Just a few more photos...

Very random post - but I wanted to throw some photos in as well as some free GU :) 

Carla acting like she was driving the huge bus

Look out kids.  I will run you over...and not even know I did.  :)

Carla and Jason - trying to enjoy the cooler weather...before it started to pour.

So we decided to chill-lax in the bus

Carla and I are back in the swing of things - one rest day (spent in the car) and back to swimbikerun.  I was pretty darn sore for a few days - including the upper outside part of my left foot.  Carla was having the same issue.   With our excellent combined medical knowledge -  we decided that it was from the road slanting during the run.  (Mental note - stay in the middle of the road).  Just a few more tough training sessions and then the taper begins.

 A few more Augusta Photos

Super excited about my 25 min swim

Smiling due to the lack of humidity

No humidity - once again. 

How would you like some free GU?  How about FREE GU Roctane?  How about Free GU Roctane that tastes like like a 'Mai-Tai'?  Check out this LINK to Frayed Laces.  Mine is ordered and I can't wait to try it out! 

Hope everyone is having a great week! 

 

...

Augusta Race Report

Carla and I packed up the girls on Friday and headed to Augusta.  It's an 8 hour drive from good old PCB - but we had plenty of things to talk about.  Specially the CRAZY NUTS e-mail from Coach Scott  that we both received at the same time. 

Chloe,

I have put some goals down for you...

Chloe

Swim- 27:00

T-1 4:30

Bike 2:42

T-2 1:45

Run 2:02

Finish 5:17!!!

Let me know your thoughts!!

My thoughts??  YOU ARE CRAZY!  My fastest 70.3 time was 5:42.  My goal was 5:30ish - but if he thought I could...well, there might be a chance. 

So we get to the Holiday Inn Express (oh yeah, gotta love those points) and checked into our room.  Just a travel tip for those of you who stay overnight for races - handicapped rooms are the bomb.  Wider entry way and plenty of room for your bikes)

Babs and the princess had Chick-fil-et for lunch

Could two girls need more stuff? 

After sleeping in until 6:30 (yep-we are party animals) we decided to drive the course.  We made a mental note of the ups and downs as well as the potholes and hair pin turns.  Then we headed to check in.  This was Carla's first IM sanctioned event.  And it was the normal line around the hallway for check in

And same old expo with a bunch of stuff

Don't steal...it will ruin your race :)

Carla and I checking in

Sad wine glass.  Or can I say shot glass.

After we checked in we took our bikes to check in and scoped transition.  Since this is one of 'those races' where the swim start, transition, and finish are in different areas - we wanted to have it down.  But as we where checking in we ran into the rest of the Panama City Beach crew:

These two crazies did the air force marathon the weekend before!  Xavier and Henry are pretty hard core.

And Ms. Sarah - it was her first 70.3!

We made it back to the hotel early that night for dinner (and a glass of wine) and headed to bed. 

The next morning we where up and ready to go.  Some friends of ours brought their super coach bus and parked it right at the finish (awesome!) so we parked right next to them and hung out until we could catch the bus back to transition and then back to the swim start.

 I have never done a race where it started in the water.  The current was flowing and the waves of age groupers where starting like clock work.  They had corrals for each age group which helped keep the confusion down.  Once we where up - Carla and I wished each other good luck and hopped in.  No salt, no waves, and no JELLY FISH - I knew this was going to be a good swim.  My goal was to FINALLY break 30 min in the 1.2.

The gun went off and our race started.  Keeping my cool and breathing every three - my swim felt strong and right on.  We soon hit the waves before us - and at the end I was literally sandwiched between two men.  But right when I hit that mat - I checked my watch.  25:XX (12th out of my age group).  I KNEW it was going to be a good race.

