When things go bump

I cycle therefore I fall.......a lot. 

Some people believe that I'm just a klutz (which I am, lol) and can't handle a bicycle but it's more a case of I train with mostly guys and thus tend to push kinda hard sometimes.  Thursday's fall wasn't quite that though. I'd gone out on a training ride to Griffithville with James and a couple of others and we ended up getting caught in a thunderstorm that was preceded by some fairly strong winds.  James & I were almost back to the shop incident free when the bike went out from under me in the middle of a turn.  Wasn't going particularly fast (12-15 mph) and wasn't on the brakes, just hit a patch of oil that hadn't been washed completely away by the rain.  Rain + oil + skinny tires = very, very, very slick :-(.  No time to unclip just felt the rear wheel slide out from under me and down I went on my left side & uttering a very loud "FUCK".  Quite an interesting sensation feeling my helmet-encased head bounce off the pavement.  Yeah, that would have busted the melon wide open.  Anyways got myself unclipped, got up to make sure there were no busted bones then rode on to the shop where we got my hoods back into place and made sure the brakes weren't hanging up on the rims.

This left me with road rash on my left leg and shoulder, big bump on my outer thigh, plus some bruising on my arm (can't see it because of the ink though) and face.  Oh and very, very, very sore.  Difficult lifting my arm up past shoulder height and couldn't sleep on my left side......It didn't crack my helmet but left a nice size dent.  Brand new helmet too, grrrr.

Anyways, good thing there was no permanent damage because I'd signed up for & even did some fundraising for the CARTI Tour de Rock, 62 mile option.  No way I wanted to miss that after the generosity of my friends in donating money!!! Thanks to them I met my $250 goal :-))))

Saturday..........it was hot at 5 am and there were heat advisory warnings so between the wipeout and that I knew there was no way it was gonna be fast for me.  My only goal was to FINISH the 62 miles this year.  Thankfully I found that once I started cycling the hip and shoulder didn't bother me too much but my neck was getting godawful sore, ugh......

Despite the wind my group was able to keep a fairly decent clip thanks to a couple of the guys pulling us along at 20-24 mph for much of the ride.  Oh yeah, that wind was hellacious. I took my turn at the front a couple of times and each time was getting knocked sideways as well as being pushed back by it.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to not weigh very much and have a lightish road bike.  It was during one of the sections that we were doing over 20 mph when the guy behind me said hey, I think you've got a flat.......yep, I was cruising along in the line at that speed with a flat tire thanks to being able to draft. 

Ended up having a small piece of wire in the tire that punctured the tube but thanks to the Searcy pit crew and a few missteps with the co2 cartridges they got it changed very quickly.  Still it caused us to lose a lot of momentum.  I wasn't the only one with a flat yesterday though.....there were flats & blowouts everywhere!  One of my friends ended up blowing out after our last rest stop.  Oh and water bottles were all over the roads.....combo of potholes and people missing their cages while drinking on the roll. 

James had opted for the 50 mile route and he caught up & passed me while we were changing out the guy's tube that had blown out so I pushed hard to catch back up & rode the last 10 miles in with him.  A couple we're friends with caught up with us during that time & we got to visit with them for a while too which was quite nice :-)))). 

Hopefully my finish line photos turn out good. I finally learned how to pedal without holding onto the bars last month and I went through with my arms upraised even though it was killing my left shoulder. Been wanting to show that off, LOL!!!

Huge thank you to CARTI for having this event, all the volunteers, & the sponsors.  Everybody was very enthusiastic and whenever I'd say thank you to somebody they'd reply with "No, THANK YOU for riding today".  Awesome, awesome event and the goody bags were fantastic.  When going through mine afterwards I literally squealed when I found that my favorite mascara was part of the swag this year.  There were even Arkansas Travelers tickets for that night--that would be my only grumble is that the tickets were only good for that one game. No way was I gonna be able to stay awake to drive back down for a 7pm start time.  As a matter of fact, I fell asleep during the movie we were watching and was in bed by 10 minutes 'til 9 last night.

upcoming CARTI Tour de Rock

Ok, I'm truly terribly awful about fundraising........believe it or not I am actually very shy so I have a hard time asking people to donate money even for really, really, really good causes and services like CARTI.  That is why a lot of time I'll just anonymously donate money for other people or just participate in events benefiting charities.  It's also why I'll probably never enter a large marathon as a charity runner.  Just don't have it in me to come out and ask people to donate in my name. 

BUT.......this time I'm stepping out of my comfort zone albeit a bit late (only 6 days left for the TDR, eeep!).  Please consider donating to the Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute even if it's not through my fundraising page.  If you do want to make a tax-deductible donation to help me out, you can do so here.  Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

Memorial Day Du for the Parks pics

Flags at the Transportation Depot

Transition 1

Leaving out of T1 for the bike portion

Coming in hard at the end of the bike portion

Gasping like a fish & praying I don't throw up at the end of run2

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I ADORE these people!!!!!!

Waiting for the kids du to start. The blue cap was my master's award

Elsie had the fire hydrant staked out :-)

Notice the death grip I have on the tree

uh, yeah............

Do you want to du?

