What Should I Wear…?

I am so excited to be doing the Tie Dye Tri with some friends this year. The last two years it's been just me, I could never convince anyone to sign up with me, and it makes for some pretty boring time between setting up your transition, checking in and actually starting the race.

Really, if you are going to strip down to your bathing suit and run across the Y parking lot, or use a port-o-potty when before the sun comes up, it's better to have a friendly face to complain about the cold or the darkness to. This year my friend Rochelle is doing it. This is her second time, but sadly I didn't know her last year.

This is Rochelle, back in the summer when we were both breaking in our new used bikes. I think this picture was after a 20 mile ride in the 100 degree heat. Boy do we look good.

Rochelle sent me this text yesterday…

She could never look like a fat ass. She is one of the most dedicated and fit people I know. But we decided that all tri suits have to be designed by men. And talk about expensive! I found mine on eBay for about half what it would have cost me in the store.

I feel so serious with my tri suit.

I got these Hannulink tri shorts…

And this Zoot tri top…

I am impressed with the quality of these items, and the deal I got on them, but really, who designs these things? I know that I don't have a weight problem, but the first time I put this outfit on I felt like I was wearing a sausage casing. I am perfectly comfortable in my Speedo bathing suit that I usually swim in, and I wore for last year's tri, but there was something about the shorts and top together that really made me rethink how I would look on race day.

I did wear it last Sunday for the brick workout we did, and I swam in it on Wednesday so I know that it fits well and is comfortable. I'll just have to get over how I think I look in it in my own mind. Maybe I'll be so speedy on Sunday I won't have time to think about it.

I’m not being lazy, I am tapering…

Last week I rode 20 miles, and I ran about 24 miles. This week I rode 12, and I have run 7. I did swim 1,200 yards yesterday, but other than that I haven't done anything.

I did get up this morning with every intention to run our 4.4 mile route from the Y, but the weather was stormy. I even had everything but my shoes on when the run was called for weather. (Patti texted me that she saw lightening.) Instead of just going to the Y and running on the dreadmill, or doing weights or something equally horrible, I crawled back into my nice warm bed and slept for another hour. About five minutes after I was back in bed it really started storming, and boy was I thankful that I wasn't out in it.

Regrettably, I missed an opportunity to use my rain jacket that I bought for the Memorial Marathon that I spent a million dollars on. Oh well, I'll just have to wait until next time.

So now my plan is to get up and run the 4.4 miles tomorrow morning, and then run an easy (Read: jog) 2 miles on Saturday morning. Then I plan on doing a little carb loading on Saturday, a lot of hydrating during the day, and having a glass of wine on Saturday night. 5:30 am is going to come awful early on Sunday and I think I'm good and ready for it.

Tie Dye Tri #3

This Sunday I will again be participating in the Tie Dye Tri, it's a sprint triathlon that is put on by the Norman Y. I am super excited to be participating again this year. (I guess if I am not doing the Redman Triathlon, I should probably be doing something.)

I thought I would take a look at my race results for the past two years. Here's the breakdown:

Date	Time	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
9/26/2009	1:29:49	0:08:14	0:03:59	0:48:43	0:01:19	0:27:32
9/26/2010	1:31:51	0:08:30	0:03:39	0:49:26	0:00:47	0:29:29

 

You might not be able to tell, but last year I didn't really train much for it. In 2009, I joined the training program at the Y, meet a couple of my favorite people, Tommy & Tara, and actually did a few brick workouts to get ready. The fact that I was terrified of screwing up really helped to keep me motivated to train that first year.

Last year I felt like an old pro. Ha ha! I think I might have ridden my bike to the OU Stadium a couple of times, ran the stairs and then rode my bike home. Nothing hard core though, and I think I only rode 12 miles on my bike once, maybe two times. The result was a little slower time. Can I defend myself by saying I ran my first half marathon eight weeks later? Probably not, but I did.

So here are my goals for this year's race…

• I would LOVE to swim a sub 8-minute 500.
  
• I would LOVE to not suck so bad with my first transition. Seriously, what am I doing for over three and a half minutes?
  
