The Pipers

On my long rides here with some of the guys from the triathlon club I have been lucky enough to hear some Scottish tales.

THE PIPERS

So one Sunday we rode down to a town called Peebles and then through some gorgeous lands to a town called Innerleithen. Here we stopped for a coffee at a local cafe and it was so nice to get some caffeine but getting going again was sort of awful...eek.

BUT My cycling buddy started telling me tales that distracted me from my frozen toes and hands.

So there goes a tale that there was a piper who was in a pub in Peebles one night and made a bet with his buddies that he could walk to Innerleithen all while pipping a different tune on his pipes. This is a pretty far way....but he must have been a hardy bloke cause to ensure he did not win the bet his friends punctured a hole in his piping bag so he would not make it! Turns out they were major jerks because since he couldn't use his pipes correctly on his journey through the hills he got too winded pipping and DIED! So the hills are now called the pipers in his memory. They were very pretty to bike through. 

 

Just us and the open roads through the dead piper lands!

 

This sort of shows my fav part about the landscape here; there are so many colors of grass which gives the countryside quite the quilted look. 

Those small white specs are sheep. One of the best parts of the ride was getting to a section where there were LITERALLY no cars, people or anything and just a babbling stream and SHEEP with no fences or gates. We had to yell at them to get off of the road. My riding buddies had me yelling "SHEEP ON THE ROAD!" and it was pretty funny. 

Yeah my eyes are closed.

Training in Edinburgh

There are basically 3 groups for me to train with here: the Edinburgh Triathletes which is the city's club, the University of Edinburgh triathletes through my school and the triathlon section of the Edinburgh Road Club. Each group has at least one training session per day and add to that the ample number of masters practices available through my pool membership and I have so many options of people to train with! Everyone has been extremely helpful and nice at the sessions I have been to. I love the masters practices here because there are usually only 4-8 of us and the practices can be very challenging and we get lots of individualized attention.

I have been running on my own, which I like, but do need to scope out some good speed sessions because this is where I am highly lacking. STILL. Although I think it is getting better.

For biking I have attempted to go out on my own a few times but it has only left me frustrated and like sad. I just end up biking in circles and on super busy roads with cars wizzing by. So I finally went to one of the triathlon clubs Sunday long rides. I am so glad that I did! I was so hesitant to go because the gorup meets up about 5 miles outside the city center and I just knew I would get lost on my way there. And I did. And I have a GPS. Like I dunno why this place is so difficult for me. Maybe its the roundabouts or the driving on the left...I dunno but I hope I eventually get a handle on it. Anyways I went out with 2 guys and a girl and we ended up just me and 2 guys finishing up the ride and we went about 72 miles through GORGEOUS Scotland! It was so nice to see some of the sights, ride along the coast, ride though the hills, ride through some of the most prestigious golf courses around and see the cutest little towns. The leader of the ride is awesome in that he tells me stories as we ride and lets me know where we are.

This is North Berwick which is one of the towns that we got to ride through. So cute!


The picture below is of Bass Rock which is right off the coast and apparently puffins live there. I need to go back and find those sometime!

Picture of the golf courses we rode through. 

I have some pictures from some others rides and runs that I will post later.

The Commute

I live right in Edinburgh and veterinary school is about 6.5 miles outside of the city center. This means we have a commute! Some students live out in the countryside closer to school but I wanted to live right in town for the first few years at least since I have never really lived in a big city. When I got here I wanted to commit to commuting to school as much as possible. The weather has been insanely nice since I got here so it really hasn't been so bad. After riding my Scott tri bike out there one day though I knew i needed to get a commuter bike with slightly beefier tires and a rack for my backpack.

I really like the idea of commuting to school as well because it makes good use of the time: getting a work out in and getting to school all at once!

A few times I have been able to run to school in the morning, which I actually prefer to biking because it is almost uphill THE WHOLE WAY. Biking uphill super slowly while cars and buses are whizzing past isn't that much fun...Below is the route from when I ran one morning. 


Untitled by ahs486 at Garmin Connect - Details


The only issue with running is I have to pack my clothes up the day before and bring them out to school so I have something clean to wear the next day. The school is very conducive to commuting as there are lockers and showers in all of the school buildings. 

So I got onto the craig's list equivalent over here, GumTree, and bought myself a cheap commuter bike (pictures to follow) from a girl moving to Chile. It is a Trek and nice and sturdy. I was pumped to ride it to school the next day. The tires were a little flat but I hadn't gotten my pump in the mail yet so I decided I would be fine. Well, about .5 miles in my bike gets all wonky. Flat rear tire.....with 6 mils to go to school, basically uphill. I had none of my gear to change it with me. I was so tempted to just lock it up and grab a bus but was too stubborn to and didn't want to stand around waiting and be late to class. So about 45 minutes later I got to school with 5 minutes to spare before class started...I felt like the biggest nerd, like going so slow with my helmet, sweating like a hog and through like my backpack and shirt and just awful. I had to sit through 2 classes like that till I got to take a shower during our break...needless to say I sat in the back away from my classmates because I don't want to turn into "that girl".

