1. This morning’s ride was the best ride of my life to date.
2. Katie and I rocked the hell out of it and we were feeling A-mazing! Even at the end, I could have kept going. (Which I did, Katie and I parted ways at 64 miles and I kept riding)
3. Pink Lady and I are back to being best friends after I wrecked her in the mud 2 weeks ago.
4. We started at 6 am.
5. We took the Washington and Old Dominion trail all the way out past Hernon, VA (32 miles out from the start of the trail)

6. I have sweet tan lines on my thighs and arms from my bike jersey and shorts.
7. My hooha hates me right now.
8. Pink Lady has some new gear- an xlab and enough nutrition to feed a family of 4.

9. Except I ate ALL my nutrition on today’s ride.
10. I really love the EFS sport drink I tried today- tasted great and I had lots of energy
11. Distance PR. BOOM! 73.25 miles, baby!

12. I had 400 calories for breakfast, and 600 during the ride. I probably should have had more.
13. I am going to go shower and eat everything in sight within a 3 block radius.
14. Have a great weekend! Mine is off to a fabulous start!

If you read this blog often you probably know that I love my dog. She is the most ridiculous little snorting machine this side of the Mississippi. She runs circles around the dining room table until she tires herself out. She lays on your lap even if you are trying to do work or write a blog post. She licks the crap out of your legs after you come home from a sweaty run. So here are three amazingly silly pictures of her just to make you smile.

Waiting for Phil to get out of the shower

Asleep on my lap and laptop.

party animal!

As I mentioned in last week’s Random Friday Facts, I will be straying from the team training plan since I am participating in a race that the rest of the team is not.

The way Team Z works is that you follow a “track” such as Olympic focus, 70.3 focus or Ironman focus. You are then given a training plan for the track you are following. The tracks usually have 2 “A” races for the season. Since I am following the Ironman track we have a 70.3 as our first A race of the season and then Ironman Cozumel as the big kahuna A race.

My issue is that I signed up for Eagleman 70.3 before I joined the team and their 70.3 A race is 5 weeks after Eagleman. I couldn’t just follow the Team’s plan or else I would be in the middle of a build cycle when June 12th came around. So I improvised…

I took the knowledge I have learned from being an athlete, the books I have read about triathlon training, online 70.3 training plans and made my own plan for the next 7 weeks. (holy crap only 7 weeks until my first 70.3…) I think it gives me plenty of long rides, long runs, recovery days and even a nice little taper before the race. I think it is a good plan, but since I am pretty new at this I have no real idea!

But I made a detailed plan that I think is going to work for me and I am going to trust that I know enough about myself and my abilities and follow the plan. I need to not freak out in 3 weeks and stray from the plan…that would be no good.

Are you guys self-coached? If so, how do you design your plans? Do you ever question yourself?

I know it’s only Tuesday but since I can’t control my excitement for this weekend I figured I would do the “Yay it’s the weekend!” post that usually comes on Friday, today. I like to switch it up a little.

My weekend will consist of riding my bike (which had to get new brake cables because of all the mud from my big fall the other weekend) longer than I have ever ridden it before. Distance PR, bitches. That means 60+ miles.

Once I turn my legs to jello on the bike I am heading home to Philly to celebrate the engagement of my big sister, Nikki to her awesome fiance Anthony. My sister and I are really close and continue to grow closer as we get older. There was once a time where she did pull my hair and step on my face because I wouldn’t listen to whatever she was telling me to do. Those times are over now, I think.

Nikki and I are winners!

I get along with Anthony really well and have gotten to know him well over the past 9 years they have been dating (I know, long time!). Nikki and Anthony like to make fun of me…see below.

In Disney World 2 summers ago they reenacted me tearing all the ligaments in my knee while skiing. Whatever, jerks I can laugh about it now (3 years later!).

Nikki and I have great guys in our lives and we are two very lucky ladies! My parents approve as well

Family vacation 2009

After stuffing my face with Italian food in honor of their engagement, I will be running the Broad Street 10 miler the following morning. One of my best friends was supposed to run this race and I was going to go cheer her on, but she hurt her foot and is now benched from the race. I know how that feels. Not wanting her bib to go unused (and the fact that I had 10 miles on my training schedule anyway) I offered to take the bib off her hands. While I would rather be watching Rach run her first 10 miler, I am still pretty excited to run.

The course is on a slight decline and goes in a straight line down Broad street for 10 miles. It is a point to point race. Did I hear someone say PR? Ok good, because I plan to. Ive only done 1 other 10 miler and it was in the first few months of my running career. If I don’t totally kill my legs on my long ride I should be able to crush my current PR. woot!

After the race I get more family time while shoveling brunch into my face hole. Biking + family + Nikki’s diamond ring + lots of food + running + friends + and more family = a kick ass weekend.

