In which I am a Pirate Tri cheereader. ARGGGGH!

I believe "AAARRRGHHH!" Is the only correct thing to say if you have been spectating the Pirate Tri. Seriously dudes, it's all about the Pirates. There were a bunch of 'em. And some wenches. AND damn ship and a cannon. IT WAS LEGIT.

And we all know I love pirates. I named a cat Pirate Ship one time for heavens sake...

I was excited to be a superstar cheerleader for a change because I have been slacking on the Sherpa duties lately. This was also a killer race to spectate because a TON of my friends were there, basically ALL of the TSA Triathletes, My own BADASS coach (who won her age group. yeah, those are the fun facts that she "forgets" to mention on her FB page. If I finish a race I brag. The woman WINS shit and nary a mention. GAH!)

And Eric, obviously was there to PR or ER.

 

 

I can never find specific people when they are all dressed like neoprene penguins.
(I can find Eric. Sometimes.)
Until wetsuits are more flattering I refuse to learn to swim.
Yes, that is my excuse of the day.

It was a perfect day for a race, with temps in the 60's, beautiful sunshine and a light breeze.

After the treacherous conditions at Quassy you had better believe I was envious...

 

By the way, nothing about the swim here encouraged me to get on that shit and learn how to do it. When the women in my age group took off it was total chaos- a teeming, surging, flailing (and kicking) mess of bodies, chaos and blood (well, there probably wasn't blood. but in my imagination there was.) Evidently it did not subside and word on the street was that it was a challenge. Since I am challenged to swim in a kiddie pool, solo, with a noodle I still maintain that I am going to pass on any swimming events.

 

Eric had a good swim, and came in right in the time he had hoped for- give or take a couple of seconds. It was impossible for me to find any more of my friends as there is no differentiation between wetsuited bodies.

Eric sped off on the bike, wheeeeee!!!!

The bike at a sprint tri hardly takes any time but I still had a little time to watch a bunch of my peeps head out on their bikes. I also saw a few unfortunate and bloody tumbles onto the pavement. This time I am not lying about the blood. It was there!

I found friends. Exchanged the usual training war stories.

After almost exactly 45 minutes Eric zipped by on the bike, FLEW thru transition and was OFF! 

There he goes after a 37 second transition! Hold crap!

I watched a few of my friends, Kelsey, Eric's coach Denise and about a bazillion TSA people head out on the run and then I decided to try to find the finish before Eric got there. It was a good thing I moseyed on off when I did, because it was a bit farther away than I had anticipated.

He finished the run in 22:45. FAST
Total time was 1:19:36 for 11th in his AG. SO CLOSE to top 10!
But a NINE minute PR, Hello!!!

Obviously we had to take an annoyingly cute selfie..

We watched ALL our friends finish (and finish strong!) We took selfies (obvs), ate some snacks, high fived the TSA peeps on some legit top placing's, then headed to Katherine's camp mansion for waffles and beer.

Well. I had to run 8 miles THEN I had my damn beer and waffle brunch.

 

So do I have Triathlon race envy? Absolutely. UNTIL I look at the "short, tiny, easy" swim and realize it is about 99% farther than anything I'm comfortable with. So for the time being, landsports it is... 

May Recap!

YAY! A finish line photo from Quassy!!!

I look like I'm about to die.

Please note the awesome tan lines that I'm going to get from my most favorite bra (Oiselle strappy for anyone curious- GO GET ONE. Or two. I need many more!)

 

 

So what happened in May...?

Running miles- 107 (yes, this is 90 miles fewer then in 2012. I'm more fit now than I was then. And uninjured. And all around badass!)

Cycling miles- 96 miles. Not bad for a noob :-)  Needless to say, I'm going to beat that amount before the first 10 days of June is over from the looks of things...

Core/Yoga- NOT ENOUGH. I vow to really up the core work in June.

 

Cute outfits? MANY!!! Thanks Oiselle for a skirt a tough girl can wear!