This year is the 2nd one in a row for me to race the Du For The Parks Duathlon in Hot Springs on Memorial Day.  I quite like this one :-), the run portion is nice and flat, lol.  Since this was a repeat race for me I did have a time goal in mind, kinda wanted to knock 5 minutes off last years time of 1:14:13. Alas, it was not to be, mostly due to the fact that I have done ZERO brick workouts again and the very warm and humid temps were a sharp contrast to last year's unseasonably cool, misty day.  I was also still stressed, feeling a bit ill, and tired from Saturday's 8k.  Elsie also woke us up at 0327 sick as a......well, dog.....  Wow, queen of excuses aren't I?

Anyways, you'd think I was disappointed with my performance after that build-up but nope. I'm quite pleased with most of my race.

Breakdown of this year versus last year.  Note G/O stands for girl/overall, the placement of where I was after each leg.  2 mile run/12 mile bike/2 mile run.

2009  Run1  15:19         
2010  Run1  15:14  Not much difference here.  G/O 7/51

2009 T1  1:05
2010 T1  :54   Huge improvement on my transition time

2009 Bike  40:21
2010 Bike  38:37  My cycling is very strong this year.  G/O  4/42

2009 T2  :52
2010 T2  :31  I tied with one other woman on fastest time out of transition here

2009 Run2   16:38
2010 Run2   17:53  G/O 11/63 

2009 Overall time 1:14:13
2010 Overall time 1:13:06

6/44 females
48/117 overall
I won 1st place female masters

So a personal record here :-).  As you can see, my transition times were dramatically better than last year, the cycling time was a bit faster but my run times this year sucked.  HAVE TO DO AT LEAST ONE BRICK before the next duathlon in July!!!

A few thoughts about the race.....the heat killed me on the run.  I'd woken up several times Saturday night sweating out a fever and pretty much spent all of Sunday on the couch.  I should've sat this race out but I'm a bit stupid/stubborn sometimes (most of the time, lol).  During the first run I had chills and again I should've called it quits instead of pushing on.

Cycling this year is going very well, especially if you take into consideration that I'm only getting 1-2 rides in a week. Part of the reason for that is because of all the trainer work I put in while my ankle was sprained and the fact that I'm pushing myself to ride with the stronger riders in our area even though it means I'm usually at the back of the pack and they have to wait on me quite a lot.  Fortunately, most of the time the guys are very patient. This really paid off Monday in the rolling hills at Hot Springs.  I was passing guys the entire race going uphill.  Most of the time they would pass me right back on the downhills (darn aerodynamic tri-bikes!) but I was able to put quite a few of 'em behind me too.  What I need to work on here--being more aggressive when we get packed up and making sharp turnarounds.  After the turnaround point I ended up catching a group of guys and 3 times when I was passing, I ended up getting cut-off which left me with 3 options....1)run over 'em 2) grab the brakes or 3) move out into the opposing lane which was also against the rules.  I ended up grabbing the brakes but I was cursing them under my breath, grrrr.

Run 2 time sucked..........no ifs, ands, or buts........it sucked.  I was way slower than last year and while I'm usually slower on the second run portion anyway, it shouldn't have been that much.  Literally, I was shuffling and huffing like a freight train, my only goal here was not to stop because I knew if I took a walk break I wasn't going to be able to run again.  I thought I was going to throw up afterwards and I so did not want to be one of those who puked at the finish line :-(.

I did get several compliments afterwards.....one of the guys in the group that kept cutting me off came by and said that I was an extremely strong cyclist and one of the officials in/out of the bike area asked me how it went. I laughed and told him I survived, at that he told me that he thought I did EXTREMELY well.  That made my day :-))))).  My running club was very well represented with almost all of us, if not all taking home awards.  However I raced wearing my Bike City jersey.  Gotta give my favorite bike shop props & love, lol.

How long is an 8k?

Today it was entirely too long but for the mileage based people like me, it's 4.97 miles.........

So a personal record of sorts since it's my first ever 8k :-p..............Stress, exhaustion, not feeling well, under-hydration, heat, and humidity all contributed to a sucky race today, blech.  Great news is that James finished strong :-).

Mile 1 was 7:41, what's the refrain folks? Yeah, started OUT TOO FAST!!!!!!!!! Grrr, need to find somebody to put a leash on me for that first mile, lol.  Actually felt good but I think it was because of being in such a crowd that I didn't have time to think about what I was doing.

Mile 2--8:15 but trying not to cry is interfering with my breathing :-(

Mile 3--8:17, if this was a 5k it'd be almost over!!!!  Starting to feel like giving up via taking a walk & waiting for James to catch up with me. Resisted though

Mile 4--8:52, yep. gave up on this mile. Took a walk break thru the water station. It's hot, the side of the bridge is reflecting heat back onto us and it's flatout miserable. If I was fast I'd be at the finishline, sigh.  Oh forgot to mention the damn footbridge that wobbles when you get too many people running across it, ugh....feels like I'm gonna fall facefirst every time I cross it which was two times too many. I want to puke.

Mile 5 (sorta)--8:07.  Had allowed way too many females to pass me on miles 3 and 4 and let them get too much of a lead to outkick them near the end. sigh.........not that there was much of a kick on the last mile, shoulda been under 8 minutes.

