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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

3rd Pro Female Philly Tri...what the???!?!?!

So Sunday was my first real deal pro race and I got 3rd...craziness!!! I cant believe it, that was way outside my expectations considering the field was seriously stacked (Wassner twins, jenna shoemake, pip taylor, mary beth ellis... these crazy crazy famous people!) totally insanity...

What really helped me of course was that they turned the race into a duathlon because of a horrible tradegy the day earlier when a young triathlete with two young kids passed away in the river- please pray for healing in that family and that they will find support from every direction where they have even the smallest need...

The first 5k went great, I ran on jenna shoemaker's heals the whole way and just zoned out and let her carry me. I ran very within myself at about 85% and we rolled into T1 right behind the wassner twins in 18:26. After T1 I could see the wassner twins up the road and I decided just to follow them and hang behind them on the bike becuase I was a little shocked at that point that I was in 4th....pip taylor (who I met after the race and has a super sweet demeanor- I can totally see why she has such a great reputation!!)caught us around the second loop and I just continued to hang behind and follow their leads...meanwhile jenna shoemaker and samuels from New zealand up the road were putting massive massive time on us on the bike!! Coming into T2 my legs felt recovered and I felt like I went a bit conservative on the bike but I knew the next 10k was going to be hell! It was incredibly hot and humid by that point (did I forget to mention I dropped my full waterbottle on the first lap of the bike!- so no water for quite a while!- rookie mistake!) I passed pip and rebecca wassner soon after T1 and felt fine until about mile 3...miles 3-6 were unbelievably hard- I was running alone, it was sooo hot and miserable..It took everything I had not to stop- I definatley could not have run any harder even though the time was not very good (39:59)....After the race I was in shock- my goal going into it was not to get last...never thought I could win money and podium! Thanks to Barb lindquist for encouraging me to race in the pro field...I almost raced as an amateur this race..haha!!

Next time my swim will be tested and that will be a whole new ballgame...stay tuned...=)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

nervous/excited/nervous/excited?!?!

So this weekend is my first real pro race at the Philadelphia triathlon. Philly became part of the lifetime fitness series this year so the field is really stacked so it should be an "interesting" race as my first pro race. My running has been going so great thanks to my ragged mountain teammates, and my swimming keeps improving steadily...my biking has been a lot less in volume and intensity recently as I am trying to make the switch to an ITU style..so it should be interesting to see what happens with that as philly is not draft legal- my cycling was much stronger than I thought at collegiate nats so hopefully some of that will carry over a bit..All you can do is your best so that is my plan and we will see where the chips fall for this first race in scary scary pro land....should be very humbling and a great learning experience in any case! I am certainly leaning on my faith in this situation that God will be walking through this with me no matter what happens so I can relax and remeber there is nothing to fear and nothing to loose here- just an opportunity to learn.

Good luck to kate lucas and hunter this weekend at IM coeur dalene and all the people doing the cville sprint tri (including wes/dustin/mark/bev/ray/eric/anyone else I missed!!) Also good luck to my new teammate Brian Duffy at philly too! and robin of course who is doing the philly sprint!! cant wait to hear all the great results!!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Apologies/ Updates!

So sorry for being such a bum and not updating regularly!!! Part of my apology runs into my updates...because I have joined several new teams and have several developments in my tri training that make it so I probably cant be posting my workouts too much anymore because it is probably not fair to the people helping me out at this point...


So some very exciting news is that I joined a new Pro Development Team, Fast Forward, that is partnered with Inside-Out sports, Quintanaroo and Computrainer. This is all very exciting because I am now able to get some serious coaching and gear/bike/wheels/product/everything support that is going to allow me to be the most competitive I can be with my somewhat limited financial resources..I am also soo super excited to be part of a team again!! and to have some great coaching!! The team is stacked with some very impressive athletes so far and it will be great to be a part of their accomplishments!

Another update is that I have been invited to an Elite Development Training Camp at the olympic training center in Colorado springs, CO from July 26-aug 8..I am super excited about this- what an amazing opportunity- I never thought I would have such an opportunity- God is good!!! This means, however, that I have jumped in with the sharks now and have gotten my pro licence- which also means I will be racing in the pro fields from now on which is scary business but you have to grow up somehow with everything I suppose.....My first pro race will either be Philly or NYC depending on when my license is processed....very exicting but will be very very humbling....

Another update is I have joing CYAC, an age group swim club in Charlottesville that is super super hard and has some amazing 14-19 yr old athletes- amazing kids! I am finally in a do or die situation in every practice which is exactly what I need with my swimmming- This has been a huge huge answer to prayer and I finally see a way now that my swimming will continue to dramatically improve.

Lastly, I joined the ragged mountain elite racing team in cville that is training post collegiate athletes with the goal of olympic trials for track and marathon events...amazing group of people, I am really starting to run fast again and it is so easy with great people right next to you to push you to it..great coaches and another huge blessing!!

