this week. That will probably help me get time for a little more sleep at night too.

4) I read this article with interest this morning. I was glad to see that I'm not the only one who can't swim in a straight line in open water.

5) Only 3 days of work this week and only 4 days until we leave for vacation! Wooo-hooo!

Posted by beth at 8:03 PM | Comments (2)

June 10, 2006

Week Summary

Sunday - off
Monday - 3500 meter swim w/500,2x250,500,2x250,500, core/feet exercises
Tuesday - 21 mile bike, 30 minute run, core/feet exercises
Wednesday - lift
Thursday - 3200 yd swim w/20x100 (am), 17 mile bike (pm), 2x25 pushups, 2x100 crunchers
Friday - 45 min run w/3x6 minutes hard, core/feet exercises
Saturday - ~1500 yd open water swim, 21 mile bike, body weight circuit x 2

Posted by beth at 8:55 PM | Comments (0)

Unchartered Territory

Today O and I traveled about an hour north of our house to Moraine State Park. It has been a beautiful day! And the park was great. We had several goals for the morning/afternoon. O wanted to do his long run (there are some nice trails) and I wanted to (1) swim in open water, (2) try out my wetsuit and (3) practice the swim to bike transition.

When we finally figured out where on the lake I could swim, I got all geared up and then got scared. First, it was about 60 degrees and pretty windy and just standing around outside felt cold! I feared what the water would feel like, even with my wetsuit on. And I really just didn't know how to go about it. O walked down to the water with me and I walked in, walked a little further and stared up at him. It sounds strange but it was the first time I ever swam in anything other than the pool. I've been in the ocean before but just to play, not really "swim".

I decided I just needed to pick out a buoy and go and so that's what I did. The first "lap" was rough! I don't know if it was fear or the shock of how cold the water was but I felt like I couldn't breathe! I settled down eventually though. I wasn't there to swim a workout or anything, I just wanted to get used to things. So I just swam out and back to this certain buoy 5 times, each with about 1 minute rest in between to gather myself. I'm guessing each "repeat" was about 300 meters based on how long it took. Some observations:

1) Scariest thing about swimming in open water - you can't see a darned thing! You put your head in the water and see darkness. I was taking breathes every stroke at first just to see light and make sure I was indeed still going.

2) I can now understand why people wear wetsuits even when swimming in warm water. They definitely help with buoyancy. I was super glad to have mine today because that water was chilling! My suit is full body but with no arms. When I finished my first lap I looked down at my arms and they were bright red. COLD! My first tri is in South Carolina though and the race director told me that the water temp is usually around 80 degrees. Tempting to move south just for that fact... :)

3) There are gross things in lakes. I kept getting tangled up in nasty things. One time I thought for sure something was attacking me when I realized that it was the long zipper string on my suit. Opps. :)

4) I do not, under and circumstances, swim in a straight line. True, there was a current that kept pushing me to the right, but I would look up at my buoy and realize I was going WAY off course. I'm pretty much just going to add a good 200-400 yds onto any swim distance in all my tris. :)

5) I tried the whole time not to remember that in a race, not only would I have the challenge of swimming in open water, but I would also be swimming with 100s of my closest friends, thrashing and kicking all around me. I don't even want to think about what that's going to be like.

I'm really glad we went and I tried this before my first race. I might have been scared away from tris forever had my first open water swim been under pressure! Anyway, on the last repeat I practiced getting up and trying to run out of the water while taking off my cap and goggles and starting to peel off my wetsuit. It was tiring! But the wetsuit comes off a whole heck of a lot easier than it goes on. That's one thing for sure...

After the swim me and my soggy self hopped on my bike and rode off. And I instantly knew it was going to be a tough ride. The park is hilly and when I made the first turn I got smacked in the face with an awful wind that haunted me the rest of the ride. At first I was annoyed with the wind, then frustrated, then angry and finally I just started to laugh about it. I stopped trying to fight it and just rode easy. There were some monster hills that I rode up at about 7 MPH! But I survived. I hope race day for all my tris brings flat rides and calm winds. :) I just did 21 miles and finished right about when O was finishing his run. It all went smoothly. And I was humbled a little. My first tri is going to be quite an experience I think!

