Team Camp: Chattanooga

Sunday atop Signal Mountain

The skinny:

• Friday we climbed Raccoon Mountain and rode the River Gorge RR course.
• 42.03 miles, 2:26, 17.2 mph (48.4 max), 4064' ascent, 4066' descent
• Saturday morning we rode Lookout Mountain twice, once halfway up and once all the way up.
• ~40 miles, ~2:43, ~14.8 mph (46+ max), ~5114' ascent, ~5342' descent
• I accidentally turned my computer off for ~5mi/the entire descent off Lookout
• Saturday afternoon we rode the State TT course, and I did one out-and back section plus cooldown.
• 13.15 miles, 44:57, 17.6 mph (32.8 max), 843' ascent, 851' descent
• Sunday morning we rode Signal Mountain twice, and it hurt!
• 60.73 miles, 3:48, 15.9 mph (49.1 max), 5632' ascent, 5706' descent

The pictures: 

Friday atop Raccoon Mountain

#2, including Shannon

Saturday, climbing Lookout Mountain

Saturday, my fast teammates climbing Lookout

Saturday morning pre-ride

Saturday atop Lookout Mountain

Saturday pre-ride

Sunday atop Signal Mountain, having fun

The details:

We headed down to Chattanooga Friday and rode the River Gorge course (2012 race, 2012 pre-ride, 2011 race, 2011 pre-ride). Saturday morning we left from the house we were staying at to get a feel for the US Pro Road Race that is coming up at the end of May. It climbs up Lookout Mountain from Ochs Road, cuts off on Sanders, climbs a little more, and then descends down Scenic Highway. Repeat. This will be a hard race! The second time we climbed, instead of descending down Scenic Highway, we continued climbing until we reached the top. We rode around there for a while and then got to descent the whole Scenic Highway. Amazing! Shannon did a lot of our route planning, and it was nice to have someone along who knows that area well.

Saturday afternoon we rode the State TT course. I loved the park we parked at and want to go back there to hike through it! The TT course will be fast and is a power-rider's course, not a climber's course, so that is great for me. There will be 4 turnarounds, one end on flat ground and the end right at the top of a hill. Hello, fast descent to begin the second lap! It will be approximately 30K, and I like the course. Two right-hand turns to the first turnaround, two left-hand turns and a hill to the second turnaround.

Saturday night we had fun. T got us pizza so we could eat in, and we sat around and chatted all evening. Then we wanted ice cream. We walked to a place we thought would have ice cream, Aretha Frankensteins, but instead of being a coffee/dessert shop, it was more of a bar with a few breakfast items for "dessert." We weren't having any of it! So we continued walking until we got to Clumpy's, which thankfully was open and satisfied our cravings for ice cream. Yum! It was also super fun to get out of the house, and a nice treat to be able to walk rather than ride somewhere.

Sunday after packing up (we stayed at a great house that required minimal cleaning prior to checkout) we drove to the parking lot of Whole Foods and left from there for a double Signal Mountain climb. Up and down the first time was the same route we'd done for Ragnar (2012, 2011, 2010), so I knew it well and had fun on the descent. We rode in the valley for a while and then climbed again, a way I didn't know. It was about a 5.7-mile climb, and then for the next several miles we did a lot of rollers and a few little descents. But finally we made it to the actual descent, and I started at the front (where I like to be on descents!). Todd was driving sag, and he went down first, so I just imagined following his wheel. It was a very non-technical descent, and I hit 49.1mph mph going down. He has hit up to 60mph before, but there wasn't enough road for me and I had cars in front of me, so ~50mph was pretty good for this time :-)

After rolling back into town and getting drizzled on, we hit up Whole Foods for lunch (not nearly as good as Wegman's) and headed home, where I threw everything in the washer.

This was a super fun weekend. We got a lot of miles in, had a blast with each other, all got along well, ate enough, slept mostly enough, and rode well. I am proud of everyone for riding as well as they did. I love this team!

Muscular Endurance Week 3: Break Week!

Tuesday's workout was different than what we've been doing the previous weeks of this series. We had been doing four 10- or 11-minute subthreshold intervals. Today, we combined what we'd been working on all year and did a 25-minute (or so, not positive on the time) tempo effort, 3 hills, a 12-minute subthreshold interval, and 2 sprints. I did the 12-minute interval in my aerobic zone, so basically everything for me today was tempo. I am feeling much better, but I really did not want to get out of a steady aerobic zone, and I wanted to be able to focus on riding a solid, strong 90 minutes. My sprint at the end was 13W higher than I've done in the past, so I think I succeeded in not breaking myself down too much during the rest of the workout.