To make it worse, after getting the wheel back to town and fixed up, I went to ride my bike from school on Monday and again like 1 mile in ppssssttttttttttt....flat rear tire....ridic. No bikes on buses so I locked that sucker up and dejectedly brought my wheel back to my dorm sans bike AGAIN. I don't think I make a very good commuter...so my bike is currently locked up outside of ASDA (a Target equivalent over here) about 6 miles from my dorm.

Edinburgh

Thought I might put down a few more notes about life here. It is pretty fun! Since school started on August 6th we have been very busy. Classes are from 9 am till 5 most days. We do have 2 separate, hour long breaks throughout the day which really helps to break things up and aid in coffee fuel-ing. There are cafes like everywhere which I love. I still love studying in these spots so a lot of my evenings are spent sitting in a corner with my drink, reading about bones and muscles. We have our first exams on September 17th but last day of classes on the 7th so it will be a break full of studying in-between. I am trying to keep up as we go though since there is such a huge amount of information given. Enough about school cause that's boring.

The city itself is pretty great because it is fairly big but easily walk-able (when it is not raining). The buses run all over the place but I am still not used to which number goes where and all that. I am hoping that will come with time :) Another great thing is that Arthur's Seat, an old volcanic rock, is literally in town. It just beautiful to look at but also wonderful to hike/run on. There are trails and paths all over it and people are constantly there getting active. I ran up it one day from my dorm and it took me 25 minutes from my room to the top and it involved some very heavy huffing and puffing towards the end! It is a wonderful outlet though and perfect place to get away from the city without even leaving it. Plus a look out from the side/top promises a vast landscape and ocean vistas!

Training has been interesting.....I am so so pleased that my coach has chosen to continue coaching me, officially making me the most high maintenance athlete ever. I never cease to bother him! I go through waves of wanting to train and get my sessions in to having this like huge urge to not do a work out or skip something. 98% of the time that feeling leaves once I start working out. I have been biking a bit outside of the city but it can be like Lexington in that you have to ride a ways to get to the good riding. Of course there are better areas closer but I have not found them yet. The tri club here seems to be pretty prominent and the University also has tri, biking and swimming clubs but they will not start until the University starts again in September so I am sort of on my own right now to figure everything out. A lot of the problem of training is this like extreme guilt I get that I should be studying instead. I had a meeting with 2 of my professors today though and they were very encouraging of my habit and really emphasized the need to have something outside of veterinary school to focus on or my brain will fail me.

I was planning on coming back for the Toyota Cup in Dallas but after looking at flight times and class times it is not looking promising. I also looked up races over here and was shocked at how many there were over here in October still!!! So now I have decided to race the Garmin Barcelona triathlon October 7th. I shouldn't have to miss any school and it is a huge race. We swim in the Baltic and ride around town so it should be a cool event. I think they had 6,000 participants last year within the sprint and Olympic distance events. As of now that is my plan! Anyone know anyone in Barcelona??

Edinburgh

So the first day I got here the camera on my phone stopped working. This is half the reason I have not posted about Edinburgh because posts without pictures are boring. The other reason would be AB1, animal body one. I HATED not having a camera to capture my time spent in London. It was a great little side trip. Here is a little summary of my life in Edi so far:

First few days:

-Within landing, customs, leaving my luggage at a fellow students apartment and checking into my hostel I lost my passport. Not the best way to start a trip...the next couple of days in London I was calling baggage services like all the time and cab companies I had ridden in but nothing. Do you know how much a replacement visa costs? 200 pounds!! That's a lot. That doesn't even include the passport! So thank goodness 2 days later it was found by someone in my friend's apartment building and they posted a found sign. Phew...I didn't really tell many people about this because I was so in denial.

London:
-4 hour train ride and I was in London! I went right to the Olympic park area and was blown away with how many athletes were just walking around in their team gear. I basically just sat around and goggled at everyone. The next day I rented one of the Barclays City bikes for 1 pound and just rode wherever I pleased, getting lost in London and stopping for snacks and lattes. You can drop the bikes back off at any of the rental spots around the city and just check another one out from wherever with the same unlock code for the whole day. For 1 "quid" (I hate that word....) BEST VALUE EVER.

-Made my way to Hyde park and biked part of the Olympic tri course which was awesome. The women's race was the next day so it was all set up. Then there was a hugeeeee area of the park closed off where you could go in and watch live coverage on one of 5 big screens while lounging in the grass with a ton of Team GB fans so I did this for the afternoon and it was enjoyable. Then a like band from Clemson was playing on one of the stages??!? So random.

