Category Archives: Weekend Rap-up

Holiday Weekend Wrap-up

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The weather for the holiday weekend wasn’t the greatest in Maine, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least we didn’t get 3 feet of snow like Lake Placid! Saturday was a bit of a wash-out. However, I had an extremely productive day and got a lot of things checked off of my to-do list. Some of those things included changes to this website! 🙂

The biggest part of my Saturday was my first official run in the past couple of weeks. As I mentioned yesterday that I was able to run/walk 3.2 miles relatively pain-free. The first mile was good, but I got a few aches and pains afterwards that caused me to take walk breaks. But… it was a huge improvement from the past couple of weeks so I took it!

Sunday’s weather was much better. Very little rain so I hit the road for my 2:20 ride. It was definitely early spring riding weather. I had to break out the gloves, toe warmers, and knee warmers for the ride and my toes were still frozen when I got home. The skies were overcast and it sprinkled a bit. There was definitely a bit of a headwind, but nothing compared to Monday’s ride! I decided to take one of my normal routes, since I knew it would have me ending around the 2:30 mark. However, with the wind I was a bit slower than predicted. Oh well!

Some interesting things I saw on my ride:

1. A most likely drunk redneck attempting to burnout in his crappy truck in the middle of Route 25 and failing. His drunk redneck friends were in the front yard laughing at him.

2. I saw long-haired, long-horned cows in a pasture. They made me giggle.

3. I saw multiple dead snakes on the side of the road, including a giant water snake. I squealed every time I saw a dead snake even though I knew they were dead.

Funny cows!

Funny cows!

Monday’s weather was a thousand times better! Although I still wore knee warmers, arm warmers, and toe warmers. I was supposed to do a 4-hour ride on Saturday, but decided that there was no way I could sit my ass down for 4-hours on the trainer. Thus, I moved my long ride to Monday so I could ride outside. It was a good decision. Minus the hellish headwind. The wind was pretty nasty. There were times when I was pushing a ton of watts and only moving about 10 miles per hour on the FLATS! It was mentally daunting at times and a few times I considered throwing in the towel. But, I kept moving forward.

I decided to ride up route 113 towards Fryeburg. My goal is to ride all the way to the New Hampshire border as my ride times progress over the next 6 weeks or so. The roads are pretty good for a majority of the way and the traffic is relatively low. The route is similar to Lake Placid although not as nearly as hilly. One of my coworkers lives in the area and told me about a really hilly route from Brownfield to Denmark that I can take to simulate some Lake Placid hills.

Welcome to Western Maine!

Welcome to Western Maine!

The ride went well. My Ironman fueling plan thus far is working well. I’ve been using Ironman Perform for my drink of choice because that’s what is served on the course. I’m not the biggest fan of it, but so far my tummy is handling it well. I’d rather not have to worry about carrying 10 bottles of fuel with me during the race. I was definitely well hydrated for this ride. I stopped twice to find a bush 🙂

I felt good off the bike so I decided to attempt my 25 minute T-run. I was hesitate at first, but wanted to give it a go. Originally I planned just to do 10 minutes. However, my knee felt great. Or as good as off-the-bike run could be. I focused on keeping my strides short and quick. It worked because I had no knee pain! I continued for the full 25 minutes. It was no where a speedy run, but I was a happy girl!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Overall, a good long weekend of training! I got a good 100 miles in over a 24 hours period. My tushy is a bit sore now. Welcome to Ironman training!

~ Happy Training! 

Weekend Wrap-up: The Fall Edition

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Finally, we had a half way decent Fall weekend in Maine. Once again I have been focusing on procrastinating writing my health policy paper that is due at the end of the month. But, seriously I did start it last night… be proud. Be very, very proud.

