Great White North 1/2 Iron Race Report

I WENT SUB-5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4:58:54 read the clock and I am pretty sure I ended up 12th female overall...99% sure anyways...but if I am in error, just know that it is an honest mistake! :)

I DO know that I came in 9th in my age group. But my big goal was to get under 5 hours. I knew I had a shot at it if I really blitzed the bike. I thought that if I just went as hard on the bike as I could, I should be able to do a 2 hour, 1/2 marathon no problem, even if I suffered. Of course, I want to go 4:30 for these races and then even less, so my coach is helping me to reach my goals step by step.

Do you know that Sara Gross is the best coach ever? It's true.

Hi! I gave birth 6 months ago and I run 1:22 for
13.1 miles in a half Ironman.

Okay here are the deets...

Pre Race Deets or The Case of the Leech
The day before the race I swam in the lake and then took off my wetsuit and rinsed it in the shallows. When I emerged I saw a piece of dirt on my calf that wouldn't dislodge when I swiped at it. I KNEW THEN. LEECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I had been alone with Mike or another family member I would have had the luxury of having a full-on freak out. When I was in Australia last year, there was a huge bug crawling on my bed and I ran screaming to the nearest man...my coach's hubby. LOL. I have no shame. I will run to a guy every time. Hahahahahaah!

Except this time.

This time, there were a bunch of other athletes milling around and I had to be the calm, cool one all by myself. My Mom was there and she said, "Gee, that looks like a leech." I gave her a grimace, but apparently my look didn't convey that I knew it was a leech -- I fooled my Momma into thinking I was so cool and calm. I picked at the thing on leg and I couldn't gain purchase.

I couldn't even feel it -- and I watched it morph and move all around my calf trying to get away from my prying fingers. It slithered into a skinny line and then curled into a ball. OMG, it was so gross, but I was on a mission. If I was going to rip a chunk of my own flesh to get rid of this thing I was going to do it! Hahaha!

Fortunately, I got it on my finger....and then it wouldn't come off!! AAARRGGHH!!!! It was at this moment that I lost it. I think I squealed and then started to frantically wipe my finger on the grass. It came off. SHUDDER.

Funny thing though, this little kid came running up to me once he figured out I had a leech on me and he wanted to see it! LOL!!!

Hey Julie, I really like your calf.

Morning of Race
Met up with fellow MRT athlete and very dear friend, Tessa. Who proceeded to cuss me out for a full 15 minutes about why I always hide away in my motel room and take off right after races instead of hanging out and attending the award dinners. LOL!! Seriously, I have never heard her swear so much in her life. Hahahahaha!!

You see, I have an inner hermit. I LOVE being by myself. I also love spending time with friends -- when I am forced (haha!) to go out, I really enjoy myself. But for some reason, given a choice (or the chance) I'll opt to veg by myself rather than hang out with people. Tessa made a good case, so I promised her I would hang with her at the awards dinner after the race. And she knew she had me there, because once I promise something, I HAVE to do it. :)

As all of us athletes stood in line waiting to cross the mats to get onto the beach I regaled everyone with my leech story and a number of what ifs...as in

• What if, you spit in your goggle and then go to rinse it out, but the leech gets in there and then it gets in your eye?
• Or, what if, you turn to breathe, but at that same moment someone splashes the leech into your mouth?
  
• Or what if, the leech sticks on your face somewhere and you don't feel it and you don't even know it's there....And the race goes on and on and you get onto the run portion and notice that people keep looking at you. And then you begin to notice something on your face out of the corner of your eye...

By now, I was really warming up to all the different scenarios that could play out and every time my friend Richelle shuddered, it was like extra motivation for me to continue. And I did... LOL.

The Swim -- 35:46 (1:48/100m!!!!!!!!)
I remember from this race in a previous year that the buoy turns can get really congested. And if there is one thing I HATE, it is being forced to stop swimming from the sheer mass of upright bodies at the buoy turns. This year I aimed wide and had a good swim.

I caught a couple of good drafts but unfortunately had too much clean water for big parts of the swim. Still, I drafted when I could! :)

The thing with me and swimming is that I might not be very speedy (yet), but I can keep going and going and going. So, the swim felt effortless to me. (This is also probably due to my nice taper -- thank you Coach Sara!) Even when I would do some surges, I felt really great and not exhausted like I have in the past. LOL.

