Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

This weekend was fun filled with little training treats. I prepped myself as I knew what I was in for so Friday night took a bath and soaked my leg to soften up my leg wound mondo scab, then proceeded to scrape it off. It’s something awful looking but oh well.

Saturday, Jennifer and I were up and at em early, to try to avoid any heat issues. We planned to head out to the American Tobacco Trail and meet Alan for a little run. Quite strangely, we arrived on time!

She was running a longer distance so took off while I waited for Alan to show so we could run our own 10 miles. At first I thought that he would stand me up, but I know Alan likes to be hardcore and he soon appeared in the parking lot and got situated.

I decided to rock the Fuelbelt and just carried 2 8oz bottles one with water and one with Accelerade. Also, I decided to trot in my Zensah calf sleeves to aid in some recovery.

The trees on the ATT create a nice canopy from the sun and the run is pretty much a straight shot with some longer slight inclines.

We kicked off with some good speed around 8:30-ish and I studied Alan as he ran and it never failed- every time some hottie runner would be coming the other way, he’d buck up and his pace would increase…lol! I totally called him out too…  We soon tapered the pace to a steady 9:30 avg and hit the 5 mile point. I popped a gel and swigged 4 oz of each drink and we began out return.

Alan began to dwindle, he was saying that was having leg/energy issues. So we began to walk 30s and run a mile. the last 3 miles i said we’d run 2 in recovery pace and race pace the last mile. I was actually feeling good…I kicked in something incredible and saw just give up and tried to walk. I stopped and made him run again. we finished strong in a 1hr 35min.

Enter Sunday- The Nuclear 1 Mile Swim at Harris Lake.

We all planned to do the swim (sans J) and were going to ride 60 after.  Well, the swim was as expected. I hadn’t swam in 2 weeks due to my leg injury and I knew I was in for a whooping. Plus this lake has some nasty ass seaweed issue- think kelp forest in the water. I cruised the 1st half in typical Scottie fashion, making my way from middle to back of the middle pack. Also sighting again was an issue and I was zig zagging all over. I rounded the 1st turnaround buoy and completely turned way too sharp and was headed back not knowing until last minute that I left one buoy- so I had to once again correct my angles and make up for it. I finished up with a 0:42 which is my fastest mile yet…woot!

We then hitched a ride with Carol to our cars and clown-cared ourselves into her TUV (triathlete utility vehicle).

We geared up and began our ride- we were 5 riders strong. Alan incorporated the Duke Half route into our ride. Too bad it all started in some ginormous hill climbs…not cool Alan .

After 1 bridge out detour debacle, we finally got our asses in gear and settled in for some nice riding. The course was rollers with some fast downs and a couple steep ups.

It began to flatten as we found our way to Jordan Lake…that’s when things turned sour. We were on Ferrington, a nice long flat stretch and I got a leg cramp which slowed me down…I shook it out and thought nothing of it. Soon enough, I saw the group pulling away- fast…I was peddling but it was as if I was in the mud. I had officially bonked on mile 47. I was dead…I popped my reserve GU and hoped for the best I went from a 21-23 mph pace to a 16mph pace. My friend Brian joined me in the bonk category. I shortly gained back my energy and began to take off again giving chase to the group. I looked back and Brian looked dead. I decided to hang back and coach him through to the end. (It was his longest bike distance to date). We finally rolled back into the park holding a solid14mph pace.  Game over.

Lesson learned: Actually practice your nutrition plan on long rides!!!!

So I finally wore  my Garmin 305 under my cap to measure the buoy lengths at the local OWS public swim hole. I swam the inner buoys- there was 1 buoy on both sides that I stayed in because there was so much boat traffic today!

Today was incredibly choppy! I was popping “swim wheelies” every now and then. One stroke would be super submerged and the next my whole torso would be cresting the water…

And to top the choppiness, the water felt like there were 2000 kids in it letting loose after gorging themselves with Caprisons! Sickly warm…

And now on to the data. No I wasn’t breaking any records..I was just doing one warm up lap just to record the distance, then I dropped off my Garmin on the beach to swim the rest.

So for my birthday back in July, Jennifer surprised me with a gift. This gift was presented and wrapped in a large box at the end of a marvelous dinner.