Friday night I spent at home relaxing from some very stressful few weeks. A friend called asking me if I wanted to go out and grab a drink, but I just wanted to stay home and not do anything. The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind for me and I’m hoping that my luck will turn around soon. Thinking positive thoughts! 🙂

I got quite a few pumpkins from my CSA farm and didn’t know what exactly to do with them. My father wasn’t going to allow me to do what I really wanted to do – to use them for target shooting with his rifle. I guess my father doesn’t trust me with a gun. But, what he fails to realize that I actually have a halfway decent shot!

Target shooting in Montana – August 2010

Look at that aim! Okay, so I’m not that good…

So, I did what every respectful pumpkin owner would do – attack it with a giant knife! I’ve never craved a pumpkin before, but because I’m the ambitious type I decided that I was going to crave my bike shop’s logo into the pumpkin and give it to them. Aren’t I just the best person ever? (Don’t answer that…)

The before…

Tracing the pattern onto the pumpkin

The After!

I did have a couple oopsies, but luckily toothpicks do a good job of holding up the fallen pieces. I think it came out pretty good for my first time. I give it about a C+. The boys enjoyed it and that’s all that really matters. (Although, I’m sure they were secretly hoping for something yummy to eat).

I wanted to get a lot done on Saturday so I decided to get my butt out of bed super early and hit the gym. I pulled into the parking lot at 6:01 only to find out that the gym opens at 7:00 on the weekends. Duh! Panera opens at 6am so I got breakfast and read a couple of articles out of Inside Triathlon then headed back over to the gym. I had a good workout despite the fact that my abs and glutes were still super sore from my first crossfit experience on Thursday evening. More on that later this week.

On Saturday mornings Lululemon offers free yoga classes at their showroom in Portland so I decided to hit up a class. One of my off-season goals is to do as much yoga as possible to help with my flexibility, or more like lack there of. I’ve also found that I really enjoy yoga. When I first tried yoga in college I really wasn’t keen on it. I found it boring and painful. My attention span isn’t very long so I had trouble staying still in poses. I stopped yoga for a while and picked it up again last fall when I was injured. I fell in love with it. I didn’t do much over the summer because I found it hard to fit it into my training schedule. But, I think I’m going to try to make it a priority to at least hit up one class a week throughout the winter/early spring months. I’ve finally found that mind/body connection in yoga and for the most part I can forget about things in class. It’s a good feeling. Living in the Now.

After class I walked back to my car only to find a parking ticket. Awesome! See, bad luck. Dropped the pumpkin off and headed home. I had to work in the evening. It was busy for the first couple of hours, but after 6:30 usually it’s dead. I spent a good hour or hour and half just pacing back and forth trying to figure some stuff out. Next year I’m hoping to launch phase one of my dream business so mentally I’ve been working up a business plan in my head. Of course, I really ought to put in on paper. So, stay tuned for hopefully a launch during the spring! 🙂

Sunday was a gorgeous Fall day. My initial plan was to ride my bike up to Pineland to watch some of the cyclecross races, but I honestly haven’t been very motivated to ride my bike lately. Part of it is because I don’t have a workout to do and the other part is the lack of a riding partner.

Instead, I decided to run! 🙂 I ran a mile on the treadmill Saturday at the gym to test out my foot. It hasn’t bothered me in a little while so I figured I’d give her a little test. I didn’t feel like running on the road. I decided that a little trail running would be fun! Plus, I could bring my dog! Normally, I would go down to the Eastern Trail, but I’m tired of that and Bradbury is a little to “rooty” for my foot at the moment. I decided to hit up Twin Brooks. It was a bit muddy, but both Reagan and I had a blast. I wore my Garmin just to see what my pace was although I wasn’t running for pace. It was painfully slow, but such as life. I ended up running about 3.5 miles overall. And, the foot held up pretty good! 🙂 So, hopefully that means I can start to resume some run training. I’d like to run the Turkey Trot and also the Thanksgiving 4-miler in November.

I’m ready! Let’s Go!

Yes, I think I’m a bird dog and want to chase every single bird I see…

My favorite trail!

