First Race Report!!

First of all, Happy Easter!

I know this race report is a week late, but I've had kind of a crazy week. I got a whole BUNCH of training in on my three days off of work this week, and I'm pooped!

I went down to the Petersburg, Il Pioneer Sprint race last weekend, just to see what junk I have in my legs from not racing until late this season. This is, by far, the latest I've ever started the season since I started racing. It may be for the better, though, because by the last few races I've felt pretty cooked in years past.

So the race went like this: 300 yard (not meter, yard) snake swim, 13 mile bike (out and back), then 3.1 mile run. It was a stagger start in the pool, kinda on the honor system as to how fast you're going to swim, so I started kinda close to the front. Still passed one guy but didn't get passed by anyone in the water. Which was good because it was a tightly packed pool. We had to do each 50 in one lane then switch, so yeah, it could be bad if people were poorly matched up. I had the 3rd fastest swim of everyone (as far as I can count, since they don't have rankings on the results).

Then the bike was pretty straightforward. I broke out the race wheels for this one: haven't ridden them since last summer, so it was time to "test ride" them. They did well. The bike was so SO surprisingly comfortable! I've been really consistent in my stretching lately trying to loosen up the IT bands and hips and one of the effects has been much more comfort on the TT bike. Go figure. I averaged 21.0 on the bike (I had seen 22 point something earlier, but maybe that was my mistake). Either way, it was decently strong, 2nd fastest of the women, but only by .2mph. And considering I haven't done much speedwork in the TT position, I was quite pleased by it, and my legs felt great, anyways.

Now the run I've been having lots of issues with because of my IT bands, and I haven't been doing a lot of the speedwork that I'd usually be doing. So I kinda expected the run to suck (but was doing a good job of not thinking about it the morning of the race). I just got off the bike, knowing I had the lead, just thinking I'd run the heck outta my legs. And I did. I went a 21:09 for a 5k that's hilly and off the bike, that's not bad at all. I also had a boy chasing me the whole time, and I REALLY didn't want him to catch me haha. That time is fairly decent for me when I've had a little speedwork. Let alone basically none. So I was very pleasantly surprised by that. Guess all the basework on the bike and run this year is starting to pay off. I finished #8 out of the men, #1 out of the women, 5 minutes behind the first male, and 7 minutes ahead of the next woman (the biggest margin I've ever won by before).

FRS was there, awesome as ever, handing out samples. Since I know them - they sponsor the Well Fit Elite team - I ended up talking to them a lot. Good stuff, nice people, always great to see them!! They gave me a goodie bag for my win!

My times (in order of swim, T1, bike, T2, run, overall time):

4:02.3 00:30.1 37:07.3 00:31.4 21:09.1 1:03:20.2

Warmth! OMG WARMTH!!!

I wore shorts today! Not because I was wishing for some decent warmth, but because it was actually an awesome 80F degrees ( the F is for Fahrenheit, for anyone thinking I mean Celsius and thinking somehow that we're close to the surface of the stove, we're not, just...nevermind....).

It was a wonderfully warm day. Nevermind that it was humid as all get out, and that's no way to have a warm day, I'll take what I can get. Ran in shorts, biked in shorts, worked on my tan....ahem....or lack thereof.

S'posed to be warm tomorrow too :)

My 21 Day Challenge!

So the thing with being an athlete is that it's almost always a lot easier to go out for a run than it is to admit it's probably a day to take it easy. Having a training plan helps a lot with that, but lately I've been battling the IT band issues that cropped up about a month ago, and while I've been training, my running still is lame because that's the one sport that the IT band really matters in for me. So since this week is finally a recovery week for me, my goal is to start having a consistent yoga practice to help prevent injuries. I don't have any real injuries other than tight muscles, really. Tight muscles with trigger points in them. That then pull and rub on something else and irritate it. It's annoying and fairly elusive to treat. I've basically given up on finding a massage therapist that can help out because 1) it's expensive and 2) a really REALLY helpful and good and amazing massage therapist is about one in a million. Which means it will take awhile to find one anyways, and by then I'd be out of money. Sigh.

So, along with my magic muscle zapper, which I have completely worn the electrode pads down on - I need to get new ones of those - I've decided that it's in my best interest to pick up yoga again. In years past I've signed up for a class at school to add another credit hour to my load, and lo and behold, I've ended up not injured for the time that I'd been taking the class. It was basically a result of being forced to keep a consistent practice. A consistent practice helps keep muscles loose, and amongst other benefits, that's probably the one that I'd notice the most. I even remember someone saying (who told me not to reveal this information to a certain other person, hence the anonymity) that the only thing that ever helped (and cured) his plantar fasciitis was a 6 week long beginner's yoga class.

Which brings me to my 21 Day Challenge, as created by Yoga Journal. I'm totally starting it late, but it's better late than never, right? The idea is to basically have a way to help to cultivate a DAILY home practice in order to truly get the benefits of yoga, which, surprise surprise are only really achieved by regular practice. Which takes me back to the trigger points. Trigger points are most likely to show up in chronically tight muscles such as those that are overworked - like mine. How do you keep muscles from getting tight? Well I would say stretching, but in reality, it doesn't really help me that much. Yoga is different. It's not stretching. Not in the traditional sense, anyways. Isometric stretching, maybe. But more well rounded than that. It's a warmup, workout, and cooldown.