*pic stolen from her site

However, one shake and I guessed it! To aid in my guessing, there had been numerous comments  and upturned nosing on my previous Adidas duffel which was ripped, dirty and years old…

Enter the Rocket Science Sports Elite Transition Bag.

This bag is truly AWESOME! It fits everything you can ever think of as well as do it in an organized manner. My Adidas bag was a duffel type bag that I always had to dig through to find things or I had to unload everything to make sure I had packed everything for race day. The Elite bag solves all this.

This bag boasts sectional zipped off compartments for running shoes, cycle shoes, sunglasses, meds, waterbottles and more as well as its own transition mat- and of course I had to test this!!! BEHOLD the contents of raceday and some, in one bag- minus the wet gear inner zip sack which is removable- for wetsuits, etc which is fine as the bag cinches down to accommodate light races:

(Contents in pic: Tri top, shorts, musette w/ gels and bars,helmet, hand towel, cycling socks, knee brace, goggles, sunglasses, Garmin 305, spare tubular tire, tubular adhesive tape, spare clincher tube, 2 water bottles, calf compression sleeves, Garmin heartrate strap, head lamp, race belt, cycling shoes and running shoes- with room for more!)

I also tested the fit with my aero helmet in place of my Pro Light helmet and all was successful! I’m pretty stoked that all my gear now is neatly “pocketed” in my T bag.

I tested out the bag in my most recent race and the hike from car to transition was very simple and comfy. No more juggling water bottles and loose stuff or rummaging through to find my Garmin. Some additional pluses are that the bag is waterproof  and ANT-PROOF! Yes, ants were all over transition, yet they failed to enter my durable fortress which contained gummy gels and sweet bars. And it being waterproof, I easily squirted the mud off the bottom with my spare bottle too!

I’m excited to actually travel with this bag to D.C. for the Nation’s Triathlon. As I’ll have to ride my bike from my hotel WITH gear to the race site blocks away to west Potomac park. I’ll travel well knowing that I have all my gear with me and will be very prepared- not worrying if I left all my nutrition on the counter or if I’m goggle-less.

So to rate this product I give it 5 out of 5 stars! As I’ve been researching and browsing so many bags at stores to replace my seasoned old bag. The raves on the Elite bag from Rocket Science Sports are correct. Now only if they could have fit extra speed in there somewhere! So thank you Rocket Science for making such a sweet bag and thank you Jennifer for an awesome bday gift!!!

Pre-race routine:

Ate eggos and coffee. Got to T early so had plenty of time to talk to people and meet up with other BTers.

Event warmup:

Swim Comments:

T1 Comments:

Time: 01:13

What would you do differently?:

Bike Comments:

Run Comments:



Again…That is all…

Event warmup:

got in the lake and swam a good 100 or so to get a feel for the bathwater-like temperature!

Swim Comments: 00:17:36 | 820.21002 yards | 02m 09s / 100yards

Bike Comments: 00:51:52 | 17.5 miles | 20.24 mile/hr

What would you do differently?:

Go faster, drink more

Run Comments: 00:29:58 | 03.109 miles | 09m 38s  min/mile

What would you do differently?:

stop less and drench myself to keep cool

Just thought I’d say that I received a lovely package from Zipvit Sports today. It is a sampler pack of their nutrition. I’m excited to try out the products that “the pros use!”.

Although I did not get the items I really wanted to test out because they were out of stock- the ZV3 Recovery Power Sachets and the ZV7 Energy Gels. Oh well, Warren Bailey sent his regards and added 2 additional bars to my sampler. Woot!

The Sampler included:

(1) ZV1 Energy Drink Elite

(1)ZV10 Energy Chews

(3) ZV8 Energy Bars

(1) ZV9 Protein Bars

(1) Team RadioShack Water Bottle

(1) Team RadioShack Musette

Can’t wait to try these products out!!

Crash Recovery Update:

I’m still sore in the calf and the shoulder has a little AC Joint strain. I’m not able to swim

I started riding again…which meant I got my bike fixed, and the new Giro Prolight helmet came in the mail, woohoo! So I guess baby steps!