Boston Marathon Weekend!

This past weekend is probably one of my favorite weekends in Boston. This year it was full jam packed with lots of FUN things to do all revolving around sports! How can you not love it! Here goes the list:

·         Boston Red Sox game on Friday night

·         Boston Bruins Game 2 of playoffs on Saturday night

·         Boston Celtics Game 1 of playoffs on Sunday night

·         Boston red Sox game at 11 am and of course the Boston Marathon!!!!!!!!!!

To top that all off, we also had the marathon expo going on with lots of good stuff to sample from gels, bars, recovery drinks, to head phones that are guaranteed to NOT fall out of your year (ummm WRONG) to recovery products such as the Zoot recovery tights, socks, 2XU, Skins, and of course every apparel company you can think of had their own booth! I LOVE walking around checking out new stuff!

I started off my weekend with a long run on Friday afternoon – my longest run to date – 14.1 miles through the Newton hills! It’s this time of the year I always wish I was running the Boston marathon! I had a great run, and as tired and sleep deprived I was, I felt the best I ever felt on any long run. Minus the part, where I didn’t bring gloves thinking it was warm enough, and literally had thoughts of losing my hands in the last few miles! Ouch!

Saturday, I was supposed to ride with few peeps and do my 2:45 long ride. Last minute cancellation, combined with freezing temps, and howling winds, I switched my Saturday and Sunday workouts and did a 1:30 ride, 30 min run BRICK. Turns out 1:30 on the bike are all my frozen feet had in them anyways. I felt like I was running on ice blocks the entire duration of my run! Exactly the same feeling I had last year back in December. It’s April people!

After the ride/run, I cleaned up and headed to the expo! This year I actually even bought something! The new Zoot Sports CompressRx Recovery Sock J 

They are suppose to be just as good as the full tights that I own and wear after most hard workouts, and yes, I do notice a difference in the speed of recovery. There are times however, when in the middle of the summer, it’s simply way too hot to put those on, so I added a pair of fashionable high socks to my assortment. I will now definitely fit in and continue to promote the triathlon fashion of short tights and long socks! :) Buckle up peeps! In the buying process I have actually found out that my calves are size “Medium”! Oh oh, only on size up, and they won’t have a recovery sock for my mega calves! Hello cycling legs! No wonder it took me almost a year to find a pair of skinny jeans that would fit my calves.

I also tried a very cool and super light pair of Saucony racing flats the A4! Very comfy shoe, but I got some work to do before I can run in those I think.

I also tried on bunch of headphones that are supposedly NOT going to fall out of my ear when I run, but I am still not sold. Ear buds are just not for me.

Few hours went by, and I am pretty sure I visit just about every single expo booth, felt more recovered than ever since I just sampled about 100 different recovery bars/drinks, and I was ready for some REAL food! J California Pizza Kitchen here I come! Yum!

Sunday was supposed to be a wash out but it actually turned out pretty nice! Sleep won over my 2:45 bike ride, and I made the decision with the help of my buddy Rod to ride the Boston marathon course on Monday morning instead! What a great choice! I did at least get in the pool and swam 4,000 yards on Sunday … J

Marathon Monday was here before I knew it. Early am wake up call, and off I was. Met up with a few friends, and come 6:45 we were off riding towards the start line in Hopkinton. It sure was WINDY!!!!!!! The headwinds were crazy at times, which meant a great tail wind for everyone on the way back, and of course good for the runners! The sun was coming out, and even though it was actually pretty chilly, I think I managed to get a bit of sun on my face! The first 26 miles to Hopkinton was stop and go due to traffic, but I still managed to pick up couple of rude wheel suckers along the route! I am glad I could be the shield for you two unknown dudes! The motorcycles at Hopkinton were ready! However when some of those guys proceeded to attempt to turn around, we had to move out of the way as one cop told us:"Some of these guys are not that good at riding on these" ... Hmmm .. Sweet? :)

The way back was smooth sailing! Roads closed to traffic, and no one but bunch of us cyclist! Only if roads were like this ALL the time! The tail wind was for real, and actually quite strong and scary especially when it turned into side winds! Myself or my bike nor wheels are made for cross winds! Yikes!  My death grip was in full effect! With the exception of couple cops who tried telling us that roads were closed, I was able to ride all the way to the finish line flying by the countless water stops, volunteers and fans who were getting ready to cheer everyone on! Definitely an awesome,awesome atmosphere and that was at least a good hour before anyone was going to run by these people! They were claiming their first row, and best seats in the house bright and early! J

Now that I can say I rode the course, I definitely want to run it one of these days. It’s just about finding a qualifying race, qualifying, and fitting it into my schedule!

