Almost outta here!

Well I'm off on vacation/graduation/insanity tomorrow. Looking forward to being on vacation...it is shaping up to be a busy and I am sure quite interesting trip. I might be checking in here and there, but I'll be back come June.

This week has been decent training wise. I have neglected to update my sidebar, but anyway. I've gotten three days of crossfit in and plan to go for a 4th and got some running (not much) in too.

Yesterday's crossfit workout was 3x800m sprints and unfun core things like L-sits and Hollow-rock tabata's. They just suck. The sprints...I really wish that we were on an actual track because I pulled out a 3:10, 3:19 and 3:18 for my sprints...that makes me scratch my head a little bit cuz that would possibly put a single mile in that 6 zone. Hmmm...me thinks the 800m is off. Seems a little ludicrous to me. I am thinking of doing a mile trial out in MA as I've got some time on my hands and I know where there is an available track. Just for kicks. We will see if I get to it or not.

Today's crossfit workout was good. My weightlifting shoes finally came in so I got to use them. They were pretty fun.

Started with PowerCleans 3-3-3...don't really like those mainly because I don't have the form down and I think that is inhibiting my ability to do them properly.

Then onto 3 rounds of:
50 squats
7 Muscle ups
10 Hang power cleans

Muscle ups are incredibly difficult in my book. I had one of the biggest rubber bands for assistance (although I think I could have gone down a band). Not that I am really one to gauge any strength off of, I'm pretty weak all around, but some exercises will just punctuate how weak I am. This would be one of those.

Off to pack.

The Cream-o-Wheat Debacle

So, if you have been reading this here blog for awhile, you might be familiar with my oh so talented manners of injuring myself. I think it is genetic. Truly...my family has more, ahem, creative ways of injurying one's self...but I am getting ahead of myself.

My morning started off like many mornings do. Me...fighting with myself over A) getting out of bed and B) going to get my workout in. This morning was the same it went a little like this in my head:

Get out of bed! Get OUT

noooooooooo, let me hit the snooze.

Get OUT

(snooze is hit and shortly there after when the snooze goes off) come ON you only have so much time before you are going to miss Crossfit.

More grumbling.

I actually briefly lost this argument this morning, RESET my alarm for later and had planned PERFECTLY to skip crossfit, and when I went to lie down...I said no way and forced myself up and out of the door. I have no idea how it happened...but I did win in the end.

I got to Crossfit for a pretty nasty workout. First we lifted HEAVY (that's all the board said) Overhead Squats (OHS). These are my not-so-favorite type of squat. I still only managed to increase my weight from last time, but only to a measly 42lbs. Then onto the workout. It looked like this:

OHS 21
Pullups 42
OHS 15
Pullups 30
OHS 9
Pullups 18

Women were supposed to lift 65lbs, but since I could barely lift HEAVY 42lbs, I changed it down to 32lbs. Oddly by the last set of OHS, the weight felt lighter.

The pullups...well they sucked big time. I managed to do the first two sets of them kipping style with a middle amount of assistance from a rubberband, but by the time I got to the last set of 9, my left hand was having none of that. In the past I have sorta torn my callouses on my hands, but it was more like the callouses separated from the derma below the skin but didn't actually rip the skin on my hand open. Not so lucky this time. The callous on my left hand ripped itself open and now my hand had a rip in it. This lead to the debate...what now?

I could: Quit (but I didn't want to nor did I think that would fly), do the pull ups kipping style anyway even though my had was hurting like no other or do strict pullups. Strict pull ups won...so I grabbed a thicker rubber band to assist and pathetically attempted 18 strict pullups. Those were pretty pathetic and I think I got more 'oh I tried therefore that counts' than actual pull ups done. But whatever. I was in pain at this point and starting to run late for work.

I finished the workout in 24 mins and raced off to work. Some days I will have some breakfast and eat it in the car and some days I just wait til I get to work and go to the cafeteria where they have breakfast to buy. They have Cream-o-Wheat or Oatmeal and even have many other options like fruit and yogurt or even a breakfast burrito or eggs/bacon/ect. I typically will head to the large soup container that has the Cream-o-Wheat in it. Lately I've had a crush on the Cream-O-Wheat.

As I am ladle-ing the cream-o-wheat into my bowl I look away for a moment and then manage to ladle some VERY, VERY HOT cream-o-wheat onto my index finger and my middle finger of my left hand. Strange conversations go through my head in a time of crisis.

OWWWWCH....MAKE THE PAIN STOP.

