I Didn't Sign Up For This!

OK, last week was rough. I missed 3(!) workouts due to time constraints while working on a special project. I only managed to swim 3 out of 4 planned crossings at Lucky's Lake (got a bad headache during the first crossing, had problems sighting and focusing, then by the 4th crossing it began to rain making visibility even more limited, plus I'd be the only one out there swimming, so I wimped out). But those things happen ...

The big surprise happened on Sunday. I discovered that the Great Floridian (GF) 112-mile bike course has been changed!!

And NOT for the better, IMO. In the past, it's been a hilly first third with a fairly FLAT second third and some gentle rollers the last third. Here is what the elevation map looks like for this year's race (created using Bike Route Toaster):



ARGHHH!!!

So now the second half is quite hilly too with the last 12 miles being the worst. WTF???

And, of course, I did NOT know this when I signed up for the race last year or when I signed up for Beach to Battleship (B2B), another full iron tri, two weeks later. Looking at the race forum discussions, it appears that the race director began a thread talking about a bike course change just last July. Crap ...

Well, yesterday Dave and I did an organized bike ride called the Assault on Sugarloaf, which is the GF bike course, and found out the hard way. We didn't have time to study the course map or turn-by-turn instructions they gave us that morning so we just followed the orange arrows, like everyone else. But at ~mile 40, I knew something was up when we rolled past the turn-off for the flat section of the previous GF bike course and started heading back to the start. Then I realized that sign we saw earlier painted on the road (something about a 2nd lap) meant we'd be hitting the hills again. YIKES!

But the course is nice and flat for a bit early on. We resisted temptations to latch onto pace lines.

An aid station at ~mile 50. Thus far, we've ridden on hills, through rain and now the sun is coming out to bake us. What a welcome sight in the middle of nowhere.

Never let someone take a picture of you eating a banana.

At the halfway point, Dave is done. It began raining again as I headed out for the rest.

It was a lonely ride but I did see a few folks later at the aid stations. I'd be surprised if 50 people did the whole 112 miles.

But I was one of them. 112.4 miles in 6:54, a 16.3mph avg. Not a bad ride for me considering my Garmin said the course had ~5200 ft climbing (nearly double what I had anticipated!), we had rainy/wet conditions at times and there was no traffic control (so we had to obey all traffic laws). After I got done, Dave also discovered that my rear tire was not fully inflated (must have rolled over something and had a slow leak). Possibly it wasn't just the hills that turned me into a slug late in the ride?

Still, my legs were beat. Here are my thoughts about the new course:

Mi 1-60 - What I expected from the orig GF course so all is good.
Mi 60-100 - More hills than I'd like but manageable.
Mi 100-112 - Brutal, esp. in 90+ deg heat. I think I'm going to be sick.

So with that, I am rethinking my game plan knowing that this new GF bike course is going to wreak havoc on my race goals and the quick recovery I need to do B2B two weeks later. I need some input from you guys. What would you do or suggest?

A) Bail on GF and make B2B my "A" race.

B) Change to do the GF olympic distance race offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.

C) Change to do the GF aquabike event (2.4 swim, 112 bike) offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.

D) Do GF as planned but with modified race goals and hope to recover fast enough for a better finish at B2B.

(There is no bailing on B2B as my step-daughter and son-in-law are coming to cheer for me at that race, plus it's my birthday weekend)

OK, so please let me hear your thoughts. Hope none of your races have major course changes that would make them much harder either.

PS - Still way behind in my blog reading but trying to catch up before my Google Reader explodes!

Just a Quickie

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm short on time this week working on a special project so just some quick bullets with thoughts and happenings from last week.

New swimming motivation - Did another 4K swim at Lucky's Lake on Saturday. With now 10 crossings under my belt, I'd been thinking of joining the haloed 100K Club (those who've done 100 crossings). But after I got done, a guy told me he'd seen a small 3 foot gator on the other side earlier in the morning, and I don't think he was kidding. Dam gator! Now I'm going to have to swim faster and get all my crossings done before that thing gets too big for comfort.

Lightbulb moment - For the first time in months, Dave was actually home all week and he kicked my @ss on the bike on Sunday. We had 100 miles to ride and after mile 60, I had to back way off the 18-19 mph pace we were going to be able to finish the ride in good shape and run afterwards. Dave felt sorry for me and stuck with me. We ended up with a 17.3 mph avg but I ran the best I ever have off the bike, 4 miles at a 8:49 pace in 94 degs heat index. Click! I remembered what I was told at an IMFL training camp back in 2006: Give up 15 min on the bike and gain up to 45 min on the run. I believe it now.

