Adjusted Reality

Idea from Charlotte.  I was having too much fun with my comments on her blog and decided to make my own.

You may be a triathlon nerd if….

-You make all your other social plans around what race/training you’re doing on the weekend (sorry folks, racing Sunday, can’t go out with you Saturday night, but let’s meet up for Sunday champagne brunch for which I may or may not shower…).
-You have a full laundry basket of workout clothes between you and your spouse every week.
-The impetus for doing laundry is only when you run out of good running socks and bras (or perhaps have worn said items more than once…)
-The stuff in the kitchen and your meals are all healthy, but you have a bunch of pure sugar and junk food reserved for long rides/runs.

-Your bikes are cleaned more often than your kitchen.
-Spandex is your right AND your privilege 🙂
-You have race numbers instead of pictures on your fridge.
-Your alarm is set for earlier on the weekend than the weekdays during the spring and summer.

-Packing for a week vacation takes less time and you take less than packing for a 3 hour out-of-town triathlon overnight trip.
-You burn more calories before work than most people do all week.
-Your rule is at least one shower between sweating and work and/or social events, and sometimes that = 2-3 workouts of sweat before the shower.  And an outdoor rinse off at the lake TOTALLY counts.
-A brick isn’t what you build your house out of, it’s a workout, DUH.

-Two a days?  Isn’t that cute.  Let’s talk when your sport gets you to do 4 different workouts in 24 hours.  On weekdays.
-At least every other week or so, you don’t have to decide what to wear to work on Monday.  This weekend’s race shirt, of course…
-The idea of doing a run on rested legs mystifies you.  Who does that?
-You indeed have become those freaky looking spandex rat people on the bikes you used to make fun of, and now, you just covet their spandex if it’s an especially interesting color/pattern.

-You drive past a hill and think that you just HAVE to return to run or bike up it over and over for hill repeats.
-Instead of shore excursions for the cruise you’re taking during training season, you look up cycle shops, running routes, and snorkeling trips to get your run/bike/swim on.
-The first tri of the season is more exciting than Christmas.
-Half marathon and marathon training is just “something to keep you occupied in the offseason”.

-You have actually spent some time practicing running in bike cleats.
-You wish EVERY race made you write your age on your calf so you knew who you needed to pass to move up in your age group.
-You actually start thinking about the logistics of doing things on your bike that normal humans wouldn’t.  Eating on it.  Drinking on it.  Peeing on it.  Attaching a tom tom GPS to it.  Doing bike yoga on it during really long rides to stretch out.
-Valid training for your hobby includes practicing putting on and taking off clothing really quick, and you’re not in the adult entertainment industry.

What kind of nerd are you?

This week started a little off (racing, and thus drinking copious amounts of champagne on a Sunday always does that to me), but we rocked it out of the park anyway.

Monday, we were pretty sore so we decided to skip kickboxing or any other formal exercise.  Instead, we hit up Costco for some bulk shopping goodness.  After a day of rest I was ready for a run Tuesday morning – it was definitely a run roulette, there’s been rain on the forecast just about every day this week, and it was cloudy and ready to dump.  However, I discovered that I don’t melt, and since my electronics are waterproof, I was able to knock out 7.1 miles slow (around 11 min mile pace).  It was a nice pace for me, I felt like I could go forever, but my legs didn’t want to go faster.  It was a great morning run!

I was going to spin that evening to make up for missing Monday, but I was pretty tired so I just rested.  Wednesday was a nice long strength session at the gym in the evening (pushups have made a comeback – I need to get better at them – I used to be able to do 3×20 no problem, and right now I barely have 3×12 in me…), and decided to just knock out a half-iron distance swim (2000 yds) – 200 EZ, 200 drill, 200 fast, repeat 3x, cooldown 200 EZ.  Thursday ended up being my epic day of making up workouts, with a 60 min group power class in the morning, and a double brick in the evening (15 mins on bike trainer, 1 mile all out run x 2).

After this epic 4-workouts in 24 hours thing, I was pretty exhausted and took a rest day on Friday.  Oddly enough, ended up at Costco again.  We washed the bikes and packed up for the next morning.  Almost felt like packing up for a race – except without the packet pickup and race shirt (maybe we should make our own, heh).

First Annual Lake Zliten and Quix Lake Pflugerville Practice Olympic Triathlon GO!

We had a back to back to back day of plans so our goal was to get out to Lake Pflugerville and be swimming by 8am.  Well, we slept in and couldn’t get going, so we got there more like 9:15 and were in the water closer to 9:30.  However, there was a “Walk for the Kidneys” event going on, plus there were a few tri groups training, so it was probably for the best that we got a late start.

