This is a huge deal folks.
The largest environmental disaster in our history.
So in the mean time - here are some photos of what we have right now:
Running with a bottle of wine.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Scary Stuff
I'm sure everyone has heard of the oil issue they are having off the coast of Louisiana. I'm also sure that most of you know that I live on the Florida's Gulf Coast. Everyone is freaking out on what might happen. Will they stop the flow of oil before it hits our beaches? Will everyone still be able to fish, surf, and enjoy the gulf this summer? Or will the worse case scenario pan out - which is something that I do not even want to think about.
This is a huge deal folks.
The largest environmental disaster in our history.
So in the mean time - here are some photos of what we have right now:
This is a huge deal folks.
The largest environmental disaster in our history.
So in the mean time - here are some photos of what we have right now:
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Christmas Came Early...
at the Elfrink and Giles house. The princess had a bit of a face lift today:
The adoption process of the Zipp 404's is now complete :) A good friend of mine from Cali decided that I passed the background check and ok'ed me for his 404's. I'm pretty excited about racing in a few weeks!!
I want to thank everyone for the positive comments on my race last weekend! It was such a good time - and I hope everyone is able to race St. Anthony's if they can! Here are some photos from the race:
Happy Hump Day!
The adoption process of the Zipp 404's is now complete :) A good friend of mine from Cali decided that I passed the background check and ok'ed me for his 404's. I'm pretty excited about racing in a few weeks!!
I want to thank everyone for the positive comments on my race last weekend! It was such a good time - and I hope everyone is able to race St. Anthony's if they can! Here are some photos from the race:
Happy Hump Day!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
St. Anthony's Race Report - Race Day
Alarm went off at 4am...eastern time...so that is 3am our time. Why so early? Well, parking in downtown St. Pete is a challenge and that is one thing that we did not want to worry about. And thankfully, it was not an issue. We just hopped into a parking garage and made our way to the race site. So if you ever do this race, get there super early - that way can park, get body marked and not have to wait in line for any of it!
The princess was right where I left her, safe and sound. I'm sitting there, staring at my transition zoning out I hear "Chloe?"...and it was the one and only ONEHOURIRONMAN!! It is always awesome to meet fellow bloggers at races! Bob was one of the amazing volunteers since he is tapering for IMSG!
Anyway, I get everything set up and turn on old red (my garmin). Beep Beep - low battery. Really? WTF. REALLY? I charged if before I left home, so I guess it was turned on in my bag. Sooooo I was going to race this tri blind. Totally blind because I didn't have my bike computer either. Awesome. I'm not going to let something small like that ruin my day. This is my first Oly, so no matter what this will be a PR!
Karen came back over to my bike and we made our way to the swim start which was close to a mile walk. In route, we decided to stop at this ritzy hotel so Karen could get coffee and I could use the restroom (not a port-a-potty). As I was waiting in line, you'll never guess who walked in!
Sister Madonna!! If you don't know about this 80 year old Ironman Nun - check out this article. Anyway, she said a prayer for all of us in the bathroom. I was so ready to race after that. :)
SWIM:
Thankfully I was in heat 10 of 32. So I took off about 20 min after the first wave. Still, this swim was tough. Lots of chop. Sideways waves are always fun. Thankfully, 1/3 of the race we where swimming with the waves - so I rode those as much as possible. I am thankful to be able to train in the gulf so I don't freak out when water conditions are not the best. Once I hit the stairs, I had to tread water for about 30 seconds or so until the men in the waves before me got out. Frustration.
Total swim time: 27:50
BIKE:
T1 was T1. Threw off my wet suit. Strapped on my shoes and took off. Total time 2:31. As mentioned in my last post, it was a great idea that we rode the course ahead of time. There where lots of turns and speed bumps. Since I had no clue at all how fast I was going - my only goal was chase all of the men that where ahead of me. Besides the pro and the elite, my wave was the first female to take off. So passing one guy at a time - I made my way. The wind was pretty random. Lots of head wind, some tail wind. But what can you do? Just put your head down and go.
Total Bike time: 1:16:05 avg speed: 19.6
RUN:
T2 was great. I could see how many girls had came in before me. Threw on my running shoes, grabbed a hammer gel (just in case) and took off. Total time 1:53. The run was an out and back through a great neighborhood. The water stations where full of awesome volunteers and thankfully the sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the time. Some families even came out to cheer us on as well as kids with their own water stations. Love it. Again, I was not quite sure how to race this distance, so I just chugged along.
