pooL nevahkoorB (Brookhaven Loop - backwards)

This was week 3 of training - and it was a great ride.  There was a possibility of rain but we were able to avoid that - thank goodness!

I have no stats today :-(  When I unmounted my bike computer, I dropped it on the ground which apparently is another way to reset all the stats.  Oh well.  Speaking of the new bike - I love it!  Riding is much more enjoyable on this bike than the last one.

The ride was a nice 20 miles - it seemed easier than doing the Brookhaven Loop the right way.  I rode with some of my mentees and met someone who works at IHG in the same office park as I do.  On the second loop, I actually had to take off my jacket because I was getting too warm - great riding weather.

Not sure if I will ride tomorrow - it's supposed to rain - not really keen on riding in the rain.  If not, i'll hit up the gym and get some cardio in!

Beginnings of a Quilt!

I'm really getting excited about this years quilt.  Cutting and laying out the quilt pattern has just reinforced how much I love the fabrics I found.   Between yesterday and after work today I cut all the strips for the quilt.

Strips sewn 2 by 2

Next step will be to cut all the strips like this:

And then lay them out to make the quilt top and start sewing them all together!

Wouldn't you like to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, knowing that 75% of your donation goes directly towards the research of blood cancers while you are comfortably snuggled under this wonderful hand made quilt??  You can!!  Click the donate now button the right and you'll be entered for chances to win this quilt!


$5 - 1 Chance
$25 - 6 Chances
$50 - 15 Chances
$100 - 50 Chances


Donations are 100% tax deductible.

Riding in the Snow..

Today was week 2 of training for the summer season and it was my first ride this season, my first ride on my new bike!!   If you haven't seen my new bike....here it is:  

The Group Training Ride (GTR) started off this week with a clinic.  We focused on clipping in and out of our pedals, avoiding road obstacles, and changing gears going up and down hills.  The air was very cold and occasionally had some really big gusts of wind...it was very chilly.  I noticed the small,white things falling from the sky - yep, it really snowed.  I could barely feel my face, hands and feet - but I think the clinic was very useful.  

After the clinic we set out for a nice (not easy) 10 miles.  I was at the end of the pack and stayed back to ride with J.  J is new to cycling but has done a half marathon AND an Olympic distance triathlon with TNT, so this will be her triple crown.  Some of the hills were a little tough for her so we took our time and walked a few.  The hills weren't getting any easier, the weather wasn't helping, and while I tried to push J the whole 10 miles, it was clear today was just not the day for that.  Because of our stopping to walk, I think that was making her more tired.  In the end, C to the rescue!! One of our SAG (Support and Gear) brought her in at about mile 6.5.  From there I went off by myself.  I was the last one on the course (not something I'm used to, not that I'm leading the pack, I'm just usually somewhere in the middle) and I rode the last 4 miles by myself.  Riding by yourself really isn't all that fun - especially in weather you'd rather not ride in.  But, this is why we have mentors and this is why I stayed at the end with J.  I've never been the ride sweeper before and I've never been the last one to come in.  But, as M put it on her blog, these rides are not about speed, "they are about riding with the TEAM and being there for the participants".

GO TEAM!

Stats:

Max Speed: 34.4 mph

Avg Speed: 9.4 mph

Distance: 11.3 miles

My computer is new, because of that, my stats are a little sparse since I'm still learning it

2012 Goals

In the year 2012 I have 4 main goals.

1.  Complete America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, all 100 miles on June 3rd, and have a better ride than last years.  While the weather was out of my control last year, I think I wasn't completely prepared for the hills at the end of Tahoe.  In 2012, I will make it up Spooner without stopping.  I will finish all 100 miles and I won't be dead for the last 15. I plan to do all this while also mentoring other cyclists on Team In Training, helping them in any way I can, and raising lots o' money for LLS.  (see the Donate Now button the right? feel free to use it!)

