A birthday blog post...

Today is my birthday. But I’ve sort of been celebrating my birthday all week long...well, starting last Saturday, actually!


Saturday with Carol: lunch (thanks, Carol!) then Xanadu at the Signature Theater!

Triple swim Tuesday: 5:30AM Team Z swim; tried to do Chinquapin at 12:30 with Carol and Coach Scott but the pool was closed. Carol and I improvised and did a modified version of the workout outside at Edsall Park Pool; monthly coffee with Kathy (thanks for the little cake!); then 8:00PM Team Z swim at GW RECenter (I was 10 minutes late, Carol was early!); then late night snack at Kilroys with Carol. Total yards: 7375 (4.19 miles)

Wednesday: I had a really good run!


Thursday: I’m having a very S*H*I*T-y Birthday! No, seriously, I’m So Happy It’s Thursday and can swim (which I did at 5:30AM with Team Z and felt great) and bike (which I will do after work); then I’ll have dinner with my AUsome son Patrick, who is at the moment busy working on the list of chores I gave him to do today!


Other fun stuff:

Team Rabbit plans to wear headbopper bunny ears on the run at Ironman Lake Placid (It’s the Iron. What? Man of Lake Pacid!) starting at (run) special needs. Unless we go for the full run... The bunny ears arrived on Tuesday while I was out for my triple swim! Thanks so much Priscilla for the fun idea! Stay tuned for the review of the ears when we test them at the July 4 kickASTtri!


This weekend I’m celebrating my 30th high school reunion. I graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, which has now become the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.  When this happened they sent the ‘regular’ students to Annandale High School. And when I was in school our biggest rival was  Annandale High School which is the school my kids graduated from!

Anyway, back to the reunion festivities! Tomorrow night is the pub crawl in Old Town, Alexandria. I plan to get my long run (10 miles) out of the way on Friday morning...so I don’t have to worry about running Saturday morning. Besides, it is going to be rather warm on Saturday.

Then on Saturday I will relax and chill out at the pool before the actual reunion on Saturday night!

Side Note: one of my classmates who is headed to town as I type for these reunion fesitivites has a birthday tomorrow and we plan to do a bit of joint celebrating!


Finally...Sunday is our last big build ride of 80 miles which we plan to do in hell, err, Culpeper! Post ride we plan to have a little BBQ at my house! Our doggies Riley and Tessie will be invited, too!

Super-Fun News: I had wanted to take my younger son to a Boston Red Sox game this summer because it would be so fun to visit and see a game at Fenway Park (which is 100 years old THIS year) and I just found out one of my cousins was able to score tickets for us. We have a group of 8 going. Woohoo!! Gox Sox! http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/bos/ballpark/

Happy and Healthy Training!

Jeffersonian Welc...

...Reluctant to Talk About her New Film?!

Last November, I did Ironman Arizona, and in my race report I mentioned an old high school classmate of mine who lived in Arizona not far from Tempe who came out to the race and took some pictures of me. It was so cool seeing him out there! Anyway, he had taken some video as well and just the other day he posted the following links on Facebook:

First there was an article on blackrockdaily.com

And then a direct link to the video here:

 

 

Anyway, this was pretty darned cool! Thanks so much, Michael Scott! I will see you again soon at our 30th High School Reunion, which is this weekend, and this time I'll actually get to talk to you!

Next up:  

• kickASTtri, 7/4
• Ironman Lake Placid, 7/22

Happy and Healthy Training!

Epic weekend...

aka Getting Ready for Race Day, Sunday!

The epic weekend was epic alright! It consisted of a 15 mile run on Saturday (details to follow), followed by lunch then a 2 mile pool swim. Sunday was THE epic ride! 124.7 miles out of Nokesville Park!!


Saturday was the long run. Priscilla the birthday girl and Carol met at my house at 5:00AM so I could drive us. Um, we were running a little late (#ontheexitramp) due to traffic getting into the Baltimore Zoo. But this was nothing like the Hot Chocolate fiasco from last December... Priscilla always wears themed headboppers in races (and I’ve been converted myself – they are so fun) and got everyone in our group headboppers with crab claws on them! They were totally Maryland appropriate!! Thanks, P!! We all got a lot of funny comments about them, too! The race started 10 minutes late but that wasn’t too bad. I actually had time to head to the portapotty!

