It's 5 Things Friday!

Yippy Friday is finally here!

1. I woke up early this morning and met Allison down at Haines Point for some last minute biking miles before my vacation! I wanted to get 30 miles in, but ended up only doing 23 which I guess is close enough, right? I also thought I had all the time in the world this morning, but it ends up that I don't. I thought I would have time to run for about 45 minutes, but yeah not happening. I still had a lot of last minute things to do before leaving at 10:30. (Of course I somehow still had time to blog...go figure).

2. It was one of my gymnast's B-days yesterday she brought it cupcakes for everyone, including her coach! I gabbled it right up, then went for my swim right awards. It's like the cup cake gave me super powers and I had a really good swim! I did a set of the following: 100m, 200m, 300m, 900m, 300m, 200m, 100m. I could have stayed in the pool longer but they were closing in 15 minutes.

3.  I just a hot pocket and a blue raspberry crush for breakfast. I figure since I am going to start my vacation in a bit I miswell start the day off right with some junk food :)

4. I was talking to my mom last night and she told me I am not allowed to talk about swim, bike, or run while I'm on vacation. I was like ..umm..did Jason call you? She said no, but she said she knows me and I need to think about something else and enjoy myself while I'm away. I think I am for sure taking her advice.

5. I am so glad that I don't have to go to work for 2 weeks! I don't talk about my job much at all, but yeah I am really looking forward to a break from it! I did leave my desk a mess yesterday, oh well. My co-workers will just have to deal.

Good luck to all of those who are racing this weekend! I will pretty much be missing from the blog world for the next weeks. So have a wonderful time racing, training, and working while I'm having beers and sight seeing :) See you when I get back! 

4 Things Thurs

1.Packing for a two week vacation is really hard to do! Yesterday, I spent the better have of my evening trying to get everything packed as we leave tomorrow! It is only in the low 60s in Copenhagen (and the rest of northern Europe) which is going to be a big temp shock! I am super excited and ready to have some fun. I am a little worried that by not doing anything for two weeks all my hard work and training will go down the toilet. So, I did pack my running shoes and some running outfits, but that's it. Running while it's cool out will feel like heaven. However, I will not have access to a bike or a lap pool. I am going to try my best to try to get on the spin bike a few times while on the cruise. And as swimming goes, does sitting in a hot tub on a cool night count as swimming? Another thing I won't have access too is my Kiwi! She tried to pack herself in my suit case last night, then sat in protest on top of it because we are not taking her.



Take me please!

2. I tried to get in much training as I could this week since I will be missing so much while I'm gone. Here is what I did so far this week and what I plan on doing to finish it off:

Monday: ran 4 miles and swam 1 mile
Tues: biked 22 miles
Wen: biked 22 miles and I was going to run 3 but it turned into a failed attempt. I was too tired after I finished packing

Thurs: ran 4 miles and I'm going to swim after coaching tonight
Friday: early morning ride (anyone want to join me? trying to get 30 in) with a short 3 mile run afterwards.

3. Since I had so much fun at the DC Tri I registered for one more before the Nations Tri. I registered for the North East Tri oly distance. I figured this race would be a good practice race for me before I'm thrown to the wolves with over... I don't even know how many people at nations? I am still mainly really nervous about the swim. I somewhat struggled with the 800 meters during the sprint and had to do breast stroke. Anyhow, I'll take as many open water swim practices as I can it. And this is basically how I am going to think of this race ... practice. Anyone want to join in on the fun?

4. Speaking of fun, I would like to try to host a blogger meet up / normal people cookout at my house. I have a great little backyard but never have a chance to really host anything because I always seem to be busy. Anyhow, I don't have anyone's emails. Please send me your emails so I can add you to my evite :)

How do you pack for a long trip? Do you try to workout while you're on vacation or do you just relax and have fun? Also don't forgot to send me your emails :)

Wellness Wednesday

I wanted to talk today about what makes me feel "well" or good about myself.

 

By nature I have low self esteem about myself and always have. I always think someone else has a better life, better clothes, more fun, better body, and the list goes on. And for some reason I get jealous when other people are running or racing for example and I am not. I don't know why these things make me jealous, because they really shouldn't at all. I don't know if it's because I feel left out or I really don't know?

