Last Brick

Today, I did my last brick before the duathlon on Saturday.  I wanted one more before Saturday, but didn't want to do anything too strenuous so I didn't injure anything.  Goal was 1 mile run/5 mile bike. 

It was a rough 6 miles, but I got them all in.  I almost didn't.  My run started off great!  I felt like I had a good pace and was all excited.  Then I realized I didn't hit the start button hard enough on my Garmin, so I had NO IDEA what my time was.  So frustrating.  To the point where I almost stopped and went to the bike.  I actually started to walk to my car when I got to the part of the park next to the parking lot.  But, then I realized I didn't want to do that.  While it wasn't as great a second half a mile as the first, I did run the whole mile before getting on the bike.

For some reason, the front of my thighs have been sore when riding the bike.  I think it's from the bricks since they were fine when I was just riding the bike.  I was sore, but I stuck the course and finished my 5 miles.  It wasn't my fastest 5 miles, but I got it done.  I did my final brick before the duathlon and didn't shorten it...even though I wanted to.

Here's hoping that the duathlon goes better Saturday than my last two training workouts.

Less than a week

Yes, I realize I have been MIA lately.  Sorry!  Between "interning" at the State Archives and training for the duathlon, when I'm not doing either of those activities I'm a bit tired.  Oh!  And I spent all last week cleaning my house because we had a party Saturday night.  But, I'm back and will do a better job of staying current.

So, we are less than one week away from the Keystone Warrior Duathlon by Multisport Maniacs.  I am so coming in last.  LOL!  I've been working hard on getting bricks in during the week and on Saturdays mimicking the duathlon with shorter distances.  I've had some strong workouts and some longer than I've ever had.  I've done a bunch of bricks (run/bike or bike/run) over the past few weeks, which have overall gone well.  I've been slowly upping the mileage on each exercise to get used to it, as well as focusing a tad bit more on the bike/run as that's harder.

Friday, I did my longest brick to date - 12 mile bike/3 mile run.  It was supposed to be a 15 mile bike, but my legs were just sore and I didn't think I had 3 more miles in me.  Plus I was getting bored.  LOL!  I was riding literally in circles at a local park.  I packed the bike up and hit the path for my run.  I had a couple laughs during the workout.  There's a nice woman who walks at the park whom I see occasionally.  Friday I smiled at her, then realized it looked more like a grimace.  When I next saw her, I told her I swear I'm smiling to which she graciously said she knew and laughed.  We smiled every time we saw each other from then on out.  Then I packed the bike up and headed out on my run.  I quickly came across her as I headed out.  I told her my bike was done, now time for my run.  She said I was her hero.  LOL!  Then, just as I was finishing up mile 3, I passed her one last time.  I called over to her I had only a half a mile more to go, to which she replied she was on her last lap.  We both cheered our good fortune.

Saturday I was off for my last scheduled run/bike/run.  It was a scheduled 2/10/2, which I thought I easily had in hand.  And hubby chose to try it as well since he's considering doing a duathlon in July (which I am also considering) and decided to go with my mileage for the day*.  The first two miles went really well.  I felt good and I felt strong going into the bike.  After the run, I grabbed my bike.  I was bored with the neighborhood, so I thought I would stay on the main road and see what happened.  And the first half mile was lovely!  It was all downhill!  Yea!  Of course, in the back of my mind I knew I would have to go uphill to get back, but I thought maybe it would be more gradual.  As I headed around the corner, the uphill started almost immediately.  Some of it wasn't too bad, but oh there were nasty uphill areas that totally ruined my ride.  I had to get off the bike several times to walk it.  It really messed up my mind.  I ended up getting in an 8.5 mile ride, but I felt badly about not  making the 10 miles scheduled.  I locked the bike up and went out on the second run.  The bike messed with my mind and I run only 1 mile.  It was an overall frustrating workout, but I suppose, I kept riding when I wanted to stop and I ran the second run even though I wanted to skip it.

