Stolen race pics!

Anyone want to buy the hi-res versions for me? :) They're probably some of the best race pics taken of me...and probably some of the most expensive...

tricycle studios - bib 277

 Oh and when I say they're the best, I'm only talking about these two. The other two are HIDEOUS! hahahaha

Rumpass in Bumpass Race Report! 1st Race of the Season!

So it's 10 am and I have already gotten in an hour and a half of studying today (My PhD qualifying exam is this week!) so I think I'll take a bit of a study break and work on my Rumpass in Bumpass 2012 Race Report! The first race and first race report of the 2012 season! Yaayy!!

The professional race photos are not up yet, but they are also not going to be free, so you're going to have to make do with the ones that Erin and I took. It was Erin's first time with my new, fancy camera and she did an admirable job. Understandably, it is difficult to take shots of a single, specific cyclist. You have to watch each one and decide whether or not that's your racer, then you have to get the camera ready and focused, all while the cyclist is barreling towards you at 22 mph. So the swim and run shots are a bit better. :) Thanks Erin!

Not only was this my first race of the season, but my cousin Anne was also racing the Rumpass for her very first triathlon! She had an awesome day out there, and I'm a very proud tri-momma/cousin.

 So our race weekend started with a long drive down to Bumpass, VA on Saturday. Turns out that place is seriously in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Wasn't the most amazing drive with traffic and then small, strange roads and although we had planned to be there before the end of the olympic distance race being held Saturday, we were quite a bit late. It all turned out fine though, as Anne, who is a member of Team Z, was still hanging out with her teammates in their post-race tent. She had seen most of the Saturday race and had gathered a lot of useful information about the course, transition, etc. We wandered around and checked out the area and the course. Lake Anna is really beautiful, once you get passed being in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. And I am qualified to make that judgement, btw, given that I grew up on a horse farm, off a dirt road in PA. Anyway, I'm straying from the story. We went down to the lake and waded into the water. The air temp was pretty nice Saturday, low 70s I guess? By 3 pm the water felt really nice too. We looked over the swim course, which was pretty neat. It started and ended at different places, with the exit leading almost directly into transition. No long run in bare feet! YAY! Anne and I then took a nice 40 minute bike ride on part of the course to get our blood moving and make sure our bikes had survived transport unscathed. We then proceeded to packet pick up (great shirt AND socks! featuring Wild Things...get it? Rumpass?) (Also, thanks to Anne for not letting us drive too far before remembering about packet pick up) and then headed an hour back NE to Fredericksburg where our lovely hotel was located.

On the way to the hotel I noticed that my bike was missing an end cap on the handlebar. Many of you know that this is against USAT rules. They call it the "Core Sample Rule." You fall, your handlebar takes a plug of skin and muscle out of you (or worse, internal organs!). Anyway, special shout out to the guys at Olde Town Bicycles in Fredericksburg for hooking me up with 3 extra endcaps, after store hours. And thanks to my mother for teaching me how to talk really sweetly to people on the phone. 

We checked in and then Erin and I made our way to Applebees for dinner. I've never done a pre-race meal at Applebees before and I was a bit nervous, but I found something really simple on the menu and went with that. The good thing was that Applebees had TVs and they put playoff hockey on the TV above our table. Erin had hockey, she was happy. I had food, I was happy. Post-dinner we headed back to the hotel and I helped Anne go through all of her stuff to be sure she didn't forget anything. She packed admirably (with several extras) so we were all able to head off to bed.

I slept like CRAP!

The race started at 10am, which is by far the latest start time I've seen. I think they wanted to start late to give us warmer weather, but as it turned out the high for the day was in the mid 80s! Anyway, we rose bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:15 am. My coach had emailed me a detailed outline of how I should proceed on race morning, and I have to admit that I didn't follow his plan exactly. First of all there was an hour commute to contend with. Second, he wanted me to spend way more time warming up than I would racing! I mean, I bet this is what the really good folks do, but I've never done all that before so I decided to break myself in nice and easy. Drank lots of water, took a hot shower before we left (at his suggestion...shower before working out??) and had my race day breakfast. I've changed it up a bit this season because believe it or not, bananas seem to give me heart burn. So I just had a small bowl of my 5 grain hot cereal (basically fancy oatmeal) with a little bit of Nutella mixed in and a few small pieces of banana (can't completely change it up), half a whole wheat bagel and some peanut butter. And a little coffee. And more water.