I was back home, and ready to go back to cheer everyone on, and of course watch the pro men and women fly by mile 23 by 11 am.

The leading guys absolutely flying by mile 23!

The leading women again flying by mile 23!

Now if I can just have half of a kick that Ryan Hall has, I’ll be flying like Chrissie Wellington. I guess you have to kick your own ass with each step when you run sub 5 min miles, sub 4:45 miles most of the way.

And here is Ryan’s garmin file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80065732 ... talk about consistency!

 After I spent some time at mile 23, we headed to the finish line! It was a FUN, FUN, FUN day! This is the mayhem of runners trying to meet up with their families! Pure chaos!

Congrats to ALL who crossed the finish line yesterday! Your hard work and countless hours of running in the snow have paid off! J It sure has been a loooong looong winter at least for us locals!

My day ended at 9 pm after some quality time spent with some great company. Marathon Monday is and always will be a super special day in Boston! Can’t wait till next year! J

If you are like me, and are thinking about running Boston, check out E3 Training Solutions(http://www.e3ts.com/) and coach Jorge Martinez (http://coachjorgem.blogspot.com/) who may just help you get to the finish line! This year, he was also the coach for the "Run for Research" team with 240+ runners, helping runners of ALL levels achive the dream of crossing that famous finish line! For you speedsters - the fastest guy from the team crossed the finish line in a blazing fast sub 2:30!!!!! Sign me up! :) Oh wait - we are already working on it! :)

My European Adventures - Part 1

This is part 1 of my 10 day business trip to Europe with a brief 3 day stop to my homeland of the Czech Republic. I visited 3 countries – Germany, Czech Republic, and Sweden, completed 7 different flights, and ran 48.61 miles in the process hoping that running will help me keep most of my biking/swimming fitness.

I left Boston on Sunday night - March 20^th, and arrived in Munich Monday morning after a brief pit stop at the London Heathrow Int’l airport. The days of sleeping on the plane are gone! The little sleep I got was when dinner was served! Booooo! The flight itself was pretty uneventful. However, once we arrived in Munich, the action picked up a bit thanks to our driver a.k.a Mr. Mullet!  Up first was Ingolstadt, Germany!

Day 1:

Mr. Mullet not only had the best mullet I have seen in a long time (I was too tired to even take a picture, but it looked something like this), but he also thought that he was driving a F1 instead of a 8 passenger minivan with luggage stacked up to the ceiling.

We honestly made it to our hotel in Ingolstadt in about 20 min, when it really should have taken more like 45 min! We were absolutely flying like there were no other cars on the highway. We were going about 200 km/h the entire time! Let’s just say that I am glad we are all still alive. Monday was an arrival day, set up day for our sales meeting presentations the next two days, and we were able to get in the tour of AUDI facility, which was the highlight of the day! I had planned on getting a run in when we got to the hotel, but instead I laid down to take a quick 15 min nap, that turned into a 2 hour one! Oops!  The AUDI tour was awesome! It was a 2 hour tour, that really took us through most of the facility and we were able to witness how AUDI’s are made from scratch! Some quick facts before you are all bored:

·         Around 32,000 employees at the AUDI facility that work around the clock 6 days a week!

·         They make around 2,400 cars EVERY day!

·         Majority of the process is done by robots! Robots that will eat you alive if you bring your cell phone or a camera on the tour hence I don’t have any pictures to show you! They love the wave links! J … and they are HUGE!

·         There is a small grocery store on site that besides food also sells beer! Lots of it!

·         Workers can drink on the job! And they can drink however much they want, but since everyone knows who is responsible for what part on what car, and each car gets put through hell before reaching our hands, I don’t have to tell you what happens when mistakes happen and/or are repeated!

·         Each car travels through the process with a small box attached to the bottom of the car that gives the robots/employees info about what needs to happen at each of their stations in terms of special/custom features etc.

·         The middle console including the radio, gps navigator, cup holders etc. consists of about 150 various pieces, and one person puts it all together in a matter of minutes! It’s  a Lego Land!

