Well That Didn't Work

Today is one of those days. I know they will happen, and there are more to come... but they are frustrating when they do.

It started off early with good intentions. Meet up with a couple of girls from the tri club to head to Poolesville and do a 50 mile loop. We get there and realize no one has a good cue sheet. Now I did prepare, print one off - but it said we would be on a dirt trail. When I e-mailed and asked, I was told it would be okay and other girl had done the route and didn't say anything about the trail. So, I didn't bother looking into it more.
I couldn't get my new water bottle to velcro so we tried to tie down... realized 20 minutes into the ride that it didn't work
We kept stopping trying to figure out where to go
I really had to go to the bathroom (even though we stopped to go before we started)
The major storm clouds were rolling in - but it wasn't supposed to storm until noon
And between all of this, I just didn't feel right. I had a bad gut feeling about the ride and decided to cut out after an hour when we wound up back at the cars. The other girls understood and took off to finish.

I don't quit, I don't. So I decided to flip my brick to today and do my long ride tomorrow, put on my running shoes and started to run. But I couldn't. Something wasn't right so I just headed home. BOO!!

I get back, there is a Uhall in my spot!! I just park behind it - completely exhausted and disappointed, and start to unload Marcus. Some guy comes out asking if it was my spot (duh) and he would move. I needed some good karma so I let him keep my spot to move in for the day and drove around for 15 minutes until I found a place to park.

Now I am awake and annoyed so I decided to finish my run. I head down the street and there is some "Hillary, let Florida votes count" rally thing going on and people will not move!! Blah! I don't want to get into a political discussion and in all honesty, don't completely know what happened. FL and MI wanted an early primary, the Dems said okay but it won't count, everyone was okay with it at the time, now some groups are not okay with that decision. Whatever, don't throw a sign in my face for Hillary as I am running down the street. My frustration level was really high and I went out way too fast. It did make me feel better though.

So this is my rant of the day. I kind of did a brick, but not really because there was an hour in between the bike and run. I wanted to swim, but from my life guarding days I know they close the pool when there is lightning, which it is about to start.

Just one of those days that makes me wonder what I got my self into and if I can really handle this for the next 3 months...

Ready for the Weekend

This was a good 4-day work week, but I am ready for the weekend. I had a but busier week than I would have liked, but there really wasn't anything I would change. BBQ's, birthday dinner, concert, and of course tonight - the best movie opening EVER. I really liked the show and didn't have many expectations going into the movie. Only that it was over past my bed time and I have a 50 mile ride tomorrow AND I am meeting people at 6:45 am...

Anyway, TOTALLY WORTH IT!! I did skip dinner and cocktails (cosmos of course) to get in a swim, but it's all about choices.

Happy weekend!

Update...

Oh snot rockets... how they come so easy to those super speedy bikers who pass me. It's almost as they are showing off with their 1-2 combo between nostrils.

It's getting better. It really is something I concentrate on just as much as my posture, foot position, dropping into aero, keeping my shoulders back, using my core, and not gripping my handle bars too hard.

So today's ride was 75-90 minutes with 30 minutes in the middle 'comfortably hard'. My first 30 minutes were a warm up and practice. I think it has to do with my head angle and direction of the wind. I realized that when going one direction it was really good and another was on my shoulder. But I am back to having hope.

And I started practicing on my runs too - today on my tempo run on The Mal,l and most hit a kid who ran in front of me. Is it wrong that I didn't feel bad about it??? Kids have to learn not to run in front of people - and if they do, they might get hit with a snot rocket.

Sorry So Late with Yesterday's Post

I was distracted by a concert at Wolf Trap.

Ben Folds is awesome. "Wry, witty, alternative pop pianist returns to Wolf Trap."
And I enjoyed the show after an 8.5 mile run. Woo-Hoo!!

I Didn't Realize I Cause So Much Drama

First of all, Coach didn't praise me with how great I did this weekend. It's okay though, I know he thinks I am wonderful and making great progress.

He did gave me the day off so I thought I would run a few errands. Included, another trip to Conte's. I bought Blain all those toys and haven't used them yet (expect the box). The water bottle needed an adaptor and when I bought it, the guy at Conte's said to "just follow your intuition, the directions suck". Well, me and intuition with bikes in general are not good. He just said to bring it in with the bike if I had any problems.

2 hours after staring at the parts and directions, I decided another trip was needed. But first, I had to keep up my good relationship with cookies!!

Now, I would like to make some, it's the one thing I can make thanks to my moms recipe, but decided to just keep buying the good bakery cookies from the store. So I walk in with Blain, the water bottle and parts, and cookies. They get excited and 2 of the guys fight over putting the water bottle on for the cookies.

Yes!! It works! They know who I am by the one who openly bribes them with food.

Well the owner pulls me a side, laughing, to tell me a story. Apparently, the last time I was in with store bought cookies, there was another girl there who does the same thing - but bakes. Apparently after I left, all the guys tore into the cookies and she got mad that mine were store bought and hers were made from scratch. I guess she didn't think we should be put in the same category. The owner laughed at the 5 minutes of drama.

