Magazine and Recovery Week

July 24 - 30 *recovery week*

Sat - Bike 30.2 miles (all alone - from home, north to Hudson, down in the CVNP, and back up and home) - Spent the evening in Pittsburgh for a very nice (and very warm) wedding.

Sun - Run 10.07 miles (a warm afternoon run on the towpath)

Mon - off / rest (I should have gone swimming, but it's been very lonely at the lake by my house.)

Tue - Bike 13.6 miles and Swim 30 min (indoor mid-day trainer bike ride) (nice evening swim in Lake Erie at Mentor Headlands)

Wed - Run 3.6 miles (very slow early morning run in my neighborhood)

Thur - Bike 16.07 miles and Run 2.03 miles (great brick with the Grunt Girls in the CVNP)

Fri - off (spent all day with my husband and sons at Put in Bay)

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do today. I should probably be swimming or biking right now, but motivation is low. The plan for tonight is to take the boys to the Akron Aeros baseball game. Hopefully it doesn't rain!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to run the Kathleen Nietert Run for Hope. It's a hilly 7 1/2 mile run through Aurora and Mantua. Again, hopefully it doesn't rain! I plan to go early and run a 3 mile warm-up. Plus, I'll do a 1/2 mile cool down, so I can get in 11 miles for the day. :)

Some exciting news from this week is that I was in a magazine! (Ohio Sports and Fitness - www.ohiosportsandfitness.com ) I recently joined a Women's Only Racing Team called the Grunt Girls. I have had a wonderful time getting to know many of the other ladies and training with them. Here is our new website: www.gruntgirlracing.com
Across the top of the web site is the photo that was in the magazine.

Plus one of the girls was on the cover and another was on the Table of Contents page. :-)



The photo shoot for this magazine was on a warm evening in early July. We all met at an old abandoned building in Cleveland. Minus the heat, it was pretty neat.

7 (exciting) weeks until the Rev3 Half

I realized I'm a little behind on my workout updates. So, below is a recap for the last 3 weeks.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Pitt, PA for a wedding, so I plan to get up early to get in my long bike ride for the week. (hopefully I have time for at least 30 miles) I wish I could join the ladies at HCC for the ride, but I'd be too late getting to PA. Guess I have to ride alone.

After we get home on Sunday, I'll aim for a 10 mile run. I hope to go down to the towpath for this, just like I did this past Sunday. It was so nice being mostly in the shade, because it was soooo HOT!

It's hard to believe there's only 7 more weeks until the Rev3 Cedar Point 1/2. Although, I wish it were next weekend. I actually feel ready to do it. I know my continued training for these next few weeks will make race day that much better, but I'm confident I could finish it, even if it were tomorrow. :-)

I have a training run / race planned for next weekend (Aug 1) in Auroa; it's a 7 1/2 mile race, but with my warm-up and cool down, I hope to make it an 11 mile running day.

The week after that (Aug 8) is my last Olympic distance triathlon of the year, the Greater Cleveland Triathlon!

Another week later (Aug 15) is the Perfect 10 Miler in Lyndhurst. I ran that one a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it.

Then, each of the next two weekends will bring my last two BIG training days. WOW. :-) On Aug 21 I'll head back to Cedar Point for some more on-course training for the Rev3, and on Aug 29 I'm running a half marathon. ** - which has changed from my original plans. ** I was going to drive down to Columbus for the Spirt of Columbus half mary, but just found out this week there's a half mary only 10 miles from my house, the Buckeye Half!! So, I'm going to do it instead. That way I avoid the drive down, sleeping in a different bed, and the long drive home!

July 3 - 9
Sat - Bike 55.13 miles (Rev3 course)
Sun - off
Mon - Run 5 miles
Tue - Swim ~1200 yds
Wed - Bike 15.12 miles
Thur - Swim 1600 yds and Bike 9.52 miles and Run 2.09 miles
Fri - Run 2 miles

July 10 - 16
Sat - off
Sun - OLY Tri - Swim 1500M, Bike 40K, Run 10K
Mon - off
Tue - Run 5 miles and Swim ~1000 yds
Wed - off - back injury
Thur - off - back pain
Fri - Bike 9.43 miles and Run 1 mile

July 17 - 23
Sat - Rev3 Training - Swim ~1000 yds, Bike 58 miles, and Run 2.22 miles
Sun - Run 9 miles
Mon - Swim 1650 yds
Tue - off
Wed - Track Run 4.5 miles
Thur - Bike 22.4 miles
Fri - Run 3.25 miles and Swim ~1200 yds

Caesar Creek Olympic Triathlon - Race Report - July 11, 2010

Yesterday was a great day for a triathlon in southern Ohio; it was almost perfect (minus the sun/heat on the run.)
HFP has already posted the results. Here's my stats:

1500 meter swim (plus the run up to T1) - 29:13
T1 - 2:18
40K bike - 1:22:18 - Avg of 18.1 mph
T2 - 1:26
10K Run - 64:22 - 10:21 pace

Prerace:


The lake water was almost like glass and 73 degrees. It was a great swim for me, except on the second lap someone didn't just hit my foot - they seemed to grab it. Scared me for a second, but after I caught my breath, I pushed forward.