Out of the swim and the wetsuit strippers had a hard time getting my wetsuit over my hips and bum. Some women fixate on their weight, their boobs, their teeth...my fixation is my bum. I don't know why, but it's a funny thing. I find bums odd -- like why would someone think a bum looks good? Bums are bums! I remember I watched this show a long time ago, and it showed a number of close-up body photographs. You had to guess which part of the body the pic was from. It was so weird how boob cleavage resemebled butt cleavage! Seriously!!

Anyway, my bum plays an important role later on....LOL!!

The Bike -- 2:31:38 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I don't know what the transition times are....because I am pretty confident that I actually broke 2:30 for the bike according to my watch anyways. Heh-heh! In fact, during the last kms of the bike I looked at my watch and thought, "If I really push as much as I can, I can break 2:30!"

I never look at my watch to gauge speed/distance like that either....this was a first. I only wear the watch to help guide nutritional choices. However, this time, I used it to push myself even harder. The thing is, I had the fitness to do that on the bike. I'm not there on the run yet.... Hahahaha!! The run is usually about survival for me, but the bike this time was so neato.

In fact, I was cursing myself that I hadn't asked my coach about proper gearing choices. I was spinning out in my hardest gear for too much of the race. I needed harder gears! But who knew I was actually getting stronger? LOL!!! This will be rectified shortly -- I've talked with my uber coach and Gord (my bike guru) and I am moving on to another cassette now. YAY! I am finally climbing the ladder. Hahahahahaha!!

The bike went by so fast it was awesome. I kept saying to myself, "Push, push, PUSH!" I couldn't believe it when I saw the sign for 45km.I was thinking, "Already? Wow, this is going by fast!"

I was grunting and grimacing away, but I was not consciously doing so...I would sort of come out of the bubble and then realize I was grunting and grimacing, but I was so divorced from what my face was doing...I just went back into the bubble and kept saying to myself, "PUSH, PUSH, PUSH!!!!"

The Run -- 1:51: 31 (Hey, I am excited to start working on knocking the time off that kind of run!! Hee-hee!!)
Felt terrible and wobbly and out of breath for the first 4 or 5 km. I always feel like that at the beginning, so I knew it would pass. There was the teeniest of inclines throughout the course and my quads just about went on a cramping/Charley-horse extravaganza, so I made sure to take it even more easy on those parts.

Ran out of salt pills -- was not prepared to go through as many as I did, so that was a good lesson. Around 15km or so, I got this familiar light-headed, woozy feeling that I get in hot IM races. Wish I had brought more salt pills!

Ahh well, I kept nipping at my gels and took water at every aid station and just hung in there.

There was a guy that was running a similar pace to me out there -- we kept passing each other...At one point, he was behind me on a windy section and I heard him tell a friend, "I'm just drafting!" LOL! I turned around and asked him, "Are you saying I have a fat ass?" Hahaha!

As he passed me he said, "I'm married with 4 kids, but I gotta say..." Then there was some kind of bum compliment. LMAO!!!!!!!!! I was like, "Hell ya! I'll take any kind of compliment about my bum ANYWHERE, ANYTIME." LOL!!!

You know how fun it is at these long distance endurance races, when your fellow athletes start acting silly? Hahahahahaha!!

Well, the final 4km, then 3km were pretty brutal. The quad cramps were on the very cusp of taking over and rendering me one big spasm (Not one big spazz -- I'm already a spazz), and I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Just get to the finish and then I can lay in bed all day! Hahahah!

Right before the finish line this girl in my AG blew by me and beat me by 5 seconds. LOL. I was going at TOP SPEED though. Hahahahah -- If you can call what I was doing top speed, but seriously I was giving it everything I had -- hahahah -- I didn't have that extra oomph that I have on the bike, but I am excited to train more and then get it! :) :)

The Aftermath
I was so excited that I broke 5 hours I went around to all the girls who had passed me and I was shaking their hands and telling them congratulations and that they looked so awesome out there. I know I am a dork but I couldn't help myself! Hahahah!

I could barely walk I was so stiff and sore. I had to ask a volunteer to bend over and pick up my helmet and my bike shoes. There was no way I could bend over. Then it took me like 30 minutes to walk with my bike the 50m out of transition -- LOL. Well not really, but I was going so slow. Then I heard this volunteer behind me say, "You've got 2 penalty laps to do!"