• I would LOVE to not completely suck on the bike.
  
• I would LOVE to run a sub 25-minute 5k.
  

Here's what I've done to help me meet those goals…

• I have gotten in some good swim workouts. Not just going in and swimming laps, but something a little more organized that actually got my heart rate up a bit.
  
• I bought a tri suit on eBay. (Love eBay!) I even swam in it this morning and I biked/ran in it on Sunday. Now all I have to do is get my Injinji toe socks on my wet feet in a timely manner and throw on my fancy bike shoes and go.
  
• I bought a better bike this year, and I know how to use it. Fingers crossed I can get both feet clipped in to my fancy pedals, but if not I am a pro at only being clipped in on one side.
  
• I have been running A LOT. My 12 mile bike/5k run on Sunday ended with a 5k in 24:48. Sadly, this is only about 20 seconds slower than the Brookhaven 5k that I ran just a few weeks ago, and I had ran 10 miles the morning before.
  
• It's taper time. I ran 4 miles Monday, slept in yesterday, swam 1,200 yards this morning (before they started lowering the temperature in the pool for Sunday), and I'm going to run about 4 tomorrow and 2 (READ: very slow) miles on Saturday.
  

So at 5:30 this Sunday morning, think of me, and hope that it's not raining or too cold as I set up my transition and get checked in for the race. One good thing about the snake swim in the pool is that it's seated by registered swim times which mean I am usually near the front. I can't imagine having to wait to be number 250 to jump in the pool. It sure seems unfair that #250 has to check in starting at 6 am too.

Camy and Carson’s 11th Birthday

I did a little experimental baking for the girls’ birthday this year.  We had dinner at my parents’ house and I made an Amaretto chocolate chip cake with a caramel filling and a rolled buttercream fondant icing.

I think that in all it turned out pretty good.  I am so used to making cupcakes and a cake seemed like a lot more work.  It was pretty sweet, although I think that is the point, and the caramel filling was a lot harder to keep inside the cake than I had planned, but it was pretty good.

 

 

 

For their slumber party there was a lot of baking going on.  First we had iced sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.

Then I did a little simpler cake, the chocolate chip cake but just buttercream icing for the filling.  My second attempt at the buttercream rolled fondant was a little better, and I am looking forward to some more practice.

The slumber party guests seemed to enjoy all the baked goods.

Brookhaven Run

On Saturday Josh and I went and ran the Brookhaven Run.  I just love this race, not only because it’s so close to home, it’s a great route and they always have a great turn out.  I was especially excited to have Josh and Rochelle running it this year.

Of course there were pre race pictures.  Kim came out and ran after a late night out on Friday. 

This is me, Kelli, Rochelle and Kim, before the start of the race.

I don’t think Josh has experienced the pre race pictures that happen when we run with Kim.

Josh, Kim, Rochelle and I having a pre race drink.  Not sure what the energy drink was they had out there but it was not good.

For me it was a great race.  I was pretty nervous since the last 5k I ran was the Heart for Haiti run where I had my PR.  Rochelle and I talked about it before the race and our plan was to just give it all we had.  At the start it got a little away from us as we were trying to get out of the pack, I looked down at about the mile mark and we were at about a 7 minute mile pace.  I knew we had to slow down, and we did.  I hadn’t planned on using the water stops but I had to have a little water at the first one, I was trying to calm myself down and settle into the run.

At every kilometer marker our pace was around 5 minutes, and when we hit the 4k mark we were at 19:30, after that point it was back into the neighborhood and Rochelle dropped back just a little bit.  I was very glad to see the finish line.

My official chip time was 24:29, I was 3rd out of 68 in my age group and 47th out of 417 women overall.  Not a bad race for me, and it was nice to know that the Heart for Haiti run wasn’t a fluke.

Josh did great too, finishing in 25:46, and 23rd out of 58 in his age group.

After the race the girls and I hit the outlet mall, and I ended up sleeping in and being lazy all day yesterday.  21 mile bike ride this morning with the girls and then a nice lazy day.  What a great holiday weekend.