 

I guess to get back to the point.... Some days I don't want to get up at 5am and workout or run in the heat when it's 100 degrees, but if I skip a workout then I feel even worse about myself. I basically go through the rest of day wishing I didn't sleep in or skip my evening workout. I don't think it's so much that one day off is going to ruin my training plan, but I think it's more or less how I feel if I don't do it, which is like crap!

 

So by sticking to my own made up training plan it makes me feel good about myself! It might be an awesome run or a crappy swim, but I still feel good about myself because I got my butt in gear and did something! I think without working out I would feel 10x worse about myself. Although I am looking forward to my vacation and a break from training because I think you need that as well so that you don't get burned out and hate what you're doing.

 

What makes you feel good about yourself?

 

Happy Wed all :)

Race Repot: DC Tri (Sprint Distance)

I set out all my gear the night before so I wouldn't be rushing around in the morning looking for everything (I'm super messy so I can never find anything when I want it.)

 

In attempt to get a good nights rest and a full 8 hours of sleep I went to bed at 8:00pm so I wouldn't be shocked when my alarm was to go off at 4:15am. I already knew before I laid down that I wasn't going to go get a lot of sleep. I was so nervous about the swim and the whole race. And sure enough I tossed and turned and my stomach tossed and turned as well. I think I finally fell asleep at 11 or so.

I felt pretty good when I woke despite the fact I didn't get much sleep. Jason and I had decided it would be easiest to drive down to Haines Point to try to park in one of the parking lots. We left our house at 4:40 and were down there by 5. Of course all the lots were full, but there was a bunch of people parking in the employees parking only spots at the parks police building. We followed suite and just hoped they wouldn't ticket 100 cars.

After the walk up Ohio drive I got to the transition area with about a half hour to set up my area. I swore the day before I put my bike in row 11 but I couldn't find it anywhere. I went into panic mood and two other girls helped me find my bike. On sat I guess I mixed my numbers up and had racked my bike in someone else's spot (sorry). They had moved my bike to the right spot and that's why I couldn't find it. 20 minutes later it ended up being in row 11 all at the end, which actually would make it easy to find during the race. Ok I was out of the transition area and hanging out with Jason when I looked down at my watch ...umm...shit I forgot my watch. There was 3 minutes left before the area closed and I ran back into the transition area to see if I had it in my bag..score it was in there! But only my timex watch, I guess I forgot my garmin. Oh well, I was happy to see my old school one and decided I would just keep total time and try to do splits or anything.

 

Since my wave for the sprint didn't start till 7 I went down and watched all the oly distance swimmers start. And that's when I really started to get nervous! I went to the bathroom one last time and it was time to line up. I gave Jason a kiss and he wished me good luck.

 

I lined up for the swim and talked to the other girls around me. They made my feel better and I didn't really have any more time to be nervous about the swim because I was walking down the ramp to jump into the water. They did a time trial start, so swimmer went in about groups of 8 every ten seconds into the water. I think this was great for a newbie like me because it did spread out the swimmers and make it less of a fight in water.

That's me in the blue cap.. ha

The Swim: 800 meters: 16:03

For about the 1st 150 meters I did free and started to panic a bit. I was having a hard time sighting and felt like I was swimming off course. I decided to do the breast stroke for a bit to get my breathing back on track and panic less. About every 30 seconds or so from this point on I thought to myself: "ok any day now you can start doing free style again!" But it never happened! And I couldn't believe that I was actually passing people doing the breast stroke. During the swim my ankle timing chip felt like it was falling off and I thought about grabbing onto a boat to fix it, but just figured if I felt it getting any loser that I would just grab it and swim with it in my hand. The only turn that was really hard was near the end of the swim. People really started to kick hard and I swallowed so much water and was couching bad. What felt like forever I finally was running out of the water at looked at my watch and saw 16 minutes, so I was pretty happy! My goal was to finish in 18 :)

 

T1: 3:36

Ok I'm thinking I just survived the swim and can relax now, but I was having a hard time running from the swim and felt like my legs weren't working right. I found my bike and fumbled around with my socks and shoes then ran to the bike out. While I was running I felt like my bike shoes weren't tight enough and figured it would be better to waste a couple more seconds and stop and tighten them, then to suffer with loose shoes on the bike. When I got to the mount line I def. was not graceful about getting on my bike like the pros are.

