70.3 – Let’s Do it (again)!

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

If you would have asked me in January, if I would be racing another 70.3 this year, my answer would have been a definite NO! But the second my favorite training buddies started talking about Beach 2 Battleship a couple of months ago, I knew I would be racing. There is no way I could turn down the opportunity to train and race with friends while also getting another crack at my favorite distance ever!

And now I have finally taken the plunge and hit the registration button!

 

So on October 20th, you will find me swimming, biking and running 70.3 miles in Wilmington, NC and I couldn’t be more excited!

I am taking a little bit of a different approach to training this time around, with much more run focus than before (yay! love running!) but I will talk a lot more about my training plans   in the next week or so.

In the meantime, you will find me with my nose buried in a calendar and excel spreadsheet trying to figure out how I am going to balance it all over the next couple of months!

Posted in bike, friends, Goals, Races, running, swimming, training, triathlon | 13 Comments

USA Cycling Championships

Posted on May 30, 2012 by

Monday marked the 7th year in a row that Greenville, SC has hosted the USA Cycling Championships!

It also marked the last year, as the race will move to Chattanooga, TN for at least the next 2 years. I am sure the people of Chattanooga are very excited and hopefully the city will embrace the event like Greenville has.

It does make me a little sad because the race gets the city of Greenville excited about a sport that I have really come to love in the last couple of years. It also brings an awareness to the sport that helps all of us cyclists be respected and safe on the roads.

As I mentioned Friday, George Hincapie has been an awesome advocate for cycling in the area, which results in the huge cycling community that we have in Greenville. The USA Cycling Championships helps breed that interest in the sport and further grow it.

The good news, I had big plans for spectating this year! First, I rode my bike about a mile from my house to Cleveland park, where I was able to see the riders 4 times during the first two loops of downtown.

Coming into the park…

The first loop, I watched from across the street…

Then I crossed to the inside turn and they were so close I could have reached out and touched them as they rode by!

The speed they keep as they go through these sharp curves is unbelievable. It is really so cool to see athletes at the top of their sport performing at this level.

I met up with some friends in the park, then after the first two loops, we rode our bikes about 1/2 a mile into downtown and stopped by the Hincapie store that was set up on the street.

************************

Side bar: I totally scored at the sale, getting a full Hincapie Cycling kit for $64! The shorts themselves normally retail for $99. I also got a teal sleeveless cycling jersey for $35, that would have been $79 at full price.

The actual kit is not exactly like this, but similar:

This is the exact teal jersey:

I don’t have many quality cycling jerseys/shorts so I am super excited about this deal!

***************************************

After our little shopping trip, we took off for Paris Mountain. The race inlcuded 4 loops of the mountain, which is only about a 5k climb to the top, but has roughly 2000 ft. of climbing in that short distance. Our plan was to get as close to the top as we could before the race came behind us.

It was really cool riding out to and up Paris Mountain because all of the spectators were cheering for us as we climbed too! We ended up making it almost to the top and stopped on a super steep incline after the police came through to warn us the riders were coming. It was only their second time up but the lead pack had split to about 28 riders and they were just grinding up the climb!

I had gotten a great picture of them climbing on my iPhone, but my phone died immediately after so it didn’t save :(

After they passed, we finished the climb up to the top, where it was a HUGE party! People had been tailgating there all morning and they were partying it up with music blasting and tons of cowbells, noisemakers, etc. It seriously reminded me of something you would see at Tour de France, with people chasing the riders up the climbs and all. It was awesome to experience this side of the race for the first time.

We chatted with friends and hung out until the riders finished the 3rd loop, then we busted it back into downtown so we could see the finish.

It looked like it was going to be a close finish with a group of 4-6 riders chasing down Timmy Duggan through the final loops of downtown, but he held on and won the USA Cycling Championship for the first time!