We suit strippers - grabbed the princess - and I was off for 56 hilly miles through South Carolina.  It was overcast, rainy, no humidity, and cooler temp.  Ahhhh...good times ahead.  I knew the first 15ish miles would be pretty flat - so I took that time to really build up my speed.  I took a Hammer gel as well as a Hammer Endurance Amino and an Endurolyte (which I took every 45 min on the bike) I also had water in my aero bottle, a bottle of cytomax and my home made protein bar to top of my nutrition.   I knew I really needed to focus due the amount of riders and the road conditions.  I was also thankful that I put on my glasses in transition since the ran started to fall pretty hard. 

Once I did hit the rolling hills - I attacked as hard as I could and powered down them.  At one point I looked down on my Cateye and saw 42.  Holy SH*T.  Charging down one hill - there was a guy kind of flailing all all over the place so I said 'on your left'.  And he shot back with 'SHOW OFF'.  Umm.  Ok.  I just didn't want to damage the princess because of your inability to control your bike.  Oh well.  I'm sure he was not too happy to be blown by by a girl in pink.  :) 

Total bike time: 2:44:09

Avg: 20:47

Heading back to transition - the sky was still overcast and it was drizzling a bit.  Perfect weather for a 1/2 marathon.  Racked the princess, threw on my shoes, grabbed my gels and I was off.  The run a two loop course around downtown Augusta.  Lots of spectators that kept everyone going.  But it's always hard to see the 10 mile marker...when you are only on mile 4.  I knew the run would be my biggest challenge, so I just kept my thoughts positive and put one foot in front of another.  I did not even look at my 'right hand non Garmin watch' until mile 10.  But I tried to keep it under a 9 min pace per the 'left hand Garmin watch'.  I saw Carla a twice which was great because I knew she was having a great race as well. 

I'm not going to lie.  I was in just a bit of pain.  My legs hurt.  Not sure if it was from the bike - but with three miles left, I felt like I do at the end of a marathon.  So I finally looked at my right hand watch.  Holy shit.  I could do the next three miles at a 10 min pace and still get IN THE FREAKING TEENS!  What!!  So I came around the corner to the finishing shoot - crossed that line with a huge shit eating grin in my face and a tear in my eye. 

Total run time:  2:02:27

Pace: 9:20

Total time:  5:18:26

36th out of 165 in 30-34 Age group

Just a minute + short of what coach wanted me to hit. 

After I crossed the line and I was waiting for Carla to cheer her in - I had to tell someone about my PR.  Who was right there?  A bunch of Grandpa's!!  They where so happy and gave me a kiss on the cheek.  Love it. 

Carla then came in with a killer PR as well!  5:21:17!! 

We where on cloud nine.  I'll have some post race photos to post later - this is already getting to long.  But as soon as we got ahold of our phones - Coach Scott had already e-mailed us.  We gave him a call - and he said he almost did a back flip with our times.  :)  The hard work and early mornings paid off.  Now it's time to get ready for the big one. IMFL :)

Congrats to everyone else that raced this weekend!!! 

 

Yep - I'll take that PR as well.

So.  The only complaint about Augusta 70.3 is the size of the wine glasses that had at the expo:

Yeah, pretty sad.  What are you suppose to do with this?  Take a shot?  Well, Carla thought it was funny.

Anyway - short but sweet.  I ROCKED OUT a PR with a 5:18 (old one was 5:45).  Triple fist pump.  Augusta was a great race (for it's 2nd year) and it was ran like butter.  Every race has it's kinks - but no major ones that I saw.  So if you are thinking about doing this race next year - do it!! 

I'll have more photos and my full race report (it's a goodie) with in the next day or so.

Also, is anything else having issues uploading photos? 

How to clean your bike

First of all - I got over my fear of open water swimming.  Well, I would not say a fear of open water - just a fear of those monsters we call jelly fish.   Saturday Carla and Ron pretty much told me - we are doing an open water swim and you are joining us.  So after looking at the gulf:

I was all about it.  No jelly fish in sight.  We got in a great 80 min swim.  I also wrangled Ron and swim coach Jonathan to swim on Monday as well:

Well, that fear did not last long.  :) Take that jelly fish.  You can't bring this girl down.

