Philly Women's Tri Penultimate Training Week

So, this is my second to last training week before the Philly Tri. Meep!

On Sunday I took Violet out for a 20-mile ride. She is so much more fun than my old bike, especially coming up hills! I wasn't really faster, but that's all right. I had to stop a couple of times to drink water, eat some gel, and rest my hands because I am not familiar enough with road bike handling.

Monday I went to Haverford College's campus to run on the Nature Walk path. I ran for about 6o minutes before I stopped due to darkness and hunger. I was hoping that would put me about at my 5 mile mark, but the path is apparently 2.2 miles long, not 2.5. My calves are hurting again so I need to contact my buddy for more Myofascial Release.

Tuesday I went for a swim, only I didn't quite leave the house with enough time for a full 60 minute swim. I did get a good solid 40 minutes in though. I increased the number of freestyle laps and decreased the number of backstroke laps.

Wednesday I thought I might check out the Forbidden Drive path in Fairmount Park since it's pretty close to where I'm pet-sitting. Unfortunately, I am ridiculously lame with map reading, so it took me longer than I expected just to get to a parking lot. I get out of the car and spy an entrance with a bicycle/horse/hiker pictorial sign so I figured that's the path I'm supposed to follow. I run for a little bit over gravel and boulders before I decide that I can't possibly be on the part suitable for running. (Trail Running is not my thing it seems; guess I won't be doing any Xterra Tris anytime soon.) I go back the way I came and follow the road a little more until I find the path by the Valley Green Inn. I run for another 20 minutes but then I have to get ready for work. I'm guessing I got somewhere around 2 miles in, but I'm really not sure. It's a far cry from the 5 I was going to run.

Thursday night I came back to the house and took my bike out for a little spin. I wasn't worried about mileage - I just wanted to get more comfortable on the bike. I think I did ok, actually. My tush was hurting on Sunday because of the new saddle so I got a gel seat cover from Target; I think it helped a lot. I came back, got the dog, and walked for about an hour up and down Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill.

I have allocated 60 minutes for a swim on Friday. I expect to get all 60 minutes in this time.

On Sunday I'm going to attempt to ride 25-30 miles followed by a 3 mile run. Here's hoping I make it!

I think I'll call her Violet

I haz a new bike!

I went ahead and got the Fuji Silhouette I had on layaway, because I just liked that bike. Plus it's so pretty.

The nice man at the store gave me the SPD pedals they'd put on the bike for test riding. So I don't have the platform pedals that came with the bike, but I'm not that sad about it. He threw in water bottle cages too, which was nice. I bought a computer and gels and whatnot. I also got these new PowerBar Gel Blasts, which taste an awful lot like those frog gummy candies. Mmmm. I only got one package so I'm going to have to stop by and pick up some more.

The only bad thing is that the bike doesn't really fit on my car rack. Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet. I can cram it on, but I'm not happy about it.

Anyway, here's Violet!


(Yes, I am a huge dork.)

Fire and Brimstone

It has been HOT in Philadelphia lately. Saturday and Sunday were officially 97 degrees, Monday was officially 98, breaking a 44 year old record for hottest day before June 15. Tuesday looks like it was also 98 degrees. With humidity felt like 105 or so. Even the breeze felt like you were baking in an oven.

On Friday I managed to squeak in a swim. I think I did 750 meters in 28 minutes, although possibly less since I am not good with counting laps. I powered through some of them, so I was very out of breath at the end but felt kind of strong. Saturday was not a workout day, although it was so hot I definitely sweated enough for a workout.

On Sunday I braved the horrible heat for a bike ride, figuring it would give me good practice for July. I froze one of my water bottles and put the others in the fridge so I'd have a fighting chance of coolness. I thought I might try to do the run afterwards so I also chilled some Goya Coconut Water because coconut water is reputed to be even better than Gatorade for electrolytes. (Supposed to be good as a hangover cure, by the way.) I have had limited luck in finding the coconut water in grocery stores, but I did find the sweetened at Genuardi's and at Walmart. It looks like I can buy both sweetened and unsweetened online, which I might pursue at some point.

I got up and decided to get out the door earlier than I normally do, in order to avoid some of the worst of the heat. I filled my Fuel Belt flasks but put them in a lunch cooler bag with some cold packs so they would stay cool. I drove to Conshohocken so I could bike from there toward the city and explore more of the path. I kept the frozen water bottle in one of my jersey's back pockets, which was nice and helped keep me cool. I made pretty good time through Manayunk until I reached the end of the Tow Path and had to go toward the street. I was a little confused as to why everyone was on the sidewalks and no one was on the road (hey it was hot and my brain was fried!) until it dawned on me that the Manayunk Bike Race was going on. I rode a little bit more and then stopped to watch the race. After a while I continued on and then stopped again on Kelly Drive right before the intersection at Falls Bridge. It looks like maybe I rode about 15 miles round trip. I actually had a nice time, but it was 2 pm by the time I got back to my car and no way did I want to try to run. My car's temperature gauge read 101 degrees.