Too funny. Whatever, they didn't charge me for installing my water bottle or flipping out the cleats on my shoes. Love it!!

Couldn't Have Asked for Better

First of all, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!! I hope everyone is having a safe and happy 3 day weekend.

The weather around here was perfect! 70's, sunny, blue sky, and very low humidity. As much as I would have liked to fully enjoy the BBQ's and baseball games and everything else that screams Memorial day weekends with drinks and food, I had great workouts. Don't get me wrong, I am learning how to hang out with friends and drink Propel and water, eat grilled chicken, while they have beer and cocktails and fried foods - and still have a great time.

For this year and training, this weekend I had my 2nd longest run on Saturday (8.7 miles), longest open water swim (2 miles) on Sunday and longest bike EVER on Monday (47.6 miles).

My knees hurt, my back hurts, my neck is sore, my butt hurt REALLY bad during the biking, I am tired - but overall, I feel great. To do those 3 activities in 3 days and feel great about it - big booster.

Nothing New on Race Day

First of all, what a beautiful day! Perfect day for an open water swim.

Anyway, nothing new on race day, that is usually my rule. However, do to a comment on yesterday's post, I decided tot give ear plugs a try. THANK YOU REBECCA!!! The CVS was open on my way to the race so I hopped in to find some ear plugs. I figured if I didn't like how they felt, I would just pull them out, drop them in the lake and keep swimming.

I get to the start and things aren't going well. I am dropping everything trying to pick up my packet, realized I forgot my watch and preferred goggles, and left all my 'valuable' stuff in my bag (not in the car). And I am in the 3rd last wave due to the fact I put down an odd estimated time. Blah!

Head to the start and line up with all the others in the back. Chatted with some DC tri club people and others around me. Just remind my self that this is for fun and will be fine. I put the ear plugs in and head into the 64 degree water. I get started with no watch and decided to practice Zen swimming. After the first turn I am feeling okay. I hit the first buoy and doing well on my sighting. Then I realize, no dizziness!! The ear plugs were working!! This was great.

On the straight away, I start to get passed by the first wave - aka super speedy people. Once I make the turn and start the second lap, things are cleared up again. I did slow down and check the clock and wasn't thrilled with my first mile time, but didn't hate it either. The second lap I did worse on sighting and felt all over the place. And I got hungry.

When the race was over, I guess I felt okay with it all. Very little dizziness, good sighting on the first lap, and as Jess pointed out - I didn't sink. Some wise words from Mom helped too, not every race will be a personal best. I just need to be happy with the fact of what I am doing, and all is leading up to September 7.

OH - and if I was 30, I would have been third. If I was 24, I would have been second! Instead, I was 8 out of 8 in my age group. Go figure...

I Just Get so Dizzy

I just finished my swim clinic and 1 mile practice swim. I must say, I was pretty disappointed. The 'clinic' was okay. They just had a few people talk and give pointers along with a Q&A. I met a few DC Tri club people and we headed off in waves to do the 1 mile course.

My goal was to work on my sighting and not do as much breaststroke every time I check to see if I am on course. That part did seem to go much better and I every time I would start to feel dizzy, I would just relax, breath, and focus. It was pretty bad at Columbia and I thought I was doing better. Not so much. As soon as I rounded the last buoy, it really hit. I almost fell over when I was getting out of the water. Just not sure how to make that better.

Then I looked at my time. Boo!! Really REALLY slow!! I know I wasn't pushing, but still, just really off for me. Hopefully tomorrow will go better - both with the time and with being dizzy.

Okay, enough procrastinating and off to my 2 hour run.

Sleep Sleep Wonderful Sleep

Yup, can you guess what I did AGAIN last night. I still think it's worth it.

Not too much to report for today. Just happy it's the Friday of a 3 day weekend.

I would like to say I am relaxing this weekend, but here is my schedule

Saturday - open water swim clinic (it won't look like this, I just thought it was a great picture)
1 mile swim practice
2 hour run
Brewers vs. Nationals game
Sunday - 2 mile swim race
BBQ
Monday - 3 hour bike ride
Friends b-day dinner

I am excited, but this doesn't live much time for sleeping in. Hopefully there will be time for a few naps.

Have a great weekend!

Ouch... My Back... I Paid for the Pain

So my back has been a bit twingie, especially when I bike, and I wanted to back to my (H-O-T) chiropractor. He fixed me the last time I was having back problems so I thought I would try again. I explained what I was doing, we had the "are you crazy" exchange, and he got started. Dang, I can't believe I pay to have the pain he puts me through - but it worked last time so hopefully it will again.

I was by Conte's so I stopped in to get Blain some new toys. The other bikes were laughing at him and his big bike bag, I felt bad so bought him a new one for races - Why not every ride use - I can't fit all my stuff, I carry a lot of stuff when I bike. And I bought him a new Bento box. And a new water bottle.

Yup, all for Blain...