winter be gone...shortest race ever

on sunday i attempted to race the winter begone duathlon. my family decided at the last minute to head down with me. as of sunday our baby is due in 19 days but Carly loves to come to races so she really wanted to go along. it is always nice to have my family cheering me on.

once we round the race site the weather didnt want to cooperate for us. wind, rain, hail and lightning had the race director considering to cancel the race.

after a break in the weather he ended up making everyone do the short course.
carly and anastasia decided to wait in the vehicle and stay warm.

they snapped a photo of me through the window as i was getting ready.

my first thought was "its gonna be really hard to place now" there were some really fast guys signed up for the long course but i was doing the short race. my plan was to hold back on the first run then go all out on the bike and hold on for dear life on the second run.
we got lined up for the start.

apparently a bunch of idiots racing in bad weather is news worthy!


i ran the first 2.25 miles at a 7 min pace. i had to keep reminding myself that my plan was to go easy and not speed up as people passed me. once i hit transition i fumbled for a bit with my chin strap but still passed a lot of people who entered before me.

once i took off on the bike i had a goal of catching steve. he can smoke me on the run and he did. i saw him heading out on the bike as i was nearing the end of the first run. i took off and pedaled hard into the wind.

i passed at least 10 people in the first 4 miles. because of the wind my speed was a little lower than i anticipated but i was still keeping it higher than 20 mph average. i figured the ride back would be a bit faster. i had steve in my sights and could see his shiny gold bike as i topped a hill. i pushed hard up the next hill and suddenly heard a CLINK! and lost all resistance on the pedals. i looked down and saw my chain slink to the ground behind me! YIKES!!! i quickly pulled my bike off the road and grabbed the chain to see what happened. my master link had broken off. i tried desperately to see if it could go back on but it was bent. all the people who i passed started going by. i saw Brian (who i finally met in person before the race!) go by. he asked if i was ok and i showed him my chain. a race official pulled up after a couple minutes and grabbed a repair kit out of his truck. he didnt have any of the correct sized chain pins but we threw one in anyway so i could at least finish the race. it didnt work. i pedaled about 10 feet but the wider chain pin didnt want to go through the rear derailleur. i was officially done. my first multisport dnf. the guy who helped me gave me a ride back to transition and i cheered in the racers.

since i didnt have the heart rate data to send my coach from the race he had me do a 30 minute time trial today. it was really windy but wasnt raining. i averaged 21.5 mph which i felt pretty good about since half of it was into a head and and i had to come to a complete stop twice. im hoping to be faster than that for my olympic tri in 5 weeks. depending on our baby situation i may be able to squeeze in the apple duathlon in sartell, mn at the end of may.

congrats to all the people who finished a wet, cold, windy, muddy race! Borsch even managed a pr!

cold begone before winter begone

so i talked it over with my coach and he gave me the go ahead to do the winter begone duathlon. his only requirements are that i hit the lap button between runs and the bike and that i go harder than i normally would on the bike. oooooookaaayyyy..... so go hard on the first run, go all out on the bike and hold on for the second run. i can do that! he really wants this race to be all about the bike. i was supposed to do a lactate threshold heart rate test on sunday but if i go all out on the bike then that will count as my test.

im really looking forward to it because i will know several people racing! Brian, Steve, Pharmie and Borsch! it will also be my first duathlon and my first time racing this year! i should be healthier by then since i feel much better today than yesterday. im looking forward to it.

highs and lows

i recently had an interval workout in the pool. i had to swim 10x100. the last time i did this workout i averaged 1:35 per 100. this time i averaged 1:26! i was toast afterwards but was really excited to see some big improvement! i suppose my coach was correct that i would soon start to see gains in my speed. (i had recently expressed concern that i wasnt getting faster) he has recently started giving me fun workouts with lots of speedwork. they are hard but im excited to see increased speed on the bike and run as well. overall i felt great about my workouts the past week...until sunday.

on sunday i started feeling a little sick. on monday morning i felt really sick. i have a really bad sore throat with a slight fever and that all over achy feeling. its no fun. i missed my workouts yesterday and today and opted instead to lay in bed as much as possible. to inspire my immune system to kick whatever ive got ive been drinking tea out of my favorite mug.

i bought it last year after the ironman.

also i just received my twin cities marathon registration confirmation. im excited about that! im really working for a pr this year and im confident coach David will help me do it! im shooting for boston!
speaking of boston congrats to both of the Jens i know from st paul who ran on sunday and finished within 3 minutes of eachother! way to go girls!

holy smokes!

today i went on a training ride along the gateway trail. my ride was supposed to be 1:45 long with cruise intervals of 6 min each with 2 minute recoveries. i figured i could ride near Stillwater before turning around and heading back. it was a beautiful day today and i wore short sleeves and shorts for the first time this year on a ride! woo hoo! its been a while since i rode the gateway trail but i remembered incorrectly that there were longer stretches of trail before it crossed roads where i would have to stop. i constantly had to stop or slow down. it was impossible to keep any sort of rythm or steady pace but it was exciting to be out riding on a beautiful trail on such a nice day! until i smelled smoke!
a few seconds later i passed over a bridge and saw this...


i took a look around an noticed that there was no one nearby. it wasnt a controlled burn! i took out my cellphone dialed 911 and described my location the best i could. the operator quickly dispatched the fire department and within 2 minutes the firetruck pulled up and the firefighters extinguished the fire.


quite a crowd had gathered to watch the action. i stuck around for a few minutes before riding off to finish my workout. the rest of my time was pretty uneventful other than the constant stopping and starting but i enjoyed my afternoon in the sun.

woo hoo spring kicks ass!

oh and remember kids...

booo! boooo! BOOOOOOO!

the crazy lady from the princess bride had to make an appearance on my blog to show her disdain at the craptacular new rule at ironman races.

crossing the line with my daughter in madison meant the world to me. eventually ill post the story of why i do triathlons and why it means so much to me.

sucky!

first 5k!

yesterday i ran a 5k with my daughter! it was her first. she won entry to a charities challenge race from a contest she entered on steve's blog.
its a good thing it was a 5k because i got very little sleep. i went to a coworkers birthday party and didnt get home until after midnight. i also had to make a late run to buy some "purple gatorade" due to a pregnancy craving! i finally got to sleep around 1 am and woke up at 6 so i could cook breakfast for anastasia.

the race was at como lake which is only a mile from our house. we showed up and got registered.

here we are after registering

carly and anastasia headed inside to stay warm and i helped set up the finish line and sound system. before long it was time to start!

we took off and i had to keep reminding her to slow her pace because she was wanting to pass everyone. we took in the lake scenery and wildlife. we saw a bald eagle, geese, two kinds of ducks, a muskrat and a bear!

sir, look out for that bear!

she was going strong at the halfway point


on the second lap she started getting a little tired but never stopped to walk. once we got into sight of the finish she started picking up the pace and finished strong!


here are the mile splits:
mile 1 9:34
mile 2 9:31
mile 3 10:05
.1 mile 1:06

total 30:18

the official results arent posted yet but looking at past results she managed to do something i have never done. she set a course record for her age group!

we had such a great time together! to celebrate her first 5k we went to izzy's for some ice cream.

hey she has way more than i do!

after enjoying our ice cream the girls headed to the mall and i headed to the gym to do my workout. i had to swim 45 minutes followed by weight lifting. we ended our day by renting a movie to watch after dinner but i passed out on the couch halfway through it. it was a fantastic day!

be sure to stop by her blog later to congratulate her!

now im following several friends at new orleans 70.3! go get 'em athletes!