After our long ass workout on Sunday - Ron took Carla and I to his 'Man garage' and showed us how to clean our bikes.  I'll get a more detailed description to you later (I have to discuss what we did with Carla - I have a feeling I forgot parts) I know it included a hose, a few different kinds of spray stuff and a stiff brush.    But I did get some killer photos of Babs (Bad Ass Bike) and the Princess getting a face lift:

Team QR is ready to race!

Training is going awesome.  Most of the time.  Today was one of those 4am wake up calls I just did not want to open my eyes to.   So I had a piss poor attitude.  Just ready to get the ride done with so I could drink my coffee and watch the Today show.  But then I saw this:

And my frown just turned upside down.  What a beauitful sunrise!  :) 

Anyone else out there doing Augusta?  If so, let me know!  Babs and the Princess are heading out on Friday!  Whoohooo!!! 

Random Rant:  I hope Liddsey Lohan goes to jail.  She has a major drug problem and needs to go away for a long time before she runs someone over.  Plus, I'm freaking tired of hearing about her.  (Told you it was random!) 

Best 20 miles ever

Last Saturday I had my first 20 mile run since the Miami Marathon in January.  Team CCR (Chloe, Carla, and Ron) as well as my friend Kelly decided to meet at 6am at Seaside.  Running from there gave us several water stops as well as trails that are shaded since it's a billion degrees outside.  Still.  (yeah.  thanks mother nature) Bright and early Saturday morning, my alarm didn't go off.  Well, maybe it did and I just slept through it.  As I'm throwing stuff together, I call Kelly to let her know that I was running late.  I was in such a hurry that I put on my running shorts inside out.  And it took me about 10 minutes of an 'awkard' feeling to finally figure it out.  Running late was no biggie - except that I would be running the last four miles solo. 

Once we all finally met up, we took off.  Long story short, I felt amazing, even in the heat.  Everything just came together.  This was a huge booster for me since my running has somewhat taken a back seat to my cycling.  Nutrition wise, I was spot on.  Water, Cytomax (freaking love that stuff), one Hammer Tropical Gel(yeahhhh caffeine), Hammer Endurolytes and jelly sport beans.  And with 5 miles left, I decided to throw something new into the mix.  Something that I've never tried before.  A 5 hour energy drink!  I wanted to test it out to see if my tummy would agree.  And it did.  My last five miles of the run where around 8:45 - which is pretty darn good for me with 15 miles on top of that and the sun beating down on me.   Has anyone else used that durning a race or training?  What did you think?

I would like to throw out a huge congrats to Marni from Trimari for qualifying for KONA in Wisconsin over the weekend!  If you have not checked out her blog - please do.  It's super informative on diet information as well as her awesome race report. 

Oh yeah...and the jelly fish sting on my cheek has blistered over.  Now I look like I've gotten into a bar fight.  Don't mess with me.  :)  Ha!

....one other open water tip

avoid making out with a jelly fish.  We did a 'back yard tri' today and I was looking forward to getting in a great 2.4 mile swim in.  But 4 minutes (yep...four whole minutes) into the swim - WHAP.  Right in the face.  I yelled and everyone popped up their heads to make sure I was ok.  Well, it felt like I was punched in my kidneys, my whole body was shaking, and my face and arms where on fire!  Oh yeah, I was crying as well.   So I made my way back to the beach and thankfully Heidi, one of my training partners wife, was there to take me under her wing and make me feel better.  So, here is what I learned today about taking care of jelly fish attacks:

*  Get in a cold shower asap

*  Get baking soda, make it into a paste, and rub it generously into the effected area

*  Repeat

*  Rinse

*  Put aloe all over effected area

*  Hang out in a cool area

*  Take a bendryl

This happened about 7am this morning - and it's almost noon and I still feel some slight stinging and my cheek is still swollen. Thanks jellyfish for ruining my whole workout. I hope you get washed ashore. :(

The secret to open water ocean swimming is...

