Weekend Recap ~ group ride & gymnastics

My weekend didn't really feel like a weekend and I'm so tired as I sit here writing this...

 

Friday I was suppose to get my long run in before work. Well it just didn't happen, which meant I got no long run in for the weekend which sucks. But on the up note I did go to the pool after work and swam 2200 yards straight. I was basically starting to panic a little about the moved up 70.3 date. I have never swam this distance in a race before and just wanted to double check with myself that I could indeed do it. Confidence boost! I could do it :) and it didn't really seem so bad. The worst part was all the counting. That's a lot of laps to keep track of!

 

Saturday morning came way to quick and the alarm was going off at 6:30 before I knew it. I needed to fit my bike/brick in fairly early so I could make it to my team's gymnastics championship meet on time that was being held in Columbia, MD. To save time, I really didn't want to drive anywhere to go ride, so Jason and I just choose to ride up MacArthur Blvd. It looked cold outside and it was at around 45 degrees. I thought about the trainer, but ugh. We wanted to leave the house at 7:30 but with extra procrastinating lally gagging around that it just didn't happen. We were out the door rolling around 8am though. It was not our plan to ride with the DC Tri group but we saw them waiting there at 8th and Penn and I knew they were riding the same route as I wanted to, so I thought this would be fun to join the group ride. And it was fun! Plus, well,  they knew the best way over to MacArthur from the Hill. I haven't done a group ride in awhile so I just stayed in the back brushing up on all my hand signals and such. I am slow at clipping in and lost part of the group that was going to ride up Lions Gate for some extra hills. Since I have never done this ride before I just rode up the first hill in Lions gate then just turned back around and continued on MacArthur. I would have liked to done the whole hill loop, but hey there is always next time. At least I got one semi good climb in. 

The club re-grouped at the BP station at MacArthur & Falls Rd, then some went on to ride to Poolesville and some headed back to DC. I had a shorter ride on the schedule, so I choose to head back to the city. On our way through Georgetown one of the girls we were riding with could not unclip at a stop light. She was falling into a guy on his motor cycle stopped at the light and grabbed his side mirror as she was falling. She actually took off his side mirror and it ended up just dangling there! Luckily he was very nice about it and said it wasn't a big a deal. So, the rest of the short ride home we laughed and teased her about it. Overall, 40 very cold miles later, I had such a great time! I will def. be riding with the club again :)

 

Once home, I put on my running shoes and out the door I went from a half hour brick. My legs were extra happy to be running, but I could not feel my feet at all. I had my toe covers on my bike shoes but it didn't help my feet from going numb. They were frozen solid. Solid I tell you. It wasn't until about 20 minutes or so into the run that I could actually feel my feet. I some how managed to squeeze out faster than expected miles and finished 4 miles in 31 minutes :)

 

I had just enough time to shower and eat before leaving for my meet. This was of course after I ran around like a mad man looking for the girls floor music. In the end I had to burn another copy because I forgot their music at our gym. What a bad coach.

 

The rest of my day was filled with gymnastics from 2 - 9pm, but my first group of kids did great with some ties for first place on some of the events!

 

If you are Daily Mile, you will see I did nothing on Sunday, but don't let this fool you. Even though I didn't work out, it most defiantly not a rest day :( Sunday was filled with more gymnastics and I had 4 sessions that I coached at. I was at the meet from 8am - 8:30pm. That is a lot of gymnastics folks. And there is just something about coaching that makes you so tired! I sometimes think being at a meet is harder than lets say biking 4 hours. I don't know. Anyhow, I am so proud of all of my girls. They worked so hard all season and really had the meet of their lives, well at least for some of them did. We had some more 1st -3rd places and lots of smiles. 

By the time I got home around 9:30 I was about ready to pass out and I was hungry! They kindof forgot to feed the coaches at this meet and only basically had cookies and pop for us!!! I literally ate 3 cookies in a row and drank a coke in hopes of not passing out while there. Thank goodness for having a water bottle with me that I could re-fill. At least I didn't get dehydrated, I guess that's a plus.

 

This week will be a short week for me as I leave for Vegas on Friday morning. It will be fun trying to fit in all my workouts in 4 days.

 

Happy Monday and I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

Random Friday

1. I have been tired all week even though it's recovery week

 

2. I am hooked on chocolate chip muffins

 

3. I look at my training schedule spread sheet a ton of times in a day

 

4. My eyes basically just shut now a days at 10pm

 

5. I love the game draw something

 

6. I still need to paint the ceiling in my kitchen

 

7. Kiwi bites my toes in the middle of the night, it's annoying

 

8. I haven't drank in two months. Not sure what I want to do in Vegas next weekend?

 

9. Jason makes fun of me for my Cleveland accent. I never knew I had one?

 

10. I still say pop not soda and people in this area always look at me funny when I do.

 

11. I have this great idea for a post that I want to write comparing gymnastics to tris, but I never write it.

 

12. I can never remember the date of my wedding. the 18th or the 19th. I know this is terrible.

 

13. I wish I could remember to send out b-day cards

 

14. I freak out if I don't have chapstick with me at all times.

 

15. I love not having to drive to work!

 

16. I can't wait for my new tri kit and jersey's to come in the mail

 

17. Just received another bulk order of nutrition. Our house looks like a supply store.

 

18. I am still not eating enough through-out the day. Usually I am always hungry.

 

19. I wish we got summer vacation from work like we did for school.

 

20. I am coaching all weekend at my team's last gymnastics meet of the season! Which means fitting in any workouts will be near to impossible :(

 

Happy Friday All and have a great weekend :)

What to Do?!?!