After an hour on the road (Thank you Erin for driving everywhere!! You are saving my back from a lifetime of misery!) we parked and I made the decision based on the time and on the amount of traffic on the roadway to skip the warm up bike ride my coach had suggested and just do a run and swim warm up. Got my timing chip, got body marked and set up my lovely transition area. Now, this was my first Setup Event and overall I have very few complaints about the organization of the Rumpass. It was a lovely race. But the bike racks are my first small complaint. I LOVED that they were actually tall enough for my bike seat to fit under and easily rack, but they lacked numbers. Instead, each section of the rack was assigned 6 numbers and you had to mark out your own territory. I was there early and didn't have a real problem, but the 6th person into our section had to move everyone's stuff around to fit in. On top of that, people weren't racking their bikes on the same side as their stuff and I imagine some people had a really tough time in transition because of that. I was spared and had relatively intelligent/experienced people around me but I know others weren't so lucky. ANYWAY!

After helping Anne set up her transition area, I headed out for my warm up run. Coach indicated he wanted me to run for 20-30 minutes. I decided to just do it be feel and check out parts of the course that I had heard people talking about before the race. There were two long gravel sections, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Turns out the gravel was very very large and deep, and therefore it actually moved under foot kind of like sand. Not very pleasant. I checked that section out and the run around the outside of a field and probably did a 15-20 minute warm up. With 30 minutes left till the start I headed down to the water and donned my wetsuit. The water was much chillier than it had been the day before, but it wasn't too bad once I got going. I was really glad I did the warm up and got back into the feeling of my wetsuit. It seemed to erase almost all of my pre-swim jitters. Anne and I were in the same swim wave, so we got to hang out for a bit and tread water together before our horn went off to start the race.


Once we were underway I lost track of Anne pretty quickly. The water was not very clear, although I was often able to make out the legs of other swimmers. I did a pretty good job drafting off of someone until we caught up with the stragglers from the men's wave before us, at which point we all got pretty strung out. The swim was pretty pleasant though, and I never felt like I was going to puke from exertion. Part of me thinks that is a good thing, another part thinks maybe I should have pushed harder. Only had one little entanglement when I accidentally swam between two guys from the previous wave who were going shoulder to shoulder. Got a bit pummeled, but ended up ahead of them and free. The course had a long straightaway and ended in a different place than it began, with a run right into transition. I guess I got a little cocky when I got out, because as I entered transition I heard the announcer say that the first 5 women had just gotten on course and I thought that might mean I was in the top 10 out of the water. Erin later informed me that after 8 women she stopped counting so I was likely a bit further down. Plus there was another wave of women behind me. My swim time was 14:33 for 750 meters.


Then came T1. I am not sure what exactly I did to take up 2 minutes, but I sure did it! I know I struggled hard with my socks. I need to learn to bike without them and to put them on when my feet are more dry in T2. I didn't have too much trouble with my wetsuit, although I did fight with my helmet strap a bit. Once out of T1 there was a steep uphill run to the road and I was stuck behind a lady who ended up being my slingshot buddy for the ride (I passed her, she passed me, I passed her, she passed me...you get it). She wasn't in my age group, and I also had a pretty good feeling I could outrun her, but it was good motivation to try to keep up with her because she was clearly a cyclist and she was gunning it. She wasn't too pleased with me I don't think. Anyway, the bike course wasn't totally flat, but there weren't any huge climbs. There were some rollers and false flats, but also just a lot of plain flats. It was a relatively fast course and I averaged 19 mph over 11.5 miles. I didn't have many women pass me, or many men for that matter. A few came up behind on their super aero TT machines with disk wheels sounding more like I was getting passed by a car or even a small jet plane than a cyclist. I didn't see any women from my age group on the bike. I finished at 36:14. Last year I averaged 19.5 mph over 56 miles, so I think I should have been pushing harder. We did, however, had a pretty strong headwind for half of the course.