Times I quit running- 2. And I REALLY MEANT it on one occasion. It didn't stick though. 

 

Times I puked on my shoes. Zero. But I really, really wanted to a couple times...

 

Races run- 1. My epic Duathlon debut!

 

Hence, ONE PR! Hah!

 

Longest run- 14 miles. LAME!!! I wish ALL long runs could be 14 miles though. Not gonna lie.

And I looked damn good after. Per the norm.

The big takeaway message from the month of May is that when I start getting really busy with work I end up suffering a lot more than normal when I workout. My job is pretty physical and for a couple of weeks until I adapt I honestly feel downright resentful of having to workout for an hour or more at the end of a relentless 10 hour day. Luckily, I get used to it and get over my LEGIT first world drama. I am lucky that I have the leisure to pursue my athletic fun, and that I have a job to keep me busy (and hopefully keep me from living in a cardboard box!)

 

I always feel like quite the little princess of whiney-ville during the times when training seems like a terrible life choice. (it is during those times that I can see- but still not really understand- how people can fall of the exercise bandwagon... not me though, not me...) The good news is that once I start acclimating to the heat/busy days/exhaustion running and I become very good friends again!

And this is a good thing. Because GCI is looming on the Horizon....

Rev3 Quassy, HEAT! HUMIDITY! HARD HILLS! Part 2

So as expected the alarm went off at 4AM and Eric and Andy were instantly READY TO GO!

We told them to do just that as we needed 5 more minutes. Boys...!!

The first stop was coffee at Dunks, although we were clearly tempted by the fanciness that is McDonalds which was right across the street. Barf...

 

 

Brilliant FB post inspired by the grossness of Mickey Dees..

We noticed that the temp was already 72 degrees. "How can THAT be good??" Kate mused..

Shortly thereafter traffic came to a screeching halt.

Apparently leaving 5 minutes after the super twins did NOT pay off. They hit NO traffic!

 

Awwwwwwww shit.

Fortunately we had plenty of time and the traffic actually moved pretty smoothly along. Definitely a plus for the location- plenty of parking. And plenty of porta potties and a REAL bathroom for those of you who indulged in a McTriple...

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived was a very enthusiastic cheerleader of a guy, dressed in a cape and crown and just harassing the bejeebus out of people. My first thought was that he was the Burger King (my mind was still on the McTriple apparently) and for the rest of the day we saw the Burger King enthusiastically shouting at people. He was everywhere. And he was PUMPED.  It was funny and we want to know who he is and what's his story?!

We walked to the beach to watch the Pros start.
My Boston jacket is just denial, it was already quite warm. Muggy. A nice beach day!

Eric had already pumped up Kate's tires so we had plenty of time to take pics.

Stashing multiple water bottles.
Which would be gone by mile 3...
Notice the guy body gliding his balls in the background? Sorry dude... HAHAHA!
 

Oh Eric! So manly and tough!

I am always convinced that people are going to drown during the swim but I was less concerned when I saw that they had a party barge, about 40 kayakers and a bunch of paddleboarders playing lifeguard. What a paddleboarder would do is a bit of a mystery to me but perhaps they just act as a flotation device. If I ever swim I plan to just grab onto one of them and have them tow me in!

 



Off they go!!

Eric is never scared of swimming so he jumped in and took off in a sea of  churning orange capped bodies. Knowing we didn't have much time Kate and I hustled to the bathroom (for the 400th time) and devised a plan where I would scoot down to the swim finish and text her as Eric came out of the water. Then I'd RUN to the bike start to send her off!

Kate sent me some texts in the 4 minutes that followed.

Wise words.

We absolutely noticed that the relay teams were SERIOUS. Legit athletes. Shaved legs, backwards rhino helmets, body-glided balls, the works.

And the fight to avoid a last place finish began. BWA HAHAHA!

 

Right on schedule Eric leaped out of the water in 36 minutes, noting that the sun had gotten in his eyes making a straight swim a bit challenging. He was fast though and right on schedule! And good looking too which is a huge plus.