Tim is a little guy, short and very compact, but he packs a ton of power in that little body. The best part was that he and his teammate Ted King were the only two riders from their team (Liquigas-Cannondale) at this race. Some of the other teams had 6-8 people, which gives them a huge advantage. Tim said in the interview that with only the two of them, that left very little option other than to ride hard and do everything right.

We walked past Timmy and Ted on our way out and they were very friendly to everyone, signing autographs, taking pictures and just chatting with spectators. It was very cool.

Finally, I rode home from downtown, finishing with about 23 miles on the day.

It was a fantastic day and a great way to spectate the event. I hope that we have the opportunity to bring this back to Greenville after the 2 years in Chattanooga is up!

Posted in bike, friends, Greenville, Races, training, weekend fun | 4 Comments

Krazy Kow 5k

Posted on May 29, 2012 by

Saturday’s Krazy Kow 5k marks several firsts for me in my running career:

First #1 – Running a race that starts late in the day. Hello, 5 p.m. on Memorial Day Weekend in SC = HOT!!

First #2 – Completing two runs in one day! I had to think hard to remember if I have done this before and concluded that I definitely haven’t. Based on how stiff my legs were to start in the second run, after only 4.25 easy morning miles, it is absolutely something I will be doing more often as I prepare for Hood-to-Coast.

First #3 – Running a short race “just for fun”.

I started Saturday morning with a nice easy run with my friend, Char, and her husband, Jesse. During the run we enjoyed checking out all of the hot air balloons that were launching for Freedom Weekend Aloft.

You really can’t help but smile when you see a sky full of colorful hot air balloons.

The original plan was to run 5-6 miles, but we ended up only get 4.25 miles at 8:39 min/mile because we were trying to finish in time to get to 9 a.m. Master’s Swim.

After running, swimming and then snacking, I took a solid 2-hour nap. It was the kind where you wake up and don’t know what day it is or why you are waking up. It was fantastic!

Shortly after I woke up, I was dressed, packed and headed out to the race. I parked at the hospital parking lot a few miles from the start and ran over the park. It was blazing hot (90*) and the sun was beating down.

Knowing I was running in the evening, I tried to watch what I ate all day and didn’t really eat a full meal, but I think the 1/2 a cup of leftover DQ Confetti Cake ice cream was probably not the best idea. (duh) I was very glad at that point that I wasn’t “racing” and just running for fun with friends!

Shortly after I got to the park, Char and Jenni showed up and we spent the next 1/2 hour taking pictures with every cow we could find :)

 This cow was actually part of the fun run obstacle course. He was the “Cow Tippin’” station. This is South Carolina, remember :)

Char may be only slightly obsessed with cows :) (notice her vest and her Ironman cow visor?) – yes, my friend is a bada$$ Ironman!

Finally we found all the cows so we decided it was time to get a little warm-up in for Char and Jenni. We ran almost a mile, giving me a total of 2.65 miles before the race.

FINALLY it was time to start. We lined up at the very front, only because it was obvious that many of the walkers also decided to make their way to the front.

Right before the start, I asked Jenni what our strategy was for the race. In addition to this being her first race back since 3 hip surgeries, she was also fighting a cold, but I know Jenni is a tough cookie, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Afterall, she WAS a 20:02 5k’er in college! Jenni basically said, let’s just run and see how it goes. Good plan :)

The beginning of the race is downhill, so we took off at about a 7:00 min mile. (Jenni tells us later that this was really dumb – oops!) We were quickly reeled in by the hills that we hit after 1/2 mile point and finished the first mile in 7:59.

I could tell the heat and hills were getting to Jenni pretty quickly, as she slowed after that first mile. We just tried to keep a few steps ahead of her and cheer her on. The hills continued, and there was NO shade coverage. I was SO glad at that point that I wasn’t racing. We cheered on the lead runners as we passed and yelled for the top 3 women.