T2 went relatively smoothly. I didn't go down the wrong aisle, thanks to a particularly loud towel I draped over my bike rack. I did get the back of my shoe stuck in when I stomped my foot in and had to curse at it for a few seconds. Otherwise I got out unscathed and began what turned out to be an entirely off-road run. There was not one, single paved section. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like trail running, but that wasn't what we signed up for. The gravel was just as squishy as I remembered, and there was a long, second gravel section I hadn't been on before. Still, with the two out and backs there was plenty of time to scope out the competition and see who was ahead and behind you. I also got to see Anne on the run as I was coming back in towards the finish. (I have no pictures of me running from the front yet. Apparently I surprised Erin, who was at a corner trying to photograph Anne on the bike course). In the last mile of the run, a woman passed me and I saw she was in my age group. She was trucking and I just couldn't keep pace with her. As I saw her fading into the distance it occurred to me that she was probably in third now, but it was too late. I was pretty hot at that point and had been pouring water on myself. I pulled out a final kick for a sprint finish and was very happy for my finishers medal and my bottle of water. I finished in 1:19:32. I was 4th in my age group, and 22nd in women overall.

I felt pretty good after the race, not too worked over. I found Erin and we took a sign we made and the camera back out to the last turn of the run course to watch Anne and cheer to the final stretch. She came in looking great and smiled for the camera as we cheered her on.


Anne finished really well, especially for her very first triathlon. We hung out with her team some post race and just unwound from the excitement of race day. Overall it was a great day for a race. I still wish I had pushed harder, or had just a little bit more in the tank, but I might be being too hard on myself. Technically it was a sprint distance PR for me, but it's really hard to compare sprint distance races because the swim and bike lengths aren't consistent from race to race. But as always, I loved racing. Can't wait for the next one!!

A funny movie to tide you over!

How Clif bar sees the swim start:


My first race of the season is this weekend! Unfortunately, I am also studying for my PhD qualifying exam, so I am pretty darn busy. Should have a pre-race update coming very soon, but this video was too funny not to share immediately.

Animals on the lose! Tons (literally) of steel! Dara Torres!

Very soon I will be regaling you all with tales of running with a lab puppy, meeting a bald eagle, and how a deer tried to put me through the passenger window of a passing truck, but I have too much to do today!

Instead I have two things for you. The first is a correction my Thunder Puppy update below, "Why I Hate Cyclists." What makes this story more interesting and ridiculous, and what I had forgotten in my first retelling, is that my mother wasn't just driving a car. She was driving a massive pickup attached to an even more massive horse trailer. She was basically several tons of steel, being told to 'go on by', up a blind hill, by a little lady cyclist. Also important? She chose not to pass, and it was a good thing because as luck would have it, ANOTHER truck and horse trailer came barreling over the top seconds later (very common in my parents' part of PA).

This only highlights exactly how addled, or stupid, or both, the cyclist on the hill was. In this instance, when stopped on a hill she couldn't climb, and faced with careening tons of steel from both sides, the cyclist needed to get off the road. Just a thought.

The second thing I have for you is parts 1 and 2 of triathletemag.com's Training Day videos. They are with Dara Torres. Besides how cool it is to watch her training day, I WANT HER ABS.

I think she even admits to being a genetic freak, though, so I probably am S.O.L.

Here is 1 and 2, check out triathletemag.com for the rest of the videos when they come out:

Part1:
http://triathlon.competitor.com/2012/03/video/a-day-with-dara-torres-part-one_49355
Part 2:
http://triathlon.competitor.com/2012/03/features/a-day-with-dara-torres-part-two_49821

Alpha Thunder Puppy Update: "Why I Hate Cyclists"

First of all, for those who do not know, the Alpha Thunder Puppy is my mother. She gave herself that name last year when we were racing together in Bermuda. She actually called herself the Alpha Bitch Thunder Puppy, but I really don't think it's wise to refer to one's mother as the B word, regardless of her alpha status. I was dubbed Beta, by the way.