 

I sprinted to the bike start and yelled a bunch of useful things like "BE SMART DAMMIT! GO FAST BE CAREFUL WHOOOOOO!!!" And like an aqua streak of lightning she was off.

 

ZOOM! Off she goes!

AND THEN THE WAITING BEGAN....

We managed to fill the time with a variety of entertaining things. I drank a lot of water and Gatorade so I had to pee many times. We watched the pros come in off the bike and start the run which was exciting! I ate some food. We sat on rocks in the shade with Eric's coach and watched as some of our friends came in, hot and sweaty, from the bike. the word on the bike course was that it was "Hot, relentless hills and anyone who can manage it in 3.5 hours is a rockstar..."

About 3 hours after Kate left we started to formulate a plan for making the transition into the run since we really did not know when she'd be coming in. After Andy came thru we made a rough calculation, figuring that Kate went out 30 minutes after he did and she would need 20 minutes more on the course we concluded that if she had a PERFECT ride it would be about 12:10-12:20 when she arrived.

At 12:05 my butt was planted in the shade at the dismount line with the plan that as soon as I saw her I'd run to the bike rack. Much to our delight at 12:15 she cruised on in, hot and sweaty but good! No need for the med tent! I had no time to chat but as it turned out she had a very good ride over the brutal hills. Her finishing time was right in the 3:54 range so, as she had hoped, NOT ONE SECOND OVER 4 HOURS!!!

 

Apparently nobody loves me enough to take my picture as I run so I'm noticeably missing from my own blog!!! Sad face. I looked cute though and had a great outfit so hopefully I find some pictures later.

Anyway, off I went on the run. The first mile was really great because it was straight downhill. And THAT, my friends, was the ONLY downhill thru the whole course.

I can honestly say that it was the hilliest and hottest half I have ever run. I can't imagine coming into a race like this with a goal of being fast- it would have been rather demoralizing. Luckily, I had set reasonable goals for the day and knowing that gave me the ability to actually have quite a fun run. (fun is relative...)

That's not to be confused with easy though... I climbed the dirt road mountain at mile 4-5 and just had to laugh, it was brutal. Unrelenting. Around that time I started picking up fluids from the well stocked aid stations and just couldn't get enough down- I was already shockingly hot and the Gatorade was SO COLD that I instantly developed horrible side stitches. Regardless, I was better off than the poor triathletes who looked totally finished. I can not imagine trying to run after such a brutal bike course, they are a bunch of tough cookies. Who were tossing their cookies on the roadside, ugh I've been there.

 

I saw a LOT of people that I knew! I saw Julia twice who claimed to be hurting but looked strong. I saw quite a few people from TSA all of whom said the same exact thing "the heat is kicking my ASS!" I saw Big Tall Ben!  I also chatted a bit with some friendly strangers who hated me because I was running not walking, so I apologized many times for being a little cheating ahole relay runner. I counted that I passed 207 people (I had to do something to keep my mind off my misery!) (I did not count people who were vomiting I asked those people if they needed help) and I did not count people in the bathroom line. If I had done the full tri and a relay runner had passed me I might have kicked them so I tried to be quiet and not a little showboating jerk like I sometimes am :-) I did pass 2 relay runners and I did not apologize to them, haha...

 

The last mile was legit awful, straight up a hill and I was about cashed at that point.

The Burger King and his merry men totally jumped on me in the last 0.25 and ran me in with great enthusiasm! I was a bit discombobulated and totally missed seeing a whole flock of friends at the finish including Kate and Eric who found me shortly thereafter. Thank heavens as I was lost and wandering aimlessly...

My finish time was 1:51 and dudes, I was hot. I was fine but just radiating heat. The only logical thing to do was jump in the lake so that happened.

 

We met our goal of not coming in last as we finished 7th with a final time of 6:24:10. PHEW.

 

Once again, I can not fathom being a solo athlete facing such a course alone! Definitely not a goal of mine. But a giant congrats to the badass triathletes who conquered that beast of a course!!