More running in circles - I found another indoor marathon! This one's called The InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon and it's held in January in Wisconsin, a state I've not yet run in which is good. And it involves running "only" 95.4 laps vs. the 150 I ran at the Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon last January in Minnesota since the track is bigger (443m vs. 282m). It's a guaranteed flat course with dry 50-55 deg conditions, no wind, 95 aid stations, 190 opportunities to use porta-potties. I don't think I can resist :-)

50 in 50 by 49? - And speaking of marathons, originally, I was planning to complete my 50 states marathon quest in 2011 when I turned 50 but I've been thinking why wait? I only have 8 marathons/states left to do (WY, NM, WI, WV, DE, CT, RI, and VT) and could do them all next year. There are just so many unknowns in this economy. Some races are struggling due to sponsor cutbacks and traveling has become increasingly more difficult, esp. using frequent flyer miles, which I try to do whenever possible. Then there's the lure of moving to Hawaii early. Who wouldn't want that?

Anyway, back to my project. I'll be catching up on what you've all been up to by the weekend!

What is that Disease???

Where you forget things all the time?

Oh yeah, Alzheimer's. That's what I think I have. Did I not just (like last Saturday) spend 3.5 hours in cycling purgatory due to dead legs?

Then why in the world would I be emailing my coach on Monday to ask if I could run a 12K (7.4 mi) race this weekend? Or, after getting the OK to do that, then asking if I could do a 14-mile bike time trial (TT) in addition a few days before?

All this knowing full well that I'm running the Fargo Marathon next Saturday (5/9) ...

Seriously, this is why I need a coach. I am getting antsy with all this training. I have not done a race since January which feels like freaking FOREVER! And all these killer race reports recently by RBR, Road Bunner, Stef, Leana, Petra, Formulaic, Jeanne, DC Rainmaker, Julianne, Oz Runner, Bree, to name a few ... WAH, I feel like I'm the only one NOT racing!!!

Well, Coach put my head back on straight. Yesterday I did my shorter bike intervals while everyone else raced 14 (Yes, I went to the TT venue anyway since Dave was doing it and it'd be easier to hit my 5 mile intervals at 90% effort there than by myself). I'm only doing the 12K race but that's not all this weekend (oh no, noooo):

Fri - 16 mi run @ marathon pace, 30-min easy swim.
Sat - 10 mi run (12K race + warm-up & cool-down).
Sun - 60 mi bike / 6 mile run, 45-min easy swim.

So, obviously, not much tapering for the marathon. But that is GOOD. Yes, you read that right! I wouldn't want to get used to running on fresh legs, would I? No, not this year when training for two iron tris two weeks apart.

Whose bright idea was that anyway?

I forget.

Tan Lines & the Great Bikini Debate

I love cycling. But I have yet to find a way to keep my legs from looking like they're still wearing bike shorts after a long ride!

These tan lines are courtesy of Saturday's 78 miler which took me 4 hours and 43 minutes (avg 16.56 mph) thanks to some crazy Kona winds. For several miles I was struggling to go just 12-13 mph and this was not uphill - GAH!

Humbled again by the unseen enemy. I once read somewhere that cyclists prefer a steep hill to a strong headwind because the hill is something they can see. I'd agree if I didn't have to see any steep downhills :-)

But at least I had my secret weapons with me to keep me company and going strong: lemon-lime Gatorade mixed with an orangeade drink I like, Hooah bars and PowerGels. I never came close to wanting to lie down and take a little nap alongside the road (really bad idea when you're out there by yourself). In fact, I got done and felt like I could have gone for a little run if I had to! Uh-oh, now having said that, Coach Bill may have me do one next week ...

Workout summary for week 4 of Base Building:
6000 yds swimming (3-yippee!)
157.3 mi biking (3)
15.67 mi running (2)
2 strength workouts
18:22 hours


Now on bikinis, do you think old(er) women should or should not wear them if they want?

Even before Valerie Bertinelli donned one for People Magazine recently, I'd been thinking of getting a cute one as a reward for all this hard work I'm doing. I have a big family reunion on my husband's side coming up in August and the last time I wore one in public was the last time we'd all gotten together for my sister-in-law's first wedding over 10 yrs ago. (No, I didn't wear it to the wedding. I meant afterwards while just hanging out watching the kids play in the pool.)

