Snot Rocket Queen

People sometimes like to focus on the negative aspects of getting older but one of my favorite aspects of getting older is you just stop giving a you know what about what other people think.  I already grew up pretty immune to being embarrassed because my mom always valued being yourself no matter how unique that was and lived by this therefore always marching to the beat of her own drum.  I learned pretty quickly that I better stop caring too or I was going to have a very tumultuous life! :-)

Finally after being sick for a few days I started to feel better on Sunday.  I decided to take advantage and go out for a ride!  However, this meant I was SNOTTY but I just didn't care.  Sure it was gross for me and perhaps anyone who might have unsuspectingly ridden up behind me but who cares I was free and out enjoying a glorious spring day!  I was so proud of myself for what I thought was a perfect snot rocket because I didn't feel any blowback and it didn't land anywhere on my handlebars until I opened my hand and ewwww it was all in between my fingers, but hey that's what jerseys are for right wiping!?!  The other fun part of being sick at the same time your son is sick is that you don't get to care about what is happening to you, you just pull up your britches and you take care of your sick child.  Which meant instead of getting rest I was taking him to the Dr. and working from home to make up lost hours.  This also meant that once I got him to bed I was going straight to bed too instead of you know doing stuff like taking care of my personal hygiene.  It was too warm to get away with leggings so I went in bike shorts and showed off my wonderful hairy legs!  Again don't care! ;-)  For half a second I thought they'll just think I'm a guy, oh but wait, in this sport guys shave their legs too.  I'll just have to ride so fast that my legs will be a blur and no one will notice!  Go!  Ok then there was the fact that I couldn't remember the last time I had washed my hair!  I thought to myself well that's an easy one you'll have a helmet on to cover that up!  There's nothing stopping me from this ride!  Note to self: just don't take your helmet off at any point in the ride and try to whip it around a la sexy librarian or it will just stick to one side of your face.  Easy enough.  So I was fully enjoying this ride. 

Then about mile 10 just as I was about to hit the super fun downhill I noticed I could feel the road a lot more than I normally can.  I stopped and sure enough I had a flat rear tire!  New fancy bike I realized I hadn't changed a flat on this one yet!!  I tried to remove the wheel and felt like the brakes were stopping me.  The brakes on this one don't have a quick release and are in a different spot.  So I assumed I needed an allen wrench to release them which I didn't have.  Sadly I called my dad to pick me up all the while I could hear my son in the background yelling "where are you mom?"  Turns out he got the wheel off no problem I was just too scared to hurt my fancy new bike. Ahhh!!  Well it turns out I wouldn't have been able to remove the extension on the bike valve without pliers so I didn't feel so bad and add to the list of things I now need to carry.  Also turns out there was something wrong with the tire and/or tube.  Because it kept bulging out about to pinch the tube.  So long story short I didn't get to finish my ride which is ok since I was still recovering.  But one thing I do care about is not knowing how to fix my own bike!  I will make sure I can handle this on my own next time. 

But now I also am a little closer to my decision of if I "need" a road bike in addition to my tri bike.  Because some days you just need to ride on something you aren't afraid to beat up!  And one can never have enough bikes right?!?!!!   Who's with me?

Happy Training!

Lobo Tri Recap/Lessons Learned

So the first tri of the season came and went with all the anticipation and nerves I was so happy I did it even though I knew I was in no shape what so ever to do this.  I had been in the pool 2x and on the bike 2x prior to this and had no business being out there.  But guess what I did it anyway!  And I'm glad I did.  There were a lot of friendly faces out there cheering for us.  Knowing a lot of people in this community can be both comforting and terrifying at the same time.  It was so awesome hearing them cheer for me and uplifting when I needed it most!  But I also knew I had let myself get more out of shape this winter than I ever have and I was letting it all hang out!!! Ahhhh  after I let the adrenaline and burning lungs take over I quickly stopped caring about what I might or mi

My lucky socks...

ght not look like in my tri suit.  Or that after the bike there was snot in places I never thought there would be!  Considering all this I was only 1 minute slower than last year which isn't bad considering how out of shape I am and that last year I was in the process of training for a HIM in May. 

The weather was nice, warmer than last year, took the arm warmers off half way through the run.  The course is always fun and I love seeing everyone out there.  It's a reverse tri but in this case with wave starts and a nice big olympic pool to swim in it was pretty easy going.  Sorry for the person I kicked in the gut when trying to push off the wall, really I'm so sorry did not see you there.  I thought for half a second of turning around to apologize but quickly changed my mind because I knew they would already be going and not hear me, it's just hard to fight the instinct.  The biggest surprise for me here was my run.  I had been only running and lifting all winter and had improved my 5k times to somewhere around 24 mins. breaking that once even.  So I was really surprised to see that my 5k time was the exact same it had been for this race the last two years prior 26 and change.  My bike I feel like I took it too easy on myself I could have pushed myself a lot harder.  I'm still not use to the new wheels my father got me and on the last downhill before the turn around was holding on for dear life scared to death of the crosswinds.  As the guy yelled at me to slow down for the turn around I was thinking I'm TRYING!!  Then of course the swim killed me as it always does for this one.  My arms were not working at ALL so I kept yelling at myself to kick damn it, if your arms aren't working then kick!

So here it is by the numbers: AG 4/10 OA F 20/72 OA 67/161
R 26:34 T1 1:10 Bike 45:36 T2 :51 S 10:11

After the race I met a friend for a nice flat 22 miles.  I'm glad she put up with me and my tired legs because I need some more training!  The problem is my training has been all or nothing.  Not on purpose.  It's just usually life either gets in the way and I go several days during the week not doing anything or I have some extra free time because it's not my sons night/day with me so I try to fully exhaust myself to not think about it by filling it up with training hence a workout after a race.  But one thing I really want to do for myself and my training is find a masters swim class that might actually fit into my schedule two times a week.  I feel I would see huge improvements if I did this.  I think the bike will come along since I have a training buddy for that every Sunday and she doesn't let me take it easy on myself!!  My running I guess I just need to incorporate some speed work.

HAPPY TRAINING!!!