Someone was a little pooped from her run…

~ Happy Training!

Weekend Rap-Up

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Last weekend was pretty epic, but it lacked in training. However, I did have a kick ass long ride the Friday night before I left for Lake Placid. I rode the Rev3 HIM course from work. Unfortunately I left a little later than intended due to some work stuff, but I managed to squeeze in a 3 hour ride before it got too dark. My workout was suppose to be a warm-up, followed by 3 x 20 minutes at race pace wattage with 10 mins easy spin between, and then a cool down. Being the uber brilliant person I am, forgot my workout as soon as I left the parking lot and proceeded to do 3 x 30 minute intervals. Now, of course, I could have stopped and checked TrainingPeaks on my phone, but I try not to stop during my long rides (or really any workouts). You don’t stop during a race so why stop and take a bathroom or snack break during a training ride? You eat, drink, and piss on your bike like a real triathlete! Speaking of peeing, I’ve been having a hard time doing that on my bike….

Yup, we pee on our bikes…

Anyway, I was kicking my workouts ass when I was in the middle of a race pace interval on Route 202 in Waterboro going about 23 mph when a dumbass in a jeep passes me and then puts on his blinker and decides to take a very slow right hand turn about 5 feet in front of me! I slammed hardcore on my brakes, fishtailed, prayed that myself and my $6000+ bike stayed up right and managed not to slam into the side of the jeep! I yelled at the driver and of course, the only thing he could response with was “I had my blinker on!” Seriously?! I was not a happy camper. For a split second I thought about whipping around, grabbing the driver by the scuff of his neck and hucking his 40 oz iced coffee in his face… but I was good and just kept on pedaling. My heart rate was sky rocketed at this point since I just had a near death experience, but shit happens just like bad drivers…. what are ya going to do?

The rest of the ride went exactly as planned. I nailed my zones and had a very strong and confident ride. I’ve talked with my coach and we both agree that my FTP has improved since the beginning of training and my zones are a little higher now! Based on this ride I know where to aim as far as wattage and time. I’m very excited for the bike leg!

Now, for this weekend. Saturday I did my long run. I was hoping to do it Friday night, but I needed to go home to pick up our CSA distribution from the farm because apparently my father is too busy to take 15 minutes out of his day to do so…. grr… Anyway, I decided to check out the Rev3 run course. I thought I knew what it was, but apparently I didn’t. Opps! I started on the Eastern Trail by the Scarborough Marsh and ran towards OOB. Instead of getting onto Old Portland Road I kept going to Old Cascade Road (which is what the bike course takes) and then ran down Old Cascade Road down to the pier and back up and back to the ET.

I got some pretty weird looks from people down near the pier. I guess none of them are use to seeing runners. I think one in two people down in OOB that day were either smoking, overweight, or obese. Half of them were shoving their mouths full of crap. It made me sad to see all of this. The health of our country really is on a downward spiral. I really hope some of these people will stop and watch part of the REV3 race on August 26th and perhaps be inspired to begin to eat healthier and exercise! Oh, my little public health mind would love that!

Once I hit the 7-8 mile mark I had an “Oh Shit” moment and I mean that literally! I had to go and go soon! I managed to make it into the woods and do my business. Thank God for porta-potties on race day, but I really hope I don’t have to use any during the race! Thank God also for aid stations! I ran with my fuel belt and I really hate running with it. I always get a side cramp on my left side and it’s too big and uncomfortable for me. But I ran through it. Once I hit the 10 mile mark all I could think of was in exactly one year from today I will have to run another 16 MILES for IMLP!! Holy Shit! Not to mention the 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike that precedes the run! According to my coach, the marathon at IMLP is really 1 mile x 26! 🙂

Okay, maybe this wasn’t what my “Oh Shit” moment looked like, but I really liked the picture!