2.  Complete at least 1 Sprint Triathlon (1/3 mi swim, 14 mi bike, 5k run) this summer, probably the same Peachtree City Sprint I did last year.  I want to improve my time dramatically.  Last year my results were:

• 302 out of 364 (Female overall)   
• 60th out of 67th (my age group Female 30-34)
• Swim time (1/3 mi): 10:09 - 117th Female overall
• Bike time: 46:34 - 212nd Female overall
• Bike pace: 18.00 mph
• Run time (this is where it's REAAAALLLY bad): 43:58 - 349th Female overall
• Run pace: 14:11 mph
• Overall time: 1:44:34

This year, I want to improve my rankings both Female overall and age group overall.  Specifically I want to accomplish the following:

• Swim time: under 10 minutes.  I know I can do this, I almost did it last year.
• Bike time: 42:00 
• Bike pace: 20.0 mph
• Run time: 32:00 
• Run pace: 10 mph
• Decrease overall time by: 15 minutes

3.  Complete at least 1 Olympic Distance Triathlon (swim 1.5 km, bike 25 miles and run 6.2 miles) this summer, Megan and I are looking at doing the Eleven Olympic distance in June.  This is another item on my bucket list that I've always wanted to accomplish.  The swim and bike are no problem for me, it's really the running that has always held me back.  I'm a terrible runner.  5ks are hard enough, why would I want to do a 10k??  I'm hoping that goals 2 and 3 will help each other.  As I'm training for longer distance triathlon, the sprint should feel "easier".  I think, when I look at the 5k run, I know I can muddle through that kind of distance (see last year ) - but a 10k run requires a lot more effort.  I can't just "make it" through.  Having this hefty goal I think will be good, my triathlon goals of last year were too easy - I didn't "have" to train.

4.  Overall, get in better shape and lead a healthier lifestyle.  What they say is true - you find someone you love and its easy to get fat and happy.  I know I can be happy without the extra fat.  This year, I want to maintain this lifestyle even after the training events of the summer and fall - which is not what I did last year.

Documenting my goals here is a way for me to hold myself accountable.  It's very easy to come up with excuses for why I didn't work out one day, or why I didn't eat right this day, but it's going to be hard to admit that I had these goals in January and somehow couldn't manage to complete them in an entire year.  I'ts not that I think these are easy goals to complete, I don't, but I think they are perfectly reasonable, given the time frame, to accomplish.

2012 America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride

After riding 100 miles last June around Lake Tahoe, I thought that would be my last ride around "the lake".  But, when I looked back at what a wonderful season it was, I realize how much I took away from Team In Training.  I became a better cyclist, I met some wonderful people and I raised a lot of money for a great cause.  I decided I had to this one more time....and I wanted to get more involved.  This year I am a mentor for 2012 America's Most Beautiful bike ride and I hope to help some new cyclist or someone new to TNT have as wonderful a season as I had last year.  I'm really looking forward to it.

In order to do that, I still need to raise lots of money!! So....there will be another raffle this year - I just picked out the fabrics today!

2012 TNT Quilt Raffle fabrics!

The colors are inspired by my wish for sunny weather this go around at Lake Tahoe!

Donations translate into chances to win this quilt!! Keep in mind your donations are 100% tax deductible.

$5 - 1 Chance
$25 - 6 Chances
$50 - 15 Chances
$100 - 50 Chances

Please consider donating - your donations go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the world's largest nonprofit supporter of blood cancer research.

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride 2011

Here it is, the end of 2011 and I realize I have been putting off writing about my ride around Lake Tahoe for about 6 months.  Part of it was that I wanted to complete the quilt I raffled off prior to posting my experience - and that still is not 100% complete though it's about 95% there.  I wanted to add a personalized note on the back of the quilt, which required me to purchase some fabric markers, I finally picked some up about 2 weeks ago.  I now have them so there is nothing in my way!!  I'll post an updated picture of the completed quilt prior to sending it off to the winners: Jennifer and Brendan Meyer!

My ba-donka-donk full of everything I might need
on the ride

Okay - so the ride.   We had to load up with several layers of clothing because of the cold and wet weather.  We also all had fuzzy peaches affixed to our helmets (TNT tradition - each chapter has their own item attached to their helmet - i saw SPAM, a tornado made out of pipe cleaners complete with flying cows, tomatoes, and many others). The ride started pretty early, it was still dark out (though the fact that there were thunderstorms and rain greatly increased the darkness).  It was in the 30s or low 40s but with the wet rain and lack of sun it felt FREEZING.   I had purchased some shoe covers earlier in the week - hoping they would help keep my feet warm - but they did not do much to help at all - my feet were freezing and eventually they just went numb.