Hmmmm...really should the cream-o-wheat be that hot that it really hurts that much?

OH MY GOSH I DON'T CARE IF IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE THAT HOT OR NOT GET THE FREAKING CREAM-O-WHEAT OFF OF THE HANDS. THE HANDS...GET IT OFF OF THE HANDS.

oh...um...so...how?

GRAB A FREAKING NAPKIN...PULL IT TOGETHER GIRL!


I manage to get the cream of wheat off the fingers and have enough wits about me to also grab some ice before I head back to my cube. Now my fingers are throbbing. The only way I can even keep the pain mildly manageable is if I keep them in the ice. During the incident I immediately lost about 1/4 of an inch of skin from just about the finger nail on my middle finger and my other finger I was already getting a blister. Yes...I had second degree burns on my skin and it FELT like it.

Over the next two hours I attempt to do my work and mainly keep those fingers in ice. It is only after I go and fill up with some ice again that I bother to google the First Aid on treating 2nd degree burns. I forgot you aren't supposed to put ice on second degree burns and it turns out that if you have them on your hands you prolly should see a doctor...IMMEDIATELY . Instead I ask the certified first responders at my office to have a look and see if I really should see a doctor. I am told that as long as I am able to keep an infection out of the burn area and since the burns are on the back of my fingers that I should be OK and not need to see a doctor unless the pain is unbearable or I get an infection down the line. The pain, I'll be honest, was borderline unbearable. For most of the day, if my fingers weren't in ice or above my head they felt like they might explode...literally. It was more like that feeling when you slam your fingers in the door...but it wouldn't go away...at.all.

So today was one of those "sliding doors" moments (ref the movie Sliding Doors) in life where I just thought...well...if I had just climbed back into bed like I had attempted to, I wouldn't have ripped my left hand callous open or dumped Cream-o-wheat on my left hand either. Sigh. That's how it goes sometimes though.

Come ON let's GO!

Yesterday I had the brilliant (ahem) idea of doing a tri today. Actually, it turned out not to be such a bad idea, but it was totally spur of the moment too. There was a sprint (750m swim, 20K bike and 5K run) up in Encinitas which isn't too far from me...so I said hey let's give it a go and see where I'm at racing wise this season.

The Swim
I have never done a running surf entry in a tri. Actually as I stood on the beach this morning I realized I haven't swum in the ocean in the last 9 months since I moved here. Watching the heafty waves crash in, I realized that this might just be a survival sort of swim. 7 o'clock came and we were shortly off there after. The plan: don't fight the surf, even if I went really, really slow it was more important not to wear myself out on the surf. I finally got through the surf and the rest of the swim til I returned to the surf wasn't too bad aside from the fact it was salt water. Yuck. Not a fan. When I got back to the surf zone, things got a little interesting. I attempted to body surf when I could but I missed one wave and sorta got sucked under the water, which I soon discovered is a bit scary. I realized I was starting to hyperventilate after that happened and had to calm myself down before I continued on.
Time: ~18 minutes. A little on the slower side for me, but not terrible for me either.
T1: something stupidly long like 5 minutes. Dang hill.

The Bike:
Started off fine, got my legs spinning nicely and was just trying to get blood flowing before I started pushing it hard. Had some agro-male jerk decide to pass me on the right side (there was plenty of room on the left) and I gently (yes this was gently...not snarky) pointed out that he needed to pass on the left. There were a lot of newbies, so I was more just trying to be nice and let him know. Really...I wasn't throwing an attitude...well at first at least. The exchange went a little like this:

Me: Next time please pass on the left. (insert in a nice voice)

Him (in an overly aggressive voice): MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. IT ISN'T YOUR BUSINESS.

Me (a little more snarky this time): WELL you CAN get DQ'd for that!!

Him: MIND YOUR OWN FREAKING BUSINESS.

Ok...while he was passing me, I wasn't even sure if his helmet was buckled and it was then that I:

A)WISHED I was sooooooooooo much faster so I could MOP him on the course and

B) Secretly hoped he would get DQ'd...the jerk....i actually was just trying to help and initially I really wasn't coping an attitude (I promise). There aren't too many rules in triathlons and many are there for safety so it sorta pisses me off when people act above the rules. I don't always point out when someone is breaking a rule, but he was endangering me as we were in a narrow area as I had just come out of a tight left turn and getting ready to go into a right turn I was trying to get back into a 'hug the right side of the road' position AND he had enough room to pass me correctly on the left. His attitude: totally un-necessary.