We took the swim nice and slow.  This was Zliten’s first open water swim over 500m, and his longest swim to date, so I stayed with him.  We practiced stretches of freestyle between breaststroke breaks, and sighting.  Often he was going out to oblivion and I had to call him back.  However, we made it through 3 laps of the 500m course in about 45 mins (a guess, we didn’t pay attention to time) and got out and got ready for the bike.

We did not do traditional fast-as-you-can transitions, we probably took about 20 mins slowly getting ready, getting the bikes off the rack, pumping up  the tires, reparking the car not in the mud (since a lot of the kidney walk peeps had left), etc.  Once we finished all that, we were off.  It was a beautiful day, and we took our usual course for the first 7-ish miles, then made a left instead of a straight to get extra distance.  We held a 17-ish mph pace for the first half, but slowed on the second half as we came back right into the headwind.  The goal was 15 mph, and we hit it at an average speed of 15.3 for 20.15 miles.  An Olympic is usually closer to 25 miles, but we didn’t want to deal with busy roads, and really? 20 was close enough.

I was worried that we might be beat after the bike, especially Zliten after his longest swim ever, but we felt pretty good.  I had eaten 3 nutter butter cookies and had a few sport beans, and had a 200-cal bar for breakfast + some caffeine, so I felt pretty fueled and peppy, but the last time I ran after biking out here I felt soooo terrible and could barely make myself go.

Not the case that day.  We started out slow, around 11:20s, but quickly found our pace that day around 10:50s.  I think my avg pace read 10:52 from about mile 2-5.  I think there were both times that we felt like we could go faster, but tried to hold it to easy pace.  Zliten commented that it was a shame that we had people waiting for us, because he wanted to try to do a longer run after having a really nice, comfortable first lap around 32-ish min for 3 miles.  Then, the sun came out and started beating down on us – mile 5 was the longest mile EVAR.

However, I started feeling peppy again in the last mile and around 5.5 I broke away and started sprinting for 6.  I was actually hungry (the only thing I ate on the run was a small squish of Zliten’s gel) and in my head, the sooner I finished, the sooner I could eat.  I finished around 1:04 for the 6 miles – avg 10:45 pace.  With more nutrition… maybe I could have done another lap?

I was tired, but not exhausted-collapse-at-the-finish-and-lay-there-for-an-hour like I did at the TX Olympic Tri a year and a half ago, not to mention that we finished almost an hour quicker (I was 4:04 for that, and we did this in 3:08-ish, not counting transitions).

I feel pretty confident after that practice that the half iron is actually in my grasp this year.  The bike is still what I feel like I need the most work at (I’m super comfortable with the swim and run distance stand alone, but biking 56 miles is only something I’ve done twice and been uber tired after), but I’ve got a few months.

I feel like I need to work on 3 aspects the most – 1) cycling longer distances and time in the saddle, need to get used to a few hours (read: 40-50 miles) of cycling 2) running on tired legs and keeping up my distances and 3) strength… the stronger I am overall, the better equipped I will be to maintain a 7-ish hour effort.

No Rest For The Wicked

We rinsed off in the outdoor shower and changed and headed to early Mother’s Day lunch with my parents.  We had packed a sunbutter and jelly sandwich, and while I felt kinda silly eating on the way to lunch, I had a PIT in my stomach from an approximate 2000 calorie burn that morning, so it worked.  We enjoyed many, many plates of food at the soup and salad bar, and relaxed the afternoon away playing games.  I even had the energy to be bouncy.

We got home about 7:30, and we had a graduation party to go to, but we decided first we needed a quiet drink on the patio first.  It was a nice breath of calm before we headed back out into the crazy, and found that since the party was going for about 4 hours, it was pretty raging.  We weren’t sure if we were going to stay long (ya know, epic day and all), but I ended up being able to push through and we had quite a good time!

Today we have done a whole lotta nothing.  We attempted to pick up our disaster of a house and deal with the laundry pile, and we made a little progress, but that fell by the wayside due to important duties like eating, napping, and watching TV in bed.  Y’know, the important stuff.

While I enjoyed my day o relaxing a LOT, I also felt really bummed that it was such a beautiful day and I culdn’t be out again at the lake swimming, biking, or runniing.  A sickness, I has it.

Randomness

I want to stay here – it’s only 15k per person for a week.  No big d.  What wealthy benefactor wants to surprise us with 2 tickets?  For that price, their private jet picks you up, you get a stay for 2 nights in the underwater room, 4 nights on land, all the water activities you can do (lookie Zliten I didn’t say watersports, apparently that means something dirty and not, like, scuba diving, snorkeling, and personal sub-ing), all your food, drink, and most spa treatments.  I want to do this so badly… I’m not sure the price of a car is ever something I could consider dropping on a 1 week vacation, but it definitely would be an experience.