Final stats
8k in 41:14 (8:18 average)
23/138 female
104/282 overall
3/22 age group

After I was done I turned around to do a run/walk back to Charity to run in with her :-).  Fought the dehydration stitch for almost the entire way, ouch....Me and my garmin also weren't communicating too well today, well that would be me not hitting restart whenever I stopped it so lost just over 1/2 a mile on my warmup. 

Dumbassery

So yeah, today was an exercise in dumbassery for a few of the things I did this morning.

Here's what you SHOULDN'T do when heading out for a run, especially if you're a female out on the road hoofing it solo (both trucking & working out).  The amazing thing is that I know better, grrrr!!!!!!1

First off, you should always tell/call/message somebody when you head out for a run letting them know where you're going and how long you plan on being gone.......I did none of this, didn't even get on twitter before heading out to say what I was up to.

Next, carry a phone if you're trying out a new route.....especially if you didn't do the previous thing about notifying somebody.......You never know if you're going to run into semi-rabid dogs, weirdos following you around, miss your turn and get sorta-lost.  The latter is what I did today by the way :-(.

Carry cash!!!!!!  Even if the cashiers grimace at your sweaty money it could be a life-saver.  Like if you miss your turn and get semi-lost and didn't bring any water with you.  Sigh......

Now, I did remember to carry my pepper spray and wear my road id so I wasn't a complete idiot (just damn near it).  But yeah, all those other things that you should do that's common sense.....I didn't do.

Today's 3-5 mile run I had planned ended up being 7.82 miles in muggy, humid Henderson, Louisiana this morning.  I was so hot & dehydrated by the time I got back to my big truck that I was sporting some goose bumps.....Bright side, I ended up in Cecilia, LA so while I didn't have the opportunity to explore the downtown, I do know how to get there from the truckstop I always park at, lol.

Stolen idea & a few of the amazing people I know

Yep, I'm admitting to a bit of theft here......a friend had put up a quite well-written blog post last week talking about friends, friendship, and the people he knows--all without naming any names, lol, so I'm not quite sure I'm included in that group ;-).  However, I'm going to be a name namer here with discussing some of the amazing people I know and some of the events in their lives.

First off, there's Jeff Clark, the marathon trucker, somebody who I greatly admire & have exchanged multiple emails with.  He was in the process of completing his 9th marathon last Sunday when he had an "event".  You can read the details here in the blog he writes for Truckers News.  Jeff is amazingly & tirelessly dedicated to trying to improve the health & fitness education of truck drivers and others involved with the industry.  I'm personally seeing the toll in friends right now who've driven anywhere from 25-40 years and didn't take the time to care for themselves as well as they did the freight they've hauled.  Wishing you all the best Jeff!

Next, Leah Thorvilson..........She's fast, funny, fast, friendly, fast, foxy, fast (all right enough with my love of alliteration already).  Ok, if you people that follow marathoners don't know who Leah is shame on you!!!!!!!!  She lives in Little Rock and I have had the great luck to have shared many a local race course with her albeit waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back behind her in the pack.  And why should you know her? She's FAST (as well as an all around amazing person, which is the most important part).  As a matter of fact, she's so speedy that she qualified for the Olympic trials yesterday at the Fargo Marathon :-))))). You can read a little bit about it here.  I must say that while I get to speak to her occasionally that I'm in such awe of her that I get too quiet and don't quite take the opportunity to talk to her as much as I would like (yeah, I'm a bit shy, lol).

On the down side, we ran into a couple who we've not seen in a few years although we keep talking about dropping in & saying hi.  We should have been doing so because we found out yesterday that Dick has lymphoma and will be starting his 2nd round of chemo tomorrow.  Such sad news, but he's a fighter so hoping all goes extremely well.

A new acquaintance is Mike that I finally got to meet yesterday after hearing so much about him.  He's paralyzed I think from the waist down but he's even more active than I am!!!!!! He's a competitive hand-cyclist, kayaker, jet-skier, swimmer, competes in triathlons, who all knows what else.......Anyways he makes me look like a slacker in the athletic dept, lol.  James & him have struck up quite the friendship already & come to find out we've competed in quite a few of the same events.

I could go on and on with this subject but, unfortunately I don't have all day to just write (and it would take at least that long!!!!!!!!).

Running is going well, cycling even better although the past 2 weeks have been kinda off on the 2-wheeled mileage, grrrr.  I have been tired this week--got ready to go out for a ride Thursday, laid down to cuddle with Elsie and promptly fell asleep so there went one of my days.  I certainly didn't want to get on the trainer so just chalked this up to a rest week. 

Monday:  2:01(20:55) mile easy run at Pulaski, TN, includes 3/4 of the way up water tower hill

Tuesday:  6:24 (59:07) mile run at Breaux Bridge, LA. Was followed by somebody all over town in a pickup. couple of times is coincindence, 5 times=stalking, yuck

Wednesday:  4.01 (35:56) run at Cotulla, TX

Thursday: 1.22 (13:20) mile slog around the neighborhood with Elsie

Friday:  3.01 (29:42) mile neighborhood run with Elsie again

Saturday:  7.62 (1:18:06) miles at the NLR RiverTrail with some of the Cabot Cruisers (mostly Brice, Patti, and Isabella) followed up with birthday breakfast for Lisa (who is also moving to Dallas in mid-June).  also 1.2 mile walk across & back on the bridge to the River Market.