The bike was ok. Two loops and planned the first loop...push til you feel the lactic acid burn, and second loop go a little harder. It felt slow to me. I realized I wouldn't care if my biking was slow as long as it didn't feel so dang slow...so I was sorta bummed in a way. Funny thing about Wildflower was that since it was so hilly when you weren't going UP a hill you were coming DOWN one so at least I felt faster...even though I had a way slower avg speed.

Avg speed:~16.5mph...not stellah for me, but not terrible for me either.

T2: Volunteer yelled at me to exit with my bike a different way. Sorry lady, i'm coming OFF the bike...then got disoriented and lost my spot. Lame.

The Run:
A two loop 5K. Not really much to say. Legs were typically heavy...had no idea how I was faring, but my hip felt great! So that was a bonus.

Run: ~26 something...which was such a surprise and made me feel really good about the run. That's a sub 9mpm which is great considering my battle with my psoas this winter and all of that stupidity. It means that I am getting back to my 2006 run times, and even bike times. That makes me happy.

Total: 1:35ish?

Overall:

I don't really know what to think about my times to be honest. I saw them and kinda thought...oh, same old same old...but since the race this morning I have kept reminding myself that same old same old is great...why?? Couple of reasons:

1) It's only May and I'm putting speeds up that I typically wouldn't see until the end of a race season in my previous seasons. Yea!

2) I'm getting over a freaking injury that has caused all sorts of set backs physically and mentally...so to BE posting times that are competitive with what I used to be doing, especially on not a whole lot of training going on in my life...wooohoo!

I'm glad I did it. I am reminded of alllllll the areas I need to work on, but I had fun over all.

Last minute

Um...yea...this morning around 10am, I thought "hey...there is a tri up in Encinitas why not do it tomorrow? It's a sprint...doable right?". Ooooooookay. No thought. No planning. No specific training. Just went up there this afternoon and registered and well...I will have a race report tomorrow I guess.

The race is more like a swim-run-bike-run. The run to transition I swear is 1/4 mile UP a big hill. Reminds me of Webster, MA tri's big ol' run to transition, never could get a T1 less than 6 minutes on that race. It should be fun. But the rest of the bike and run are really flat. Only interesting part may be that whole never done a surf entry sort of deal. Not freaked out about it, more concerned about wasting energy. I got a quick 101 on the 'how-to's ' of a running surf entry when I went and signed up. I'm a lucky one I guess, open water doesn't really freak me out...i'm not fast by any imagination, but the whole swimming in open-ness isn't huge to me. Now that being said...i'm used to fresh water places where the, uh, wildlife isn't so keen to hang out with you. Nasty jelly fish or sting ray's floating around could freak me out a little, but I think I will be ok. I think I'm more concerned about the other racers kicking me to be honest and that is in any tri.

So the plan...plan...what plan? Go fast as I possible can. That may look like I'm riding backwards to some people...but hey, whatever. And my other plan is to get my groove back. Wildflower sorta got the spirit of racing back in my blood and I hope tomorrow is much more of the same.

Training this week, oh...wait...it is triathlon season. hahaha. One day I will get my head in the game. It may take awhile, but that's ok.

Please make it stop!

Thanks for all the encouraging comments about my silly crossfit workouts...I have to laugh when I hear "that's bad ass or hard core" because I surely do NOT feel that way the next day when I am almost sliding down the banister because I can barely walk down the stairs. I felt a bit like E.T. the past couple of days as I've just constantly been saying:

oooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwch!

Walking hurts, sitting down hurts, walking down the stairs hurts....a.LOT. Stupid wall ball squats. I think the mental game that I have with crossfit is that I keep thinking that one day I will be strong enough not to be so immobilized by a workout, but I'm not sure if that ever will actually happen as I hear seasoned crossfitters describing days they have difficulty walking down stairs. This time there was no Delay Onset Muscle Soreness...it was more like...immediate soreness that night and it never stopped. I went for a run on monday evening and started to feel the soreness creeping in from the AM crossfit workout...and the rest of the week has been me hobbling around. One person at work asked me if I was trying out a new 'walk'...hahaha. Not.so.funny.

But yes, this is the big downside to crossfit. It can really mess up your other training.I did get a 4 mile (painful) run in today...but it was pretty ugly and pretty slow. I am listening to my body when it complains...and basically will give it way if I am having trouble with normal things like, say walking.

In other funny news, I suddenly found myself as the captain of my 10K MudRun team that is in a month...how that happened I have no idea. I am the newest employee on the team (as it is one of my corporation's team) and somehow when the captain dropped out, it was all me. That is in just over a month! Very exciting.