 

All of us were pleased with how we did on such a tough day. When I asked Kate and Eric how they felt about it here is what they had to say:

 

Eric: "Well, the swim was very flat....!"

 

Kate: "The course was challenging, technical and at times unrelenting. But fun!" (what she actually meant if you read between the lines is BITCH SHIT HILLS!!!!

 

Despite the heat, etc it was a good fun event, well run, nice BIG medals, and lots of helpful people to answer questions which I always appreciate. I am VERY excited to do Rev3 OOB on an incredibly badass all women's team in August. from the looks of things it is considerably more flat and after this weekend that is music to my ears! (and a big congrats to Julia for her podium finish! super pumped to have you on the OOB team, it's gonna be incredible!)

 

Rev3 Quassy, Heat, Hills and Humidity part 1

It has been a quiet few weeks (months?) in the racing department around here so even when we suddenly had a LEGIT 40 degree temp spike late last week it did little to deter my enthusiasm for the big 70.3 relay at Quassy.

Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows that I'm not a big fan of the heat, especially when it is a huge shock (going from 52 on Wednesday to 95 on Friday. Hello?)

Just gotta roll with it sometimes kids, and stay hydrated!

 

 

Team Shut Up Legs
Me for the run, Kate for the bike, Eric for the swim.
Don't be fooled by out cuteness, we are terrifying athletic beasts!

Kate and I drove down on Saturday in 98 degree heat, we consumed an absurd amount of Scratch and water in an effort to get a jump on the hydration. We were already sweaty which led to conversations about chaffing, which led to discussion of rashes and how they make us uneasy, which rather bizzarly transitioned to chat of horrific communicable diseases and their symptoms. WHAT? Yeah, just a normal conversation for us.

When we arrived the first thing we said to Eric and Andy had something to do with HIV which was a good conversation starter. Sweet Jesus....

Luckily things got somewhat more socially acceptable after that..

 

REV 3 FTW.
They put on a damn good triathlon.
Please lower the heat next time though...

The lake was the best place to hang out as it was legit boiling out.

We got to know the lay of the land, took in the athletes meeting (which was actually worth staying for and for the first time in my life I listened... What is happening to me!?)

Part of my compulsion to listen was this was my first time doing a Tri relay and I didn't want to f**k it up. I also had my ears open on Kate's behalf as it was her first race EVER and I figured (as most older sisters do) that maybe she'd be too nervous to listen or would have inherited my inability to pay attention in athletes meetings. As it turned out, she was fine.

We chatted as a team about what we thought we could bring to the table in such warm weather. Eric was not concerned about his leg for obvious reasons (if he started dehydrating he could just gulp some lake water after all) but since it has been 30 degrees out here in Maine open water swims have been almost non existent. Eric is a very good swimmer though and could do 1.2 miles with one arm tied behind his back so his estimation of a 35 minute finish seemed very reasonable.

Kate is a strong biker but hasn't had many competitive opportunities thus far. She openly admitted to having a whole list of cop outs should she need them "I just gave blood! I have a really bad back! I am undertrained! (and after the discussion in the car we had diagnosed any number of vile illnesses... hahaha) She really, really wanted to make it around the course in 3:30 and since Eric and I are dinks we kinda said "ummmmmm. about those hills?" She was adamant that she would not go one minute over 4 hours, not ONE DAMN MINUTE. Unless her lack of blood/a good back/training got the best of her. :-)

I straight up suck at running in sudden onset heat (that's MY cop out!) So I decided to run the half in 2:10.

That is a lie.

I said if it was flat (it WAS NOT) I could run it in 1:45-1:50. If there were hills (THERE WERE) 1:50-1:55.

It was, after all supposed to be well into the 80's.

 

We saved this turtle who was trying to cross the road.
This might not seem to apply to my race report but I love turtles!
When I saw him almost die there was much screaming...
I picked him up so that he did not have to climb this mountain and he RAN back to the woods.
Then, forgetting my fingers were all turtle-y I ate some pretzels and got nervous that I had turtle germs, haha!