Sunday:  No run yet, but will do at least a mile for day 21 of the Twitter 30 Day Run Challenge later.  30 miles cycling with Alyson and James.  Today was a T.I.T.S. ride (time in the saddle) with no pushing hard for me, needing to rest the legs.  I did do one-leg drills for a bit and practiced riding with no hands on the bars.  We also had a few hills but no hammering up them today.

Actually should call today's ride Turtle Rescue Ride, we stopped and moved at least 4 turtles out of the road so they wouldn't get squished.  And yes, we moved them in the direction they were going although the first one hissed at me when I picked it up. Was almost tempted to put it back down in the road, lol (just kidding, I wouldn't do that!!!!!!).  There was also a four foot long black snake that had been run over out on Hwy 367, I swear that snake's body was as big around as my calf.

I mentioned riding with no hands--I just learned how to do that last week!!!!!!!  Was jealous of those crossing the finish lines with both arms raised & was determined to learn how.

We also took the motorcycles out for a spin Friday evening, sooooo love it but remembered why I don't go out very often on mine very often anymore--the seat hurts my back after about 25 miles.  Need to start doing some research on those & replace my badlander even if it does look good.  Just don't want one of those over-padded, over-sized behemoth seats, yuck :(.

Yeah, I ride Harley :-).  Those that claim they're pieces of crap can just go on believing their misguided little thoughts, lol.  My softy is 8 years old and hub's eglide is 10 years old and the only problems have been due to disuse & misuse on my part--this is my first bike, learned to ride on a Buell Blast then rode hub's Honda 750 until we bought the Softail.  Nothing at all against other bike makes, as a matter of fact I would love to get a Triumph or a Ducati, just the people who feel it's ok to slam what I choose to ride.

Wow, this ended up being kinda long-winded so those that were hoping for the shorter format to continue are a bit out of luck.

Next weekend, James' and my 22nd anniversary, the Rock Run 8k, maybe the RiverFest 5k, and the Du it in the Parks sprint duathlon.  As for now, time to think about getting Lola loaded up and heading out for the week.

Kinda suckish

I'm exhausted......but this ended up being one of those nights where something happened or was said right before time for bed and I find myself unable to go to sleep.  So y'all are going to get an update on my kinda sucky week so far.

Realized earlier today that I actually get TWO Mondays! My work week starts Sunday afternoon or evening depending on how long it takes me to get motivated to leave so there's MY Monday.  Then the next day I get to deal with everybody else dealing with THEIR Monday.......blech!!!!!!!

So my "Monday" starts off with thunderstorms, high winds, and flooding all before I even get to my big truck.  That set the pace for the entire trip from N. Little Rock to Pulaski, TN.  Traffic on I40 is always bumper to bumper anyway so throw in some hellacious sheeting rain and you end up going 35 mph for 50-60 miles.  Storms would pause just long enough for me to roll my shoulders and then it was back to fighting the steering wheel to keep my truck in the proper lane. On and on and on......well for 330 miles anyways.

This morning finds me dealing with a cranky crew at Pulaski plus a very obnoxious driver who sooooo didn't deserve the Peterbilt he was driving.  He bitched and moaned about Highway 64 and how slow it was, demanded to know where I was going, how long it would take me, what route I was going, etc.  None of this was done in a polite, friendly tone of voice and to top it off he wouldn't even allow me to finish one sentence before snapping out another question.  I very quickly went back to playing on my iphone & tried to ignore his obnoxious arse.  After this he then proceeded to tell me that a state trooper had the audacity to write him a speeding ticket for 4 miles over the speed limit.  Well, so what.....I was pulled over for 5 mph over in that same area 3ish years ago but only received a warning because I was POLITE to the officer. Wow, what a concept.....If he talked to the cop the way he did me, no wonder he got the ticket.

The trip to Gadsden was fairly uneventful and I got out quickly but Lola the truck decided to be a temperamental bitch and started going haywire when I got off at the Steele, AL exit to fuel.  It started when I had to come to a sudden stop when another driver pulled out in front of me. When I had to stop suddenly, my truck was in the middle of changing gears and that confused the hell out of the computer.  Display on the dash started flashing 5 (the gear I was sorta in when I had to come to a sudden stop) and the truck wouldn't shift up or down, even when I switched to the manual override.  So I end up limping the truck into the fuel stop with it surging and sounding like I had no clue how to drive.  I knew from experience that if I shut the truck down for 15-30 minutes that the computer would end up resetting itself.  The trick was to get into a parking spot with the transmission going haywire. I didn't want to be nose in, in case the computer didn't reset & I had to be towed to a shop. 

This finds me in a bit of a predicament because the truck usually won't go into reverse while this is occurring (listen to me, sounds like it happens all the time, but this was only the 2nd time).  Thankfully, there are some spots that are kind of downhill so I just line up for a spot & hope that the truck will coast backward into it all the way.  It did, thank gawd, surging & jerking all the way, lol.......Once I get parked, I shut the truck off & wait a few moments, then turn the key.......Lola's engine isn't turning over at all, EEP!!!!!!!!