Posted by beth at 7:20 PM | Comments (1)

June 9, 2006

You Guys Are No Help

So it seems from the comments on my post from yesterday, most people remember their elementary teachers' names. Some more than others. But still - one commenter is like me. I agree with Greg though. We all remember things differently. Ask my husband what I said 5 minutes ago and he has no idea. Ask him what his 2nd grade teacher wore on the first day of school, and a full report follows. Weird how our brains work. :)

Anyway, today I did a running workout on the trail near our house. As I started I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had planned on 3x6 minutes hard w/3 minutes rest but I have been a little fatigued lately and with my 1st tri coming up, I didn't want to push too hard. During my 12 minute warmup I contemplated:

1) just doing 2x6 minutes hard
2) doing 1x6, 2x3, 1x6 hard
3) doing 3x6 hard but with 4 minutes rest
4) just running the whole run easy
5) etc, etc, etc...

In the end however, I just did the original workout 3x6 minutes hard w/3 minutes rest and it was fine. I didn't feel super fresh but I also felt better than I thought I would and I was running faster than I thought. I finished up with 10 minutes cooldown for 46 minutes total. A fine day of running indeed.

Now it's time to eat. But first shower. And then somehow try to figure out my teachers' names for fear of further ridicule... :) Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by beth at 6:27 PM | Comments (0)

June 8, 2006

My Brain is a Sieve

Today at lunch we somehow got on the topic of elementary school and it quickly became known that every single one of my co-workers can name at least half (if not all) of their elementary school teachers' names. The conversation went something like this...

L: I remember in 1st grade when Mrs. Henderson taught us about blah, blah, blah, blah...
Me: Wait, you remember your 1st grade teacher's name?
Everyone in unison: You mean you don't remember your 1st grade teacher's name?!
Me: Of course I don't?!

And so on, until it became very apparent that I was literally the only one who did not remember names. What the heck? And I work with some late 50s, early 60s types who went to elementary school over 50 years ago!! I was embarrassed. But seriously - if someone held a gun to my head and told me I had to name or describe or even give a vague clue as to who taught me in kindergarten through 5th grade, I would have to take the bullet. I honestly cannot recall any memories of my teachers from that age. I can name some high school teachers but that's it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon asking random people throughout the hospital if they remembered their teachers' names and indeed the trend continued. I came home and asked O. He not only named them all, but proceeded to tell me a story about each one, what they wore or did. This is madness people?!?! Please, please, please...someone out there in blogland - tell me that you don't remember who your teachers were. Pretty please? :)

Anyway, the workouts for the day...

Workout number one was my swim this morning. I really like to swim. This morning was no exception. We were doing 100s this morning and they went something like this:

1x100 on 1:50
2x100 on 1:40
1x100 on 1:50
2x100 on 1:35
1x100 on 1:50
2x100 on 1:30
1x100 on 1:50

Then we did another 10x100 where we alternated 100 easy with 100 all out. I did my first "all-out" 100 in 1:17 and I thought I would try and get under 1:15. I did the next 2 in 1:16. Humpf. Then the 4th in 1:15. Close. Then finally on the last one a 1:14! Victory! That's the fastest 100 I've ever swam. Let it be known that I had trouble pulling myself out of the pool afterwards as my arms were so tired. :) With warmup and cooldown I swam 3200 yds total. I will say that my lane was a bit dysfunctional this morning. There were 3 of us and we just could not get on the same page for the first ten 100s. We were all over the place. But we regrouped for the last 10 and things went a little smoother.

After work I was super sleepy. I contemplated taking a nap instead of a bike ride but the sheets are in the washer so I wouldn't have been able to take a nap on the bed and well that was enough to get me changed and outside on my bike. I really like to ride my bike. It's a lot like running - when you get in a groove and you feel good... You all know the feeling.

Anyway, it was a beautiful afternoon. I did a little over 17 miles and averaged a little over 18 MPH. My legs were tired but it wasn't too bad unless I was trying to climb a hill. I didn't wear my new socks. I have to save those for a special occasion.

And that's that. Tomorrow is Friday - whoooo hoooo!