Total Run Time: 50:29
Total Time: 2:38:45
15th out of 132 in my age group
After the race I made a bee line right towards to massage tent and had two amazing people work on my legs. Ahhh..I love the massage tent. But once again, this was an amazing race and I can't wait to race it next year. With a garmin. :)
Hope everyone had a great weekend and congrats to everyone who raced!!
The princess was right where I left her, safe and sound. I'm sitting there, staring at my transition zoning out I hear "Chloe?"...and it was the one and only ONEHOURIRONMAN!! It is always awesome to meet fellow bloggers at races! Bob was one of the amazing volunteers since he is tapering for IMSG!
Anyway, I get everything set up and turn on old red (my garmin). Beep Beep - low battery. Really? WTF. REALLY? I charged if before I left home, so I guess it was turned on in my bag. Sooooo I was going to race this tri blind. Totally blind because I didn't have my bike computer either. Awesome. I'm not going to let something small like that ruin my day. This is my first Oly, so no matter what this will be a PR!
Karen came back over to my bike and we made our way to the swim start which was close to a mile walk. In route, we decided to stop at this ritzy hotel so Karen could get coffee and I could use the restroom (not a port-a-potty). As I was waiting in line, you'll never guess who walked in!
Sister Madonna!! If you don't know about this 80 year old Ironman Nun - check out this article. Anyway, she said a prayer for all of us in the bathroom. I was so ready to race after that. :)
SWIM:
Thankfully I was in heat 10 of 32. So I took off about 20 min after the first wave. Still, this swim was tough. Lots of chop. Sideways waves are always fun. Thankfully, 1/3 of the race we where swimming with the waves - so I rode those as much as possible. I am thankful to be able to train in the gulf so I don't freak out when water conditions are not the best. Once I hit the stairs, I had to tread water for about 30 seconds or so until the men in the waves before me got out. Frustration.
Total swim time: 27:50
BIKE:
T1 was T1. Threw off my wet suit. Strapped on my shoes and took off. Total time 2:31. As mentioned in my last post, it was a great idea that we rode the course ahead of time. There where lots of turns and speed bumps. Since I had no clue at all how fast I was going - my only goal was chase all of the men that where ahead of me. Besides the pro and the elite, my wave was the first female to take off. So passing one guy at a time - I made my way. The wind was pretty random. Lots of head wind, some tail wind. But what can you do? Just put your head down and go.
Total Bike time: 1:16:05 avg speed: 19.6
RUN:
T2 was great. I could see how many girls had came in before me. Threw on my running shoes, grabbed a hammer gel (just in case) and took off. Total time 1:53. The run was an out and back through a great neighborhood. The water stations where full of awesome volunteers and thankfully the sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the time. Some families even came out to cheer us on as well as kids with their own water stations. Love it. Again, I was not quite sure how to race this distance, so I just chugged along.
Total Run Time: 50:29
Total Time: 2:38:45
15th out of 132 in my age group
After the race I made a bee line right towards to massage tent and had two amazing people work on my legs. Ahhh..I love the massage tent. But once again, this was an amazing race and I can't wait to race it next year. With a garmin. :)
Hope everyone had a great weekend and congrats to everyone who raced!!
Monday, April 26, 2010
St. Anthony's Race Report - Day Before
If you are ever able to do this race, do it. The organization was amazing and the volunteers where some of the best I've ever seen! With 4000+ athletes - the race ran perfectly!
Ok - back to the race report. Karen and I headed down to St. Pete on Friday afternoon. Car packed and ready to go:
Six hours (and a time change later) we made it to the 'host' hotel. Well, we did not realize that there where two Hiltons - one on the race site and one about 10 min away. We ended up at the off site hotel..no wonder we got the room for so cheap! But it was very nice and we kind of felt like we where on vacation :)
The next morning we got up and headed down to check in. I'm not sure if you've been to downtown St. Pete, but it is the most confusing place ever. Every street is named 4th ave SN or 1st St. east west. Yeah. Confusing like that. And on top of that, we are both used to the gulf being on the south, not what ever direction is it there. Total confusion. But thankfully we made our way around.
Karen wanted to drive the bike course which is something that I have never done before. To be honest, I usually go into a race blind. I know where the start is and where my bike is racked and that is about it. But this was the best idea. The course was somewhat technical - lots of curves, turns, speed bumps and straight aways. Seeing this the day before was a huge help for both of us. And we where not the only ones doing this:
We figured this person knew where they were going (Run Swm license plate).
