Oh my, it has been since the end of January since I posted!
What a bad blogger I am! it’s time I get my butt in gear and start blogging for
the 2012 season.
Let’s see where do I begin….well how about a quick recap of
the past four months. Yikes….I’ll keep it short!
March:
Ron’s off season cycle classes on Saturdays were a great
motivation for my winter Saturday rides. He kicked everyone’s butts in class
with his threshold training intervals. When I went out for my first hilly ride
later that month I predicted a world of hurt for my legs. It wasn’t bad and I
attribute a lot of that to the hard trainer sessions.
March was also the beginning of the HORRIBLE allergy season
which arrived early in DC due to the very mild winter we had. It was also a
very warm March! I have never been affected by allergies so much. My first road
running race was the DC Rock and Roll half marathon. It pretty much sucked b/c
of allergies and I felt sick, congested and fatigue the whole time. Ah
well….that’s when I went to an allergy doc and, found out that I’m allergic to
a lot of things…..pretty much every tree that blooms in the spring, dust, mold
and a little bit to dogs! I’m in disbelief about the dog allergy and still pet
every dog I see on the way home from work to my house. J I wish I would have gotten a
picture of my arm after the doc pricked me with about 40 different allergens. I
was one blotchy, red chica! At least I found out what was going on, got some
prescriptions and a different over-the-counter allergy med that works better
(Ahhhh llegra). The doc pretty much told me that I’d feel crappy through the
end of April/May. Woo hoo! Well, it is now July and I still have some issues
every now and then.
April:
April began with a visit from my Dad and his girlfriend,
Sue. My dad came out for his traditional Cherry Blossom visit. This was the 7th
Cherry Blossom 10 mile race we had run together! Last year we decided to do the
Broad Street Philly 10 miler and the year before something had come up or this
would have been our 9th race in a row. Race day was cool, it rained
the day before and allergies were not a problem! I managed to keep a 7 minute
mile pace ave. for the run and actually felt decent. Whew! My dad did great as
well and ran around 7:40 pace.
April also included the DC Tri Snapple Team camp at Lost
River, WV. We stayed at the infamous ‘Barn’. It was tough riding/running, but a
lot of fun! There were six of us girls that stuck together the day we rode on
what turned out to be a 90 mile ride. Let me tell you, running a very hilly 12
miler the next day was very challenging but worth the great training!
May:
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| Herkey made an appearance! |
Whew…May was a whirlwind! Every weekend I was out of town
and I think I worked 10 whole days. All my mini vacations just happened to end
up being around the same time and I certainly didn’t mean to plan it that way.
I started the month out with a trip to Iowa. I sang in my cousins wedding and
made a week out of the trip so I could also spend some quality time with my
family and some of my good friends. My cousin used to be one of the Herkey the Hawk mascots in college so, Herkey showed up to the wedding and danced with everyone!
I shipped my road bike out (which by the way cost about $100
more to ship back for some reason and reminds me I still need to check in on
that before my next bike shipping….beware of shipping costs and how they do
it!) and rode with my dad and his two friends, Ken and Jan. The first day we
ended up getting in 80 miles. This day was a day of flat tires. Before we even
started, I had two bad tubes with holes in them so had to get those changed
out. Then, Ken ended up getting three flats and a hole in his tire! Crazy!
Luckily, we were close enough to Ames and Bike World that we could get some
tubes to bring back to him. After that ride we hung out at Jan’s house and had
a few well deserved Tommy Knocker beers. Mmmmm! My dad and I ended up putting
in about 175 miles while I was back and the longest my dad had really ridden
before that was a few 20 milers. My dad is an endurance machine! |
| My Dad, Jan and I. Jan and my dad used to train for marathons together and ran a few sub 2:50's! |
After I got back from Iowa, I worked two days, and then flew
out to San Diego with Ron for the San Diego IT World Triathlon. (race report
here) Ron and I stayed a few extra days and had a ‘Sunday Funday’. J The day started out with lunch with our
friends, Chris and Karen, who we had met at our resort in Cozumel when we were
there for the Ironman in 2010. This is a really small world story I have to
share….we just happened to be in the elevator at the same time as Chris who was
bringing Karen’s bike up to their room. Chris told us he was being a Sherpa for
his wife Karen, and that he had just done a marathon. Knowing that the Philly
marathon was just the weekend before, I asked if he had raced that one. He said
yes, and that he was from there. Well, come to find out, he’s from around the
same area as where Ron grew up near Philly, and Karen is from Falls Church, VA!
We hung out with them several times that week and Ron ended up doing the relay
tri with both of them while we were out in San Diego. It really amazes me
sometimes how people end up meeting. Cozumel was also where I ended up meeting
some people from Iowa, and then found my coach through their coaching services,
Zoom Performance. Another great ending to this short story is that Chris and
Karen will be moving back to VA this fall so we will be seeing a lot more of
them and their baby James! I love it!
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| Delicious dinner in La Jolla |
Ok back to Sunday Funday….I want to write about this b/c
it’s probably a once in a lifetime experience. Ron and I found a happy hour
going on in La Jolla with live acoustic music at a place called Prospect. The
singer had an amazing violinist playing with him. When the singer took a break,
he walked by and we chatted with him a bit. Somehow in the conversation I
brought up that Ron and I like to sing and play (Ron plays the guitar). He
said, well that’s great, do you guys want to do a song. What?! Of course! So,
Ron and I got up to play/sing a few songs with the beautiful ocean in the
background. And, the violinist didn’t miss a beat playing some background music
with each of our songs. Of all the rare times we both didn’t have our phones
with us or my camera, we unfortunately, didn’t get video of this. Bummer but
the experience is etched in my memory.
May ended with a weekend in Philly for his sister, Kim’s,
surprise bridal shower. And, she really was surprised! Success! Then the
following Thurs. – Monday was the long Memorial Day weekend. We headed to Dewey
Beach. That Sunday Ron and I went for a bike ride. There’s a portion of the
ride with a newly paved raised section that we had to get off our bikes to go
around. I had asked Ron why he got off thinking it would have been ok to just
keep riding up it. Well, I later found out why he got off! I added on a few
more miles by myself at the end of the ride and ended up going over that same
portion we had been on earlier. I had the genius idea to keep riding up that
unlevel portion of the road and definitely paid for it! My front tire slipped
out from under me, my body went flying into the cement barrier to the left and
then I landed on my left knee. Needless to say, I was scared of what I might
have done to myself, checked everything out, then remembered my carbon Cervelo
went flying out from under me. Of course then my only thought was, ‘Is my bike
ok?!?!’…..yes, she was and just got a little bit of scuff on one of the
shifters and a bent in brake. Whew…that would have been expensive to replace! I
hadn’t hit my head and the worst of what I could see was a couple small chunks
taken out of my leg along with some scratches and bruises. My left shoulder and
arm hurt pretty bad the next day so I went to get an x-ray just to be sure
everything was where it should be. Luckily, all bones were aligned!
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| Road Rash |
This brings me to June, which will be my next blog and my
race report from the challenging Buffalo Springs 70.3 race!