So, this week I'm tapering for Saturday's big event.  I don't want to over train this week.  I want my muscles ready to go Saturday without too much tiredness (which seems to be happening lately on the bike).  I don't want any injuries to crop up between now and then, so this is my workout plan this week (for now):

Monday: either a 1/5/1 or a 1/5 not sure yet
Tuesday: 1 mile walk to archives, maybe a walk at night?
Wednesday: 1 mile walk to archives, 2-3 mile run
Thursday: 1 mile walk to archives, nothing
Friday: debating a short, easy walk
Saturday: KEYSTONE WARRIOR DUATHLON

Weekly Round Up

What a week!  I knew I should have taken shop in high school, it would have made making that ark so much easier!  The rain has been cra-zy this week.  It seems every day we have storms.  I read that we are already above 19" of rain for my neck of the woods, which is 3 and some inches above normal.  I better not hear of any drought conditions this summer!  And apparently Accuweather is calling for more rain next week - that is if we're all still here.  You know, with the Rapture and all coming this weekend.

Anywho...This was a great week in some aspects, not so great in others.  I finally started volunteering at the State Archives.  I started inquiring about volunteering up with the State Museum/Archives on Feb. 4th and I started with the Archives on May 16th.  Can we say slow?  Ugh.  Anyway, the positive thing is I'm there and it's AWESOME!  I've spent my week researching what the state of PA did for the 1918 Influenza Epidemic and I learned how to clean an historic document.  Two exciting and fun things for me.  :-)  What's even better is every Thursday afternoon I get to work on cleaning the documents.  Eeeeee!  Yes, I'm a dork.  What's it to ya?

Diet went ok, exercise not so much.  This week was supposed to be the first week of bricks (run/bike or bike run workouts).  I was going to do three days of 1 mile run/5 mile ride, but with the rain the way it's been I did none of them.  Zilch.  Nada.  Nothing.  Bah!  I did a couple indoor bike rides at home, but not what I was hoping to do.  And as stated above Accuweather is not helping me out next week with better weather.  I will be trying a brick tomorrow morning for my Sat. morning exercise (normally I run) to try and get one in.  It'll be a simple 1 mile run with a 5 mile bike.  Wish me luck!  Oh!  I am down .4 (decimal point 4) pounds this week.  Apparently, I wasn't completely insane without my exercise this week.  Hoping for a better week next.

One year ago this week, hubby and I were in Italy.  So bittersweet thinking back on it.  It really was the trip of a lifetime.  It was such an amazing trip that we actually realized how fantastic a trip it was while we were on it.  It wasn't just one of those trips when you get home and thing, wow!  That was a fun vacation.  Nope, throughout the trip we kept saying how lucky we were to be there and tried to soak in as much as possible.  We did our best, but I know I could find more to do if we went back.  ;-)  The good thing is we're planning two trips this year - one to Montreal with our friend and one to Jamaica to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  That's what's getting me through my pining for Europe, these two trips.  Montreal needs to hurry up and get here!  :-)

Some photo eye candy for you.  Enjoy!

 The Colosseum in Rome, truly one of the most amazing sites in the world.

 The ceiling of the alter at St. Peter's Basilica

 Carousel in the Piazza de Republica in Florence.  I swore day 1 in Florence I would ride it.  This was as close as I got.  LOL!

 Grape fields in Tuscany at the winery we did a tasting at.  The wine was delicious.  So wish we brought a bottle or two home.

 The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  How leaning could one tower be?  It really does lean.  If we had more time we would have gone to the top, but alas we did not. 

A canal in Venice.  It was incredible to ride on the canals and see Venice from the water.

Ironic

My driveway today

So, yea.  It rained today.  Like a lot.  I left the archives this afternoon and it was raining, but nothing exciting.  Not more than it's been raining.  Once, the rain got kinda strong, but it quickly went back to nothing exciting.