A Perfect name for our team!
And it was justified, as well.

We wrapped up night one with normal activities. Eating tons of carbs at the OG, having a car dance party to old school rap, not allowing Andy to go to sleep early as he had hoped for because we needed to chit chat, read, take online tests for school, drink a glass of wine, put on our race number tats, ya know the usual.

However, with a 4AM alarm set we all crashed eventually. Crashed is relative as we were all a little nervous that our number tattoos would end up stuck to the sheets. They were a bit tacky, and did stick a bit which was alarming if you wanted to roll over but they made it thru the night!

And how would we fare in the intense heat and humidity the next day? Would we all make it over the legendary hills? Would Eric be able to make his swim goal with only a tiny handful of open water swims in 2013? Would Kate's lack of blood allow her to motor on the bike? Would I puke on the run? Stay tuned for the answers to these pressing questions!

 

 

NYC Marathon! Track workouts! Who needs AAA??

The good news of the day is that I seem to be the only person in the world to have snagged a NYC Marathon lottery spot. I consider this to be a stroke of amazing luck and am VERY excited to run another major Marathon in 2013. Yay! Yay. YAY!!!

 

In other news in between some of the worst Spring weather that we have had in years there have been some glorious days, although they have been few and far between.

My workouts have returned to a place of feeling mostly good, which doesn't mean that I go skipping out of the house in the morning singing a happy song about muddy miles (of crap, yes I do...)

Lots of kickass track miles. Some decent long (ish) runs! I'm feeling good and really excited to race at Quassy this weekend since my competitive opportunities have been few and far between lately.

 

OK. Before you all get bored and quit my blog here are some pictures of my best faces.

 

I totally did hurdles at the track. ALL the hurdles.

Giving anger fist to the track. I love the track so this was silly...
No really, I LOVE the track!!!
Seriously. I'm not joking.

Need a trailer tire changed? I'm your girl...

 As you can see I am a woman of many talents. Tire changing, yes. Hurdle jumping, yes (NO). Able to still run at a sub 7 pace, YES! Lottery luck, HELLS YES!

I'll be blogging with some actual purpose over the next few days as team Shut Up Legs prepares to travel to, and conquer the Rev3 Half at Quassy with great attitude, talent and style. Can't wait!

A Kickass Cycling Adventure!

I'm pleased to say that the past several days have been more acceptable in the workout department (and in normal everyday life. well, as normal as they can be around here!)

I had a couple of everyday- kinda- base- runs (my fav kind btw, 7-8 miles at 8:30 pace FTW!!) 

I also had a track workout which happened to be the first since November. I felt good and was happy with the numbers although looking back they were downright slow compared to what I was running this time last year. Like, way off pace! but now that I'm thinking back...

LET'S REFLECT shall we?: this time last year I was downright injured (from overdoing it) was still running 8x800's FAST (dumb) was still banging out 50+ mile weeks like it was NBD (dumb dumb) was racing almost weekly (dumby dumb) and was training for a marathon and to be crazy fast simultaneously. (oh gahd the humanity, wtf woman?!)

Ahem.

Suffice it to say, I may be slower but I am in zero pain. And have clearly grown as an athlete as well as a logical woman (I am eager for Eric to read that sentence as he may or may not agree...!)

Because I am on the brink of being a truly amazing multi sport athlete and therefore must declare my prowess on the mountains of the coast (yes they exist) I took my hot exclusive dating partner future hubs fiancee to Bah Hahbah for a 24 hour vacation.

When we vacation we cycle ALL the miles cos that's how we roll, bitches.

We started off the weekend right with TONS of pasta and champagne!

Looking out over Frenchman's Bay.
On a hella beautiful day, daaaaayum!
ACADIA I LERRRVE YEWWWWW!