Run in from the swim

Bike out

 

The Bike: 12.5 miles:  40:32 (average 18.4 mph)

Since I didn't have my Garmin watch I knew I would have no clue how fast I was riding. My plan was to just ride without totally killing my legs. There were a lot of people out on the course and it would have been impossible to stay 3 bike lengths behind any one. The course was fast minus all the 180 turns that you had to basically just about stop at. I saw about 4 people with flats and really was glad it wasn't me! The pavement defiantly was not great in all places. I saw Jason along the course and I started smiling and waving! Plus I knew I had to be close the finish at that point. I tired picking up the pace a bit because it looked like it was going to rain and I didn't want to get stuck on my bike in the rain with all the tight turns. Overall the bike went great!

T2: 2:13

My legs felt ok as I ran with my bike. I found my area fast and tired to put my bike back in place. This look me 3 times of trying before my bike stayed on the rack, what a waste of time. Another waste of time was the decision I made to take off my tri top and just run in my sports bra. Putting on my running shoes was the easiest part of this transition. I looked down at my watch and I saw 1 hour which made me happy. I thought I so have this run and I'm going to finish in under 1:40. 

The Run: 4.7 miles: 41:07 (8:51 pace)

And this is were I pretty much went down hill! My plan of attack was to start off the first mile slower and catch my breath and get my legs working. But I never picked up the pace! My stomach started to really hurt on this run and my legs weren't running as fast as I wanted them too. I was super thirsty (I didn't drink any water during the bike, how stupid can I be.) I threw up a couple of times on the run and kind of just re-swallowed it, gross I know. I saw Jason at 7th St and gave him a  happy smile face as best I could. He ran with me on the side walk for a couple of blocks and was running faster than me. I'm thinking this can't be good since Jason can't run faster than a 9 minute pace .. great!

For the life of me I could not run faster and I saw my goal of 1:40 slipping out of my hands. I looked at my watch and saw 1:38 and still had two little loops left and knew it wasn't going to happen. All the turns near the capitol were cruel when you could see the finish line. We basically did circles around the finish line. Next year can we please just make the course longer somewhere else instead of teasing us! These were the hardest 4.7 miles of my life.  It's not that I didn't do bricks, because I did, and I did them faster than this. I finally crossed the finish line and couldn't be happier / disappointed at the same time.

Almost there...thank goodness!

Total Time: 1:43:29

I finished 22nd out of 141 for my age group and 104 out of 613 women for the sprint distance.

As happy and excited that I have finished my first triathlon!!! I am also disappointed in myself on the run and the run only. My goal was to finish in 1:40, but this is when I thought the run course was 4.2 miles not 4.7 so I guess technically I did accomplish my goal, maybe. I guess in the aftermath of it all I just feel that I could have pushed myself harder during the run and I'm mad at myself.

But on the up note, I had the time of my life and I loved every minute of it! More races, please! Where is the register button!

And a special thanks to Jason. He is so supportive and I am so lucky to have him. I saw him at so many points during the course and it made my smile every time! Plus he got lots of good race photos! I think he got in 5 miles of running himself to see me all the over the place.

Weekend Recap - DC Tri and 1 yr Ann. Edition

There is too much to write without this becoming a race report or a journal, so enjoy the pictures of my wonderful weekend!

Jason surprised my with flowers on Friday

 

My helmet didn't meet a safety code and I had to go to city bikes before dinner to get a new one!

Dinner at Match Box = best pizza!

I practiced changing my tired on Sat morning

I dropped off my bike and got marked on Sat afternoon

 

I gathered my stuff the night before

I went to bed at 8:30pm on a Sat night (I'm officially old, lame, or an athlete)

I got up at 4:15 am which meant I could see this at 5:00am

My tran. area is all set up and I'm ready to go

Getting lined up in my swim wave

I'm in the water somewhere in this pic

Running into the T1

While I was swimming I was thinking of this!

