All aloed up

Woke up a little late this morning but managed to get to Richfield around 10 after 8 for the sweet corn ride. I met up with A and we got our maps and food tickets, v. important!

Before we headed out we sunscreened up, pumped tires, and loaded our bikes with gatorade.

We signed up for the 50 mile route again this year. They changed the course this year which was probably for the good. I remember it as being much hillier and brutal but that could also be because last year I was riding a hybrid. To put that in perspective last year it took us 4 hours and 40 minutes to do the ride while this year it took us about 3 hours and 40 minutes.

I am not sure exactly how they changed the course but there was an extra water stop this year and the 25 mile stop from last year was the 12 mile stop this year. I just remember last year we were just making it to the rest stops as they were shutting down :) This year we made it in plenty of time to each stop!

The course was well marked and most of the way was pretty light on traffic so it makes for a nice long ride. We did miss one turn though and probably cut about a mile, but we rode to the start and back to our cars so we ended up with 50 miles total according to my computer.

I didn't fall off the bike today which was great. Especially considering at one point my gears locked while going up hill! I did however fall on my rear end at the first water stop just walking around :) Nice!

I think A and I both felt a lot better this year about the ride. I am not even sore right now, which is a plus (well not any more sore than I was yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that...) Although A has turned into a freaking billy goat and was killing me on the hills, I couldn't even attempt to keep up. Especially with the crowds. Climbing hills with numerous cyclists of different levels is v. dangerous. Not my thing at all.

My back however is very sore! I apparently did not do a very good job putting on sunscreen and I now look like a beet on both of my shoulders, and am white as a ghost where my shirt was covering me. So I will be applying aloe generously for the next few days.
This pic doesn't even do it justice. My shirt line is completely white and the rest of my back is tomato red!

The sweet corn this year was not as good, but hopefully the corn we got to take home will cook up nice.

We had to carry the corn from the tent back to our cars while riding and A informs me I should carry the bags by the handles. I told her it felt like they were going to tear, but she told me not to worry. Here is evidence that I shouldn't have listened!

Sweet Corn 

Winking Lizard Shot in the Dark

I am tired and I have to wake up early for the Sweet Corn 50 mile ride tomorrow but here is a quick recap.

I was tired, my quads were a little sore my left ankle had a killer blister but I managed to have a decent race.

Last year I ran the 4 miler in 31:21 this year I ran it in somewhere between 28:10 and 28:20! Not too shabby. Right around 7-7:05 pace.

I am off to shower and go to bed!

Can you say F-F-F-freeze baby?

This morning went to the TNT swim in N. Royalton. It was actually in the 60's this morning. WooHoo! But it is really cold when you are outside in your bathing suit! I am such a wimp when it comes to being cold and getting in the water. Once in I am fine of course but taking the plunge is rough, especially at 6am in the morning!

I got in a very good swim workout this morning. Coach K got in and swam intervals with me so that helped to keep me on pace. 2900 meters total

200 warm up easy- 3:47.51
Drills:
50 kick
50 kick with stroke on breaths
50 pull buoy
3* 50 slow arm recovery
2*200 with 30 sec rest 3:22.23, 3:29.78
11* 100 on 1:50 send off
1:35.76
1:38.02
1:37.35
1:38.2
1:39.22
1:40.96
1:40.40
1:39.02
1:42.05
1:40.37
1:39.25
300 pull buoy
50 back
2*50 relay
47.9
10* 50 on 60 sec send off
right around 50-51 for all of them

This evening I rode my bike over to my in-laws. It should have been about a 15 mile ride but I kind of took a detour that I didn't mean to take and ended up getting in 20.7 miles instead. No biggie, it was probably good for me although a few too many hills for my taste. The scenery going that way is nice and it was shady most of the way and along the river! My kind of ride!

We had a delicious dinner at David's parents :) Mom2 is a wonderful cook!

Now I think we are headed in for the evening :)

Bowling August 13th at Fairview Lanes

Come join Elizabeth Saturday August 13^th from 7-9:30 PM at Fairview Lanes for a fun time!