Over the last week or so I have been thinking a lot about Kinetic and Mooseman 70.3. I guess the big question is, I don't know what to do about these races...

 

I registered for Mooseman back in July and it was going to be my big A race and big travel race for the year. After the race, Jason and I were going to take some vacation time and explore New Hampshire, then travel to Boston for a couple days afterwards as I have never been. However, then I registered for IM Louisville and with that, all our vacation plans after mooseman were squashed. We will basically be driving up there on a Friday, race on Sunday, then jump in the car after the race (ouch legs) and drive 10 hours home. This does not sound like fun to me. I wish this race was closer. Plus now I have two big travel races that both involve a 10 hour drive. That's a far drive that involves a lot of gas money.  I don't know. I guess I feel like my heart really isn't into this race, but I would hate to waste a race entry. If it was closer, I would not even be questioning not going, but I guess it is what it is.  

 

This brings me to the Kinetic Half. I was currently registered for the aqua-velo and was going to use this race as a practice race for mooseman. But, after talking to Rachel and Victoria yesterday I decided to write the race director to see if my entry could be switched to the full 70.3. A few short hours later I got an email back that stated: "You are now registered for the Kinetic half 70.3, hope you enjoy the race!"

 

So, yeah now I am registered for two 70.3s that are 3 weeks apart. Kinetic is May 12th and Mooseman is June 3rd.

 

The training plan I have been using is a 20 week program with the target date of June 3rd. I do feel like I would be ready for Kinetic, but I'm also not sure if I should start playing around with my training now to try to make it fit for Kinetic. Another down side to Kinetic is it is the weekend after I get back from Vegas. I would really hate to miss training the weekend before a race, even though I know I would be on a taper.

 

I guess, I still have no clue what I really want to do. Race Kinetic? Use Kinetic as practice? Go to mooseman as a fun race? Go to mooseman & race race? Scrap mooseman all together and waste my entry fee, but save gas & hotel money?

 

Ugh. I am a mess right now. 

Lake Anna Century Classic

M and I stayed with my cousin on Friday night as she lives near the Lake Anna Area and was only 9 miles from the start of the Lake Anna Century. Going down the night before would give us extra sleeping time which is always a win in my book. However, since we were so close we actually lally-gaged around in the morning and ended up getting onsite with about 10 minutes before the start of the ride. Once there we checked in (they had ran out of cue sheets), got our bikes ready, and met up with Rachel. We hoped Rachel had picked up a cue sheet, but they had already ran out when she checked in too :(

Unlike most century starts, this was not a rolling start. We did a mass start at 8am. It was a little odd and all the cyclists were crowded together. Both Rachel and I had rode our tri bikes in hopes of going in aero and really hoped the riders would spread out within a couple of miles. In an effort to get away from the pack, M took off like a bat out of hell and we never saw him again until the first rest stop at mile 20. The riders did spread out after awhile though and ride got enjoyable. The three of us were only doing the metric century and it was a great route we rode on, plus the weather couldn't have been any more perfect. 

We stopped at the first rest stop because I really needed to use the rest room and was too lazy to wait in line at the beginning of the ride. 

The rest stop was held in front of a church, but there was no port-a-potties and no way to use the bathrooms inside the building. So with the rest of the guys I marched off into the woods and had to pop-a-squat! Ugh. It was a short stop and I just ate my waffle instead of the chips they provided.

 

After the stop, M did a better job of staying with us. The course itself had some nice rolling hills which made it fun. 

Since we did not have a cue sheet with us, we payed attention to the signs that they had set up at the turns. They were pretty easy to spot and I almost only missed one turn. For the most part the roads were nicely paved except for one of them. My hands were vibrating while in aero and it felt like my teeth were clanking together because it was so bumpy. I was very happy to get off this section of the road!

 

We stopped at the second rest stop at mile 40 to refill out water bottles. I would have grabbed something to eat at this stop too, but they only had fruit. And I don't know, I really didn't want fruit, so I ate my chews instead.  

It was a short stop and once back on the road it seemed like we were the only three out there. Right after this stop we had to make our way over a one lane bridge. This probably was my least favorite part of the ride. Although it gave me a chance to snap a picture of Lake Anna. 

We hit the 56 mile split around 3:16 which would make me happy in a 70.3. Actually I have no idea what to expect out of myself during a 70.3. Anyhow, 3:30 hours later we rolled back to the start with just a little shy of 60 miles.

 

Then it was off for a short 20 minute brick, that wasn't too exciting.

 

Overall I had a blast. This was the first year that this century has been held and I think they did a pretty good job but they also need to work on some things like providing port-a-potties at the rest stops.

 

Afterwards, we went back to my cousins for lunch and to pet her baby goats :) 

Happy Tues All :) 

IM training - week I don't know what?

Another week in the bucket and I had a great time!

Monday - Rest Day! Although I wish I didn't have to coach on this day so I could truly rest without working a ton of hours in a day.

