How to do a long brick and Splish Special!

I love bricks.  Specially double or even triple bricks.  I feel as though they are very very important to triathlon training.  Why?  Because it gets you past the 'oh my god, now I have to run?' feeling when you hop off the bike.  Now, when I get off of the bike - I actually run better then just a normal running race.  Also - what sounds better?  45 mile run followed by a six mile run?  Or 15 mile ride followed by a 2 mile run X3?  Yeah, I thought so. 

Anyway, here are a few important pointers for a successful brick:
*  Find a good central place for your'transition' area.  We always meet at a local park.  Lots of bathrooms and places to run.
*  The central place should be low in traffic
*  Bring plenty of fluid (coolers in your care are helpful)
*  Have a plan and stick with it.  10 miles followed by a 2 mile run X3?  Rock it out! 
*  Don't 'rest' between the cycling and run.  Pretend it's like a race and you are in transition. 
*  But what do you do with your bike?  Lock it to your car!

Go ahead and try it out!  They will hurt at first, but I promise it will be worth it! 

We had a great brick this weekend.  Except for the 20+mph head winds coming in.  And the humidity.  And the heat.  Welcome to Florida weather! 

We where also joined by Frank and his huge tattoo.  Thanks for sticking it out with the girls Frank!

(in the photo above you can tell he was the odd man out...with the non QR bike)

Follow a long, hot brick with the foam roller:

And a Skinny Girl Margarita:

YUMMM. 

Splish Suits!

You all know my love for splish suits - they are so fun and colorful.  Please see examples below:

How do you like that $20 grab bag suit?  LOVE IT!  $20 grab bag special!  Check it out at

SPLISH.COM

And the winner is ....

First I want to talk about beets. (I know, not very exciting) But  Tawnee (TRi*Tawn)  had an excellent post on the health benefits for endurance athletes that come from raw beets.  I just have to share! 
So why not throw it in my daily smoothie?  Today I headed over to Publix to pick up a three pack (so in Florida they come in 3's) and try it out.  And all I can say yumm..it was an excellent addition to my daily smoothie goodness.  I'm still waiting for my pee to be dis-colored, but it has not happened yet.  Bummer.

I don't have a vitamix - so I cleaned the beet and then chopped it up.  My blender had no problem blending it together. 

I just have to thow in how wonderful the color is.  

Now too the Bad-Ass-Giveaway:

 I just want to thank everyone who entered this give-a-way.  I just love Betty Designs and want to spread the love!  Check out her site when you get the chance!

And the winners are (thanks to random.org):

JV from New Tri Addict

Miss Fancy Pants Tris

Kim from Fuel your Passion

Christi from Pedestrian Runner

Congrats!  Please e-mail me your address when you have the chance! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I would also like to throw out a huge Happy Birthday to my 'little' brother!

Eating and how it effects how you feel

So ever since my back issue - I have not eaten any fast food.  At all.  Except for subway - but that does not count in my mind.  Anyway - whenever I eat out of whack, my body gets very mad at me.  For example, yesterday I had a migraine and threw up, yep, puked.  Multible times.  And I really believe it's due to my diet.  I was not able to eat every two hours our eat my usual amount of fruits and veggies the day before.  I know it was bad planning on my part, but sometimes you can't control your environment.  And I guess my body is very sensitive - or possibly getting more sensitive - to what I fuel it with.  Does anyone else fell that way - or am I crazy?

I just like my body to feel good and be happy - and I hate not feeling 100000%!

Work

I am not one of the lucky ones who can swimbikerun all day.  I do have a day job.  But I am one of the very lucky ones who love their job.  This week my boss and another upper management team member came up to the panhandle from home office to travel with me.  We flew over some areas we wanted to check out -

But now I feel like I need to detox after eating wonderful food and drinking way to much fab wine for the past three days!!

Tweet Me

So I finally did it.  I took the step into the confusing world of twitter.  You see that new link on to the right?  Please click on it and 'follow' me.  And if you have any helpful suggestions - please pass them along.  But for now, I'll just be doing random tweets.  Wait - isn't that what tweeting is?  :) 

Remember!  Friday is the final day for the bad ass give-a-way.  

Bad Ass Give-A-Way

Yep - it's that time again!  Time for a sweet giveaway!  Today I received a box in the mail from Kristen at Betty Designs.  And what was in that box?

Ahh!  Bad Ass Water bottles! 

So what can you do for these lovleys? 

1.  Follow my blog

2.  Leave a comment on this post

3.  Mention my give-a-way on your blog

4.  'like' Betty Designs on facebook

(please leave a seperate comment for each thing you do!) 

Leave a post and let me know what you have done - and I'll throw you in the hat.  The more things you do, the more your name gets thrown in :)  I will choose FOUR winners a week from Friday (March 25th) I am so excited to share the Betty love! 

In training news - we had a great 'welcome back to training' double brick on Sunday.  I might be a rare one out there to say this, but I love bricks.  I run so much better off of the bike then I do just 'running'.  Maybe it's because I'm warmed up?  I who knows.  But we had a 15 mile ride with a 2 mile run X2.  We work the 'transistion' like we are racing - so no haning around inbetween the run bike and the run.   The ride adveraged around 21 mph and the runs 8:25.  Love it.

Spring Break Random Comments:

A kid asked me out on a date while I was picking up beer cans from my beach access.  You could totally tell he had been up all night (it was around 6am). 

Kid: Can I take you out to club lavela for a date today?

Me:  Sorry, I have to work

Kid:  Oh, you are not on spring break

Me:  I'm 30.

Kid:  Oh. 

Probably the most random converstaion I've had in a very long time. 

Must have....

these:

Talk about a bad ass water bottle

And the shorts to match the bad ass jersey  (as I talked about in 'Tis the Season Round 2)Big J ...sorry...Santa put under the tree for me this year for Christmas:

Check out the Betty Designs site when you get the chance.

Ok.  Time to stop shopping while drinking wine Chloe.  Happy Friday everyone!

You know it's spring break in Panama City Beach when -

1.  There is live music at the beach Wal-Mart

2.  Port-A-Potties randomly placed in parking lots (good for long runs)

3.  People asking me if I'm a streaker when I go to the gas station to get coffee while wearing my swim parka at 5am. 

4.  You feel like an MTV extra while going to Target

And it's only week one.  No worries - I'm sure I'll have some awesome photos soon.

In training news, we had a killer time trial last weekend.  5 miles.  Out and back.  It was hot and humid.  I was feeling ok until the turn around.  Then I lost it.  My breakfast that is, all over the sidewalk.  Bananas and peanut butter.  And I still felt like crap.  Ugh.  This is getting so frustrating.  But I'm sure my run will come back.  Hopefully sooner then later. 

This past week I was in Orlando for work - and I was able to spend some quality time with Bryce.  Future triathlete in training:

Swim - Bike - Run - Drool

And if one more friend tells me they are expecting, I'm going to drink nothing but the bottled water.  Obviously there is something in the tap water these days!

All of my thought and prayers to everyone in Japan, Hawaii, and anyone else who is effected by this scary earthquake and tsunami.  Scary stuff. 

So I'm going to say it

...I need to say it.  On this blog.  So I will do it.  Plan for March?  Lose these pesky 5lbs before races start in April. 

Ok.  I said it.  And now I have to really watch what I eat.  Any pointers?