This reunion will also have lots of time spent hanging around at the pool, no doubt, and since I'm now a swimmer too, the new suit will have to be functional. I know Lisa and Stef both have talked about wearing one, or rather two pieces, and from the sounds of it, they haven't done so in years either. I really think that no woman would wear a bikini if she thought she looked bad in it. Regardless of what any other people may say or think!

But there are those who say bikinis make men view women as objects, they promote unhealthy body images, they make some people feel uncomfortable, they're OK for young girls but not older ones, yadda yadda ...

Your thoughts?

PS - Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend. Look forward to reading those race reports!!

Yummy!

Maybe it's that I'm eating better?

Or the pseudo recovery week I had last week?

Or that I'm now in Base Building Week 4 and have finally adjusted?

Or because I'm back in Kona?

Whatever it is, I am feeling good!

Tuesday's 10-mile run was hands down the best training run I've had this year to date. Perfect low 70 degree weather with a light breeze (I prefer to train in warm weather as it makes racing in cooler weather even easier and I can still manage if it's hotter than expected). I had a good sweat going within the first mile and fell into the ZONE. Beautiful beaches, pretty flowers, smell of the ocean, lots of other runners and walkers about ... I was in paradise!

Never mind that it was a few degrees warmer than last week's 8-mile steady pace run, 2 miles further and a rolling course vs. a flat one, I finished with an average pace that was 23 seconds faster (9:02 vs. 9:25) and with an average HR that was 14 beats lower. Unfreakingbelievable!!

Maybe I can still run a 4-hourish marathon running only 10-20 miles a week and with no long runs over 10-11 miles? The Fargo Marathon is now just over a month away and still looks to be on although all the flooding in the area might cause the course to change. One thing for sure, though, if a dike breaks, I have a better chance of sprinting to safety now than I did before (I have a half iron tri 3 weeks later that is actually a more important race :-).

But I have been biking a lot and yesterday's 40 mile ride with 20 easy followed by 20 hard was another total surprise. I admit that I was actually dreading it because I knew it'd hurt a lot, not only because I'd be time-trialing hard by myself (Dave is not with me on this trip) and hadn't ridden any hills the past four three months, but because it's often a headwind coming back making things even more miserable. Struggling to go 16mph down hills is not fun :-(

But Mother Nature played an April Fool's Day joke on me!

She started off doing her usual thing pushing me along on the way out. It took every ounce of will power I had to keep riding easy. Man, I wanted to fly! Average pace for the first 20.22 miles: 15.67mph

But approaching the turnaround point, I could feel the wind shifting (that's Kona for ya!). Yep, now it was pretty much a straight crosswind. I got going on the second half of the ride and could not believe the speeds my little travel bike was traveling: 17-19 mph up hills, 20-22+ otherwise.

Of course, there was a lot of huffing, puffing and grunting, as well as mental games being played. Can I catch those two cyclists I saw at the turnaround who are ahead of me? Don't let that guy in back of me catch me. Don't let ANYONE catch me. The faster I go, the sooner this will be over. I'm Chrissie Wellington gunning for a new Kona IM bike course record. There's a car in back of me trying to run me over ...

The toughest part was having to stop at a red light with just one mile to go. UGH! No, I take that back. Having to start up again after stopping and go up a hill too was the toughest part. Double UGHHHH!!

Still, my avg pace for the second 20 miles ended up being 20.22 mph. That's the fastest I've ever ridden that course solo -- WOOHOO!!!

So what new things have I been eating?


Well, for one, scrambled eggs and ham over a large tossed salad. Funny thing is I really don't like the taste of eggs (have to mask it with lots of marinara sauce, salsa or ketchup) but my muscles have been saying yummy so into the mouth it goes to feed them!

Genie's First Day Out in Orlando

Pick me! Pick me!

OK, Genie, we can go out today. I've got a 60-mile steady pace ride. Yesterday was a hard effort ride on Callie (my tri bike) so it's your turn.

YAY, I'm ready to go. When are we going, huh, huh, huh?

Well, as soon as I load you up with some fluids and fuel. Gotta pump up your tires too.

Genie, my new road bike, patiently waits. It's her first day out in Orlando after having arrived last week from Tucson. The forecast is calling for a partly cloudy day, 70-80 degs, winds 7-13mph. A good day for riding!

The garage door opens and that rascal is nearly out the door before I can get on her. But we go only halfway down the block before I turn back.

Huh? What -- why are we turning around?

Your seat is a bit too high. (Genie whimpers)

Dave makes a quick adjustment back in the garage and we're off again. Genie is beaming. A new neighborhood to roll in, new sights to see and new bikes to meet!