·         The car literally gets put through hell, consistent rain, downpour, bumps,ice,  you name it, it probably goes through it,  before it gets into our hands – I would NOT want to be the driver doing the testing in this one tiny room! I am guessing he doesn’t drink much beer on his job! J

·         All employees get asked once a year about their ideas on the overall process improvement/cost savings etc. Couple of years ago, an idea of one of the employees was implemented, which saved AUDI millions! The person was awarded a brand new AUDI of his choice as a sign of appreciation!

·         You can order your own car, travel to Audi, watch them make it, and then drive away in it!

·         Start saving your $$$$$$$$ now! J

And in the end, this is what you get! Apparently this is the up and coming most popular color on the market right now! Think chocolate! Yum!

Day 2:

I wasn’t going to let another day go by without moving, which meant an early am wakeup call! Ingolstadt isn’t exactly a very runner friendly town, and I really wanted to get in a good workout, and work up a great sweat rather then having to stop every 10 yards for lights, cars etc. Our hotel gym didn’t have a treadmill, but we found this!  24 hour McFit gym!  (pic. 39)

I wonder when McDonalds will start opening McFit’s in the U.S! It was more or so a planet fitness type setting, but what we didn’t know that no one works the front desk. We waited around for a bit, and since no one showed up, 3 of us “broke in” to McFit! I didn’t get up at 5:45 am to not get my run in! The rest of the day was spent in meetings, and ended with a quick trip to overpriced German outlet malls, another dinner out, and a few drinks! Come 2 am, I was finally back in bed – phew! What a looooooooong day! 

Day 3:

Another early morning wake up call! This time we decided to run outside! As I suspected, Ingolstadt really wasn’t runner friendly, and this run involved bunch of stopping and going due to traffic etc. , but it was better than nothing! More meetings followed, and in the pm was my flight from Munich to Prague! Czech Republic here I come!  To say that I was excited was an understatement!!!!!!! At this point, I have consumed more alcohol than I had in the past year, and I couldn’t wait to get home to see my family whom I haven’t seen in about 2.5 years! 

Overall, Germany was alright. Sales meeting went great, but  I wasn’t really a fan of Ingolstadt I really wouldn’t care to come back here except if it was to pick my custom made Audi! J

Next up – MY HOME – CZECH REPUBLIC! J

  

How NOT to pace a TT!

Fast Splits Time Trial at the Multisport Expo at MIT

I did this time trial last year as my first ever time trial. I really had no idea about power or what I was getting myself into at that time, but somehow pretty much exactly one year later, I felt like a super rookie again! Maybe because coach Jorge signed me up to go in the same heat as the elite/pro girls - the likes of Karen Smyers, Kristen Gohr - local pro cyclist, and Crystal Anthony who is training for the TT worlds this year!  Perhaps I should be a bit intimidated by these big names!

I really had a busy Saturday. I was leaving for 11 day trip to Europe the next day and I was only half way packed! I really didn’t have much time to think about this event, but I made my way over to the expo couple of hours before race start, and got my head in the game. Coach Jorge couldn’t be there, but I sure saw many familiar faces, and it was great to catch up with everyone! J

It was finally my turn to go. I got in a great 20 min + warm up with some pickups, and was ready for the show to get started or I should say for the pain to begin! I know by now what these all out efforts are all about! They sure can be extremely rewarding, or humbling! The power meter doesn’t lie! You either have it or you don’t! These tests or time trials are all about even pacing, and I have learned the hard way to not go out too hard because sustaining the super high power for 20 min is near impossible. My best results from the past resulted from a very even pacing or power that would increase as time went on and NOT the other way around.

This was a 6.03 mile time trial so I knew it will take a sub 20 min effort to make it happen. The goal was to try to stick around 240 watts as last time I tested I was around 232 watts. All was great, until we actually got hooked up to the computrainers, and the gun went off.  I honestly lost all senses and started to hammer! I felt great, I felt awesome, and I was hanging in with the big girlz! NOOOOOOT the best idea! As much as I knew I was shooting for around 240 Watts and a nice steady 6.03 mile trip through the hills of Central Park, I was keepin up with the pro’s! Now you can all try to guess without reading any further how long that lasted.

I hung with them for about the first 5 min or 2 or so miles, and then it all went downhill from there! And I mean downhill, straight into the pain cave! I was clearly NOT thinking, and got lost in the heat of the moment – NEVER again do I want to do that! I most definitely had some bad thoughts going through my head knowing I still had 3 or so miles left of this! Ouch! Here are some numbers to show you how “stupid” I was!