Exiting the swim:


T1 was uneventful:


Bike start:


The bike course was rolling hills with several recently paved roads. The one thing that could have helped me is if my bike computer would have worked! When the race was over I was able to see that the sensor had shifted (probably on the car ride.)

Entering T2:


In T2 I realized that I had about 65 minutes to run my 10K in order to finish in under 3 hours. WOW. I thought, "I could really do this!" I've run a 10K in 55:16 before, so even at an easier pace, I figured it was going to happen.

I had 3 levels of goals for the day. I wanted to beat my time from last month at Deer Creek (3 hrs 14 min.) It would be really nice to beat my time from last year at Portage Lakes (3 hrs 8 min.) Then there was the "ultimate goal" of finishing in under 3 hours.

Running:


So, I took off onto the run. From doing this race as a sprint 3 years ago, I knew the course was a mostly rock covered path and mostly in the sun. I took a sip of water and dumped some over my head every time it was offered. I was really having trouble keeping up a decent pace. I saw several people taking walking breaks, and really wanted to do the same, but knowing I was so close to my goal kept me at least doing a jog / shuffle. After the first 5k I saw that I had about 34 minutes left to make my goal. Knowing that I had to run the same 5k course again, I wasn't so sure I was going to make it at that point. I was really dragging my feet and experiencing a side cramp.

After the race, when I saw how little I actually drank on the bike course, and when I saw how much weight I lost during the whole race, I realized I must have been too dehydrated. I think that was a big factor in my poor run.

About to finish:


Anyhow, when I looked at my watch and saw that I had 2 minutes left to finish, I somehow picked up the pace. I really pushed it hard, and I made my goal, with only a few seconds to spare.

TOTAL RACE TIME - 2:59:38

Finish line:


This coming Saturday is another training day on the Rev3 course at Cedar Point. We should be able to get in a swim, ride the bike course, and do some running. :-)

In 4 weeks I'll do my 3rd and final Olympic distance triathlon for the year, the Greater Cleveland Triathlon at Mentor Headlands.

Stow Firecracker 4 Mile Race - July 5, 2010

Since the 4th of July fell on a Sunday, this year's 4 mile Firecracker Run was on the the 5th. It was a HOT day, even at an early 7:30 am start time. I was planning to take it easy and not push it in the heat.

Well, it's a race. When they said "Go!," I took off. I had run an easy one mile warm up, and was ready to push it.

Mile 1 is slightly uphill most of the way - 8:34
Mile 2 is slightly downhill most of the way - 8:12

Then we turn around and run back the way we came.

Mile 3 (uphill) - 9:06
Mile 4 (downhill) - 7:52

Final Time - 33:45 - New 4 mile PR.

I didn't stay around for awards knowing there's a lot of really fast people at this race. (Two years ago I was 8th in my age group with a time of 34:13.)

Then I found out yesterday I placed 1st in my age group out of 22 other 35-39 yr old females! (That's what I get for turning 35 this year.) :-)

The mile one (and mile three) markers are only about 100 yds from my house. So, Matt got a picture of me running by at mile one. I'm in the purple tank top in the middle.



Sunday I will be racing my second Olympic Distance triathlon of year. It's going to be at Caesar Creek State Park (Southwest of Columbus.) I hope to at least beat my time from Deer Creek last month, which was 3:14:26. So far, the weather looks to be good!

Awesome bike ride on the REV3 course

It was a super day with my husband. :-)

After dropping our children off at my parent's house, we drove to Cedar Point. Well, we drove to a little park a few minutes away from CP so we'd have restrooms to use and no parking fee. Osborn Park. This worked out really well!

After getting our drinks / food ready, we headed on to the REV3 1/2 iron bike course. We started on Rt 6 (skiping the beginning part of Cedar Pt Road) and followed the entire course. Thrown in there was one tiny detour to see the home of Thomas Edison's birthplace in Milan, OH. :)





Once we were back to where we started, we decided to finish the course by riding all the way down Cedar Point Rd to the main parking lot and then back down it to the town park where we left our van.