-Stumbled upon a booth with an endless pool, tri bike and treadmill set up where they were holding a mini triathlon! It was for the ITU federation or whatever it is called. So I had to do it. They gave me a bathing suit so I jumped in the pool, swam until it got too fast, biked as hard as I could for 3 minutes then ran as far as I could in 3 minutes. It was so fun and by the end the people that were watching were all cheering and it was hilarious. Part of me was like omg don't look at me I am running in a bathing suit on a treadmill at high speed my thighs must be like doing the wave...not attractive. The other part was like this is awesome!! My bathing suit was the UK flag. Great.

-That night I just went back to the Olympic village area and hung out more, sad that I had to leave the next day but excited to be able to explore Edinburgh! I had also just found out my passport was in good hands, so it was a nice night :)

Edinburgh:

-Love it, have a place to move into Sept 1st with 3 roommates, I get some ocean vistas on my longer runs, professors are awesome, campus has like ridiculous views of hills all in the background, people say "Hiya" to say hello. I made a good decision coming here.

Will post more later. The hindlimb bones, nerves and muscles of the dog are calling my name :)

Season Wrap Up

fwfJust because I want to document my racing from this season and have it as a record for myself here goes.

This is so late in coming up because I just got distracted and sort of lost focus with my triathlon goals once I decided to move to Scotland for veterinary school. SO, finally, here it is, like 4 race reports or something.  I'm going to try and keep this super short. Good luck to me.

Tucson Muhoolaba (or something like that) Sprint Triathlon:
1-super tired going into this due to all of the AWESOME TriSports trifest activities but I got all set up and ready to race anyways
2-got to race against Kathy Tremblay who was on the Canadian Olympic team! She unfortunately had a crash and dropped out in London...but she was super nice and kicked my butt
3-bad bike ride but was actually able to catch second place on the run of all places!! I never do this so it was a nice confidence boost
4-had fun hanging out with my team mates afterwards and collection my prize for second female overall: a nicely monogrammed towel

St. Anothony's Triathlon in FLORIDA:
wooo hooo I had some high hopes for this race and in some ways they were met but in others not so much
1-had such a fabulous home stay with a great couple, seriously so welcoming and they were both racing so I got some insider tips!
2-got to spend a lot of time with fellow TriSports-er Steve who is hilarious and his wike is like so sweet so it was nice to have friends down there. Also got to hang with Brooke and Fred who are hilarious and was so happy to have them there, especially had fun post-race night!
3-I was able to swim in the ocean before the race which I was hoping would help a lot more than it did. In the days leading up on rides and runs and at the expo I saw SO MANY of the big name pros, that was awesome.
4-so the race...ummm the swim was awful, had those moments where I wanted to drop out, my wetsuit was burning hot and my shoulders wanted to fall off and I felt like I was drowning from the serious amounts of salt water I ate. My time reflected this struggle :)
5-My bike ride went really well, I was able to actually SEE the girls in my category because we started before the age groupers which was super helpful. So I just tried to catch as many as I could. I knew I was doing well at this point.
6-Onto the run: started to shut it down about 2.5 miles in because my stomach hurt, I knew I had had a good ride and to be honest I didn't feel like heading into the pain cave necessary. So like 4 girls passed me at the turn around but I didn't care much
7-Finished 7th or 8th (cant remember now) in the elite category but fastest bike split overall so I was super pleased with this part.

Memphis in May Sprint (in other words, head case)
1-Going into this one I tried implementing lots of mental training like signs in my room with goals, printed course maps with tactics, blah blah but did it work: No
2-the sprint race the day before went well, I just tried to go as hard as I could but I kept the run in check since I was racing the next day.
3-finished 2nd female overall, got a nice little plaque and filled up on some food afterwards and lounged in compression with Meagan.

Memphis in May Olympic:
1-Awful swim, just like kept having mini chocking attacks and coming up to sight...not too proud of myself but that's alright
2-tried to attack on the bike but seemed to loose my legs at some point, especially into the head wind
3-melted in the run and mentally just gave up from the beginning

Jeffersonville Triathlon Olympic
1-Nice, small local race just across the bridge from Louisville and got to race with many other Mideast Multisport Athletes which was pretty fun
2-Not so hot swim just sighting wise, I like had the foggiest goggles, had to clear them like 4 times and stop to look where I was going and lots of aphids in the water = ew
3-Good bike, it was really pretty but I was trying to be a bit conservative so I could test myself on the run
4-FINALLYYYYYYYY what I had been waiting for all season I had a good run! My time wasn't that stellar but I didn't have any stomach problems (my coach informer me I might be eating too many calories on the bike...once I looked I realized I was being a complete cow so cutting back there made a world of difference). More so I didn't give up mentally and just tried to push the pace the whole way.
5-First woman overall, which had a nice cash prize.

Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon Olympic
1-Got to stay with a college room mate which was so fun and great to see her. Also offered a wonderful distraction for the race.
2-Swim went very well. I think this was because I got 2 open water swims in the week leading into the race. I was super happy with my time here.
3-bike was interesting...super super hilly and a loop course you did three times so got to see multiple hills. I had a minor freak out attack when my rear derailleur broke 2 times so I had to dismount my bike twice. A guy with the race staff helped me get it right and going again. I might have cursed. I also had one of my aero pads collapse like onto my bars but that was ok, I just rode with a droopy elbow.
4-on the run into transition i accidentally followed a pro girl into the pro area so I took the scenic route to my rack. oops.
5-run went well for me, I was in the lead the whole time (thank goodness I can bike hills :)) and there were 2 out and backs so I knew the position of my competition the whole time. Pretty happy with how it went and again no stomach cramps.
6-Won the elite amateur wave and got 12th female overall (official results says 4th because a whole slew of female pros cut the swim course a bit short so they got DQ'd. I'm happy with 12th though)


So that's the season!! So I met my goal of qualifying for my pro card. I had planned on doing one more of the 5150 races, the Columbus Tri, but due to my lack of organization I tried to register too late and they were full. Oops. Now I am in Scotland and there don't seem to be too many races left over here. I really want to race one more time though, just too see how I can come up against people once more to see if I want to apply for that pro card or not. There are some pros and cons that I might post about later.

The plan now though is to fly back to the states for the Toyota Cup Championships (which I qualified for in Philly) in Dallas because I got a free entry into the race (thank you Toyota), I can fly there for free (thank you Mary) and I can stay for free (thank you Mimi Punchy and brother Willie!!), so it sort of makes sense. I will also have just had exams like 2 weeks before so school shouldn't be too insane.

YAY!! So with the help of my great coach to get me back on the training train (things got a little screwy preparing to leave for school and getting settled here) I can gain enough fitness to get myself to Dallas and perform how I would like to!

I will write a Scotland update later, I just really wanted to document my season a bit.

If you made it this far, my helmet is off to you.

TriSports SALE!!

Oh hey there blog. I sort of miss you only because it is nice to have a record of my activities. I will go back to recording training stuff after I tell you about this awesome SALE!!

SO

TriSports.com is having an insiders only sale until midnight tonight (June 14th!)! The only people getting this deal are people that know TriSports athletes and it is only for these couple of days!

SO

Go use the code ASTEW-S to purchase some wonderful goods at 25% off. Here are some of my fav things:

ZOOT Women's Performance 2" Short

These shorts are short enough for me! Being a shorty I love my running shorts nice and short so I feel speedy.

I also love....

The Grid

 The Grid is super special because it can inflict a lot of good good pain. I used mine just last night to roll the legs out after a tough bike work out.

TriSlide

I love this stuff over a body glide or vaseline because it is very easy to spray down in running shoes or bike shoes rather than getting it all over your hands while trying to get it into shoes.

SO

GO!!!! SHOP!! 

And More Tucson...

Almost done with my Tucson recap....I just don't want to forget any of the fun times we had!

Saturday we had to get up early to meet at the store for some team pics and to leave for our "secret workout". We ended up riding around for about an hour and a half before arriving at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) which was a super nice huge place with a pretty sweet pool. 

After riding around for quite awhile to get there I was feeling pretty miserable. I think I was just tired and my hand was sore from falling on it and trying to hold onto my bike. I got into even more of a rut when I was told we were going to do a mini triathlon! OH JOY! I was already signed up for a local race the next day and when I heard we would be racing at the JCC I told myself I didn't have to race the next day anymore...I was too tired and mentally down to handle it. Hoping my mood was being influenced by blood sugar I downed some Clif Bloks and what do you know, I was actually feeling alright after all! Funny what food can do :)

Jaclyn, our sponsorship coordinator, giving us the run down. I look oh-so-excited!

So we started: 800 swim, 2 loops of the bike course they created (made extra complicated because the roads were not closed so you could put a big lead onto someone and then the light changes to red and you sit there letting them catch up) making 16 miles, then a 5K. My swim was alright but I accidentally swam 50 extra. Oh well! The bike was fun and more like playing frogger. I made sure to keep some of my teammates in sight because I had no idea where I was and could not remember where we were suppose to turn. By the time I got to the run it was soo hot out and I knew I had a race to do the next day so I just brought it in at a nice pace. I luckily won for the women on the team so I got $50 to use at TriSports!

Running form: HORRENDOUS. Considering how I was feeling though, I will let this slide :)

I was very happy when this surprise workout was over and ready to go put my legs up for a little bit before the big party! I only ended up getting a little relaxation time because when we got back to the store the EXPO was set up! So many vendors to see and products to drool over. 