Posted by beth at 8:06 PM | Comments (12)

June 7, 2006

Lifting and Another Bike Store Trip

Today after work I lifted at the Pitt gym. I didn't have time to run over during work on my lunch break. Can you imagine? Actually working while I'm at work? I don't know how my bosses can expect such behavior... :) Anyway, the lift was uneventful. I did have a bit of confusion when I started to bench press and the bar felt lighter than air! How could this be? Have I really become that much stronger? Answer? I was using a "women's bar" which is (I think) only 30 pounds instead of 45 like the normal bars. When I switched things up to make it 65 pounds instead of 50 I was back to my usual struggling. :)

After my lift I stopped by the bike store for two reasons. First, I needed more lube for my chain and second, I had a gift certificate to the store that was burning a hole in my pocket. My sister had sent it to me for my birthday. I'm proud to say it lasted a whole week before I spent it! :)

Anyway, I got my lube and then some $16 socks. I can't even believe I paid $16 for one pair of socks, but I did. At least it wasn't my own money - but still! Truth be told, running socks don't make good cycling socks. It's no big deal to wear running socks but in general they don't come up nearly high enough to clear the the back of cycling shoes. Cycling socks, on the other hand, come up much higher and are apparentely made of some fancy material that guarantee amazing performances. Now that I have these socks I'm pretty sure I'm not even going to have to train for races anymore... :) Last but not least I hit up the 50% off rack and found some tri shorts. Triathlon clothing is expensive, even more so than running stuff, so I was happy to find a pair that fit, were a normal color, and cost $55, reduced to $27.50. And so ends my shopping spree. :)

Now I'm off to (1) plant a tomato plant in our backyard, (2) do some laundry, (3) pack my bag for tomorrow and (4) figure out the significance of the 54.676 KPH stitched in the bottom of my new socks. I'm sure it's some kind of cycling reference but seeing as how I know next to nothing about cycling, this might be a challenge... :) Good night all!

Posted by beth at 6:48 PM | Comments (3)

June 6, 2006

Blight of the Blister

I found myself worrying about my blister today seeing as how I wanted to run this afternoon and I knew my shoe was going to hurt. Then I was thinking that if my blister is my biggest concern for the day, life isn't so bad afterall. :) I actually thought of paging one of the wound care nurses to see what they suggested in terms of dressings but instead settled for a consult with my co-workers. They suggested a little vaseline, band-aid and then tape. There are several mothers in the group and I often find that mothers in general know the answers to all questions. Genius!

Although my blister is getting better there is one little part, a crease almost, that keeps breaking open when I flex my foot. The mornings are the worst because all night the thing heals up and gets dry and then when I rip it open in the morning....OUCH! It's getting better though...I just have to be patient. And with that - I've talked more about this blister than anyone (including myself) would ever want to read.

Onward...

When I got home from work I sat down on my bed, then laid back, then 30 minutes later woke up and wondered what happened! No problem, just a little later start than usual. :) I started with a bike ride - my 21 mile out and back course that's relatively flat with just a few smallish hills. When I started I decided that I wasn't as recovered from my long ride on Saturday as I thought. The quads were tired. But as I got rolling I felt pretty good. I averaged 18.25 MPH, my fastest time yet. Oh, did I forget to mention that it absolutely POURED down rain for about 5 minutes in the middle of the ride? It was so sunny and bright I didn't even believe it was rain at first...but indeed it was. It stopped quickly but unfortunately I was pretty wet and my socks, of all the things I was wanting to keep dry, were soaked. Oh well. What can you do?

I got home and had a little longer transition than normal to my run since I ran in the house to get new socks. I couldn't risk running in wet socks with my blister. I got my shoes on and was pretty pleasantly surprised by how my blister felt. I could definitely tell it was still there but it wasn't too painful and I could run just fine. It doesn't seem to look much worse for the wear now after the fact either. Now it has a couple more days until my next run to continue healing. Regardless, I ran for 30 minutes and felt okay, not great but not horrible. It was about 80 degrees out so I felt pretty hot when I was running but otherwise can't complain.

I can't believe my first triathlon is only 1.5 weeks away!! It seems like I've been training for this forever but now that's it's here I'm nervous. There's a lot to think of in a triathlon vs just a running race. Lots of gear and the transitions - oh the transitions! It will be fun though. And afterwards we will be on vacation for a whole week visiting my parents in South Carolina, so regardless of the outcome of the tri, life will be good!