We walked around the expo for awhile and baught a bunch of crap what we didn't need - but that is what those are for right? As we where heading back to the car to get our bikes, someone yelled 'Chloe?' I turned around and it was Tom and his kids. He is a friend of mine who has the YOLO board Company. They had the opportunity to lead the pro male and female swim waves. Tom is new to the whole world of triathlon and was blown away. He runs with us a few days a week, but I predict in the near future he will be a triathlon junkie. This is Tom - he's not hard on the eyes at all:
And if you don't know what a YOLO board is - here is the easter bunny as a stellar example:
We got back to the car and put our bikes together to ride over to the bike party (aka transition):
And you would think that 4000 bikes would be a nighmare to rack right? Not here! They had stickers with our numbers and names on them. And our race numbers tied into our age. So everyone that was on my rack was rocking the 30-34F age group. This was very helpful the next day to scope out when you brought your bike back to T2 :)
The princess racked and ready to go:
By the time everything was said and done, Karen and I had to go out and enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner. It's happy hour? Great! Make it a good pour:
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for the next morning:
Yeah yeah, I know. My toes look like I'm a champion rock kicker, but hopefully they'll look better soon.
4:00am wakeup call (which is 3am our time) came way to early.
Ok - back to the race report. Karen and I headed down to St. Pete on Friday afternoon. Car packed and ready to go:
Six hours (and a time change later) we made it to the 'host' hotel. Well, we did not realize that there where two Hiltons - one on the race site and one about 10 min away. We ended up at the off site hotel..no wonder we got the room for so cheap! But it was very nice and we kind of felt like we where on vacation :)
The next morning we got up and headed down to check in. I'm not sure if you've been to downtown St. Pete, but it is the most confusing place ever. Every street is named 4th ave SN or 1st St. east west. Yeah. Confusing like that. And on top of that, we are both used to the gulf being on the south, not what ever direction is it there. Total confusion. But thankfully we made our way around.
Karen wanted to drive the bike course which is something that I have never done before. To be honest, I usually go into a race blind. I know where the start is and where my bike is racked and that is about it. But this was the best idea. The course was somewhat technical - lots of curves, turns, speed bumps and straight aways. Seeing this the day before was a huge help for both of us. And we where not the only ones doing this:
We figured this person knew where they were going (Run Swm license plate).
We walked around the expo for awhile and baught a bunch of crap what we didn't need - but that is what those are for right? As we where heading back to the car to get our bikes, someone yelled 'Chloe?' I turned around and it was Tom and his kids. He is a friend of mine who has the YOLO board Company. They had the opportunity to lead the pro male and female swim waves. Tom is new to the whole world of triathlon and was blown away. He runs with us a few days a week, but I predict in the near future he will be a triathlon junkie. This is Tom - he's not hard on the eyes at all:
And if you don't know what a YOLO board is - here is the easter bunny as a stellar example:
We got back to the car and put our bikes together to ride over to the bike party (aka transition):
And you would think that 4000 bikes would be a nighmare to rack right? Not here! They had stickers with our numbers and names on them. And our race numbers tied into our age. So everyone that was on my rack was rocking the 30-34F age group. This was very helpful the next day to scope out when you brought your bike back to T2 :)
The princess racked and ready to go:
By the time everything was said and done, Karen and I had to go out and enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner. It's happy hour? Great! Make it a good pour:
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for the next morning:
Yeah yeah, I know. My toes look like I'm a champion rock kicker, but hopefully they'll look better soon.
4:00am wakeup call (which is 3am our time) came way to early.
Friday, April 23, 2010
You know you had a good trail run when...
....your legs look like this:
Killer 12 mile run yesterday morning - first six on the road, 2nd six on trails. It has not rained here forever, so not only was it dusty, but it was oh so sandy. If you have not ran on sand before, specially loose sand, it sucks. People that don't live on the beach are always asking me if I run along the shore every morning. Um. No. I don't want my legs to fall off. :)
Today we leave for St. Pete for St. Anthony's! Whoohoo! I'm so excited - specially this will be a given PR since I've never raced an Oly distance before!
Hopefully we'll get to stop here:
on our way in or out of town.
Hope everyone has a great Friday!
Killer 12 mile run yesterday morning - first six on the road, 2nd six on trails. It has not rained here forever, so not only was it dusty, but it was oh so sandy. If you have not ran on sand before, specially loose sand, it sucks. People that don't live on the beach are always asking me if I run along the shore every morning. Um. No. I don't want my legs to fall off. :)
Today we leave for St. Pete for St. Anthony's! Whoohoo! I'm so excited - specially this will be a given PR since I've never raced an Oly distance before!
