Holiday Weekend Recap

Back to Reality .. The nice 3.5 day weekend is officially over as I am sitting at my desk at work. Boo!

Anyhow, I packed all my stuff Thurs. night and made a mess in my room! I was looking for one pair of shorts and had to take just about everything in my closet out and toss it on the floor!



My room is now a mess!

I was working a half day on Friday and wanted to get a quick cycling workout in before leaving for the day (plus I wanted to test out my new shoes). I met Allison down at Haines Point and we got about an hour of riding in. I love my shoes and only fell once near one of the museums. It was also great to ride with someone.

After the car was packed we were on the road by 1 o'clock and at the beach by 5 :) I think I have mentioned we need a bike rack. Umm.. yeah maybe this will be my task this week.



Sat morning I woke up at 6:30 and loved seeing this in the morning!

Sun Rise

I was soon out the door for a nice 5 miler in attempt to beat the heat. Wrong it was still really hot out at 6:30 in the morning. It was so nice to run somewhere new check out the area! Plus running on the boardwalk and having the ocean breeze on you was awesome! I also got a chance to try out my new watch! I still really have no clue how to use it. Reading instructions might be a good idea, right? 



  

Running on Boardwalk

How do I work this?



I'm hot after my run

After my run we headed down to the beach were I had my breakfast of champions: Fritos and a beer!



My poor water bottle

Later in the day, Jason and I went for an hour bike ride. We should have wrote up a cue sheet before heading out, but we just winged it and ended up not finding the best roads to ride one. Never the less I was happy to get out there and ride 13 miles :) I wish we had more time, but I'll take it.



Sunday ...well Sunday was suicide Sunday at the Star Board. Umm ..9 am drinking ...working out just wasn't going to happen!



I think this picture says what my sunday was about



Make your own Bloody Mary!



Monday we left the beach around 1 and sat in stupid bay bridge traffic for hours. I basically crashed when I got home and sleep 9 hours lastnight! Sleep is awesome!



After two days of doing nothing and eating my face off I am ready to get back to eating right and working out. But, what the heck happened to the weather? It's so hot out!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Random Things Friday

1. OMG I love my new bike shoes! I can't believe what a difference they make!

2. I didn't drink at all in high school and couldn't believe on of the D.A.R.E officers at a party was drinking. I was disgusted! I actually didn't have my first drink until my second semester in college.

3. I tired to be on a rowing team but hated getting up at 4:30am. It is the only thing I have ever quit.

4. I love to eat everything plain. I hate condiments on sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, etc.

5. I hate sea food. Even the smell of it makes me sick!

6. I was in a daisy dukes contest when I was 24. They made us get up on stage one at a time and dance to a song with a bag on our heads so we would not be judged on our face! It was one of the most humiliating things I have ever done. Needless to say I did not win the $2000 bucks which was the first place prize.

7. Who says you can't meet your husband at a bar? I met Jason at Bourbon in Adams Morgan. I put him in my phone as: "guy from bar".

8. My sister is my best friend and was my roommate for two years in college. I loved living with her and wish we lived closer. Living 7 hours apart sucks!

9. I seriously saw a space ship in my back yard when I was about 10. I was so scared and ran in the house. The next day the grass was burned from where it took back off. Yes, I believe in Aliens, because I saw them!

10. Being on twitter is so addicting! But I love it!

11. Mamba's are my favorite candy, but they are hard to find. I'll take Swedish fish or anything fruity if the store doesn't have them.

12. I grew up always having a dessert after dinner and I still like to have something sweet after dinner.

13. I won all-around at every meet as a level 6 gymnast (when I was 11). At one meet I took second place and cried my eyes out on the podium! Umm...can we say bad sportsmanship! Now I would love to be second at a race.

14. I ate rat poison when I was two and had to have my stomach pumped.

15. Cherry,orange, and grape pop are my favorite. And yes I hate calling it soda, it's pop!

17. I love cats! If Jason would let me I would have so many! Kiwi needs friends and I need more cats to love!

18. I call our shed in our backyard a barn. It absolutely drives Jason nuts, but growing up I had a barn in our backyard so I'm just used to saying that.

19. I love writing down funny things people say and created a quote board for the frig. My family and friends love reading all the funny quotes and my parents even started their own :)

20. I'm only working till noon today, then off the Dewey beach! Maybe I can even out my tan/sun burn lines from cycling.

New Bike Shoes!

Blah, I'm in a really bad mood! Plumbing and crown molding that did not happen and we still had to pay the stupid guy!