New shoes

I just bought a pair of new shoes. Not new running shoes. Not new cycling shoes...no...I bought a pair of WEIGHT LIFTING SHOES.

This is my thought: WHAT HAS COME OVER ME???

I don't know. This whole crossfitting thing is so funny to me at times, because I never, never, in my life imagined that I would be attempting to consistently lift 80-90% of my max on certain lifts, and then go and BUY weight lifting shoes.

Last week at Crossfit, one of the other woman had mentioned that I would probably do a lot better in weightlifting shoes. A lot of our workouts consist of first doing a warmup with some running, squats, pushups, pull ups, ring dips, sit ups (GHB), back extensions, then after the warm up on some days we will have one lift where we will go between 80% and Max weight for a specific lift, like a back squat and then into a timed workout. There are days where all we do are powerlifts, but many of the days we will also have a workout of the day (WOD) that are 'rounds' of something. Here is what today looked like:

Backsqats: 5-5-5...take 85% of your max and add 5 lbs (came to 119lbs for me)

Then the WOD (which was timed)was:
25 Sumo Deadlift high pull (explanation video) (55lbs for women)
25 wall ball squats (14 lbs)

While we were lifting backsquats, the instructor/owner also mentioned that I would benefit from weight lifting shoes...so I thought...sure...why not. Even doing squats without shoes was sorta unstable as I kept wiggling around. If you are just lifting and not doing a WOD that requires running or something like that, then typically you are encouraged not to keep your shoes on as running shoes will push you on your toes and make the lift even more difficult.

The most interesting thing happened to me while lifting. Keep in mind with weight lifting I am new to the concept of knowing my max, using a % of my max, lifting heavy, ect. So here I am, with what turns out to be a somewhat heavy, but manageable weight for me attempting these lifts...and in the middle of the lift I got this RUSH of adrenaline. Isn't that cheating? I mean, adrenaline is for when you really, really need some quick strength, you know fight or flight...but my body resorted to that in the middle of my back squats. It was the weirdest experience for me. I don't know why it was weird. I am sure I've had a rush of adrenaline while doing other crossfit workouts/bike rides/runs but this was one of those experiences where I just could feel the difference after it happened and while it was happening. My body didn't realize I wasn't in a dire situation when I was struggling to get that bar back up, apparently it thought I was in distress.

Then it was onto the WOD...which...in a word: sucked. It was when I was driving to work after crossfit that I realized why i like crossfit...aside from the fact I really enjoy the people there, I also like that when I am in the middle of a really, really sucky workout...there is no other option but to finish. And when I finish...the sense of accomplishment that comes over me is worth the suckyness of the workout (mostly). I have just learned to keep plugging away even when I'd rather not. Today was one of those workouts. The deadlift high pull's weren't too bad but those stupid wall ball squats. I think they are unfair because you have to hit this target that is somthing like 10-12 feet up in the air...and being shorter (5'4") I have further to throw the stupid ball. OK...I guess that if I was 6 foot than I could complain that I have to squat further down...but I'm going to whine about having to throw the stupid ball so far up because, well...because I'm pathetic at actually hitting the target. I guess the 'solution' should have been to use a lighter medicine ball...but I don't actually think I'd get away with that. I am finding I don't get to use the 'new kid' card much these days. I'm not that new any more...been there for 5.5 months now. Wow.

Back in the swing of it

I had planned on a lot of things this week. Some yoga, nice swimming but life has really gotten in the way of all of that and I have also just been tired from the weekend, so I took it easy (read: I did nothing until today). But I managed to find my way back to crossfit today.

We did Overhead Squats 5-5-5. THESE.ARE.HARD. I felt so unbalanced most of the time and a wimp the rest of the time. Because getting the balance right is slightly difficult in the early stages of learning them, so you don't load up the squats much until you have the form right. My max back squat weight is 135 or so...And when we are doing 5-5-5 reps I'm doing around 115-120lbs. Today with the overhead squat...33lbs. And I felt like I *might* be able to put maybe 5 or 10 lbs on and...well...not much more. They are more awkward than anything else and I didn't feel like it was all that heavy, but the whole action of the squatting down makes them REALLY hard.

Then our WOD was 5 rounds for time:
15 Hang Power Snatches (video of demo)
Run 400m
Time: 17:04

Again...totally wimpy weight of 33lbs for the hang power snatch (women were supposed to do 65lbs), but form is more important and now I have that pretty well squared away actually. What was giving out on the hang power snatch was my forearms, none of my other muscles actually were complaining. Odd. I probably could have done a heavier weight and taken a longer time. Next time.

