Bad blogger!

My apologies. It has been a crazy world since I returned from my trip. I've not only been trying to get back on my training schedule, but I've been prepping my house to go on the market. My house went up on Monday after painters, much de-cluttering, tossing, donation and putting into to storage and of course cleaning and dusting. I am tired of it! The realtor is having an open house on Saturday. Can I please get an offer in the first week.???!!!!???? I don't know if I can handle the madness that is keeping a house in ready to show mode. Good thing my ex took Sampson for a few days. Old dog doesn't need to be a part of the madness and as much as I love him, he is a messy beast. If we sell then I will be able to check another thing off the list that leads down the path to final divorce. You would think after 2.5 years of separation we would get this over with. Stupid economy got in the way. I didn't even want this divorce, but now I am so ready for all of it to be final, done, etc. And it hasn't even been ugly. I am just ready to close this chapter!

I will get a trip report with pictures on here soon! Here is some training stuff - not too interesting

I have been hitting the gym and doing my strength work. I am killing the 1 minute plank - forward and both sides. I think I may be ready to hold it longer! woot! I have been doing a series of mostly body weight strength and core work consistently since March. I can tell a difference in my core and my arms the most. I still have stubborn over 40 year old, mom, fat that I can't seem to melt... but it is all looking a bit tighter. I have gain muscle too, that is always good!

Bike - Last Saturday - 28 miles. I hung with the guys at 20 mph for about half of it then they left me on this slow, long incline. I averaged a bit slower after that with no one to chase - except for the lovely downhills! Tuesday - 11 miles on the monthly women's ride. We kept a good pace in air so thick you could chew it. There were only 3 of us and I was the old lady! Thursday - ~18 miles. Kept a good pace through most of this. I was one of three women with a bunch of guys riding. I mostly road with the woman who owns the bike shop we ride out of. She is nice and super helpful as an experienced rider. She was giving me some good tips. I like it when experienced riders do this! I am here to learn every day.

Run - Most of my running has been on the treadmill. I hate running outside in high humidity thus I haven't been out there. I can only stand about 30 minutes on the treadmill though.. good thing I am only doing a sprint distance tri on Aug 16. I will try to get an outdoor run in on Sunday and for longer than 30 minutes.

Swim - I only got one swim in this week. YIKES. I did about 1200 m on Monday. Nothing stellar, but it was pool time.

Hiking - Last Sunday I scouted for this weeks small hike. This weeks hike is only about 3 miles and then we go tubing. So really the trip is about tubing, but since we are a hiking club we are making a nod to hiking. LOL... I will take pictures while tubing since I have my Canon waterproof, shock proof camera. I even have a floating wrist strap for it in case I lose hold. I don't plan too!

Happy Running, swimming, cycling, hiking, and relaxing to all!

Back from Trip!

I will post a photo filled Mt. Rainier trip report later! It was wonderful, even the work trip add on to Salt Lake City was fun!

I am most excited today as I decided to join the DC Tri Club before I left on vacation as they have lots to offer and many people to learn from. And Born Not to Run kept telling me I should join. Thanks Jeanne! I belong to a newly formed tri club in my county - and they are great, but it can't hurt to belong to both, especially while the new one is growing! First benefit of DC Tri Club at this time....they had extra slots saved in the North East Triathlon in August! So today I was able to sign up! I decided to go for the sprint distance. I modified my goal from Olympic distance to sprint, because my training has been a bit off for the Olympic goal AND the worst part..... my residuals from Guillian-Barre have been flaring up all through June and into this month. I think I may have been overdoing the training just a bit, plus the June 21 tri and the long bike ride the following weekend...my body was talking....I have to listen to my body as I want to be doing this for a long, long time and I don't want to risk injury. My residuals flare in the form of exhaustion - just want to sleep nothing else, and numb fingers and toes... they really are always numb, but the sensation is heightened when I have over done it and have not gotten enough sleep... I also get some nerve pain from time to time. Just gotta keep on moving!

So back to the training plan.... I am missing my group bike ride tonight...blogging not riding (LOL).. actually I am still tired from my trip (just got home last night) and I don't have my shit together! Tonight I will get myself organized physically and mentally to get back on schedule!

Friday -Swim - about an hour (usually a rest day, but I need to get back on track)
Saturday - Brick - Bike ~25 miles and run about 2.5 miles
Sunday - Long run day.... I haven't been running much lately... so I will go for slow a 5k.