Last time I checked the weather Sunday was suppose to be partly sunny and a chance of afternoon thunderstorms. I guess I should never believe the weatherman! I was hoping and planning to watch the women at the Maine Tri for a Cure in the morning, but I had a mandatory work meeting right smack in the middle of the race. For what I’ve heard it was a great day for many women and they were able to raise over $1.2 for the Maine Cancer Foundation. Congratulations to everyone who finished the race.

After my work meeting I scooted over to my full-time job site and parked my car to get ready for a rainy ride on the Rev3 course! I was suppose to do 4 x 20 minutes at race pace wattage today and I was pretty close to nailing those intervals, but I rode blind most of the time because I couldn’t read my Garmin very well in the rain. I didn’t push it really hard on the course either due to the wet roads and constant rain. I saw one other crazy lady out there training on the course with me. It actually wasn’t a bad day to ride either. I realized that this may be what I have to deal with next year during Ironman training. Workouts have to get done whether it’s in rain, snow or sleet! But I’m hoping for sun! 🙂

In the end I rode 65 miles and then followed up with a 3 mile run. I really thought today was going to be the day I peed on Azul, but I just couldn’t do it! I tried my darnest and at times thought it was really going to happen, but no bueno 🙁 I know I didn’t drink enough on my ride due to the fact it wasn’t very hot. If it was hot and I drank like I’m suppose to during a race then I think it would happen. I know, some of you are probably disgusted by this. But I’m not a real triathlete until I pee on my bike!

~ Happy Training!   

Weekend Rap-Up

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So last week “grammar nazi” The Midnight Baker pointed out that I spelled “Weekend Rap-Up” as “rap-up” instead of wrap-up. I just want to point out that clearly I did that on purpose because you are all suppose to rap my blog posts out loud like some famous rapper! Duh! Ha, I wish that was the reason, but nope. I do spend time spell checking all my blog posts before I publish them, but obviously I need to spell check my post titles too because it should be “weekend wrap-up.” However, I will still continue to call them “Weekend Rap-ups” just because….

