Hey Chicago, summer is officially here!

Yesterday I did it!  I got in Lake Michigan for the first time this season.  I had not been in since September 8th, 2010.  

Diana (tridad's Boss) picked me up from my office and I was secretly hoping that she would tell me it was to cold out.  It wasn't freezing, but it wasn't the kind of day where you are dying to get your feet wet in Lake Michigan.  Cloudy, overcast, windy and 65-70 degrees out.  To give people some background, I'm from the Mid Atlantic, specifically the DC area.  I grew up swimming on the swim team (in pools) and spent many early mornings swimming in a cold pool.  Regarding open water, I was an Outer Banks (OBX) girl!  every year my family went to our house in Avon, NC on Hatteras Island and spent anywhere from a week to two weeks just hanging out.  I was a water girl and spent all day boogie boarding, surfing, etc.  The average water temperature in July and August there is between 76-79 degrees. the currents in OBX are pretty tough at times, by the age of 6 I knew how to swim out of a rip tide. I was also a life guard as a teenage at a public pool that was a routine field trip for inner city children, most of whom did not know how to swim but had no fear of a diving board.  Needless to say, I have no problems jumping into save a 6th grade boy who's flailing his arms.    I'm sharing all of this to give you some background on why swimming in lake Michigan has taken some adjusting to over the last two tri seasons.  

So needless to say, when I showed up to my first triathlon (Big Foot Triathlon in Lake Geneva) I had never swam in fresh water before or in a wet suit.  I simply thought, shoot, I grew up swimming in OBX, I can handle some fresh water lake in Wisconsin.  Well, I was wrong.  It was a windy day (30 mphs) and I started swimming and I thought I was going to drown.  The suit practically strangles you and then the waves were crashing right into my mouth.  Plus the water is FREEZING.  I mean REALLY REALLY cold (coming from a girl who is used to 76-79 degree water temps, 69 degrees is pretty cold.) It's so cold that when you put your face in it feels like you are having an asthma attack because it's just so cold.  Another thing, there is a world of a difference between swimming in salt water and fresh water.  With salt water the buoyancy allows you to sit on top of the water.  It can be really rough but you are so buoyant that you don't end up swallowing the water.  Big difference.  To get through the race I swam back stroke for the rest of it.  As soon as I got on my bike I made a commitment to myself, open water swimming in Lake Michigan   

So last night marked me first day swimming in Lake Michigan.  It wasn't my first time open water swimming (St. Croix on Vacation and Triple-T).  Ohio Street Beach is pretty awesome.  It's actually set up for people to go swim in it with buoys enabling up to a 1 mile swim.   Every time I've been down there there are at least 2 other triathletes down there in wet suits getting a workout in.  

I went out thinking and expecting it to be REALLY REALLY cold and that me and Diana would only last for 20 minutes.  I was so afraid of the cold water that I refused to look up the water temp.   Surprisingly I got in and it wasn't that bad.  The first time you go under is always painful but once we got going it was actually pretty awesome out there.  We ended up swimming longer than we thought we would (a half hour or so).  I guess it's time to do the weekly swims down there! 

Summer is here ladies and gents! The lake is ready.  

 

Mental Prepping

I have a half ironman distance race coming up this weekend (High-cliff) and I'm trying to get myself mentally prepped.  At this point I'm beyond the training distances of a half ironman but this race will be a mental challange for me.  I'm going up by myself (Monkey has to work on Sunday).  I won't be going with a big crew so there is no one to cheer me on or pass and give a high five to on the course.  I'm my biggest (and only) cheer leader out there.  I know this doesn't sound like a big deal but it is.  I'm starting to get excited for this race.  Races are so much fun.  For a day, it's all about going out and testing yourself.  It's about pushing yourself harder than you think you can go, it's about reaching the point where you don't think you can give anymore, and then pushing yourself to do more.  To get myself mentally prepped for this race I've been watching some great you tube videos.  Here's one that I wanted to share.  It's the 20101 Versus commercial and it's just AWESOME.    

Here's the Lyrics:

Whether or not you win this thing, you got to decide how your gonna walk out of here when its all said and done. Because the game is going to go on, and theirs only one rule your going to need to know about. 

There are no second chances. 

There is only this moment, and the next one. 

Every one of those moments is a test that you get to take one time, and only one time. 

So if you see an opening tear into it. If you get a shot at victory make damn sure you take it. 

Seize that moment! 