One of the other woman mentioned that she's noticed that typically once I get my form squared away after the first few pulls of any lift, that I gain a lot more of my strength and can probably lift more than I am doing in general. Things to think about.

Ahhh and I get to go on vacation here in a mere two weeks. Pretty excited.

Wildflower...its not *just* about the race

Wildflower is about the whole weekend. It's not only about whatever race one does. It's about the camping the wandering aimlessly around for a day waiting for your race (or after your race depending on which one you do) and hoping...hoping...hoping you are hydrating properly if you are racing on the second day. (I do have some pics for the post...but I forgot my cable at work...so I'll update a little later) So...even though I only did the relay of the bike leg of the Olympic distance...this is a long post. Scroll down to Sunday if you only want to read the RR. Pretty long RR for *just* the bike leg of a relay...but whatever.

Friday

Friday I got off work at 12 and headed up with my friend N and her boyfriend T. It is about a 6 hour drive from SD up to Wildflower...I had no idea where I was going so far north until I saw signs for Fresno and said "where are we?". The ride up was pretty uneventful for us, unfortunately the car that had my bike had difficulties with one of the bikes and it ended up needing a new wheel when we got up there. Yikes. We set up camp, met up with a few people my friends knew and then eventually called it a night.

Saturday
If you venture to Wildflower, it is camping in higher elevation. It may get hot during the day, but it sure gets cold at night. I slept poorly and was pretty cold that night. When really really early in the morning came, I was awakened by someone running....what? Out for a jog at dark 30 o'clock on your race morning? OK...who knows if that person was racing, it was all a little odd though especially since when the sun actually came up it was more like 6am which meant they were running at 5 something am. Go back to bed people.

Saturday, we spent most of the day hanging down at race central area where we did manage to watch some of the pro's come in. Reading about protriathletes and then seeing them is always a disjointed affair for me because they just look like any other skinny, tan, superfit-triathlete in a tri-suit out there...they just are coming in first place in 4:00:43 (that's just crazy fast)for 'Macca who from the sounds of the announcers had been battling it out with Chris Lieto and Eneko Llanos from Spain as the announcer said at 3:40...that Lieto was in first at that point. McCormack was checking his shoulder down the whole shoot...so it appeared that it had been a pretty tight race.

The race central was pretty cool with some bands playing and the food not being too, too bad. We ventured out for a swim at one point. For me it was to cool off as I would not be swimming the next day, but everyone else was swimming the next day so sorta a warm-up...as they were all ex-swimteam superstars they zoomed around as I just sorta flopped around in the water...as I do...and called it a swim stroke. We headed back to our campsite for dinner and as we were finishing up...about 30...yes 30...streakers, men and women came running through our section of the camp site. They don't call it the 'woodstock of triathlons' for no reason. There had been some 'practice' streaking the prior evening, but it was dark the previous night and it was not so dark on Saturday.

Sunday















(total elevation gain +2219/-2219 ft, lowest point on this map 800ft highest point 1175ft, no it is really hilly, it doesn't just look that way)

People had completely freaked me out about the bike at Wildflower, even for the Olympic distance. I had heard heard: "Ohmygosh it is so hard" "The hills" "The heat" and on and on and on. I had studied the bike course profile. I went so far as to map out every freaking hill on the 40K and figured out their % grade. And then obsessed over where to put the map on my bike. I admit it...I can sometimes be overly






(THE map)

dramatic...because I think it is sorta funny...so saturday when we decided not to drive the course I got slightly overly dramatic. Needless to say, I felt like a dork, because how do you explain that you were actually 90% kidding only 10% serious about your own neurotic behavior, I mean I had obsessed all afternoon about how to tape the stupid map I made to my bike...if I were on the other end of it...i'd think "freakshow"...but whatever, i digress. That's me...a bit type A, slightly a dramaqueen, and a planner. Because at the end of the day...I knew it would be fine. I'd feel better if I got to see the course but I also knew it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't see it either. Besides, i didn't have to run after the bike so I could just go as hard as I could possibly sustain and just deal with the ramifications later.