The first one we see is a road bike around mile 6. The rider is a solo female. She's just cruising along and we pass with a courteous "Good morning. Have a great ride." Soon thereafter, though, I see a pace line of 4 guys coming up. I wonder how Genie will react and grip her handle bars a little tighter.

The leader passes on the left and compliments her, "Pretty bike!" "That one's nicer," I say, referring to Dave's new time trial bike, which has the same paint scheme as his road bike but cool HED tri-spoke wheels. Dave recognizes the leader is Joe from Bike Works, whom we spoke to the day before about our bike pump not working properly. He looks pretty much like every other roadie to me but then I notice the Giant road bike (one of the brands that store sells) and figure out who he is.

Crap, the warm-up is over ...

Instead of letting them pass by us, Dave starts picking up the pace to ride alongside Joe. Genie's gears and wheels began spinning faster. The guys that were behind the pace line leader are now behind me. My heart rate starts climbing.

Whoa, Genie! These other guys are not probably riding 60 miles. Slow down for goodness sake!

She ignores me. She knows she's made for group riding and instinctively tries to keep up with the others. A couple miles later I'm already feeling the burn in my legs and my HR was nearing 170 (the HR I tried to maintain during yesterday's hard ride!). I began to worry what was going to happen later in our ride. None of that seemed to bother Genie, however, who rolled on fresh as a daisy.

At the next intersection, mile 10, Joe and the other 3 guys regrouped while Dave and I continued on ourselves. Whew, we can ride our own pace now. Or so I thought ...

Within a mile, Joe and one other guy blow past us. We try to hold off the other two slower guys but Dave is having some difficulty sustaining the power he wants and tells me that he wants to stop after the next major intersection to drop his seat down a bit. Genie gets impatient, decides to see how close she can get to the two guys ahead and takes off past Dave. I'm down in the drops hanging on for dear life!

We make it through the intersection, pull over and stop to wait. The other two guys that were ahead of me are just circling around waiting too. Then Dave rolls by with the two slower guys in tow and motions for me to continue. That bastard is not stopping after all!!

I now have to hammer to catch up to everyone (Lesson learned: Better to keep spinning slowly while waiting rather than stop completely). Genie settles in back of the pace line moving at 22-23 mph. A mile or so later, the two slower guys get dropped but Dave decides to go around them and Genie follows.

Dave, we're going to regret this later! No, Genie. NOOOOO!!!

(No answer from either)

At mile 18, thankfully, we reached a T intersection where we turned left while the other guys went right. Finally, FINALLY, Dave and I settled into our normal long ride pace. And, luckily, the damage was not as bad as I thought it might be. We finished our 60-miler OK, though the second half of our ride was mostly into the wind and not as fun. Why is there seldom a pace line when you want one?

All in all, a good first day out with Genie but she's going to have to learn some discipline around other bikes!

(Note: Four years ago, I didn't know what a pace line was. I was struggling to just ride in a straight line and clip out of my pedals!)

Proud New Parents

Nine months ago, we decided to make some new additions to our family. It's been a long wait but they're finally done and this past weekend we went back to TriSports.com in Tucson, AZ, and saw them for the first time.

Dave's new road bike with a Shimano Ultegra build. He wanted a brightly colored paint design that resembled blobs of a lava lamp flowing down his bike. (clickable)


My new road bike with a Shimano Ultegra build. I got the design that he didn't like, actually. It's similar but more refined/feminine looking and with yellow instead of blue. (clickable)


We went out for a 55 mile test ride on a moderately hilly route (2300 ft of climbing). The carbon frames absorbed a lot of road shock and the new kids performed every bit as well as we hoped they would. WEE!


Here's Dave coming up a hill. What a beautiful day to be out for a ride!


As usual, my bike frame is too small to carry two bottles on the frame so I added aero bars to be able to carry an aero bottle in front and to have the option to use the bike for (non-ITU) tris. Why not show it off?

It'll take about a week or so for the new kids to arrive in Orlando. Meanwhile, Dave just hired Coach Bill (my coach) to help him get in shape to be my iron cycling partner. Of course, he already enjoys riding but not usually over 80 miles and definitely not in hot & humid conditions. Is that love or what? Good thing his life insurance policy is up to date ...

Workout-wise, week four went considerably better for me than week three:

3 full-body strength workouts (noticeably stronger and starting to see more muscle definition)
2 swims (5700 yards - not as fast as I'd have liked but felt MUCH better than last week!)
2 runs (21 mi - no speed work this week, just two distance runs - no complaints)
1 bike ride (55.8 mi - fun test ride in Tucson)

One more week of building a muscular base and then I switch to my base phase of training. Tomorrow I will catch up on my blog reading!