Tues - Bike - 1:49 (31.4 miles)
M aka Jason got off work earlier this day. We kind of wanted to do the Fresh Bikes ride, but opted to do my new favorite green belt ride instead. It was basically a race against the sun set and we finished just as it was getting dark at 8pm. I was suppose to do a 15 minute brick after this ride, but was scared to run in that neighborhood by myself in the dark. Oh well, it was a great ride and I loved that M could join me :)

Wen -
Run (AM) - 55 minutes (6.63 miles) - There was nothing fancy about this run. I through in a couple speed intervals but I basically just ran at an easy-ish tempo pace. One of these days I will get my butt out of bed and join the DC TRI club for a morning track workout.

Swim (PM) - 1 hour (3100 yards) - Walked up to the pool with M and the pool was actually not crowded not a 8pm. Had a pretty good swim and the cool part was that the lights went out with 500 left. I loved swimming with the lights off!

Thurs - Bike - 1:15 (20.5 miles) - Left our house at 6:10 to make our way to Haines Point for some morning Loops. Yes M joined me for this ride. I think he was half asleep and didn't really talk to me most of the ride. Maybe next week he will be more excited about getting up at the butt crack of dawn.

Friday - 
Run (AM) - 50 minutes (5.6 miles) - Hill Repeats with my friend Meaghan, fun! I talked most of the run and didn't even keep track of how many times we ran up and down the hill. I love having a friend to do these with me. It really just made the time fly by and I almost forgot how bad it hurt running up Capital Hill.

Swim (PM) - 50 minutes (2700 yards) - I struggled through the water on this day and it felt like I had never swam before. I was thankful when they blew the whistle and kicked us out for closing. Ugh. I had swimming days like this.

Sat - Bike - 3:30 (60 miles) - Traveled to Fredericksburg VA for the Lake Anna Century with Rachel and Jason!

I will tell you all about the ride tomorrow, but it was so such a great course and the weather was perfect. I did have to check my ego at the door though as a girl with a hybrid passed me :(

Brick Run - 20 minutes (2.18 miles) - Short brick run with Rach to get the legs moving off the bike. It wasn't so bad, but it was hot.

Sunday -
Run (AM) - 1:48 (12 miles) - Rachel and I both had 12 miles to run and had the great idea of meeting up in Dupont so we could run some of those miles together. And boy oh boy am I glad we did this. The weather was like crap yesterday and I would have never left if I wasn't meeting her. I struggled the 4 something miles to Dupont and was so glad to meet up with Rachael. The 5 miles we ran together didn't seem so bad, but when we split ways at the bottom of the Capitol I struggled to finish the last 3 miles by myself. I was freezing when I got home and jumped in the shower, then under the covers on the couch and never wanted to leave.

Swim (PM) - 45 minutes (2500 yards) - I left my house at 3pm after I struggled to get myself back off the couch. The pool was crowded because I think no one wanted to be working out, outside. I jumped in a lane, then other people jumped in the lane. I ended up sharing a lane with 4 other fast people! I was doing sets of 200 and thought my heart might jump out of my chest. But hey, I guess swimming with fast people will make you faster :)

Today - Today I feel sick as a dog and really hope this is a one day sickness!

Happy Monday All. Hope you have a great weekend :)

Swimming in the Dark

Yesterday after eating lunch I fell into a food coma. All I wanted to do was nap. I struggled through the rest of my work day and decided to nap when I got home instead of going to the pool right away. No I was not skipping my swim, just doing it later. But, let me tell you, 45 glorious minutes later I felt so much better. I wish naps were installed into the work day like we were back in kindergarten. Life would be good then.

 

Anyhow, onto my swim. Jason and I headed to the pool at 7:45. This is pretty late for me, but I was excited to swim yesterday. The pool is usually somewhat crowded at this time, but not last night. I split a lane for about 20 minutes, then had the lane to myself. I made myself up a workout that I didn't really care for once I started swimming. 2 x 500, 2 x 400, 2 x 300, 2 x 200, 2 x 100, and 100 cool down. But the cool thing about last nights swim, the LIGHTS WENT OUT! At first it scared me but then they told us that we could keep swimming. I had 500 left and it was just so awesome to swim these in the dark. Of course there was a little light coming in from the outside, but it was more like moon light than anything. It reminded me of being a kid back in parents pool swimming at night. It also felt like I snuck into the pool to swim which made me feel like I was doing something wrong. I don't know why I thought it was so cool, I just did.

 

And on a side note, this morning Jason and I rode at Haines Point. This is the third workout this week that we have done together :) I love that we are able to ride together.

 

Happy Thurs All :) 

Poolesville Ride

With the race on Saturday, I wanted to give myself a chance to sleep in on Sunday for once and didn't set any alarms. It was nice getting up around 8:30 and being able to relax for awhile before thinking about riding hills. I would later hate this decision, but it seemed liked a good one at the time.

 

Jason and I left for Potomac, MD and had our wheels on the ground by around 1ish in the afternoon. We were doing a modified version on the popular Poolesville ride. 

Neither one of us have done this ride before so I wrote the cue sheet on my leg to keep us on track. I know I need to think of a better place to put directions, but this method seems to work out great so I'll go with it.