I cooked some freaking awesome black pepper chicken with baby bok choy in garlic sauce tonight, and served it with this brown rice/quinoa stuff I found at Costco.  Om. Nom. Nom.  So good.  I haven’t cooked Asian-y food much lately, and I may have to change that.

Is there anything you can do with old spoiled wine?  We found some in the garage that had been there for a few years in the hot and cold and hot and cold.  It was cheap wine to begin with, but now it’s probably spoiled.  Any suggestions on how to use it, or should I just dump it out?

Nacho kitty (other-wise known as kittyface this week) and Iguana Donna met today (through the glass, the iguana is strictly indoor except for rare, very supervised and short trips outside and the cat is strictly outdoor).  There was much hissing and puffing, but dang she looked pretty.  I do not think they are going to be BFFs, which is fine.

Speaking of Nacho, she has become extremely friendly and expects love and pets when we’re outside and pretty much exclusively lives in our mud room.  She likes to headbutt the sliding glass door when we come by, and actually is entrance and meows at me when I sing Nyan Cat to her.  Never thought I’d enjoy having a cat, but this one is a pretty bomb diggety feline.  I’m definitely in camp dog still, but… this one seriously might be part dog.

Back to back races can’t get much more different than a slow metric century ride one weekend, and a super sprint tri the next, but that’s how the schedule lined up.  Until last week, my goal was just to make a strong effort, and then, I got wicked stupid times in my head with my performance lately on the trainer and some superfast run speeds.  I even took an extra rest day to see if I could be even more rested to kick my 1:17:43 square in the ass (though, to be fair, I spent the morning before the race cleaning the garage and the afternoon running errands… so…).

We were UNREASONABLY excited for this race.  First (real) tri of the season, we’re both feeling great, and there were many chants of ROOKIE ROOKIE ROOKIE ROOKIE around the Quix-Zliten household.

Then, Friday, I feel like UTTER SHIT.  Sore throat, achey, ex-friggen-hausted, and I got really bummed because I figured I had to be coming down with something.  Skipped everything besides work that I planned to do for the day, went to bed at 10pm, and slept 10.5 hours and THANKFULLY woke up feeling like myself.  Really weird.

We’re refining the pre-race strategy.  Having a really big late lunch and not much dinner worked for us.  I had yogurt/apple/pb for breakfast, and steak, bread, salad, potato, a few bites of desert around 3:30pm, and that was most of my food for the day.  I had a roll with cream cheese a few hours before bed, but that’s it.  I felt GREAT both the day before and on race day.  Poo happened in the AM well before the race, no tummy issues during the whole thing, and I didn’t feel like SUPER BLOAT like I do sometimes when fueling up.

Sadly, the weather outlook went from ok, to sketchy, to terrifying.  Enter 2:45 am thunderbooms, lightning lighting up the bedroom, and torrential rains.  I got up, checked the weather, checked social media for any race updates, and then tried to go back to bed.  Instead, I just kept practicing the transitions in my head for 30 mins until the alarm went off.  Worst night of pre-race sleep EVER.

However, I was UP and AWAKE and we were actually ready so early we sat around after loading the bikes and stuff up because the parking wouldn’t be open yet.  That is a race first for us non-early birds.  I kept relentlessly checking the weather, and it said it would stop around 7.  Race was around 8.  I had faith.

We got there, got a pretty pimp parking spot, and decided on what to do.  I wanted to claim a bike spot but not set up transition yet, and Zliten wanted to set up transition.  After walking over in the rain, we decided that my course of action was the most prudent.  We were WET and had not thought to bring a tarp like some folks.  Then, it was more time sitting in the car, bouncing up and down, and willing the weather to be better.

At 7am, we just had to bite the bullet and do it.  I laid out my stuff, but instead of as planned, put my shoes upside down and my socks inside them, and covered everything with my backpack.  I also left the plastic bags tied on over my seat and aero bars/bento box.  Oops.

We found a dry overhang and chilled there, and the rain got a little lighter.  Then, we walked down to the water and met up with a few friends who were also there, and just tried to keep moving and stay loose.  The race was delayed 30 mins due to lightning to the south east, just to make sure it didn’t blow in our way.  With all this excitement, I didn’t get a warmup bike, run, and they weren’t letting people in the water early, so no swim.  I should have ran, especially once the race was delayed, but I didn’t put together the fact that I should actually have done it until it was too late.  Oh well.

