Runs

Monday it rained all day and I ended up at the DHY at lunch for 400m sprints with ISO lunge and 1-minute handcycle with ISO push up. The track at that Y is less than ideal--20 times around equals 1 mile, and it is quite banked and interestingly hilly. Or rolling. It's strange. I'd only been up there once and had forgotten how odd it was. But, it was better than running in the rain, and it was what I needed. I timed only my 4th of 4 sprints, and it was about 1:40. Outside I'm closer to 1:30, so this was definitely a different sort of challenge.

Tuesday I went for a short run from work at lunch.

Now that it is cooler outside, I can run at lunch and not feel too bad about not showering (baby powder is amazing!). This took me just about 26 minutes, and then I walked an additional 0.66 miles to make 4 total. Considering how windy it was and how hilly it is, I was OK with this time. However, if I can get down to 24 or faster, I will be thrilled!

Today Anna and I went for a run through Edwin Warner Park.

This is pretty close to our route. We ran 6 minutes and walked 1, for about 49 minutes. The goal was to do 6 sets, 42 minutes, but I was not smarter than my watch today. Although it did beep for the intervals, it only worked after I started the timer (which took me about 5 minutes to remember). Also, it definitely counts better than I did today because I'd set it for 5 and didn't realize when we were on the last one. Oh, well, it was a GREAT run.

Running, Riding, and Shopping

Friday was mostly a rest day (6-mile walk), and then Lauren and I went shoe shopping (unsuccessful) and met Aunt Renee and Uncle John for dinner at Brixx in Cool Springs. I had never been there before and really liked the pizza.

Shannon, Kat, Shelly, me, Lee, Valerie, Parri, and Anna

Saturday night was my teammate Lee's husband's birthday party, and she organized a big party for him at a barn out in Leipers Fork. Most of us Belladium ladies were able to make it, and we enjoyed an evening of good music and conversation, and some food. Hooray for country parties!

Saturday before the party I went to Publix. There were only a few things I wanted that were on sale, so I got the following:

Publix

Item (Quantity)	Regular Price  (multiplied)	Sale Price	Coupons	Final Price
Cauliflower	2.50	2.00	--	$2.00
Broccoli	2.50	2.00	--	$2.00
Carrots	1.89	--	--	$1.89
Spinach	2.50	--	--	$2.50
Eggs	3.29	--	--	$3.29
Hormel sides (2)	3.99 (7.98)	1.99 (3.98)	2 x $1/1 MQ	$1.98
Almond Milk	3.49 (6.98)	2.50 (5.00)	$1/2 MQ	4.00
Dressing (2)	3.39 (6.78)	1.70 (3.39)	$1/2 MQ	$2.39
Larabars (6)	1.25 (7.50)	--	2 x $1/3 MQ 2 x $1/3 PQ	$3.50
Milky Way bars (2)	0.99 (2.97)	--	B2G1 MQ	1.98
Totals: 18 items	$57.50	--	15.49 in Qs 14.88 in sales	+$2.41 tax $27.33 total (saved $30.37, or 52%)

My math might be a little off because I don't have the entire receipt with me. The totals are correct.

Saturday morning I ran a great 11 miles. I didn't really know what to expect from myself and started out at (and maintained) a slightly slower pace than I had been running on shorter runs, but I ended up with an 8:35/mile average and no trouble physically or mentally, so it was a success.

Sunday Anna, Kat, Parri, Val, Kat's husband Jay, and I all got in a great 45-mile ride. It was great, but it was very hard as well.

Riding with Cali

The sunrise was beautiful this morning!

Sometimes I wish I had a time-lapse video camera to capture the amazing sunrises I get to see. I thank God for them every morning!

Wednesday I went for a quick run (5K run + 1 mi walk) at lunch. Since I discovered the drying power of baby powder and the temps are below 90*, I feel OK about running and then returning to the office without being a sweaty, stinky mess.

Then Cali and I rod our bikes through areas of town I'd never been in nor even knew existed. We were fairly close to the Donelson area, where I work, and right across the river from the Opry Mills Mall--who knew there were neighborhoods back there? Well, I do now! I got a flat about 15 minutes into the ride and while I was fixing it, I was talking to her about our flat-changing contest at our team camp back in April. The one that I won but messed up because I didn't seat the tire back on the rim correctly and left a huge bulge and had a breakdown at the top of Signal Mountain and called Todd to come pick me up. There was really no reason for the desire to not continue that I could reason except God's protection--descending on a tire not seated correctly could have been disastrous.

