VOTE FOR DKT!

As many of you know I am racing for the Gear West Bike and Triathlon Team, not only is this a really awesome group of people, but its a store that supports its triathletes as people first, and racers second.

I have always had great respect for the folks racing on the development team, and especially bc David Thompson races locally when he can and isnt too busy to change out my cassette or give advice in a course.  He may be a super fast pro, but after the race, or sitting at his kitchen counter,  walking Henry, or hanging with his wife and my good friend, Hannah, David is a super triathlete but also an equally super person.

I am sure you all have your favorite pro's, but I hope you will consider voting for DKT in the Janus Charity Challenge:

Click here to vote for DAVID for the Janus Charity Challenge

P.S. Ruby and Henry say "VOTE FOR DAVID!"

So that is what sub 5 feels like!

Yay, I finally broke 5 hours in a half irondistance race. I cant tell you it has changed my life, if anything it will make my life a bit more painful in the next week, but I am happy to say I think i worked hard for that soreness and inability to go down stairs:)

Yesterday I raced the Lake Chisago Half Iron Distance Triathlon. It's about 45 min from my house and early in the season when i got shut out of Door County I figured Racine was it. But then that weekend was my mom's 82nd birthday ( and mom now i know how it feels go down stairs like you do:((
And in hindsight that weekend was brutally hot for all of you to race. So this worked out ok, you can never complain about sleeping in your own bed, thou getting up at 3:30 am in your own bed seems more wrong than in a hotel!

I dont have much to report stats wise yet and have no ACTION photos, but i will give you a quick recap.

Weather looked to be good, actually COOOL!!! I know, weird. My good friend ( and partner in crime) Renee came from Wisc to stay and since she got in friday we had all saturday to bum around, do our pre race stuff, eat, nap, shop andOF COURSE watch the TDF. Tangent. I am so sore today ( monday) and SO SAD there is no more TDF to watch. ( insert pouty lip)

Ok back to the race.

I heard this course was EASY and FLAT and 2 years ago i know it was short, and EVERYONE broke 5 hours. Ok that isnt true but it was surely a PR course. In the mean time i know the roads were changed and the course is now true. And after yesterday I think we all thought "this is deceptive!" It wasnt Hilly but it sure wasnt flat on either the bike or run.

The swim. Oh the swim.
When you see the line of buoys and wonder where the rest of the rectangular course is you have to take pause and figure that they had to put in more buoys. nope. Fog rolled in and so you couldnt even see the line of buoys. Being in wave 2 we had a good shot out and the canoes were at the end to stop us from swimming further to the other side of the lake ( nearly there anyways) but on the way back in it was a total cluster. Imagine sighting to see masses of green caps coming AT YOU. I was pretty sure i was on the right course and others had drifted over to us, but who knows i didnt spend time hanging around i just swam RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT. it was a total Cluster. and I know a few people that knocked heads. Not a fun swim at all. Oh and the water temp? Well over 78, very hot, we were little lobsters. But this RD always says wetsuit legal. So go with the masses i guess.

I felt good, other than the sheer panic of getting wopped a few time. and i thought "ok this is good practice for IM!"

Not sure my time, but i used the strippers who looked bored and came into T1 with a girl who hadnt used them and watched her sit down and thought "hmm, i made a good choice." I think my swim time was 32:xx so happy with that for now.

Bike: The first 5 miles are tough for me, my VMO's ( medial quads) are usually tight. I popped a Salt Stick and voila, all good. I started my feeding plan immediately. No matter what the clock said i was practicing for IM. I had it in my head that the bike sets up a good run, so i forced fluids when it was not hot at all, reminding myself that the fluids i had were Kcals, and i saved the water for post gel. I took 5 gels on that bike, and 2 bottles of perform. It may not seem like alot but i am not a big drinker, i just dont drink that much when i ride. But i had great energy, into the wind, when the packs went by  I just knew i had to work the wind and not cheat. So i rode clean. And other than one pair that i yelled " you may as well be on a tandem" I just shut up and rode my race. And no marshalls.
time? not sure.

Run: Goal was sub 1:40 and my plan was to take it out easier and then see what i had left at mile 6-7.
It was getting hot, sun came out at the end of the ride, and i was ok with that. IT wasnt hot, just around mid to upper 70;s but still the sun made it worse. Water and Gatorade stations were pretty randomly placed and we were sharing the stations with incoming and outgoing runners so i again had a few collisions with runners. I dont think i had too much of an issue with anything till around mile 6 my Left Hip started to really bug me. I have had some issues with that glute so i was praying i could get thru this. I ran with Suzie for a few miles and i could hear her behind me. I knew there were some really fast women right on my tail but i also knew they werent in my AG:) But i still wanted to do well OA if i could. I didnt look back until i entered the park and i saw nobody so i just kept it together, hoping to not have a finish like in Kansas, and got thru the chute with nobody right on my tail. And I did go sub 1:40! I think i was 1:38:xx which is a huge run PR for me in that distance.