Posted by beth at 8:29 PM | Comments (3)

June 5, 2006

500s Are Long

This morning our swim workout involved 500 repeats and I (not for the first time) decided that repeat 500s are very long repeats indeed. Kind of like mile repeats on the track, only even longer because I was swimming them in 8:30 or so. Maybe like 2200 meter repeats on the track? :)

Thankfully the pool was set up long course so it was much easier to keep count. :) The workout went something like this:

500 meters
2x250 meters
500 meters
2x250 meters
500 meters

Each 500 was supposed to get faster (which mine did but barely). And the 250s went 1st 50 = stroke for distance, 2nd 50 = breathe every 3 strokes, 3rd 50 = build, 4th 50 = breathe every 5 strokes and the last 50 was hard. The coach called the 250s "active rest" but they were pretty tough for me in and of themselves! Because I can only breathe on 1 side the breathing strokes were more like 4 and 6 (instead of 3 and 5) and that was rough!

Either way, I had a good workout. With the warmup and cooldown I got in 3500 meters total. There doesn't seem to be any ill effects from my longer ride on Saturday, although my blister from Friday is still giving me trouble. I hope it's all healed up and ready to go for tomorrow's run!

Posted by beth at 5:54 PM | Comments (2)

June 3, 2006

Tour of Mercer Country

There is a PST (patient service technician?) that works at the hospital that I work at that has the best attitude of any person I've ever met. And trust me when I say, it would be pretty darn difficult to have a good attitude as a PST. In case you don't already know, PSTs get the worst of worst jobs. They act as nurses' aids in a way but do all the dirty work that a nurse (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't want to do. I'll leave it up to your imagination to figure that one out. :) And they don't get paid a whole heck of a lot to do it either. Anyway, this certain PST is always in a good mood and making the most of situations. She's funny and happy and one of her famous sayings is "simply marvelous" which she often bellows out when everyone is thinking just the opposite! She's a hoot!

Regardless, I kept thinking of her this morning when I was riding because my ride really was "simply marvelous". I'm going to have to tell her about it when I get back to work Monday... :) It was great to ride through some really beautiful farm country and enjoy almost 4 hours of new scenary! I felt pretty good too, although was very glad to be done. My legs were feeling it around 45 miles!

Some numbers:

67.32 = total number of miles riden. Someone didn't calculate correctly because it was only supposed to be 62 miles! :)

3:53:11 = total amount of time taken for the ride including 4 stops (2 quick ones, 2 longer ones) for snacks and fluid.

17.32 = average MPH for ride.

0 = number of raindrops felt. Thank you for that one God!

3 = number of times I heard thunder and worried rain was on it's way.

3 = number of Amish horse and buggies I saw! The little girls and boys riding along waved to me each time.

about 6 = number of cars I saw during the whole ride, not including about a 3 mile stretch on the main road into town.

3 = number of big hills, only one of which was a killer. The rest of the ride was either flat or rolling, which is pretty impressive considering how long of a ride it was and that it was in Western Pennsylvania.

1 = number of times I regretted not doing the full century

about 10 = number of times I thanked God that I was only doing the metric century (after the 50 mile mark)!

100 = approximate number of bikers today, over half of which were doing the 100 mile ride.

2 = number of aid stations that provided water, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, cookies, juice, etc...

850 = approximate number of kcals I was able to take in during my ride including 34 oz Gatorade Endurance, 12 Clif Shot Bloks, ~1 serving Cheez-its, and 1 banana. I would have taken my Gu too but I forgot I had it. I also had 2 bottles of water.

65 = average temperature. I couldn't have asked for better!

0 = number of times I got lost even though I have never been to Greenville in my life. The course was marked better than I could have imagined. They did an excellent job, especially considering it was a first time event!

And that about sums it up! Very fun. Very fun indeed.

Week's summary:

Sunday - off
Monday - 21 mile bike, 30 minute run, core/feet exercises
Tuesday - 3500 meter swim including 2x(300,2x150,3x100, 6x50), core/feet exercises
Wednesday - lift
Thursday - 3200 yd swim including 4x(2x25,2x50,2x75,2x100), 11.5 mile bike, 2x25 pushups/2x100 crunchers
Friday - 45 minute run including 8x2 minutes hard, core/feet exercises
Saturday - 67 mile bike, body weight circuitx2

Posted by beth at 4:10 PM | Comments (5)

June 2, 2006

Rain = Wet = Blisters = Bad

So it was raining again today - at least I haven't had to water my flowers the past couple days! When I got home from work I thought we'd just wait it out some. I took a quick nap on the couch until around 5 pm, but when I got up O informed me that our run was going to be wet no matter how long we waited - it was going to rain all night. Indeed it has. We finally left a little after 5 pm. It wasn't raining that hard and by the time it did start to rain harder we were already soaked so it wasn't a big deal.

