Gonna Tri

Am I seriuosly doing this? Guess I am. I signed up for the Iron Girl New Orleans Triathalon for this Sunday.

Not sure what I was thinking when I signed up. Actually, I know what I was thinking. I’ve wanted to do a tri for a while. The Iron Girl is a sprint tri, 1/4mi swim, 12mi bike, 3.1mi run. The bike and the run distances (and longer) I do multiple times a week. And we’ll chalk the swim up to being an over confident, pompous ass. Yep.

With two small girls and limitied pool access, I don’t really have time to train for the swim. But it’s only a 1/4mi and I’m strong. Or at least that’s what I thought until my first training swim. That swim did not go well. I struggled to get thru one length of the pool. After a few coaching session, my stroak is by no means perfect but it’s unlikely I’ll drown. My plan it to get in the back of my my wave and go slow. This will be an ugly, ugly swim but I’ll finish.

This will be my first time racing on my bike, Blue Betty. Because of my early morning training sessions, I rarely even ride near other people. I’m a little nervous of being close to other people on bikes. Again, I am no skilled cyclist. Oh, and I mount and dismount like an old lady. The running mount is way beyond my skill level. One day maybe, but first I need to work up the courage to get clipless pedals. Master that and I move on to more advanced stuff.

The run is the only thing I am not worried about. Who would have though that running would be my strong suit?! But it is. I may not be fast but I can do it forever, thru pain, with the wrong shoes and any other thing that can go wrong. I know that I will finish the run on my hands if need be. This is my comfort.

Hopefully, with smooth tranisitions and decent a decent bike and run I will put up a not too embarrising time. All I want is to finish. To finsih and get a medal.

Note: Due to the opening of the Mississippi River Spillway and the high winds we’ve been getting. There is a possiblity that the swim will get cancelled. The swim was cancelled for last weeks 5150. I will disapointed and relieved if the swim is cancelled. But mostly disapointed.

Rusty Beauty

As y'all know, running is my first (sport) love. But a close second, is my bike. She fairly new and still shiny. I've only had her for 9mo. I love the feeling of flying I get when I'm out riding. She's light as a feather but sturdy enough to drag 80lbs of kid in a trailer. Here's a picture of my bike (Well, one like it).

I know that my road bike isn't "fancy" per se. But she is my first bike since I was a kid and I've never been that skilled on 2 wheels. When we were looking for a bike for me, I wanted something nice but not too expensive. I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to ride. That I'd fall off too many times and get freaked out. Nope. It really is like riding a bike. You just hop on and go.

Last month, I was bequeathed a work bike from a family friend. (Yes, the facility I work in is large enough that it warrants riding a bike places. Hell, if I were more important I'd have a scooter. It's that big. ) I was sooo happy to get the "new to me" bike. I've been logging lots of miles over the last 7yrs walking thru this factory. Plus, I'm often carrying heavy things place to place.

But  this work bike, Rusty Beauty, is not my road bike. First off, my Rusty Beauty spent most of her life outside. Hence, the name. Secondly, the brakes are nearly shot. I can fix that. Just haven't gotten around to it.  Third, Rusty Beauty weighs a ton. And all of the weight is in the front end.  My road bike probably weighs a svelte 20lbs.  I know better than to try to figure out how much Rusty Beauty weighs. I mean, that's just rude.  Because of these three things and my natural clumsiness, she and I have been in a few near misses in the past month. I try to stop on her like I would my road bike. Light brake tap and toes down. Doesn't work so well. I've got to get out of this habit or I'm going to have another run in with Safety.

Having said the above, I am so happy to have Rusty Beauty in my life. Makes my day a little easier. Plus, bike riding in a building is just plain fun.

Rusty Beauty

The cause of Rusty Beauty's weight problem

Biking with my Girls

Look at my new toy! A bike trailer for my girlies to ride in.