Bike out

Having fun on the bike ride

Trying to look like I'm having fun on this run

This run sucked .. where is the finish line

I'm done which = I'm officially a triathlete

Cleaning up my area ... I had so much fun! When is the next one ?

Random Friday Facts

1. It's Friday, which means Sunday is almost here, which means it's almost time for my first tri. My bib # is 2736. Feel free to keep and eye for me and cheer me on or just stalk me and see my good/bad results.

 

2. I need to learn how to pee while I'm swimming. This seems hard to do. Awhile back I had a pee survey to see what others do.

 

3. While on a first date with a guy in Adams Morgan he gets stabbed while walking next to me! We came out of Tom Toms and started walking and someone pushed into me and he nicely said to them watch were you are going and that's when it happened. And it actually happened so fast that when he was stumbling I just thought he was a light weight (we only had two drinks) until I saw the blood. I panicked and got a taxi to Walter Reed and stayed in the hospital all night with my date that I didn't even know. He ended up being ok, but I was scared to enjoy DC night life for awhile.

 

4. While on the topic of violence I have only had my car window smashed into once while living in DC. They didn't even take anything out of my car so it was more annoying than anything.

 

5. I went to visit an ex-boyfriend living in Texas and he dumped me on Sunday morning and I was there till Monday afternoon. Worst weekend of my life!

 

6. My apt at 18th and S NW had roaches, bed bugs, and mice! Two years I lived with these friendly roommates.  But hey it was a great location!

 

7. I love being goofy! And don't really care about what others think.

 

 

8. In second grade I brought in flowers for my teacher and put them on her desk. Then I saw big black aunts crawling off of them and got super embarrassed. She wasn't sitting at her desk at the time and I never admitted that I was the one who brought them in.

 

9. I grew up with a river going through our property and would go on river walks when the water would freeze in the winter. It was the best.   

 

10. Last time I was really drunk I made a trade with a girl in the bathroom. Her lip gloss and eye liner for my tampons. Yum, yeah weird!  

 

11. I love History and wanted to major in it but didn't think I would make enough money

 

12. I love watching the Olympics. They usually always make me cry.

 

13. At my second marathon it was my time of the month. I didn't know what to do and didn't want to carry an extra tampon with me or stop at the potties, so I just wore two (at the same time).

 

14. My brother, sister, and myself played Monopoly every day one summer. My brother always won!

 

15. If I like something I don't hold back and through my whole heart at it.

 

16. I don't do anything with the medals I get from races. They usually just get thrown in my closet.

 

17. I cry so easy when I am watching tv. I even cry during some commercials. But when Jason proposed to be I didn't cry! I was just too happy!

 

 

18. I used to go on dates with guys of Craigslist. Gald I didn't get killed.

 

19. I threw up about 200 meters from the finish line at the Baltimore Half Marathon. In my pictures I have throw up all over my shirt because I didn't stop running.

 

20. I don't drink any water if I'm only running a Half marathon. It makes my stomach too upset (see # 19).

 

21. I want to go sky diving!

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend and if you are racing good luck!

Three Things Thurs

1. I am super, super, super nervous for this weekend! The swim is scaring me so much!!! I had a nightmare last night that I got to the race early and decided to go to an open house to kill time before my wave started (I love real estate and houses, but still not sure how this made it into my dream?) Well needless to say I got back to the race late and missed my wave and there was only two waves left which they let me go in the last one. But, I didn't have my transition area set up so I was screwed there and I started crying. And once I finally got in the water my right arm wasn't working so I couldn't really swim. At this point I woke up and was like thank god this was not real life! I now know that I'm not going to get any sleep on Sat night because I am so nervous for this. I'm not worried that I can't finish the bike and the run because to be honest 12.5 mile bike and a 4.2 mile run is super short and will be over in a blink of an eye. But, umm, the swim, have I mentioned that I almost died last weekend in the bay?!?! Please Potomac be nicer to me than the bay so I don't die!

