4/28/2008

Eastern Shore weekend #2 is in the books. The 100+ milers all finished with minimal confusion and no flats! There was some sunburns, MyKaren decided to put on her own sunscreen and ended up with a strange (but painful) sunburn on her shoulder blades, complete with finger marks where she slapped on what she could reach. I obviously failed her as her Brazil sherpa, since I didn't make sure sunscreen was properly applied. Ouch. I rode 50 with some non-Brazillians and it was a fine, beautiful day for a 50 mile ride! Clear blue skies, bit of a head wind coming back to the lodge, but not too bad. After the ride, I actually did run for an hour, through the trails at Kiptopeke. I must say I was proud of myself, since the trails were grassy-sandy and there was no shade--it was a revisit to the worse race of my short tri career (Florida 70.3). And I conquered the ghosts of that race, so I was very happy with my hour shuffle.

The after ride party was fun, as usual! Much beer, wine and licquor was consumed, along with huge amount of meat and carbs. Alas, we did not get in a swim, Sunday dawned cold, windy and overcast, but I am sure I'll be getting in plenty of open water swims, starting with this weekend!

4/21/2008

Whew! That's for getting the long ride in on Saturday when the weather was perfect! I am pleased and relieved at riding 78 miles for my 2nd time riding outside this year, with no issues. I am a big fan of painful indoor cycling now, because I felt strong and, while not fast, faster than last year! My first few outdoor rides last year were very dissapointing, so this year I am happy! We managed to ride without a flat or any other mechanical issues. I did get us slightly lost (about 8 miles worth of lost), and we decided to change the last part of the route so that it wasn't 80+ miles, but I know where I went awry and next time I won't do that error. MyKaren was "riding" with us (which means she would try to come back periodically to us) for her 90 mile ride, and she did not get lost where we did, so she basically rode 70 miles alone. What a trooper! Oh, and then she ran 8 miles in the heat. My time will come for that, but not yet! Best part of the day...drinking beer and eating nachos and burgers at Legends afterwards. That's what I call training!

Yesterday in the middle of the thunder, some of us managed to get in a little swim. I swam a mile, which wasn't as far as I hoped to swim, but the weather was kind of stormy so we decided to cut it a bit short. Looking forward to White Lake, so I can relax afterwards for the remainder of May before the real training starts!

4/15/2008

Ahh, back from the land o' rain, hail, and cold fronts...otherwise known as the UK (London to be specific). Weather changes there more frequently than even here, which is hard to do! Trip was lots of fun, MyKaren had a personal best marathon, even though she was not running hard since it was only a long, slow training run. Plus, she even stopped to take pictures along her run by all the famous places in London. It only rained 2 times during her race, of course both were preceded by a precipitous drop in temperature, along with gusty winds, and in one case, serious hail. I missed the second rain, but did get drenched in the first (which occurred around mile 9). Lots of crazy people ran, including, but not limited to: many Supermen and Superwomen, lots of Spidermen, otehr strange superhero types whose purpose I could not guess, several gorillas and bananas, a Paddington Bear or two, some Gladiators, more fruit (hard to tell by the end what fruit they meant to be) and a few mostly naked runners. Amongst the celebreties: Hell's Kitchen's own Gordon Ramsey (3:45), and, of course the entire elite field of tiny men and women. There were a bunch of famous people, but only to Britons, I did not know any of them but Ramsey. There were also 6 tribesmen (can't remember from where, sorry) who ran (well they bounced and sang) the course all decked out with their spears, sheilds and home-made shoes of tire tread. They were interesting. the whole route had bunches of people, so sherpaing was difficult, plus I was a solo sherpa, which was kind of hard. I talked to people around me, but it wasn't the same as having some sherpa buds to hang with. The tube was CRAZY, but better than the NYC subway during that marathon. People were packed in like sardines, but more polite than NYC. All in all, it was a fun race to watch.

I did manage to get in a 14 or so mile run on Friday, running around Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and St James Park. I haven't done anything since, and I feel like a big fat lug. Uugggghh. Oh well, tonight the reset button gets pushed and off I go on the next phase of training!

4/7/2008

Earth shattering news...I was a bandit at the Monument Avenue 10K on Saturday. I've never done that before and it was fun! I got talked into it by my training peeps, and they pretty much kicked my butt doing a negative split on the actual 10K, but it was fun to run it. I have no plans on making bandit racing a career, but I figured that many people would bag it becuase of the rain, and I wouldn't be taking water from anyone who may need it and of course, I did not cross the finish line. Even though it was super crowded, I still felt like people were staring at me and my lack of a number. I went ahead and decided that my race number was 9866, so if I was asked, I would have a number handy. Anyway, the race was fun, I'm glad I got talked into it.

At Master's last week, there was a shaft of sunlight shining into our lane which was really cool, so I was completely distracted by that as I swam back and forth. I got new goggles because I forgot my other ones at the Y on Monday (along with my swim cap) and they are not fogging up yet, so I could see everything as I swam. I was looking at other swimmers and the sunlight, and it was really neat. Yesterday, I swam about a quarter mile in my wet suit (in the pool), and boy, does that make you fly! I loved it! It was like I was super fast! Of course, once I struggled out of it and continued my swim, I felt like a rock in the water. But, its all good, because for now, I do not hate swimming.