Just about 1 mile into the ride we ran into Cat doing the same ride! Sport friends for the win :) Anyhow, I actually wasn't a big fan of the route at all. There was a lot of traffic and stop lights along one of the more major roads. I'm thinking there usually isn't as much traffic when you ride in the morning? Or at least I hope there isn't? Once out of the busy section and more into the country the ride got enjoyable, but it also got HOT! I'm not sure how hot it was but man I'm thinking 85-90. We went through all our water and we weren't even 20 miles into the ride. We had wished we didn't sleep in and got our butts out of the house in the morning. We also just didn't eat enough before the ride and both of us were hungry and cranky only miles in. But what was done was done.

Don't let the smile fool you, I'm ready to be done

We stopped at a gas station around the half way point and refilled our bottles and I got a coke. I love having a cold coke in the middle of a ride. It's the best thing ever.

 

I liked the second half a little better and was really having fun on all the rolling hills. 

I am def. getting better at my gearing and think I am ready to take one some bigger hills without crying like a little girl. I know that the best way to learn is just to go out there and do them and I do plan on doing just that. However, I have to wait another two weeks for the big hill challenge because I am doing a metric century this weekend and will be in Vegas the next. Man, I have no idea where time goes? Anyhow, after we made it back to the car we noticed a 5 Guys. Umm... perfect...since we had been hungry for hours! The french fries tasted so good and I inhaled my food :)

 

Ok I am starting to ramble, so on that note I hope everyone has a great day.

 

Happy Tues All :) 

Rumpus in Bumpass Race Report

Last weekend kicked off Tri season and I had a blast at Rumpus in Bumpass, ok well I mostly had a blast...

 

Bumpass, VA is about 90 miles from DC, but the race had a late start time of 10am. This was a really treat! With the later start time it meant we didn't have to get up super super early for once. However, I guess it was still early for a Saturday morning and we were out the door by about 6:45am. The drive down was pretty uneventful and by the time we got to Fredericksburg there was lots of cars with road and tri bikes so we just followed them.

 

We made it to the race site around 8:30ish which gave me plenty of time to get all my stuff ready before transition closed at 9:45.

I was actually a big scatter brain during transition because I kept forgetting stuff and had to go back in not once, but three times! First time I forgot the car keys in my bag for Jason, second time I forgot my swim cap, third time I forgot my timing chip. Yes, my timing chip! I actually would have forgotten this all together if I didn't see Rachel putting hers on. I have no idea what I was thinking, but thank you Rachel!!! 

The swim start was down a small gravel road that was .5 miles long that we would later have to run on. Luckily Jason was there for me so I wore my flip flops down, but a lot of people had to walk barefoot. I don't think I would have been too happy about this.

Once at the swim start, I started to put on my wetsuit. I made sure I used slide glide on my neck, wrist, and ankles. But the sucker was still hard to get on! But once on, I was ready to race :)

 

Swim: 29:18

I was in the third wave and we all made out way into the water. The water was a little chilly at 65, but it really didn't feel too bad with my full sleeve wetsuit on. We did a mass start, where we had to tread water for a couple of minutes as a group before the gun went off. I put myself basically in the back on the outside. This was a bad choice. Once the gun went off, I had to fight my way through people and couldn't find any open water. 

My breathing was all over the place and I panicked. I kept telling myself to relax and would stop to breast stroke for a second or so to see where I was at. It wasn't until the turn around point that I actually calmed down and got into the flow of things. At this point, I felt good and was mad at myself for wasting time for the first 600 meters or so. I also started thinking about a silly movie I watched last week called the Reef. These people's boat sank and the closest island was 10 miles away. I was thinking, oh good god 10 miles would take me so long to swim, no wonder everyone in the movie got eaten by sharks. ha.

 

Anyhow, I was excited to make the finial turn to the swim finish. There was about 4 wooden steps out of the water which I basically just walked up so I wouldn't slip. I felt a little out of it and hungry as I made my way to T1.

 

T1: 3:03

I got the top part of my wetsuit off as I ran into T1, but man oh man I struggled with it once I got to my rack. I tried pulled it off, but it was stuck on my left ankle with the timing chip. I ended up having to sit down and yank the thing off. I also felt disorientated and thought the dial on my bike shoes were broke, but here I was just turning it the wrong way. Ugh. I started up my garmin and ate a handful of stinger chews and off I ran.

 

Bike: 1:11:43

The bike was a two loop 23 miles course that went by fast! My heart rate was still pretty high when I jumped on my bike and I told myself to just pedal easy for a little bit which seemed to work. The entire time I played yo yo with about two other girls. We would say hi as we kept passing each other. I saw a guy go down about 10 bike lengths in front of me and luckily no one else crashed into him. I'm not sure what had happened, but it was at a windy section over a bridge. There was a lot of people with zip and disc wheels as well. I could hear the swosh sound as they zoomed passed me. I didn't let getting passed bother me because well mostly I was getting passed by guys and only a few girls passed me. My legs felt good and it was such a fun course. I drank my entire aero bottle that was filled with lemon lime Gu Brew and ate a honey stinger waffle after the first loop.

T2: 1:32

Ok, this transition went much better. I re-racked my bike without a problem, started up my 405 and put my running shoes on, and ate another handful of stinger chews.

 

Run: 54:38

As a ran out of T2 I was struggling to put on my garmin watch on and my sparkle head band. I saw Jason though for the first time since T1 and I was happy! 