Total miles for the day: 55.13
Yahoo!!
3 hours, 24 minutes and 42 seconds! (about 3 hrs and 45 minutes WITH stops)
16.1 mph average (not including stops to check the map)

Oh, there was one other short detour - to use a bathroom in a cute little town's one gas station.





I wonder if there will be port a pots around the race route on race day???

As for the course, it was a bit windy, but I know that's to be expected when the land is so flat and filled with farms. :-) There were a few rollers, but I only had to shift out of my big chain ring once. So, it can't be too bad! There were a lot of bumps on a tiny road that curves around a school and a few on Cedar Point Road, but nothing too bad. One road I loved, but of course it only lasted about a mile - Berlin Rd. Smooth and downhill.

I feel sooo much better about this race now that I've been on the bike course. My confidence is way up! I know I can do it. I just wish Matt could follow me on race day like he did today. :-)

As for this past week, it was mostly a recovery week starting on Sunday. With the nice cool weather, I went a little farther than planned, but I kept the pace way down.

June 26 - July 2
Sat - Bike 44 miles
Sun - Bike 10.2 miles and Run 2.08 miles
Mon - Swim 29:40
Tue - Run 5.05 miles
Wed - Run 2.85 miles
Thur - Bike 18.1 miles and Run 4.7 miles
Fri - Swim 16:00 (alone and bored - didn't stay long)

11 weeks to REV3 - Weekly update

Weekly Workouts - June 19 to 25

Sat - off (sick and day before race)
Sun - Bike 25 miles (12.5 race and 12.5 second loop with Matt)
Mon - Swim 2000 yds
Tue - Run 9 miles
Wed - Bike 15.63 miles
Thur - Bike 24 miles and Run 2.5 miles
Fri - off

Just 11 more weeks until the REV3 70.3. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my training. I missed a swim this week because of baseball, but now that the season is over, I'll easily be able to fit in two open water swims every week. I'm hoping to make it up to Lake Erie for a 3rd swim at least every other week, starting this week!
I'm about right on target with both my biking and my running. Today I went on my longest ride ever - 44 miles. Plus, it was hilly! Within the next week I'll be up to 50 mile bike rides. :-)
In two weeks I'm doing another Olympic distance triathlon. This one is at Caesar Creek, and it's another HFP race.

Presque Isle Time Trial

Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania was the site of this morning's 12.5 mile bike time trial. The weather was beautiful - sunny, not too windy, and about 70 degrees. Of the about 130 riders, I was #98 and Matt was #99. The riders began every 15 seconds, which put my start time at 7:54 and Matt's at 7:54:15.
I started out pretty fast, because I didn't want to let Matt catch me too quickly. (Ahead of time he said it would only take him one mile to catch me.) Well, I hit 24.5 MPH and realized that was too fast on this totally flat course. Matt passed me right after the 1 mile marker. :-)
I only rode this course one other time, and it took me 42 min and 27 sec - 17.6 avg mph. (That was back in April of 2008.) Today I finished in 37:57, which was an average of 19.8 MPH! My fastest bike average before today was 19.0 mph and that was during the triathlon at Fairport Harbor last year. :)
The next time I ride this course at Presque Isle, my goal will have to be to maintain an average of 20 mph!
After the race Matt and I rode the course again, but together this time. :) So, it was a nice 25 mile day.

Weekly Workouts for June 12 - 18
Sat - Bike 26.25 miles
Sun - off
Mon - Run 5.81 miles and Swim 1340 yds
Tue - Bike 50 min (on trainer)
Wed - Run 8 miles
Thur - off (sick)
Fri - off (sick)

Do to my cold, I missed a lot of workouts this past week, but thankfully I made it through this morning's race and I'm feeling much better this evening.

Weekly Workout Update - June 11, 2010

June 5 - 11
Sat - off
Sun - Swim 1500M, Bike 40K, Run 10K - 3 hrs 14 min
Mon - off
Tue - Run 5.12 miles
Wed - Swim 2000 yds (pool)
Thur - Bike 11 miles then Run 2 miles
Fri - Lift and Swim 1,760 yds (lake)

Overall it was a good week. I took an extra day off after the triathlon on Sunday, but I'm glad, since I was pretty tired on Monday. A couple of times a week I'm getting up early and doing a workout outside (run or bike) before Matt leaves for work. I like that better than running inside at the Nat or riding on my bike trainer, but I have to do that for some workouts in order to fit everything in while the boys are home. :)

I've starting swimming at Munroe Falls MetroPark on Mon / Fri evenings and that's so much better than laps at the pool! Tonight's swim was one of the best I've ever had in a lake. I felt so much more relaxed than usual. What a great feeling.