Finally, we got the word that we were a-go.  Zliten was in the third wave, so I watched him go off, and then just ran through the race in my head.  Back and outside on the swim, don’t worry about finding a lane on the swim or getting ahead, just swim smart.  Cap and goggles off on the run up to t1, 5 (racks up) 2 (racks across).  Garmin, sock, shoe, sock, shoe, helmet, glasses, grab bike, go.  Bike safe in the rain.  Stop pushing hard on the bike on the last mile.  Rack bike, shoe off, shoe on, shoe off, shoe on, grab race belt + visor and run.  Run as hard as you can, don’t save anything.  You can do anything for 2 miles, you can guts out a 2 mile run no big d.  Finish with everything you have!

Then, as the wave before us went, and we stepped into the water, I turned off my brain and went into execution mode.  I found a good spot in the back half on the outside, waited for the countdown, and off we went.  I felt more comfortable swimming in open water that day than I ever had, no nerves at all.  There was some jostling for most of the short 300m swim, and some people SWIMMING BACKSTROKE AND BREAST STROKE in the middle of the pack (grr) but I just kept on going.  I remember last year I got out completely brain-out-of-my-body winded, this year I swam more conservatively and got out feeling warmed up.  I ran up the hill, hit transition, and didn’t execute perfectly (fumbled with garmin, had to HULK SMASH rip bags off my bike I forgot about :P), but did MUCH better than last year, and got out to the road quickly.

I also fumbled a little bit mounting the bike.  I was on the wrong side, my pedals didn’t want to clip in after running through the mud, but I got going.  I had just the night before set a new field on my garmin: average speed.  THIS.  THIS A LOT.  It’s easy to get frustrated seeing a low speed going up a hill, or get lulled into a false sense of security seeing high numbers on a downhill, but it was nice to see it start around 15 mph and slowly creep towards 18, and then almost 20 as I got going.  I rocked the rollers in the first 5 miles, though I did take the downhills slow because, y’know, riding through little streams makes me nervous.

Then, we got to what they named Carnage Hill.  You have to slow to take the sharp right turn, and then it’s a STEEP ASS LONG HILL.  Couple that with the rain, I got around it, got a little up it, and unclipped and ran instead.  I had visions of getting so slow I was wobbling and my legs being too tired to unclip and falling over and getting run over by eager cyclists… yeah, no.  I felt like a wuss doing it, but it was the safe bet.  And, I passed most of the jerks that passed me chugging up the hill within a mile because my legs were fresh. 🙂

I ate a few powerbar cola caff chews, and note to self: eating on a hard fast ride is not as easy as a slow one – I almost choked a few times.  Maybe gels are better for sprints.  I also got a little stitch in my side – my hindsight guess is not enough hydration.  This stuck with me for the rest of the race, but it wasn’t too bad.  The second half of the course was hillier, and I had forgotten about the double hill of doom (you ride up one, and as you’re about to breathe a sigh of relief as you crest, you see a worse one), but 11 miles passed quickly.  I saw Zliten on the run as I was coming in with the bike and shouted at him and he waved.  I unclipped well before the line and dismounted and headed into t2.

This one went like clockwork.  Bike racked, helmet off, shoe off, shoe on, shoe off, shoe on, grab race belt and visor and roll out.  For those of you who have never done a tri you won’t understand (as I didn’t before), but the best way I’ve heard it described is that the gravity in transition feels about 5x as heavy as it does on the course.  Everything in you wants you to stop and rest, or at least slow down.  However, it’s SO MUCH MORE EFFICIENT to fly through transitions and recover on the course at 15mph or 10 min/miles while you get your bearings.

I got on the run course, and saw my pace dropping to where it should and then the hill of doom, which made my stitch go OWWWW.  I powered through the best I could and got ready to kill it on the downhill – which I had forgotten was on STICKS and now MUD.  And I chose to wear my minimalist shoes.  I flew as fast as I could, but I almost twisted my ankle 5 times and got a little discouraged in the first mile.  I fought a few negative thoughts halfway through, and just concentrated on going as fast as I could.  Once I hit the pavement and solid ground, I starting fucking flying to the finish.  I went from about a 10:15 avg overall to sub 10 in that last stretch (haven’t analyzed the garmin data, but I imagine it’s all 8s and 7s the last 1/3 mile).  I sprinted my ass into the finish and for the first time in a tri – Zliten was at the finish to cheer me in!

Results were:

1:14:12 overall (1:17:43 last year, so 3:31 faster)

SWIM: 7:31 for 300m – 2:30 per 100 (7:14 last year, so 17 seconds slower.  Oops, a little more juice on the swim next time)

T1 – 3:18 (6:30 last year – so 3:12 faster!!!)