I somehow missed him while on the bike even though he was there. Anyhow, ugh, the run course sucked! We ran down the same gravel road to the swim start area and back up to the grassy area. Running on the grass felt like heaven next to the gravel. We then ran past the finish line to another gravel road. And I don't know if I want to even call it a gravel road... they were more like moon rocks or boulders! I had lost my contact in my left eye somehow and my vision was really blurred!!! I was getting a headache and dizzy because of this and was really scared I was going to break my ankle on the big rocks since I couldn't see all the great. I know these are all excuses to why my run time sucked...I guess it just sucked because I didn't have any more in me.  I took water at basically every aid station as it was hot out! I think it got up to 80 something, I'm not sure. My splits for the first 3 miles were: 8:18, 8:25, and 8:58. Then it was all down hill from there. I didn't want to take the bracelet, I wanted to run to the finish line. But as I grabbed it, I thought oh great I have to run this same stupid loop again! I also thought Louisville is going to be so much fun in the heat :) I saw a bunch of friends on the out and backs and would try to work up some energy to cheer from them. In the last half of mile this girl in a blue zoot top passed me. She had be a good 4 minutes behind me the entire run. Then another girl passed me. I got pretty pissed and tried to run faster once I got back out onto the grass. I passed the one girl but let the zoot girl cross the finish line a couple seconds in front of me. 

Ugh. My stomach felt fine on this run and I didn't think my legs felt that bad either. I'm pretty disappointed here and thought I would finish around 50 minutes. I guess better luck next time.

 

Overall: 2:40:12 and dead tired

Thoughts

This is the first time I have raced this distance.  Last year all my oly distance races either got the swim canceled or the courses shortened because of weather. My secret goal was to finish in under 3 hours and I had plenty of minutes to spare so I'm excited!!! I know I need to continue to work on my swim and hopefully can learn to relax more in open water.  I am also disappointed with my run leg, but the rest of the race I loved. I guess overall, I just had a lot of fun out there and am pretty happy with myself :) Plus well I have the best support team ever. Thank you Jason for standing out in the heat all day to see me for a split second a couple of times throughout the race. 

Rumpus Goals

I can't believe my first tri of the season: Rumpus in Bumpass is this Saturday! It has really snuck up on me and I keep forgetting that I have a race this weekend at all. I guess this could be a good thing because I'm not nervous about it and hopefully it stays that way. Last year I would have been freaking out about the swim, but this year not so much. Ok maybe a little bit as the swim still really scares me and I suck at sighting.

 

SetUp events sent out an email yesterday stating that they changed the start location and courses for this race. This doesn't bother me at all because well I never looked at the course maps to begin with. I guess the advantage of moving the starting location though is that the water is suppose to be warmer! This is a good thing :) The bike course will be the same and the run will be like a cross country course.

 

Anyhow, so I'm not really sure what my goals are or should be going into this race. I seem to be at this point more concerned about what tri kit I will be wearing? My DC TRI kit or my bright orange Timex kit? Oh the decisions ...

 

But I guess more seriously, I would like to execute a good race.... and not really focus on time so much

 

Swim: I really don't know what to expect here. As I mentioned earlier I suck at sighting. All the buoys will be on my left and I only breath to my right. ugh. Plus, well I haven't done any open water swimming since August of last year. Yikes. I guess I just hope I make it out in one piece and don't get kicked too hard or swam over too many times.

 

Bike: The bike course is suppose to be fast and boomer is excited to go to her first race. I'm hoping to nail my nutrition and not forget to drink/eat so I don't bonk on the run like I did in every race last year.

 

Run: I have never really ran a cross country course and am not really a fan of running on gravel roads. But more importantly I hope I feel good off the bike and have a smile on my face the entire time. I don't want the run to turn into a suffer-fest.

 

Overall, the more I think about it, the more excited I am to race! It's suppose to be a nice day with a high in mid- 70s.

 

Good Luck to everyone else who is racing!!!

 

Happy Thurs All :) 

MD Swim for Life

I just registered for my first open water swim only event and I'm pretty excited: The Maryland Swim for Life race taking place on July 14th.

You could choose from a 1 mile open water swim to a 5 mile swim. I picked the 2 mile swim as I think it will be a great confidence booster for IM Louisville, as the swim leg of the tri still scares the crap out of me. Ok, maybe I should have choose the 3 mile swim, who knows...

Anyhow, not only will this swim be great practice for me, but I am excited because this is a charity swim and I will be swimming for a good cause!!! Please consider helping with a tax-deductible donation. Funds raised from Swim for Life are donated to locally-based non-profit organizations who work on HIV/AIDS related issues, and to the Chester River Association.

Now, I personally do not know anyone who has been affected by HIV/AIDS, but I know what it is like to lose a family member to an illness and it's not easy.

If you are interested in donating, the website is easy to use. Once on the site you will be able to choose my name: Sarah Karpinski and an amount to donate and receive email confirmation of your donation.

Thanks so much :)

Happy Wednesday All 

Half IM Training week #12, IM Training week #4

Another week of training is behind me and another week of training has began.

 

Anyhow, here's how last week went:

 

Monday: Rest Day :)

 

Tuesday:

* PM Bike ~ 1:54 (32.8 miles) ~ I went up to greenbelt again to ride on the rolling hills. Im still liking this route but need to make my loop a little bigger so I don't have to double back on some of the roads.