The next 2 miles seemed to take forever! I always forget how long 3 miles seems in a 5k. Jenni was hurting and having a hard time breathing, but she pushed on, maintaining about a 9:15 pace. Finally, we got close to the finish and I sprinted ahead so I could get pictures of Jenni and Char at the finish.

There was a big crowd of people cheering at the finish chute and it was really fun!

Our official finish time was 28:15. (9:07 min/mile avg)

We raided the hospitality tent, but skipped the burgers and brownies and somehow ended up only with water!

It was a great time and I would definitely run this for fun again. I think I would have a hard time racing at that time of day, but it was a good lesson for me in what (not) to eat and how my body reacts to running at this time a day.

Out tickets got us into the Jake Owen concert that evening, so after a bar-b-que and showers at Char’s house, we enjoyed a fun concert!

And I discovered a new love…NOT Jake Owen (although he is pretty sexy).

Try it. Over ice. And please don’t tell me you don’t like it.

Posted in Race reports, training, running, Greenville, friends, weekend fun, Races | 8 Comments

Three W’s

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

Happy Friday!! Let’s talk about “W’s”!

That’s Walter. He’s a “W”, so he makes the post too :)

  1. Warrior Pose - Because I did a ton of these this morning at YOGA! Yep, that’s right. I went twice in one week. This morning Char and I ran for 15 min. (1.75 miles) before the class so I felt like my muscles were nice and warm to stretch. I definitely was not crazy about the instructor though. She moved quickly through each pose/stretch and I didn’t feel nearly as relaxed. As soon as I felt a good stretch, she was on to the next and I felt like I was just trying to keep up. I don’t know much about yoga, but since this was a restorative yoga class and not a flow class, I don’t think that it was supposed to go so quickly. 
  2. Weekend – This work week wasn’t nearly as rough as last week, but that doesn’t mean I am not absolutely stoked for a nice, long weekend! We were supposed to take some friends up to the lake house in Virginia, but the renovations aren’t finished yet, so we are hanging in Greenville instead. No worries, we still have plenty of fun things on the schedule. And more importantly, fun workouts! I am starting tomorrow morning with a 6-mile run with Char then we are headed straight to 9 a.m. Master’s Swimming. Then tomorrow evening I’m running the Krazy Kow 5k!  The race is part of Freedom Weekend Aloft which I honestly don’t know much about, except that it is a festival where there are hot air balloons and concerts. What more could you want? Especially since my $25 5k entry also gets me into the JAKE OWEN concert at the amphitheater on Saturday night!  (Sorry gentlemen) But can you say smoking hot?!? And I just also happen to love his music too :) As for the 5k, I am planning to run with two friends, one of which (whom?) ran track in college and is on a major comeback from 2 hip surgeries. She has been running for a few months now and is back up to around 4 miles straight running. She certainly keeps a strong and steady pace, but none of us are planning to all-out race. Between the free concert entry and the COW TECH T-SHIRT, it is still totally worth my money to fun-run the 5k! Another bonus – this will be my first two-a-day to start preparing for Hood-to-Coast in August! With a warm-up (and the morning run), we should finish with 10 miles on the day.                                                                                      -The weekend fun continues on Sunday, when the plan is ride 40 miles in the mountains up to Flat Rock, with a stop at an amazing little hippie bakery to refuel.         -FINALLY, Monday we will be spectating the USA Cycling Championships, which will be held (sadly) in Greenville for the last time this year. It is an awesome field of riders, including Greenville’s own George Hincapie, as well as up-and-coming cyclists like Ben King (last year’s winner). We will likely ride our bikes around the area to catch them at various spots on the course, then eventually head downtown Greenville to drink beer at see the finish. Whew! I am excited just thinking about all the fun to be had! 
  3. WINNERS – Last but not least, my VERY FIRST blog giveaway concluded today at noon and the winners of the ShowerPill Athletic Wipes are:

Katie from Blondies Babble

 

and Terzah from BQ by 40

I find it rather strange that Random.org spit out a 5 then a 4, but I swear this is just how it came out! Katie & Terzah, please email me your address at coreymarie13@gmail.com so I can pass it on to the friendly folks at ShowerPill to send your goodies! 