BIKE: 42:19 for 11.2 miles – 15.9 mph (42:31 last year, so 13 seconds faster.  Last year was in perfect conditions, where this year was a mess.  I’ll take it, especially because some time here was due to pedal awkwardness)

T2 – 1:32 (2:04 last year – 32 seconds faster.  Even changing shoes, where I didn’t last year)

RUN: 19:31 for the 2 miles – 9:46 pace (19:21 last year, so 10 seconds slower. Bah)

The rankings are confusing.  For 30-34 women that have completed a tri before, I was 15/28.  I was 238 overall out of 815.  I was 6 mins faster than the average woman.

So as you can see, I pretty much PR’d by fixing my transitions!  I went from happy I PR’d to sad I didn’t PR more to content with my performance.  I’m really hungry to just NAIL one of these sprint tris and have the combo of a perfect day + perfect weather = ridic PR, but my eyes are on the prize.  Sept 30th is the half iron, the rest of these are playtime.

Also 10 lbs heavier this year did not impact my performance in the slightest.  Even though I had some lower numbers in my head that were reasonable if I had a stellar race day, but once the pouring rain started, I abandoned them for simply a PR and a safe finish and I have to remember that.  I have 3 more sprints this year to tear up!

Next major race is Pflugerville in 40-ish days.  Goals are:

-Beat my time last year – 1:40:35 (they didn’t record splits, just overall due to a timing chip error)

-Run the 5k under 10 min miles.  The last leg of my tri is the bane of my existence.  I lose it.  It’s part mental, and it’s part chowing down on the bike so I don’t hit the despair point that I’ve found is related to low blood sugar.  Also, this trail slows me down.  I will be running it a few times before race day.  I know I have WAY more than a sub 10 minute 5k in me on tired legs, but I have yet to execute, so let’s start there.

-18 mph on the bike.  This course doesn’t have stupid hills, and as long as we don’t get hit with 20+ mph winds like last year, I should dominate this.  We do EZ rides on this at 15mph+ now.

-11 min swim.  I want to push a little harder on the swim.  It’s all well and good to save myself for later, but it is a race..

-Transitions that feel as expedient.  Also, getting there super early so I can get a spot right next to the bike out/bike in.

-I may change my mind on this, but conquering the party trick of rubber banding my shoes to the pedals and putting them on after I get on the course instead of struggling with them at the mount line.

That looks like about a 1:33.  So A+) under 1:30, A) under 1:35, B) PR, C) Strong finish.

This weekend we’re doing a practice Olympic tri, and the next weekend we’re racing a 5k.  All race recaps all the time around here, but hey, it’s what I do. 🙂

This was an outtake, but I have to share.  I’m not sure what sort of look I’m giving Evilbike, or why, but it’s not good.  Hahaha!

So all in all, a great first tri of the season, and in 6 weeks, I’ll be ready to crush another one!

Can’t lie, I was actually a little nervous about this one since the last metric century ride a month ago.

1.  I know now how much it hurts to ride 60+ miles.  The first one was great because I was blissfully ignorant, having never done more than 35.  This time, I knew how hard the end would be.  I knew how wasted I would be the next day.  I knew I was in for 4-5 hours of biking.  It took me 8 months to decide to do a second half marathon after my first one.  It’s taking me 2 years to get back to an Olympic tri.  But this year is about building a massive endurance base, so my recovery time was one month for this new and challenging distance.

2. While we have most definitely got more bike time this month, it’s all been right around 1 hour or less – which didn’t leave me feeling confident that I was any more ready to be on the bike for 4-5 times that.

3. Feeling much better about the clipless pedals, but was still nervous about how I would do on tired legs.

Gear: blue north face shirt, pearl izumi bike shorts, moving comfort bra, bento box with nutter butters, chips ahoy, power bar caffeinated gel bites (cola and strawberry banana), pb pretzels, sesame sticks, solids, candied mango slices, and quench gum.  I even stashed some extra in my camelback which also had my chapstick, biofreeze wipes, an extra tube (we had 4 total), my compression sleeves, and it was full of icewater + grape nuun.  Also had an extra b0ttle of icewater on the bike.

Notes:

-I expect my nike dri fit tanks to take the place of this north face shirt as my faves, but it’s the lightest, comfiest, most wicking shirt I own and I didn’t want to try anything new and be stuck hating life for a long time, so I bit the bullet and wore the same thing.  Yes,  I do actually think about things like this for the race pics. 🙂

-I way overpacked food.  This time, I really enjoyed the powerbar gel chews, the nutterbutter cookies, and the orange slices at the aid stations.  I think I’ve learned what I love the most are new things and things at the aid stations, not what I liked last time, heh.  However, it was really good to have options.

We ended up not being able to fall asleep until way, way too late the night before, so we got a late start.  I think I’ve perfected my morning food routine though – the oat-mega bar was great on my tummy and a caff tea late got me going great.  We got to the race, which started at a high school, with just a little to spare.  After hitting the bathrooms (inside the school, which was really nice instead of porta potties), we got back to the car, geared up, chatted with the couple next to us (they were also doing the 63), had one more potty trip for Zliten, and we ended up starting with the family ride in the back.  Bah.