Once I got nice and cleaned up we headed back to TriSports for the awesome party. They had tons of food stations set up (my fav being the gelato and mashed potato bars) and after some speeches they gave us some poker chips and had black jack, poker and other gambling tables set up. It was a really fun night and I had no problem forgetting about the race coming the next day and having fun!

**Thanks to TriSports.com for these pictures, taken from their Facebook page

More Tucson

Mt. Lemmon had me nervous as everyone I asked would sort of sigh and say they were not sure if they were going to ride all the way to the top or they would talk about the cold descent and snow found at the cookie cabin. Since this was my first time in Tucson and I have no idea when I would be back, my mission was to go to the top. The top is at 25 miles from the base. We met early on Friday morning with a HUGE group ride for the TriFest weekend. We probably had about 75 people when we left the store, no joke. Riders, Riders, everywhere. I felt pretty safe in the traffic on the way out to Mount Lemmon...

Here is a video of the ride up and down taken from a helmet. It's nice because it is sped up so you can see the sights. When we got to the base we were at about 16 miles in so I knew by the end of this thing it would be my longest ride ever. Yay! We reconvened at the bottom and then it was every person for themselves! It was fun riding there and up because I got to talk to multiple different people along the climb. You literally start out at mile 0 and it is only so comforting knowing you need to get to 25 to make it to the top and the amaze cookie cabin, where you can chow down after your hard work.

The first 4 miles had me with major doubts as all of a sudden I was feeling the sun big time and huffing and puffing in my smallest gear. The grade did lessen a bit after this so I was able to catch my breath and my confidence to some degree. This was no Tates Creek Ferry Climb...It was fun to see the elevation signs going 3,000....4,000...5,000 on the way up, all the way to 8,200 ft! I stopped about mile 11 where TriSports had a water/food station set up and got some super salty Gatorade and kept chugging away.

None of these pictures are that great cause I only took a few on the way down and some when I was driving on Mt. Lemmon.

Once at the top I bought a hot chocolate and had some of a friends cookie before heading down! I tried to explain to some of my teammates that I would be slow on the way down. They didn't believe me till they had to wait for a while at the bottom. I am a major weeny when it comes to descending.

This hot chocolate doesn't look that great but it was. Esp after the climb since it got cold up there!

By the end I had 83 miles in the bank! Pretty solid for me! We had to quickly shower, stuff our faces and then head out to a trail run at Star Pass with the team. This was such a great place to run. The trails were amazing although a bit rocky but I ended up doing this on one of the non-rocky parts!

Which wasn't that bad, more of just a nuisance than anything else as I am left handed. My friend Steve said he had a feeling someone was going to bite it on the trails...I was just doing the team a good service! My reward after this run and long day: Starbucks iced goodness of course! I headed there with some friends then to rest up before our team dinner. Good day!

Getting into Tucson!

Where to begin! I had such a wonderful time out in Arizona for the TriSports.com training camp. They truly treated us like VIPs. I got into Tucson on Wednesday and had till the next Tuesday to hammer myself into the ground; considering that I was only able to run 0.8 miles before walking on my last day in town (due to pure tired-ness, not injury) I think I was successful! I had gotten up at about 5 on Tuesday to get to my 6:30 am flight and after 2 flights landed in Tucson at about 10 am. I had strict instructions not to work out. Blah. This was definitely for the best as I was coming off of a hard build week. I was itching to get out into the warm desert and all of the mountains around me anyways so after getting my car and lounging in the hotel for a bit I went out to Sabino Canyon to just walk around. 

Two words: cactus and mountains. Just all around! It was super pretty. I was ravenous for no good reason and got some food at an organic vegan grill that was really good and waited for my roommate, Michelle, from Illinois to get in. I met Michelle at Worlds in Budapest, Hungary, after our race and she also happened to be on the TriSports team. It was really nice to have a familiar face around.

Thursday we woke up and I went back out to Sabino canyon to do some running. I had 6 efforts to do at my 10K pace. The canyon is at about 3,000 feet which isn’t much but enough to inhibit me from making my times on the last 2 efforts. 

I found some bunnies on my way out!

This was going to be a challenging week for sure…after this we found a local pool, swam outside and then grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel to lounge before heading over to TriSports to check in and get our welcome packets. Man did they welcome us well!!! They gave me a Cervelo P2 to ride for the weekend along with tons of stuff in these great TYR transition bags (these bags have a 3 minute YouTube video to explain how to use them).

It was a lot of fun to open everything. Jaclyn, our sponsorship coordinator who is awesome and hilarious gave us an awesome dinner recommendation so after filling up on Mexican food we headed to bed to get ready to face Mount Lemmon the next day!

10K

I had one more running "test race" to get through before my trip to Tucson where I would really be tested. I signed up for the second race in the Triple Crown series, The Charm City 10K, and was in a build week leading into this race. Come Friday night I was excited to drive to Louisville to visit my sister and her husband but not so excited for this 10K as I was feeling fat, tired and sub-par. I did way less preparation for this race and was seriously dreading it. 

