Come back legs

Coming off the Lions club supported ride Sunday my legs are still a little fatigued. I had a decent swim Monday night, a little slower than normal but although I was tired I was able to get in 2000yds without to much trouble. Last night at the track was when I really felt the fatigue in my legs. I still pounded out 6 x 800 after a mile w/u 4:30, 4:31, 4:27, 4:29, 4:29 and 4:27 followed my a walking .5 mile c/d. Needles to say my Zoot Compression sock and the stick have been my best friend this week.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A very HILLY/LONG ride

Sunday was my longest ride ever. I chose to ride in the (62 mile) supported ride for the Lions club in Montgomery with several teammates some riding the 62 mile route and some the 100 in the beautiful hills through Dacus, Anderson, Richards and Montgomery. I decided to do this ride when Coach G sent us the link and suggested it would be part of the Iron Star 70.3 coarse I will be tackling on November 7th. I knew it would be a great idea to get a feel for the coarse and the hills since I normally ride on very flat terrain. Prior to this ride I had completed many rides ranging from 20-34 miles and one a week prior that was 42 miles. This being a big jump in mileage for me there was no time goal, just to enjoy the ride, study the hills and rest at the rest stops when needed. I stopped at 4 out of 6 rest stops topped off with water, got off the bike and sometimes ate an orange, the first 20 miles were a breeze as the mileage got higher so did the hills and the ride got harder. The first half of the ride I was able to maintain 17.3 mph but after about mile 30 the mph started to drop, the temp got warmer and hills got hillier. When I finished I finished I felt a little off but after a few minutes I felt like a human again. My Garmin and cateye were a little off from the others I rode with so we will go with the cateye results of 3hrs 41 min & 15.8mph avg speed. I realize that I need more hill training on the bike and that I probably need to try somethings out nutritionally before race day.


On another note WW started agreeing with me last week, after 4 weeks of up and down I had a good weight loss for a total of 17 lbs in 15 weeks.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Avia Austin Triathlon- Oly

I participated in my first Olympic distance triathlon on Monday in Austin and this was by far the most fun I have had in a race. It was challenging in many ways but I felt the best I have felt in a triathlon thus far. Logan and I got into Austin later Saturday afternoon and checked in to the hotel unpacked and headed out for a beer. We found a great Brewery called Uncle Billy's Brew and Cue http://www.unclebillysaustin.com/ great place to sit on a patio and enjoy a cold beer and the low humidity. My favorite beer was Agave Wit a Belgian style wheat beer with orange peel. Sunday morning I got up and started getting my transition bag packed and met up with Micah and Brandi to head over to bike check in and packet pick up. At the expo we picked up a few things t-shirt, cycling jersey, monkey grease wipes and out race stuff. I was given the bib number of 444 and a blue swim cap- finally something other than pink. After bike we were situated in transition we headed to Aussie's for a light lunch. Sunday night we ate at Taverna http://www.tavernabylombardi.com/ this place I highly recommend it was fabulous. I chose the Risotto all' Acento Balsamic con Pollo and for dessert Budino di Ciccolato. After dinner I tried to get to sleep but as usual I had the pre-race jitters and it seemed like I tossed and turned for hours. 5 am wake up call as soon as my feet hit the floor I felt ready for my race. After I got everything set up in transition I met up with Bill, Jon, John, Brandi and Greg and Gena. We chit chatted about the race and butterflies started to fill my stomach. It was not long before Gena helped me zip up my wetsuit and I was jumping off the dock. When I hit the water it was cold, it kind of surprised me how cold in actually was. The gun went off and I started swimming, I got in a bit of a rhythm with a few gals in my wave and it really seemed to click as I was swimming. Yes I stopped a couople times to clear my fogged goggels but I did not have to turtle head, flip over on my back, dog paddle it was all freestyle baby. After a while I was being pulled out of the water by a volunteer and they had my wetsuit at my waist and I was running to T1 40.29 swim. Wet suit off, glasses on, helmet on, wipe feet and bike shoes on and I was running. The run to bike mount was about 1/4 of a mile if not more making T1 a long transition just over 4 mins. Bike coarse did I mention while I was swimming there came a down pour, as I am taking Gena yells for me to take it easy on my turns that the roads are very wet. 3 loops up and down Congress out Cheaser Chaves, hills were challenging, by the 3rd loop the streets were near dry. 1:31:XX 16.3 avg mph. Again I had to run forever to rack my bike and head out for the run, 3:31 T2. run coarse was fun, loots of people on the coarse lots of team and friend support, it was a hot run but the first loop I felt wonderful did not stop for walk break at all, the second loop the heat was starting to get to me a bit I walked at the aid stations but still had a great run. race pace was 10:42. Total time 3:25:41.

Today I signed up for Ironstar 70.3 November 7th. I think I am a nut case.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Weather Report for Houston today.

HOUSTON—Mother Nature is in a kind mood, because she is giving the gift of beautiful weather Thursday.
"It is a beautiful morning out there, it is just fabulous," 11 News Meteorologist David Paul said. "Although it is warm, it is much less humid."
Paul said highs should top out around 96 Thursday, but with the lower humidity, it won't feel nearly as hot as those heat advisory days we've been having.

