So a few of us are doing a relay race tomorrow night. It's called the "FILA Relays" and they're being held in Zilker Park. The idea is that you get a team of 4 people and each of you runs a 2.5 mile loop, then you get to drink beer and eat tacos afterwards! Our team consists of: Me, Gordon, Nedra and Mike (in that order). Mike has been bragging about how fast he is now so we've put him in the all important, team critical, anchor position. He even gets to wear a special race number. Let's just hope that he doesn't try and run 2 loops, because he apparently has trouble counting...
I never thought I'd become so weather obsessed. Every day for the past few weeks I've been checking the weather forecast at least several times per day, reviewing the long range forecast, and constantly sighing (and occasionally swearing, okay more like frequently swearing :)) when it seemed that it was NEVER going to drop below 100F. Well, yesterday it was only 95F, and this morning it was pleasantly cool (since when does low 70's feel pleasantly cool?). Even better, it actually rained this morning and might actually rain some more today. Yee-haw!
Of course, it's supposed to climb back up to 100F this weekend, but at least a few days reprieve might help to restore my sanity, and restore my blogging frequency :)
and it's still hot!
*grump*
I normally love August - some of my favourite people were born in August (Mum, Dad, Julie, Paul). But this year August is becoming a little hard to take... it's been over 100F for 14 days out of the last 18, the other 3 days were 99F and today it's supposed to hit 104F! No relief in sight either. Weather predictions are 100+ for the next 10 days. It's certainly made working out tough this week, we've still done it (72 miles on the bike, 4.25 miles running), but I would have to say that it has definitely taken its toll. I feel pretty tired and un-enthusiastic today. Which definitely means that today needs to be an exercise-free day!
Speaking of warm weather patterns, when I spoke to Mum and Dad earlier this week, they said it has been unseasonably warm in Adelaide, which is currently in its winter season.
Seems like it's hot everywhere.
Okay, I'll stop whingeing now :)
Gordon and I did the monthly 8mi bike time trial last night... it was 101F and 12mph winds, so pretty tough conditions!
Gordon started a little bit ahead of me, so I spent the first 4 miles (to the turnaround point) trying to catch him... and I did! Then he passed me back around the 6 mile mark. I worked hard to keep pace and I was able to pass him again right near the end. I beat him by 30s! So victory was mine last night :)
I felt like I was working harder than last month, but my speed was only 22.1mph compared to 22.2mph last month. But it was pretty tough out there last night. September will be the last TT for the year and I'm looking forward to some cooler weather!
is faaaast... zoom zoom zoom.
We did a few loops of the South MoPac autobahn loop tonight. Gordon passed me like I was standing still.
I am worried. Very worried...
Kate and Tim's wedding invitation arrived in the mail today... I am SO excited! The wedding invitation is just perfect - simple and elegant and no-fuss. Exactly like Kate and Tim. They have the cutest theme on their invitation - a sailboat (for Tim), a shopping bag (for Kate), and a love heart (just because they're too adorable). When I saw the words "To celebrate the marriage of Kate and Tim" I have to admit that I gave a little squeal of delight and it suddenly hit me that WOW, my little sister is getting married! She is going to be the most stunning bride you could ever possibly imagine. I know that they're going to have such a happy life together. Okay, I'll stop now because I'm starting to get all teary!
My coach emailed me this morning to congratulate me on my age group win at the Blanco triathlon this past Saturday... win? What is she talking about, I came 2nd in my age group, didn't I? Hmmm... maybe I should double check the results and see if something has changed... Yup, I'm now listed as winning my age group and the previous winner is marked as "DNF" (Did Not Finish). But why did she go from winning to DNF? So I emailed Raul (the owner of the chip timing company) and discovered that the woman was actually a no-show and a male friend of hers accidentally wore her chip... oops!
So... that means that I actually WON my age group last Saturday and finished 2nd overall among the women. That's my 2nd age group win this year! Woo-hoo! I'll be turning pro soon, ha ha ha.
It's funny, because at the awards ceremony the race organizer accidentally gave me the gold medal instead of the silver, but then realised his mistake and gave me the silver. If only he'd known at the time!
So it was a pretty good morning overall. Managed to get a good nights sleep despite the early start time of 4:30am, and I actually managed to wake up in a good mood (not grumpy like I was last night - sorry Gordon and sorry Mum who had to put up with me on the phone!). I'd been feeling pretty tired all week and although I did ramp down the workouts (only did 1 swim, 1 bike and 1 run) my legs still felt tired and overall I didn't have the same energy as usual. I also had a busier week at work so that probably made me feel a little bit more tired.