...well, I don't know to be honest.  Sometimes before a start of a race I look like this:

When the gulf looks like a washing machine, you know it will be a changeling swim.  (Please note the girl smiling behind me, she just told me she's never swam in the gulf before and wanted to know what she needed to do.   Awesome)

 DS from Pain lets you know you're still alive asked a few questions on my last post about open water swimming.  For those of you who do not know my background, I've been swimming since I was 7...and I'm almost 30.  I'm pretty comfortable swimming in almost anything.  Except for massive amounts of seaweed.  Gross.  Anyway, when it comes to the secret, most of it is mental.  I think the biggest issue is the anxiety that comes with the start of a race.  Figuring out where the buoys are, how deep the water is, battling all the people around you, just to name a few.  So the first pointer would be to stay calm, get a rhythm, and focus on where you are.  The last thing anyone wants to do is to swim further then they need to! 

Another thing is to find a comfortable pair of goggles.  I LOVE the old school Swedish goggles.  I've been using these bad boys for YEARS.  But lately I've found that when I do swim in the gulf, the lack of cushion on the Swedish cause irritation in my eye sockets.  Major irritation, kind of like I burnt my eyelids.  So today I broke away and purchased a new pair.  I was just a bit stressed out deciding on a pair - but since I had a Nike gift card, it helped narrow the choices down:

So we'll see how these guys measure up to the old faithful Swedish.

Don't drink the water.  Try to keep your mouth shut except with you breath.  Salt water tastes like crap and can tear up your tummy if you take in to much.  After any open water swim, I grab a cup of water just to wash out my mouth.  You can't avoid it all together, but just try not to get mouthfuls.

We're doing a 'back yard triathlon' tomorrow morning with a 2.4 mile open water swim, so if I think of anymore after the swim, I'll let you know.  But if anyone has anything to add, please do!  I hope this helps!

So...when I was at the nike store - I came across this bad boy:

Could not help myself.  :)

Happy training everyone!!

The Skinny Margarita

So, Mrs. Heidi Austin was in Destin this weekend and decided to join us for our 90 mile ride and 5 mile run today.  Since we had a 'guest star' who is training for IMFL, we decided to do the bike course.  The weather was PERFECT (good by humidity) and we had a great crew that just totally rocked out the ride.  It didn't even seem like we went 90+ miles.  Now that my friends, is a killer ride.  But this just shows how awesome the people that you meet are in the blog world - at least in the triathlon community.  I could not tell you how great it was to have her along for this stellar ride. 

So, after a hard week of workouts and having the day off tomorrow, I decided to celebrate with a Skinny Margarita:

Yum.

So does anyone else watch cupcake wars?  For some reason it makes me REALLY REALLY want some cupcakes. 

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!!

The smell is finally gone!

My first pair of cycling shoes smelled like death.  They where hand me downs from my friend Lisa P and already had a million miles on them.  They smelled so bad that I could not keep them in my car for longer then an hour.  SO BAD that big J could not even handle them:

So when coach told me to 'get anything new this week that you plan on using form IMFL' - I jumped at the chance:

Jason was pretty pumped about not having the stench of the old cycling shoes anymore.  They have been banished to the patio for the moment:

I tried my hand at gluten free pizza this week using Bob's Red Mill  crust...and it was AWESOME.  The dough was easy to make and work with and tastes wonderful.  Even Big J enjoyed it.

Feta, Smoked Gouda, Spinach, zucchini, mushrooms and basil...YUM.

Training wise - everything is going AWESOME.  I can't tell you how awesome it is to have not only one person to train with - but TWO!  My friend Ron who is going IMFL as well decided to use my coach as well.  So Carla, Chloe, and Ron will be taking this race by the horns. 

Hope eveyone is having a great week!