Proceeds will go to the Northern Ohio Chapter of

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

Details:

Fairview Lanes has all 20 lanes open to us for the whole time slot.

Get 3-5 of your friends and purchase a lane for the night for $50!

To reserve a lane for the evening contact Elizabeth at **** or at ****

Not sure you want to stay the whole night? Stop by and play for an hour for $7.50 per person.

Fairview Lanes was kind enough to give us the bowling lanes for free so everything but the price of shoe rental is going straight to the cause.

The Bowling Alley will have a snack bar with food and beverages available for purchase all night!

Expect a 50/50 raffle and maybe a few other surprises on top of bowling!

Please let me know if you plan on attending so I can get an estimate to Fairview Lanes!

In addition to raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society I will be running in the Columbus Marathon on October 16^th with Team in Training! My Goal is to break 3 hours and 30 minutes and raise $2,000.

To check on how my fundraising and training are going check out my website at: http://www.active.com/donate/tntnoh/Hansen

Fairview Lanes Contact Information

21847 Lorain Road - Fairview Park, OH 44126

(440) 331-3244 admin@fairviewlanes.com

Long Tempo Run

Went down to Brecksville tonight to get in my tempo run. I actually ended up doing more of a long/tempo run. I don't know how my body keeps up!

The guys wanted to do 12 miles. 3 easy, 3 hard, 1 easy, 2 hard, 2 easy, 1 hard. For some reason that sounded like a good plan to me...

I ran the first 3 "easy" with them. 23:48 so basically my marathon pace for Columbus.

I did the next 3 hard in 21:22

Then I did 1 mile easy 8:55

A little over a mile hard (wasn't sure where the marker was so I figured I would err on the high mileage side) 7:59

About a mile and a half easy with the guys 11:22

1 mile hard 6:56

About a half mile cool down 4:25

So I probably ended up with around 11 miles, probably a little shy of it, and an hour and 24 minutes of running. Not too shabby.

I feel kind of bad. During the 3 mile hard segment I had to pass a group of high school cross country gals. I said passing on the left and their coach told them to watch themselves but as I edged nearer they did not budge out of my way so I attempted to say "on your left" a little louder, but it came out as a really bitchy/bark "ON YOUR LEFT," as in get out of my way or I might elbow you because I am a mean spirited runner :) Yikes! I have a very hard time controlling how I sound during the middle of a tempo run :/

Stopped at Subway on the way home and drank a LOT of gatorade. Thank goodness the temps are so low, I would hate to see how much fluids I would be losing if it was still in the 90's.

Sunset Ride

We had a TNT mentor orientation workshop tonight out in Westlake so I got home around 8:30pm. I am not mentoring for the winter season but spring starts recruiting in September so I won't really have that much of a break. I will probably take a break from tri mentoring and let some of my mentees take over! Mentoring for the Cleveland marathon sounds very doable!

I figured I would have enough light to get in a quick ride. Sunset was around 8:49 tonight. So I went out and did 10 miles. I tried to push the tempo. I really want to be under 1:20 on the bike in Chicago. I figure if I can get out of the swim in 26, do the bike in 1:20, have some quick transitions, and do the run in under 47 I can get top ten in my age group.

I did all right tonight. I did the last two miles averaging over 20 mph so that is good. But overall I averaged more like 16.5 mph which blows :( But I forgive myself since I didn't have a warm up or anything and I hit almost every red light.

Funny side note the spell check wishes to replace "Westlake" with "histology"

I am off to shower and watch Meet the Fockers!

Rain, Track, Hoggys, and Quickie Pool Workout

It absolutely poured downtown today, right in time for me to leave for the track. Of course because it was a heat index of 104 and it was really sunny this morning I did not have my umbrella with me or a change of clothes :) I like to plan ahead ;)

I left for the track and as I went to head out through the basement I found about 20 people waiting out the storm. I didn't want to be late to the track so I headed out to the amusement of all onlookers. I was in my running shoes and shorts but had left my t-shirt on because I forgot to bring a running shirt. By the time I got to my truck about a half mile away everything was drenched, including my shoes. There were floods of water that I had to wade through to get to my truck :)

So I headed to the track in one of the more awesome thunder storms I have seen in awhile.