Aftermath:
Hung around for awards, i didnt get a cool DALA horse but we got a Trivet with lots of swedish colors and Rich even got one! The stud got 3rd out of 21 in his AG. That is huge for him, so proud of him! He took it to work to show all his staff what a stud he is. And after the race i said to him " you got the same award as i did, but i had to do more than twice your distance!" I was kidding. But he had a great reply:
"Yes, i know. All the glory and i did half the work, you will learn." ha, too funny.

Renee had to drive back to Wisc but before we left we had to snap a picture. As you may recall when we were in KS in 2010 we got this pic:

 Now Chrissie was not in Chisago City, MN but the next best thing to Chrissie?
Well DKT! What a fantastic champion, and so he filled in for CW:

 David's blog is some fun and honest reporting on the real life of a real pro that doesnt spend his life trying to win Kona. A working man pro with a fantastic wife, my good friend Hannah, and a super shop that he works very hard for, Gear West Bike and Tri.

All in all this race was a good test for me. I am not sure i would go back unless they got it cleaned up a bit, but hats off to the RD who really did her best to accomodate 1800 athletes in a small space!

Next up? 5 days to recover and then we hit the course in Madison next weekend. Woohoo.
Send me some recovery tricks! ( oh besides the obvious, rest, compress, ice, massage, protein, eat well, etc..!)

This is more like it...

Yes I mean the heat. I am sorry if some people dont handle the heat well, and while i am happy with 80 I have to admit that in order to survive the sub zero i need the insane heat. If you live here you may understand me, and if you live here and think i am nuts then perhaps you need to go buy another snowblower and some shovels and another turtleneck. It will be here soon.

So in bullet point fashion since i have heatstroke right now ( kidding):
We had a great ride at Lake Pepin last weekend. I am glad we werent doing it this weekend bc 93 deg was hot enough, and today they say its 97 and a heat index of 1 million. I dont know, i know that the humidity is high. Anyways. This picture was taken when we are still in MN and i was telling Rich to stop dawdling bc we still had about 50 miles to go, so my pose reflects my " um this isnt a leisure ride."
Then again you cant see me and my sister said i look like Frankenstein with my braids. Yea i know they stick out, not sure how to fix that. other than to get longer hair.

 Then here i am modeling one of my sweet Betty Designs purchases. The Tank top. i love it. I also got a kit, that will come in the next photo. ( note that my braids are again frankenstein-esque)

(it doesnt look like its 97 with a huge dewpoint does it?)

Friday night we had a fun Skirt Chaser event where we bought too many Skirt sports things ( Ok i did) and then we rode our bikes in the rain ( it had actually stopped) and the guys chased us. It was totally a fun ride, and they did indeed catch us but i dont think more than 1 gal was riding hard bc we were too busy chatting and also in my case, tucking my skirts sports dress into my shorts so i didnt get a rooster tail up my behind. Then we had a nice bbq and i had some Brat with my saurkraut, mustard and pickle entree. Super fun event and if you havent seen Nicole DeBoom's line you really are missing out. Of course you have. Hillary Biscay wears it....Skirt Sports I know there were some pics taken but i havent seen them, but this is the dress i wore: and since it was cold ( um not really but it was wet) I had to buy the longsleeve top that matched! 

This weekend i did an open water swim race at Lake Harriet. one of your metro lakes. It was either a 2 loop ( 5K) or 1 loop (2.5K) and i decided to do the shorter one. CAll me a wimp but if i didnt see you there then you had better not. It was wetsuit legal ( Gosh dont know how in the world i could have done that it was hot) but i felt pretty good, swam easy to start and let the high school kids get in front of me and eventually gap me, so i was solo, with some behind me and i had a lovely swim. The course is an upside down triangle so with only two buoys and about 1000 out and back it was tough to sight. But i remembered Michelle last year telling me that Ocean Swims have no buoys so i got my big girl lake suit on and went for it. I had to stop just once at each turn bc they were not 90 deg turns, and make sure i had cut the angle right, but i think i did pretty good. No giant fish, a few weeds but came out in about the same time as last year. Turns out i won my AG ( since all the others were like 16 yo) but not sure what i won bc i left to go ride before the heat index reached 1 million again. LOVE that open water, especially without a wetsuit. It's so freeing!

Here is me with the Men's winner and GW teammate Thad: He started 20 min ahead of me, did twice the distance and i think got out about 5 minutes after me. That is a swimmer for ya!

So we race again this weekend, July 24, a local race. I am pretty non jazzed excited about it, and i am not toally sure why. Actually i think i am just not STRESSED out about it. I have my game plan, and its really a good long practice day for IM. So i will be a total liar if i dont say i dont care how i do, but if i can nail my nutrition and game plan as a mini practice for Madison ( at a faster pace) I will be happy.  I have a friend coming to stay with me, renee, from Wisc, but Kansas fame ( my partner in crime in Kansas) so that will be awesome. 