Last time I tested back in January my 5 min power was 262 Watts. Today, 1st 5 min of the TT, my power was 266 Watts! 4 watts higher! Now, that’s awesome if this was a 5 min test, but I wasn’t done yet.  I had another 4 miles (13 minutes)  to go! Ooooops! No wonder anything from the 2.5 mile mark onwards felt like eternity.  I was hurting! I managed to hang on to some power, even though it was as hard as ever - burning legs, and screaming lungs would be an understatement. The 6.03 mile mark couldn’t come fast enough! I ended up with average power of 242 Watts for my 17 min and 13 second effort. 10 watts higher than my last test, and on the way to 250, so I am pretty happy about that, but I am not so happy with going out so hard and making myself suffer for good majority of the TT. Lesson learned! After talking with Jorge, he said if I didn’t go nuts the first 5 min, I could have probably gone 245 – 250 watts! I’ll take his word for it!

Coming out of this TT, I also want a new toy! I want to get the computrainer! J  Since ALL winter – and this winter was, or should I say is so super freaking LONG, I am very much used to riding in one or two gears only, and pushing a steady pace not having to worry about shifting at all. The downhills on this course KILLED me! The thought of riding different courses, and once I may be racing on sounds oh so very appealing!

In the end, I had a blast, and I didn’t come in last – Karen Smyers beat me by about 25 seconds and Crystal A. by 10 seconds .. dammit! It is times like this when I wonder what my power could be if I was strictly concentrating on cycling. I learned a lot from this TT! I am now more confident than ever that 250 watts will be coming my way soon … :) … just have to pace it right!!!!!!!! … and perhaps not take 10 day work trips to Europe? Getting on my bike next week will sure be interesting! J

Final Results in numbers: TT - 6.03 miles – 17:10 min – 242 avg. watts (4.2 watts/kg) – my max power – 535 Watts in the opening seconds … OOPS! I can feel the matches burning now! :)

The blog about my European adventure is up next, and with that bunch of work, not much sleep, and bunch of running, which allowed me to czech out some very cool cities, and re-visit some childhood memories! 

BUSY BEE!!!!!!!!!!

The word “busy” is an understatement.  My days begin with a 4:55 am wake up call, and on most days I I get home between 7 pm at the earliest, and as late as 10 pm if I work out after work  as well.  Somehow manage to fit all my training in, but what is suffering is my sleep and really any other type of quality/chill time. There is just not enough hours in a day!

With that said, I am really enjoying my new job! I like the job itself, I get the flexibility I need, and I really like the people I work with.  I also get to travel quite a bit, which is awesome! I am going to Europe – Germany, Czech Republic, and Sweden next week, and I’ll be there for a total of 11 days. I’ll get to see my family while I am there, which ROCKS!  It really can’t get much better than that.  While I am super excited, I am also a bit uneasy about my training or the lack there of while I will be gone. I will make sure I get my running in, I do plan on swimming at least while I am at home (I should be able to squeeze in 3 swims), but I will NOT have my bike with me, and that freaks me out! My power is just getting to the point of where it was towards the end of the season a year ago, and I am ready to take it beyond that! BUT – 11 days of no bike?  What is going to happen when I get back?  I am not ready to take steps back, but would obviously rather move forward!  Duh! J I really just don’t want to lose the fitness I have gained so far!

There is also a lot more that has happened in the little triathlon world of mine. I will blog about all these in more detail as soon as I get a chance – maybe on the plane to Europe next week?  But for now this is what you have to look forward to:

·         I got a new toy – new super awesome, and super fast bike!  I can’t wait to take it outside! Name is still TBD, and I am taking suggestions …

·         My coach chased me to back to back personal bests in the pool – 1:23 and 1:26 for 100 yards! I know – slow for some of you but super fast for me and especially due to my recent struggles in the pool … my previous pb was 1:29 from back in November …

·         Aaaaaaand I am switching triathlon teams. I have been working with coach Jorge since June last year and have seen tremendous improvements across all three sports. My endurance has come a long way, and it still has a long way to go.  I am sticking with coach Jorge as he is launching his very own triathlon team – E3 Training Solutions.  For more details about the team, Czech out Jorge’s post:

http://jorgepbmcoaching.blogspot.com/

There will be a lot more to come about E3, but here is your chance to jump on board with one of the best! J