Oh yes. We are a hot athletic couple!
By Thunder Hole. Many agreed that Thunder Hole is a TWSS.

I did get a little too excited when I walked by the MDI start!
I'm NOT wishing the summer away but I AM excited for October!

Anyway. We had a great time. It was a totally decent workout, obviously, as we cycled 28 something miles which is a lot for a lame-o like me. I mean a terrifying Bradley Wiggins type person, duh. If he married me and then changed his last name he'd be Bradley Bradley hahahaha. I kinda love him.

ANYWAY. This is about my vacation with my EDPFHF and not about my secret boy-biker-crushes (yeah, the abbreviation? try typing exclusive-dating-etc a few times and taking a shortcut seems fun!) It was a lovely day for a romantic bike ride up enormous hills and such. We stopped a couple times to take in the view, which was amazing as always but we kept up a pretty steady pace. No lounging, no slacking! We met up with a biker gang that I plan to join at a later date. Eric almost suffered an untimely death when a tour bus came very very close to running him down (crisis averted!) Many moments of excitement as you can plainly see.

Cycling doesn't kick me in the teeth quite like running but it sure makes me ravenous. Seriously,we got off the bikes and I was all "GIVE ME THE FOODS MUST EAT ALL THE THINGS!!!" which was terrifying to everyone within my general vicinity.

A really fun day though. Excited to go on more cycling adventures as the summer continues!   

Because sometimes you just need a day off. Or four.

The last couple of weeks have been a little strange.

 

After trying to recover from Boston, despite being VERY sick with the death plague that was going around my legs felt really great.

I zipped around the Duathlon feeling good and THEN. The following week I just hit the damn wall. I went 13 days without a rest day (this was obviously my own idiot fault, a couple sneaky nice day bike rides that might have been a little more challenging than scenic more or less pushed me over the edge.

 

Due to my chaotic schedule I also managed to have 2 "long" runs in 4 days. (long at this point is 11-13 miles. The kind of run that tricks me into thinking it is going to be cake then proceeds to kick me repeatedly in the face)

By last Thursday I was like EFFFFFF THIS NOISE FOOL!!!!! Did I mention that my equestrian coach is back, I have horses, kids and myself in full blown horse show training and have regularly been working 11-12 hour days????

 

Mini Me and I went to the horse show and rode fabulously.
Look at us! We can share outfits, it's ballin'!

I had a couple of optional workouts to do in the 3 days that I was competing/coaching and I passed on every single one. I was exhausted to the point when I start to feel grouchy and snappy, achy and pessimistic. This is totally not my norm but seriously dudes, it happens to the best of us.

Luckily, the show went very well. I can ride well no matter what my tired level is because it's my job to do so, and my occasionally rambunctious little equine really settled down for some quality arena time. And mini me kicked some booty in the JR division as well. Winning.

 

But then things got even more exciting.....

 

After a long show weekend we came home to a VERY sick dog...

After a very long night and a very long day, with many hours spent with the poor boy and his 104.9 fever and inability to walk we discovered that he was suffering from a bizarre autoimmune anemia (there were more words, lots of vet stuff but that was the take home message.) Luckily his prognosis sounds good, with some maintenance he should be healthy from here on out!

 

This 24 hour period of time did nothing to improve my mood and demeanor. Neither did it give me workout inspiration. (let's face it, even on an OFF day I have hours of manual labor. HOURS. I'm on my feet all day, I ride a half dozen freaking horses. Not restful.) I seriously considered sitting down, having a long sobbing cry and a mini meltdown.

Miraculously, just before this occurred Eric cleaned the whole house, did ALL the laundry and this act of extreme kindness restored order to my life. Sometimes that is all it takes! (actually it was a big deal, the house was a legit mess.)

So with a clean house, a healthy puppy and 4 days of "rest" I happily got back to my routine.

I hate reminders that I am not superwoman and honestly think it is bullshit that I am not, but every once and a while one just needs a couple days to get their act together!

Looking forward to a few fun things right now and am excited to have my mojo back.