That's about all you need to know for now, other than my awesome sauce mom turned 82 yesterday. Pretty awesome. And yes I have been watching Parks and Rec's reruns. You wont get that if you dont know who April is. 

July 4th weekend and lotsa family fun ( reported a week late)

A bit tardy on this post but oh well. It's the weekend after the 4th and I didnt realize what a blast i had up north till this weekend when all the sudden the wet and sorta stormy saturday morning has me wishing i had that perfect weekend back. We drove up late friday thru the WORST storm i can remember. I was so scared and we finally pulled over and got off 35 around Sandstone bc we could not see. It was so windy and raining so hard. We sat it out for about 40 minutes then continued on up to Duluth and Two Harbors where it was still raining. The next day ( which was LOVELY!) we found out there was a tornado and straight line winds right where we were driving so no wonder it was bad. It was.

Saturday meant a long day in the saddle and a run afterwards. I had mapped a ride that took us UP from the lakefront, which meant two things. Hills and Heat. There were two things i hadnt planned on for that 100 miler, and to be honest I was expecting 4 things, bc everyone says 4 things go wrong in an IM so i was just thinking there would be 2 more! 

Around mile 20 we hit a gravel road. Huh? that wasnt on the map. Maybe we missed a turn? nope. Maybe we should turn back? hmm. That would not work for the route we had bc we would have to be on 61 ( busier freeway) longer than i care to ride on it. And well...we kept thinking " the airport is on this road, what gives?" Well the airport WAS on that road but it was the Silver Creek Airport. Never connected thru that one, have you? good thing, there was no Starbucks and no bathrooms. Its basically a hangar:) so we had 8 miles of rough road and yes i was thinking that a flat was imminent. Luckily the only real aftermath was a super dirty bike and super sticky yukked up front brakes bc my front bottle holder means i get some drips down the front fork. Ick, it was like crystallized sugar.

So we made it to the real roads and right above Beaver Bay the real climbing started. We had a N NW wind at 18 and that means a head wind, coupled with uphill ( its all uphill from the lake) it was 12-14mph and slower at times. I was supposed to do a TT in there, 30 minutes at 40K pace and i laughed, sorta pathetic to do a TT at that pace, but i tried. You know why? Bc I was getting dive bombed by theses guys:

Yes our good friends the Deer Flies. Ack. As soon as we sped up going downhill they were gone, but they are pesky little / BIG buggers. Rich said " those arent flies they are hummingbirds."

So we made it Isabella, we refilled at the one little stopping place where the nice lady asked us all about the "white powder we put in our water bottles..." and we had some fun with that one.Not sure she knew who Contador is but we said he gave it to us. The way back flew by. Literally, downhill, tailwind and all was good, the flies were still around and i think that the bright outfits attract them but at least we were going fast enough it didnt phase us. At one point i nearly fell off my bike trying to swat one and decided taking a bite would be better than a fall. 

I practiced my nutrition and sorta gag when i do the math on how much sugar was ingested over nearly 6 hours of riding ( like 1800Kcal) no wonder when my mom offered us some donuts later that day i sorta had a gag moment. My sister was a champ and met me at Iona Beach ( where the Gitchi Gami trail is) to run. Rich soldiered back home to get 115 for the day and She and I laced up and hit the trail for 5miles. It wasnt too bad. But it was HOT. The only issue i had was a hot spot on the ball of my foot. I dont usually wear socks to ride but may consider it if I get that again. It was super painful to run on. Not a blister, not Mortons Neuroma, but just a hot spot from climbing likely and yes it was HOT. I do wear socks to run, but if anyone has any tips for this let me know! After we ran we did a version of this:

And no this isnt from this weekend bc we were so hot we went right to the lake in our clothing and, by the way? Those flies were biting if you were sitting still. So we were so hot that 50 deg water felt so good. And SO COLD. OUCH. The water in Superior never warms up from the air or sun. The currents may allow some warmer water 1 day out of the year but its pretty much always 50 or below. So good for an ice bath.

Here's a pic we took monday on a shorter ride. See we really had awesome weather, winds pretty much from the west ( land) and despite this being warm the lake breeze usually keeps the flies away so you sorta have to pick your poison. Flies and heat or Wind and no flies:)

I was lame with the camera after saturday. oops. we hung out after that ride and run, napped, ate BBQ pork and  hamburgers at the EFA picnic, and hit the DQ where i forced down a small cone. See, all that Gel gave me NO interest in anything sweet the rest of the weekend.

We hit Pike Lake in Duluth for an OWS, and it was lame. Too much boat traffic and the only good part was not wearing my wetsuit. So it was a long drive for not much swimming. Oh well. Now I know.
Monday was more riding and some hiking and visiting with others up at the cabin. My sister and my nephew were here for a few days from Houston so it was fun to see them even tho it was too short a stay.

So there ya have it, a bit of training, a bit of family time, and wow short weeks are nice:) Happy Weekend After July 4th to you all!