·         Non triathlon related – I will also be moving and leaving the city life behind me! It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on. It’s time to move closer to my work so that I can actually have time to sleep and pay attention to other things besides work/triathlon.  I currently spend anywhere around 3+ hours a day commuting, and I don’ t like it! My ass doesn’t like it! I really HATE it! Move should be finalized shortly, and I”ll share pics and info with all of you so you can come visit! I plan on setting up a nice training cave! J

Thanks for reading, and I hope to update you all with some more detail very soon. That plane trip is only 7 days away – just a day after the triathlon expo time trial, where I’ll test my power (bike power) against the best – the likes of Karen Smyers and the list goes on ....

Quick update and Hyannis 1/2 marathon

It sure has been a while since I last blogged! One main reason being, I now have a job again! The days when I could just fit in 3 workouts a day and still be able to sleep 8+ hours are over! My life of a pro triathlete wanna be is done – at least for now. My mission however continues! J

My new routine that I am trying to get into ROCKS!!!!! Or maybe not so much as 4:55 am alarm clock every morning comes way too fast! I get in either my bike or swim workouts done before I leave for work around 7 am. My commute to and from work can be anywhere from an hour and 15 min to 2 hours depending on the traffic! My bum hurts and my eyes cringe as I am typing the word “traffic”.  Then if I can’t squeeze my run in at lunch, I end up running when I get home which is usually after 7 pm, and the rest is history. Pack the bags for the next day, and do it all over again. Then there are days like today, when you just want to scream!!!!!!! I really just wanted to get to work on time but the idiot with the blue camry had other plans!

Needles to say, I made it to work an hour late after the lady behind me left!

Few things I learned today:

·         Meter maids in Boston only work when they want to! They give tickets 10 minutes after midnight for a registration that just expired on previous day, they will write you a ticket if you are 30 seconds after your meter expired, but when over 50% of the car is parked on a side walk all night and morning, they do not care!

·         A car even though illegally parked cannot be towed without a ticket or else whoever calls to tow the car has to pay $75!!!!!

·         It takes Boston police at least an hour to switch shifts, so if you are up to no good, anytime between 7 am and 8am is the time to do it! Just Czech your nearest Dunking Donuts!

·         Next time – I may not be as patient!!!!!!

·         And finally, I would really LOVE to meet the dumbass that “moved” my car into the SUV behind me even though I had my parking brake on, and then proceeded to back their car into me but still ended up being parked half way on the sidewalk! What was the rational behind their move?

Needles to say, weekends can’t come fast enough, which finally brings me to the Hyannis Half Marathon I ran this past weekend!

It was my first open half marathon ever, and even though I should have been excited to test my running fitness, I really wasn’t all that into it. The timing really just couldn’t be any worse. I had just started my new job 2 weeks ago, travelled much of the 1^st week, and spend the rest of the time trying to go to bed at a normal hour so that the 4:55 am (not 5:00 am) wake up call, doesn’t scare the crap out of me too much. I had just finally gotten rid of a cold, and so my energy levels weren’t exactly there. I mean what should I expect after 2 weeks of consistently getting anywhere between 5-6 hours of sleep. The weather forecast wasn’t exactly favorable, and all I wanted to do was sleep in! Not this Sunday.

Good thing was, the 7 am wakeup call actually felt like sleeping in! The weather condition however made me want to go back to bed! It wouldn’t be winter 2011 if we didn’t have another snow storm! In any case, I had my usual breakfast – bagel with almond butter and jelly roughly about 3 hours before the race start and then drove down to the Cape with my friend Rod. We got to Hyannis about an hour before the race, but the last stretch proved to be deadly! We ended up parking almost a mile away from the start so we could even make it to the start line on time. The start was about a mile away.  Minor glitch was – we didn’t have our numbers yet! My friend Jim picked them up for us but we didn’t find him till about 5 min before the race started! Being a rookie, I kept wondering, where the timing chip was, and since I thought they didn’t give us one, I started to think more and more that this race is just going to turn into a training run.

The race had close to 4,500 participants between the 10K, ½ marathon, and full marathon so the start was quite crowded. The weather itself really couldn’t be any better – you guessed it. It snowed, rained, and snowed on and off again pretty much the entire time except for the last 3 or so miles.  You gotta love running with soaking wet feet!!!! Is it spring yet?