I went to bed late because staying up watching fashion police and eating some of my sister's homemade ice cream sounded way more appealing. So after about 6 hours of sleep it was time to get up and go meet the legendary GVM for a nice warm up! Since attending the USAT coaching certification I have become a major fan of the dynamic warm up. So after we jogged around for about 1.7 miles I got in some lunges and jumpies. We then made our way to the front of the pack (much better position than the 5K!) and we were off!

I knew I wanted to try and hold 6:40/6:45. I didn’t really have a goal time in mind, just something below 42 minutes. My running is very behind compared to some of the girls I am going to be facing in April so a sub-42 is like minutes away from where I need to be but I had to start somewhere! The first mile was pretty ugly….George was on fire and his claim of “starting out slow” was a lie, as I look down at my Garmin and see 6:00’s, 6:15’s and the like flash up. This is not slow for me. I knew I would crash and burn at this pace so I let him fight on and fell back. Having his head bob about 30 yards in front of me for the next 2 miles was anything but encouraging. So began the mental beat down from miles .5-2.5. I was telling myself I sucked, I should start walking and this all came together beautifully when I tried to sip some water out of a cup and promptly choked after pathetically climbing a hill. 

This face is about right considering how I was feeling.

Finally, the road took a turn and we started going downhill. There was a LARGE man next to me, just dominating and loving the descent, and I told myself I could not let him beat me. So I bucked up and held his pace. With that we were at mile 3 and I was feeling pretty good! Just like that I had gone from dropping out to feeling good holding about 6:25. Looking at my watch and making some quick math I knew if I could just hang on for the last 3 I could still break 42. So that’s what I did. Honestly, it felt pretty good and I was finally in control of my brain, my biggest enemy.

I crossed the line at 41:32 according to my Garmin and was pleased. I literally came from a dark place full of hate to a good result. I found Mr. Speed demon who seriously crushed it and we finished out with a cool down to bring the mileage for the day to about 10.  I am very glad that I did this race. I learned how much my mental game sucks and how much I need to work on this. It’s crazy how many emotions you can have in 41 minutes and 32 seconds!

Dynamic Warm Up

All throughout high school cross-country, track and even through all my years of ballet we always did a warm up. In ballet it was at the barre to warm up before moving to floor work. During track and cross country we always did a dynamic warm up and this continued, literally using the same exercises, during my years of rowing. I understood the idea of waking the muscles up before working out and warming things up before asking your body to go full force but I had never really thought too much more about it. My coaches for triathlon also always talked about it but I just didn’t spend any time on it once I moved to triathlon.

At the coaching certification they talked A LOT about the dynamic warm up. Examples of what I am talking about are:

-lunges

-squats

-arm circles

-leg swings

-grapevines

-knee highs

-butt kicks

-the inch worm

-hip openers/closers

The list goes on….

The term they used to explain the importance of this was neuromuscular activation, which basically means waking up the pathways of communication from our brains to our muscles. So this goes further than getting our heart rate up and blood pumping to our muscles so they can begin doing work. The dynamic warm up also wakes up our coordination and motor skills. As a typical un-coordinated triathlete, this can only be a good thing J I think everyone has experienced that first mile or 2 of your run that just sucks. You feel wonky and sort of out of control of your body. Doing a dynamic warm up inhibits this because it awakens the pathways before your workout. I have started doing about 5 minutes of this before most of my runs. Sometimes I forget and just take off running..oops. Other times I just do like 2 minutes and get over it. As of late, now about a month after the clinic, I am much better about completing an adequate warm up and do think it is saving my first mile from being absolute crap and helping with my coordination! If nothing else, it is definitely helping with injury prevention!

USAT Coaching Clinic

I started with my coach about 3 and a half years ago. I had gone abroad for the spring semester of my junior year and upon returning decided I did not want to return to the crew team. I also knew I did not want to be without structure and guidance. After a summer where I competed in a few triathlons and planned my first Olympic up in Maine, The Lobsterman Triathlon, I decided to get a coach that fall. I owe SO MUCH to Mideast Multisport. I decided it might be fun to get certified to coach as something to do while in school so at the end of February I went to Charlotte, NC for one of their coaching clinics.

It was 2 full days of listening to lectures ranging from nutrition, bike skills, periodization and planning, swimming, triathlon skills and strength training. I most enjoyed Bob Seebohar’s talks. He was a super good speaker and after reading his book about nutrition and metabolic efficiency it was nice to hear everything he believes in first hand.