* PM Run ~ 20 minutes (2.38 miles) ~ Brick run after my bike. Legs were feeling ok and are really starting to get used to running off the bike even if it's only for a short period of time

 

Wednesday:

* PM Run ~ 51 minutes (6 miles) ~ I couldn't make myself wake up in the morning so I had to do both my workouts after I got off work. This run was a struggle and I fought through some motivation issues

* PM Swim ~ 57 minutes (3050 yards) ~ Went to the pool at the same time as Jason's class. It was a miracle I even made it there because I was falling asleep on the couch before I even went. I have said it before and I will say it again... I hate swimming at 8 o'clock at night.

 

Thursday:  

* Bike ~ Fail!!!! I just couldn't make myself do my workout this day. I was suppose to bike for an hour and half, but yeah it didn't happen. I felt too tired in the morning, too hungry to go at lunch, and well didn't want to go on the trainer at 9 at night. See how I listed all those excuses, awesome I know. But seriously my body was telling me to please rest. So instead of biking I opted to do a half hour of core strength instead.

 

Friday:

* AM Run ~ 50 minutes (5.7 miles) ~ Hill repeats up and down Capitol Hill. This time though I made a new friend while doing the workout. She is part of the DCTri Club as well and lives on the hill. We exchanged numbers and will def. be working out together again :)

* PM Swim ~ 57 minutes (3000 yards) ~ My arms felt like they were going to fall off on this swim and I never felt warmed up.

 

Saturday:

* Bike ~ 3:08 hours (50 miles) ~ You can read all about my weekend workouts here, but on this day we drove outside the city to ride some of the Back Roads Century course. It had some nice rolling hills and I was able to learn more about gearing uphill and also got to play with my nutrition on this ride.

* Run ~ 20 minutes (2.15 miles) ~ Short brick run with Rachel and my legs felt good. This is the second weekend in a row that my legs have still felt good after a long bike ride. Hoping to keep this up :)

 

Sunday:

* AM Run ~ 1:31 (11.1 miles) ~ Met up with my new friend from Friday hills and she ran with me for three miles, then I was on my own for the rest of the run. It was a great day out and the temp was perfect. I really enjoyed myself on this run and it went by quickly. I wish every run felt like this one.

* AM Swim ~ 45 minutes (2250 yards) ~ Recovery swim and I was able to test out my wetsuit for the first time. Hardest thing about the wetsuit is getting that sucker off. Wonder what my T1 time will be this weekend?

 

Totals per Daily Mile (since I am too lazy to do the math myself)

Miles: 130.95 miles (this includes my commutes miles which I don't count towards training really)

Hours: 13:22

 

So, there you have it. Another week of training is complete :) And this week is starting off on the right step, even though I am having to move some stuff around since I have a race on Sat :)

 

Happy Tues All :)

Weekend Recap: Back Roads & a Nice Run

I changed my mind about a dozen times last week about where I wanted to ride on Saturday. But, in the end I had finally decided on riding part of the back roads century course as Jason remembered it having some nice rolling hills. I know I need to ride more serious hills, but I need to start off with a little smaller ones and work my way up to the hard ride. Actually I am saving the hard ride for next Sunday.

 

Anyhow, the backs roads century course is located in Berryville, MD which is about 65 miles west of DC. Rachel met us at our place and we were on the road by 8am. The drive wasn't too bad and I think we were riding by around 9:45. Unlike last week, there was actually bathrooms were we parked which made me happy even though they were located next to a chicken or pig farm show?

I was chilly when we started, so I wore long pants and a long sleeve shirt under my jersey. I regretted my decision on outfit choice later in the ride, but no weird tan lines that the other two got was a big win! Also unlike last week, we didn't get lost! We had choose to ride the second 50 miles of the course and all the roads were clearly marked with arrows this time. It was really nice not to have to stop at all to study cue sheets.

The first hour of the ride felt too good to be true and it almost felt like we were going down hill the entire time. I was a little upset because I was expecting and wanting more hills. The hills did pick up though and there was a couple decent ones were I had to go into my small ring and my legs were really burning. 

Around mile 40 I was ready to get off boomer as my lady parts were killing me. My new saddle arrives tomorrow and I can't wait. I hope I love this one as I don't think I can do too many more long rides with my current one. But overall it was a great ride: the roads were mostly empty and the scenery was pretty.

Things that I really need to work on though is taking in more nutrition on the bike. During this ride, I put a Gu Brew tablet in my aero bottle and water in my other bottle. I tried to drink every time my garmin would beep on auto lap. I have it set for every 5 miles, so roughly it is beeping about every 16-18 minutes depending on how fast I am riding. I think I did ok with the liquid part as I did drink my entire aero bottle and half of my other bottle. Now onto the food, I am riding with honey stinger waffles and stinger chews. On this ride I only brought one of each and ended up feeling like I needed more. For the first hour I forgot to eat anything, then I tried to use the same method as above and eat something every two beeps on my watch switching between chews and my waffle. The problem was I didn't bring enough of them and felt hungry near the end. I know figuring out what works for you is a lot of playing around with it and I just hope I have it down come race day.

 

We finished the ride in a little over 3 hours and changed into our running shoes for a short 20 minute brick. Rachel and I shared a waffle before the start of the run and off we went. The run itself felt good to me and was over before I knew it!!