This was a hilly race that I nearly managed to negative split - if not for a second portapotty stop at mile 6.27! I’m shocked actually! It was sort of an out and back with a loop around a lake (Montebello) at the out and a little deviation or two on the way back. According to my results e-mail from the race organizers, the weather at start time was mostly sunny, 68 degrees F, 70% humidity, variable wind 4 mph. There were 249 finishers in the Female 45 to 49 age group and 4680 finishers in the Run Division. My overall finish place was 2518, my age group finish place was 105 and my gender finish place was 1123. My time was 1:39:29.16 giving me an overall pace of 9:57 per mile. My first five mile split was 49:32.53 and the second was 49:56.63. I’m pretty certain I was in the potty for a good minute... Anyway, that is a lot of info they supplied afterwards! After the 10 miles Carol was nice enough to stand in line for my premium B10 jacket so I could run some more! Thanks Carol!


Back to the run: I was supposed to do 5-6 miles before the race, then race the 10 miles at z3 or higher. However...as we were late due to being stuck in traffic getting into the Zoo (see above) there was no time! We had parked nearly a mile from the start (.92) so we ran/walked it; then according to my Garmin I ran 10.10 miles; then I did another 3.05 miles and figured I’d run back to the car when it was time to leave. Of course, we were allowed two free beers! I actually drank one while we waited for everyone to gather at the “P” sign and finally we were all ready to head out for lunch. So post-beer I ran a little extra (managed another 1.12 miles) back to the car...so not like me! My total run mileage on Saturday was 15.19. I’ll take it! At one point during my extra running a guy commented on the fact that I was still running...and called me the energizer bunny, which is my Team Rabbit name...and the name Carol gave me a while ago. I loved that!


After the race we all met at a place called Miss Shirley’s for a headboppin’ fun brunch/lunch. Literally, six of us wore our headboppers outside around the table. It was fun and we got a lot of funny looks. There were four of us going back in my car – still with the boppers on – and we apparently got a lot of looks there, too. Great fun! Happy Birthday, Priscilla! So very glad I could participate in your Birthday Race Festivities!! Also, the birthday girl had made some race-themed frosted cookies, which were AUsome and Jennifer (who had kindly picked up everyones race packet) had made madeleines for everyone! Also AUsome!


So Carol and I had planned to swim upon returning to my house. We were going for 4000 Meters but we were both dealing with ‘ailments’ – I had a headache and Carol a stomach ache. We made a valiant effort but stopped at 3250 Meters. We have vowed to return after our 80 mile ride in Culpeper on July 1 and do a full 4000 Meters! Still, we managed 2.02 miles in 1:10. We’ll take it!


This brings us to Sunday and THE epic bike ride! We had decided on 125 miles out of Nokesville Park. A 75 mile loop followed by a 50 mile loop. What were we thinking? Actually, we had perfect weather – not too hot or humid, nor really too windy. We met at my house a little before 6:00 and were pulling out of the driveway at 5:58. We got to the park and started the ride a little after 7:00. Honestly, I was very tired and not my usual bubbly energizer bunny self at first. It took me a little while to ‘wake up’ I guess. Considering the time and distance (124.7 miles in 8:45) we really did not have too much crazy stuff happen out there. I mean there was the first time I ran off the road, around mile 70, but did not crash or fall or anything. Pam’s comment about “Gina, why did you go off into the rubble?” did kind of crack us up though. And it clearly cracked me up a lot as I went into several fits of giggles thinking about it as the afternoon wore on. We went back to the car to restock our bottles and stuff and honestly, before I could exit the park I ‘went off into the rubble’ again. I have NO idea... Then on the second loop Carol was saying that the theme song from “Hawaii 5-0” was playing in her head. I said, “Oh we just heard that at the race yesterday!” And she said, “What race?” Um, the Baltimore 10-Miler... Pam commented on the entire Possum family that seemed to have been taken out along the course. Seriously, we saw a LOT of dead opossums out there! In a previous post I talked about how much Carol and I love the song / digital short “Lazy Sunday” from Saturday Night Live. Well, Carol has been rewording the lyrics to this for our upcoming race. You know the one, Ironman Lake Placid! She’s called it "Race Day, Sunday"! We had a lot of fun coming up with various verses for this! If Carol is okay with it I’ll dedicate a post to this before race day.