My biking has seriously taken a back seat this past month and I think that will hurt me in philly and NYC but I have really wanted to start to prepare for my ITU racing that I am now starting at the end of July...another update!

Anyways, Huge blessings all over the place, I am very excited about the rest of the summer and next year...I will continue to blog as much as I can on training without being unfair to the coaches that are helping me now and the other athletes on these teams by posting their workouts...

sorry again for being super lazy for a bit!!
Congrats to all the local cvillers who finished eagleman last weekend...most brutal conditions ever- I am so proud of you guys!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Breezypoint triathlon Sun 6

am race- won race...I was happy with the swim, for the first time I was at the front of the race after the swim..I was 2nd out of the water and only 14sec behind the first woman...pretty happy with that - although I still have a lot to improve in the open water. I was able to find some guys feet to draft off of for about half of the swim so that was a success in practicing drafting- which will be key for me..haha...

after the bike I was pretty far ahead so I just got to go easy the run- which was awesome! the run is always so painful no matter what but this was awesome becuase the run was actually fun!

Met some really awesome female triathletes in the area too- triathletes are so nice in this area! so great! And won $400- which rocks!

6th overall with the men (just out of the money for men =) )

june 3/4/5

thurs- 1hr40 min moderate with dustin...starting to lighting on my so had to cut the ride short- feeling pretty tired so I didnt really care to much...

Fri- 8 mi total, main set- 5x 1000m w/ 2 min rest in b/t intervals- on the track with the ragged mountain team- 3:34, 3:33, 3:30, 3:27, 3:25- great workout! defiantely have not run this fast since college...working out with fast people to push you is amazing and so much less painful!

pm- swim 3k: main set was 6x300 on 4 min, then 3:55, then 3:50 interval (3:45-3:50 for all) I am going so slow! what the heck! I feel sooo sloooowww.....blah

Sat- am bike, 3 hrs, lots of drating, took it easy and I still felt really tired..humm...racing tomorrow with no taper so should be interesting....

Thursday, June 3, 2010

tues/wed june 1/2

tues am-8mi total: hill workout with my new Ragged mountain teammates...we did 8x this hill going from fontaine up to ohill...wow- sooo fun to workout with a team again, makes all the difference!

pm swim- my BIIIGGG SWIM TEST! this was set up by Barb lindquist at USAT to give her an idea of my swimming ability. I am going to the olympic training center in colorado springs for the last week of july and first week of august and I need to let the big boss know that I am not snail slow...
YES! did well....the test is a 200 yd sprint from a dive, 1 min rest, 800 all out....I did a 2:11, 9:34- thanks dustin and wes for helping me and timing and being the best!! I am happy with that and so was Barb so that is great!

wed- pm bike- 1 hr easy...
straight to pool- 5k with phil and wes...main set was 2x( 400 on the 5:30 (4:58), 2x200 on the 2:45 (2:26-2:27), 4x100 on the 1:20 (1:11-1:13)...thanks phil and wes for being fast and helping me! cant wait to watch you guys race at eagleman!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Mon May 31

am- bike, 1:30, 25 mi, main w/o was 6x5 mins hard on rolling terrian...crazy hot again outside...tried to go pretty hard on the intervals cause they were so short...hopefully I can get a little speed back on the bike...

open water swim! so fun...only did about 1k, but practiced a lot of drafting off of Val and phil- thanks guys! I definatley need to become a great drafter =) , I think I need to practice this a lot more...great turnout of cville athletes- thanks for organizing wes!

friday/sat/sun may 28/29/30

Fri- am bike, 3:40, 60+?? mi- tootally grueling workout...went from thousand oaks, down to the beach and did 30 mins hard interval on pacific coast highway (it is the craziest- you can ride your bike on the highway in CA, very strange)...the wind was at my back so I was flying without too much effort...the 5 mins easy, 30 mins hard interval up a massive mountain without one break in the grade- very very hard, very hot..this was serious pain...then I had a 30 min rest while I descended down the other side of the mountain...then my last 30 min hard interval was into the wind on a rolling section...this was unbelievably hard- either this was a much harder workout than I envisioned in my head or I am out of shape on the bike...dont know what to think??

brick run- 30 mins zone 3, 4mi...wanted to do a tempo after this ride but I was just too wasted, no way I could do it....

Sat- 1:15, 4k, swim with masters group long course meters...main set was 10x100 on the 1:30 interval... I was coming into the wall at 1:23-1:25 which I was not too happy with...I think I am really tired from yesterday....flying back to VA today...

Sun- had to spend the night in atlanta cause I missed my connection due to weather...did a long run after I got back to cville, 1:30, 12mi, sooooo hot here- wow! the humidity and heat is extreme- it will definately take some reacclimating too....I am tired!