That made for dodging and weaving a lot in the first few miles which was sort of annoying, but kept us from getting out too fast.  I did a lot of “on your lefts”.  There was a lot of inconsiderate riding, like people riding 4-5 across slowly and taking up the whole road so it was hard to pass, or people riding REALLY slow on the lefthand side (note: it’s like in a car – you pass on the left, then move back to the right).  I was really happy when we got ~7 miles up and lost the family 14 mile ride folks.

The first 30 miles were strong as hell.  I had to reign Zliten in a little bit from going too fast in miles 10-20, I didn’t want to feel like I was pushing myself at all in the first half since I remembered how FREAKING HARD the second half was last time.  We varied each mile but every 20 mins, we were steadily hitting 5 miles +/- a few seconds, rocking our 15mph goal pace.  It was great.  It was looking like we were going to cut an hour or more off the time and finish in just over 4 hours.

We had determined to take as few stops as possible and keep them short, so we passed the first 2 rest stops and only hit one up at around 26 because Zliten needed to pee.  I had been dreaming about orange slices for about an hour and the station had them.  Hooray!  Speaking of nutrition, I learned the last ride that you just have to keep eating.  I took a caffeinated chew at 10 and 30, and popped cookies and pretzels and mango snacks as I remembered.   I didn’t feel like I needed it and almost felt bad eating so much so fast but I knew that by the time I was hungry, it was too late.  Also, the scenery was GORGEOUS.  Beautiful Texas countryside.  I look down a LOT on the bike because I’m a scaredy biker but I couldn’t help but notice the awesome.

Then, we hit the wall.  A big wall of WIND.  Somehow, we kept heading directly into the wind.  This is also the section where the most uphill sections were – nothing that would faze me normally, but add ~15 MPH headwinds and 30+ miles on my legs already and the fatigue set in.  My hands started to ache, my neck started to hurt, as well as my hips, back, and quads.   We slowed way down and kept losing ground.  From mile 30-35, we lost a whole 4 minutes on a pace we were easily keeping before.  And it just kept getting worse.

I also started getting really loopy.  Zliten gets kinda quiet during these middle miles, and I get delirious and talky.  It works.  I like to sing songs like “I wear spandex and I know it” (sung to Sexy and I Know It) or make new lyrics like “At the Copa, Copa Cabana, the hottest spot in Havana, they dance and they sing and they do lots of things THAT ARE MORE FUN THAN FUCKING BIKING UPHILL IN THE WIND”.  I also get the mouth of a sailor apparently.  I’m pretty sure my f-bomb count was at least in the triple digis.  Fuck you wind, fuck you hills, fuck you bumpy fucking roads, fuck green guy who was going 2 miles an hour on the left…  Really, how I keep myself sane on the bike is keeping myself amused.  It’s not going to be pretty when I have to ride long distances solo…

We took an aid station around mile 44 and saw our car neighbors.  They were holding together well!  I was almost out of nuun, so I filled my camelback halfway with gatorade.  It was like mana from heaven.  We didn’t want to lag too much so we took off quickly.  The despair hit then.  We were slow.  It was hilly.  There was still headwind, and it seemed like every time we’d get respite it was for a quarter of a mile or less, and then back in.  I kept getting ahead because I just wanted to be DONE and then I’d have to stop and wait.  Sometimes I’d get behind.  One fork wasn’t marked so we had to stop to check the map.  The miles went slow.  I just wanted to see the mile on my Garmin change to 50-something, and once it did, I got a little  boost.

We had yet to really take a real rest, so we were going to do that at the next rest stop.  Well, it didn’t come.  Around mile 53.5 there was a nice flat patch of grass, so we made our own.   We sat down for about 5 mins, stretched, downed a bunch of gatorade, ate more food, waved at passerbys, and I got my wind back.

After we took off here, I had lots of energy left but Zliten was still pooped.  The wind subsided a bit.  I kept both shoving food in my mouth (I tried to eat a bite of something each mile), singing silly songs to myself and I kept going fast because I just wanted to be done, and then I’d get so far ahead of Zliten I couldn’t see him, and then I had to stop and wait.  Aero position was my friend at the end, my palms felt bruised.  My legs actually stopped hurting this late in the game, but my lower back and neck definitely didn’t, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.  Zliten, however, was having to stop occasionally because of leg cramps.  When I saw him get super slow and looking rough I would make him get off the bike and stretch.