So, in an effort to help prevent my own injuries and hopefully push others to do the same, I am starting my 21 days as of this morning, and through training and working, I will keep a consistent practice.

Meet Priscilla

And yes, I understand what the name implies. For those not familiar, Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a film/musical/show about drag queens. Which is why I like the name. Priscilla is a very girlie name.

Well, here's the background on Priscilla: I've been looking for years now for a frame/bike that I could refurbish and turn into a fixie/commuter bike. It had to be oldish, but in decent condition, with horizontal dropouts (if you don't know what dropouts are: Go here), and with wide enough fork/brakes to be able to accommodate fenders. Because I like Fenders. They're kinda dorky but cute at the same time. And totally practical. Now the thing with the name is that I generally don't name my inanimate objects that transport me. I don't name bikes, cars, etc. Dogs I name. Things that aren't alive I don't. Descriptors go something like this: "I'm going to drive the insert model name here to the store." or "I'm riding my road/TT/mtb today." Straightforward, right? I have also long had a problem with calling inanimate objects "she." I guess I'm a quirky feminist, but I think all my bikes should be called "he" or "it." Because if guys ride bikes called "she" then shouldn't girls ride bikes called "he"? Which is how it came to Priscilla: still can be a "he" but since Priscilla is a girl's Schwinn Varsity, the name must be girlie. Which is why Priscilla is a perfect name.I stripped the parts off of Priscilla yesterday expecting to find more rust than was worth the $35 to take...ahem....him....home. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the muck was greasy dried up dirt, and not rust. A good soak in ammonia removed most of it, and what was on the frame just sanded right off. This is going to be a fabulous bike. I had a few stern words and help with whacking the stem out of the fork, which has some rust on it, but not too bad, and got to taking the derailleur housing guides off.
The bike was obviously a cheaply made bike without the finishing touches probably afforded to better models, so there are a few burrs and catches that I am working on filing off before I get to sanding the whole frame down.
I got my work buddy here with me the whole time; she's just there making sure that I'm doing things up to her standards.
Once the frame is all sanded and primed, it's going to get a bright apple red color and a clear lacquer. Then he gets fenders, a rack, one brake, the wheels on the current fixie/commuter - the Fiori - and the bottom bracket adapter for the English bottom bracket I want to use.

Yay for getting to projects I've talked about for ages :P

Happy Friday!

Yay for Fridays off! Ok, it actually doesn't make much difference to me because I could just as easily be working on a weekend, and it feels more like Saturday today because everybody's home. And I still have to train, of course. On my days off, I'm putting a lot of training in just because it's hard to work a full day and then do a full day's worth of training. Since I'm allowed to work just 3-4 days per week, I can get some sleep and get some more training in on the days off. Though yesterday was a long day: 2 hours of training plus 9 hours of working. One or the other, not bad, but you put them two together and it makes for a long day. Especially since I'm on my feet 99% of the day now. You know you're on your feet a lot when you get on your bike to ride home and you're grateful just to sit on the bike. The coolest thing though: I can ride my bike to work everyday and 1) bring it inside the shop without getting odd looks and 2) ride every day that I've worked so far and not be labeled "hardcore." Because commuting an easy 30 minutes one way (or so, depending on the bike and the wind) isn't hard core. It's just cheaper than driving. And nicer to my car. And just that much more training I can get in. Other than driving to Chicago, I haven't driven more than 1 mile (to the grocery store, because we still don't have a bike that can handle a real grocery trip) in several weeks.

I am so looking forward to real spring to get here. I'm tired of having to wear a bunch of clothes to train. I miss the dry heat of the desert. If I was in NM now, I'd already have a good bike shorts line going. Not here, I'm still pasty white all around. Booo to that.

Learning Learning Learning...

I don't know how much more my brain can absorb. I'm learning all kinds of new stuff about stuff that I could possibly sell, use, etc....Kinda cool, though somehow my brain doesn't feel much worked like it did in school. I keep going back and fourth on the whole Grad School thing. I guess what I've more or less decided is to see how this year goes in racing and decide towards the end of the season. Which gives me less prep time for the GRE, but I can't see myself doing grad school and racing full time as a pro, either.

...on that note, it's a pretty nice day, I have the day off of work, I'm gonna go bike :P

Day 1, Week 2

Ok so last week was pretty crazy/cool. Started the new job, survived, then FINALLY made it to Chicago. Though getting to Chicago didn't get me around as many team members as I wanted, it's a start, I suppose. I guess a number of people are still inside because it's too cold, so I didn't meet them on the ride I went on. The cold wasn't that bad, I mean c'mon! I rode all through the winter! I did get beat up good though. It's good for me, a good time for it, but wow boys can be hard to bike with sometimes. They were nice and didn't let me get lost a.k.a. dropped and miss a turn, so that was good. But I was hurting for the entire ride just trying to keep up. AND we got passed by huge groups of REAL cyclists. If you ever want to feel slow on a bike...

AND I'm finally running again. I musta picked, twisted, rubbed, iced, stretched, you name it most of the problems out of my left IT band enough that I could run for an hour yesterday (and 45 on Friday otherwise I probably wouldn't have tried an hour). I'll probably keep stepping it back up slowly and decide soon if I can run the 1/2 marathon at the end of April here. Otherwise I'm back in business. And I have time off of work during the week so that I can train. Double bonus!