Deer Creek Olympic Triathlon Race Report - June 6, 2010

On Sunday I was in my second ever Olympic distance triathlon. Saturday night I drove a couple of hours south to Columbus and stayed the night at my cousin's house, so I would only have about an hour to drive Sunday morning before the race. Once in the van and driving on Sunday, I heard that there was a Tornado Warning. The sky was dark and it was very windy. Not the best race conditions.

I arrived at Deer Creek State Park at 6:30 AM, checked in, and set up my gear in transition.


So far, so good.

It was still very windy and looked like it could rain, so put my shoes and towels in bags. I knew my transitions would take longer this way, but I didn't want to be putting on wet socks and shoes.



A few minutes after getting everything in bags, it started to rain. And RAIN, and RAIN. Plus there was a good deal of lighting and it was still VERY windy. An announcement was made that the start would be delayed for 30 minutes. So, the start would now be 8:30. My wave was supposed to start at 8:21, so now I'd be beginning around 8:51. I hid out in my van during this time, wondering how my gear was holding up over in the transition area.

Around 8:20 the rain suddenly slowed down, and everyone made their way back over to transition. My gear was good in the bags! :-) It looked like another round of rain was coming, but amazingly, it never did. We were just left to deal with the WIND.



The race started in waves, with everyone in the sprint race going first. I began with ALL of the ladies doing the Olympic distance. There was only one wave of men behind us. We started on the beach and ran into the water. The swim was two loops, totaling 1500 meters. (1640 yds - I usually track my swimming distance in yards.)I have NEVER been swimming in waves before. I've been planning on going up to Lake Erie more this year for practice, but haven't yet. Well, I got my share of waves on Sunday! It's just a small lake, but the wind was soooo stong! I knew I was slow, but I kept swimming along and did my best.

SWIM TIME (with the run to transition) 33:30

This was my first time racing with a full length, long sleeve wetsuit. Thankfully, it came off without a problem!

T1 2:43

The bike course was mostly flat, with only 2 or 3 spots where I had to shift to go uphill. But, the WIND didn't go away! I was being blown all around! For the few minutes that it was behind me, I had fun going 21 to 22 MPH on a flat to slight uphill area. :-) We also did two laps of the bike course for a total of 40K. (about 25 miles) I averaged 16.1 MPH on my bike computer.

BIKE TIME 1:33:32

T2 1:46

The run was an out and back 10K and completely flat. Again, the wind was a factor. I was actually laughing as I was being blown back. After the turn around, it was fun running with the wind at my back. I'm also very happy that I felt strong on the run. Not like last year where I couldn't catch my breath on the run in my Oly tri. I ran a 10:07 per mile pace.

RUN TIME 62:54

TOTAL RACE TIME 3:14:26

At first I wasn't happy with my time. I wanted to beat my time from last year - 3:08:xx. But the more I studied my results, the more pleased I became.

* My T1 time was almost a whole minute FASTER (even with the new longer wetsuit.)
* My bike average was .2 MPH faster, AND this was a longer bike course by 3K, AND it was SUPER WINDY!
* My T2 time was 30 seconds faster, and I had to tie my shoes because I didn't put on my other laces yet.
* My run time was almost 6 minutes faster!!! - a whole minute per mile faster.

So, the only place where I was slower, was the swim, and I'm okay with that, because those waves were crazy! :-)

Oh, because of the storm, I didn't think sunscreen was needed. Big Oops.




Next race: a 12.7 mile Time Trial at Presque Isle with Matt on Father's Day.

Tomorrow's Race and Weekly Update

Just a few days ago I signed up to do the Olympic Distance triathlon at Deer Creek State park tomorrow. This will be only my second Olympic triathlon ever!!! Last year I did one at the end of the season, and finished in 3 hr 8 min and 33 sec. Of course I want to beat that time tomorrow, but I'd REALLY like to finish under 3 hours - 2:59:59 would be fine with me. :) I don't know much about the course, so I'll just have to go with the flow. I've tried out my new wetsuit twice now - this past Monday and last night. I really like it! I just hope I'm not too warm while swimming and I hope I don't get stuck in it when I try to pull it off. The forecast is calling for rain, so there's something else I'll have to deal with. (I don't like to bike on wet roads.) Tonight I'll be driving to Columbus to stay the night at my cousin's house, and then early tomorrow I'll drive the rest of the way to Deer Creek. We used to go there for boating / vacations as a kid - I hope my race will be just as fun!

Weekly Workouts for May 29 - June 4

Sat - Bike 34.5 miles
Sun - Run 8.15 miles
Mon - Bike 29 miles and Swim 550 yds (first time in wetsuit)
Tue - off
Wed - Run 4.1 miles
Thur - Bike 60 minutes (inside on trainer)
Fri - Run 3.13 miles and Swim 1050 yds