Twitter

I have succumbed to twitter. I am MKSINMD if you wish to follow me.

Back to getting ready for my trip....

ARGHHHHH

So I while I have planned all along to do the North East Triathlon on August 16th, I had not signed up yet. So yesterday morning I go to sign up and..... ITS SOLD OUT!!!!! ARGHHHHHHHH . I am generally not a procrastinator for things like this, I just been busy at work, and other stuff. Now I am trying to figure out a new plan for August as well as triathlon for September. I did put myself on the wait list. I don't hold out much hope though.

This is an exciting week too though as my child is off visiting my parents for a month starting tomorrow and then I am going on a mini vacation that morphs into a business trip. The business trip just got added on and actually derailed a day of my originally planned vacation, but since I am going to place I have never been before I have decided to take the positive stance! Vacation will be had on Mt. Rainier, Washington and the business trip will be in Salt Lake City, Utah!
I just got a new wee camera - Cannon Powershot D10 - waterproof, shock proof, freeze proof. I will take lots of pictures. I'll even give my opinion of said camera once I've used it, although I am no expert. I've read other reviews that are good. It is a bit chunky, but it definitely has more durability than my other point and shoot. More mega pixels too!

Back to getting ready for work trip while still at work!

Catoctin Challenge Bike Ride Report

It was a gorgeous day for the Catoctin Challenge! We started at the Frederick Community College in Frederick, MD. We signed up for the 65 mile route (the "Chicks Dig Fil" Metric). This is me and my ride partner and friend, Kelly, at the first rest stop in Thurmont. I'm in the orange and blue jersey. Riding through the country side of Frederick, Maryland we went through several covered bridges. I am not a master of taking pictures while riding, thus no covered bridge photos. Next time! They were lovely though. It was nice to ride in very low traffic areas. Even though there were many other riders on the road, most of the time it was just me and Kelly. It was a good time to catch up on all that has been going on in our lives.

This was the second rest stop on Mason-Dixon Road! We were headed North! All of the volunteers for this event were super!

Then we road into the Gettysburg Battlefield

Self portrait. I should have smiled!




Lunch was at the Land of Little Horses! We made new, furry friends.

After lunch, Kelly was chased by a crazy dog. The owner was finally able to get control of him and no one was hurt! We climbed through the farm land little ups and downs here and there. Past some lovely, bubbling creeks and remote houses. So quiet and peaceful!

Kelly and the "Ride Genius" Phil - creator of the Catoctin Challenge. This was at the final rest stop at Ski Liberty in Pennsylvania. Up to now the climbing wasn't so bad. The down hill into this rest stop was awesome. I think it was when I hit 41 miles per hour. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

See that hill? Somewhere over there is the two mile climb. Last year so many people, including moi, walked up the hill. It was hot, it is a long, slow climb. This year...... I peddled the whole way. My bike is not triple ring..... I may have only been going about 4 miles per hour, but I road the whole thing! Woot! Several of us were cussing Phil for the hill the whole way. He even had spray painted, FU FIL on the road! He knows! Phil also likes to spray on the road, "This is the last hill".... it never is......He is a silly man. He enjoys torturing those that do his rides.


WE MADE IT!

Here we are at the end - the Lodge a Blue Ridge Summit! Still smiling. I was glad to be done and I was thinking - SHOWER! BEER! FOOD!

We calculated that we did about 68 rather than 65 miles. Nothing stellar on the speed, but we weren't racing. It was a great ride!

My sitz bones were sore. Muscles a little tight. I stretched and then took advantage of the $1 per minute massages that were being offered. 20 minutes of leg and shoulder work and I felt great... that and a few beers too!

Sunday we took the short cut route back to Frederick (35 miles or so), which only saved us about 5 miles, but it did take out one of the two killer climbs. Each of them are the short but steep hills. Once back to Frederick, we got our junk from the truck and went to eat at Cracker Barrel! An Awesome Weekend!

Thank you to those that donated too!

