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!