 

Anyhow, my bike shoes finally came in last night! I ordered them last tues and it seemed like a week took forever to get here! I rode over to city bikes so that they could install my pedals for me, plus my bike needed a tune up. I tired on my shoes and the guy said they fit good. Once my pedals were on they put me in the trainer so that I could practice clipping in and out. It took my awhile to figure out how to even clip in? Blah, but I figured it out! I probably stayed on the trainer for 10 minutes until I felt comfortable with what I was doing. They laughed at me in the store because I put back on my normal shoes instead of keeping my brand new specialized shoes on. Yes I was (still am) scared to ride in traffic with new clipless shoes.

 



Specialized Ember - Aren't they pretty!



Jason and I rode right up to Lincoln park, so I could practice some more riding with them in the grass! I almost fell on the first try trying to clip in my left foot, but Jason caught me! I basically looked like a little kid learning how to ride a bike! People were looking at my like "WTF is this girl doing".  I practiced for about 15 minutes and felt like a pro when I was done! Yippy! I then rode home the whole 2 blocks to my house. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of this exciting moment!

 

I didn't have time to go for a real ride last night because my stomach got in the way and I had to eat dinner. I'm excited though to really test them out and see if I can go faster with real cycling shoes?!?!

 

Tonight I'm suppose to coach and swim, but I have to take off because we have a plumber coming from 5-7. Uggg! And who knows he may be there longer? But if he's not then I'm going to Haines Point to really give my shoes a test drive.

 

Happy Thurs! Hope your morning started off better than mine! One more day until the beach!

Wellness Wednesay

So this week has been off to a slow start. Yesterday I have never been so tired and I felt drugged when I woke up. This morning my alarm went off at 5 for my track workout, and once again I felt super tired! I listened to my body and re-set my clock till 6:30. My hip flexor and my back have also been hurting me a bit, so maybe this was a good idea? At any rate just wondering if you guys listen to what your body is telling you or do you keep pushing yourself?

 

Now onto what I was going to talk about: my hair's love hate relationship with chlorine. My hair hates it and the chlorine loves it! I have been swimming since Jan and slowly put surely my hair is getting destroyed. Some days if I run the morning after a swim, it turns into a chlorine run because that's all I can smell. My hair is all stiff at the ends and feels gross now! I just bought ultra swim shampoo and have been using it since Monday. I can already see a difference and my hair seems to be returning to normal. yippy!

 

For all you swimmers: what shampoo or tricks do you use to keep your hair healthy?  

Three Things Tues.

1. I am super, super tired/exhausted today! I set my alarm for 6am, but I didn't think twice about resetting my clock till 6:50. I think I was still more than half asleep when I left out the door this morning and forgot my work ID and cycling gloves. Every now and again I like to take a day off of work and just do nothing and sleep all day. Today is one of those days! I wish I was still in bed sleeping because that's all I want to do. Is it 4 o'clock yet?

 

2. My next couple of weekends are busy which makes training difficult. This upcoming weekend I am going to Dewey Beach till Monday. Jason and I plan to bring our bikes with us and ride while his other friends are golfing. Plus I may be able to squeeze in a couple shorter beach runs. Then the first weekend in June my sister and brother-in-law are visiting from OH. Yippy! My sister gets up super early so I won't be able to sneak any workouts in, in the morning and I want to visit, so I will have to make sure I get everything in during the week. June 11-12 I am free! This weekend I plan to go to HP and do a practice sprint tri. I think the pool should be open by then?

 

3. I was the smelly kid at the pool last night! The last time I swam was last Thur. and I forgot to take my suit and towel out of my bag. So when I went for my swim last night.. yep you guessed it... my suit and towel smelled pretty bad and they were still wet. Oh well, into the water I went. It always takes awhile for my shoulders to warm up, but they eventually do. I also can never think of anything while I'm swimming besides what lap I'm on. It's so easy to loose count. Especially since I'm swimming in a 25 meter pool, I wish it was a 50 meter.

 

Happy Tues. I hope everyone is more awake and than I am.

Weekend Recap

OK, this was not the best weekend in my life, but I guess it wasn't that bad either.

Sat morning I got up around 7ish and had an english muffin with peanut butter and made a smoothie. Jason is a slow mover in the morning and we probably didn't make it out the door until after 8 for out 30 mile ride.

I thought this was going to be a great ride, but boy was a wrong! I don't know why, but this is one of the worst riders ever! We went down the mall, to Mt Vernon, to 4 mile, to the W&OD trail. Since it was super sunny and nice out (which just equals super hot to me) everyone in their mother was out on the trails. This is and was so annoying to try to dodge people who act like they own the whole trail! Errrr! Another annoying factor was Jason (sorry Jason). Even though we ride together at least once a week, this ride was horrible for pacing! He would speed up and I would be so far behind him because well I'm slow. Then he would slow way down so I could catch up and not realize I was right behind him almost running him over.  