This Weekend's Activities

On Saturday, I will be off on a charity bike ride to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Frederick County, Maryland.
If you wish to sponsor me click here: Sponsor Maryland Girl
We start in Frederick, Maryland and ride up to the Lodge at Blue Ridge Summit in Pennsylvania. The ride has three options for Saturday - 50, 65 and 99.9 miles. My friend Kelly and I have decided to tackle the 65 mile option. It is hilly too! We ride through part of the Gettysburg Battle Field and have great rest stops along the way. Once at the lodge, you set up camp, shower, eat (donated by Outback! Yum!), drink beer, listen to the bands... Its a party! It is a well put together event. Sunday's ride is lots of fun as it is mostly down hill back into Frederick. Zoooommmmm!!
I did this ride last year, the 50 mile option, on my hybrid bike (affectionately named big red..it is a tank!) , three weeks post surgery for ovarian cysts, and I had been out on the bike once! Crazy, yes, but I survived and had fun. Going into to this year, I think it will be pretty good. I now have a MUCH, MUCH lighter bike - the tangerine dream! :) - and I've been consistently training on the bike. Last year it was blazing hot and humid. It looks like this year it will be a little bit better. I hope the humidity stays down. I will try to be a good blogger and take lots of pictures along the way.

I wish all those racing and such this weekend the best of luck! I look forward to catching up on the blogs next week!

Dextro Energy Triathlon Race Report

So here is my rambling race report! I apologize now for any grammatical errors! Here are the silly pictures.

Born Not To Run and I looking tough! Ha ha. Check out my guns! Jeanne is a great cheerleader! Thanks Jeanne!





I seriously need to do my hair color! Ha!











They put your age on your calf!

It was still dark when I arrived in transition!

The swim dock. This was taken on Saturday. The Potomac was VERY choppy on Saturday. Not so choppy on Sunday but the current was strong! It looks so angry in this photo!

I was pumped on Sunday morning. My heart rate was up before we even jumped in the water. I jumped in and felt fine in the wetsuit and the water. Once we were given the go I had trouble getting going. My chest felt tight, I couldn't catch a good breath. The current was tough. The water was murky. I just doggy paddled/breast stroked until I felt better. I even felt like I might not be able to do it, but I talked myself out of that notion. I think of myself as a strong swimmer. I have snorkeled in the ocean, no land in site, why can't I do this! Once I got around the first buoy I felt a little more in sync. I did keep veering right away from where I should have been going, but the helpful men in the kayaks made sure I didn't get too far off course. Now I know I need to work on my open water swim and starting from a floating position.

I tried to run from the swim to the transition area, but I did have to walk some of it. I think I did pretty good getting out of the wetsuit, but I'm not sure what else I was doing for over 5 minutes. Contemplating Life??? Once I got on the bike I was feeling in the groove. The bike course was awesome. It was great to ride on the roads I have driven on so many times and to have nothing but other cyclist around you. I felt strong on the bike. T2 wasn't as long as T1, but still! I got running and it didn't take too long for my legs to feel okay. Those brick workouts have been helpful! I felt good during the run. I may have been able to push myself a bit more, but I think overall it was a good run. I meant to grab my camera for the run, so I could take pictures as I went past the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument and then as I was coming down the finish line with the Capital behind me, but I forgot!

It was a fun race! I am so happy I decided to throw this one into my line up. I was awesome to see the pros racing in the ITU Championship! They were so fast! I was also inspired by the older women that were doing the age group race. There were a handful that were over 60. Many former iron man distance competitors. Post race I walked back to my car (several blocks away from transition) with Mary who is 68. She is amazing. She was coming back to triathlon after nearly a 2 year break due to illness. I hope that I am still doing triathlons at 68. She said she used to do mostly iron man and half iron man distances, but that she really enjoyed doing this sprint distance.

I will say all of the women that I have met thus far in connection to triathlon have been super!

When I get my official race photos I'll post them too.

Here are my stats for the Dextro Energy Triathlon

• Overall time: 1:46:55
• Division: 14 out of 17
• Gender: 142 out of 169
• Overall place: 425 out of 477

• Swim (750m): 23:27 (3.08 per 100m)
• T1: 5:18!!
• Bike (20k): 41:13 (18.1 mph)
• T2: 2:44
• Run (5K): 34:15 (11:03 per mile)

I was penalty free! Now I have a PR for a Sprint Distance. I came into this event without any expectations in terms of time. I just did it for the experience, but I am pretty happy with it overall! I really liked this distance. I didn't feel all beat up when it was over, which is good!