Hello 2009!

Just got back from Kona and am now convinced that we are indeed crazy.

I mean, who in their right mind would go to see snow in Hawaii? Or forget to bring their camera?!!

Umm, that would be us on both counts and, yes, there is snow in Hawaii. And thank goodness for disposable cameras!

The Big Island has a couple 13,000+ foot volcanoes and during the winters they get some snow on top. Here we are at about 9000 feet on our way to see it and some of the world's largest telescopes at the Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea (13,796 ft or 4205 m). Mauna Loa, the other volcano, is in the background.


On top it was like 20 degrees with the wind making it feel like single digits. BRRRR! The Hawaii Forest & Trail summit tour folks know that most people who come to Hawaii don't bring parkas so they had some for us. Dave was delighted to find that his Blackberry could get a signal up there. Groan! I buttoned every snap on the parka and waddled about like a penguin.


The scenery was surreal. High above the clouds, not a palm tree or beach in sight. Are we really still in Hawaii?

Besides the telescopes and snow, many people come up to watch the sunset and then gaze at the night sky. Mauna Kea is the best place in the world to stargaze (hence why the huge telescopes are there) and despite the bitter cold (and I hate being cold), I found that part of the tour to be quite interesting. The hot chocolate and homemade cookies they gave us probably helped :-)

The following week we kicked off the new year by riding the entire 112 mile Kona Ironman bike course. About 15 miles from the Hawi turnaround, we saw a couple of cyclists flying down the hill on the other side of the road with a support van following close behind. Was that someone we should know?

Yup, later we found out that Lance Armstrong was training on the island. But we saw him again cruising along the Queen K Highway a couple days later and this time we recognized the yellow and black Livestrong jersey (with the white van behind again), waved and he waved back -- Cool!

Other trip highlights: eating a Hawaiian energy bar (spam misubi) at mile 75 of our century ride, watching a bunch of movies that are now out on video, going swimming together (Dave got a lesson and is trying to work out some shoulder issues), mid-morning and mid-afternoon naps, Dave finding out he'll be going to Singapore to teach a class and in doing so, be able to fly around the world (one of those things he's always wanted to do), me just having Dave around for 3 weeks straight (he had ~60 business trips last year!).

Tomorrow is the Zoom Yah Yah Marathon, which would mean I'm now in Minnesota. I don't know which is crazier, having to run 150 laps around an indoor track or having to catch up on 235 new blog posts, but both will be done this weekend!

Babes & Beaches

Congrats to everyone who raced last weekend!! While others were tapering and gearing up for their big day, Dave and I were out West checking out some babes and beaches. But the babes we saw were not at the beach.



No, they were out in the desert at TriSports in Tucson, AZ.

As soon as we opened the door, there they were, rows of sleek beauties oozing sexiness in assorted colors, sizes and shapes. Hey, baby, wanna go for a ride? In addition, there were all sorts of other goodies, cute clothes, shoes, wetsuits and even a big Endless Pool to try the wetsuit in. It was tri heaven!

The purpose of our visit, however, was to get fit for new bikes that have not yet been built. They have a special custom bike fitting area with different seats and handle bars you can try with a Serotta Bike Fit System, which can be adjusted and used to fit people of different sizes. Good because Dave and I are pretty much at opposite ends of the size spectrum.

Dave has actually decided to get both a new tri bike and a road bike and needed to get fit for two bikes. Believe me, anything to get him to not work and travel so much is a good thing!

He tried three different seats and decided on the first one for his tri bike and the second one for his road bike, which is actually a woman's seat but his butt likes it. Both of us gave thumbs down on the third leather one. Oweee!

Then it was my turn to get fit for a road bike. I had to have some body measurements taken since we didn't have them on paper with us. There was this one medieval-looking spring loaded inseam measuring device that was not at all pleasant.

After fitting us, Mark, the bike guy (left in the photo), gave Dave (right) and I a no-photos-allowed behind-the-scenes tour of the store. He also gave us a nice goody bag to thank us for dropping a small fortune on the bikes. We'll be back in January for the final fitting and a test ride after our babies are built.

___________________________

Then we headed to San Diego or, more accurately, La Jolla. Dave had some meetings to attend and I tagged along too since I knew the area well having attended UCSD for grad school and would not be bored.