Anyway, so I had no expectations going into this race, I just wanted to enjoy doing a shorter race for a change! My "kind of" goal was to come in under 2 hours, and that's all.
We made it to Blanco around 6am and headed over to the chaos of the transition area. Probably the most dis-organised race I've done! Because the race organisers are based in San Antonio, they only had race packet pick-up in San Antonio and not Austin. The end result: there was a huge line of people that needed to pick up their race packet the morning of the race. At about 6:30am I finally had my number... only 30 minutes until the start! I went and claimed a spot in the transition area and setup my gear. Then I did my usual walk around transition to check out the swim finish, bike out, bike in, and run out exits/entrances to the transition area. It was then that I realised just how long and narrow the transition area was! I walked for a good 100m before I saw the bike in/out... which meant that I would need to run with my bike for over 100m before being able to exit the transition area. Not good. So I found a spot on a rack closer to the bike in/out, ran back to get my gear, scooped everything up and made my way to the new transition area as quickly as possible, re-set everything up, then looked at my watch - 6:50, only 10 minutes to the start and I still had another 300m to walk to get to the swim start, as well as make sure my timing chip was registered... finally got my chip checked and made it down to the swim start a little after 7am. I needn't have rushed. There was no way they were starting at 7am! They ended up starting the Mini Gator racers (400m swim / 10mi bike / 3k run) first, and gave them a good 10 minutes before they sent the El Grande racers - the race I was doing - (800m swim / 20mi bike / 6k run) off.
The swim course was kind of strange due to low water in the Blanco River (it has been a dry summer here in Austin). So we did a funky zigzag course to make up the 800m (well, actually a little less). But swimming in the river was nice! I enjoyed swimming by the river bank and the water was a good temperature. The last 100 yards of the swim was very shallow and rocky - impossible to keep swimming in, so we had to run/walk the rest of the way in. It wasn't too bad, except that I kept expecting the rocks to be sharp so I was pretty careful coming in and could have actually gone a bit quicker.
The bike course was really pretty, very scenic, and hilly! It was uphill all of the way out to the 10 mile turnaround point, so it was a little slow going and quite tiring. But on the way back I was able to really push the pace and ended up with an average of 18mph. I'm pretty happy with that. I saw Gordon near the end of the bike course taking pictures and I gave him a big grin.
I felt pretty strong starting the run, and knowing that I only had to run 3.7 miles (instead of 13.1 miles like at Lubbock!) made things a little easier. I knew that it would only be another 30 minutes of hard work. At all the run turnaround points I kept seeing another woman behind me, slowly creeping up on me, but I'm very pleased to say that she never caught me! I managed to hold her off, which for me was a big achievement for the day. About halfway during the run I started to feel like I didn't want to run anymore, but after checking how I was feeling I realised it was all mental and that I felt strong and smooth and so I kept going and held a good pace. Ended up running 8:14 pace for the 6k run, which I was very pleased with. I still have a lot of work to do on my run, but it's getting there...
I finished in 1:54:47, 2nd in my age group and 3rd overall woman! I was very chuffed. We stayed for the awards ceremony where I received my medal. I was hoping for a bottle of wine, but only the 1st overall woman got that, they're not big spenders on the prizes unfortunately! Oh well, I can add the medal to my ceramic bowl that I won at the Rookie triathlon earlier this year :)
The next big race is Jack's Generic triathlon on Labour Day (September 4th). Gordon and I are racing each other for bragging rights, it should be a close race so stay tuned!
PS Gordon took some great photos, I'll post the link when they're up!
I can't believe my little sister is getting married in 9 weeks! Which also means that I'll be back in Australia in 9 weeks, woo-hoo! I feel a bit lucky that I get to have two trips home this year.
My legs feel quite tired today. I've been resting up a bit this week, in preparation for my sprint triathlon on Saturday morning and the metric century ride up in San Angelo on Sunday. So my legs are feeling a little achy/tired. I hope they'll be raring to go by Saturday!
Blues on the Green was fun, as usual, last night. I must say that I think I finally have the picnic organization down to a fine art! The first night I showed up I had an esky, a soft-sided esky, and one other bag. Last night I just had the soft-sided esky! My only failure was the frozen water bottles that never de-frosted. Oh well... nothing is perfect, even me :) (I know that might come as quite a shock to some of you)
I'm off swimming tonight, looks like it's still pretty warm outside (100F / 37C) so it should be great weather for a swim. Hopefully Maurice and Chrissie won't work us too hard!
I'm hungry. I've been snacking all day but I'm still hungry and I won't get to have dinner until about 8:45pm tonight!
That's about it.