So I was telling Cali all this when a pickup truck slowed and Cali looked up to see a "JESUS" plate on the front of the truck. She said something about how Jesus was now coming to help us with this flat, and then the lady driving asked whether we needed anything. As she drove away, we joked about how I'd never realized Jesus was my grandmother. All joking aside, Jesus was definitely a man who lived, died, and rose again, and because He is still alive (though not on earth as a man anymore) He manifests Himself through His people in humbling and encouraging ways. I am so thankful for His sacrifice for me!

Our ride was almost 16 miles and just under an hour. We had to stop a few times to check the cue sheet and basically just enjoyed being outside. I am thankful also for friends who love to ride and be outside and enjoy exercise!

Thursday I did nothing until 4:30pm and was definitely missing my lunch-time walk! But we played Dalmuti at lunch and I ended up on top, so I'm glad I didn't skip it. I rode my bike to RB's Cyclery and dropped it off to have mechanics Jason or Jay see if they could fix what might or might not be wrong. Ever since Saturday, the braking has felt wrong/strange/ineffective/slow/different. I couldn't really explain it except to say that it felt like carbon braking on my aluminum wheels, and I wondered whether they'd just send me and BB home and say I was going crazy :-) But Jason said it was likely that sweat/salt and gotten to a few of the cables and was causing sticky breaks/slow reactions from the components, and he could fix it. Evidently it's a common problem among heavy sweaters, but it can be combated by frequently cleaning the bike (which I do) and frequently lubing any pivot points (which I don't).

Then I ran to the CSY, did 5 minutes of work, ran/walked home, and went to Inversion. All around a great afternoon since I got outside for a while and still got home in time to eat dinner and go to church.

Race Tally: 64 and Counting

At the end of the year I'll post about all my 2012 races (here are the lists from 2009 [27], 2010 [24] and 2011 [48]), but since I just counted today how many I've done so far, I thought I'd give a quick rundown:

Total races: 64 through 9-12-12

Discipline	Quantity
Biking
Criteriums	37
Road Races	12
Time Trials	7
Circuit Races	3
Running
5Ks	2
1-Milers	1
5-Milers	1
Triathlons
Olympic	1 relay

Kroger Pizza Deal

source

I ran to Kroger at lunch today and found a great deal on their store-brand pizza. Some were on Manager's Special, and they were causing a $1 KQ to print, so I did 4 transactions and bought the following for $11.31:

Kroger

Item (Quantity)	Regular Price  (multiplied)	Sale Price	Coupons	Final Price
Wholesome @ Home Pizza, cheese (2)	6.99 (13.98)	3.49 (6.98)	$1/1 KQ	$5.98
Wholesome @ Home Pizza, pepperoni (2)	7.99 (15.98)	3.99 (7.98)	2 x $1/1 KQ	$5.98
Good 'n' Natural Bars (2)	1.35 (2.70)	1.00 (2.00)	2 x $1/1 MQ (free-product Q)	$0.00
Hormel Pepperoni (2)	1.69 (3.38)	1.00 (2.00)	2 x $0.55/1 MQ	$0.90
Totals: 8 items	$36.04	$18.96	$3.10 in MQs $3.00 in KQs $3.00 catalina	+$1.45 tax $11.31 total (saved $24.73, or 69%)

Basically, I didn't pay enough to buy two of the cheese pizzas at full price, I have enough pizza to last me at least a month, and I still have a $1/1 pizza Q because they were still rolling :-)

I ran almost 3.5 miles on the elliptical this morning at the CSY because I have some stuff going on this afternoon. Hopefully I can still get outside later because it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL out today!

Percy Warner and Softball Season

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. It made me so thankful for God the Creator and for my healthy legs :-)

I spent the morning at church (the parable of the wicked vinedressers from Luke 20), Kroger (needed the newspaper and free donuts!), the Y (had to write a blog and use their Wi-Fi), and Percy Warner (hello, hiking).