We stayed at the Hilton Torrey Pines. Being a Double Black Diamond Super 007 Frequent Hilton Hotel Guest, they gave Dave a really nice suite and said nothing about a woman claiming to be his wife who wanted a second key and free breakfast buffet tickets too. Hmm, maybe I should accompany him on more of his business trips?

We had a great view of Torrey Pines Golf Course with downtown San Diego off in the distance and an ocean view, too, in another direction.

I did some open water swimming down at La Jolla Shores Beach, where I'm more comfortable swimming alone at than La Jolla Cove. I did some laps out and back to a buoy located about 250 yards off shore right in front of the lifeguard station (they use it for their swim test). The water temp was 62 degs but didn't feel cold with the 70-80 deg air temps. When I swam there October 2006 to prepare for Ironman Florida, air temps were in the 50's and I dreaded going in the water (Who am I kidding? I just hated swimming back then, period.)

I also ran at Torrey Pines State Reserve, which was about a mile from the hotel. Having read the off-road adventures of RBR, Jane and Robin recently, I was inspired to give trail running a try. Of course, I tripped on something nearly right away and was promptly reminded to pick up my feet.

I took Broken Hill trail which led to ... guess what?

Down near the ocean, Broken Hill trail met up with Beach Trail and I followed that back up to the bluffs where I started. OK, so it was only a few miles but I didn't roll an ankle, fall (stumbles don't count), get lost, get stung by any bees or step in anything worse than soft sand. Note to self: Do this again soon!

Of course, no trip to San Diego would be complete without a bike ride along the coast. Dave and I rode from the hotel up to Oceanside about 20 miles away a couple times later in the week. I was thrilled to see how much I'd improved as a cyclist since I rode here last back in January 2007 with my travel bike on its first trip. Dare I say I'm starting to like riding hills?

Near the end of each ride, we enjoyed this magnificent view of the Torrey Pines State Beach. Then we had to climb a big hill back to our hotel, which was located behind the trees in the top left of the photo. Chalkings from a recent MS 150 ride were still on the ground to help motivate us. Great way to end a great ride!

Fay, Fay, Go Away

Earlier in the week, you caused my Monday night swim group workout to be canceled, 3 hours of frantic mowing and tree trimming (SOP before the first major storm of the season), and concerns about power outages/surges. Then you decided to skirt south of us but slow down, turn back towards us and dump 8-10 inches rain in the past 24 hours. I've had to drain my overflowing backyard pool twice. The YMCA pool is closed (WAAH!). And roads are a mess with tree pieces strewn about from strong winds and drains/sewers struggling to keep up with all the water.

GO AWAY!!!

But, she continues to take her sweet time ...

And until Fay moves her fat fanny out of Central Florida, outdoor workouts are limited. At least I managed to get in one good swim workout on Tuesday before they closed the pool (I was the only crazy person there). Wednesday's 16-miler on the treadmill went well. Thursday was a rest day. Friday (today) will probably be all indoor workouts and we'll just have to see what pans out for the weekend.

Luckily, though, we're not having to paddle a canoe to get to our mail box or deal with gators swimming in the streets. Some areas just an hour east of us are badly flooded.

No, we're just inconvenienced. Whoops, just had a big power flicker and heard a transformer blow!

So I'm going to make the rest of this quick. Thank you to all who replied to my road bike post. YES, I have decided to get one too. But I'm going with yellow instead of the blue near the stem since I often wear yellow and, of course, want to match my bike (click for a closer look).



We'll get fitted end of October and early next year, the bike stork should be making a big delivery. A happy husband, more options for cycling, better bike handling skills and probably hopefully faster bike splits too ... Puuurrriceless.

I Don't Need a Road Bike, Do I?

I already have 3 bikes (old mtn bike, tri racing bike, tri travel bike). I don't do group rides often. Most of the routes I ride are not very hilly or technical. Just because my husband is getting one doesn't mean I have to get one.

But she sure is purty (click for a closer view) and I could probably get 700 wheels.

Help!! I'm falling for this bike!

Gearing up for the Derby

What's perhaps worse than preparing taxes? Pouring through over 8 years of statements to compute the cost basis of stocks. Bleah!

Now, onto more more important things ... like updating my blog :-)

Firstly, I finally got around to creating and posting a short video about my team of runners who did the SimplyStu Triathlon recently. (For best viewing, hit the play button to get it started downloading, then hit pause and come back to view it after reading the rest of this post. By then, it should be downloaded and will play smoothly. Duration 1:20.)



