Barcelona

I was going to try and kick this triathlon habit once I got to Scotland. It became very clear that would not be possible once I moved over here. School is still coming first (for the most part :) ) but I still want to put time into the sport and see what I can make of it. So a few weeks into school I signed up for the Garmin Barcelona Triathlon because the flights were affordable and the timing was alright with school.

I arrived after a ridic journey between 2 Glasgow airports. My journey went: taxi , bus, bus, taxi, train, plane, train, lost walking, taxi, hotel! It was quite the adventure. Although so many modes of transportation were used it wasn't all that expensive! Thanks to affordable public transportation in this part of the world. So I got to the hotel at about 2 and was excited to have the afternoon to explore. I stayed in the Poblenou neighborhood of the city which was adorable. I immediately walked down to the beach and it was just gorgeous and warm and fabulous. People were just laying out (some naked!), running along the beach, biking, eating ice cream and relaxing everywhere.

I was itching to get into the water but reluctant to leave any of my things unattended on the beach. So I headed back to the hotel and on my way I stopped at a grocery store. This is when it became very apparent that English was not very common in this area. I had quite a few funny interactions with people there and although I took heaps of Spanish I was generally so taken off guard at their long sentences coming at me I would just adopt a blank stare and try and smile.

 Then I went back down to the beach and got in the water and promptly, for no reason, got extremely terrified of getting eaten by a shark. Like this has never happened to me before but it was just freaky. I was in a country, alone, with no one that knew my name or origin within literally the continent and it was dusk. Perfect plot for a shark attack. But I made it. I went to be early after watching Harry Potter in Spanish and grudgingly building my bike.

The next morning I got going fairly early, went for a nice swim in the ocean (a bit less shark-phobic) and then did my pre-race short run. I was going to walk my bike down to a close bike shop when I ran into 2 VERY ATTRACTIVE Spanish guys (from Valencia....next stop on my list now) who had a bike pump on the way to the expo so I let them pump my tires up and watched their muscles flex. I was blushing needless to say.

Then it was time to play tourist! So many cool buildings and the subway way so easy to navigate I just went where I pleased and even found a really good restaurant that had seitan, black beans and some really good corn soup and vegan cookies. I took lots of pictures and was so happy to be walking around in a dress and be warm!

Some of these pictures are from after the race when I walked around, pretty exhausted, and saw more sights.

Pretty sweet Gaudi

There were all these Sycamore type trees there which are my fav and were so gorgeous. This was just coming out of the metro one day. Which by the way was super easy to travel on.

Came upon a little Sunday market and bought some local SUPER dark salted chocolate that was so good.

Even the streetlamps were art!

A large wire sculpture and I looked for an info board on it but couldn't find one. but I'm sure it is making a statement about something..

This is where the little party was

Here is where there was a little party, it was pretty great and the sun was shinning and people were so happy and it was just a great atmosphere to be apart of! Fun music and dancing.

SO BRIGHT!

Sagrada familia,

Pretty amazing building with like 5 different styles all jammed into one and all sorts of sculptures within the architecture.

Walk along the ocean and marina

So many gorgeous beaches!

So yes it was a gorgeous place and everyone was very nice. I really liked it there and it was SO EASY to get around on the metro and I was able to just take the train to and from the airport which was very cheap and manageable even with a bike box!

Race Report Barcelona

Leading up to the race I had looked into the elite wave and finally decided I would ask the race director if I could switch into it. After about 11 emails back and forth my new spot was confirmed and I was pretty excited to be racing with some of the best. I looked all over the website for a race pack for us or some more information but didn't find much so I just went with it. I was concerned because the course had a looped bike course so it crossed my mind it might be draft legal. I didn't see ITU anywhere so I assumed it wasn't.

My cute neighborhood

So Saturday evening they had a race meeting for the elites and I was walking around trying to find the place and ran into some other lost people. They all start greeting each other in Spanish, kissing cheeks and I'm just like walking along side them feeling more and more like a loser the further we go. I was just so self conscious that I was not an actual elite and just felt like an idiot for being there ha but I sat and the presentation started and thankfully they spoke in English. They went over pointers and got to the bike course and said, in passing,  "short ITU handlebars...." and that's when my heart sank and i felt like EVEN MORE of a losaaaa cause I do not have that type of bike. So afterwards I went up to the race director who was so nice and he felt awful about it and was like don't worry I will make sure you getting into the amateur race tomorrow no problem.

On the way home it was sort of nice cause all of the pressure was gone, I was racing 2 hours later in the morning (more sleep maybe) and I just didn't care as much anymore. I stopped and read about 10 menus with nothing for me (so much meat and fish!) until I was standing outside a pizza place and the guy asked me what I wanted. So I whipped out my Spanish and got an awesome pizza with just sauce and veggies on it and ate the whole thing once back in my room. So good. Then I binged on chocolate. And rice cakes and guacamole. Cause I didn't care anymore!

Race morning was interesting. I still had to get to transition at about 7 to rack my bike and get my new race pack for the amateur race but I didn't go off until 9:30. I also couldn't take anything with me out of transition because I had no where safe to put it and no one to give it to. I arrived at transition and on my way in one of the marshals just waved her head no and spouted off in Spanish something about my bike, pointing to the aero bars. I saw the race director nearby (thank GOODNESS) and he and this woman had a confrontation in Spanish for awhile, then another guy was brought in, all while I am just standing there with my illegal bike feeling quite silly. The race director pulled through though and I would be allowed to race but I was already disqualified. I didn't even care at this point! At least I could compete in my own way!