I'm the third one back in the blue jacket - brrrrr!

No one had told me they were going to close the course when we rode on it, and in retrospect that was kind of a dumb thing to think considering the length of the course, but for some reason I thought that the road would be have less cars.  We approached Emerald Bay, the steep switchbacks I had rode up the day before and I was so glad to have ridden up them already.  This was the one part of the course where they closed the road, but only in the direction we were riding.  As we were going up the switchback, cars were still coming down in the opposite direction - still scary.  I may not have gone very fast, but I made my way up Emerald Bay, this time, without stopping until I got to the top.  Once at the top I found myself breathing extremely heavy and needed to pull over to catch my breath but it felt great to even get that small amount of improvement over the day before.

As planned, we rode past the first SAG stop - it was a beautiful view, and we had stopped the day before to take pictures because as we were warned, it was a mad house!  We regrouped just past the SAG stop and started into unventured territory.  I remember this was a big deal the day of the ride.  Up until that point, I had ridden everything the day before, but the next 85 miles were all new and I wasn't really sure what to expect.  We rode along, it was still cold but the rain wasn't as hard so it was starting to feel a little better.  I remember riding along and someone pointed out the first glimpse of sky between the clouds.  It was very small, but I was hoping the clouds would just part and oh, what a story it would be that the first 15 miles of the ride were in the freezing rain.

Starting to clear

The next stop we had was a SAG stop for our GA Chapter only.  One of our teammates, Lauren, had her family out supporting us, it was great!  The clouds were starting to show some blue peeping through.

The rest of the events are not necessarily in order as it all kinda mushed together since I didn't get this down 6 months ago.  But these are the memories I take from the ride:


Below is a picture from one of the SAG stops and as you could tell even though the sun was out a little, it was still cold and wet.  Approximately 10 min after this picture was taken Debbie ended up getting her tire caught in a rut in the road that was full of water and very difficult to see.  Thank goodness for a good helmet and her thumb is almost healed!

We made friends with some "Sacramento Tomatoes" who showed us a secret bathroom before the big bathroom stop so we didn't have to wait in line for 20 minutes.

I was suprised at the number of cars on the road - not only cars, but rude cars.  At some point during the ride I remember a car speeding along very close and very fast next to bike riders and then basically riding the back tire of the next group of riders beeping and just being a jerk.  When the riders would slide over to let him by, he picked up speed and raced to the next group where he did basically the same thing.  I was really surprised.  I thought the area would be aware and know of the bike ride going on....and support it.  It brought a lot of new people to Lake Tahoe and we were all supporting a good cause.

The distance around the lake is only 72 miles, so there is a 28 mile out and back to Truckee to make it the full 100 miles.  The ride into Truckee was fine, the ride out of Truckee was a hellish downpour.  And that was another 25ish miles of rain.

After all the rain, there really were some beautiful views.

Super clear water

Biking Crew

I remember exclaiming "I feel great!" and  "This feels terrific!" Several times until we hit around mile 82/83ish.  At that point we were on Spooner, the 7 mile slow incline, and I was done.  My body was tired.  I could feel the sunburn on my face.  My legs were barely moving.  My stomach was not feeling 100%.  I was not able to keep up with my best riding buddies.  I wanted nothing more than to get off the bike and just walk up the hill, but I refused.  I pulled over a few times to regain some more breath and strength - I'm not sure if that helped or hurt me but I was moving so slow that I didn't really lose that much momentum.  My friend Dan (a recent survivor - his Lymphoma is in remission) looked like he was feeling much the same way I was.  He would pass me, and then I would pass him, and that continued for most of the 7miles of Spooner.  We'd mutter a little "hey" but speaking was just too much at that point.

When Spooner was over, there were some really great descents, and I probably took them a little too fast because I was sooooo ready to be off the bike.  I don't remember how far, but at some point I coming down a hill I saw Charlotte and Libby hanging out in a parking lot on the right....I was near tears at seeing them because I was so happy to hopefully ride with them again!