For any musicians out there, this was my very first attempt to compose a song using individual loops provided with Mac's Garage Band. It was a lot different than composing music on my electronic keyboard, easier in some ways (various drum kit, bass, guitar and other instrument loops already exist), harder in others (you've got to find them and then put them together so they sound good). Of course, I thought it'd be cool to base the song on a guitar riff that's sort of similar to what Stu uses on his podcasts. Luckily, this video wasn't long enough for me to do anything more than build and then fade out ;-)

Last Tuesday, I ran a 20-miler in preparation for the Kentucky Derby Marathon this Saturday. Since there's only a month in between this marathon and my previous one, the Ocean Drive Marathon, I decided to do just one long run and with the unusually cool weather we had last week, 20 miles in 3:30 did not seem overly taxing. My goal for Kentucky is simply not to overdo things since the Gulf Coast Tri (a half iron) is just 2 weeks afterwards. Last year, I ran 3 marathons about a month apart followed by a half iron distance tri two weeks later and it worked out really well.

The weekend turned out to be mostly cycling. On Saturday, Dave and I rode the Van Fleet Trail, a long Rails to Trails route that we hadn't been on in a while. It's completely flat, has only a couple of intersections to slow down for and only one gentle bend in it. We hadn't planned to ride it fast being that it was our first ride over 50 miles this year and we actually ended up stopping to call 911 just 2 miles into it because of some small fires we saw off to the side (no one and no signs were around saying it was a controlled burn). Still, we did the 58 miles round trip in 3 hours (19.3 mph avg), our fastest time to date and without drafting each other (woo hoo!) There were, however, controlled burn signs placed by the time we got back, oh well ...

Then Sunday we did some intervals on the bike which together with the long ride the day before really wiped out my legs. I could manage only 3 miles on the treadmill that evening and only because I had to report how many miles I ran over the weekend to my virtual running group and didn't want to say ZERO. After all, I was the one who organized the group ... This week I will definitely be resting up for the marathon.

Good luck to Wendy who's competing at the World Masters in Australia this week, Rural Girl who's running the Pine Line 1/2 Marathon this Saturday, folks doing St. Anthony's Olympic Distance tri on Sunday, and anyone else racing. And thank you to everyone who's contributed to the Endurance Sports Bar vault -- Keep them coming!!

Hope you enjoy the video!

Back on Track

WOO HOO! My second 7.1 mile bike time trial (TT) was yesterday and it's clear that I'm back on track.

For any new readers, I had a most unpleasant meeting with the asphalt about month ago and had to severely cut back my training, mainly due to injured ribs.

Now the only physical remnant of the incident is still a noticeable bump on my leg, which husband Dave thinks is a deep muscle bruise that can take months to heal. It only really bothers me when I try to pull on/off a wetsuit over it or use that leg as a bumper -- BAH!

So I turn on my bike computer at the TT for the first time in weeks. I hadn't wanted to know how slow I was going when I was recovering but now felt ready to see some numbers. There was about a 12 16 mph wind (per Weather Underground) that was gonna make us fly on the outward leg but make us suffer on the way back. My kind of race, actually.

And thanks to recent time change, it was still light out, a huge difference to me from my first bike TT back in January. The women also got to go first so no long cooling off period after my warm-up. When I lined up, the woman in front of me says, "Oh no, not her, she's fast." I remembered her from the last TT but my only real goal for this race was to stay upright. I hadn't done much fast riding at all in the past month and had no idea what the bike computer would be telling me.

But this time we didn't have anyone holding us up at the start and, of course, getting my shoe clicked into the pedal under pressure has always been somewhat of a struggle. I finally manage to do so after like a bazillion tries (really, about 5) and am now thoroughly pissed because I couldn't take advantage of the little downhill we start off on.

In the second mile I see my speedo reading 25 mph but think I can't hold it (or could I?) so I back off to 23-24mph. Again, this is with the wind helping.

Near the turnaround, I finally catch the woman who'd started 30 seconds in front of me and she gives me a nice cheer (thanks Roberta!). But, I slow way down making the U-turn, still afraid my bike will slide from under me as it did before. Of course, there's the photographer as I'm going like 10 mph ...

Headed back home and into the wind, I start off only around 18.5 mph but know it's gonna be "fun" for a while so I ignore the bike computer and just try to stay strong. A couple guys pass me but I start gaining on some other folks: one other woman, a young girl, and a couple guys who were just out there riding, not racing.

By the last mile or so I'm holding 20+mph, just barely. Legs and lungs are burning and I'm now cursing the wind and the lactate threshold treadmill test I took the day before. It'll be over soon I keep telling myself. It'll be over soon. It'll be over soon ...