I was so irritated that I was just ready to turn around and go home. But I held out till what I thought was the 15 mile mark and stopped at check my phone. WTF! the GPS never started on it and I had no clue how far we had went. I swore it was 15 miles, Jason swore it was only 13. Either way we turned around and to make up for the missing milage (maybe?) we did one lap around Haines Point on the way home to make up for it. I might look happy in this picture, but yeah I'm not. And to top off this ride, I wore a sleeveless jersey and totally forgot to put my spf 50 on my back! Now I have a nice red sun burn on my back on the sides only. Perfect this looks sweet!  



Jason's Happy not to hear me bitch anymore



I'm hot and ready to go home



The DC 101 Chili Cookoff was next on our plate for Sat. I just bought a super cute dress, but the whole back is open and I was determined to somehow sew a bra into this. Total time worked on the dress: an hour and half! One bra and my favorite tank top cut up and ruined, equals me super super annoyed! Needless to say my idea didn't work and I just had to wear something else. My plan was not to drink at the cookoff, but I was having a bad day and really wanted a beer.

Beers were 8 bucks! For bud light! I have not drank in two months and my first drink is a bud light! Yeah I was disappointed! Then I switched to water which tasted so good! I had a pretty good time despite sitting in the blazing sun for 6 hours and feeling old around all the young kids drinking their asses off.



Bud light = :(



Why don't the lines look like this at a race??



Yum .. water

Sunday was pretty unproductive, and turned into messing with our ceiling all day long! We got some kindof leak from the bathroom into our kitchen. Umm...yeah I'm pissed! We just re-did our kitchen last year and I really don't want to rip down cabinets!

On the up note, my new running shoes came on Friday and I was really wanted to take them for a test run. So I dragged Jason with me for a slow, relaxed 3 mile run yesterday. I thought running with my new shoes would make my feet feel like they were running on clouds. WRONG! They hurt my arches. These are the same shoes that I always get. I am wondering if they changed something? I am sending them back!



I'm excited about my shoes before the run



Kiwi is excited about the box my shoes came in



Random Friday Thoughts

1. I got up early this morning! Yes, me! I'm excited! My alarm went off at 6 and I put on my running clothes, guzzled some water, ate a piece of bread, and I was out the door at 6:07. I went for a 5 mile run and the weather couldn't have been better. It was prefect running weather and it makes me think, why in the world do I ever run in the after noon heat! And the best part is I didn't get stopped at any lights!!! That is usually the one bad thing about running around in the city, but not today. I ran right around a 8:30 pace. I still need to purchase a garmin watch so I can actually know what my split times are. I'm using an old school Timex ironman watch and it's driving me nuts!

2. I plan on going to Haines Point with Jason tonight around 6ish if anyone wants to join us. Just let me know. Oh and it's national bike to work day! Once I got back from my run, I had about 15 minutes to shower and get ready before heading out the door for work on my bike! I didn't really see any more people out there this morning than the norm. Luckily my building has a private garage that is guarded and you are ID to enter. So I can just keep my bike down there unlocked and I know it is safe.



My bike in the garage

3. My Mom is ok! I was so worried about her and now I feel much better. I still wish I lived closer to home for times like this. I love my mom and my family so much!

4. I still really have no clue what I'm doing while I'm swimming. Sure I can make it a mile all freestyle, but am I doing it right? I have no clue? I still have to breath every two strokes. I tired doing every 5 yesterday and lasted 50 meters. And when I try every three I go all zig zag across the lane. I also have no clue as what swimming drills I should be doing? Or what any swimming drills are for that matter. Help!

5. I'm going to the DC101 Chili cookoff tomorrow! I'm allowed to have fun sometimes right? And I hope the weather is great! Before heading over I hope to get a run in and a 30 mile ride. If anyone else is going to be there, let me know, I would love to meet up.

6. I have to go to meeting on Sunday! Yucky, No, I don't want to! It's a move-up meeting for gymnastics that starts at noon. I guess I will make the most of it and go for a swim at Fairland before the meeting starts.

7. One more week until Dewey Beach for memorial day weekend! I want to relax there, but I also don't want to do nothing. I think I will bring my bike with me so I can ride around some.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The cost of the sport!

So my first tri is 31 day away! I am pretty excited and nervous at the same time. I guess I will see if my no training plan will pay off? I have no idea why I have been winging all my training when I haven't down a tri yet? I have been trying to do each area at least 3 times a week. I feel pretty ready for it and actually think the sprint will be easy. Too bad I can't change it to the Olympic. But, I think it will be a good learning experience because I am pretty nervous about the open water swim and the transitions.  



Kiwi will be with when I ride :)



On a different note, this sport is so expensive! Since I have started I'm not even sure how much money I have spent? I didn't have a road bike when I started my journey so I bought an entry level road bike, the Giant Avil 1 and spent more than expected. Then I had no bike shorts, tri shorts, or bike jerseys. I'm not sure how much I spent on all this stuff, but a new one just came in the mail yesterday! It is kind of dorky, but it has a cat on it! to match Kiwi of course :) I think it is going to be my favorite one and I will test it on my ride tomorrow. I also had no swim suite or goggles. So, I had to buy those as well. The first pair of goggles sucked, so I had to buy another pair which I love!

 

Tues I decided that I need to upgrade my pedals and get some real pedals and clip shoes, which equals more money! I went up to city bikes located on 8th to check things out. The guy was really nice who helped me pick out the pedal that would be best for me. I went with the Keo Classics. They only had two pairs of women's shoes in the store and I liked the Specialized shoe with the rotary closure. This closure was so neat and easy to tighten, I loved it. However, they didn't have my size, so they are ordering it for me and they will be next week. I guess I will have to suffer another week without them. I will manage. I think this whole little trip though cost me another $300. When my shoes come in next week, I will be bringing my bike up and they will install the pedals for me and put me in the trainer, so I can get used to the shoes. 

With my Pedals, but no shoes :(

All in All I think I have spent just about 2,000 or more. Ouch! Someone please take my credit card away from me! I think we as triathletes could have our own MasterCard commercial:

 

New road bike = $1300.00

Pedals and shoes = $300.00

Cost of race = $200.00

 

Racing in your first triathlon = priceless!

 

And every time I'm bored, I'm looking up races.... This week I signed up for two half marathons: Baltimore and Philly. More money! And to my surprise Jason willingly signed up the bmore half! This will be his first half marathon, so exciting!  I haven't made up my mind if I want to race this or just run with Jason to help motivate and push him along. I have also been looking for more tri's to sign up for and really wanted to do Rockets Landing, but I will be out of town that weekend. Any suggestions for good ones in August, end of sept, or oct? Oh and did I mention I need new running shoes too! I will be ordering some from zappos today.

 

Ok, I am rambling. Happy Thurs!

Wellness Wednesday

Yesterday after I got home from work I was so hungry. We had just about no food in our house and I really wanted something before heading out for a ride with Jason. I saw one yogurt left in our frig ... score! So I made a smoothie with a water base (yes I had nothing else to drink in the house) and added some frozen strawberries and bananas that I had cut up last week and the vanilla yogurt. It turned out pretty yummy and made my stomach happy!

 

But, we never made it to our ride as it looked like it was about to rain any minute and I thought why not go to city bikes to check out pedals and go to the grocery store.

 

At the store I picked up lots of yummy things that I can use as snacks. Blueberries, grapes, bananas, apples, no salt almonds, granola bars, etc. My question is, why is fruit or anything that is healthy expensive! Damn Harris Tetter.

 

On a side note I have not drank a beer or anything for that matter for almost 2 months now. I'm going to the DC 101 chili cookoff on Sat and know I will be surrounded with people drinking, including Jason. I am not sure if I really want to drink because I am nervous that one or two will turn into me blacking out and not being able to do a damn thing on Sunday.

 

Cheers it's Wed!

Three Things Tues.

1. I actually woke up a little early this morning to get in 5 miles before work. Well, ok, my alarm went off at 6 am and I snoozed until 6:25. I then hopped in the shower, put on my running clothes and got two days worth of work outfits together. Since it was raining I put everything in a zip lock, then into my little bag and off running I went. Since I hit snooze I did not have enough time to run back home and shower, so this would be a run right into work. I ran 2 miles with my bag on and dropped it off with the front guards at my building and continued down to the mall the get in another 3.something miles. The weather was great out there this morning and my run felt great. I was pretty excited that I didn't keep sleeping till 6:50 like I always do. Once I got back to my office I was wet and smelly. I keep a towel at my desk, so I was ok there, but when I opened my bag I forgot to bring a bra and a dry pair of underwear..bummer! Luckily the tank top I brought to wear under my bottom down has one of those little build in bra things in it. Good thing I don't have big boobs. And the underwear, I guess my butt is just wet... Oh well I am still happy.

 

2. Tomorrow I am waking up extra early to be at a track workout at 5:40am with the DC Tri Club! Yikes, I hate getting up early! This will be my first track/speed work since college. Needless to say it's been awhile, but I really need it. I am pretty nervous to meet up with the group since I feel like I will be the slowest person there. We will be doing the following: 4 x 400, 4 x 800, 4 x 400. I think I might die! I am still not sure if I want to run to the track or ride my bike? Either way I have my clothes already at work and just plan on showering at my little gym here.

 



Umm..yeah I need real shoes!



3. So when I was younger I hated wearing shoes in the summertime and would never wear them. This always posed a problem when my sister and I went to jump onto our bikes...the pedals would hurt our feet! So I had the great idea they should invent a bike with built in shoes attached to the pedals. To test out my great idea my sister let me duck tape her feet to the pedals. I'm still not sure why she let me do this to her, as I'm the youngest? Anyhow, down the all gravel driveway she went. When she went to make a turn...you guessed it... she couldn't get her feet out and the bike and her went down together! She was ok and I was laughing so hard.. my idea sucked! It was back to riding our bikes barefoot with pedal marks on the bottom of our feet.

Needless to say I haven't really thought about this story for a long time until recently. I have been trying to decide... if I need to get clip shoes for my bike? And I think I finally feel comfortable enough to make the big move forward and become a real cyclist with some fancy shoes :) I know I'm going to suck at first and fall a few times, but I think I will manage. Plus, I think it will make me faster, at least I hope so because my bike times suck!

So hopefully I will have time to go on Sunday to check things out at
City Bikes on 8th!

 

Happy Tues All! For me this week seems to be flying by!

Weekend Recap

Well, I have nothing really too exciting to report this weekend. I barely got any training in which sucks.

 

My weekend mainly consisted of a lot of gymnastics as it was the MD Championships this weekend! I only had one session on Sat, so I got up early and ran 5 miles before heading to the gym. It was raining out, but so what! The run felt great and I could have keep running, but I was scared for my phone and didn't want it to die on me it. Why I took it with me, I have no clue? I need to stop being cheap and buy a garmin watch already!

 

Sunday I knew I would have no time to get any workouts in and just used it as a rest day. The day was filled with more gymnastics from the morning till a little after 5 pm. My team did ok and we took some first places on individual events. Basically everyone fell on beam which cost them first in all around and team. I am still very proud of them though!

 

On the way home, I got a call from my dad that my mom was in the hospital! They were not sure what was wrong and she was on her way to the emergency room. I got upset and started crying which made it hard to drive. Once I got home Jason gave me a big hug which made me cry even more. I pulled myself together and got ready to over to a blogger's meet up!

 

The meet up that Lauren hosted was great! It was so nice to finally meet everyone! Of course there was lots of pasta and desserts to be eaten! And lots of laughs. I had a great time and it took my mind off my mom.

 

WetSuits

So, I purchased the VORTEX 3 SLEEVELESS WETSUIT and it came last week. I struggled to get the sucker on and once it was one I felt like the neck/collar was very high/constrictive and it felt like it was chocking me. I tired it on again last night and it felt a little better, I guess. Although I feel like a fat blimp in it!

Now, I have never worn a wetsuit before, so I'm not exactly sure how they are suppose to fit? I feel like it fits fine every where else, but the neck area. Maybe my torso is too long? I have been thinking about ordering one size up and see if it fits any better? I have been reading other people's reviews and they said their neck kind of felt the same way, but felt better when they were in the water, so I don't know? Maybe I just need to swim in it once and make my decision after that?

Any help, suggestions? How does your wetsuit fit you?

Wellness Wednesday - Lunch Edition

So, for about the past 5 years I was packing my lunch and bringing it into work: a turkey sandwich (nothing on it) and an apple. I would also not bring any money in so that I would be forced to eat what I brought in and not be tempted to get skittles at the hot dog cart outside my building. Well needless to say I was totally burned out on these foods and could barely force myself to take a bit of the sandwich.

 

So, recently I have not been packing my lunch at all! It's something about lunch meet that sits in your frig for a week that gives me the willizes! Yuck! I have been basically eating the same thing, but for some reason it tastes so much better... because it's fresh I am guessing?

 

I get a sandwich from west wing cafe on Mondays. I seem to always get the same thing: smoked turkey on whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato. I don't like condiments, so it's not a big deal not to put them on my sandwich. The sandwich is super big so I only eat half of it and save the other half for Tues. I usually bring in my own fruit (apples, oranges, grapes, or strawberries) to eat along with it. I forgot my piece of fruit yesterday and they charged me a 1.20 for one apple! rip off! Wed. I switch it up and get a salad from Chop't (grilled chicken, egg, avocado, tomatoes and carrots with romaine lettuce). Yumm! I love their salads. Then for Thurs and Friday I go back to the half of sandwich West Wing cafe lunch. Sometimes I do treat myself to a small piece of candy. My boss keeps a candy bowl in his office, which is the death of me. I love candy too much and am not the type of person who could ever have a candy dish because I would eat everything right away!

 

I don't drink anything but water throughout the day and I drink a lot of it. I am always going to the bathroom just about every hour.

 

Overall, I basically just try to eat healthy while I'm stuck in front of a computer for 8 hours. And I am the type of person who goes on food kicks and I don't want to eat anything else. I'm sure I will burn myself on this food rotation as well. I still can not eat pop tarts because I had them every day my freshman year of college.

 

So does anyone else go on food kicks? Hope everyone enjoys their lunches!

 

Happy Wednesday!

Race Reports —- The Races that were not...

 Six Pillars Black Water Tour - 56 miles

I got everything ready on Friday night and when my alarm went off at 4:50am on sat I wasn't too tired. I was out the door about 5:15 and thought I had everything I needed: bike, check: helmet, check: sun glasses, check: cycling outfit, check!

We parked the car and I changed into my cycling shorts in the middle of the road by my car, which Jason thought I was crazy for doing. I'm sure everyone who saw me has seen a girl in underwear before, right? We picked up our numbers, got our que sheet, went to the bathroom one last time, and made our way to the start line. This was a rolling start and not a timed race, so everyone was so relaxed, which seemed so different to me than a running race. And off we went.

Just two miles into the ride..pop!...Jason gets a flat!! The best way to describe this is with a lot of F_ing and mother F_ing going on! I stopped my watch because I knew it was going to be awhile. Everyone who rode past us was super nice and asked if we needed any help! Finally after 25 minutes we were on our way again!

The ride was going great and then..smack..head wind! No! I hate wind! It seemed like the longest stretch on this highway and the wind was really making my legs start to hurt. Finally we turned off that road and got a break from the winds. Rest stop one came up pretty quickly and I had to stop to use the potty! We were probably stopped for about 5 minutes only and I got a chance to talk to a DC Tri Club member (I just signed up yesterday!). I tried my best to keep up with that group ... but NOT A CHANCE! So I settled back into my nice comfy 15-18 mph. About 25-30 miles into the course they had a great newly paved road. There was no head wind and I felt like I was really going fast! I think this is were I hit 22 mph! Although I almost ran over a buzzard that was eating a dead squirrel in the middle of the road. The bird wouldn't let it go and ended up dragging the squirrel across the road as my tire nearly missed it! I didn't need to stop at rest stop 2 and kept on riding! But just about 2 miles after the rest stop the signs were confusing and there was a bunch of cyclists stopped because we had no idea which way to go? We all took a leap of faith and hoped we were still heading in the right direction! Which we were, yippy!

My legs/back started to hurt a bit about mile 40 as there was no time to really coast on this course because it was so flat! (which is a super thing)! I would try to coast and draft off Jason for a bit. I felt like I was running out of energy about this point as well and ate some of my shot blocks and drank some water. As soon as I put my water back I see signs for rest stop 3 (mile 43). We coasted into the rest stop for a quick 5 minute break were I had a cheese stick and some gator aid, then off we went. Only 13 more miles to go!!!

Before I knew it we were back on the same stretch were Jason got his flat .. only 2 more miles! I changed gears and tired to ride strong for the last miles. Before I knew it, I was crossing the finish line!!! 3:24 minutes!!! this is about 17 mph average which is better than I had excepted to ride. This of course is the time without the flat tire and two 5 minute breaks included. But still, I'm happy.

This was my first ever cycling event and I had so much fun! The course was nice and flat and the weather was perfect at 75 or so! As I mentioned at the earlier, I thought I had everything, but about half way through the tour I remembered that I forgot to but on sun screen! Ouch, my alarms and legs are still super red!

Dead Man's Run - 5K

The race started at 8:00am and I wasn't nervous at all because it was such a short distance. I live only about a 10 minute walk from the start of race, so I didn't even have to get up super early. Although in the middle of the night and sat up and said, OMG this race is not timed! This was such a bummer to me, before and after the race.

Once I got there, I tired to make my way to the front of the line, and got as close as I could and off we went! The race was though a cemetery so as I was dodging people I was also trying to look at all the cool grave stones. At mile one I looked at my watch at I was at 7:10 pace! What! I never run this fast! I tired my best to keep this pace and did not look at my watch at mile 2. I just kept running and passing people :) Right before the finish we had to run up a hill.. thanks a lot! ... but I really tired to push it! I crossed the finish line at 22:40 on my watch! The little clock they had was about 20 seconds ahead of my watch time. Wait ... is this fair since it was not chip timed? In the official results I ended up finishing 8th out of all women and 5th in my age group with a time of 22:56. Wish I had made my way to the front of the line so my watch time matched their official time.

Although this race was fun and I loved that it was different and went through a cemetery, I don't know if I want to run it again since it was not chip timed. But, I suppose I can always just start closer to the start line. I would say this is a pr for me, but as mentioned I have never ran a 5k before. So, now I think I have to sign up for another that is chip timed and see if I can beat my time.

Weekend Recap

I had a great weekend which mainly consisted of a lot of driving, riding, running, and visting! Oh and eating out at restaurants.

I am going to keep this weekend recap short and post my race reports tomorrow. Enjoy the picture recaps :)

Saturday we drove to Cambridge MD for the Six Pillars Black Water Tour. The ride was awesome! and the weather was perfect. I forgot to put on sun screen though and my arms and legs are a nice lobster red now!

I think it's time to buy a bike rack for the car!



On my way to the start line



Cyclist's picking up their numbers



Jason gets a flat 2 miles into the ride ... I will talk about this later




At about mile 25

 

With Jason after we finished - 3 hours 24 minutes

On the way home we stopped at the Prime Shopping Outlets

Sunday morning the alarm was set for 7:00am to get ready and go the my first 5k! I was excited for this race because I wanted to see how fast I could run! Plus the run went through the cemetery which I thought was pretty cool.


At the start of the run ... why oh why did I wear long pants?



Jason at the start of the run



A pretty bad self picture before the start of the race

The race was great and I ran faster than I thought I could.... 22:40 in my unoffical time ... this race actaully was not chip timed .....errrrrr.....I will talk about this later as well.

Later that day we drove up to Fredrick Md and took Jason's mom out for lunch for mother's day. It was a great visist.

The rest of the weekend I thought about cleaning... but never did it :(

Hope you guys had a great weekend as well! 

Friday's Random Thoughts



Sites on my way to work



1. My alarm went off at 6am this morning. I had planned ahead and brought in a change of clothes into work yesterday so I could run 5 miles in the morning without a bag on. Well, I hit snooze once, then I reset my alarm to 6:45. I just couldn't do it this morning. I couldn't pull myself out of bed, I was so tired. So instead I ended up just walking to work. I wasn't really planning a rest day today, but I guess it soft of is. I will just be walking home later and doing some core work.  

 

2. My eyes are also getting a rest day and I'm wearing my glasses today. My contacts have been driving my nuts. Yesterday  at Haines Point it was so windy and my contact flew right out of my eye, and landed on my face. Score, I was able to put it back in. And yes this is one of my fears about doing a tri .... my contacts!

 

3. Why do runners run on the bike lane on East Capital?? This is a pet pev of mine! Yesterday I had to go around 2 runners, thus making a car go around me since I was now in the normal driving lane. Come on people, I run too and I don't do it in the bike lanes!

 

4. Why do I get jealous when I see other people running or cycling and I'm not?  As mentioned, I walked this morning and saw other runners out and was beating myself up for not running and wishing I was out there running too! The same goes for races. Jason wants to ride a century and as much as I kind of don't want to sign up for it because it's the weekend after my Olympic, it's like I can't let him do it without me because I will be jealous that he can say he rode a century and I can't.

 

5. One of my gymnasts yesterday was getting frustrated on bars with a new skill that she just started working on. I tried to tell her that new skills are hard and do not come over night, but with lots of repetition and hard work. She kind of just looked at me. So, I told her my swimming story about how I could only swim one lap in Jan and it took me 3 months and lots of practice to be able to swim a mile. She still just looked and me and didn't get it at all and asked if she can work on a different skill. ha.

 

6. I am the world's worst speller if you have not already noticed. I'm sure there has been many misspelling on this blog or when I use spell checker I think I'm picking the right word, but it's up being something completely different than what I wanted to say.

 

Happy Friday All! Hope you guys have a great weekend! Is it 4 o'clock yet?

Weekend Plans

It's almost Friday and I am getting excited for the weekend! I have the following planned:

 

1. Do nothing on Friday night besides relax and go to bed early! I love sleep!

 

2. Drive to Cambridge, MD bright and early sat morning for my first ever cycling event, Six Pillars black water tour. I will be riding the 56 mile course. I have no goal besides to finish.

 

3. Stop at the Prime Outlets on the way back from the ride! My favorite store ... BCBG here I come :) Oh how I love shopping. I'm sure Jason will try to out shop me, which seems to be his new favorite thing to do.

 

4. Run my first ever 5k (Dead Man's run) on Sunday morning. Hopefully my legs aren't too sore. For whatever reason I have never signed up for 5k's so I am interested to see what my time will be. I would like to run a 24:00 or below.

 

5. Meet my mother-in-law half way between DC and Charles Town WV and take her out for lunch for mother's day. Which reminds me I need to send my mommie a card since I will not be able to see her :(

 

6. Clean ....umm....yeah ....maybe....I'm messy and HATE cleaning.

 

Happy Thurs All

Wellness Wednesday

I know this blog is about training but I thought it would be kind of fun to talk a little about nutrition/diet today. I will start off saying, that by no means do I eat the way I should!

For the past two years I was on a project at my job that required me to travel once/twice a month for a week at a time. With this my came eating out 2 times a day for lunch and dinner. I tired my best to workout after work, but some days we were working 12 hour days. Needless to say I slowly put on some extra weight (about 10 pounds).

Well, our project ended in Jan of this year and this is the same time I added swimming and cycling to my training schedule. With this combination I have managed to lose those extra 10 pounds without much of an effort. I feel much better about myself now and I am finally able to fit back into all my clothes! Yippy!

In general I try to eat heathy during the week, the weekends maybe not so much. Yesterday I was super hungry all day! So after I ran 5 miles I went home and cooked chicken with broccoli, green squash, and baby tomatoes tossed with whole wheat pasta and a little bit of cheese. And of course after dinner I had some mint chocolate chip ice cream. For whatever reason I always like a little dessert after dinner.

More next Wed....

Have a great day :)

Should I Join??

So I have been looking at some places in DC to swim. Currently I swim at Fairland Sports and Aquatics center (where I coach gymnastics). They have three great pools, but it's in Laurel, MD and takes about an hour to get to. Because of this I am only swimming twice a week after I finish coaching. I am always super tired/hungry at this point and it's always a struggle to get myself into the pool.  

 

Well, I called Georgetown Law last week and scheduled an apt to take a look at their sport and fitness center. I just finished my tour and it's awesome! The big question and only question is do I want to pay 79.00 a month to join??

 

Pros:

1. Literally right next door to wear I work !

2. Usually only students and staff can use the facility, but they also let some DOJ employees use it, so it will never be over crowded!

3. They have a 4 lane - 25 yard pool!

4. Spin classes and other classes

5. Basketball and racket ball courts

6. Nice looking cardio equipment, weight machines, and free weights.

 

Cons:

1. I never use treadmills

2. I can basically do everything I do at the gym (besides swim) at home or outside.

3. Cost!!!

I don't know what to do?? I have been thinking about swimming at the FREE pool at Eastern Market but they have crazy hours and the pool doesn't look so great. I have also been thinking about swimming at the Haines Point pool when it opens (also free).

 

Help!

Weekend Recap

So, my weekend started off with a mini duathlon that wasn't planned after worked on Friday, but just kind-of happened. My original plan was to run 5 miles then wait for Jason to get home from work, then bike at HP. Well, Jason got off work early, so we wanted to ride a bit earlier. So, I ran 2 miles home from work, changed into my bike clothes/picked up Jason and off to HP we went. HP is always windy, but it was extra windy on Friday and it was a hellish ride! We ended up just doing 17 miles. I still wanted to get my 5 miles of running in, so when we got back, I changed into my running shorts and did a short 3 miles, which made me happy. I tired to convince Jason to do this brick with me... he made it one block and turned around :(

Saturday was filled with lots of gymnastics fun and a rest day for me! I got up at 5:30 am and was out the door 15 minutes later on my way to a gymnastics meet. I have 12 girls on my team in different ages groups/levels so I had 4 sessions to coach that day. I love gymnastics, but the worst part about these meets is the food they provide for the coaches. The entire day I had a half of bagel, a hot pretzel, and mac and cheese. These are all horrible carbs and I was so hungry. Anyhow, my girls did great and we had a couple first places in different events and all-around! I'm so proud of them! Awards for the last session weren't over till 8:30pm, so I was tired with a 2 hour drive home in-front of me. These long days are always worth it to me though :)

Sunday, called for a 50 mile bike ride! Yikes ... I have never rode this far! We had decided on riding the W&OD trail. This meant riding down the mall to Mt Vernon, then connecting to the 4 mile trail and finally connecting up to the W&OD trail. We left around 10am and the weather felt cold so I wore a long sleeve shirt under my jersey. I complained about this decision for probably the first 10 miles because I was hot! Ugg.. I never choose the right thing to wear. And just 3 miles into the ride I had to make a potty stop at the Washington monument rest rooms. Yes, I had the bright idea of drinking water, orange juice, and milk right before my ride. At about mile 14 it started to rain a little, then it started to rain a lot! We stopped to re-group and decide if we should keep riding or turn around? I really didn't want to cut this ride short though and cheat out on the miles I really needed to get in!

On a side note every time we stop at a light or something, Jason checked his back tire ... annoying! He just got a new tire too...

Anyhow, we both decided that it wasn't raining that bad and we wanted to keep going. I'm glad we did, because it stopped raining shortly afterwards. My legs felt ok most of this ride and didn't really start to hurt until mile 30 or so. And my bottom half was very happy with my new bike shorts I just got :) Overall this ride was a  lot of fun and I saw lots of Jason's bum over the 3:30 half hours.

I have never rode on the W&OD trail before and loved it! Nicely paved paths and not too crowded, which was the best part! I'm not sure if it was because of the over cast weather or if it's such a long trail the people are more spread out? Who knows, but it was great and I plan on riding it again.  I also loved the old train car and had to stop for a photo! I have to say I no complaints about this ride today :) I didn't even swallow any bugs or have drool stuck to the side of my face. Which always seems to happen to me at some point while out cycling.

After our ride we were pretty hungry, so we went down to Match Box on Barracks row for an early dinner, then stopped at Ted's for a milk shake! Yum!

This upcoming Saturday is my first ever bike event! I am nervous and don't know what to expect. But, I do feel like I can ride 56 miles now, even if I haven't been able to train like I would have liked too.