When we hit 60 it was even worse.  Zliten slowed to a crawl and all.I.wanted.to.do.was.FINISH so I kept speeding up and having to stop.  We hit 61, then 62, then 63… then 64…. then 65… finally we saw the turn in to the school (on the back end, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR NOT MAKING US DEAL WITH TRAFFIC ON TIRED LEGS!!!!) and we crossed the finish together, touched down, and DRANK ALL THE GATORADE and ate the crap out of a bag of fritos.

My time biking was about 5:07, I think Zliten’s was about 5:19 (I stopped mine when I was stopped), and total time out on the course was about 5:50.  A little faster than the Rosedale for like 4 more miles, and in worse conditions (I hate you WIND).  My goal was simply to finish faster, and no crashes, and mission accomplished.

I liked the course, and the support, and it was a great ride on a great day.  Next year, perhaps we’ll undertake the 100 miler!  If it fits within our training and racing plans next year, we will definitely do this one!  A sweet tech tee with the course map on it also definitely helped my favorable opinion… I’ll just hope for less wind…

From there, we went to see my ‘rents (who live up there) to shower, eat pizza and ice cream, and play games.  From THERE, we hit up a friend’s BBQ for dinner, although it was very short lived – we both stayed away from sitting so we didn’t crash, but Zliten made the mistake of sitting down for a sec and then realized he needed to get home.  We had another invite to the bar, but we just couldn’t hack it.  We were totally beat.  We sat on the patio, popped some champagne, and enjoyed the evening watching tri videos on youtube.

I’m a lot more confident about the 56 miles of riding for the half iron after this ride.  It was less hard than I remembered the first one being, even with the wind.  While I didn’t feel like I was ready to run a half marathon, I did feel like I could knock out a few slow miles without dying (and if I would have had shoes with, we would have).  And I have 5 months to train from here.

Today, I have sat my ass on the couch besides a trip to the gym to use the hot tub, for a well deserved rest day.

Less than a week until Rookie Tri – the first tri of the season.  300m swim, 11 mile bike, 2 mile run.  My goal is to race it hard, so that I don’t have any of the “that’s all I get to do?” feelings I have now… and to beat my time from last year, of course.

Is it weird that if I see this and think about running, I sigh exasperatedly, but if I think about biking them, I get all wiggly with excitement.  Maybe I need to run hills once a week in the off season next year like I did with biking.

FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

I usually blather about diet and exercise and races first, but as was pointed out to me by my lovely husband, “there’s nothing more boring than someone else’s diet or workout” (although, that’s why you all come here, right? RIGHT?) so perhaps I’ll lead with something else for a change.

Vacations, I has planned them.  Usually, we have lots of little random weekends out of town here or there for races or other reasons, but this year, we just *don’t*.  So, since I’m NOT OK with my first vacay of the year being in August, we decided to do a few mini trips:

First up next month – spa weekend here.  Looking forward to fancy hotel, dinner, spa, dance lessons?, and just chillaxing over a long weekend.

Then in June – camping.  We finally bought a tent, so we’re out to camp at least 2-3 times this year (and this would make it twice).  This place is so close to home, but feels like a nice escape away into the wilderness.

True story – I haven’t been camping except for one nighters which were basically just excuses for going out into the wilderness and getting drunk.  So I had to ask Zliten what the second day was for.  He went into hiking/running trails, swimming, canoe/kayak rentals, and just relaxing with a kindle and this view.  After that, I was on board, and yet again, wiggly with excitement!

That should tide me over until August and September vacays – which are San Diego and Alaskan Cruise times, respectively.  Don’t even get me started on how excited I am about running my first out of state half marathon in SD, biking and running amongst the glaciers training on the cruise, and going snorkeling in Alaska!

Aight, so now onto real life stuff… training, and food, and races, oh my.

PRACTICE RUN

Last weekend, our “long workout” was a practice swim bike run at Lake Pflugerville.  We did 13 miles on the bike in about 50 minutes on what could be described as rolling hills, nothing severe but definitely some up and down.  I gained a bit more confidence with my new shoes, and figured out a strategy – for the love of all that holy, if I’m riding on a busy street and anticipate turning soon or have any other reason I might need to stop, rock out with one pedal out until I’m onto a straight stretch.  We kept up about 15 mph pace, and it felt EZ peasy most of the time. We ran a 5k around the lake, which Zliten PR’d and I took it easy (30:19 and 30:49, respectively), and swam 500m in about 12-15 mins.  I wanted to get in open water before the tri next weekend just in case I freaked out, and I’m happy to report that nature’s got nothin’ on me. Last weekend was the first time in a long time I haven’t been exhausted by the intensity or duration of my weekend long workouts (and I did over 1.5 hours).  Next stop, half ironman!