Hopefully we'll get to stop here:
on our way in or out of town.Hope everyone has a great Friday!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
What an exciting weekend
Ok. Not so much. Just a bunch of training. At least I somehow conned some suckers to join me for most of my weekend festivities. Saturday I did a killa brick workout with two awesome guys:
...and today I did a 50ish mile ride/open water swim with some lovely ladies:
It's pretty funny going from spending 4 hours with guys to 3 hours with the ladies while training. Some similarities - with the guys and the ladies we pushed each other pretty darn hard. But when it comes to gossip..whoops..I mean chatting..the girls chat so that the whole group is involved. The guys? Not so much. I kind of felt like the third wheel. But to be honest, that was A-ok with me. Why do I want to hear the male gossip? Boring :)
And today - I fell. Awesome:
I hate wearing gloves while on my bike - but I have been lately for this reason. What do you put out when you are doing the 'why did I unclip my right foot and falling to the left' slow motion dance? Your hand. No biggie. But it's always fun to be out in the middle of red neck land with a bloody knee.
Random product - boot dryer. Jason has this guy for when he goes tuna fishing. But what else is it ideal for? To stick your oh so smelly bike shoes on:
You just plug this guy in - and the warm air for the base comes up and dries your sticky, sweaty, shoes. Not only are they great for cycling shoes, but running shoes as well :) (I kind of feel like a Real Simple article!)
How do you keep your bikes shoes from smelling?
Hope everyone had a great weekend - and congrats to anyone who raced!
...and today I did a 50ish mile ride/open water swim with some lovely ladies:
It's pretty funny going from spending 4 hours with guys to 3 hours with the ladies while training. Some similarities - with the guys and the ladies we pushed each other pretty darn hard. But when it comes to gossip..whoops..I mean chatting..the girls chat so that the whole group is involved. The guys? Not so much. I kind of felt like the third wheel. But to be honest, that was A-ok with me. Why do I want to hear the male gossip? Boring :)
And today - I fell. Awesome:
I hate wearing gloves while on my bike - but I have been lately for this reason. What do you put out when you are doing the 'why did I unclip my right foot and falling to the left' slow motion dance? Your hand. No biggie. But it's always fun to be out in the middle of red neck land with a bloody knee.
Random product - boot dryer. Jason has this guy for when he goes tuna fishing. But what else is it ideal for? To stick your oh so smelly bike shoes on:
You just plug this guy in - and the warm air for the base comes up and dries your sticky, sweaty, shoes. Not only are they great for cycling shoes, but running shoes as well :) (I kind of feel like a Real Simple article!)
How do you keep your bikes shoes from smelling?
Hope everyone had a great weekend - and congrats to anyone who raced!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Random Thoughs Friday
* This week has been a huge challenge. I'm usually up and at them early. Like 5am. This week, not so much. We have this little thing called pollen that has been hanging out in our area for the past 4 weeks. And now it's bad. Everything is freaking yellow. Any my body hates it. My nose runs, constant sneezing, and just feeling blah. Specially in the morning. Hopefully this stuff will go away soon. Training has been really fun when you tie the sneezing in. Specially on the bike. Gross.
* I love my new coffee maker. Love it.
* Newtons. I want to try them. But I don't want to dump a ton of $$ into a pair of shoes that I don't like. Thoughts or feelings? Anyone?
* Can I introduce the cutest baby ever:
This is the combo from my friends that are in town this week. The coolest baby ever. Little Trevor is 7 months old and is crawling like a mad man.
* Next weekend is St. Anthonys! Guess who is going to be there???
Just to name a few. I would rather watch this race then race it! Plus there are around 30 waves in this race - thankfully I'm in wave 10!
Hope everyone has a good weekend and good luck to anyone racing! Specially NOLA 70.3!
* I love my new coffee maker. Love it.
* Newtons. I want to try them. But I don't want to dump a ton of $$ into a pair of shoes that I don't like. Thoughts or feelings? Anyone?
* Can I introduce the cutest baby ever:
This is the combo from my friends that are in town this week. The coolest baby ever. Little Trevor is 7 months old and is crawling like a mad man.
* Next weekend is St. Anthonys! Guess who is going to be there???
Just to name a few. I would rather watch this race then race it! Plus there are around 30 waves in this race - thankfully I'm in wave 10!
Hope everyone has a good weekend and good luck to anyone racing! Specially NOLA 70.3!
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