Anyway, Alpha called me a few days ago saying that she had an update for my blog. She wanted me to tell everyone why she hates cyclists. Of course I instantly knew something great was going to come from this phone conversation, so I asked her to please elaborate. I was not disappointed with her story.

The fact that she seemed to think that my blog would change cyclists everywhere, however, is a bit of a gap in her logic. But I will let that pass for now.

My mother works on the planning commission of her township (in addition to being a veterinarian and a writer...oh the very large family shoes I have to fill...). As an official on this commission, she has on occasion had to deal with dust ups between local cycling groups and drivers. These meetings can get rather lively, it seems, with drivers cursing the pelotons, which cost them valuable time, and cyclists cursing the drivers' lack of manners and loud car horns. You can imagine how it goes down. But on this day my mother had specific, personal experience she would like me to share, in hopes that something can be learned and peace can be achieved. Or something like that.

It was one of the first truly beautiful days in March, and on her drive that day Alpha Momma encountered three cyclists on the relatively quiet roads in her neck of PA. The first was a gentleman who had decided that an intersection was a really great place to wolf down his mid-ride Powerbar. He had apparently stopped right in the turning radius of cars attempting to use the intersection for its intended purpose (read: turning, not stopping) and was happily chomping away, ignoring his impending doom.

After successfully navigating around this very stupid man, my mother headed up a hill and met his girlfriend. She had attempted to climb this hill, and had failed. As a result, she was stopped on the road, standing over her bike, and waiving my mother by her. Unfortunately, Alpha Momma could not see over the top of this hill, and therefore did not know whether or not drivers were coming down towards her. So, she was reluctant to drive around the exhausted woman. The woman must have been rather frustrated, because she continued to wave my mother on, giving her dirty, "What is your problem?", looks.

This situation amuses me, and here is why: I can imagine exactly what happened here. Of course I might not be right, but this is my lovely version of what went down with this couple:

They're out on their ride together. The dude thinks he is hot shit (as evidenced by his believing that the roads belong to him and therefore he can choose to dine at whatever inconvenient spot he wishes). The girlfriend probably is tired of his "hot shit" attitude. Dude stops to eat his feast and says to Girlfriend "You go get a head start on that hill, hunny, that way I don't drop you." Girlfriend thinks "Oh yeah, hot shot? I'm gonna kill that hill and drop YOU!" And then she is on the hill going "Shit, this thing is no joke." And then she's halfway up the hill thinking "Damn it, I can't finish this friggin hill, and there is a car behind me, and I can't believe I'm going to have to deal with Dude's attitude over this...Go around me stupid car! Leave me to wallow in my embarrassment and humiliation alone! Go, for the love of Pete!"

Meanwhile Alpha Momma is saying "For God's sake woman, get your butt off the road! I sympathize with you, I wouldn't make it up this hill either. But if I was stupid enough to try, I would at least be smart enough to step my bike off the road when I failed!"

Although I feel Girlfriend's pain, I have to side with Alpha Momma on this one. Get off the road. Oh, and tell your numbskull boyfriend to take his snack break on a real shoulder and not in the turning radius of an intersection. Or better yet, if he's such hot shit, why isn't he doing like the rest of us and eating something that takes one or no hands? Gu? Chews at an red light? Calories in his drink?

OK SO, Dude and Girlfriend need to pull over to a real shoulder. They need to put aside their pride and be smart so that they stay safe and drivers stay sane. Lesson #1 learned.

My mothers' day of cyclist encounters was not over, however. She happened upon cyclist number three later in her journey. According to Alpha Momma, she was being very respectful of him. She was behind him, not rushing him, plenty of space, etc...

And then the guy decided to blow through two stop signs.

In my experiences with drivers, and being one myself at times, a cyclist disobeying traffic signs and lights is a huge pet peeve. The driver thinks that if he or she is supposed to treat a cyclist with the same respect as he would another vehicle, that the cyclist should (and is legally obligated to, by the way) obey the same traffic rules.