BICYCLE, BICYCLE

This weekend is the second supported bike ride on our calendar, the Georgetown Red Poppy Ride.  This one could potentially get us into trouble, as it not only has a metric century (63 miles, which is the plan), it also has an 80 and 100 mile course.  Considering the longest we’ve ridden since the last one is 13 miles outdoors and we have a tri the next weekend, I think we’ll be able to control ourselves and just do the 63 we have planned.  But we both have that inkling that 80 isn’t that much more than 63….

The real goal is to do the 63, and to get closer to 4 hours than the 5 it took us to do the ride in March.  So that would be riding faster, and taking more expedient stops.  We’re also loaded up with goodies like pb pretzels, cookies, nuts, candied mango, and the like, so we’ll have better eatin’ without the rest stops.

TRI AND STOP ME

After my feet touch down on the finish line of this bike ride on Saturday, I’m officially calling it TRI SEASON.  I’m so full of wiggly excitement about this, I don’t even know what to say.  I’m sure that will change soon enough.  First up will be rookie – 300m swim, 11 mile bike, 2 mile run.  To combat my “that’s all” thoughts since I’m all but primed for about an Olympic distance tri right now, I’m fixing to race this one HARD since it’s the exact course from last year and I plan to PR the SHIT out of this.  Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle, yeah!

SMOOTHIE OPERATOR

In my ongoing quest to find a nutrition plan that works for me, I’ve been trying some smoothie lunches.  I’ve accompanied these with a small, savory item (like a greek salad, a cup of soup, etc), and I’ve been saving half of said smoothie for a snack around 4-5pm.  Some of my creations have been:

Strawberry Love: Strawberry 110 cal protein shake, chocolate pb2 powder, banana, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, frozen strawberries

Spiced Late: 1/2 cup pumpkin, scoop vanilla protein powder, vanilla extract, apple, skim milk, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg

If You Like Pina Coladas: Tropical protein powder, banana, orange, pineapple, mango, lite coconut milk, coconut oil

Not-In-The-Box Oreo Shake: Skim milk, oreo cookie protein powder. (200 calories of friggin yum, almost just as good as a jack in the box shake)

Creamy Raspberry Lemonade: Vanilla protein powder, frozen raspberries, banana, coconut oil, lemon juice

Really, the ideas are limitless.  It really just needs: 1) some sort of protein powder+milk or protein shake 2) some sort of fat – pb or coconut oil 3) a thickener – banana or pumpkin seem to work, without it, it’s ok, it just tastes really ice 4) frozen or fresh fruit.  I haven’t gotten brave enough to put veggies in yet.  I also put some stevia extract in each one because I like it sweet.  Each one (besides the simple oreo one) is about 300-400 calories and is really filling.  I plan to continue to do this a few times a week.  It’s just so simple and yummy, curbs my snackings in the afternoon, and really kills my need for any sort of desert.

HARDER BETTER FASTER STRONGER

Since they cancelled our weekly Monday crunchtime class, I’ve found a new love: group kick (kickboxing).  I’ve always wanted to try kickboxing, and it’s both a great cardio and strength workout.  It works muscles I didn’t know I had in my ankles and shins.  It’s pretty hard to get my abs to be sore these days, but they were definitely worked over.  Also, since I took the introductory class, I have these fun boxing wraps that do nothing, but they make me feel all badass.  I think I’ll stick with this one for a while.

I’m going to reiterate this to myself over and over, so just a warning you’ll get sick of hearing this mantra. a) The best way for me to change my body composition is to strength train.  A lot. b) The best way for me to improve both my race times and my general happiness is to change my body comp in a positive and healthy way. c) Therefore, I should NEVER want to skip a strength sesh for a cardio.

Enter this week.  Two things.

One, I got major cramps on my run Tuesday AM (which is a damn shame because otherwise it was a FANTASTIC morning, and I was feeling GREAT and SPEEDY) so I cut it at 2 miles instead of 5-6.  This is making me REALLYREALLYREALLYREALLY want to skip my weights class tomorrow morning so I can make up the run.  Because in my sillybrain, apparently I will die if I don’t get at least one 10k run in each week (even though I’m going to be almost triple digis in bike miles, hello…).  WEIGHTS ARE NON NEGOTIABLE, silly brain.  /sigh

Two, all of a sudden I got freaked out, realizing I hadn’t mashed up any bike hills on the stationary at the gym in quite a while.  I figured my hill skillz HAD to be deteriorating with all this ez trainer and outside riding.  I hopped on the stationary, and lo and behold, it even felt EASIER than normal.  Gotta give weight training credit for that.

So, long story short – the hills, the weights – DO THEM.  I need this tattooed on my forehead.  Although, it might get me funny looks in mixed company as it might be taken as a suggestion, perhaps?

Questions of the week: what gets you “wiggly with excitement” lately?  What do you need to just DO?