None less my competitive drive and adrenalin took over, and off I went. The 1st mile was a mess of dodging people, and puddles! The plan was to run 7:30s or so for the first 3 miles, then drop it down and settle into race pace at 7:15s, and the last 3 miles bring it home! My running inexperience showed through very quickly! In triathlon by the time you get to the run, people are scattered all over the place and you are not being crowded. You don’t have to negotiate your route, or worry about getting tripped or tripping people. You don’t hear other people’s breath trying to either keep up with you or pass you. Since my first mile ended up being an easy 7:40, I decided to speed up … to hell with 7:30’s why not sub 7:10s!!!! Miles 2 through 7 were awesome! I wasn't really pushing the pace (okay – maybe a little bit), I was feeling great and I was running just below my targeted 7:15s. I only looked at my watch when I heard the beep! I kept seeing sub 7:10s and I was still feeling great.  I felt AWESOME and began to have thoughts of actually running sub 1:35!  

Then Mile 8 came, and my legs just decided to quit! I was in the hurt locker for the rest of the day. I was just trying to hold on! When I saw mile 8 click of at 7:30 pace, my positive attitude took turn for the worse! I started to play mind games with myself, and I tried to focus on the positive. I “tried” to follow a girl that went by me or at least keep her in my sights, but that didn’t last long! There were few rollers on the back end of this course – nothing major at all, but those bumps hurt! And no – you really can’t even call them hills! The mind games continued … It was at about mile 11 or so when we went by the BTT tent again, and that is where coach Jorge was! It was the last 3 miles when it was time to suck it up and as he put it go "nuts". He ran with me for a few yards, and yes – that actually gave me a bit of energy to try to go faster, but unfortunately that didn’t last long.  I went "nuts" but my splits didn't quite show it! No excuses, just a statement here – at this point my feet were soaking wet, and frozen, and my legs were hurting! My right quad and left calf felt like they were both about to cramp up, and I really couldn't wait to be done. I tried to keep telling myself that I feel GREAT, but my legs just didn't want to listen. I was pushing hard, but my damn legs were not moving. Totally 100% my fault and looking back at it now – STUPID, STUPID, STUPID mistake, I didn’t take in any nutrition at all. I was running out of energy fast! I was going to take a gel at about the 1 hour mark which is what I normally do on long training runs, but I didn't do my homework and had no idea where the water stops where. The idea of actually spilling any water on my frozen self was enough to make me run the entire race without taking any fuel in! Just call me STUPID!!!!! I could have used the extra kick for the last 3 miles to say the least.

I went through 13.1 miles at 1:35:45, but my official time is 1:36:20 (13.2 miles from my garmin) so roughly around 7:18, 7:17 pace.

Overall, as much as I was dragging the race, and it wasn’t the greatest timing, I am very glad I did it. I learned a few things, and I will never NOT fuel again! I mean I held on to that freaking gel long enough!!!!

I spent the winter really just building up my mileage while running at an EZ (7:45 – 8:00) pace. I have yet to do any speedwork, and last time I ran remotely close to my avg. pace was back in November in Clearwater. I believe as I keep running more and build my mileage, I should be able to keep the sub 7:10 pace for the entire race and one day I will be running sub 7s – I know it!  There is more work to be done folks and I am ready to take my running to the next level. J

As far as my splits go you can see, I hit a wall at mile 8 - gigantic wall, but I am happy that I let my pace slip to 7:20s and 7:30s and not any further. You can also see I kept trying to pick up the pace, but really wasn’t able to hold it for very long hence the toggle between 7:30s and 7:20s. Like I said – I was trying to speed up.

  

Mile 1: 7:40

Mile 2: 7:10

Mile 3: 7:04

Mile 4: 7:10

Mile 5: 7:09

Mile 6: 7:08

Mile 7: 7:06

Mile 8: 7:30

Mile 9: 7:22

Mile 10: 7:24

Mile 11: 7:30

Mile 12: 7:20

Mile 13: 7:32

Mile 14: 6:32

And how did I compare to the rest of the peeps?