So all in all I felt really, really good during the ride and when I finished. I mean I was tired, but I wasn’t tired. Starving, yes! And I was able to do my three cartwheels and Carol did her three burpees. My average heart rate was actually below z2 for the entire 125 miles and we held an average pace of 14.3 mph. I was shocked. After we packed everything up we headed for food: Five Guys, of course! It was AUsome!


So Team Rabbit (Energizer Bunny, Silly Rabbit, and Bugs Bunny “eh, what's up doc?”) rocked the epic weekend!


Next up: kickASTtri on July 4!

Happy and Healthy Training!

Spirit crushing...

Last weekend was a good training weekend. I know the title of this post is spirit crushing but that was only one aspect of the weekend. And despite the name, I actually conquered the spirit crushing ride! Culpeper that is.



Saturday Pam and I met up with Team Z (Carol was home sick – major bummer) for their 90 mile ride plus we went an extra 10 at the end as our training plan is a bit ahead of the team's. So my total miles were 74+16+10! The 74 mile loop was the doozy though – it had Etlan Road, which is steep enough to warrant switchbacks. I have only done this ride one other time - three years ago when also training for IMLP - and it did not seem quite as bad this time. The other road is Round Hills Road and I made it up without getting off to walk. Of course, this may have been one of the roads where I dropped my chain...which I dropped a total of 5 times! What I do remember the most from this ride, just like last time, was that the last 10 miles seemed harder than even the crazy hills! Wowzers! But we did it!

Sunday was my long run. I had 14 miles on the schedule and got started around 7:30 AM. This was a bit later than I’d hoped but I got it done. I did 7 out and 7 back over roads, sidewalks, all the way to the Lake Accotink Trail and to Wakefield Park. The trail was the best as it was coolest there along the water. As I got close to home on the way back the electronic sign at my old school (Edsall Park Elementary, now the Plum Center) said 92 degrees at 10:24AM. Crazy! No wonder I was a tad warm! I had forgotten to do cartwheels at the end of the bike ride on Saturday so I made sure I did my 3 cartwheels after the run. Later on Sunday it was party time for one of my Z-mates 50th birthday. Her big day was actually last month but we celebrated her big day after the fact. It was fun and AUsome! And Carol felt well enough to go out and play, too!


I took Trixie to Cycle Life in Georgetown on Monday afternoon and it was discovered my chain was...twisted. Um, how does that happen? Weird and I’m sure explains all the times I dropped my chain! Anyway, the tech put a new one on and I hope to test her out real soon!


Oh, on Tuesday last week I woke up with a toothache. Seems I need a root canal which was started yesterday. I was a bit concerned that all the Gus and stuff I was eating this weekend would irritate things but I survived by adding some Advil to my diet. I hope that I am done with health-type issues till sometime after July 22! I mean there was Peter Parasite at the end of April/beginning of May; then the toothache in June. I think the pain of doing Ironman Lake Placid should be enough for July!

So, today is 38 days and some odd hours until IM LP...I cannot believe it is just over a month away. Ack!!! When the heck did that happen? This weekend will be filled with even more fun. First on Saturday I am to do a 5-6 mile ‘warm-up’ run then race the Baltimore 10-Miler! And the race will be fun because it is Priscilla’s birthday and a group of us will be running to celebrate! Complete with appropriately themed head boppers! I cannot wait!!! Then the real ‘fun’ on Sunday: Epic 120 mile ride out of Nokesville Park! Woohoo! We have done this before though and KNOW we can do it! Carol is all better and will definitely be there, too!