Now, as a cyclist I also know what may have happened here. The guy may well have just been cocky and running signs and not thinking about it. At the same time, he may have actually thought he was doing the driver behind him a favor by not slowing him down. Coming to a complete stop at a sign and then restarting can take a bit longer for a cyclist than it does for a car, and I know many/most cyclists avoid stopping at a clear 4 way for instance, in order to avoid unclipping and starting from a stand still. When I approach an intersection, I am surveying oncoming and perpendicular traffic as I approach. If no one is close and I have a clear line of sight, I slow to as much of a stop as I can manage without unclipping, and then roll cautiously through. At a completely clear intersection, my feet do not leave my pedals, but I do stop for a brief moment. (The rules change for blind intersections. Always come to a complete stop and unclip because you never know).

Here is part of the problem: Cyclists already know that they are a burden to drivers. Drivers already know that cyclists break the rules. They expect this behavior from one another. Sometimes I arrive at a 4 way intersection and am the 2nd or 3rd person there. I stop, unclip, wait for the car to go, and they don't. They expected me to blow through it. Some are nice and flash their lights, or smart and realize they should go. Others honk at me, yell at me, or just sit there and wait till I go before they start to go too and then it's just friggin' awkward.

When I am following 100% of the rules, I still get yelled at. Literally, people open their windows and scream at me, honk their horns, tell me to get on the sidewalk, etc.

The solution in my mind is that EVERYONE follow and know the law. This means cyclists AND drivers. Cyclists should all know that they have to obey the same traffic signals as drivers. Cyclists should try when possible to make eye contact with drivers at intersections and should ALWAYS signal their intentions (hand signals people. USE THEM). Cyclists should ride with traffic, not against it. Etc.

Drivers should know the rules too, however. Do not yell at me to get on the sidewalk. In many places, it is ILLEGAL for me to ride on the sidewalk. I'm following the law. In addition, drivers are required by law down here (don't know about everywhere) to give a cyclist 3 feet of room from the cyclist's left elbow when passing. Buzzing me while honking is not only illegal, it will really slow you down when you clip me and have to deal with the legal ramifications of killing or maiming me. You're not saving time by being an asshole.

NOW I know in many instances I am preaching to the choir. Many cyclists follow the law. Many drivers are extremely courteous. Just remember, those of you who break the laws, however innocent your intentions, you are giving cyclists (or motorists) everywhere a bad name and are increasing the risk that someone gets seriously injured.


ON THAT NOTE: I saw my first bad crash yesterday. I would like to state that there was no driver error involved and that several drivers pulled over to help.

My shop's group ride was out and one of the riders in the peloton hit a hole hard and was then hit from behind by another cyclist. He went face-first into the pavement, smashing his eye and forehead into the ground and taking a sizable chunk out of his helmet. Besides being knocked out cold for a bit and then coming-to with memory loss, he had some bad road rash but it appeared to us nothing was broken. We had a first responder in the ride and the second car to the scene held an EMT. Other kind citizens stopped and directed traffic around the accident. Once the ambulance was on its way, the rest of the group ride had to go back to the shop before it got dark and I stayed with the first responder and the EMT until the ambulance arrived. The guy will be fine, although his bike is completely wrecked. They back-boarded him etc but didn't think he really had a spinal injury. He got lucky, all in all. Many thanks to the no-nonsense woman in full floral directing traffic, and Kyle the EMT who happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Anyway, please follow the rules everyone. We all want to get home safely and have a great time on our bikes. Love, Beta Bitch Thunder Puppy (And, by proxy, Alpha Momma)

Experimenting on Myself: Stop the Cramping!

I just found this video about the two causes of muscle cramping on the triathlete magazine website. I can't figure out how to imbed the darn thing (oy I need to increase my html skillz) so here is the link:

Why are my muscles cramping?