Sprint 1: 697
Sprint 2: 739!

Wednesday was the 100th day of the year. With my friend Will from Iron Will Sports and Fitness (website here) (and whoever else wants to do it -- I'm not really sure how many people he has involved). I have been doing a push up challenge where you add 1 push up each day. Since Wednesday was day 100, I did 100 push ups. They are not all military style, but neither are they all girl push ups. I usually try to do as many military style ones as I can before switching to on-the-knees push ups. Then at some point I return to military style ones, and I usually end up doing about half one way and half the other.

This challenge, though never really easy past January, felt like it really got real after day 60. The rest of the year is going to be fun!

I did not do push ups on March 23 (around day 83), so through Wednesday, April 10, I had done 5,149 push ups.

I got in a quick ride at lunch. My road choices are limited and my time is limited, so I went across Briley Parkway and did a few hill repeats.

Wednesday bike ride

After work I met Kat for a quick hike (5 miles, 1:20) on the red trail at PWP. It was an absolutely amazing day, and the hike was great. I was so happy she was able to meet me--hiking with company is much more fun than hiking alone.

We started at the Chickering Road Entrance (top right)
and hiked clockwise on the red trail

If you want to hike PWP, one of the main entrances is off of Highway 100 where you see EEP WELL / NIC AREA (Deep Well Picnic Area). There is an entrance from Belle Meade Blvd, but I've never started from there. There is also a way to get to the red trail from EWP (you can see the red and white (candy cane) connector trail in the lower right-hand corner), and this adds 2 miles to the 4.5-mile look. When I first started hiking at PWP, I always started at the Deep Well entrance because I didn't know about the others. Kat introduced me to the Chickering entrance (adds 0.5 miles), and Anna introduced me to EWP, where I found the connector trail. Friends are great!

I also stopped in at the new Publix in Donelson. The parking lot was pretty full, but it was not even a quarter as busy as my sister's normal grocery store, Wegman's. However, it is super nice inside and I can see me going there more often than the Kroger that is basically right next door to it.

My favorite section...besides the salad bar!

Thursday's ride at T's was very similar to Tuesday's. Except that I started Sprint #1 early and reached only 579W. On Sprint #2 I hit 714W, so much improved over the 4 minutes of rest. Basically an all-aerobic-zone workout, and it was a really good workout.

Girls on the Run Nashville Practice 5K

With the Percy Priest Elementary School Girls on the Run team at Shelby Park

One new thing I decided to get involved with this year is Girls on the Run. My role is "running buddy," which means I run a practice 5K and a 5K race with an elementary-school-aged girl who has been training with a few of her classmates and coaches.

Today was our practice 5K, so I met everyone for the first time, including my runner Kaya. We practiced on  what will be the race course at Shelby Park, and it was (sparsely) marked with pink arrows. Evidently pink is the color for this crew!

Kaya and I started at the front, and she said she didn't need to be the first to finish because she had basketball practice after this. We still stayed second, within sight of the first girl. When a third girl was getting close enough that we could hear her talking to her buddy, I asked Kaya what she wanted to do (because at that point, we were walking): Did she want to stay ahead of this girl, let her catch us, or what. She said she just wanted to finish the run. And finish we did, still in second place.

Our overall time was around 31:15, and we walked two or three times. Shelby Park is beautiful, and we enjoyed the trail, the pond, the fishermen, the duck houses, and the statues. I hope she enjoyed the run (and made it through bball practice OK!). Her mom said Kaya hoped her teammates made their lay-ups, because if they didn't they'd have to run.

The temps were in the mid to high 70s, one of the warmest days for these girls to run. Most knew their previous best times (I think all but 1 of the 15 had done at least one 5K), and their times today were around 2 minutes slower than that. Most of us ran with water bottles as well, just in case, but there was a water stop at the halfway point also.

I LOVED this. Kaya is a great runner and seemed to enjoy it, even though bball is her favorite sport and the sport the family knows best, according to her mom. I tried to let her set the pace, staying beside her but encouraging her to step in behind me when we hit some headwind.

Now I can't wait for the actual race on May 4 to see how well she and all the other girls do!

The picture is from the GotR Facebook page.

Cedar Hill Park Circuit Race Report

Todd, Catherine (Madi), Parri, Kat, Shannon, Shelly,
Kailin, Anna, Cali, Amanda, Kiki

After riding the course prior to the race start, I knew it would be a great race -- fast, fun, action-packed -- and I wasn't disappointed. Twenty of us Cat 1/2/3 women started the race (8 Cat 1/2, 12 Cat 3). Team Belladium had 9; Hub Endurance had 4; SVMIC Cycling and Clarksville Schwinn Racing each had 2; and Commonwealth Eye Surgery/Crankworks, Treehouse Racing, and Cumberland University each had 1. SO we definitely had the numbers, we just had to work well together.