So, deep breath, decide to go in, get my shower and come back out to see what happens then.......Lola starts!!!!!!! and goes into gear!!!!!!!!  We're in business.....or are we?  Get to the fuel island, leave the truck idling, fuel up, get back in & start to pull forward...........oh great, the transmission is confused again.......it's at this point I'm thinking that uh-oh, this is not gonna turn out good.  Go inside, get my receipt and explain to the fuel desk attendant that I need orange cones placed behind my truck because I'm gonna be there a while.  She was cool about it and understood right off why I was requesting them (so that other trucks didn't line up behind me to wait for fuel).  That is not a super busy fuel stop yet, thankfully, so I caused a minimal amount of delays.  This time though, I took the added step of going into the battery box and disconnecting the main cable--this speeds up the reset process.

Finally get the damn truck going again and head out to try and get to Louisiana at a reasonable hour only to find that 10 miles down the road a tanker truck had wrecked and gone into the median not 5-6 minutes prior to me arriving there.....  There was debris everywhere though, big chunks of metal & plastic but all the traffic was able to zigzag around it & get on by before the emergency crews shut everything down. The driver was out and walking around, so it's a relief knowing he came out of it ok, whew.......

That was the end of my problems though, so maybe the trip on down to Laredo will be smooth sailing from here on.....and hopefully I'll be able to get to sleep now.

The cause of today's headaches!!! Lola the truck in her resting place after coasting down the hill.

Don't call it a comeback......

Is it a comeback if you were never really "there" to begin with? Hmmm, deep philosophical question, eh? Or not, LOL!!!!!

So today was the Paws on the Pavement 5k that I almost said to heck with & went back to bed on.  Glad I didn't because I might have done kinda good today :-).  Not sure that anybody likes or reads the longish posts that I'm so bad about so just a quick synopsis for this one.

First off--it was wet!!!! Thunderstorms started yesterday afternoon so everything was soggy.

Next--it was humid!!! Can't breathe kinda humid, ugh.

Started off too fast (yeah, yeah, I know....) mile 1 7:16.....but I was 3rd place female in that mile, lol!!

Mile 2 7:48........got passed by 2 women, drat!

Mile 3 7:48..........omg, was that consistent!!!!!!

Mile 3.1 :51 a 6:45 pace.

23:43 per garmin, 23:44 on the clock. No clue what shows in the results.

So in a nutshell, was 5th place female, won 2nd place Female Masters award, and was 31st overall.

Afterwards walked around petting all the dogs, checked out the vendors, and shivered 'cause I didn't bring a change of warm clothes.  That be it :-).

So, tell me, do y'all prefer the long drawn out chatty posts or the quick wham-bam, thank you ma'am to the point format here?

just a little nutty

This rodent was visiting my house Monday. Cute thing but odd that it allowed me to get so close.

We also found a box tortoise in the back yard :-)

Seemed to have been so busy the past couple of weeks that the blog update was skipped last weekend.  Hesitant about posting this anyways since I was told that I'm always irritable last night/this morning since it's going to be a bit of a grumble about how cruddy last week was.  But you know what, it's my blog/life etc so they can just live with it, lol. Or not read it.....

First off, last week I got a much later start than what I should've simply because I dread going to this plant in Glasgow anyways.  The workers there are smart-asses and it's a late afternoon appointment that rarely comes out on time, grrr.  That ended up setting the tone for the week, running behind but no one to blame but myself.

A huge issue I have is so many drivers/dock workers/etc. seeming to think that I have no clue what I'm doing because of being female and working for what's known as a starter company in the trucking industry.  Most of the time I usually just laugh it off and look at it as a get out of jail free card if I don't get backed in the first (or second!) time but where I get serious is when somebody does something that's a bit boneheaded in the interest of "showing the new driver how it's done".  I had a bit of that Tuesday last.....

Most plants will require you to chock the wheels whenever you're backed up to a dock as an added safety precaution, the Glasgow plant requires you to double-chock them.  No big deal but as anybody knows who's been driving a while that if you shut the truck off and there's a forklift going in & out of the trailer that the airbags will settle & slightly deflate causing the wheels to settle in against the chocks.  After getting loaded I went to the back of my trailer to remove them but then realized that I was going to have to put the truck in reverse to back up off the chocks in order to get them out. 

No big deal, right?  My "problem" came about because there was an expeditied truckdriver that was having a bit of trouble lining up for a dock and he'd garnered quite an audience from the forklift drivers and shipping and receiving personnel.  I guess in order to try and save face, he came over to my truck & proceeded to tell me exactly what I needed to do.  I just smiled, agreed, said thanks, and went about my way.  He, in the meantime without telling me what he was planning to do, has walked to the back of my trailer and while I had the brake released and was bumping back up more firmly to the dock, puts his hand on the trailer wall and reaches down under the tires to grab the chocks!!!!!!!!!  While my vehicle is in motion!!!!!!!  Granted it was not at any speed but he didn't know me and I certainly didn't know him.  For all he knew I could have been one of these idiots that drives OVER the chocks instead.  And he could've been somebody that was looking for a chance to claim injury and sue. 