Anyway, this long holiday weekend weather has been beautiful! I spent 6 hours on Saturday working my new job. I recently became employed as a “health enthusiast” at the Vitamin Shoppe part-time on Saturdays. Come and visit me! Apparently, I need to be watching Dr. Oz because it appears everyone who comes into that store is looking for something he talked about that week on his show. Then Azul got a nice little tune-up at the bike shop and now she is shifting smooth as butter! I also got my new book “Developing Endurance” in the mail and I have been reading it the past few nights. The book is written by the NSCA and shows “how to achieve optimal stamina to race your best through science-based aerobic, anaerobic, and resistance training.” I purchased the book for several reasons. The first being that since I’m an endurance athlete I like to understand the rhyme and reason (no pun intended 🙂 ) of why my coach assigns certain workouts and what my body is doing during those workouts. I also am developing bike shop boy’s training plan for Beach to Beacon and hopefully (the key word) he will listen to me and follow it (but I have a feeling that will not be the case). I recently just learned that the USAT is having a Level One Coaching Certification clinic in September in Providence and I’m pretty sure I am going to attend it and thus I think I shall get a head start studying. 
I had my first open water swim Sunday morning at Crystal Lake. The water was super warm! It was also the first day I have put my wetsuit on since Pumpkinman last September. It went on super easy, but mostly because I’ve lost a lot of weight and thus it’s actually too big for me now. It will work for now, but I will have to get a smaller suit later this summer. We swam from the boat launch to the point and then back, which is about a 1.2 mile swim. Many of the camps have not put out their docks or floating rafts yet so there was not much to spot off of, but I just used the shore line to spot. The other girls used me to spot off of because I just took off from them. I finished the total distance in about 32 minutes and I actually kicked most of the way too! 
Can you tell we are excited to swim?!
I was suppose to ride with someone Saturday afternoon but he ended up having to work. I understand his need to work, but I will admit that I was disappointed. I look forward to our Sunday afternoon rides because that is to only time we ever get to hang out. I told my new employer that I can’t work Sunday afternoons because he and I usually ride together. Now I’m questioning if that was such a good idea… Anyway, I ended up riding solo from my house. Between my coach and I, we can’t do math. My ride was only suppose to be two hours, but ended up close to 2.5 hours instead. She provides my training in two week blocks through Training Peaks. She will give me the total time for the workout and then in the notes will provide the breakdown of each workout. She had edited my long ride workout, but apparently forgot to edit the details. As I was uploading the workout into my Garmin, I didn’t even think to double check her math. I headed out on a 40 mile route that I knew would take me about 2 hours to complete. About three quarters into the ride (mileage-wise) I realized that I wasn’t even halfway through my actual prescribed workout and started mentally adding the numbers. Yup, my workout was more like 3 hours so I stopped doing the workout out after my second 15 minute power interval and just rode easy the rest of the way home. My ride wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. I spent most of the time avoiding the vast array of dead animals on the side of the road, bad drivers who came close to hitting me, and avoiding an 18-wheeler water tanker that almost ran me over on a really crappy country road with no shoulder! 
Now that I have a powermeter my coach gives my intervals in terms of power zones. Apparently, I can’t hit a power zone if it was right in front of me! It was a rough workout. My Garmin computer kept beeping at me because either my power was too high or too low. When I uploaded my data this morning for my coach she informed me that I need to change my settings on my computer from one second to 30 seconds power reading. It will be a much smoother power reading and hopefully my Garmin won’t beep every 10 seconds at me! I had a 30 minute transition run after my bike yesterday. As I was riding up the hill to my house, I was really dreading the run. My crotch hurt because I finally decided to commit to the Cobb Plus saddle this week and now I have to “break in” my new saddle. I probably should have just kept the test saddle till after Mooseman because I was use to it, but I would have felt really bad if I actually did pee on it… (my coach also informed me that I need to learn to pee on my bike. Poor Azul…)
The first 200 yards of my run just plained sucked! However, I started to settle into an easy pace and felt really comfortable and strong! I kept the pace easy, but my legs wanted to go faster. I just kept reminding myself that next weekend I will have to run 10 more miles in addition to what I was currently running! This morning was another swim at Crystal Lake. Today it was full of pollen, but the water was still warm! I really LOVE open water swimming. I’ve always been very comfortable with it since I spent most of my summers growing up living in the water at our camp on Sebago Lake. It’s practically second nature to me.   
Mooseman is in less than a week. I have mixed feelings about it. I have learned that the water temperature at Newfoundland Lake is 65 degrees! That made my day! I guess the lake is notoriously cold and I was kind of dreading the water temperature. Mostly, I’m dreading the bike portion. Secretly, I have a time in my head that I want to beat; however, I know this course will not get me the time I want. I hope to PR at this race, but again, from everything I have read and heard about Mooseman, it is not the course to PR on. So, we’ll see. My goal is really to just finish (in one piece)! There are a few people I know doing the race whom I have a target on their backs. I want to beat them, mostly for my own ego. I think the main reason I’m dreading the race is that I will going to it solo. My coach will be there and some of her other athletes whom I will probably meet, but really, I will know no body and have no race support. My father is not really supportive of my sport and I know he will not come to my race. I practically had to beg him to come to Pumpkinman last year. I already told him about a month ago that I will probably be doing Lake Placid next year and that he will be coming. He argued with me a bit about it but I kindly reminded him that I will be picking his nursing home someday and that he should be nice to me! Just kidding…. but I did tell him that doing an Ironman will be one of the biggest days of my life and I would appreciate the support. Last year I had great support from my Tri ladies at Pumpkinman which was awesome! But this year they are all racing the Dynamic Dirt Challenge that day and of course I don’t have a significant other so I guess I just need to suck it up and race. I’ll get through it, but it’s always nice to have supportive friends and family there to cheer you on! 
Happy Training!