Its pretty sad when we get excited about "cooler" temps and it is still supposed to be 96 today. Houston your weather sucks, can we please turn the ac back on.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Another loss

So it is week 11 of weight watchers and I am down 1.6 for the week. So far my total loss is 13.2 (avg 1.2 loss per week). I originallty set a goal to be at 127 lbs and now that I am 4.4 lbs away I think I may try and go further. I am a shorty at 5'2 and I think I would be ok at a lower weight maybe closer to 123ish. We'll see what week 17 brings.

Hope to see you on the raods soon.

River Cities Race Report

Saturday morning began at 5am for me, I threw last min items in my bag, got dressed, loaded the bike and headed to Starbuck's for 7am tires on the road. In the caravan we head Coach G (Gena) and Greg in car 1 Micha in car 2 and Lynn and myself in car 3. Lynn and I had a bit of an ordeal keeping up with this bunch as we cruised at a nice speed of 80. We did however make it to Shreveport in record time (a normal 4.5 hour trip), in less than four hours that included 2 pit stops and a traffic stop. And we had to drive across Shreveport to get to packet pick up. Following Greg and Gena can be quit interesting, from stalkers to cops and many laughs in between the weekend in Louisiana with Team sTRIve turned out to be fantabulous. So since I spilled the beans already yes we got pulled over for doing 75 in a 55 I guess we slowed down just enough to not be clocked at 80. I am sure that this cop in Nachadouches thought he had scored big that he was able to pull over three cars in one stop, when he got to the car we explained that we were headed to Shreveport and did not know how to get there so we were speeding so we did not loose the cars in front of us. So this story could take forever but thanks to having friends that work in law enforcement not one car received a ticket. Car one received a warning and we carried on our happy way. I mentioned a stalker- well we lost the stalker when we were pulled over, later to find he was not a stalker but an invited guest to our caravan in car we did not recognize and he happened to pull in to Starbuck's as we pulled out.

This is the truck that was stalking us.

Packet pick up was fun, we ran into several teammates and shopped a bit and headed to check in to the hotel. This was not so such fun, we got there early thinking we will be able to get into our rooms early as check in was at 3:00. We arrived at 1:30 to find our rooms were not available, finally at 4:45 we got into our rooms with enough time to relax for an hour and head out for pasta dinner. I normally do not try to carb load the night before a race simply because it is too late. So I ate pasta two nights in a row for shits and grins- no because it was a team effort (15) and I am a team player. After dinner headed back to the hotel for a good nights rest and to get our stuff ready for the morning.

Sunday morning up at 4am, breakfast, dressed car loaded and on the road at 5:30am. We arrived in transition at about 6:30 at this race the racks were set up by range of number and as long as you race number was on that rack you could put your bike anywhere. I set up on the end to make it easier to get in and out of transition. After we got set up a few of us went to get wet and do an easy practice swim. I was in wave 8 that went off at 8:30am, in my wave included 30-34 and Anthea, this wave had 110 ladies in it and all I wanted was not to be the last one out. This was to be my longest swim in a race yet and I was very nervous. I accepted the fact that this swim would be slow and I would get through it. When the gun went off it was like mad, I was getting pushed, pulled, hit and swam over no matter were I tried to position myself. After the first turn I took a break and tried to get away from the hustle and bustle. At the final turn and with 300 I was ready to be done. Swim 800 25:06 51/56 in age group (not the last out of the water). When I finished my swim I chose to walk out of the water and take a few deep breaths, once I got close to transition I started to run. Sunglasses, helmet and bike shoes on and I was running out of transition with my bike. T1 3:05 (thanks to my leisure walk) Bike coarse had some nice rollers, I found myself at 8mph a few times. I raced as hard as I could and everytime I had the chance to pass somebody- I did. 18.6 mile bike 1:01:50 (17.7 av pace) 29/56 age group. Running off the bike is usually not very easy thus why we should practice this as much as possible, my running legs took a while to run but I made it to transition rack bike, helmet off, visor on (oops to early) remove bike shoes put on socks for run, shoes for run, race belt- umm race belt wont go on- click finally) oops should have taken care of this out on the run with the visor. T2 2:46 I learned take care of everything you can while on the move not in T. The run coarse was shaded but it was still very hot, but lots of support and aid stations with ice cold water and cold towels about each 1/2 mile. Run was good I ran most of the coarse and felt good. Run 3.1 33:42 (10:52 pace) 42/56. All in all this was a great & fun race. After all of Team sTRIve finished racing we headed our separate ways to our hotels for our journeys back to Houston. My total time for this long sprint was 2:06:32 my goal was to finish healthy, I had a secret goal of 2:00 which I almost accomplished- but I know how to do it next time.

After race Refreshments..

Team sTRIve!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

The Goodie Bag

River Cities Triathlon is said to have one of the greatest swag bags of all races. This year proved to be true, although a little disappointed in what came in the bag, the bag speaks for itself. It is the perfect triathlon travel bag unfortunately it is too big for a transition bag but if you need to travel this bag will hold everything. It had several compartments for gels, nutrition, race belt, 2 separate shoe compartments for running shoes and bike shoes, a place for your helmet and anything else you will need to pack for your next race no matter what the distance. With the bar we received a 30th anniversary participation tech shirt, a pair of socks, a hat and some funky ass sunglasses. All in all I was quit please with the bag. A little disappointed that there was not a medal this year.

I will try to have a race report by the end of the week. Hope to see you on the roads soon!