I realized as I headed to my car that tonight (again) would not be a run/bike night.  So, I headed home a little more nervous about not getting in that run/bike (again).  And then I hit traffic.  It seemed like people just weren't moving.  It was strange.  So, then I tried to take a different route home.  I crossed the Susquehanna River at a different point, hoping to miss whatever was going on.  Nope.  Hit traffic once over the bridge.  Darn it!

I finally make it to the highway and we're still backed-up.  WHAT'S GOING ON?  It's very frustrating.  I decide to get off the highway a couple exits up and take the back way.  Ugh.  Apparently others decided the same.  The road was more crowded than I anticipated and the rain had started to overflow their banks.  Which shouldn't have been a surprise as I heard we were in a flash flood warning.

I finally make it to my normal exit via back roads and couldn't figure out why it was so backed-up.  Then I got to the light and saw the way in front.  The road way was impassable for compact cars due to water.  Some trucks were getting through, but compact cars?  Nope.  So, I turn around and get on the highway (because this is my last option to get home).

I go two exits from home and get off.  And have a very uneventful ride from that exit home.  Thank God!  But when I got home and started down the drive way, what you see above is what I saw.  The rain had come so fast and so hard, it overflowed the little stream in front of the house.  The good thing is it wasn't as bad as it can be and I got the car across.  I really didn't want to park the car on the other side and WALK through that!  Bah!  A normally 30 minute drive home took me an hour and forty-five.  :-(

Maybe, at some point, I'll be able to ride my bike again...

Need...less...rain...

I kinda thought this was funny when looking for a bike image for today's post.  I will admit there are times I kinda feel this way on my bike when I'm out riding (which really has no bearing on today's topic actually.).  I think it would be interesting to go to a triathlon or duathlon and see that bike head off!  I think I would probably fall down laughing.  :-)

But that's really not what today's post is all about.  After taking last week off of riding due to my knee injury (which is healing slowly.  It's still pretty scabbed over.  Gross, I know, but it's true.  Thanks for asking), I was going to head out this week for my first sets of bricks.  A brick in triathlon or duathlon training is doing two parts of the event back-to-back in training, i.e. run/bike or bike/run.  Since my schedule was bike on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, my goal was to hit the road yesterday.  I was at the archives in the morning, but when I left it was fairly warm.  So, I decided to wait til dinner time to go out hoping the temps would go down and the sun wouldn't be directly overhead.  At about 5:30 p.m. yesterday, the skies opened up and it poured.  I mean, pouring so hard that looking out the window all you saw was white.  Crazy rain and thunder.  Ugh.  No brick.  I did use my small bike (45 minutes) that I have at home to get in a little exercise. And in one sense, I'm happy I used that Monday rather than out on the roads.  My knee was a little unused to the movement and it was not happy. 

So, today I thought I might head out to make up for my lack of brick yesterday.  After returning home from the archives, I wasn't sure with the way the sky looked.  Hubby headed out for a run, but I decided to be lazy use the indoor bike again.  I'm glad I did.  About 10 minutes after hubby left, the skies opened up again and a crazy down pour came again.  I had a nice 30 minutes on the bike.  It wasn't what I would have preferred, but the weather has not been kind.

This makes me a tad bit nervous though.  I need to get in these bricks so I get used to the transitions for the duathlon.  I know the sun will come out between now and June 10th, but when?  I missed my 14.5 mile ride because of my knee last week and now I've missed my first brick.  Someone tell me at some point I'll get out there and ride a brick or two before the race.

2 Months

Two months today I will be competing in my very first duthlon - Keystone Warrior Memorial Triathlon/Duathlon.  I'm still very excited about it and still anticipate coming in last.  LOL!  I'm ok with that.  Doing multiple sports in one race?  Yea, that's just asking for last, but it's aaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllll good.  Seriously.  I'm not being negative here at all.  I'm being realistic and if I come in last, I am totally ok with that. :-)  The fact that I am doing something totally different is the true first place.

The bike training is going well.  Really, really well.  I'm still excited and having a great time with the bike. Maybe it has to do with continually getting faster on each training run, but whatever.  It's fun to get out on the bike and move.  I'm so much faster on the bike than I am running.  Seriously.  In the time it took me to ride 5 miles yesterday (28:31), I would have only run 2 miles.  I <3 the bike!