The start/finish was at the green play button, and we rode clockwise around this course (two right-hand turns). The first 15 minutes were fairly quiet, and then the action began. We attacked, reacted, followed, countered, and basically dominated. I fell off with 3 laps to go (we did 10 total, I wasn't feeling well, and I'd thought I'd last 2 laps, so I was VERY HAPPY with the 7 laps I lasted) and missed the best part of the race: the finish.

Course map

Catherine attacked with 1.5 laps to go and stayed away by herself to win it. Kat, Parri, and AJ lined up against the 9 others in that lead group for a leadout to the up/downhill finish (it's an uphill lead-in but a downhill final 100 or 200 meters). AJ won that field sprint and finished 2nd. Woot!

Catherine won, Amanda was 2nd

Anna and I were somewhat together on the final three laps, and I finished 14th overall (8/8 Cat 1/2). I had a ton of fun. This is a great course, where a lot can happen. The roads were wide open, the rollers made it challenging, and the win made it all worth it. Like Todd said, when one Team B lady crosses the line in first, the whole team comes in first. Today was definitely that way. Everyone had a part to play and executed perfectly.

Stats: 44:09, 15.57 miles (10 laps), 21.2 mph (34.3 max), 182 bpm (195 max), 1625' ascent, 1641' descent
Results: 14/20 overall. 8/8 Cat 1/2.

My goals for this race were these:

1. Don't die from being sick.
2. Give 100% of what I had.
3. Help my teammates where I could.
4. Get two Team B ladies on the podium.
5. Get a team win.

I am pretty sure we met all 5 of these today!

The Weekend in Pictures

Put together sundae/blizzard stuff for a friend's family

Watched this movie -- I thought it was very good!

Made some pizza -- yum!

Made some cheesy garlic bread -- even yummier!

Went for a could walks through my neighborhood and
got a glimpse of the whole Cool Springs area

Moved these off the road during
my Saturday bike ride

Raced with all these amazing ladies at
Sunday's Cedar Hill Park Circuit Race

Watched these two crush it!

Played some piano and hit a few acorns

Got dressed up for a memorial service for
two of my cousin's chickens

Made these girls smile with the sundae stuff :-)

Muscular Endurance

Gift card from I Heart Kroger

This series at Endeavor is Muscular Endurance, and I think I am getting the most out of it that I've gotten out of any series (though the hill series we did last month comes pretty close). It is hard, and it hurts. But it also leaves me feeling like I've accomplished something. After a very restful weekend (that is, one during which I took a 2-mile walk and did two half workouts total), I was expecting to work hard and not sure how my legs would feel. Surprisingly, I did OK. Last week Thursday we did four 10-minute intervals, and I lasted 10, 5.5, 6, and 8.67 minutes of those intervals (and sprinted to 714W). This week Tuesday we did four 11-minute intervals, and I lasted 11, 8, 8, and 8 minutes of those intervals (and sprinted to 684W). During the third interval, I pushed myself HARD for the final 2 minutes, and I think those were the most rewarding 2 minutes because I really wanted to quit and didn't.

Notes from Tuesday/You know you've had a hard workout (or are going to have a hard workout) when:

• You can wring sweat from your sports bra, even after you've been off the bike for 10 minutes.
• You have to tell the person next to you that you hate to be rude, but there will be no more chatting for the rest of the evening.
• Half the class is trying to encourage you to continue...
• ...and you're wondering how they have enough energy to talk!
• Your W/kg are higher than they've been in the past and you're still alive.
• Your heart rate reaches its max bpm at least a million times during the workout.

Thursday's workout went even better than Tuesday's. I did only the 1st and 3rd intervals, but I did all 11 minutes of both and sprinted to 694W.

Mornings this week I've been on the elliptical or step mill, for 20-45 minutes depending on how much time I've had. I took a walk one day at work, walked on the stairs another day, and rode on the trainer one evening. The rides at T's are taxing, but I've been able to recover from them, so that's encouraging.

Pictures from the Weekend

My nephew Isaiah in his Easter outfit

He's a kicker!

Watching the Brewers' opening-day game...
which they won!

Quick dinner at O'Hare so I could make an earlier
flight, which was perfect because I got texts saying
that my 10:30pm flight was delayed until 2:30am!

Wisconsin humor