The workout today was 10 minutes warmup and then 8x2 minutes hard with 2 minutes jogging rest. We finished with 5 minute cooldown for 45 minutes total. I actually felt better than I thought I would. It took a while for my troublesome IT band and my feet to warmup and feel okay but they eventually felt pretty good. Unfortunately about the same time they started to feel good, I started to notice pain on my heel. Yep, that's right. My soggy socks had slipped down and in the mean time my shoe was attacking my skin.

The blister started to hurt *really* bad and after the 2nd to last repeat I had to stop. I have to admit - I was near tears it was hurting to badly! But I ripped off a big piece of skin, pulled my sock up and stuffed my shoe back on and we were off again. I was determined to finish the workout. And we did. And I'm still alive, foot attached and all. The blister is in a good place - right on the back of my heel but low enough that I don't think my cycling shoes will bother it tomorrow and high enough that if I'm walking around with sandals or barefoot I don't feel it. I won't be running again until Tuesday so hopefully it will feel better by then. :)

I'm very excited for my ride tomorrow! We have the bike all packed and ready and I have my snacks laid out. I figure I will need to take in about 700-800 kcals while I'm riding so I have 2 packs of Clif Shot Bloks (400 kcals total), 1 Gu (100 kcals), 34 oz of Gatorade Endurance (200 kcals), and last but not least, one of my all-time favorite snacks...Cheez-its! I love the fact that I can eat Cheez-its on a ride. If I tried to eat Cheez-its while I was doing a long run my stomach would revolt so badly I might not be able to function again! Regardless, there are also several convenience stores on the route so I have some cash in case I want to stop for additional snacks! I wonder if I'm so excited for this ride because I like to cycle or because I get to eat snacks?! :) Hmm...

Time for bed. The train will be leaving early tomorrow morning!

Posted by beth at 9:55 PM | Comments (0)

June 1, 2006

Wet and Soggy x 2

My wet and soggy day started off with a swim at the pool. I was hoping for an easier workout because I can feel the fatigue in my arms and it must have been my lucky day because an easier workout is what I got!

400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy

4 sets of:
2x25 on :30
2x50 on :55
2x75 on 1:25
2x100 on 1:50

The first repeat of each pair (ie: the first 25, first 50, etc...) was to be easy and the 2nd one hard. This is what made the workout a little easier than usual. We were also supposed to swim different strokes on the even two sets but since I don't know any other strokes, I just stuck with my good old freestyle. :) I cooled down with 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy for a total of 3200 yds and thus ended my first workout for the day.

When I got home from work I headed out for a bike ride. It had poured down rain my whole drive home so I figured I would be stuck on the trainer but then when I arrived at our house it wasn't raining at all! I was excited to ride outside so I got ready to go. I should have known though. Rain was on it's way. It started as a sprinkle when I was about 5 miles from home but I figured I could handle it no problem. Here was my chance to finally prove to myself that neither I nor my bike would melt in the rain!

The sprinkle turned into a steady rain and then at some points a downpour. Hmmm... Let's just say I got really wet, really fast. I was surviving though and just taking it easy, especially on the turns and downhills. I dropped my chain once up a big hill but that was an easy problem to fix. Even I know how to get my chain back on.

I did cut my ride short - 11.5 miles instead of the 15 miles I had planned. An 11.5 mile ride is pretty lame but I figured the extra 3.5 miles wouldn't provide that much benefit especially if I crashed and broke my leg. :) Regardless, riding my bike in the rain today was a big hurdle for me to get over. Sounds kind of stupid but I really was scared to do it. Now if it's raining for a race or I get caught out somewhere in it, I know I can survive just fine. And I find this out just in time - I am riding a metric century (62 miles/100K), called the Tour of Mercer County (aka farm country) this weekend and it's supposed to rain! I'm excited for the ride either way. There is a full century ride but I figured I wasn't ready for that. I'm sure 62 miles of riding will give me all I need and more...

Posted by beth at 10:15 PM | Comments (2)