About 2 miles out from the finish line, one of the mentors thought it would be a good idea to wait and then have us all ride in together. While this is a good idea in theory, my mood, my legs, my stomach, none of me was having it.  We were waiting for some others to come in and we were told that they were about 20-30 min back.  I felt terrible but I knew I could not wait that long.  I could see the finish line - and all I wanted to do was get off my bike and go sit on a real toilet.  I said I could not wait that long and Dan said neither could he.  So Dan, Libby and I went off to finish the course.

From the left:  Libby, me, Dan's friend, and Dan approaching the finish line.

Coming up to the finish line I was overwhelmed with emotion.  It flashed through my head what had just happened - I raised $3900 for LLS, I trained for close to 6 months, I met some amazing people, I just biked 100 freakin' miles (bucket list item), and I'm crossing the line with new friends that I would not have met had I not joined TNT - one of whom, is in recovery...and teammates who had finished earlier than we had were all waiting and cheering us on.  I burst into tears.  Several of my teammates was asked if I was okay, I think they thought I was hurt.  Nope - just happy and proud to be done.

At that point - I felt like I was done with Tahoe.  While I completed the course, I felt that between the weather, losing all energy at 82ish miles, Spooner, stomach issues - that was it for me.  I might do another century but it certainly wouldn't be Tahoe.

Turns out I was wrong.

Getting to Lake Tahoe

The night before we left - I had a hard time sleeping.  I fell asleep okay but then woke up at 3am and didn't go back to sleep.  I actually got up at 4:45 - took a shower and finished packing everything I needed that morning.  A (my roommate for the trip) road over to my house and we carpooled to the airport.  The flights out were pretty uneventful, everyone was excited.  When we landed in Reno we took a bus to the hotel.  The hotel name was Harvey's and having never been to AMBBR before, I expected a motel looking place - but turns out Harvey's is a casino affiliated with Harrah's - ha.  Needless to say, the hotel was pretty nice.


After checking in, it was time to pick up our bikes.  My bike was undamaged but there were several teammates who had chunks out of their tires, or bikes were scratched up.  One bike was badly damaged and the tires had to be replaced - yikes.  All of the ride-preventing items were fixed before ride day.


The weather was crappy and the forecast called for rain Saturday and thunderstorms on ride day...boo.  A and I must have checked the weather almost hourly just to see if anything had changed - we were kinda bummed about the weather.


Friday night we the team rented a yacht and we took it around Lake Tahoe - it was a lot of fun.  It was also extremely cold, there was an upper deck of the yacht that provided a great view, but it was just too cold to sit outside - even with the provided blankets.  I spent most of my time in the inside portion of the yacht, only popping out to take pictures.   By the end of it we were all pretty tired.


Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast at a local cafe, went to pick up our packets for the ride and then off to the bike shake out.  We left a little late due to the fact that we all needed to pump up our tires and we were sharing 1 pump.  When we headed out, it was raining a little bit but not too bad.  It was overcast with dark grey clouds.  My plan was to ride out with the group going to Emerald Bay  and just ride to the base of the hill.  I didn't want to push it before the big day.  We rode out and then stopped at a great spot to take a group picture - looking out over the lake, it was beautiful - even though it was overcast.   We then headed up to the base of Emerald Bay and somehow I was convinced to keep going.  I looked up at the switchbacks and immediately thought - uh, no, there is no way this is going to happen.  But, I was wrong because it really wasn't as hard as it looked.  I had to stop twice and then once again at the top to catch my breath - the altitude affected me more than I anticipated.    I got to the top and we rode to an area where you could take pictures and we did - it was great.  Apparently on ride day this area is FULL of people and just in general a cluster so we took all our pictures Saturday so we wouldn't stop on Sunday.  The ride down was a blast too. It was raining a little bit harder, and it was slick, but I dropped down on my handlebars and feathered my brakes - it was great.


The ride back to the hotel - not so great.  The rain picked up, we were freezing, and there was a lot more traffic and a lot of cars did not seem to like us being on the road.  We were really glad to get back to the hotel safely.


The rest of the day we ran errands, had our inspiration dinner to carb up, and went to bed early so we'd be prepared for the ride the next day.