ASPHALT JUNKIES Summer Bronzing Crew - CLOSED (Page 20)

Tony, 2 hours on a treadmill is amazing! There is no way I'd have had the discipline to finish that.

I spent the weekend camping but got the opportunity Saturday morning to run the 4.5 mile course of a Sprint Tri that is only a bit over 1 hour from home. After a half mile warm up run with my wife from the camp site down to the boat launch area where transition will be I did some light stretching and then I took off. Seemed like about 1/4 mile into the course it starts to climb and it just gets steeper the further you go. It kicked my tail on the way up. I'd describe the run back down as a controlled fall. I was flying! Well, maybe not flying compared to some of the Junkies, but for me it was a fast decent. I'm definitely feeling the soreness from that run today.

We set new temperature records for Friday (109) and Saturday (111) here in Redding. Fortunately we were up camping where the temps only reached the upper 90s and we had a nice cool lake to swim in nearby. I didn't get a chance to ride the bike route while camping, but we did drive most of the course. 

Tony great workouts! I just volunteered at our local HIM yesterday and I can tell you I heard more than one person asking "do I really have to run now?". I was working the transition area - bike mount then point the turn out of transition to start the run. You'd be surprised how many people are totally confused of where to go. It is marked with colored flags and orange cones but more than one person crossed under the flags while I was yelling "Follow the cones" and pointing right in front of them. Pretty hysterical .

I agree. I've logged some 90 minute + runs on the treadmill and those are tough. Talk about feeling like a hamster on a wheel. Who knoew you could work so hard and still be in one spot? Great job on the runs this weekend.

So I ended up doing a 3 hr (44 miles)  bike ride yesterday followed by a 30 minute (very slow run). My original plan was a 2 hour bike ride + 70 minute run, but I took a wrong turn on the bike and stuck with what I thought was a 7 mile loop, not an out and back longer than expected, where the hell am I kinda ride.

South Georgia is nothing but one rolling hill after another and I was amazed that I maintained 15.75 mph for the first 36 miles. I normally dread cycling, but somewhere over the past few months it appears that I have made a leap in progression.   

JACKIE!!  There you are!  Congratulations on completing your teaching for another year.   Enjoy the next 10 weeks of staying at home.   Thanks for checking in.   You can do anything you set your mind on doing!

As with everyone, TONY, I'm duly impressed with your long treadmill run.   I'll be sitting on my couch eating Cheetos when you and JOANNE are doing that hard transition from the bike to the run.   I know I was one of those athletes in my HIM that DINA encountered this weekend who made some remark about the run and also was directionally challenged in the transition area.   The larger the event, the more confusing it can be and Syracuse will be big.   I'll pray that you have a sweet soul like Dina guiding you through.

Nice bike rides for JEN, DEREK and DIRK!   I'm glad you made a leap of improvement in your bike, Jen.  Way to turn a wrong turn into something positive.

Love all this competition between you men Junkies.  I'll look forward to WARREN'S 5K results on Thursday to see where he placed against MATT'S 5K PR from Saturday.  Who will win the gold star award? 

Looking forward to seeing MATT, Sara and kids this weekend.   I'm trying to convince DIRK and Lisa to come too.   ALLISON - you and Ryan aren't too far away from Maumee Bay either.   Good job on getting a OWS in, Matt and gaining confidence.  That's a good thing to have come race day.

VERO - your camping trip sounds perfect in the cooler temps.  I laughed at your description of your down hill run -I would've done a face plant.

WILL -  when are you going on your missions trip?  Back to Africa?

My neighbor asked me to do an Aqua Mile race on Saturday.  I'd done it previously but knew my time would be slower this year so why pay to be discouraged?   I did it any ways and yep, I was over 2 minutes slower than last year.   Grrrr...... I'm only getting worse in the water.  Oh well, it was a lovely morning for a swim and to visit with friends, so I won't complain.   I did win the overall female wetsuit division but don't be impressed - there were only 2 of us. 

Have a marvelous Monday everyone!

So, I'm back to work and home from Ohio.  I had a pretty successful trip considering I visited family and got some decent training time in too.  On Friday I ran 8 miles and made sure I included some hills for god measure.  I always enjoy hitting some different terrain and this run included some.  I ran from my mothers home to Lisa's family's home and stretched it out from a 5 mile short, direct route to 8 miles and on long climb with a few shorter climbs. 

Then on Saturday I was able to get s strong 40 miles in n some of the hills in southeastern Ohio.  The course was basically constant hills, either up or down but there was a short stretch of maybe 2 miles that was flat.  This section was pretty much right in the middle of the ride following a huge steep downhill that allowed for an exhilarating 41.2 MPH descent.  There was a somewhat short sweeping curve at the bottom of the hill that provided for a little extra adrenaline and bike handling skills.  I am certain that those who can ride in the more hilly terrain would have been able to handle it better and faster than myself but I was feeliing pretty fast through here.