For those of you who have followed my short race history, muscle cramping was an issue for me last season in my half iron distance race. Besides that experience, in which I cramped up on both the swim and the run, I have only really had serious cramping issues while swimming. (Of course, the scariest time to get a cramp is out in the deep part of open water...). I've actually had cramping while swimming since I was a kid and have frequently had issues with cramping in the arches of my feet. If I don't stop and fix those cramps, they tend to creep up my leg and attack my lower leg muscles. If I STILL swim through (because for instance I am in the middle of a race with no way or desire to stop) then they sometimes go all the way up to my quads. This is basically debilitating.

The video talks about muscle cramping due to muscle weakness and/or tightness and muscle cramping due to nutrition. I think I might have to work on both of theses areas. I know that the problems I have had in the past with my arch probably have something to do with tightness and weakness in my foot. I have started using a lacrosse ball on my arches and feet, as recommended by the very wonderful massage therapist I saw last week (gift certificate from Erin and my friend Matt for xmas that I just cashed in on. AMAZING! Nicole Allen Massage in Bethesda. GO!)

Anyway, I have also started including electrolyte tablets (Nuun) in my water while I swim in an effort to make sure my salt/electrolyte levels stay balanced. I'm trying to be more diligent about my electrolyte intake in general as well, since I know it may have been a serious factor in my race last season that ended with paralyzing cramping and a hospital visit. So, I guess I am experimenting on myself, as we triathletes are known to do. This of course isn't following a very sound scientific method, given that I am altering two variables at once (muscle/tendon tightness and electrolyte intake) and won't definitively be able to say which change made a difference, but all I really want is a change. I don't mind continuing to do both things forever if it means the cramping is less of an issue.

Oh yeah, training? Going pretty well. I've now run and cycled with my coach and will be swimming with him for the first time this week. I am really excited to hear what he has to say about my swimming, given that it is my favorite, and arguably my strongest, of the three disciplines. I just hope he doesn't tell me that I am doing it all wrong and have to rebuild my swimming from the ground up. That would be a serious ego blow.

Last week he told me that my cycling fitness was in need of some work. This wasn't actually a surprise, but the reality check was a bit jarring. Good for me, but still jarring. He's now upping the number of rides I do a week to 5 instead of 3 (Hence that little 35 minute ride yesterday. Drills on the trainer to increase my strength. Real ride today...). Woo!! Lucky me, more saddle sores!! Time to stock up on HooHa Ride Glide!!

'Ey Coach!!

Erin took this pic of me on her phone. She woke up in the morning to find me chugging away on my "hamster wheel" as she calls it and thought it was amusing. I like to call it the "pain cave". Much more impressive and tough sounding...

Well my friends, I have finally gotten a coach! That is to say, I am trying out coaching for a month or two and seeing where it gets me. I have a feeling, though, given what we've already done and how hard I am working in the first week that this will be very good for me! Besides generally trying to do better, put down better times, stay out of injury, etc, the point of this coaching is to be sure that I don't end up "tied up" and in the hospital after my next half in June... So we'll see how it goes!

So far he has already totally overhauled the way that I run. Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the one change that he has made to my form is to increase (significantly) my cadence and just that one change has made running into an entirely different animal. First of all, I have to think about my run almost constantly while I am adjusting to the change. But secondly, my legs don't feel as pounded as they normally do after and during a run. I feel like my footsteps are lighter. I really hope this helps with injury prevention, which it logically seems like it might.

Next week I will be going for a ride with him. I am actually kind of nervous about this. My biking has been pretty slow so far this season, and on top of that I just have relatively poor handling skills. I am ready for him to make me start over from the ground up. Time to learn how to ride a bike all over again!

In terms of hospital prevention, I think we're going to be working on my nutrition and particularly my race day nutrition plan. Anyone have any experience with Infinit Nutrition, btw? Apparently you can customize your own drink formula? This is the direction I believe we'll be going.

Awesome brick workout today, although I had to do it quite early in the AM so it was too chilly outside for my ride. I got outside for the run though, and it has turned out to be a lovely day. I worked myself pretty well, and am already a bit sore from the strength training my coach has added. Yay! I haven't been sore in quite a while, honestly, so it's sort of refreshing!

Alright, time to EAT