That moment is a cross roads, where everything you want will collide with everything standing in your way. 

You got momentum at your back fear and doubt are thundering like a freight train straight at you. 

And all you got, the only difference between making history and being history. 

The only thing, the only thing your can count on at any given moment is YOU. 

Its you versus them. 

You versus no. 

You versus can't. 

You versus next year, last year, statistics, excuses. 

You versus history. 

You versus the odds. 

Its you versus second place.

Clock is ticking, lets see what you got.

The "my legs feel like Jello" look

I am trying to recover at the office so put my recovery socks on with my work dress.  I'm lucky because I sit in this one corner and I don't have any meetings this morning.  The guy who sits next to me asked if I was going for the school girl look.  I replied "No, I'm going for the "My legs feel like Jello" look.

Uddererly a Temper Tantrum

Yesterday I did the Udder Century ride (75 mile route).  I love this ride.  It starts at the Donely's Wild West Town in Union, IL with a route that leads you through the cow pastures and farms of north east Illinois.  I always enjoy this ride, the race organizers do a great job stocking the rest stops, the riders are cool and then there is an awesome pasta dinner afterward.  Cindy met at my place at 5:15, we loaded the car up and then hit

When we started the ride it was nice and cloudy.  Shortly after starting I saw two VQ girls (Lynn and Ann) who I met while racing Triple-T. Lynn was actually the person that got me to start running during the half marathon on Sunday.  She's very encouraging and very positive. Cindy and I decided to latch onto there back wheel and ride with them.  It was good for me because they pushed me to hold a pretty fast pace (for me).  We were riding just above 20 mph which is nice and fast for me.  It was pretty fun to ride in a group of 4 ladies and fly by some of the men out there. After 46 miles I couldn't keep up with the rest of the group so I fell off by myself.  I wish I was fast enough to keep up with Lynn and Ann. They are both fun and keep me on my feet.  By this point it had gotten warm out there and I realized that I had only finished a bottle and a half of water.  Not good.  I get to the next rest stop at mile 56 and I try to drink a lot of water but it's hard at that point.  I was struggling with some balance but I thought my legs were just tired.

When I got back on my bike I was with a different group of friends and I quickly fell behind.  The wind had really picked up and I knew I had 22 miles back to my car which had my running shoes waiting for me for a 30 minute run that was on the schedule for after this ride.  I had dug myself into a hole with my nutrition and I was struggling to get out of it.  I felt like i was drinking as much as I physically could to keep riding.  It also felt like every turn I took I was going straight into the wind or it was coming at a diagonal into me.  Then it happened, some point around mile 67-66.  I made a turn and the wind hit me and I was done.  I stopped and got off my bike and just stood there.  Then I screamed.  For a minute I decided I was just done riding and I would just sit there.  I knew (from experience) that my friend Jeff was ahead of me and he would eventually come looking for me if I didn't show up. He's the dad of the group. I figured it would take him about an hour for him to realize I hadn't arrived at the finish and come pick me up.  Was it worth it?  Waiting on the side of the road for an hour?  The answer was no,  I had 10 miles to go (she ride advertised 75 miles but the cue sheet had 78) and I could get that done in an hour even if I just peddled really slowly.  I picked up maryK (she forgives me pretty easily) and started peddling.  Then I hit mile 79 and everything was ok again.   Something about mentally knowing I had less than 10 miles just helped change attitude.  I was actually smiling at some points and cheered on some of the other cyclists in the last few miles.

When I got back to the car I was still nauseous.  Cindy was waiting to run with me.  I told her to go ahead and that I was done for the day.  A minute later she was still standing there (almost like a dog with droopy eyes waiting to be walked) so I told her I would do 15 minutes.  I filled up a water bottle, got my running shoes on and hit the road.  On the way out we ran into two other Wellfit team members going out for their run so 2 more were added on  We ended up running in the KOA camp grounds which was awesome because it was shaded and gravel roads.  After about 10 minutes of running I decided I would do the whole 30 minutes.  No point in stopping early when everyone else was running the whole thing.  I was also feeling better and the run actually felt good.   I guess this is one of the reasons why I think group training is so important.  Without the others in the group I would have never done that run.

This sounds weird but I think it's good to have training days like this.  I think it teaches you that you can fight through pain and that you will not get up.  It builds confidence and a lot of race day will be KNOWING and BELIEVING that I can get myself to the finish line.