Yikes!!


Happy and Healthy Training!

Race Report: REV3 Quassy aka Lazy Sunday

No, not really lazy. More like holy hill fest, batman! Lazy Sunday was written on my arm (and Carol’s) because of the ear-worm we were singing, “Lazy Sunday” the digital short from Saturday Night Live! See below...


Carol and I drove up to Connecticut on Friday morning. We left the area around 9:30 and rolled into the hotel parking lot right around 4:00. I think. We took our time and made a few stops. Traffic was overall not too bad. We stopped for gas in town at the Gulf station, which we would visit a few more times while there... It was also free donut day and with the purchase of my iced coffee at the DD connected to the station. I got a chocolate frosted donut! We got checked in and unloaded and found some dinner at I think Subway. (Wow, can I really not remember?) The area around our hotel was pretty, quiet. We had also brought most of Pam’s stuff up with us. Pam was on-call till evening so she was flying out super early Saturday morning. After dinner we walked back to Gulf to get some supplies and while there met a super nice guy (the Gulf guy) that worked there! He was very helpful about a few things in the area...namely good pizza!


Saturday morning we headed out in the rain (bummer for the Oly racers) to the airport to get Pam. We knew the airport started with a “B”...but we headed to the wrong airport! We finally got things figured out and got Pam and headed back to the hotel to drop stuff off find some lunch. We ate at Subway again! After lunch we finally headed over to the Quassy Park for athlete check-in and packet pick-up! The transition area was pretty nifty with cool ground racks for the bikes with personalized labels for each athlete. After checking in and getting our pictures taken we stopped by the Team Z tent (which were all in the finisher’s area in the park) we went to rack our bikes. I decided to drop Trixie off for a quick service of the front derailleur while we went out and drove the bike course! That was fun and helpful though I actually found the course harder on race day. But was very glad to have been able to preview it the day before!


Some laughable / funny moments from the trip:


Lazy Sunday – we could not stop singing the Lazy Sunday song from the SNL digital short...


Feel Like a Rock Star – I would also sing this new song – the parts of it I knew that is – by Kenny Chesney featuring Tim McGraw because we are, after all, rock stars. Hahah I am motivated to learn all the lyrics though now...

We ate Good and Plenty candy like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread! We at it while driving and even during the race (when it did not fall out of the bento box – see below). Then while singing and harmonizing quite nicely in the car on the way home we decided we would take our show on the road to X-Factor and would call ourselves the Good and Plentys...


Carol and Pam rocked the cool rabbit jerseys that we debuted at Placid training weekend and got a few funny comments, like:

• Silly rabbit (Carol responded appropritately that, “Trix are for kids”)
• Carrot on a stick
• Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

I sported the Team Z jersey since this was a Team Z race. One person said to me “Go Team 2!” But I did get a lot of love from DC Tri, FeXY, and even TriLife!!




Pam wears a camelback on the bike and run and got from a few guys, “Do you have a six pack in there?”


My medal, my medal!!!!! (aka Medal Down!) All Rev3 races are held in amusement park venues. Ours was in the Quassy Amusement Park in Middlebury, Connecticut. Race entry includes entry to the park. Carol and I decided to go ride the roller coaster - the Wooden Warrior - one time. This little coaster's looks are very deceiving!! I decided to take a video with my little camera (thankfully NOT my iPhone). We took off our hats and sunglasses per instructions and were riding in the front car. Yeah! We did not take off our finisher’ s medals. Carols flew off!! We were able to get a replacement from someone on staff though. Win! Here’s the video of this goofiness...


Someone said to Carol on the bike, “Did you drop a bag of pills?” aka Good and Plenty...)


Pam came by later and thought, “Oh, someone I know has been here!”


The announcer was really awesome. In the morning he was making all kinds of random comments. One of them really cracked us up: “If this (Rev3Half) is your first tri, God help you!! ”


The same announcer really liked Carol’s three finish line burpees, too! Can’t recall if he commented on my three finish line cartwheels though...


