every walk is a sort of crusade
This week two different companies introduced two different uses of solar power on bike paths in the Netherlands: one for harvesting energy, one using tiny, twinkling, solar-powered stones to light up the path at night (inspired by Starry Night, as the bike path runs through the city where Van Gogh used to live). As somebody who used to bike out to the bars on a bike path with NO LIGHTS at all, I can’t even tell you how many wrecks this would have prevented.
Get on it, USA.
photo by liz kreutz, via
So, I didn’t say a lot about the actual race in my last post, but I was looking through some race day photos by sports photographer Liz Kreutz, and this one of Lance Armstrong does a pretty good job of capturing how strong the winds on the Queen K and the road up to Hawi were that day. I was essentially terrified for 3 hours. Those trade winds are no joke.
And below, the stupid lava fields.
SwimbikerunbikeTRXrunyogabikeswimrunTRXbikerunyogaswimrun…these are how my weeks are starting to feel. Fortunately I have someone that keeps me company when I’m on the trainer at home. But he’s not happy about it.
St Anthony’s in creeping up in about 6 weeks, and Hawaii is less than three months away…
Onward and upward.
sausage race finish line…picture via
And now, for the second and final installment of the streak report. Not a lot of running and minimal biking (because I was in California and did not have a bike with me.) At least I got to do a lot of this in the sun.
Continued from Part I…
Day 13: 1hr 15 min of TRX with sprints in between each circuit
Day 14: 5.3 mile run alone with my music, shins and knee reeeeally got to me
Day 15: 26 mile bike ride (1 hr 30 min). Also the day I decided to take the next week+ off until my leg stopped hurting.
Day 16 : First day in CA. 3200 swim OUTSIIIIDE!
Day 17 (Christmas): everything was closed. Did a 5ish mile walk with Paul and Dad in the hot hot sun (I broke a sweat, counting it).
Day 18: 4.something mile hike in the mountains of SB with some old friends (we walked uphill, also counting it)
Day 19: 4000 swim (1hr 15 min, main set: broken mile)
Day 20: 3500 swim (1hr 15 min, long course masters practice in SB)
Day 21: 2500 swim (1 hr, long and easy, hypoxic pull)
Day 22: 3000 swim (1hr 15 min, threw some fast 100s in there)
Day 23: Nothing. Spent the day recovering from a migraine on the flight home. Then baked bread.
Day 24 (but actually day 25 bc I started on day 0): (NEW YEARS DAY!) 1hr 30 min ride on the trainer. Felt like death.
The end. How anticlimactic. It wasn’t a complete fail, I only did nothing on 2 of the 25 days, but also not a complete success. I’m still not running, going to try to start again this weekend. Fingers crossed….
Late, I know.
Lexington has been making an effort to do more community events, and the Friday of Labor Day weekend was a good one. Welcome to the Fest of Ales.
Look at all those beer pourers. For $25 you got a mini glass and 20 tickets (about 7 beers, if you used them all…which no one did) to try out a whole bunch of different brews. The whole town was out, it was great. And people wore great shirts.
Unfortunately, the Fest underestimated how many people would partake (and how many of their pourers would adopt a “one for you, one for me” policy) and ran out of beer a little early. So a group of us headed to a bar for one more drink.
It was there that I witnessed one of the more amazing mobile apps currently on the market: Roqbot. For a fee, it lets you re-arrange the order of the queue on the jukebox in a bar. So obviously Paul’s friend who had the app started playing “Who Let the Dogs Out” every other song. He is already responsible for having the app banned in 3 bars in town.
Anyway, it was there that things degenerated pretty quickly.
We left before it got too ugly.
The previous week I had told a friend that I would join her on a bike ride Saturday morning with the Bluegrass Cycling Club. BCC was offering a 10 mile (family ride), 30 mile, and 56 mile option. My friend and I were doing the 56 mile ride (even though I hadn’t been on my bike since Steelhead, it got a little jacked up on the trip home and I just got it tuned up last week).
Paul was going to do the 30 mile option, since he hadn’t ridden his bike in like 5 months, but after some mild harassment he gave into the 56 miler too. So we pulled our not-unhungover selves out of bed at 7:30 and headed out to the country.
The weather was gorgeous.
…but then it got hot. Really hot. And the shade disappeared.
We were getting baked. Paul started to suffer. The last 15 miles weren’t pretty. The rest of the weekend was recovery.
Oh, and I came in from my run today and decided to turn on the local news while I stretched and this was on TV.
Apparently I’ve been away from local TV for too long, I had NO IDEA stuff like this was seriously still on. The soundtrack was amazing.
Yesterday was my last workout before we leave for Steelhead. My run on Wednesday felt like crap (but you’re supposed to feel like crap just before the race…right?), and I was a little nervous my bike would feel the same. So I wasn’t particularly stoked on doing this ride. But this week someone gave me an old pair of clip-on aerobars (the week of the race–bad idea), and I wanted to give them a try on the road before the actual race (good idea). So around 7pm a friend and I set out for a 20 mile ride amongst the horse farms.
Kentucky isn’t the easiest place to train, especially coming from a place like San Diego or San Francisco (where yes, I realize, I was spoiled.) Winters here can be cold and icy, and the summer heat oppressive. There aren’t a whole lot of options for open water training, and the triathlon community is relatively small (we are, after all, the most sedentary city in the country.)
But ride or run a few miles out of the city and you find yourself on long stretches of empty, rolling country roads surrounded by miles of green hills lined with clean white fences, dotted with bales of hay and some of the most beautiful thoroughbreds in the world.
And so on this Thursday night, when I probably should have been paying attention to my heart rate and body position on the aerobars, or thinking about my strategy for this coming weekend, I found myself gliding along the hills under a pink and orange sky, chatting with my friend as the shadows got long and the sun dipped below the horizon, not looking at my watch once.
Because really, what’s the point of any of this if you can’t just enjoy the ride.
omggggggg
Rambulatory Ambulatory 