Overall:             246^th place out of 2,689 (Top9%)

Females:           60^th out of 1,156 (Top 5%)

Females 30-39:  19^th out of 456 (Top 4.5%)

And if we went by the triathlon age groups:

Females 30-34: 11^th out of 245 (Top 4%)

And because I can, there were 54 30 year old chicks competing and I came in 3^rd! J

Sub 1:30 I am gunning for you! For now, I pretend like my legs are fine, when I can barely straighten them! My quads and hammies are garbage and I strongly dislike the foam roller or really anything else that is suppose to help speed up the recovery proces! I am living in the my awesome Zoot Recovery Tights!  Till next time! J

My Winter Escape!

I was supposed to start my new job back in January, however even the INS has been snowed in and the process for my visa to get approved is taking longer than expected.  As a result, I decided to take one last trip before the “freedom” ends, and I went to South Beach, FL. Now, I would rather go somewhere just a bit more tropical, but due to my visa/passport situation, I had to keep it to the continental U.S.  My choices were pretty limited but South Beach was warm enough and had just enough Vitamin D a.k.a  sun waiting for us.

We were lucky to get out of Boston now two weeks ago on Wednesday before the 1^st snow storm we missed rolled in.  Originally we were suppose to come back almost a week later on a Tuesday, but due to the GIGANTIC storm that affected or should I say “paralyzed” over 30 states, we were “stuck” in South Beach with 80 degree weather for 2 more days until Thursday night. I know – tough life! I must say that I was a bit “sad” I was going potentially to miss some historical snow fall, but at the same time I was really glad I wasn’t there!  Instead I got to enjoy some beautiful weather, great food, swim in an outdoor lap pool for the first time in my life, and get in lots of running on the beach!

Here is the awesome pool I swam in a few times! I am going to miss this one!

And here is what happened after about an hour of swimming and!  YES – I did have sunscreen on!

Let’s just say, I ended up swimming the rest of my sets in a bikini since these tan lines had to go.  I do have to remind myself that this was January! I honestly can’t even imagine what it would be like in the summer! 

I also had a few thoughts of open water swimming, but those went away very fast! Actually on the very first day, and my very first time to the beach, we saw a reef shark swimming along the beach!  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that was that! It really looks like me and the ocean are NOT meant to be! Not yet anyways!  There was also plenty other sea creatures we had the pleasure of meeting including a star fish, octopus, and lots of jelly fish.

There were ton of these around!!!!! Yikes!

This was one alive and we let it go once we took some pics!

Dead Octopus that I really didn’t want to touch, but did after all … and no, it’s NOT slimy!

I also got in lots of running, lots of beach running!!!!!  I didn’t have to worry about getting hit by a car because the roads were too narrow, slipping on an icy sidewalk because only every 5^th person decides to clean the sidewalk in front of their house, or whether I have enough layers on to stay warm.  Instead, I just had to make sure I had enough sunscreen on! I also left the music at home, as the sound of waves hitting the beach more than replaced the tunes! In the 8 days I was there, I put it a solid 30 miles(solid for me) including one long 12 mile run right on the beach. Here is a pic of where I ran to give you an idea of just how beautiful and peaceful it really was.  Aaaaand  I ran in NO layers … and my water didn’t freeze either! J

The map of my long run!

I never really knew how awesome running on the beach really was. The back of the beach consisted mostly of hard packed sand that you could run on, with some patches of very soft sand, which made up for the lack of hills. My calves sure got a great workout! When the sand got too much, there was always the option of an awesome wooden boardwalk to one side, and beautiful concrete path to the other side.

Here is the beach!

And if you got really tired, there was always this option!  J I think this is a South Beach special!

Besides running, and swimming, I did lots of yummy food eating, some shopping and of course dessert eating! Ice cream is my favorite!!!!!! The first one is a homemade brownie, with some homemade vanilla ice cream, homemade caramel and chocolate sauce … it was to DIE for! I had that one twice!!!! 

The second one  is a Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Sunday!!!!!!! Do I need to say more? :)

And then there was Happy Hour!!!!!!  :)

One and only thing I did miss was my bike. I must admit I was a bit freaked out about losing all my power and not riding for an entire week, but my coach assured me that won’t be the case. In all honesty, I wouldn’t even want to ride my bike in South Beach or Miami! The drivers here are insane, and that may even be an understatement!  I did find a bike though! I am not so sure it was functional, BUT it sure had an awesome “winter” cover! J

We had a great time, got some much needed Vitamin D, and I was finally able to get rid of my tri tan lines!  Now it’s back to reality, the good ol’ New England, and I go back to work next week!!! My life of wanna be professional triathlete is over for now! J

Till next time :)