I focus on trying to catch one more guy in the final hundred yards. Just before the finish, he turns his head around, sees me, starts going faster but then goes around it. As I realize he's not racing either, I roll across the timing wires and let go of the pain of racing. Sweeeet!

My race time: 19:25.6, 21.93 mph
Dave's race time: 18:06.8, 23.54 mph

My time is actually 7 seconds slower than last TT but a 0.76 mph faster average speed so they must have either lengthened the course a bit or computed the speed differently. Whatever, the wind was much tougher this time and it's the first race since my crash so I am happy with my performance. Dave's time, though, is a huge improvement, largely because he didn't miss the turnaround this time :-P

Then after the race, I put on my running shoes to go put Vote-for-Shirley flyers on all the parked cars. Dave joins me and helps when he's done with his race. Not a whole lot of folks at this TT but I talked to some in person who said they were members of other local clubs/groups and would pass my name on to their members. Thank you!!!

Added: Had my first pain-free swim last weekend and will be back to swimming more after my marathon on Sunday!

Letting Go of the Brakes

Today was my first bike ride in a while. Yesterday I'd tested to see if I could lean some weight on my upper body while on the exercise bike. It was time.

Before I headed out, I posted my first draft of the Evotri essay for review by my editors (sister & husband). Then I just had to fix 10 more things before they probably saw it. Finally, I got my procrastinating butt out the door with my Bike Friday.

It was a gorgeous day, which always helps. I couldn't get my bike computer to work, though. Strange. But this was to be an easy ride so who cares how fast I went or how far. Let's just see if I can ride without hurting as much as before.

Once on the road I had no major pain but was noticeably riding UNlike my usual self. And I'm not talking about simply riding slower, I'm talking about riding scared. Yes, I'd definitely lost some confidence in my cycling skills. I was afraid I'd fall again and hurt myself even worse than before. And if I did, Dave would be unable to help me, being thousands of miles away. I needed something to distract me.

Unfortunately, all I could think of was this darn head-on car collision I was involved in over 20 years ago (What happened to positive thinking?). Back then, no seat belts were required so my head found the windshield and it cracked (the windshield). I ended up with a concussion and also good chest bruise from the steering wheel. I kept "seeing" imaginary cars and headlights coming towards me when going through that intersection and avoided it for probably a year.

Back on my bike, something similar was happening. Everything seemed to be out to get me ... rocks, glass, gravel on the ground, parked cars, cars coming up from behind, cross traffic. Even surfboards in the back of trucks going by seemed to be waiting to jump out at me. I felt as if I was pedaling through a war zone, in Hawaii of all places, LOL.

Then I spun up that little hill that I ran up the other day and got a lift. No shearing rib pain, though I was breathing pretty heavy at the top -- YAY!

As I recovered I tried to clear a nostril that was bugging me. No one was near me but I wasn't able to generate the force that was required. I had to settle for a sniffle. Very unsatisfying.

But later came the most telling part of my ride, going down a big hill. Usually, I fly down hills as if I had a death wish. This time, I couldn't get my hands to let go of the brakes. OMG, what happened to old Shirley?!

Obviously, my mind was not back into it yet.

But I made it down to the bottom safe, back up and back home without the sky falling. Tomorrow I'll head out for a longer ride, try letting go a little more. I think it's actually better that my bike computer stays all zeros right now. I just need to get out and ride.

PS - My Macbook Pro just arrived !!!

Congratulations Charlie!

Does anyone know the blogsite for the first Evotri contest winner, Charlie Parsioloa? Though I actually voted for someone else, I had a feeling he'd be the winner, seeing that his video got many more views than the other 3 finalists. And what a great addition to the team he'd make, being a doctor from Louisiana, one of the fattest states, and especially with the New Orleans 70.3 race scheduled to debut in 2009!

CONGRATULATIONS CHARLIE!!!

On another note, I received a really cool petition that is seeking to ask Google/Google Maps to add the ability to find bike routes along with their current "Drive There" and "Take Public Transit There" options. I think this would be a great idea for cyclists as I, too, have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best way to get to from point A to B on bike, which is NOT necessary the way I'd go by car. Maybe it'd get more people out on their bikes getting some exercise and saving on gas. And wouldn't it be great if Yahoo Maps and maybe Mapquest did the same too?

If you'd like to see this feature added to Google Maps, please click here to view the petition and sign it electronically. There are over 6,000 signatures so far (a thousand more than yesterday). Let's use the power of the web to make it grow exponentially!!!