I turned around and I almost passed out.

And then he broke up laughing!!!!!!

BRUTAL!!! LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!! I said, "That's cruel and unusual punishment!!!" LOL!!!

I was so excited, I went back to our sleaze-bag motel (oh yeah, I KNOW how to pick them!) and actually TURNED ON my cell phone and called my coach. Hahahahah -- I think she was more surprised that I actually used my cell phone than anything else though. LOL!!

Good times!!!

Congrats to my fellow MRT athletes and friends out there who had phenomenal races out there on Sunday:

Tessa -- YOU ROCKED IT!!!!! And as usual looked HAWT doing so! :)
Kendall -- I saw you, but you didn't see me! Hee-hee!! Congrats on your smokin' time! WOW!
Patty -- You looked really solid on the run when I saw you!
Amber -- You are such a stud there is nothing I can say but you are excellent. How you pulled off a PB after puking from the flu for 12 hours beforehand is beyond me!
Lisa -- Two flats and you STILL got a running PB!!! YAY!!!! Congrats!!!
Richelle -- Thanks for listening to my leech stories and congratulations on a great race -- can't believe you managed to crank that race out considering what you've recently gone through!

Wasa Race Report

I raced the Wasa Olympic triathlon last weekend...my BIG goal was to finally break 50 minutes for a 10km in a tri. And I did!! 49:57 baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!! Hey, every second counts.

My total time was 2:29:08 -- a 10 minute improvement despite the fact that the bike course was totally changed this year from the nice flat and fast route to a hilly one. (Going towards Fort Steele instead of heading towards Invermere. The last time I did this race I did it in 2:24, but that doesn't count as the swim course was short, so I compared the results to the race before that one.) Plus, I ended up 10th female overall. Including the real fast girls. :) :) (They also remove the top 5 women from the AG standings, so I ended up being 2nd in my age group...I'm more pleased with my 10th OA though!)

Swim -- 28:12 (not too bad! Hee-hee!!)
The Wasa swim is the best and kindest swim in triathlon. They sent all the Oly women off together and there was no clawing/grabbing/frustration. It was so nice! This was also the first time in a race I did 2 dolphin dives at the beginning -- Hee-hee!! :) :)

Bike -- 1:11:01 (again, not too bad, the course is hillier, so I'll take it)
Not too much to say here -- a great ride.

Run -- 49:57
Great run for me! The biggest triumphs for me were the following:
Not succumbing to the negative thoughts and fear of seeing faster girls catch up to me. The last time I raced here, there was a woman on an out and back who gave me "the look" and I sort of thought to myself, "Wow, she looks so determined, if she catches me, she deserves it." Well, guess what she did. This year, I was READY.

There was another girl who was chugging along but I said to myself, "Hang on Julie! You deserve this!" I did it. :) I did get passed by some women, but not by that one. I held on until the end. :)

You have got to hand it to the race organizers -- they do the best post race food -- tons of watermelon, oranges, bananas, canteloupe and grapes. I didn't partake of the macaroni salad and I tried the chili but it was gross (sorry, but it was!), but the fruit was a godsend. After that I craved nothing but KETHCUP CHIPS and SNOWPEAS. The craving overtook all my senses. Hahahhaha -- so funny how your body knows EXACTLY what it needs -- LOL. When I finally dug into some ketchup chips, I had major ketchup-chip-quiver-tail going on. ;)

Onto other news...

A few months ago, I began making more changes to my daily nutrition needs. I did a bit of poking around the internet reading other people's blogs, and decided to try some new things...

First I eliminated dairy. This was sort of easy. Although I ate LOTS of cottage cheese and yogourt, I always felt bloated and *not right*. Next was eliminating grains and pasta and bread. This I had to do with an all or nothing approach. It is far too easy to TRY and incorporate more vegetables into my diet and then fill in the gaps with bread or pasta. By eliminating all breads and pasta, I had no choice but to add more vegetables. When the pasta went, the yams, squash, carrots and bananas moved in. You can't fool around with replacing carbs when training for multiple Ironman races.

My body has responded very well to this type of nutrition. I went down 2 swimsuit sizes! That is right...TWO SWIMSUIT SIZES!! I 've always been a 36/10, then I moved down to a 34/8. The day that my suit became baggy before it was worn out, I was shocked....could it be that I needed to go down another size? I was hesitant when I asked to try on a 32/6...the suit looked so tiny. How was my bum going to fit in there?

But it fit! I haven't had to *watch* what I eat or how much to eat. I eat all the veg, fruit, meat, eggs I want. If I am hungry I eat. Basically this means I graze all day long. Plus, I have the energy to get all my sessions in.

For bike nutrition whilst training, I use water, baked yam slices, and bananas. That's what I've used all winter and spring. Now that the temperatures are finally warming up I'll start throwing some Nuun into the mix, but keeping it simple works for me. :)

The local outdoor pool has opened and it is bliss swimming in the fresh air. :)

And one more thing....

I am completely addicted to HBO's new series Game of Thrones. I cannot wait until next season -- it is the best series I have ever seen. The story-telling is totally unconventional -- time and time again my jaw will drop open at the events unfolding. Usually such physical reactions are restricted to really, really good books...I LOVE how the series challenges assumptions I had about story-telling itself. Assumptions I didn't even know I had!

Plus, there is Drogo. Oh. My. God. I have only ever had one other movie-star crush before this and it was Horatio Hornblower from an A&E series years ago. LOL. Poor Mike, has had to deal with me giggling and rewinding scenes to watch Drogo over and over again. Hahahahahahaha!!!
Every time there is a scene with him in it, I could feel Mike's eyes on me...waiting for a reaction. Of course, that just makes me even more self-aware. LMAO.

Elkford Sprint Race Report

I was so excited to FINALLY race!!! After last year's DNS in North Carolina, and months of healing my broken foot, I was so ready to let loose! :)

Coach Sara gave me a bit of rest but said she would be training me through the race...I've been logging some pretty crazy hours training, and the week before the race I felt so bagged. SO BAGGED. I was wondering how on earth I would recover and do the race! Hahahaha - and it is only a sprint!

On Wednesday before the race, I had a 5 hour bike ride that I ended up only doing 2:12 of....I got caught out in the middle of the back roads between the Pass and Pincher Creek in the rain storm to end all rain storms. HOLY COW. It was like a monsoon swept through -- all the cars had their lights on and it was effing cold. SO COLD. And windy. By the time I arrived at the Shell gas station in Pincher Creek, I was frozen solid. I had a hard time speaking to the guy behind the counter when I tried to ask to use the phone. He asked, "Are you all right?" And I replied, "N-n-n-n-n-no, can I use your phone? I have money!" and I held up a zip lock bag with assorted dollar bills in it (dripping wet). The guy just waved my baggy away and gave me the phone -- LOL!!

I called my Momma to come rescue me (one of the major perks of living in the same community as your parents!) Then, I stood there, dripping wet and made a big puddle standing in the gas station waiting for my Mom to arrive. A couple of men in work trucks offered to give me a ride home, but they thought I lived in Pincher...They were visibly surprised when I told them I lived in the Pass. HAHAHAHAHAH!! It is so easy to impress people with biking mileage around these parts.

I had big plans to set my bike up on the trainer once I got home to finish off the session....However, after some food, a hot bath, and a thorough bike cleaning, my energy levels fell like a rock and I went to bed instead.

Ok...enough preamble. Here are the race deets!!!

First woman overall and 4th over all. :) :) :) I was tickled to analyze the results and learn that I had the 2nd fastest bike split overall!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

http://elkfordtri.ca/uploads/2011results/2011oa_750.PDF

Here are my splits:
750m swim: 13:36 (YAY!!! I AM getting faster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
20km bike: 36:27 (Windy, hilly course)
5km run: 22:53 (Work in progress!!)
Total: 1:12:57

For the first time, I was in the last heat for the faster swimmers. LMAO!!!! And get this, I was leading my lane!! Hahahahahahahahaha!! I warned everyone in my lane before the race, "I hope my swim time guess-timate matches my ability!" Once we got rolling, or shall I say, swimming, the guy right behind me passed me, but then piddled out, and I re-passed him -- and was first out of our lane. :)

The bike portion was so awesome. I was so present, so fully in the moment, it felt like the ride lasted 2 minutes. Seriously. It was like I was completely immersed in every single moment. Very weird, but very cool. :) :)

The run was good too -- my breathing was hard and loud for the first half, but I chugged, chugged along. Man, there was this one girl who was such a good runner -- she did the 5km in 18 min and change, she looked great!!!

Small race, AMAZING volunteers and a beautiful day all in all. I don't want to slag my competitors BUT...

To the only person in the race that wore his wetsuit: REALLY?

I won a $25 gift card to Canadian Tire and a stainless steel water bottle. :)

Most importantly....I am fit and racing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Run Skills

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to have my running form assessed by my friend and newly minted coach Tina Dubois. (An embarrassing aside: I had to ask her what her last name was...Hahahah! I never paid attention to what it was, and when I was telling someone at the Cochrane pool about my "friend," I was asked, "What's her name?" as Cochrane is a small town. My response? "Ummm, I actually don't know her last name, but I haven't needed to!" Eeeeeeep. Heh-heh-heh!)

Tina's assessment was an AWESOME experience. If any of you have ever had your swim stroke videoed -- you know what I am talking about. What you think you are doing is not at all what you are actually doing. Hahahahahah -- or let me rephrase that...what I thought I was doing, I wasn't.

The session began with Tina filming me running on the treadmill. Next, we sat down and reviewed the video clip, frame by frame. After looking at the video, Tina made an educated guess about running injuries I may have had, and pain I might frequently experience. The accuracy of her observations piqued my interest immediately. You know how those fortune tellers are so good at reading people? Hee-hee! It was like that! I was thinking, "How can you tell? Does my running form really indicate that? I don't see anything so funky on the video!"

She explained the nuts and bolts of running -- what a lot of people end up doing compared to what they are trying to accomplish. A number of pictures punctuated our discussion -- really illustrating her points.

For anyone who knows me, I have a hard time sitting still and not talking, and it took all my willpower not to interrupt....Well, Ok, I did interrupt and ask a few questions. Hahahaha! I was that kid in class who would squirm in her seat and raise her hand in the air to answer questions.

For instance, I wanted to make Tina understand that the pace I had been running on the treadmill while she videoed me was a "jog" and that I run faster than that, and that it is an awkward sort of warm up pace. She smiled and said, "We are getting to that..."

And sure enough we did. She showed me frame by frame how long my foot would be on the ground during the running (or my excuse of a jogging) cycle. Then she explained how having a higher cadence reduces that length of time, and load on the feet...This was where I interrupted and said, "Yeah, but...I was warming up, my legs move faster when I am RUNNING."

What followed next truly blew my mind! As someone who does not have natural running skills/body awareness, her next demonstration really was an epiphany to me!

She hopped on the treadmill herself and turned on her electronic metronome-thingy. She started running at 4.0 mph. She was ticking over right in time with the digital beep-beep-beep of the metronome. Then she increased the speed to 5.0, then 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, then 9.0. Her cadence remained the same at all speeds!!! WOWZA!!! This was a huge lesson for me!

Then came the fun part -- she had me do a number of exercises and drills both on and off the treadmill. The metronome was turned on, and my shoes came off. It was AWESOME. It was like the very first time I felt the "catch" is swimming (see, this memory is still very vivid as it happened so recently -- LOL.) I FELT good running -- It felt very different and easier. More effortless -- I wasn't struggling. I NEVER realized that it was even possible to run at a high cadence at all speeds.

Tina shouted out various coaching cues as I ran on the treadmill. Again and again she would catch me reverting back to old habits and would repeat the cues. The effect would be instant. I am good at doing what I am told. (hee-hee -- Mike doesn't think so -- LOL)

The culmination of the session was taking another video of me running -- a before and after if you will. It was so COOL!!! She filmed me, then we sat down and looked at it frame by frame again. My cadence had increased - my foot wasn't lingering on the ground so much! I have proof! Hahahahaah!!!

What I find so exciting about this new knowledge is that it is unlike anything I have heard of before -- the coaching cues caused me to focus on different things. Instead of focusing on how many times my feet are hitting the ground for instance...she gave me a new set of cues (much more effective for me personally) that worked straight away. Most importantly though, is that I FEEL the difference.

Awesome, awesome, awesome stuff.

And an awesome coach too -- Tina is very observant and clued in to the varying needs of an individual. She emailed me all the exercises and coaching cues after our session -- and the videos as well.

If you are interested in having a revelation about your running style, eliminating running injuries, and a greater body awareness, here is her site:

http://www.livingbarefoot.info/coaching/

Starbucks

Sometimes I feel as though I am a fraud.

I mean, I am a cultured person…I’ve been to plays, to an opera even! I have lived in major urban centres and I have travelled extensively. It’s just that for some reason, a few things have seemed to slip by me…things that the vast majority of people seem to somehow *know.*

Like what to order at Starbucks.

My God, I am 36 years old and I still have NO idea what all those terms mean up on the chalkboard. One shot, double shot, Americano, espresso, etc. What does it all mean? My background in coffee consists of drinking black coffee from Tim Horton’s, and reading the occasional novelty coffee story in those news ads before I sign into my yahoo email account.

You know those stories? They are always accompanied by a picture of a big bowl of coffee with a heart drawn through the frothy milk, or a cute furry animal whose poop is the most expensive coffee bean in the world.





I’ve heard that espresso actually has less caffeine than a regular cuppa Joe (I forget exactly how and why, but I remember I watched an interview about it), and I have a number of friends and family members who have quite firm opinions on what makes a good cup of coffee:

My Dad (a.k.a. “Garbage Guts”) – drinks coffee from Tim Horton’s and gas stations. On our 5000km road trip across the US last year, we tried all kinds of gas station coffee. And it has to be pretty raunchy for my Dad to pass it up. Think: Sludgy, black, and toxic.



My Victoria Friends: Starbucks all the way. They know precisely what they want in a coffee. They take into account the time of day, what they’ve eaten/drank beforehand, and what they presently feel like. They order something different every time, and I am always impressed. I always order, “What he’s/she’s having,” in an attempt to broaden my coffee horizons and hopefully enrich my lacklustre coffee knowledge bank. They also buy specialty beans and grind them every morning.



My Calgary Friends: Very similar to my Victoria friends, with the exception that Tim Horton’s is an acceptable substitute. They know how to order at Starbucks, but will not hesitate to order a half hot-chocolate/half coffee from Tim Horton’s. (You see, by ordering your drink using that language, you pay less than if you asked for a Mocha Coffee or Coffee Mocha or Café Mocha or….well, you get my drift, right?)



My European Friends: Opinions range all over the map here. My friends from England do NOT like Starbucks – something about there not being a lot of actual coffee in a drink…or something like that. My German friends love Tim Horton’s, and like Calgarians, will order the half-hot chocolate/half-coffee, but will add whip cream on top of it all.



And then there is me: I buy the big red tub of Folgers from Wal-Mart. Or, when I am in the city, from Costco – you know they sell the even bigger red tubs of Folgers? And I brew it in my Tim Horton’s coffee maker. That thing ROCKS. As fast as you pour the water in, the coffee is made. Sweet coffee action. I drink it black.



Starbucks still intimidates me – the employees (do they have special names too, like barista or something?) are all brusque and business like. Friendly, but no-nonsense. Like the customers who stand in line behind me as I stammer out my order trying desperately to fit in. I always screw it up. You see, the harder I try, the more I concentrate on articulating that unique coffee language of “Skinny,” and “Grande,” or “Tall,” , the sooner I automatically default into an apologetic, “Can I have a small black coffee please?” And do that half-smile/grimace – making eye-contact with the barista (is that the right word?) as he/she nods empathetically to me with an understanding smile.



The strange thing about all this is that my quest for ordering a cup of coffee from Starbucks without feeling like a total idiot is far from over. Like a moth drawn inevitably to the flame, I continue to “go for a Starbucks,” with my friends. Always copying what they order, always asking what they like/don’t like about certain drinks. For I believe that one day, I will be able to stride confidently into a Starbucks and rattle off my order of a “Skinny-minnie-latte-no shot-one-shot-whatever,” and not only KNOW what I have ordered, but understand too.



CHEERS!!

;)

My bike nutrition...

And I ate all those bananas except one -- for a 3:18 ride. My jersey pockets were gross -- covered in brown banana slime from me cramming the peels back in my pockets.


For those who don't know me....I really do eat that many bananas. :) :) :)

I LOVE BANANAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some videos for your viewing pleasure...

In Cozumel, Mike thought he'd video me doing laps so Sara could see how hard I was training....




And here we are back at home in the perpetual winter...