Hope you are excited for your weekend too and I hope the rest of the work week flies by!

So on this weekend’s burrito ride (simply a ride with two lovely ladies where after we ride we stuff our faces with burritos) it was brought my attention that all the cool bloggers have twitter accounts.

Since I aspire to be a really cool blogger…I made a twitter account.

I have no idea how to use it yet but I’ll figure it out!

If you use twitter you can follow me @LaurenRtriDC

I am stealing this idea from Katie’s blog because I ran out of ideas wanted to share more about myself with the few that read this lil’ blog of mine.

The way it works is that I share random facts about myself, you read them, you laugh/cry/think I’m weird/whatever and then you feel like you know me better. Got it? Ok, let’s get started.

1. There was a time that I wanted to quit college and go to culinary school. Instead, I majored in accounting.

2. I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up…but I cant tell you just yet.

3. Both my sister and Phil’s sister got engaged in the past 2 months. I am really excited about it!

4. I am the girl that has been dreaming about her wedding since she was 5. My mom has a business where she hand makes amazing wedding invitations and place settings and all that jazz…she already knows exactly what I would want for my wedding.

5. I am still getting used to my custom orthotics in my sneakers…at first it felt like I was walking with tennis balls at the arches of my feet…now it feels more like large golf balls.

6. I am taking Pink Lady into the shop to get tuned up and the mud scraped from out of her brakes. It took me over an hour the other night to wash all of the mud off of her. Poor girl.

7. I love french fries.

8. I need a hair cut.

9. I didn’t drink until I got to college. I quickly learned to like cheap beer.

10. I now like more expensive beer…but I can still chug a bud light.

11. It makes me smile when I call my parents and the first thing they say is “You did yoga on the grass this morning! I read your blog!” Hi, mom! Hi, dad! Ps- they celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary last weekend!

12. Eagleman is in less than 8 weeks and I am straying from the Team Z training plan because Eagleman is not incorporated into that training. With the help of some online sites and a few friends, I created my plan for the next several weekends leading up to June 12. I really hope my plan prepares me for my first 70.3 race.

13. and I hope that I never get kicked in the face during an open water swim again or else I am wearing a hockey mask during the swims. USAT rules don’t say anything about not being allowed to wear face protection!

happy weekend I have alot of fun stuff going on this weekend like another long bike ride with my favorite blog friends and a homemade Easter dinner with triathletes!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my post about my disaster of a triathlon that went down last weekend. The kind words are very appreciated- not to mention you guys made me feel like a total bad ass! The bruises to both my body and my ego are healing nicely

And for your viewing pleasure, a few pictures from the mud bath triathlon:

i cant feel my hands or feet…or face

what a ham.

Finishing strong

praise the Lord, there is the finish line!

Please note the mud down my whole left side.

and PS- less then 8 weeks until Eagleman. holy cow!

I love recovery weeks! After last weekend’s race I am very happy to see “40 minute easy run” or “40 minute easy spin” on my training schedule.

Team Z offers a Yoga for Triathletes class during recovery weeks and this morning I decided to go and give my body a nice stretch. I really needed it!

When I arrived there were several other teammates waiting outside of this little tiny community center with yoga mats (I didnt bring a yoga mat!) waiting for the instructor. After 15 minutes of chatting we realized the instructor was still not there…so we took our lemons and made lemonade! A teammate who is studying to be a yoga instructor lead us to the grassy area infront of the building (since we didnt have keys to get into the building!) and began leading the practice. I was impressed! I was also getting muddy hands and feet since I didnt have a mat (I love getting muddy…not).

A few minutes into downward facing dog the instructor showed up and lead the rest of the class (she lost power last night and her alarm got turned off! I hate it when that happens). Since we started outside, we finished outside.

People at the bus stop were very ammused by 30 triathletes all bent over on the front lawn at 6:30 am.

Loved the class, loved the instructor (and the make shift instructor who got the class going!) and I look forward to the next session!

Except let me note that this was not an easy smeasy yoga class….at one point while holding some crazy pose I said “I thought this was recovery week!”

Oh, Rumpus in Bumpass…where to begin?

Side note: if you are offended by use of profanity, you may want to avoid this post. Thanks!

I was pretty excited for this triathlon even though all week the weather was calling for thunderstorms, heavy rains, and wind. Either way I kept a positive attitude about it because everyone was going to be dealing with the same elements. I also had some pretty high hopes for time since my training has been on point for the last several weeks.

Phil and I were all set up and ready to go by 9:30 for the 10 am start time. We said our goodbyes, good lucks and I love yous as we parted ways to race.

