week 9 totals | a kickass relay | a glorious long ride

week 9 totals

in the water: 7500.00 M in 2h 35m 47s [3 workouts]
on bella: 83.60 Mi in 5h 50m 55s [3 workouts]
in my asics: 14.47 Mi in 2h 58m 02s [4 workouts]
total training time: 11h 24m 44s

a kickass relay

yesterday me, my bt.com (and now IRL friend) James, and my AR/ cycling buddy Greg, headed down to Indian Head, Md for the General Smallwood Triathlon. Greg does adventure races and has a beautiful road bike that never gets to race, I love an open water swim, and James is the fastest person on two legs (okay, second to Bolt).

Greg's girlfriend Christine drove us - at 5:30 am, natch - 90 minutes south to the park. we got there without a problem... and then there was a problem. I realized I forgot my wallet (am totally blaming this on IM-brain) and when I went to get our packet the race director wouldn't give it to me. great. he said to talk to the USAT ref - she said it was fine - but he still wouldn't give us our stuff. James had the brilliant idea to show him my facebook page - complete with photos of me racing - and he said that counted as photo ID.

phew !

then: problem 2 (again, IM-brain). I went to dig my goggles out of my bag. they were stuck, so instead of gently working them out from under my wetsuit, I kept yanking.

they broke.

Amy (also from BT, aka 'bushy' and don't ask) had an extra pair of goggles - the same Speedo Vanquishers I wear - that she kindly lent me.

we were taking pictures at the start - christine as our photag - when she said "um, your camera just popped." then it started smoking. no good. well... have been coveting a new camera for a while and I guess this was the catalyst to make that happen !

after being sure I understood the swim course - it was a weird set up: swim one circular loop, then back out, then swim back to the exit - I jumped in the water with the rest of the relay people and the women. ... and we're off ! for a small race this was a really crowded start! it took a while to break off from everyone and settle into a pace. because this was it for me I really tried to push it. sighting was okay but I got a little turned around on the way back to start the second loop. headed toward the finish --- easy to find thanks to the wacky waiving inflatable arm flailing tube man at the boat ramp.

hit my watch at the swim exit with a time of 29:07 - woot ! that's a pace of 1:56 / 100 meters... amazingly good for me.

ran uphill to transition, got off the chip and onto greg's leg, and he was off on the bike. about 70 min later greg got back to T2 -- transfered the chip to James' ankle -- and off went James ! Greg, Christine, and I headed over to the finish (ate pizza and Mike&Ikes.. mmm). we saw one relay runner finish -- and then a few more runners .. and then James, in his Terp Runner kit.

Team That'sWhatSheSaid placed second (Greg got a 2 min penalty for illegal passing, but even without that we still wouldn't have gotten first, so he is forgiven) out of ten relay teams! yay !

team> THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID
overall time> 2:25:07 (rank: 2/10)
swim _ 1500M > 29:15 (rank: 2/10)
t1> 2:18(rank 6/10)
bike _ 24 mi> 1:11:34 (rank: 3/10)
t2> 0:26 (rank: 3/10)
run _ 10K> 39:36 (rank: 1/10)
[penalty> 2:00)

dozed on the way home... what a fun fun day. I think more relays are in my future -- they are a fun, low key way to enjoy tris with friends. nice going, guys !

a glorious long ride

because I am so awesome Greg decided he would ride with me for 3 hours. we met in Linthicum and headed out on the B&A trail. beautiful day... mid 70s, sunny, blue skies with puffy clouds. the kind of day you would pick if you could pick riding weather.

we rode down the trail .. kind of a pain to avoid the people who don't know not to ride all over the trail but so nice to not be avoiding traffic. got to the end of the trail (the furthest I've gotten) and followed the route out to downtown annapolis.

the best best best part of this ride [really, I think, the best part of any ride, ever] was when I was at the top of the Severn River bridge. blue sky, blue water dotted with sailboats, beautiful houses on the water. it was one of those it-is-so-damn-good-to-be-alive(-and-I-love-my-bike-so-much)-moments. can't really put it into words .. I just felt so. damn. good.

we got through downtown naptown slowly - a lot of traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian - and then went through this amazing neighborhood. if I had .. oh, I dunno, about 1-2 mil laying around I would totally buy a house there. .. big but not obnoxiously so, lots of windows, interesting architecture, lovely gardens, and right on the water. stunning. stopped for a snack (payday bar, yay!) and turned around to head back.

3h 23m 33s
53.30 miles
15.71 Mi/hr

finished the ride then headed to checkers to replenish the body with that wholesome high quality food.


life, my friends, is good.