I have absolutely no problem with people helping, but damn it tell me what you're going to do!!!!!!!!!  don't assume anything.  I ended up jumping out of the truck and telling him while I appreciated the help, that he shouldn't have done that without letting me know he was going to.  Not the reaction he was expecting evidently because I was told he had a class A CDL and knew what he was doing, grrrrr.  James & I don't even do this stuff around the trucks without discussing it beforehand, the chance of not realizing what the other is up to is simply too great.

Later that night I stopped at a usual place to get the tandems slid to be legal for Tennessee and ended up having another odd encounter that was intended to be helpful.  Really, guys, I know y'all think you're being good samaritans and stuff but a little communication goes a long ways.......Don't just go to a woman's truck without asking if she wants or needs help and then expect her to be all smiles & giggles when she starts to get out of her truck and finds somebody at the rear of the trailer just standing there especially if it's dark out.  COMMUNICATE!!!!!  It's just creepy to not say a word.  and yeah, I'm not approaching you, geez, I will stand at the back of my cab and yell thanks but I have everything under control.  Sigh.....

Ok, grumble is over :-)

Bright side of things, training is going well.  Last Saturday's cycle hillfest went much better than the last time I rode that route. No crying and no cramps this time around, lol.  I think I've gotten my running base built back up and my plantar fasciitis pain in the left foot has all but disappeared, yay!  I am on day 10 of a 30 day run challenge.  No time or distance requirements just get out and run everyday for 30 consecutive days.  so far my least amount has been 1.54 miles.

New ink last Saturday, Patti and I had been planning on getting matching Hello Kitty running tattoos for almost a year and we finally did it!  Hers has 26.2 underneath but mine doesn't 'cause I already have the 26.2 on me.  I do wish I'd have gotten "Run Happy" though!

I've found a dress brand that fits me perfectly so have gone on a bit of an ebay shopping spree, but what fun!!  I just need to get better lighting in the room I use as a closet because my pics are crap.

One thing I've discovered that I'm having a hard time shopping for is blouses.  Not sure of the hangup there but I'm not finding stuff that I really like.  Pics are from Sunday's dressing room fiasco so don't laugh too hard.

More Iron Mtn Du pics

Tour de Toad

So how does one follow up an almost 10k pr? Why they go and cycle 46 miles on the Tour de Toad of course, lol!!!!!

This is a relatively new tour, I believe it's in its third year but unfortunately it's not very well publicized.  Which is a shame because it seemed to be very well run.  Great volunteers and good food with a challenging route, what more do you need for a tour?  Sadly I think the threat of bad weather kept a lot of people away yesterday but it was their loss, it turned out to be quite nice except for the downpour that started immediately after we took off, lol.  Thankfully that only lasted for 5 minutes and we had wet road for maybe 10-15 miles after that.  Just enough to get you looking all hardcore and stuff with mudsplatters!!!!!  However due to the inclement weather, the organizers (wisely) took the 66 mile route off the schedule.

The Conway police department motorcycle cops provided the out of town escort service.  Ooh that sounds like we were bad guys being railroaded out of town doesn't it?  Yep, lycra'ed hooligans on bicycles, lol.  Very cool though, getting to run all the red lights in one big cycling group legally :-)))).  I was kinda worried since nobody I knew was riding and it was a smallish group and very few women (3-4 of us?) but I managed to fall in with a group that was close to the same speed that I wanted to go. 

It ended up being an excellent ride, as I wrote earlier, very challenging with the hills.  Most of the motorists gave us plenty of room, although you always have the handful that are going to crowd you no matter what.  Oddly enough, that's usually a few elderly drivers who think we have no business being on THEIR road or the redneck obnoxious guys who just think it's funny to see how close they can get to us. 

The cloud cover kept it cool enough to make the majority of the ride a pleasant, comfortable temp, it was only the last 15 miles that the sun started to peek through and it started getting hot.  I also ended up sunburned on my shoulders from those few miles :-(.  One of the guys started falling back around the 20 mile mark, so his friend slowed down with him.  I found out later that it was his first longish ride so he was doing great considering how hilly it was.  I continued on with Larry who is from the Memphis area and rides an old Schwinn because his regular bike, a Quintana Roo was stolen recently, grrrr.  I'm not embarrassed at all to admit that I drafted off of him for the majority of the distance, lol. He hadn't run a 10k just before!!!

We only took advantage of one of the rest stops and that was the one at around 24 miles.  The ladies there were awesome!!!!!! I love people that take their time to volunteer like that 'cause you know it's got to be boring most of the time and they have things to be doing too.

So rest stop done and we tackle the hills again. Larry jokingly asked me if I wanted to make the loop again when we got to the turnoff but I laughingly told him I'd really rather not.  I was starting to tire a bit here and so was he and it wasn't long after that the sun came out, blech....talk about a strength sapper :-(.  We had the last big hill back just before town and this is where I ended up dropping Larry because I was just a bit stronger on climbing the hills.  Sadly we didn't have the police escort back through the red lights so I ended up having to stop at 3 of them amidst all the other traffic.  Each time I was dreading it that much worse because my legs would try to cramp up with each stop. I was never sure if I was going to get rolling again. Finally made it back to the church where the tour started & ended and it was such a relief to get out of the cycling shoes and into my flippy-flops!!!!!!!!!

Final stats 46.22 miles in 2:38:59, a 17.4 mph average that was pretty darn good considering my tired legs and all the hills.