 

2. Since I have started training for my first triathlon I can't seem to talk about anything else. I may now be the most boring person to people who don't like to swim, bike, or run. But it's really hard to talk about other stuff sometimes because the training has become such a big aspect of my life, that when I do talk about it, I am sharing my life with others. I can only image how much crazier it gets if you are training for a full IM. Speaking of an IM, I want to sign up for a 70.3.

 

3. Did I already mention that I'm really nervous for this weekend? Oh yeah I did! I will be going to get my packet pick - up tomorrow around 4:30ish. I love expos and can't wait to see what cool gear / sales they have. I guess I'm pretty excited for the tri as well!!!! Not only will the race be fun, but I love how friendly all the other athletes are at races! I love chit chatting and meeting new people while I am there.

 

Has anyone else had some crazy dreams before a race? Happy Thurs All :)

Wordless Wed.

My one year wedding ann is coming up June 18th! Who knew 1 year could go by so fast!

Then on June 24 - July 9 we will be going on a wonderful vacation to celebrate! You can read all about where we are going here. But, here are two of the places we will stopping at :)



Copenhagen, Denmark




St. Petersburg, Russia



Slash N' Dash Race Report:

I laid out all my clothes the night before as I usually do before a race and I was in bed by 10:30 I think. My alarm was set for 6:00 giving myself 15 minutes to get ready and leave in the morning. I threw an English muffin in the toaster with peanut butter for breakfast and out the door I went.

There wasn't really any traffic that early in the morning so I ended up getting to the race around 6:50 giving myself plenty of time before the start of 7:30 am. I met up with Victoria and Jessica before the start of the race and warmed up 100 meters since it was only a 300 meter swim. This was the first time I have swam in a long course pool so I was in a little bit of a panic mood during warm-ups. I was thinking .. were is the wall?

With Jess before the start of the race

They lined us up from fastest to slowest swimmer. We had seeded ourselves on our time, so if everyone was honest who knows? We were doing a snake swim in 3 lanes, so it was there and back in one lane, then under the lane line. Swimmers went in the water one at a time every 15 seconds. I ended up passing the guy infront of me not even half way down the first lap (why did he put himself near the front)? I ended up passing another 3 people in the pool and got stuck behind one of them doing the front crawl until I could get around him which was more than a little annoying. Overall I was happy with my swim and the race went better than my small warm up. I wish I was swimming in a pool for the tri.

Looking at my # to know my line up

I'm out of the pool

Before I knew it, I was out of the water at about 6:10 on my watch. I ran over the transition area and Jason ran with me as he was cheering me on :) I didn't bring a big enough towel and just sat on the ground and got leaves and stuff all over my butt (oh well). It was pretty hard to get my socks on while my feet were wet, but I think this was a great learning experience! I have no clue how long the transition took me? But I know the guy who ran barefoot was in and out in a blink of an eye.

Belt is on..score!

my butt is getting grassy

yep, there's crap all over me

Once my shoes were on I was on the run. My heart rate was still up pretty high and it took a couple minutes into the run to catch me breath.  I crossed the one mile mark at 7:45 and this is were all the hills really started to began. And I'm not talking little wimpy hills, they were kick ass ones! The girl I ran past said to me: "what goes down, must go up." I was like, ugg, I know! I'm not sure what my pace was on the hills because I used my old timex watch, but I felt like I was walking. It also didn't help that this was a super small race - 40 people total! So on the run no one was around you and it didn't feel like a race, so it was hard to keep pushing myself. I saw Victoria and Jessica about 1.5 miles in as they were in front of me since they started in the pool first. I thought I might be able to catch up to them, but yeah not a chance they were too far in front and I still had to do the turn around. The turn around was of course at the bottom of a hill, so I had to joy or running back up it. I hit the two mile mark at 16 minutes. So my second mile was slower than the first. Then I got lost and went the wrong way and one of the other runners was yelling at me form far back that I needed to turn. opps. My last mile was pretty slow and the last 200 meters another runner ran next to me and said: "lets sprint to the finish line together!" So we did :) I finished my 5k in 25:35. Not my best 5k, but whatever I suppose.

At the finish

Total time was 33.23 according to the race site and I came in second!!! Hooray for small races! I have never placed in a race before! I actually don't think I have gotten second in anything since I was a gymnast. Too bad I actually didn't know they were having awards and left about 20 minutes after I crossed the finish line. I didn't find out I got second until I was on twitter and that we got Luluemon gift cards! OMG lulemon gift cards. I emailed the race director and he is going to mail mine for me :)

Overall this was a great race and great practice for the tri this weekend.

Weekend Recap

So I'm going to try to keep this recap short and sweat....

I woke up bright and early on Sat morning and for an open water swim clinic that was being held at Sandy Point. I gave a fellow DC Tri Club member, Kristine a ride down and it was great to talk about all things tri and make a new friend. Once we got there we broke up into 4 different groups. I choose to go into the group that was labeled: I'm scared to death of an open water swim! They had us swim about 100 meters with the shore line and it felt pretty good and I wasn't panicking about the other people around me. Actually the other people around me didn't bother me much at all, so that part was good, check. Now, when they had us swim out to buoy and do the full 800 meters that's when things went down hill. Fighting the waves and the current were HARD! I made it to the first buoy and basically thought I was going to die?! I did the front crawl for a little bit, then I had to flip over to my back. I basically thought I was going to drowned. I told myself to stay calm and tried the best I could to swim back to shore as the current was sucking me back towards to bridge. Ummm... obviously I didn't die .... but I'm so scared now for next weekend. I'm even now more scared and nervous than I was before. I thought this was suppose to help me?

Then when I was chit chatting with other triathletes someone came up to me and asked if my name was Sarah Karpinski. I said yes, why? Here it was the other Sarah Karpinski!!! There has been two of us racing the same races for years. We don't have a very common name so it's pretty weird. We both live in DC and both are the same age so it always makes finding your race results hard. Plus we usually finish with-in a minute or two of each other! I was so excited to finally meet her and hopefully make a new friend.


Sarah meets Sarah!

After we drove back to DC I was pretty tired and decided not to do my practice tri and took a nap instead. Then it was off the do lots of little things and people watching. Jason and I ended up riding all over the city and first on the list was to go grap my pack pick-up (for the splash n' dash) at luluemon in Georgtown. Once that was done we rode over to 13th and K NW to watch the Naked Bike Ride. We were there 10 minutes early and no naked people?!?! Where are they? Then we saw a couple people over by 12th and K. There was only a total of about 10-15 people doing the ride. It was interesting / disturbing at the same time. I will not post any pictures of this.


Naked People?

 After the ride we stopped at Cosi for some lunch. Yum, I love Cosi :)

Then it was off to the Bike Rack on Q to pick a spare tube and CO2 to replace the ones I used when I got my flat last week. After that we rode over to Pacers on P so I could buy a race belt.  $20 dollars is such a rip for this, but I bought it anyhow.

Then we basically parked ourselves on P street to watch the Capital Pride Parade. It was a good time with lots of music, floats, and friends.

Sunday, I met up with Victoria and Jessica for the Spash N' Dash (300 meter swim, 5k run). It was a really fun race minus all the hills on the 5k! And they weren't little hills, they were the sucky big ass ones! I will write up my offical race report tomorrow, but I finished in 2nd place! This never happens! Little races are the best :) It was just a fun race!


Waiting my turn for the swim



Almost done!

With my friends

Later in the day I set up my T1 and T2 in my back yard to practice. I got my feet wet and ran to my T1 area, got everything on, ran with my bike to my pretend exit area and jumped on my bike. I pretty much suck at getting on my bike and being able to clip in right away. If I have to take an extra few seconds to clip in correctly then so be it. I don't think it will be too big of a deal. Once on my bike I did an easy 20 miles and came back to transition area. The T2 seems like it will be easier except the whole running and jumping off your bike thing. I did a short brick of 2 miles and was done. The run actaully felt pretty good and I was running at about an 8:15 pace which is just below my goal pace.

Overall my weekend was great! How was yours ?