I probably learned the most from the talk about “mental fitness”. One of the things I struggle with most while racing is my thought process. This is obviously common and goes along with all the things you hear, like:

            -Sports are 20% physical and 80% mental

            -The major difference between a great athlete and an Olympic athlete is their mind

            -People that can push themselves to athletic achievements have a better ability to endure pain

Even thought I have heard this over and over again it doesn’t make fighting the mental demons any easier. Yeah, it’s a great fact and wonderful to know that the person next to me also feels like crap but these facts do nothing to tell me how to conquer my thoughts of sucky-ness. Dara, the instructor for this part of the lecture, went over tools we can use like visualization and mental mapping/preparation to try and turn situations where you are battling your brain around. So once I start triathlon-ing again I will give these tricks a go!

Butter Made Better...for reals

Irrelevant fact: the word butter comes from a latinisation of the Greek word bouturon (feels good to say that word) which means "cow-cheese"; I loved this phrase as well. Cow cheese.

Butter is good. My sister and I always talk about how we used to eat pats of butter from my grandmothers fridge...that doesn't appeal to me now but I wont deny that I did it. Now something that I love more than butter is any type of  butter made from almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts....the list goes on. Not this type....

That is, the stick type. That's disgusting and it would never spread smoothly on that bread unless it was warm.

Anyways I have been eating a lot of the Justin's packets of almond butter and chocolate hazelnut butter during the day and they really are so good. The grocery sells little 1 serving packs and they are perfect to throw in the purse.

My fav is chocolate hazelnut

SOOOO good.

The other day my mom made a discovery at Whole Foods! It's called PB2 and it is pretty great. It is peanut butter in powdered form! They basically crush and squeeze the peanuts to get rid of all of the oils and fats. A lot of these fats are healthy but a lot of them are not. Then you can use this powder in so many things. I have had it in a smoothie, oatmeal, and, my fav, 2 scoops with coconut milk after a workout. The kind I have has cocoa powder in it, so that adds antioxidants and wonderful flavor making it a great treat. You can also just add a bit of water and make peanut butter! Just reconstituted.

So this is super yummy and I highly recommend it. Sometimes peanut butter hurts my stomach because it can be too heavy but this stuff is perfect.

5K

This past weekend was the 5K in Louisville. Despite many storms trying to stop me from getting to the ville I made it. Lexington and Louisville had made it on the Today show as the 2 cities in the bright red circle on the weather map. We had tornado watches from 12-8 so I booked it to Louisville to avoid them.

One thing I did to prepare for this race is something I have never done before but I read about it in a mental race planning article.  The article suggested you print out the race map and write notes to yourself on the course and things pertaining to your plan. So I wrote a few notes along the way and some of my goals, mainly to break 20 minutes.

I spent the afternoon on Friday, in a tank top outside, attempting to run the race course. It was so warm with the storms coming so it was great running weather. This was only an attempt because the race map was labeled incorrectly.  The first right turn was at the 1 mile mark onto Ohio St. Well this street didn't exist there so I ran on and eventually just turned around because the area was getting sketchy. So fail.

My sister and her husband live right on Main Street across from Slugger Field where packet pick up was so I got this out of the way and got my 2 hour trainer ride in while watching the news on the coming storms. My sister got out of work early but we were lucky enough not to get any of the severe weather. It did hit a lot of areas close by and these cities were pretty devastated by the storms. Kentucky made it onto the Today show again, unfortunately. Some pictures and coverage are here.

Race morning was not so good. I like to wake up 2 and a half to 3 hours before a race so I set my alarm for 5:30, woke up, pressed snooze, woke up, thought I pressed snooze again, then woke up at 6:45 and said an expletive. I quickly got out of bed, dressed and reluctantly bolted some oatmeal. My sister is super supportive so she woke up and walked down to the race start with me where I left her to get a warm up in of ~7 minutes of dynamic exercises followed by a 15 min run.

The only mistake I really made was starting too far back. I spent the first mile really jockeying for position with people and weaving my way through the crowd. I have also never come so close to so many spit wads! Everyone I came up on was like hacking lugeys right in front of me; I'm lucky I didn't end up with one on my bod.  It was frustrating but did work as a pretty great distraction so the race flew by. I came in at 19:58 so I met my goal but was not that thrilled with the result because I really thought I could have done better. Considering it is just the beginning of March and this was just a gauge of fitness at the end of a build week, I will take it.

Also, I got to go cuddle with this (my main motivation) after my race:

Impending 5K

First race of the season will be this weekend! Well, this is only sort of a race...it is just a 5K so no triathlons yet but they are fast approaching. Coach recommended I do some early season road races to take a peak at where my fitness/speed is leading into the last few months of training for my first REAL big race. I must admit I am pretty excited for this one and have a goal time in mind. I have not done an open 5K for a few years so I am hoping to shave a few seconds off!