By the time I got there the rain had calmed and the sun was starting to peak out, and it was actually COOL! Literally, as in not hot! Thank goodness. I got in a two mile warm up and just as we were finishing the warm up another black cloud swooped in to pour down on us as we started into our intervals. Needless to say we were all drenched by the time we left!

Here is the run down, I am pretty happy with it considering my quads still feel like I ran a hill workout through the Rockies. My hamstring held up well but I could feel I was pushing it in the second to last quarter.

2 mile warm up- 8:33, 9:09
1 mile- 6:36
400 rest- 2:02
800- 3:06
400 rest
800-3:05
400 rest 2:31
400- 1:28.26
200 rest- 1:12
400- 1:26.48
200 rest 1:27.16
400- 1:26.62
200 rest
4*400 meter relay my 400 split- 1:19.24!
1 mile cool down 9:47

After the track workout we went to Hoggy's and I had a delicious burger and macaroni and Cheese! It really hit the spot! Thank Goodness M had an extra t-shirt for me to throw on or else I would have been freezing!

I rushed home because I thought our pool closed at 10pm. I was wrong, it closes at 9pm but the fob worked so I went ahead and did a quick 20 minute swim and figured I would pretend I thought it was open till 10 if anyone asked.

I did a 200 warm up, 200 kick, 200 pull buoy. 40 catch up. 40 slow arm recovery. 40 fingertip drill. Then I did a 100 semi hard and finished off with a lap of breast stroke. My right rotator cuff feels a little funny so I think I will lay off the pool tomorrow.

Now I am headed to bed!

Drills

Just got back from the pool. Just did a quickie 20 minute workout. Both the indoor and outdoor pools were packed. Luckily the indoor pool was packed with a bunch of adults doing laps. This is an oddity because I have never seen so many adults doing laps, even during adult swim at our pool.

So I managed to squeeze between two other ladies to get in some drills. I did a 5 minute easy warm up, 200 kick, 200 pull buoy then some drills.

40 catch up drill
40 slow arm recovery
40 fingertip drill
40 roll with one arm back
40 head down

Then I did 100 hard at 1:22

And then I raced a kid 20 yards :) I gave him a ten yard head start and let him out touch me at the wall :) Kids love that stuff!!! He was breathing every stroke and pulling his head way out of the water. I showed how to breathe more efficiently and he said thanks :)

Now I am about to get dinner ready!

Feeling PRETTY Silly

Last night I woke up around 2am very sweaty! Apparently at some point our air conditioning stopped working. So we suffered through till morning until 8am when I called maintenance. They said they would be by sometime today.

Well when I got in it was apparent that they still hadn't come by so I called the after hours guy. He informs me that they are really busy and that is why they haven't been by. But he asks me what the problem is and I explain that the fan isn't coming on at all.

That is when he asks me to go to the breaker box...boy oh boy did I feel dumb! Of course I went to the breaker box flipped the switch off then on again and Voila my AC is working again. Geesh. My poor kitties had to suffer all night and day because I didn't think of simply checking the breaker box...DUH!!!

What am I going to do when I get a house? Yikes!

Well it is so hot that our apartment broke their Monday pool closing to let people cool off. I think I may go in later and do some drills but no real workout.

Before I do that I need to do laundry badly as well as go to the grocery store and bank!

Swimming

Went down to the pool and swam for 50 minutes.

Did 15 minutes of warm ups and drills then a did a short version of the workout I was supposed to do :)

For those of you that aren't aware our pool is not the standard 25 yards or meters. Best I can figure it is 20 yards. So I usually modify workouts to fit that size when I swim here.

Tonight I was planning on doing a long ladder but ended up doing a shorter one.

I did:
400 yards 5:56.94 (minute rest)
4* 100 yards 1:38.17, 1:36.75, 1:35.8, 1:36.41 (25 second rests)
300 yards 4:54.13 (minute rest)
3* 100 yards 1:34.7, 1:34.55, 1:35.77 (22 second rests)

Then I did a 5 minute cool down to get in the 50 minutes.

I was pretty dizzy when I got out :( So I gotta get my butt in gear for Chicago ASAP!!!

Holy Cow

My legs hurt!!! It feels like I ran 20 miles downhill today, but of course I didn't! No clue why my legs hurt so bad today. Walking downstairs is killer!

I am going to eat lunch then head home. Hopefully I will find time for a swim or bike ride.

Long Run on the Tow Path

Went to the tow path early this morning. I got there a little late and we didn't get started till around 7:30. Between that, stopping at water stops, and putting my legs up afterwards I didn't leave the park until 10am.

We ran 12 miles and run time was 1:43:15.

Splits:
9:24
9:04
9:01
8:53
8:45
8:43
8:27
8:21
7:45
9:08
7:56
7:42

Not sure how accurate each mile marker is but I am sure it all evened out to twelve miles total. It was absolutely lovely this morning! Nice and cool, although still a little humid. MUCH better than last week though!

After the run I headed straight to a Team in Training meeting in Beachwood. I got to be the alumni speaker again :) Coach B did a great job, v. Enthusiastic!!! We only got 3 people to sign up but 2 others showed serious interest.

If you live in Northern Ohio and would like to run/walk a marathon or half marathon in December or January and want to help raise money for a good cause (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) sign up for Team in Training!!! Link is on the left!!!

I was absolutely starving by the end of the meeting so Coach B, Tracy, and I went out to lunch at Corky & Lenny's. The service was HORRIBLE! The lady actually slammed our menus onto the table! But the reubens weren't half bad and my strawberry milkshake was quite satisfying!

After lunch I rushed home showered and changed and headed to Ann Arbor for the Art Fair. Even though I was flying I didn't get to the fair until 5pm and unfortunately it closed at 6pm. I hurried around the whole fair trying to find chicalookate's booth but unfortunately by 6:15 I had no luck.

Mandolin and her girlfriend and I went out to dinner at Chili's after that and I had a very good shrimp Caesar salad and strawberry margarita. It was nice seeing both of them and I feel bad that I was so out of it. Next time I need to take a nap before visits!

So after all of that I am absolutely exhausted so I am spending the night at my rents.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Tempo Run

Managed to get my tempo run in at E. Creek on the way home. I ran 5 miles in 40:26. I am pretty sure it is actually shy of 5 miles, unless one of the 1/2 miles is long because the last one is definitely short.

I did a mile warm up then did 5 sets of 3 minutes tempo 2 minutes float. Then a mile cool down. So if it is actually 5 miles I was averaging 8 minute miles but I am guessing between the warm up and floats that I was actually averaging 8:30.

It was warm but shady so not too horrible although I was still covered in sweat.

My right hamstring is still feeling a bit funky but it held up pretty well.

The creek looked really cool tonight. Despite the rain the water was crystal clear and there wasn't much of it but it was flowing along over the blue/gray shale quickly. Very Pretty!

I am not feeling motivated at all so cleaning and swimming are probably going to wait until Sunday.

Lazy week

Since I didn't do a workout last night or wake up for swimming this morning here are some pics from when David and I went to Randy's. David is going again tonight so hopefully I will find time for a tempo run and a swim tonight.


David and I

Cool Ivy building

Sunset over the river at Perrysburg

Me

David

Me at the lingerie display at the Wood County Museum

David on Randy's new "couch"

Wednesday Cycling Club

Went and rode with A's cycling club tonight after work. We did about 21 miles. We stopped a lot after big hills and long stretches to make sure everyone kept on track. There are a variety of levels in the club.

Ride time was just over an hour and a half so between the metro mountains and riding a little slow we were averaging 14 mph.

At least I got some miles in even if they were slow and hilly!

Tuesday Track Workout

Got to the track early last night so that I could get in a long easy warm up. My right hamstring feels like it is pulled again so I didn't want to strain it even more.

Did 2 miles warm up and a lap of dynamic stretching/drills.

Then we did 4*600
I paced S so as not to blow out my hamstring but still get in a good tempo workout
2:50
2:47
2:48
2:38

Next we did 6 200's, 100 drill, 100 stride
first two were bounds
next two were leaps
last two were butt kickers

Then we did a 400. First 100 all out, second hundred float, third hundred pretty hard, next 50 float, last 50 all out. 1:22 (The idea being even though you float a significant amount of the 400 your time will still be good because of your improved form from the drills)

Then I did a mile easy cool down and headed home!

I got Harry Potter Monday evening and finished it last night. I definitely enjoyed reading it but now I am more anxious than ever to find out how the whole series concludes. Too bad that won't be for awhile. Did you know Rowling is now the richest women in the UK? Even richer than the queen! Needless to say she is much too busy cashing checks to write her novels as quickly as I would like to see them ;)

I have a killer migraine this morning, work is probably going to be pretty brutal.

Clark Tri Results

Checked out the results:
Swim, .5 mile: 15:33 Age Rank 3rd
T1: 2:44
Bike, 13 miles: 43:24 18.0 mph Age Rank 6
T2: 1:15
Run, 4 miles: 30:52 7:38/mile Age Rank 5
Total Time 1:33:47 6th out of 15 in my age group

I was the tenth fastest female runner out of all the female triathletes and duathletes so I guess I am all right there. I need to get in the pool more often and work on my swim, I think there is more room for improvement there than on the bike.

Clark Lake Tri and Grad Party

I went up to Michigan yesterday for my second cousins graduation party. I got there a little late but still had a great time. One of my friends from high school came and hung out and we caught up a bit. It is always nice to see her.

We were up pretty late but we were up this morning at 5:15 getting ready to head to the triathlon at Clarks Lake. My cousins eldest and youngest sons came with to watch. It was nice seeing them and having the extra support out on the course. Aaron took some great shots of KT and me!

It was KT's first tri! She hadn't trained at all and she just got my bike from me today :) So she did a great job! She finished in just over 2 hours and I was in somewhere around one hour and 34 minutes. This was a sprint tri but there were a TON! of people there! And a ton of fast women!

This was definitely the best organized local level race I have ever been to. There was plenty of food afterwards, the wind shirts are great, and the course was well manned and marked the whole way. So it is not surprising that it attracted a lot of triathletes, old pros and newbies alike!

One nice thing they had was that people new to the triathlon had their numbers in red. I liked it. I made sure to cheer on anyone that I passed, or that passed me! with red numbers!

I had an okay swim, nothing spectacular, an okay ride and a decent run. I almost made it through the run without getting passed by any women but a 20 year old college cross country runner took me down at the finish line :( I didn't even know she was there. Oh well. I still should be happy with it. Although my resulting time doesn't seem that impressive to me. I will have to look at my stats when they post them and figure out why.

I bruised my heel on a root coming out of the swim and at some point cut the ball of the same foot today so I am limping around. Between that and my hubby's cramping calves we make an awkward pair.

I am absolutely exhausted! Let's hope that means I will get a good night's sleep tonight!

Pre Race Family Shot 

Womens Swim Start 

Running out of the water 

KT out of the swim 

Coming in to T2 

Heading out on to the run :) I lost my pony tail holders at some point between the swim and run :) 

KT coming into T2 

KT heading out on to the run 

Racing in to the finish 

My Baby sis about to finish her first tri! 

Finding Shells 

Chilling in the lake after the tri 

My new Tri Photographer!!! 

Having fun at my cuz's grad party 

KT trying out the hybrid for the first time 

10 mile Run

The SERC guys must have been running somewhere else this morning so I ended up running 10 miles on the towpath with A and S this morning. Not to fast not too slow. Around 9 minute miles. It was HOT! I was absolutely drenched!


After 10 miles on the towpath we come back to fix Susanna's Flat tire! We were all drenched! It was so hot and humid!

How to Change a Tire

Close up on the flat see the culprit? 

Disbelief! 

Getting the lugnuts off