To all the bikers in the city: I'm not the one breaking the law so stop giving me the dirty looks

I'm writing this blog in response to a bunch of dirty looks I got last night while on my run in the city and also because my friend Tridad posted about a biker being hit in the city near our neighborhood because they blew through a stop sign.  Now as a cyclist, I get pissed at cars all the time.  They either honk at me for no reason, drive to fast, or try to run me over (at least it feels like this).  And a lot of times I think that cars don't watch out for bikes.  I'm sure you would expect me to write a post complaining about cars but I'm not.  No, instead I'm complaining about bikers.  


Now, I know that since it's nice out, everyone is biking a whole lot more and I applaud this.  For the non-Chicago readers, Chicago is a major bike city.  9 years ago Mayor Dailey announced started his initiative "to make the City of Chicago the most bicycle-friendly city in the United States."  He did a bunch of stuff like painting bike lanes and adding bike racks to make the city a bike friendly place.  I personally don't do a ton of commuting on my bike mostly because I get pretty sweaty when I ride and I hate showing up to a place dripping in sweat.  I also have been hit by a car on my bike when I was coming home one night (and for the record I had actually stopped at a sign but the cabie that hit me had not).  I walked away from the accident with some minor road rash but was physically fine.  It more just freaked my out.  Knowing how people drive in this city I just get a little freaked out being on a bike near them. I do most of my riding in the burbs or in the middle of no where Wisconsin.  


Now that I've established that I'm not completely against bikers, I am going to vent a little.  Yesterday was a bad day for me and bikers in the city.  First, I was driving home from a meeting and I turned down a one way street only to find a biker smack in the middle (riding against traffic).  I slammed on my breaks and the cyclists flicked me off as he swerved around me.  So I ask myself, why am I being flicked off when he's the one riding in the wrong direction down a one way street.  Then last night I went for a run and on numerous occasions I would come to a cross walk and start crossing only to notice a biker about to blow through me.  They always swerved as to not catch me and then added a dirty look as they passed me.  Wait, why am I the one receiving a dirty look?  You're the one that just ran a stop sign.  Another time last night a cyclists gave me a dirty look as he passed me on a sidewalk, I was most likely not moving over enough or something (I'm not sure I had my headphones on so he could have been yelling at me the entire time for all I know).  Again, why am I receiving a dirty look when it's against the law for bikers to ride on the sidewalk in Chicago in the first place.    Sigh.  This stuff pisses me off.  I see cyclists do a lot of stupid stuff in this city.  Most of them are lucky they haven't been hit and killed.  I'm at the point where I say it's fine if you want to do stupid stuff on your bike but don't give me a dirty look in the process.  Ride through red lights, go on the sidewalk, but don't pull your brattitude on me when I get in the way when your not supposed to be doing in the the first place.  


In all seriousness,  I really wish cyclists would follow the rules.  Riding a bike can be dangerous.  Accidents happen and we can't always prevent all of them and I get that.  But it would be nice to hot hear about a car killing someone because a cyclists ran a stop sign or drove against traffic.  

a special kind of love

A special Love.   Sorry folks, I'm not blogging about my boyfriend Monkey.  While Monkey is an important part of my training and we have a very special love, I'm not ready to divulge into that part of life quite yet with this blog.  Instead I'm talking about my relationship with my maryK.  maryK and I have been together for a little over a year now.    maryK is my bike.  She's a purrrrrrty Kuota K-Factor in black and white.  I don't have a great picture of just her posing by herself, but below is one of her before I packed the car for Triple-T.  She's great, she really is.  I fell in love with her last season when I was training for Ironman.  It didn't take long, I think it was my first ride on the Madison course when she purred like a kitten on those rolling hills and I knew it was love at that moment.

She's been through a la lot and she still manages to still be amazing.  I guess that's how you know she loves me back.  The best part about her is that she is so forgiving.  Even though I've cursed her out during workouts, cried when she got a flat once, almost threw her into a ditch on a hill, she still manages to rock my world!  maryK was sick last week (she wouldn't shift into the big ring in the front) and I had to bring her to the doctors.  I was so worried about her, I don't know what I would do if she was actually sick with something that couldn't be fixed.  Oh maryK, I love you!

The best sticker in the world

One last thing about Triple-T:

After a weekend full of ironman logos, ultramarathon talk, 140.6 stickers and major name dropping,  I came upon this car in the parking lot of the awards ceremony.  It made my weekend.

I think I'm going to buy one for my car. Seriously, this is awesome. Let me know if you want me to order you one.



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