I would love to see this tour become better attended, it really does have some great scenery and awesome volunteers.  They even had grilled hamburgers and Italian sausages for the riders afterwards and we all know that we do this for the food!!!!!!!  Well, that and support the community and great causes ;-)

Toad Suck 10k 2010

Oh geez, I'm turning into such a bad blogger, well not that I was ever GOOD at it but at least I seemed to have some enthusiasim for making it interesting but I seem to be just blah anymore.  Sorry about that folks :-(

Yesterday seemed like it was gonna be a repeat of last year's deluge complete with flooding & lightning but Mother Nature nicely enough seemed to cooperate a bit more.  Not that there wasn't rain during parts of the race--oddly enough I would've preferred more, not necessarily a hard rain but a nice gentle patter would've been nice throughout to ease the oppressive humidity that was going on, blech. 

We ended up getting there later than what I prefer. I like enough time for catching up with friends, bathroom visits, packet pickup and a more extensive warmup than I had but still wasn't super rushed.  And when I say we, I mean James & me. He ran his first 10k yesterday :-), actually this is only the second time that he's ran 6 miles.

For Arkansas this is a fairly large race, it's a 5k/10k combination that starts at the same time so the lineup is always crowded, nearly 900 participants for both this year.  Normally it's chip timed so you don't get penalized too much for starting further back but this year the guy operating the timing service didn't click the correct button for the starting mat, grrr.  It didn't hurt my time too terribly bad, I was about a 1/4 of the way back in the crowd but if you started in the back it definitely hurt your time :-(.  As it was, I started my garmin as soon as the gun went off instead of waiting until I crossed the start timing mat because I've been burnt a few too many times on the timing.

Madhouse start, even with being only a quarter of the way back I still had major work to do getting thru the crowd.  Finally get out in the open after maybe a 1/3 of a mile and was able to try to settle into a more level pace, which of course is too fast for the beginning.  There was a very nice talkative man that I ran with for approximately a mile which made that part quite nice, unusual finding that in anything less than a 15k.  Around mile 3 I decided I wasn't having any fun and considered for quite a while just stopping to walk & running in with James but my pride wouldn't let me do that, lol. What's that saying about before a fall? Yeah, that's bit me in the ass a few times.

It's around this point where the course starts going uphill.  I didn't remember that at all from last year but then again I was more worried about getting swept away or lightning struck last year.  Oops, I'd told James it was a flat course..........All I could think was that he was gonna be so mad at me for lying to him, lol!!!!!  Mile 4-5, I'm kinda leapfrogging with the same group of guys and 3 women and the rain has picked up.  I'm enjoying the rain 'cause it's cooling me down but one of the women is constantly bitching about how she hates the rain and I notice that she's slowing during the harder downpours.  Good news for me because I know then that I'm going to leave her behind ;-))).  Hey, don't judge, this is a race not a fun run......

This is another track finish, but it does a bit of a hard curve to enter the track. Hate that section :-(, plus you look around and that oval seems near endless.  I did have a bit of a kick left and managed to pass the last woman that I'd been leapfrogging with, I guess it was at just under 100 feet left to the finish line. Some people get kinda cranky when you do that and I'm guessing she was one, didn't want to talk to me afterwards.  But as I said, it's a race and one of the women that I usually finish after wasn't cutting me any slack either, she was 4 seconds behind me, lol.  I didn't 10k pr today but it was a course pr, last year's time was 52:43.

Official time posted (gun time) 51:06
Mile 1 7:52
Mile 2 7:57
Mile 3 8:06 there be an incline here!
Mile 4 8:34 where'd that hill come from?
Mile 5 8:24
Mile 6 8:18
Mile 6.2 1:49 (7:13/mile pace)

My garmin time was 51:03 and I started it right when the gun went off instead of when I crossed the mat so I'm betting that's what my chip time would've been. Or even less, because I had to stop at least once due to the crowd stopping.

122/445 overall
21/216 overall female
2/27 40-44 female age group

Iron Mtn Duathlon

Look a different kind of ink!!!

So I should have written this report yesterday when I was all hyped up on the post race high instead of waiting, 'cause today is a nasty looking gloomy kinda day that's affecting my mood :-(.  Oh yeah, my load also cancelled out so I'm laid over in lower middle Tennessee waiting overnight, grrrr.

My race packet included absolutely no info on where to place all the different stickers, placards, bibs, etc so I did a bit of freaking out on Saturday & put out a call for help on facebook & twitter.  My desperate pleas were very promptly & patiently answered by a twitter friend in the UK (@CleoPompom) and a real life friend from the Cabot Cruisers (David).  Whew, thanks again you two!!!!

Sunday finds me a bit short-tempered and nervous because I haven't done any duathlons (can't swim very well so no triathlons for me) since last May........Hell, I haven't even done a proper brick workout this year....just one short one that was on the bike trainer.  Can we say unprepared?????  Oh, I also got in trouble right off the bat at the race sight--didn't put on my helmet to check out the shifting/brakes/etc on the bike in the parking lot, OOPS!!!!!!!!!  Evidently that's a huge no-no if the number's on the bike already.  Now I know but I wasn't the only one unaware of that fact.  Hey race directors--please include a copy of the rules in the race pack for us noobs please.