The Swim:

This was my first open water swim but I was confident in my swimming and I told myself to just remain calm. My plan was to go out strong, settle into the middle of the pack, follow someones feet if I could find them, and just do the damn thing. When the horn blew for my age group to start I started out swimming hard until everyone separated a little and I had my own space. And then I found feet! YES! The water was murky but clear enough to see my hand infront of me and the feet of another girl. I was remaining calm and counting my stokes and sighting the yellow buoy and feeling awesome….and that is when it all started to go down hill.

I turned my head to breathe and as I put my head back into the water one of the feet I was following so lovingly made direct contact to my face. Pow- right in the kisser (or should I say smeller?). Direct heel to nose uppercut. God damn it hurt but I kept swimming.

I stopped at the yellow buoy to calm down after the hit and as I am bobbing up and down in the water the kayaer says “whoa! You’re bleeding!”. I am!? I touch my hand to my face and sure enough my nose was gushing blood. She paddles towards me and I hang on to her buoy and she asks me if I am ok and touches my face to make sure my nose isn’t broken. Its not. She asks me if I want to go back to shore on the boat. “Do I have to?” I say. She tells me she will give me 10 minutes for my nose to stop bleeding before she makes me get on the boat. After about 8 or so minutes my nose stops bleeding, I thank her for her help and I continue swimming, stopping every minute or so to touch my hand to my face to check for blood. Needless to say, my swim time was not ideal.

I put the shitty swim experience behind me and moved onto the bike…where things only got worse.

The Bike:

It was rainy and windy- not very wonderful bike conditions. I kept a pace I was happy with and tried to mentally reset from the swim. I sung to myself and started feeling better. I passed a guy on a Cervelo and he said “Did I seriously just get passed by a girl on a hot pink bike!?”….yes, sir you did. That was my high point on the bike. Minutes later came my lowest point of the whole race (yes, lower then the nose bleed).

I got off my aero bars and onto my brakes getting ready for the sharp left hand turn coming up. I swung out wide to avoid crossing the yellow line and to give myself plenty of space. I was not trying to be a hero by taking fast sharp turns on a windy and rainy day. As I am turning, a guy passes me to the left and *almost* crosses my front wheel. I panic and lose control of my bike. Me and Pink Lady (my bike) take a powerful fall into a mud pit on the side of the road. Did I seriously just fucking wreck my new bike at the first tri of the season? Lucky both her and I were ok except for a few scratches, bruises, cuts, scrapes and serious embarassment.

Phil happened to be right behind me and see the whole thing. He stopped to make sure I was ok. I kept telling him to go and I didnt want to mess up his race but since he is the best boyfriend in the whole entire universe, he said some sweet words just as I was starting to cry and made sure that I was going to get back on my bike.

The USAT official asked me if I wanted the sag vehicle to come pick me up. I thought about it. I almost threw in the towel. And then suddenly I was filled with rage. No, I am not going the let this fucking race beat me. I dont give a shit about time goals anymore but god damn it I am getting to that finish line.

The Run:

Nothing special about the run. I was sore from the bike wreck and I had to stop twice because I was very close to getting sick to my stomach. Must have been all of the blood, nuclear water, mud, and Gu I ate during the race.

The Aftermath:

I was happy I finished the race. I would have been really upset with myself had I given up. I dug deep to get to that finish line. Even though I am glad I finished, I still feel dissapointed in myself and slightly embarassed by my performance. Although hearing stories from Kate about getting 2 flats during her first Oly, and then Ray reminding me that he was hit by a car once during a tri made me realize that not every race is rainbows and furry puppies. Some races are going to test your limits and they are going to suck- and Rumpus was that race for me.

When I awoke on Sunday morning (the day after the race) my legs were not sore- which made me feel like I didn’t give it my all out there. And then I quickly remembered that I left my blood in the lake and my body imprint on the side of the road, had a very sore nose, and have dozens of scratches and bruises as battle scars. I gave it my all given the situations that arose.

I am also having a hard time being positive about the season when it is off to such a rocky start- ankle injury to bench me from the marathon I trained for 4.5 months for and then a really shitty first tri of the season. But it can only get better, right? I hope so because Im not sure I can survive more nosebleeds and mud baths.

…when you get a product for free and you actually like it and use it!

A few weeks ago when I was on a swim relay for the Multisport World Expo, each swimmer was given a pair of Blueseventy open water swim goggles.

I threw the pink goggles into my bag and didn’t even remember I had them until earlier this week. These things are awesome! They fit my face really well and don’t make my eyes feel like they are going to explode after 15 minutes of swimming. Plus, the pink lenses are different from the lenses of my other goggles in the sense that the pink lenses are made to enhance light in low light conditions…such as heavy rains and cloud cover which will be present during the race tomorrow. Bring on the clouds and rain, mother nature, because I’ll have these nifty light enhancing goggles that I got for free! boo-ya!