The course is right downtown, outside the door of my sister's apartment so it is pretty ideal. I have been doing my hill repeats at a pace right around where I want to average for the 5K so I know what it is suppose to feel like. This was not very comforting today while I was doing those repeats and knew it would be similar but without the nice, leisurely 6 minute downhill cool down between the 1k's. This distance is tricky because it gets very painful but the whole time you are racing, you are telling yourself how little you have left. I'm sure my mental strength will be challenged during this one...I will just have to kick it into high gear and try to have fun!

Beets....Again

We have some wonderful family friends who were going out of town for about a week and they thought I might like to try out their juicer while they were gone. They were right! I was very interested in trying this out especially after reading some recipes in The Feed Zone cookbook. The authors really push juicing because you can fill up on vitamins and minerals from many servings of fruits and veggies without having to attach yourself to a toilet or go in for a blockage removal due to fiber overload. Pretty picture...your welcome.

So to really take full advantage of the juicer I made 3 recipes from the book one night. First I made some granola sweetened with unfiltered apple juice, some brown sugar, a banana and agave. I mixed up this combo with some old fashioned oats, currants and raisins and threw it in the oven to bake and it was very very tasty. 

I have to admit I was full of apprehension  while buying more beets at the grocery. I just cannot get past the dirt taste of the darn vegetable. I would just give up on them altogether but the health benefits are so epic I really want a relationship with them. I guess we are destined for a love hate one. Anyways the recipe called for 3 beets, 4 carrots, a few apples and any greens you want. I threw in some kale and a sliver of ginger as recommended by the juicer owner. I also threw in some pineapple.

The juice was really good! It still smelled a little bit like dirt but the taste was really good. I was super pleased. The next recipe I made was for veggie burgers and one of the main ingredients was the pulp from the juice I just made.

So I mixed together some pulp, black beans, some red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and sticky rice. I then formed patties and sauteed them in a pan till brownish on each side. They also really looked like hamburgers because the beets in the pulp made the sticky rice turn this deep red color so it looked like bloody meat. Yum.

So I finally found a great way to eat beets! I kept the juice in the fridge and drank a serving after some of my harder workouts that week. It was like drinking recovery... I feel faster already!

The FeedZone

After Christmas I was looking through the USAT newsletter and there was a recipe for a great snack you could cook to take on the bike with you to replace all of the bars and processed foods that are so simple to take on the bike or on the go. The recipe included ingredients like eggs, rice, bacon, parmesan....very nontraditional ingredients when it comes to foods used while working out. I got on Amazon to order the book and it was backordered till mid-February. I finally got it!

 

Allen Lim and Biju Thomas have put together a wonderful cook book full of field tested recipes. A lot of these recipes were born in an RV while fueling riders for multiple stage bike rides, including the tour de France. The concepts of the cookbook include a step back from complicated ingredients and processed foods, quick and easy recipes for the "time crunched athlete" and ways to make foods versatile.

I learned a lot just reading the forward of the book and all of the pictures in the book made me very excited to try out all of the food. Allen Lim has also founded Skratch Labs which carries hydration products. I am very excited to try out some of their drink mixes that do not have artificial colors or flavorings. They have an everyday hydration mix as well as a mix for performance.

I have tried a few of the recipes and so far so good!

Hill Repeats

During 2 of my build weeks I have been lucky enough to do some hill repeats. My coaches lead me to a 1k hill near an elementary school. This hill is tricky, with a nice incline at the start, a leveling off, another gradual hill, slight downhill into one last gradual climb into the finish at this weird looking house. There are a few stop signs along the 1k so traffic can be an issue but I just make sure my senses are hightened. I first did this work out with one of my coaches and we did 4 repeats on 10 minutes in my ideal running weather (a breezy 55-60).

The next time I went to do this work out it was about 30 degrees, 6:30 PM, dark and I had been at work all day. It took every amount of convincing I could muster to drive over to that hill, warm up and run 5 repeats. When I first started running I did not feel good or let alone fast. I had 3 layers on my top that were constricting, a headband ear warmer and gloves. I felt like I was shuffling along the road and had a difficult time picking up my warm up pace. As I made my way to the bottom of the hill at the end of my 20 minute warm up I was dreading every 5 repeats I had to complete.

When I started my first repeat I was shocked that I felt alright! I was hitting my pace and my range of motion didn't feel as restricted as it had while I warmed up. I was running well! I don't know if it was the Nicki Minaj Pandora music I was playing or running in the dark but after that first repeat I knew I would be able to complete the work out.

The best part about this work out was finishing. I was so happy and satisfied with myself for completing that work out when I could have drawn up multiple excuses not to do it. I did 6 repeats on this hill last week in 60 degree weather and while happy with myself for completing this work out and finishing the repeats in good times, I was not nearly as proud of myself.

So next time I am dreading a work out or trying to come up with excuses not to do a work out (that don't include REASONS like over-fatigue, sickness, injury or sleep deprivation) I will try to remember the gratification that comes from completing something in conditions stacked against me.