I did no exercise on Monday or Tuesday, apart from work. I very much appreciated AC at the office. I knew there was a storm coming on Tuesday evening that was supposed to break the heat wave. I was at a client's house that night when the thunder came booming down, shaking the house. I think the storm rampaged for 10 minutes or so. I didn't hear much rain and my car wasn't wet later, although there was a lot of tree debris in the road. I wondered if we would have power in my neighborhood, for this was the kind of storm that usually involves power outages. All the lights seemed to be working from there to the laundromat and then to home, so I didn't think more about it. I was therefore surprised when I got home last night to find the power out. I was hoping it would be fixed quickly. Alas, power was out until 8 am this morning. It was very very hot at home, and there was no breeze coming through the windows to cool things down. I was miserable.

It didn't look like I'd have enough time for a swim today so I went for a run instead. I met a nice man in the parking lot who told me he was training for the Lake Placid Ironman. I wish him well! I thought it was still very hot for running, but that may have been because my core temp was still high. I initially thought I'd do a 3 mile run, but as I got back to my starting point I decided to throw another mile in there. Went pretty well, I have to say. Still slow as molasses, but at least I was moving. I finished up with some chocolate milk as my recovery drink. Yum!

Tomorrow I will swim, but I probably won't get any more exercise in before the Luray Triathlon Race Prep Clinic I am doing with a couple of my friends. We aren't signed up for the Luray Tri, and it actually costs about as much as registering for a tri, but it'll be a great way to get some coached info and check out the course in case we want to do that one next year without having to actually compete.

I checked out a Specialized Ruby bike today, but it was not love at first pedaling. They set me up on a trainer for the short term and I will probably go back to test ride, but I think I like the Fuji better. Still want to hop on a few more brands before I plunk down my $$. Also, there's a bike swap in DC this weekend so who knows what kind or where I'll get a bike. I won't have it for the tri clinic, which is sad, but oh well. I wanted to get some tri clothes too, but I wasn't loving the options. I might have been a little cranky from the heat, so I'll try to try some on again tomorrow or Friday. Not the end of the world if I don't. I'm thinking about renting a wetsuit for the open water this weekend to get a feel, but if that doesn't work out it's also not a huge deal.

Thanks for all the fish.

Dear Diary, it has been so long since I last wrote to you. Have you missed me?

So, lots to catch up on...

Two weeks ago I managed to get a new gym card. They didn't retake my picture, but turns out the card still works from the pocket in my gym bag so the uglee picture can stay hidden. I did a mini-brick with 25 minutes on the bike and a 10 minute run. It was amusing to see me, since I had forgotten to bring my running shoes and so I did the whole thing in my Keen shoes. (Favorite Brand of Shoe Ever. Seriously. I have 3 pairs; would have more but they are a little on the spendy side.) I didn't do anything on Friday or Saturday, but I did get a nice bike ride in on Easter Sunday. I also purchased my very first pair of clipless pedal shoes! I chose not to get pedals at the time. (Big mistake; see below.) While I was at the bike store I put a super fancy extremely expensive bike on layaway because it was the last day of a sale. I might purchase it! Although I probably should look for something a little less carbon. But it was a really nice ride, for the 10 minutes I had time to check it out. Felt really comfortable, but that probably means the fit wasn't right. One thing stopping me is where I found it; don't think Performance Bike does the serious kind of fitting that I might find elsewhere. (Buying a new bike is really challenging and somewhat discouraging.)

Last week I was pretty good. I got a 30 minute run in on Wednesday, a 45 minute spin workout on Thursday, and a 30 minute swim session on Friday which was my first time back in the pool in over a month. I never manage to get the Monday workouts in and I skipped the Sunday workout.

I took my new clipless shoes with me to the gym on Thursday, thinking it would be a piece of cake clipping in. Well, imagine my surprise when that did not work. I foolishly didn't read the directions, but more importantly, I didn't quite understand that the cleats come with the pedals, not the shoes! I hadn't brought my other shoes with me from the locker room, so I had to force the shoe into the toeclips. Very disappointing. I have not yet gone to get cleats or pedals, so I won't be able to use the shoes until then. I may decide to put pedals on my clunker; it's a mountain bike, so mountain bike pedals might not be terribly odd. I have to see.

Tomorrow I am going to try to do my run outside. I like that better than running on the treadmill. Depends on whether I can manage to do it during the morning.

Trying Out Clipless Pedals

I had a great time in DC this past weekend. We didn't get huge amounts of workout time in, but I was given the opportunity to try out S's Fuji road bike and clipless pedal shoes (I forget what brand).

First I needed S's husband J to adjust the seat for me. Then he hooked the bike up to his trainer so I could get a quick and dirty lesson on using the toepicks clipless pedals. He also instructed me on shifting gears, since it's a much different system from my current bike.

Finally we got the kids in the bike trailer and off we went! We biked on a few rails-to-trails paths, particularly the Capital Crescent Trail from Silver Spring to Bethesda. Unlike the bicycle path I use at Valley Forge, the rails-to-trails paths are not yet paved and instead are covered in gravel. This made the ride quite interesting, since S's bike has very skinny tires. I did just fine, although I didn't use the shifters much since I was concentrating on staying on the bike so I wouldn't fall over and break my neck. I managed to clip and unclip at the traffic lights without incident.

We did the same trip last year, only I think I used my own bike. There is a slight but steady incline from their house to Bethesda; last year I didn't think I could make it, but this time when we reached our destination I felt great! How much of that is from training vs the better bike I don't know, especially since I haven't worked out much lately.