It sounds like you all had some good runs and rides, particularly riding. 

Jen, making wrong turns can be a great way to check your cycling endurance.  I am with Warren too, sometimes after a while something just seems to fall into place and you can feel a change.  This has happened to me on several occasions but mostly noticed on the swim for me.

Then there are the huge treadmill runs???  What kind of insanity is that?  You aren't going to find me spending that much time on a treadmill, EVER!  I have done 9 miles on a treadmill before and I wouldn't ever plan that one again.  That was mind numbing!  But it will, as others have said, be great training fro the mental aspects of long course racing.

I appreciate the invite to Maumee Bay but I can't swing it.  It would be a great trip and race to be able to get over to see a couple of Junkie's but the recent trip and the rest of my racing budget won't allow for more expenses right now.

Brenda this is what is happening to me with running. I'll admit I piled on the workouts this weekend (well for me anyway) with a 4 mile run Friday evening, 31 mile hard ride on the tri bike with major changes to my fit first thing Saturday morning followed by a little over a mile swim on Saturday then wrapped up the weekend with an hour run trail run on Sunday. The changes to my fit were harder than I thought to adjust to and my back/glute/hip whatever was pretty ticked off after. By the time I was ready to run Sunday I thought I'm not going to look at my Garmin and just run so easy that nothing hurts. Thankfully my Garmin battery died so I was able to do just that. I listened to the slow songs on my IPod instead of the pump me up songs and I was able to keep on going for an hour with no stopping to walk. That is all fine but I know I probably only ran a little over 5 miles in that hour . Only getting slower...... At least I am still going? That is my bright side I guess.

Tony - You think that's hot, drive due East for a day or so and stop in South Georgia. Basically, take that heat and add 90% humidity!

Actually, I've been doing really good lately.  I've been focusing on getting my running back up to something decent.  It's going well.  My cycling is ok but the running has been trumping cycling.  My swimming has taken a real hit.  That's ok, though.  The run is more important this season.  I'll get my swimming back this fall and winter.  No worries!

Tracy, Tracy, Tracy.... get better lady. In the meantime, maybe you can tackle some other to-do's or just rest and get over that cold.

More on the topic of SWIMMING... Any of you ever work on your kick? Today was the first time in almost 8 months I grabbed a kick board and worked on my kick. Honestly, I feel like a boat anchor (someone else's term in here used a while back) when I attempt to work on my kick, but for some reason I decided to change it up and work on my kick a bit today. At least I don't go backwards, it does take me almost a minute to go 25 yards though.

Does working on your swim kick help and what do you do to include it in your workouts?

Sorry I have been MIA lately.  My husband has been out of town a lot, and I’ve been trying to manage both of the kiddos and the practice all by myself.  It’s been a stressful couple of weeks at work.  Summer is our super busy time, and my practice is really taking off.  My daughter turns 4 tomorrow (I can’t believe it), so we had ten 3 and 4 year olds running around our house for her party over the weekend.  She had 2 “boyfriends” at her party, so I think I might be in worse shape than some of you in a few more years.  Tonight I’m getting caught up on the posts as quickly as possible. 

It looks like everyone has been doing some great training.  I had a super start to the year with my first 4 months, but the last month I’ve felt like my body is broken.  I’m working on healing up. 

My diet isn’t the greatest, so I try to take a multi-vitamin.  I just take a generic women’s multi-vitamin or sometimes just take my kids’ gummy vitamins.  I also take a vitamin C every day. 

I didn’t realize that the proper way to do a flip-turn was to push off the wall on your back and then roll over.  I just finally taught myself to do them, so I guess I should try to do that technique early on. 

I love all of the teeth talk.  That’s my thing!

I wear Pearl Izumi Sugar shorts and Castelli.  The Sugar shorts are cute but less comfortable, while the Castellis are very comfortable but not as flattering.  Yes, sometimes cuteness is a factor.  Lol.

Brenda, thanks for the shout-out.  You are always so thoughtful.  I appreciate your support on Facebook!  I hope your toe gets better without surgery.

Dina, that’s so funny about your house.  I pictured you as having everything decorated very well, judging from all of the cute stuff you post on facebook.  My house is the same though-our walls are so bare!  We only have a few things hung up in the entire house.  We had to break down and get window treatments though because we are finally getting neighbors, and I think I accidentally surprised the Amish builders on a few occasions.  Oops!

Jonathan, I’m sorry you are still having trouble with your eyes.  I hope everything works itself out.

Ryan and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary on Friday.  We are celebrating by going to Barbados for a week.  We leave Saturday, so I’ll be out of touch while I am there.  What does everyone like to do for their workouts when you and out of town/ on vacation?

This made me laugh: http://www.runnersworld.com/fun/sympathy-cards-for-runners