So, I finished the Rev3HALF Quassy, my sixth finish and seventh overall (I had a DNF last year at Watermans where I decided not to go on after the bike). Finish time was 7:23:39 and I was 37/38.


Swim 36:20 (1:52/100m) 9/39


I was in the second wave of age groupers (fourth wave overall). We started on the shore and ran into the water when the gun went off. Cool! The swim was a clockwise – my favorite – triangle! That meant breathing was to the right – which is not my weak side! I felt good on the swim but regretted my decision to not go sleeveless (and risk a little chaffing) and was a tad warm in the full sleeved suit. Oh well. I got a little off course (i.e., to the outside) on the first leg but the second and third were fine. No bumping or anything of the sort. I was careful not to swallow any lake water, too. Don’t want a re-visit from Peter Parasite now!! The second leg the sun was in my eyes and sighting was a little tough but all in all it was a decent swim.


T1 2:55 This is good as I really felt like I took a lot longer!


Bike 3:51:31 (13.81 mph) 33/39


So, being that I was in an early wave, a lot of male bikers passed me left and right all along the course. Well, all on the left actually. Some women (many actually) of course did as well! But I was ‘playing in my own sandbox’ anyway! I am glad we previewed the course as I did have an idea what to expect. Some of the hills were harder on the bike than they had seemed the day before though! Oh and I did just bike 112.7 miles the weekend before... The course itself was gorgeous! There were lots of nice views – even on the climbs – and definite downhill rewards after some of the climbs. I did see one racer getting looked at that I think got hit by a car. Bummer. As usual, I could not pee on the bike. I am still working on that one and maybe by IMLP race day I’ll have accomplished that! Needless to say, I stopped twice but had little to no wait! However, when I dropped my chain down shifting going uphill I was able to get that sucker back on without getting off the bike. I will take that success!! The bike course support was just amazing and the volunteers were super nice. Loved it! Before long I was making my way back up the road to the park and to T2...


Nutrition was overall good. I doubled up on the salt stick tabs from the start and took them every 45 minutes after the first hour. There was little cramping in my hamstrings. Yay! Practiced same nutrition I had at Placid training weekend though took more water from the aid stations for my aero bottle because it was there.


T2 3:60 (really, 3:60 – not 4:00?)


Run 2:48:53 (12:13 mi) 37/39


Had to pee right after transition. Guess I hydrated enough on the bike? Anyway, my legs felt pretty decent – none of that heavy feeling that is not uncommon. As I started out of the park and onto the main road I got my one and only “Go Team 2” from a volunteer. I just smiled and said, “Thanks!” I took a piece of banana from the first aid station – just because I was starving and needed real food! After that I was ok with my own nutrition (Gu, nuun, and salt tabs) but took Gatorade at the aid stations. My hamstrings were a bit crampy and I figured any extra electrolytes I could get would be good. it was not ridiculously hot out (high was about 75) but I was definitely warm in the sun. As I was starting my run I saw Carol coming in from the bike and a short time later saw Pam. Yay! We were doing it!!


The run course was as hilly as the bike so I did do a lot of walking. However, all things considered and with I think two more portapotty stops, I’m pretty happy with my run time. The volunteers on the run were also quite nice! Lots of friendly runners out there, too! Coming in to the finish area I ran by the Team Z tent! Small group but lots of energy! Oh, and there was one Z’er who’d raced in the rain the day before who had been out on the course (I saw her towards the end of the bike and the beginning of the run) out there cheering us on. She was awesome! Ran into the finisher’s chute and the announcer read my name and said I was about to finish...then I started walking so he said, “maybe not”. I held up my finger for ‘wait a minute’ then I started my three cartwheels. And I really cannot remember if the announcer made a comment about that or not. Nothing like Carol's burpees!!! (That was truly AUsome!!) Oh well. Got my cool finisher’s medal and headed to the tent for a Diet Coke and to wait for Carol and Pam!

Then later Carol and I rode the Wooden Warrior roller coaster...


Next Up: Baltimore 10-Miler (Happy Birthday, P!!!)



Happy and Healthy Training!