Awesome Cruiser turnout--me, David, Vicki, Lisa Fo, Tammie & her hub.  I think I'm forgetting somebody though, grrrr.  It calmed me quite a bit having Lisa there because she was able to explain a lot of other stuff to me. 

Gettting marked up is quite cool--getting it off later, well that's quite an adventure too (but another story).  So quick warmup, ran Elsie around the parking lot a bit, talked to some of the volunteers.  The volunteers were FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!  Very enthusiastic & seemed genuinely glad to be out there working the race.  Loved the guy on the run portion who was directing the racers where to turn, he had something encouragingly funny to say to everybody.....

So the race itself is small, duathlons don't get quite the turnout that triathlons do.  Pity that because I think there are quite a few people who have the same issue I do with lack of swimming ability & claustrophobia.  I think there would be more participants if dus got the same amount of publicity that the tris do. 

Lineup. For some reason nobody wants to be in the front line, LOL!!!  Anyways we're off & it's uphill almost from the start. Course description says that first 1.25 miles of the 2.5 run route is uphill and boy is it ever.  At least they've changed it from last year where you had an almost vertical run for the first 1/2, whew. I was dreading running up that mountain.  Do I need to write that I jackrabbited? I think not, lol.  First leg was 2.5 miles in 20:08.1 (8:03 pace). 

Bike--make it to the transition area where James hollers that I was 3rd female. I already knew this because I was keeping track but it's nice to have confirmation. Change shoes, get the helmet, quick sip of water, fiddle with the gloves for a moment before I decide I was too sweaty to get 'em on quickly and run out the bike area.  The cycling route does take you up the mountain so I'd already put it in the little ring up front in preparation for the immediate hard climb (I have a compact double by the way).  I'd mentioned to James that I felt the bike was shifting a little clunky on my test spin and this became very apparent on the ascents.  Evidently the derailleur had gotten bumped slightly in transit the day before. 

Everything is going ok though until I hit the 3rd hard climb, tried to shift back into the little ring and I didn't catch it just right. Chain hung up on me & almost fell off. Get off the bike, to try & fix it. Thought I had, got back on & it hung up AGAIN!!! This time I can't unclip & topple over, S L O W L Y.....with an audience of course. A couple of the guys that I'd passed earlier, passed me back along with about 4 others.  This cost me a couple of minutes & major momentum, grrrrr.  A couple of the guys did ask if I was ok which was nice, since it's a race you're not expected to do so.....  Fortunately no women passed me although I was gaining on the 2nd place female  prior to my fuckup & this put her so far ahead of me that there was no chance in hades of me catching her from that point on.  Doesn't mean that I didn't try like the dickens though.  Managed to pass a couple of the guys back though :-))))).  One of the hills I hit over 44 mph on the descent, woo-hoo!!!

Make it back to transition area, yell at James what happened with my chain & that I went down. Throw off helmet, change shoes and off & running again.  At least I think I was running.......felt like I was moving in slow motion through jello.  Ah well, both feet were off the ground so I wasn't walking, lol.  It has heated up a bit & I'm wearing black.......yep, that's not fun. Great thing about cycling jerseys is that they have a nice little zipper that you can you to allow some air to circulate :-)))).  I'm dreading the 1.25 miles up the hill & gasping for air but so are all the guys around me.  If you've never done a brick workout I recommend you go out & try it. IMMEDIATELY! I don't wanna keep all this fun to myself, bwahahaha!

My goal was to not walk the run portion & try to get my legs feeling somewhat close to normal, Yeah, right, like that's gonna happen......So gasped like a fish flopping around out of water, passed 2 guys, joked with the volunteer at turn spot (but not the turnaround) who told me "I'll see you in just a moment!"  Hit the turnaround, declining the water, passed a couple of more guys, had the volunteer tell me "See, I told you I'd see you shortly & it's all downhill now!"  Oh was I ever looking forward to that downhill--that's the point where I just leaned forward & allowed momentum to carry me down.  Also finally felt like my legs had quit quivering & the gasping for air eased, ahhhh, almost bliss :-). 

The finish line was almost anti-climatic after that.......but glad to see it nonetheless, lol!!!!! 

Race splits

Run 1, 2.5 miles--20:08.1 (8.03 pace)

T1--1:01.9

Bike 13.5 miles--47:35.4 (17 mph average)

T2--41.6 seconds

Run 2, 2.5 miles--21:18.4 (8:31 pace)

Total 1:30:45.5

My cycle time should have been closer to 45 minutes.....stupid operator (me) error cost me quite a bit there, grrrr.  I still finished up 3rd female overall (and yes there were more than 3 of us) but they only gave awards to the first male & female overall winners so I ended up with 1st in my age group.  I will probably never get that close to a top 3 finish again :-(. 

Next duathlon is the Du for the Parks in Hot Springs on Memorial Day.  Hoping to beat last year's time and maybe if I get out & actually do some bricks I can do so, lol!!!  Still not too shabby of a performance this weekend considering my lack of preparation and that I'd ran a 5k the day before.  Check out the race course pdf's of the climbs.

Saturday is the Toad Suck 10k and the Tour de Toad. I think I'm going to do the 48 mile option if it doesn't get rained out again.