Overall, I think the training day went well and I had a lot of fun riding in a new area. The best part of the day was when we rewarded ourselves with a coke after the ride. Yum, it tasted so good especially after we had talked about getting one during the ride. The worst part of the day was when a three legged dog chased after us and could actually run at 20mph. WTF is up with my luck and dogs?

 

Sunday nothing too exciting happened. I had a 90 minute run scheduled and met up with a friend who ran 3 miles with me then I ran the rest by myself. It was nice to have company at the beginning of my run but I enjoyed myself the entire time. The weather was perfect, my stomach didn't bother me, and my legs felt good :) Oh and I actually maintained a decent pace without my splits totally being all over the place.  I was happy to be running, but I was also happy when my 11 miles came to a end.

I ate a small snack afterwards, then packed my stuff for the pool. This was really an easy recovery swim, plus I was able to test out my wetsuit for this weekends race. I have actually never wore a wetsuit, so I wanted to get a small amount of practice in before having to swim in it on race day. I felt a little silly swimming in it at the pool, but glad I tested it out. I only swam 300 yards with it on then finished up the rest of my swim without it.

 

I was done with both workouts by 12 which meant we had plenty of time to go visit Jason's mom for Easter :)

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

 

Happy Monday All :) 

Random Fridays

1. I'm wearing my compression calf sleeves under my work pants today.

2. I didn't bike yesterday and opted to do strength session instead. And guess what? I feel awake today! I guess my body was trying to tell me something

3. Hoping my new saddle I ordered comes soon. I didn't like the ISM saddle and my crotch isn't too happy with the saddle that came with boomer.

4. I added up my calories yesterday and I was at 850 at the end of the work day and I was hungry. I don't know if this is a lot or a little. I of course still have a snack and dinner when I got home.

5. Toe covers should be coming today so my feet don't go numb on tomorrow's long ride.

6. I have been thinking about registering for the General Small Wood oly distance tri, but not sure if it really fits into my schedule.

7. I am having a lot of fun with training so far this season.

8. We both forgot to feed Kiwi this morning. Do you think our 18 pound cat will survive until I get home today?

9. Jason rubs my head every night until I basically fall asleep. I am so spoiled and lucky.

10. I can't believe my first tri of the season is next weekend. I keep on forgetting about it.

11. I will be testing out my wetsuit in the pool on Sunday and looking a little silly doing so.

12. I think I have forgotten how to fold and hang up my clothes. I don't know how I ever lived by myself

13. I have been wanting to paint my hallway for over a year. Why am I so lazy?

14. I love going to open houses but they make me jealous

15. Bugs, bees, and spiders scare me! I don't like camping because of this.

Happy Friday All :) 

Swim, Run, Sleep

Yesterday my motivation was at about zero percent. Yes zero. I know that is so sad. Alarm went off in the morning and I just turned it off. This meant my run and swim would both be in the evening.

I was still tired when I got off work and wanted nothing more than to nap when I got home. I started talking to myself on my ride home, telling myself I can do this run and there is no good reason I should skip it. Then a guy passed me in his full cycling kit in the bike lane. I don't know what it was about getting passed, but right then and there I decided that I wasn't going to let myself be a slacker.

Once home, I changed and out the door I went in my running clothes. Wednesday is usually my speed work or interval day, but I gave myself the green light to just do an easy 50 minute tempoish run since I struggled so much to get myself out the door anyhow. Usually when I feel like this, my run goes fine but not today. I struggled big time and it felt so hard every step I took. I went into survival mode and really just wanted to finish and finish I did. 6 miles done and a smile on my face for pushing myself and not giving into temptation (ie sleep).

Although sleep creped back into my body shortly after eating dinner. My eyes were closing on the couch and I wanted to go to bed for the night (granite, it was only 7pm). I peeled myself off the couch though at about 7:45 and headed to the pool. I thought I might fall asleep in the water, but to my surprise my swim actually went well. 3050 yards done and no drowning.

Overall, I hate the days that I don't feel like doing anything. But take that zero motivation! I still did my workouts :)

Happy Thurs All :)

Hill Climbing - I might be F'ed

So here is my elevation chart from my ride yesterday. I thought it had a decent amount of rolling hills and my legs were def. burning going up some of them as I riding a whopping 8-9mph per my garmin.  

 Then I take a look at Mooseman's 70.3 elevation profile.

Yes I am in total panic mode and I can feel my stomach just turning. Yes I have looked at the course before, but I kindof just forgot how hard it is! There is no way in hell I am going to make it up those hills! I suck at climbing. I need to find hard hills to ride asap. 

The course I did yesterday, those hills didn't even qualify for a hill rating which means they aren't even hard hills. Oh great! WTF did I get myself into? 

I hear the Columbia Triathlon's bike course is challenging so I am going to head there this weekend and ride the 25 mile course twice. If that doesn't do the trick than I need to ride farther into VA and find some real hills. I do not want to walk at mooseman and look like a wimp. 8 weeks to learn how to climb...

Who let the Dogs Out...

Ok, so where was I at yesterday... oh yeah the tail that involved 3 bikes, a trip to Cambridge, and killer dogs!!!