But I will admit...all the studying of the map, and succumbing to other people's fear mongering of the bike course I had no idea how fast I could go, or even if I would be 'swept' off the course. Being in a relay, we were in the last heat of the day which meant no one behind us...so that wasn't a good thing either for someone freaked out about how hilly the course was. I figured that since I'm not a very fast biker on the flats, (I only average between 15-17mph)...that the supposedly hilly, hilly, ohmygosh hilly course, might even kill me. I was hoping to both finish in one piece and under two hours. I figured I might be able to do 12.5 mile avg speed for a hilly bike, right? RIGHT? I had a few deep seeded fears that I might not even make that.

One of the steepest hills is Lynch Hill...that is about oh, 300m into the ride. It's 7-10% grade for about 3/4 of a mile. As I was riding my bike down to transition I thought "This is lynch hill??"...I was UNIMPRESSED. Now, don't get me wrong...it is a solid hill, but sorta unimpressive at the same time. Knowing that this was the steepest hill, I sighed a bit of relief.

Now being in a relay we had TWO HOURS from the time the race started til our heat left. I had gotten there early as I had an irrational fear that even though for the long course they hadn't closed transition to people with their bikes later in the morning, I irrationally thought they might this morning. So I got down there way too early and had to sit around for quite awhile.

And the memory of why I enjoy racing started to come back. The scores of people looking anxious and excited. The relay teams that take themselves WAY too seriously as their biker is warming up on a trainer. There just is a great excitement that just bubbles everywhere. It made me smile to be a part of it.

Finally our heat was up. My friend took off, she thought she'd be done around 24mins...so I watched her take off...and made my way back to my bike. The first swimmer from the relay heat came out in something stupidly fast...like 18 minutes. AND:

It.was.on.

The relay teams were bouncing around looking anxiously for their swimmer as people started to come in. My friend showed up and I was off.

I got up Lynch hill and thought 'hmmm this isn't too bad'...and proceeded on my merry way. Most of the hills I tried to just keep the cadence high and if i started to feel the lactic acid burn more on the uncontrollable side of things I employed the 'waltzing' technique. I managed to drop my chain in a stupid section...i wasn't even on a hill...but my gearing was acting a little odd all day long and had me worried at times (but i think it was more operator error than gearing problems). The miles were flying by and I was having a lot of fun. I should point out that aside from not having driven the bike course I also had managed to misplace my HRM so I really felt like I was flying blind. And it was the BEST thing for me. I just pushed until my legs burned and I was breathing hard and tried to hold that as best as I could.

I was getting near the turn around section and an aid station was up ahead. I was running low on one bottle of fluid so I decided to try to take a bottle of water from a volunteer. I've never done this before and was slightly unnerved with the thought, but I just pointed at the guy holding the water, said "WATER" held out my hand...he ran with me, and I got it...easy peasy. I know this sounds storta stupid, but it is something that has always sorta freaked me out. Completing such a smooth hand off made me feel even more like a rockstar. Icing.

After I got to the turn around, on the way back I could feel my legs starting to complain a little more, I waltzed a bit more up the hills. For the most part I typically would pass a bunch of people on the hills and but not get passed too frequently on the flats so my fears of being swept off the course were put to sleep early on. Being in the last wave can be a confidence booster as there are not as many people behind you to potentially pass you either. I'll take it.

As I flew into transition down Lynch hill that rush of adrenaline that comes from a race well executed came back to me...and left a smile on my face that in all honesty hasn't left me. I looked down at my time to see I was WELL under 2 hours and even had an average speed close to 14.5mph. I was pretty ecstatic.

I handed off the chip to my friend who was doing both the swim and the run...and reveled in my accomplishment for the day. My thoughts on the hills: They deserve respect as they can be a bit relentless at times, but WAY over stated. I trained on hills and in lots of headwinds (and lots of squats:-) ) preparing for this race so I was prepared physically for them, but overall the course reminded me more of the hills in Western MA and in VT...and what I typically used to train on. I also grew up biking every.single.day of summer up a mile long 7% hill as that is what I lived on, so being 12 and refusing to walk my bike up the hill apparently was a good for future mental hill training. No i'm not fast on the hills, but I don't let them boss me around either.

Most importantly I started to remember why I love tri's and racing. I've been in a muddle lately with recovering from my injury and just adjusting to a new surrounding and I rediscovered the joy of race mornings, mental preparations, training, and tri's in general this weekend. I'm looking forward to Wildflower next year I will definitely at least do the Olympic. I am also more pumped to race this season.

To sum it up: The weekend rocked.


My oh so sweeeet FREEE Headsweats visor I scored.

Wildflower...the quick update

Wildflower

It rocked.

I exceeded my expectations.

It was just what I needed.

I have begun to remember what I love about racing again.

More later, i'm tired.