I got it for my birthday. But I didn't have a chance to use it until yesterday. In fact, it was still in the box. After a few mins assembling it and attaching it to my bike, the girls climbed in. I handed them they're dinner, a la Mermaids. (Y'all remember that movie? The mom, Cher, fed the kids appetizers/party food for dinner. We had leftovers from the Easter party.) That's the key to keeping the fighting to a min, snacks. Good thing the like fruits and veggies. I'd feel silly giving them chips so they'll be quite while I exercise.

I'm super surprised with the quality of this trailer. It was very in expensive. One of my fav friends, Travis, turned me on to nashbar.com.

 MM & Li packed in to the Trailer with dinner.

 Unfortunately, I have no stats. In my excitement, I forgot to grab my Garmin. I know I rode for 40mins and I figure about 7-8mi. Clearly, I'm not speedy on the bike either. What evs. After the first block, my thighs were burning. After about 1.5mi, I wanted to turn for home. It's quite a resistance workout pulling 80lbs on a bike. But I was determined to ride for 40mins. As you know, I've run 3 half-marathons in the last year. I am tough and strong and my legs can take a beating. But geez louise that was a struggle. I had to stop to catch my breath after 20mins. Than after another 10mins. But I made it the full 40mins.

I'm super new to the biking scene and I have a few questions I'd love for people in the know to answer...

1.  I get sore spots on my hands. Should I just suck it up or buy padded biking gloves? Is that a silly thing that wimps do?
2. How do I find a comfortable pace? Even without the kiddos, I'm struggling to find and pace I can go the distance.
3. Are they're workouts/training plans that help with speed and endurance, like with running?

 Thanks for the info.

Our Saturday

Morning 
We had a relaxing morning yesterday. It's so cold outside I didn't feel like getting off the sofa, out from under my blanket. As Li was changing out of her jammers, MM decided to get her in the belly button with the stuffed snake. 

Lunch
The Big Man isn't a huge fan of soup but it's cold. And the January issue of Runner's World had a recipe for bean and ham soup I thought looked tasty.It was really good and I used some of the honey baked ham I had in the freezer. I tried to find the recipe online to link but I couldn't. If you'd like it send me an email and I'll type it up for you.

Exercise
Finally, at 10:30AM decided to get dressed for a bike ride. I figured my cold weather running gear would suffice. I put on as many layers as I could,

• running ear warmer & gloves
• long sleeve tech shirt
• running jacket
• oversized sweatshirt
• bike shorts
• running tights
• two pairs
• old running shoes

I was warm except for my toes. Old running shoes was a bad idea. The breathable mesh let in the cold. My toes were numb after ten mins. Besides my toes, I had a nice ride. The fountains in my neighborhood were frozen.
And yes, those are both our trucks. We live in Louisiana. What can I say.

After the ride and lunch, the Big Man and I did 35mins of P90. MM was under foot the whole time, per usual.(He uses the DVDs to exercise when he stays the night at work.) It was tough but not impossible. We were both sweating. When I woke up this morning, my inner thighs were sore. It's a nice feeling.

Date
Earlier in the week, I lined up a babysitter for a much needed date night. We're old and I turn into a pumpkin at 9:30 so we start our dates early. I mean 5PM early. We went to the 5:30 showing of Sherlock Holmes. It was fun. I love action movies. I tried to take a picture us but this is the best I could get. Not too bad except I'm missing 1/4of my face.

Then we head to our fav Mexican restaurant, Taqueria Corona. The margaritas are the best. I know they're not on my diet but...

This Morning
My pesky scale is still reading up a few lbs. higher than it was last week. I'm working on it but it takes time to work it off. But I'm not a patient person. Seriously, I weighed myself 3x yesterday. I think I need to hide my scale for a few weeks or I'll drive myself crazy.

Ok, enough rambling.

I'm in Love.....

If you're tired of reading about me running, you're in luck. Santa bought me a bike for Christmas and I love it!

In case you were wondering, it's a Giant Avail 3.
I haven't gotten much riding in yet. It's hard to do during the week when the days are so short and the Big Man isn't home to watch the girls. But spring is coming and I need to cross-train.  I can not tell you how excited I am about this.