Also, don’t forget that the discount code (RUNNERS2) is good on Amazon through tomorrow and they are also have a buy 2 get 1 free special right now!

Alrighty, that is all for this fabulous Friday! Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Posted in bike, friends, Giveaway, Greenville, Races, running, swimming, training, walter, weekend fun | 4 Comments

Drenched

Posted on May 23, 2012 by

Last night I rode my bike in the rain. Not just drizzling, sprinkling or misty rain.But downpour, thunder and lightning with big, heavy (and painful) rain drops.

Not a happy rider.

This picture was taken after the ride. It doesn’t do justice to just how soaking wet I was, but you can gather from the sky behind me what the weather was like.

Before you all tell me how dangerous and stupid this was, let me give you a little background…

I was supposed to meet a couple of riding friends to join up with the big group ride that I have ridden on several previous Tuesday evenings. I had heard there was a chance of storms, but the sky looked pretty clear when I got to our meeting spot.

Things started out a little strange…when I drove up, there were only a few cars in the lot. Usually I can barely squeeze my little car in between all the bike-carrying SUV’s. And my always-early friends were nowhere to be found.

I quickly recognized two guys that I know from the Monday night speed workouts and they told me that the normal parking spot has moved about 1/2 a mile up the road. I texted my friends but didn’t hear back (until after the ride when I realized I had a text that said the ride was a wash out), so I just jumped in to ride with these two tri-bike sporting guys.

While we waited for a couple of others to meet us, we did one 5-mile loop around the industrial area where we parked and by the time we met the other two riders, it was sprinkling a little, but the skies in the direction we were going looked nice and clear so we headed out.

We weren’t 10 miles in when the sky opened up. It was absolutely POURING. At that point, the decision was to keep heading toward clear skies, versus turning back into the storm.

For the next 5ish miles, I couldn’t see well. My socks and shoes were soaked. I was freezing. I was being pelted with heavy rain drops. The wind was blowing me around everywhere. And I couldn’t ride behind anyone because their bikes threw even more water up in my face. Plus we were pushing the pace hard to try to get outside the weather.

I don’t know how I wasn’t scared to death. I just tried to focus on seeing the best I could and staying upright, but my heart was pounding, partly from the effort and partly from the adrenaline rush.

I love being on my bike, but I will not lie I hated every minute of those miles in the rain. 

Eventually, the rain subsided and we finished the last 10-15 miles without battling the storms.

Around mile 20, I realized I was chaffing because my shorts were so wet. I was exhausted. I hadn’t drank much throughout the ride because I was so focused on the road. And since I didn’t think I would be riding 30+ miles, I hadn’t brought anything to eat and I was definitely getting that blech feeling that comes when my body wants nutrition.

We dramatically dropped our pace for the last 10 miles because I think everyone was just drained from the drama of the first 15. We finally made it back to the cars with a total of 31.3 miles on the day at 17.1 mph.

In the parking lot another guy was being dropped off in a car with his bike and told us he had taken the route forward (we took the route backwards to avoid the darker skies) and had run into HAIL and had to be picked up by a friend.

I am not sure I have EVER been so happy to put my bike on my car and get the hell out of there to a hot shower.

P.S. I am not looking for sympathy or to be told how tough I am for sticking it out…I just had to record this so I can look back and know that I will be prepared for anything that a race day throws at me in the future! And maybe someone else can learn a lesson in checking the weather from my stupidity on NOT doing that!

Posted in bike, friends, Greenville, training, triathlon | 8 Comments

ShowerPill Shout Out & Giveaway

Posted on May 22, 2012 by

Sunday I went to a Community Bike Ride that was put on by a local all women’s cycling group here in Greenville. It was a great ride, although toasty since we started at 1 p.m. and it was 82* out!