I've got myself a training schedule all set in my planner and so far it's working well.  Needing to punt a tad this weekend, as I'll be visiting my very first college roommie and her family in NJ, but I'm accounting for it, so it's all good.  :-)  Good training, good planning, and visiting a good friend?  Life doesn't get much better.

Brooks Adrenalize GTS 11

Last weekend I retired my running shoes that got me through The Princess Half Marathon and many other races and training runs.  It was time.  A little sad, but a necessity.  I hit Charm City Run in Maryland to replace them and as most runners can attest to, I just got the newest version of my previous shoes - Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11. 

They are mighty spiffy.  Most of my previous versions of these shoes have been a blue color, but these are a reddish color.  For some reason I feel more serious in these than my older shoes.   Not sure why really.  Strange.  But, there it is.

So, today was my first run in them.  I haven't used them on my two bike rides this week because I really wanted my first use of them to be a run.  No idea why, but I felt they should go out for a run before anything else. 

When I tried them on in the store, the thing I noticed about them immediately is how cushiony they are.  Now, it could be because my old shoes were pretty old, but I tend to think it's more that these shoes are a bit more cushy.  Apparently, the new version has a wider stability area along the entire bottom of the shoe rather than just at the heel and toes.  I really like this improvement because honestly, I didn't think once about my feet while out on my run.

Hit up the old neighborhood I used to train for the half this morning.  And wow.  Not running in about a month sure kills you.  LOL!  I also think I have started running a bit faster than I used to, which also drains you faster.  It's a good thing, but... Today was a 2-3 mile run, just to ease back into things and yea, I could tell about a quarter mile in that it would be a 2 mile run.  LOL!  It was humid and I'm so not used to that.  It felt strange, very cool, but very humid.  Guess Mother Nature was having a time deciding what she wanted this morning!

So, I got in my first 2 mile duathlon training run this morning in my new and improved Brooks Adrenalize GTS 11 sneakers.  The first of many Saturday runs to prepare me for the Keystone Warrior Memorial Duathlon in June!

Keystone Warrior Memorial Duathlon

Today started my training for the Keystone Warrior Memorial Duathlon.  I picked up my bike on Saturday afternoon and promptly injured myself.  LOL!  It took literally all of 5 minutes of having the bike in my possession before I injured myself.  As we were putting the bike in the car...the tiny Mazda2 Touring, which I believe probably shouldn't hold a bike...I tried to move the handle bars up to get the bike in a better position behind the passenger seat and WHAM!  I slammed my right eyebrow into the edge of the bike handle.  Oh it was painful.  Very, very painful.  Like awful painful.  Not a pain I expected to feel.  I'm not sure if my bike is trying to tell me something already...

But, today, I headed off to the local park to try out the bike.  I haven't ridden one in about 10 years and I was a tad bit nervous about riding.  I suppose it's something I would have to get over since I'm to ride 15 miles in just a few months.  So, I hit the park.  My goal was to just get used to riding a bike again.  I am proud to say, I didn't fall off it!  I am also proud to say I rode 5 miles today.  I had to avoid quite a few random walkers and had a very funny exchange with a runner (I stopped the bike so he could run up the hill when he looked at me and said, "You're cheating.").  I did my 5 miles in 32 minutes.  What I wouldn't give for that to be my 5 mile run time!  I have no idea if that's a good time or not (it's a 9.3 mile pace), but whatever.  It was day 1.  My first ride.  I was getting used to my bike.  I was trying to keep myself from careening out of control and keep my bike from skidding out from under me.  I was successful in all of the above.

I was also successful in having fun.  Yes, fun.  I really enjoyed the ride.  I didn't like the people who didn't watch where there were walking and I had to careen around them, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with as a runner. 

So, Keystone Warrior Memorial Duathlon training has begun.  And I'm looking forward to the process and anticipate being the happiest last place finisher ever!