Football field sized transition!

 


So I set my stuff up, sadly took my jacket off, grabbed a few euros from my bag and left, barefoot with a baggie of oatmeal, speed suit, goggles and swim cap in hand. The sun was not near out yet so I was pretty chilly. The high for the day was 80 but it was a colder morning next to the ocean breeze! Then I had like forever to just hang out and WAIT to start. I was super psyched to see that a small coffee bar was open at the stadium so I got a coffee and some hot water for my oatmeal then just walked around like a triathlete hobo, talking to random people and watched the pros start, the other waves and then, finally, it was my turn!

SWIM:

It was a mass, all women, beach start. So we had to literally run into the water on top of each other. To start us they had a topless man walk in front of us with numbers counting down the seconds. Awesome. The start wasn't too bad though and I just conserved on my way out to the first buoy. It was very chopping swimming into the waves and as I saw all of the people around me disappear behind me I was happy with my approach. There was a small group of about 2-3 women in front of me but I just used their caps to sight off of and the swim parallel to shore was pretty solitary and uneventful till we caught up to the breast strokers and floaters from the previous wave. More hitting, dodging and sighting later I was headed for home and pretty happy with my swim! My time was super slow but I knew I was in the top so I was OK with that.

Swim course later in the day.

I took my time getting onto my bike since I knew it didn't make a difference (I didn't even have a timing chip) and was off! It was a 4 loop course with plenty of 90/180 degree turns so I was a little apprehensive. The course was FULL of people so I did my best to dodge and beat everyone around me. I was very self-conscious of my aero bars so I just tried to hide them with my hands and get by. Then on the third lap this happened:

Doesn't look like much...but this piece of trash stuck to my wheel and didn't come off so every time my wheel went around it made this loud scrapping noise. Like rap-rap-rap-rap-rap over and over and I averaged about 90 RPM so you can imagine how loud and obnoxious this sound got....ha but nothing I could do! There were major pace lines going on at times and I did my best trying to stay up with them without being part of it.

I came into transition behind a girl and decided I needed to go for it so passed her right out and just did my best to stay up on her. This was the best part: there were lots of crowds on the course and they kept yelling venga venga! ella! Which was so fun for some reason. Maybe because the guys were like seriously attractive. I ran pretty much on track and felt pretty good for the whole 10k and ended up with an alright time so I was pleased considering everything I had gone through that morning. I was pulled aside at the finish and told I was the first amateur. Then I told the woman I was already disqualified and she let me leave haha. So much for that!

Overall it was a really great experience. It was strange to be like literally all alone like not even know a single person racing but sort of fun and exciting.

Next up is Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote. Eek!!

Norway

I didn't drink a drop but...beer fest in Norway was amazing! Here are some videos from the Norway Oktoberfest party. I couldn't resist sharing. It was honestly my favorite type of party: everyone was nice, good music and best of all >THREE HOURS OF DANCING. Like it was amazing for me. I thought I sprained something in my knee the next morning I was so sore. FROM DANCING. love it love it love it.

VIDEO 1: Just a video of the end of one of the contests they held for lifting barrels. This guy won so they shouted about it. 

VIDEO 2: This large man was like the MC of the night and he was hysterical. Big belly.

 

VIDEO 2: They literally sawed a log on stage. 

Norway Getaway

Not long after we arrived and started classes two of my friends and I bought super cheap round trip tickets to Oslo for the weekend after our first exams. We booked a hotel the day before we left after realizing that when Ryan Air says "Oslo Torppe" as the airport, this is not Oslo. This is 2 hours AWAY from Oslo. Due to our short time there and early Sunday morning flight we deicded to stay in the old whaling town, much closer to the airport, called Sandefjord.

All we really wanted was an escape after all of our studying and exam taking and this is exactly what we got. I went for a nice run on Saturday morning and was snapped some shots of the town and also climbed this rock with hiking trails to look over the city.

The houses and architecture here made everything so cute and quiant. I know my dad would have appreciated it!

This was next to a gorgeous cemetery but I didn't think that would be appropriate to take a pic of.

Can't make it out in this picture but this woman had 2 small King Charles and they were ADORABLE. Made me think of my neph-fur, Nicholas.

 

We spent the day shopping around and I made sure to stop for hot drinks when I wanted to. We also got some waffles on the street from these girls and got some free ones from our hotel. So good. 

Since we were in an old whaling town it was only appropriate that our hotel carried a whale theme.  The carpeting was pictures of whales and they had bones, baleen, models and all sorts of whale related ridiculousness everywhere. Including a very very detailed model of a whaling enterprise at sea!

Notice the guts and jaw

 

This thing was not lacking in detail :)

After exhausting ourselves shopping it was time for Oktoberfest! Norway style. We had heard about a beer fest going on and saw the tent during the day so headed over that night. It was amazing. It was a mini Oktoberfest full of ridiculousness, spilt beer and peanuts. Comparing this to Oktoberfest in Munich 2010 that I went to it was almost as fabulous. Just had to remember to say Skola! instead of Cheers! or Prost! We sat with some random guys and fit right in! It was so much fun. Not fun getting up early the next morning to catch our flight...but totally worth it. 

I love Norway and cannot wait to go back. Everyone there was beautiful and there were definitely tons of blonde people there.

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!!