On Sunday, Victoria met Jason and I at our place, bright and early, so we could make our way to Cambridge, MD to ride the Eagleman bike course. We fussed with trying to fit one of our bikes in the back of the car because I promised Victoria that our car does fit three bikes. So, the question is: how many triathletes does it take to get said bike in car? This day it was three :)

 

Once on our way it was an easy drive from DC and we were the first people at the park! That is because we have #goodideas and no one else wanted to be riding when it was still cold and cloudy out. The one strange thing about the Cambridge park though is that there is no bathrooms! Which meant my pop-a-squat I reserved for when I was riding took place at the beginning of the ride as well, oh joy.

Ok so onto the ride itself. It was definitely cold when we started (48 degrees) and my hands were freezing. Lets not even talk about my poor feet. I don't think I could feel them 3 hours later. Yes I know toe covers have been invented but wearing them would have been too good of an idea. I had rode the EM course once before and thought I would be ok direction wise and remember the streets having lots of arrows on them. This basically would take all the guessing of what direction you are suppose to go out of the equation. Well turns out the arrows on the road are confusing. Just about 6 miles or so into the ride we got lost. HA. and started following the Chesapeake Man course instead. At one point we almost rode right into the bay. Our course compared to the EM course looks like we were smoking crack or something. Or we just love doing out and backs.

At one point while riding, two dogs came running out of someone's yard and onto the street and started chasing us. I thought the one dog as going to bite my ankle and take me and boomer down. Victoria thought she was going to run the other one over with her front wheel. Maybe this is point I hit 22mph as we pedaled harder to escape the dogs.... for now....

 

Overall, I felt great on the bike and our average speed was 17.9mph. Folks this is fast for me for 54.4 miles! And the best part was my legs felt so good! Yes this course is as flat as a pancake but we did get nice head winds which made it more challenging. I will be more than thrilled if I can keep this pace up during my 70.3. It was a great confidence boosting ride and I am still excited about it today.

 

Once we got back to the car, we changed shoes and set off for an hour brick run. Now I didn't have a brick on my schedule, but I didn't want Victoria to have all the fun, so I set off running with her. My feet basically felt dead since they were frozen solid. It wasn't until about 15 minutes into the run that I could start feeling my toes again. And good thing I could because as we were running down a small street about 1.5 miles into the run course two dogs came out of no where. Now I grew up with dogs and am not scared of them, but these little F-ers were coming right at us. The one jumped on my thigh and bit me!!! Luckily, he mostly got my long running spandex I had on, but his teeth still left marks on me (no blood). My leg is actually still a little sore from the small bite and is nicely bruised. Anyhow, I had no idea where the owners were? But we had to slowly walk away for the dogs to leave us alone! We finished the run avoiding that street at all costs. Besides the stupid dogs, the run went great. Once again my legs still felt good and I could have ran 13 miles without an issue. Oh why was this not race day? I can only hope I feel this good in 8 weeks.

 

Anyhow, at the end of the day we battled 3 hours of cycling, 1 hour of running, and fought off 4 dogs! Not dying, strong legs, and going fast FTW!!!!

 

Happy Tues All :)

 

And please be careful out there when you see dogs running towards you. I learned that it does not help to run and the best thing to do is not to look at them and walk away slowly if one is trying to attack you.  

Weekend Recap

The weekend never seems to be long enough ....

But mine started off great when I met Jason and his co-workers out for happy hour on Friday night. The bar tender almost had to cut me off after 5 waters! I know, things were getting crazy. Afterwards, we decided to continue our bad eating day (I had 5 bread sticks for lunch) and go to the Shake Shack for dinner. 

I have never been before, but their hamburgers and fries were pretty good. I guess their milk shakes are pretty good too, but I didn't order one. Fail.

Saturday, I was excited to sleep in and managed to do so until 8am. Woot! Jason had a 6 mile run on his schedule and I had a 85 minute run on mine. We decided to just run together even though our paces don't match up. I didn't mind running a little slower and taking it easy since I had a long workout planned for the following day. How does that saying go? Those who run together stay together :)

Anyhow, it was a nice run and we were able to check out a trail near our house: The Anacostia River Walk Trail that goes along the Anacostia river. We picked it up near RFK stadium then ran along the river front. 

It's a pretty nice trail that was very empty. One part of the trail leads you over to Kingman Island which reminds me of being in the Chesapeake. I think I will use this trail again as it's a nice break from sidewalk city running.

On our way back and about 5.5 miles into the run, I had something special happen to me! A bird pooped on my shirt!!! It was so nasty, but it made Jason laugh so hard. We continued to finish up the run even though I looked like a mess. Once back at our house, I changed shirts and finished up my run for a total of 9 miles.

Later in the day we went to Conte's/Fresh Bikes and spent way too much money. The best deal of the day came when I was able to purchase a full sleeve wetsuit for only $70! This is basically the price of two rentals so I figured it was a great deal. I will be using it for Rumpass and Mooseman so I will definitely be getting my money out of it. I also came home with a pretty new ISM racing II saddle. I changed out saddles and threw boomer on the trainer to test it out. Ugh, I didn't love it. The front part feels too wide and rubs my thighs. I played around with the fit for a good hour and just still was not in love with it. In the end I ended up putting back on my old saddle. I do want to ride with the ism saddle outside though before I totally write it off.  Maybe I will get the chance to do so this week on one of my shorter rides.

That brings us to Sunday .... Sunday was an adventure that involved 3 bikes, a trip to Cambridge, and oh about a million and one dogs that wanted to kill us!!! I will leave this story for tomorrow ....

Happy Monday All :)