Tuesday, July 21, 2009

It was MADNESS




It was another fabulous weekend of racing in Racine with Madness. This is a huge MSM club event with tons of members racing and it seems to get bigger every year. The last time I actually raced the 1/2 was in 2005. The year it was 107 deg. or whatever the actual temp was it was an inferno. I remember crossing the line on fire, and crawling across the beach to the lake and to submerge myself and cool off. I think there was steam coming off the lake from all the hot bodies floating around to cool off. This year was much different. We felt like we needed to go apple picking, rake leaves then go inside to watch football. But..it made for great racing conditions. I didn't see anyone crawling through sand to get to the lake after crossing the line this year.

Last year I did the bike portion of a relay with my 40 yr old girl buds the day after doing Evergreen Tri. This year.....I chose to race the Blue Wave Racine sprint. I am truly seeing the SORT weekend from all angles! I had been trying to train fairly hard since returning from vacation, so decided to hop into the sprint as a workout (ouch hard!) For some reason they had an all women's race, and a sprint race the same morning. This was nice, because my race started at 9:00 a.m. I'll take a little more sleep and a little more sun and warmer temps. It was a perfect morning which made the 59 deg water a little easier to take!

Its been a couple years since I've done a sprint tri, they don't favor my strengths, but...I do like the pain they can inflict in just about 1 hr of racing.
The lake was cold but calm (thankfully since it took me a week to stop feeling dizzy after Bigfoot). I had a bit of a slow start, and just when I was getting a good rhythm going, I hit sand and sprinted (sort of ) accross the beach to T1. Adam yelled I was 1:50 down on 1st place. Yikes thats a lot in a sprint! But I knew #1 and she is an incredible swimmer. I made a quick transition and then decided to bike as hard as I could. I felt the good burn in the legs. It never went away. I am not sure if thats because I wasn't rested or I was trying to go so hard, but was having a good ride. I couldn't see 1st place, there were a lot of turns on this course making it difficult to see ahead. By the way this race wins the award for bumpiest road cracks. Once back in T2 I found it was weird running through a gigantic transition area, that seemed fairly empty compared to when it is full with all the 1/2 IM racers. I flew threw transition, and was on may way. This is a fun run course along the lake and over a couple hills around the zoo and then back over the hills to the finish. The hills were a bit of a suprise to me because I only remember the first hill. I was trying to run as hard as possible, even with a good quad burn going. There weren't mile markers, so I just ran as hard as possible. There were quite a few Madness members out cheering before doing their pre-race bricks and bike checks which was fun!

I finished 2nd OA female in 1:06, but they gave me 1st place master elite. I laughed at the guy and thought 2nd OA sounded better. When I saw the splits I was glad to see that even a bit tired, I went about as fast as I ever have in a sprint, even as a "master" :) What I know about sprint distance at age 41 is that you just get the rhythm down and all systems a go, then its time to switch gears. Congrats to Colin my client who won the male OA, in his 2nd tri ever!


Then I got to sit back and relax, play with the kids and enjoy the annual pasta dinner and Le Casa de Delgado. Thanks to D and D for letting us invade the beach house. They might need a bigger vacation home if the club pasta dinner gets any bigger. There was a great turn out with lots of club members carbo loading and looking nervous.

Sunday I was the spectator and tried to watch and cheer as much as possible with a couple rug rats in tow. They had sand from head to toe by the end of the day. Go figure its July, so I didn't think to bring fleece, and sweats for cheering clothes. I wanted to build a fire pit. Congratulations to all of Madness. Everyone looked so great and fast this year!

All my athletes have been rockin it; hooray to Lisa for a PR at Trek last weekend, and this weekend, John for finishing his first 1/2, Tonya for an age group win at Evergreen, and Wellman for his PR at Racine.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Tour de Fabulous

It Tour time again and it been on in our house daily. With several showings a day, and our DVR recording non-stop, its hard to not miss whats going on over in France. I have gotten into watching it more that usual this year. I am not sure if its the hype between Lance and Alberto for team leader, or....the HD picture with such great scenery, or the fact that Lance is back out of retirement to "Ride for the Cure". All makes for FABULOUS viewing and good excuses, to have it on while stretching, cleaning, putting mounds of laundry away, writing schedules, or paying bills.

Speaking of scenery, there is a lot of good eye candy to look at. The mountains, and European cities almost make me want to go do one of those Tour/spectator trips. There are also very cool bikes which are fun to check out. Some I've never heard of, some newer versions of already familiar brands. Also.. cool uniforms (whats with the argyle theme though?, 2 teams with argyle uniforms at least they aren't wearing argyle compression socks) Last, but not least, very fit men in spandex. I'll say no more.

I did a long ride today. A ride long enough to remind me why I am not doing Ironman. I had a lot of time to think about my most FABULOUS favs. from this year's tour.

MY FAVS:

Road Bike: Scott/Team Columbia High Road or the Specialized team SaxoBank

TT set up (the whole package/uniform/ helmet etc): Team Astana

Euro. finishing town: Andora

Uniform: Caisse/ D'Epargne black and red of Luis Sanchez

Fit man in spandex: 170+ to pick from can't decide

Favorite commentator: Phil Ligget of course

If you've been watching, what are your favorites?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Vacation Fireworks


the inside of my legs


We returned home from our family vacation on Mon afternoon, about 24 hrs late. Thanks to DELTA, our flight was canceled and they were so kind to put us on a 6:20 a.m. flight the next morning complete with a 3 1/2 hr layover in Cincinnati. Super efficient especially since the direct flights from Atlanta take only 1 hr 50 min.

The vacation itself was fabulous. Lots of fun outdoor swimming,canoeing, jumping off the docks into the lake, rock/ water slides,kangaroo farm and more. My goal for this vacation was to enjoy a real vacation like normal people do, some relaxing, some play and little stress with cramming in workouts around family functions, no guilt on missing out on what everyone is doing because I'm out training, or work on the computer.

I succeeded !

I busted A#$ prior to vacation to get schedules done for clients, and told Simon, my coach, I just wanted to run some, swim very little. I did do some running because I love it and it is easy to fit in. Gosh how easy life might be if I just ran, (but maybe a little dull) North Georgia is very hilly, very steep hills and absolutely no flats. These are the types of hills you can reach out with your hand and touch the road in some places. Several days of running in a row out there, and my legs felt like the fireworks on the 4th. Nothing like climbing a hill of stairs, and sliding down a rock slide into cold lake water for recovery! And, how about smor'es for a re-fueling and recovery (j/k!) The kids devoured them.

I came home with a little more suntan, a bunch of mosquito bites, a new appreciation for a flat run, and a ton of great memories.