After the ride, I had some errands I needed to run that were on my way home. I was sweaty and dirty and normally would not go into a grocery store or drug store looking like that!

My attempt to show you how dirty I was!

Thankfully, I remembered to bring a ShowerPill wipe with me.

After the Nuun Hood to Coast announcement, I was contacted by a nice person from ShowerPill who asked if I would like to review their product. I have never done a review on the blog, but I was interested to see what this product was all about.

I had never  tried any type body wipes before and I typically just change my clothes and deal with the sweat. But after using the ShowerPill Athletic Body Wipes, I discovered I was definitely missing out.

After wiping my sweaty face, legs, hands (and armpits!) down with the ShowerPill wipe, I felt as good as clean!

Ready to go run errands!

The wipe took the dirt right off of my hands and legs and didn’t leave any kind of filmy or sticky residue on my skin. In fact, the aloe in the wipe left my skin feeling and smelling fresh.

The wipe is thick so it doesn’t break apart as you wipe and it is big enough that you can definitely wipe down your whole body without feeling like you are just spreading dirt around.

Brad was super interested in ShowerPill wipes too because he thinks they would be good for when we backpack and spend the night on an overnight train or for our trip to Machu Piccu next year when we are hiking and camping for a few days without showers.

I sweat A LOT so I know that these will be a major lifesaver during Hood To Coast this year to keep my teammates from kicking me out of the van after my runs!

The good news for you? ShowerPill will send TWO of you a box of their Athletic Body Wipes! I want to keep it simple so, please just leave a comment below telling me when you think you would use ShowerPill wipes.

The Giveaway will end this Friday, May 25 at noon.

And for everyone, ShowerPill has provided a discount code:

RUNNERS2

That can be used on Amazon here for a 10% discount. (Good through Saturday, May 26)

For full disclosure (because apparently this is what I am supposed to do) ShowerPill provided me a 10-pack box of the body wipes, but the opinions that I expressed here are 100% mine. I only give my honest opinions and would never tell ya’ll anything but the truth!

Posted in Giveaway, Shout Out | 16 Comments

You Did What?!

Posted on May 21, 2012 by

Yep, that’s right. I went to YOGA.

(sorry for the overly dramatic title, but this is groundbreaking around here)

After Saturday’s 11 mile run, things in my body were WAY tighter than they should have been. My calves have been tight for a while, causing some PF (arch & heel pain), but after Saturday, my piriformis was all knotted up and my hips were stiff.

I sticked until my right calf was bruised, foam rolled, stretched and even had a PT friend dig into my piriformis yesterday. Yet, yesterday evening, my body still felt like it needed more.

I was online looking up Master’s swimming times for this morning when I saw that the Y has a Sunrise Yoga class at 6 a.m. on Monday mornings. Boom! Perfect. Exactly what I feel like my body needs right now.

This is the first time I have ever taken an actual yoga class. I just never wanted to “waste” an hour that I could spend getting sweaty with some sort of heart-pumping exercise with yoga. Of course, I have known all along that it is extremely important to build core strength and to stretch and lengthen my muscles and that in NO WAY would yoga be a waste of an hour. Yet, I still never took the time.

But last night when I set my alarm and laid clothes out, I was committed and I am SO glad I went. We breathed, we down-dogged, we planked, we did some poses and stretched our bodies out. And it was fantastic! I even got a little sweaty!

I learned that my hip flexors are extremely tight (especially the right one) and that I have zero to no balance or flexibility. I also learned that I am going to have to go more often or I will spend most of my time peaking at what the instructor is doing instead of closing my eyes and relaxing.

I felt great after and was ready start my day and tackle some speed work this afternoon!

Sleepy post-yoga “glow”? (I think the lights are the only thing glowing). That blob of black and yellow on the couch behind me is Walter’s big head with a tennis ball begging to play. 

Namaste, my friends!

Posted in injuries, running, training, walter | 14 Comments