PW was great. There were so many more people than normal (I usually go around 1pm on Fridays when everyone else is at work), and most were happy. The only thing I hated were the number of dogs off-leash. I had just read an article from Runner's World about the Garritson family being attacked by dogs while out running on a trail (an article is here; I couldn't find the RW article online), and at least one dog who was well ahead of its owner freaked me out a little. I wasn't too nice to the girls whose dog it was, but when I encountered them again I stopped and talked to them to apologize and explain why I'd asked (told) them to put their dog on a leash.

My run/walk/jog ended up being 10.5 miles and just over 2 hours. I walked the first mile on the Candy Cane Connector Trail from Edwin Warner to Percy Warner and then turned to the left on the Red Trail. I stashed water at that turn and carried some gu with me. I mostly ran that loop, which is 4.25 miles. When I returned to my water, I still felt good so I turned around and went back the way I'd come to repeat the loop a second time, in the opposite direction. This loop I mostly walked, just to enjoy being out there. Back to the water, back to the CCC Trail, and back to my car 2:10 later.

Then it was off to McDonald's for some lunch (not the best choice, and I was going to stop at Kroger for a salad but didn't have time to go inside, get my salad, and eat it) and Granny White Park for our first softball games of the season. Sadly, we lost both games and I did not hit well (1 for 4 with a ground out and two fly balls), but there's always next week!

NashVegas Triathlon

Before the swim

Today was so much fun. Last year I’d volunteered at the NashVegas Triathlon and got a free entry, so Anna and I decided to do the Olympic distance as a relay team. She was going to do the swim and run, and I was going to do the bike and possibly run with her (with her wearing the timing chip).

Our distance started at 7:45, and the female wave went off just before 8, so once Anna started I had about 25 minutes to wait. I grabbed my stuff that I’d previously put in transition and ran it up to my car; it was starting to rain, and I wanted it to stay mostly dry. Although I knew I’d get wet as soon as I started to ride, I waited under a tent just outside of the transition area and watched for her to run up. I jumped on my bike and started the 24-mile ride in the rain. It rained nearly the entire time, but I could see that the sky was beginning to clear and hoped that it might be dry for the run.

Starting the bike leg
Source

The bike course was great. We had a 5-mile-or-so out-and-back section on a highway and then turned off into the country. There was about a 1-mile climb and a lot more up-and-down throughout the entire course. I got passed by a few and passed many more, including the dozen or so I passed within the first mile.

Finishing the bike leg

By the time I returned to transition (actually, before I even left transition), I was a soaking wet mess but feeling good. I passed the chip to Anna and stopped to chat with Valerie for a second. I caught up to Anna but wasn’t able to keep her pace, so I just ran behind her.

Anna running strong...and it was dry!

When she turned around I did too, thus the run distance being shorter than 10K. Surprisingly, my run was much faster than I expected and I felt much better than I expected—thus the pleasantness of the race in general.

After the race...dry and happy!

It did end up clearing up and we had a fairly dry run, and the sun came out while they gave out the awards. Anna and I finished in 2:32:32, 2nd in our division (Female Relay).

Race number, t-shirt, medal, and results
We also won a door prize (socks, Body Glide, and more)

Swim: 29:38
T1: 00:47
Bike: 1:12:48, 24.21 miles, 20.1 mph (39.0 max), 172 bpm
T2: 01:10
Run: 48:09, 5.92 miles, 8:16 pace, 174 bpm (M1 – 7:36; M2 – 8:14; M3 – 8:41 turnaround; M4 – 8:07; M5 – 8:42 walked up the hill to stay behind Anna; M5.92 – 7:32, 8:12 pace)

Anna, Val, and I chilled for a while after the race. We all knew quite a few people there and chatted a bit. Then I came home for a nap!

Honestly, this was probably the most fun I’ve had at a triathlon. Granted it’s been a year since I’ve raced one so maybe my memory’s a little off, but because there wasn’t a lot of pressure I was able to just enjoy it.

Friday night Lauren, Bennett, Aunt Renee, Uncle John, and I went to see Much Ado about Nothing at Centennial Park, and we also went to a Greek Festival beforehand for dinner.

The stage in Centennial Park

Running

This came from one of my first running friends, Allison at Team One Verse, and made me laugh and smile: