Olympic Duathlon Recap: I came in last and still got a trophy.

So.  I had this duathlon thing going on this past Saturday.  I figured it was about time I blogged about it.

How did it go?  Well, obviously I got a big honking plaque.  I also met all my duathlon goals, despite the fact that my legs tried not to.  I even met those goals after my husband's pants tore a few holes in my black tri suit because those pants contained a sharp screw that viciously put holes not only in my tri suit but also in my duathlon hopes and dreams.

Wood screw = DREAM CRUSHER

Seriously, people - I was on the verge of tears until I googled "triathlon gear store" and found one (Urban Tri Gear in Westmont, IL) on the way to Muncie, IN, where the duathlon was being held.  I was lucky to find a suit kind of in my size and in a color I knew no one else would have because that's how I roll with tri suits.

That smile didn't last much longer.

Anyway, enough about my gear - what about those goals?  Well, remember that I wanted to run the first run in around 9 minutes, do the bike somewhere in the 17s for an average mph, and do whatever I wanted for the 10K run at the end.  Like I said, I did meet all the goals, but this wouldn't be a race recap post if I didn't give you all of the boring, minute details about each part of the race, not would it?  So sit back, relax, and prepare to be bored:

Run #1: Who's in my race???

Now, this race is primarily for triathletes, seeing as there's a big body of water at the race site.

Oooo water

We duathletes got to start way the heck away from that water, which also happens to be way the heck away from the bathrooms.  That's where I was right before the start and then ran up to the start line, getting there with a minute to spare.  And in that minute, I realized two things: 1) I was sweating pretty heavily after a light jog to the start...and that meant it was going to be a hot one, kids, and 2) there were, like. very few duathletes in this race.  And since they have three distances of duathlons (a sprint, an Olympic, and a half), that meant I didn't have a lot of competition for a fancy schamncy award...but I didn't know who that competition was. (And it's usually considered bad form to start quizzing people about this at the start line.) Well, I didn't know before we started, but I soon would know after we hit the sprint and Olympic turn-arounds for this first run.  And when we did hit the Olympic turn around, I was the only one that broke away from the pack and headed back towards the start line.

And that's when I realized I was free. 

I could do whatever I wanted to do for the rest of this race and it would be good enough for first place.  I floated my way back over the hilly hills to the transition area, where I was taking my sweet ol' time transitioning to the bike when another runner came into transition and ran up to a bike racked near mine and said, "I can't believe I didn't turn around!  I just kept following the pack and forgot to turn around at the Olympic turn around!"

And that's when I realized I was coming in second.

The Bike: Mostly 2nd place, with 6 miles of 1st place-ness.

I spent most of the bike in 2nd place, but still crushing my goal - I ended up doing an 18.4 mph average on that very hilly course.   Even though I was out of transition right after my competition finished telling me about her forgotten turn-around (and promptly slipped and fell trying to mount my bike), she passed me in the 4th mile of the bike and stayed ahead of me for the entire first loop and most of the second loop.  I did manage to pass her and stay ahead of her as she faded on the hills for the last 6 miles...so I was in 1st place for a little over 17 minutes.  If only this were like NASCAR where you get points for leading even a little bit. 

But it's not.

Run #2: Hot heat and trashed legs.

It was in the 80+ degrees when I got off the bike, and after I watched my competition blow by me in the first mile I realized that I had pushed way too hard on the bike - my legs were kind of toast.  I started run/walking in conjunction with wishing for shade like crazy for the rest of the run, just focusing on making it to the finish and not crying at all the hilly hills.  And, obviously, I did finish (in about an hour and 6...yikes!) and then collected my finisher medal and my 2nd place huge honking trophy-thing.

This trophy and medal goes nicely with the bling I got in September.

Now my 1st place trophy won't be lonely.

The magic of magnetism, kids.

Even though the bling is what's really important (not really), this race did serve as a useful baseline for the half duathlon (10k/56mi/10K) I'll be doing in September. 

It also gives me some good peace of mind in terms of the bike--I'm starting at a nice, solid 25 mile base rather than all the way at zero.

And this race even gave me a good, kick-ass photo of myself--and it's rare that I really like a serious race photo of myself, kids.

I just want the hot heat to go away.

But it's not rare to end a post with some facetious learnings:

• Even though I wilted in the last run, I still had a really good time at this race.  The course is just challenging enough to be interesting rather than brutal.
• The tri suit that I had never trained in and wore for the first time on race day was AMAZING.  It better be for as much as it freaking cost.
• I have never pushed myself on a bike ride as hard as I did that day.  I don't normally breathe hard at all on the bike, but I sounded like a seething lesser demon frothing at the mouth on the second bike loop.
• The woman who beat me was 53 years old and kicking my ass.  I want to be her when I'm 53.
• I love the course and I love the atmosphere of this race.  But I especially love the indoor bathrooms and the showers.
• I came in last but still got a trophy.  Boom.

Tomorrow's workout: More cross-training, this time some easy biking.  I'll catch you up on all of my recovery cross-training fun this week tomorrow I swears.

Duathlon transitions: You should probably practice them more than once.

So yesterday I decided to do a small practice duathlon because that's always a good thing to do (not really) during the week of your race.

I wanted to do more than just 1.11 miles on the second run, but, again, work likes it when I show up on time so I had to cut it short (even though that didn't go as planned since a nice police officer stopped me on my way to work for going just a tad bit over the speed limit...ugh).  But the point of this little practice race wasn't to see if I could do the distances--it was to practice the transitions (T1 and T2).  You see, I am horribly slow during both transitions, and I am also horrible at practicing them to get better.  But I am glad I did get to practice them yesterday, because here are some things I learned:

• If you forget to put on your sunglasses in T1, lots of bugs (and maybe rocks) will become one with your eyeballs.  True story.  
• Untie your shoes in T1 so you don't have to fumble with laces in T2.  Especially if it's super cold on your bike ride and your fingers are pretty much useless in T2.  Like yesterday morning.
• Lay out your stuff in the order you need it.  Because then you won't have to think things like, "Wait...what was I going to do first?" or "Where the BLEEP did I put that?"

I don't need much...I just need to put it on really fast.

• If you carry your phone in the back pocket of your tri-suit and then try to run with it there on the second run it will fall to the ground causing you to freak out at the sound it makes when it hits the ground. Yep.  Leaving my phone in my race belt during the bike fer sure now during T1 and then picking it back up during T2.
• If you carry your headphones in the back pocket of your tri suit during the bike and then attempt to yank them out while running the 2nd run you will lose one of those plastic ear things on them in that pocket and then have to stop and fish it out, looking like you have suddenly developed a serious medical condition as you try to do this and continue to run at the same time.  Some lady going to her car who saw me asked me if I was OK when she saw me attempting to do my running + fishing out small plastic piece out of a pocket you can't see multitasking.  Fabulous.
• No matter what transition it is, I'm always tri-suit sexy.

Especially sexy next to the cat bed.  Mmmm.

And now even more learnings:

• The weather is supposed to be sucky on Saturday in Muncie.  Bummer.  
• How sucky?  Like 90 degrees and thunderstorms sucky.  AWESOME
• Good thing this is a practice race.
• At least my toes won't be frozen chunks of flesh at the end of the bike ride.  You gotta look on the bright side, people.

Tomorrow's workout: Easy run and then off to Muncie!

I'm writing my duathlon goals instead of working out right now.

Listen.  I know the duathlon isn't as sexy as the triathlon.  It's already a psychologically "less than" race than the triathlon because, you know, ONLY two sports instead of THREE because MORE is BETTER (and so is randomly capitalizing words).  But since what I do in the water cannot legally be called "swimming," I'm stuck with the duathlon until they change the first sport to something other than swimming.  Like rollerblading. Or discus.  Or pickleball.

Anyway, my duathlon is on Saturday (looks like rain...boo) so it's probably a little early to be setting any race goals.  But I'm going to throw caution to the wind and list them out below because that's how I roll, people.

• Goal for Run #1 (5K run): Around a 9 minute mile.  Or faster or slower, maybe.
• Goal for the Bike (26 miles): Average somewhere in the 17 mph range because I've ridden this course before and holy hills, batman.
• Goal for Run #2 (10K run): Whatever gets me to the finish line still running.

Overall goal for the race: Survival.

My ulterior motive for this race is to use it as a baseline race for the half duathlon I will be doing in September, so really this is kind of like a practice race.  (Or, at least, that's what I'm going to tell myself when I am suffering on the second loop of the bike course to self-soothe.)  In fact, I was going to do a shortened practice race this morning but that whole "have to be at work on time" thing got in the way.  So I planned to do it after work...and we all know how well that always works out for me.

Yeah.  I took selfies in real clothes instead because that burns calories too, right?

Low calorie burn selfie - it was just a warm up.

You can see the calories sizzling right off me.  What a workout.

Right.  And these are real "learnings," too:

• Survival is always a good goal for a race.  Especially your first race of any distance or type.
• Not only did I ditch my workout today because I lied to myself about doing it after work, but the whole "no wind" thing going on tomorrow morning made me persuade myself to do it tomorrow morning.
• I want my muscles to look all crazy amazing when my arms are at my sides so I don't have to walk around all day flexing my arms.
• That's my favorite type of dress - the "I paid almost $30 for what is essentially a large bag with pockets and armholes" type.  Very comfy.

Tomorrow's workout: A small practice duathlon.  I mean it this time.

I just realized I had better start duathlon training.

You know that feeling when you're looking ahead on your calendar and you realize you have a half duathlon (10k/56mi/10k) on June 9th and you realize it's already April?  That feeling of sheer panic when you realize you need to be able to bike 56 miles and not die in about 2 months?

Yeah.  That feeling made me get my butt on my bike and ride around outside for 15 miles in the windy cold this afternoon.

I think the cars might be jealous of my ride.

Well, it wasn't super cold outside, but there were some serious winds that made the first half of the ride really, really suck.  It also kind of sucked because it's been the first time I've done an outdoor ride since the late summer, and the first 5 miles were just my legs going "whoa....whoa...what are we doing...we're not used to this....we're just going to go slow until we get used to this again."  And slow is how we went until we were about 8 miles in, when I finally had the wind at my back and could cruise all the way home.

So...not my best bike ride ever (16.2 mph average?!?!).  But when you haven't been on the bike since August, I guess I'll take it as a starting point for improvement.  In fact, during the ride I was thinking of all of the things I need to do to improve in order to survive 56 miles on the bike (only to get off and run a 10k....argh).  Here are some of those thoughts roaming through my mind during the ride:

• To stop your toes from becoming two blocks of ice because you chose to ride into cold early spring winds for 8 miles, invest in bike shoe covers.  This will prevent you from standing in the shower after the ride blasting your toes with the hottest water you can tolerate just to feel something, ANYTHING in them again.
• Don't stupidly think you can bust out 15 miles after not riding outside for so long.
• Buy more than one long-sleeved bike jersey or it's going to be lots of really cold morning rides for you.
• Work on distance, then speed-stop trying to push big gears right out of the gate.
• Remember: unclip FIRST, and get off bike SECOND.
• Don't think about the fact that you have to be able to ride forty-one more freaking miles by June 9th.  Just get the miles in.
• Work on getting on and off the bike without looking like an old lady worried she will fall and break her hip.
• Also remember: when stopping at an intersection, unclip FIRST, then put foot on the ground.
• I told you - stop thinking about those 41 more miles.  You're just freaking yourself out for nothing.
• Learn how to grease the bike chain without getting bike grease all over your hands. 
• Your quads are big whiners.  Ignore them.
• And a final remember:

A post shared by Club Of “Runners”🏃🏼‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️ (@craptrunners) on Mar 29, 2018 at 5:47pm PDT

Some bike riding learnings for you today:

• While riding into the wind for the first half of the run was sheer torture, the back half was a joy.  It reminded me why I enjoy biking so much.
• This ride also reminded me that biking outside is still one heck of a workout.
• Am I still going to freak out about those 41 more miles?  Yes, until I do at least a 30 mile ride.
• Does anyone else have whiny quads, or is it just me?
• And because I have yet to post a picture of one of my animals giving his opinion of this post, I shall do it now:

POST SO BORING

Tomorrow's workout: Total body weights.  The usual Friday torture.

Minneapolis Duathlon: Feeding my duathlon monkey

I am really getting to like these duathlon things.  The state of this like is seriously beginning to approach my love of bulleted lists.  You know it's freaking serious then.

Anyway, I just completed my third one, the Minneapolis Duathlon, touted as the "World's Largest Duathlon." I was convinced by a Ragnar buddy of mine who also is addicted to duathlons to do it, and I am totally glad I came up to experience the joy that is this fitness event.  In my usual futile attempt to keep the handful of readers I have, I will summarize this awesome experience into a small series of salient bullet points in a totally inappropriate PowerPoint-esque manner:

• It was hot.  Really hot.  We left at 4:30 A.M to drive to downtown Minneapolis, and we were rudely assaulted by the heat and humidity after we stepped outside the door.  But we weren't going to let that stop us-we had 3.1 miles and then 15.9 miles and then 3.1 miles of duathlon goodness awaiting us.
• After getting all our numbers affixed on ourselves and our bikes, we set up our transition areas and then headed off to a local coffee shop so I could grab a bagel.  We then expressed our displeasure at getting up so damn early:

• This really is a big duathlon.  It seemed that the runner-cyclists were springing forth from the very earth in the transition area and scattering bikes, sports drinks, bike shoes, and energy gels amongst the many rows of bike racks.

• The first run was hot.  Hot hot hot.  I broke down by the water station in mile 2 and walked through it. This run was also long-3.4 instead of 3.1, according to my Garmin.  But you did get to run through the downtown area and over the river; it was a nice course.
• I was extremely glad to get on the bike after that hot run.  There were some serious winds, however, coming in the very direction in which we started biking, so that made it a bit challenging.  On the turn-around, however, I took off and started flying in the last 7.5 miles or so.  Well, whenever people who were going slower than me weren't riding side-by-side and blocking the route.  
• The bike route had more people on bikes than I have ever experienced.  It was a little nerve-wracking for me to ride around so many people on bikes; at first, all I could do was start calculating the probabilities that I would smack into one of them and cause an accident.  After about mile 6 or so I calmed down and chose someone to "race" with.  I have a habit of picking a person at the start of races with whom I am privately competing.  I'll have you know that I won my little race during the bike ride, even if we kept passing each other over and over again in the last 7 miles.  I outpaced her on the last hill right before we got back to the transition area.  Ha!  Take that, person who didn't even know I totally took you down in my own private race with you!  Yeah!
• My transition time totally sucked the big one.  I had the hubbs switch out my clip pedals with my regular pedals for this race so I would have a better transition time (due to not changing shoes).  Little did I know that I would have to pee like nobody's business after my first run and would end up waiting in line for the port-a-john, making my total transition time 3:39.  All that planning just so my bladder could ruin it all. 
• And speaking of those pedals, I hate them.  Give me my clip pedals and bike shoes any day.  I could totally feel the inefficiency of those old clunky pedals--specifically, I felt it in my calves as they were starting to cramp by mile 13. The way my feet were working on the pedals felt very different to me, as if I had to work to keep my foot on the pedal.  Very unnatural and painful towards the end of the ride.
• The second run was called off due to the heat, so I got my finisher medal as soon as I hopped off my bike.  Disappointing, to say the least.  But at least I got in a nice run and a pretty awesome ride before getting my hopes dashed to the ground.  (OK, it wasn't that bad.  But I was sad that I didn't finish.)
• This race had some pretty sweet and copious swag: (plus $5 bike jerseys at the expo!)

And some pretty good company:

And that company includes the cat-dog Lily:

Like I said, I am really getting to like these duathlon things.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find another one to satisfy the duathlon monkey that's now kicking and screaming on my back.

My second duathlon = still justifying the purchase of my expensive road bike.

3:30 A.M.  That's what time I had to get up this morning in order to get to my duathlon, my second ever.  Between my 3:30 A.M. long runs and my races, it seems the best time to catch me these days is in the wee hours of the morning.  When only me and the critters who hang out in the ditches whose eyeballs glow in the light of a headlamp are up.

But I had to get up that early.  The race (the Dash Pedal Dash put on by the Schaumburg Park District) started at 6:30 A.M., which was good since it was already 70 degrees and muggy when I walked out of my house to leave at 4:15 A.M.  I made it to the race about an hour early, which was plenty of time to get out my bike and my gear and head on over to the transition area.  Once there, I was confronted with this:

You see, in my first duathlon there were no bike racks.  But here there were, obviously.  And me, with two college degrees, couldn't figure out how to put the damn bike on the rack for about 5 minutes.  Talk about my education not being applicable to real life.

After getting my bike on the rack (and then getting it on the proper rack) and setting up my area, I then checked in and got some neat-oh body marking:

I also got marked on both arms. And then I found out that duathlon participants didn't need body marking.  Guess I'll be wearing sleeves and pants to work for a while.

Anyway, this duathlon had a 12.8 mile bike ride sandwiched in-between two 5K runs.  Here's the race breakdown:

Run #1: Attack of Coughing Guy

The run was through a nice residential part of Schaumburg, and had two main loops.  I wasn't really interested in bursting a lung on this race, mainly because my legs were still recovering from the 18 miler I did two days ago.  My goal was to run an 8:30 pace to not only save my legs but also to save some for the bike and the last run. And I was meeting that goal when I came upon Coughing Guy.

It was about half way through the first run when I heard him.  I actually thought he was sneezing his way through the course when I came up behind him, and felt bad for his alleged allergies at first.  But then I started pacing him, and realized after he let loose a cough-hack-spit combo that he was coughing.

And coughing and coughing and coughing.

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was just really sick when he decided to run this race.  But I really couldn't take pacing him for more than 3 nanoseconds, so this forced me to speed up and run the rest of the race a little faster than I wanted to do (at about an 8:19 pace).  With the mugginess of the morning and the slightly faster speed, I was extremely happy to get to my bike and hop on.


12.8 mile bike ride: Pass me, huh?

This was a nice ride.  The course was well marked, there were volunteers everywhere, there were enough hills and turns to keep your mind occupied, and I really appreciated the breeze I was getting on the bike.  My average speed was around 17 miles per hour, and I was happy with that.  Just like with the run, I wasn't interested in going all out--I was interested in going as fast as possible without pushing my legs to the brink of collapse.

I did get passed by a lot of people with some serious-looking bikes, but they were mainly in the triathlon that was occurring at the same time, so I wasn't really worried.  I only got all competitive when I noticed some duathlon participants--some that I had passed in the run--were passing me in mile 9 or 10 or so of the bike.

Pass me, will you?  We'll see about that.


Run #2: Return of Coughing Guy and..well...the guy who sounded like he was REALLY happy to be running.

One of the bike riders who passed me was Coughing Guy.  I quickly caught up to him and passed him, the sounds of his cough-hack-spits ringing in my ears long after I passed him.  After that, I gradually picked off every single person who passed me at the end of that bike ride.  I was feeling pretty good about that...until I came across a runner who seemed REALLY happy.  Too happy.

This runner was an older gentlemen, and with every exhale he was letting loose a sound that can best be described as "climactic."  Scratch that-it can best be described as "someone having a good time but that good time should not be seen in public especially on a running course."  It was hard for me not to completely lose it and start laughing, mainly because I was still running an 8:19 pace and my lungs wouldn't allow it.  But hey, to each his own-we all have our own running styles and rhythms...and sounds.


My overall time was 1:41:49.  I am actually pretty pleased with this, because I initially expected it would take me 2 hours to finish.  However, one thing I will have to work on is my transitions.  They were both two minutes long, which is about one minute too long for each of them.  I think it's because I walked in my bike shoes during both of them; I'm going to have to practice getting my shoes off after my bike dismount so I can just high-tail it in my socks to my transition area.

But that time was good enough to take first in my age group:

I would love to show you some awesome photos of me during the race, but my race photographer decided 3:30 A.M. was too early to get up and stayed in bed this morning.  So I had to resort to taking a race selfie in the bathroom:

I know.  The depths to which I will sink just to get a race photo.

Oh yeah I have a duathlon & the magic of my Garmin

Workout: Speed session consisting of 3 x (1 x 1200, 1 x 400).  Weather was perfect.  Shin splints were quiet.  They know their place.

I don't have much time to write this evening, seeing as I got home late and have to be up early to do a brick workout.  Yeah, it seems that I kind of forgot I have a duathlon on Sunday (3 mile run, 13 mile bike, 3 mile run), so I have to do some rearranging of the ol' workout schedule this week.  So instead of my week looking like this:

Tuesday : Speed
Wednesday : 6 miles easy
Thursday: 8.5 mile tempo (UGH)
Friday: Rest (Ha!  That's code for "weights" and "biking")
Saturday: Long run
Sunday: Cross training


It is now going to look like this:

Tuesday: Speed
Wednesday: 10 miles on the bike, 3 mile run (better not be farting around tomorrow morning, eh?)
Thursday: 5 mile tempo in the form  of a 4th of July race in downtown Rockford (7 miles with warm up and cool down before and after the race)
Friday: Long run
Saturday: Rest (OK, this really means "rest.")
Sunday: Duathon!

I just can't skip a long run.  Not during marathon training. I am a moron.  But a moron that loves dangling close to the edge of injury!

As long as we're talking about injuries, I thought I would get one this morning during my speed session because I was a) wearing new shoes and b) running fast and c) forgot to wear my calf sleeves.  But I didn't.  My legs felt rather nice afterwards, and I am digging those Saucony Shadow Genesis shoes for speed work. Light and bouncy, they are, and they don't feel like a ton of shoe.

But what I liked the most was what my Garmin was doing.  It was bossing me around, but in a much more assertive manner.  That's because I actually programmed it ahead of time with the speed workout I was going to do on Garmin Connect, and then sent the workout to my device. Now, I thought I would totally screw this up, but all I had to do this morning was hit "Do Workout" and I was off and running (literally).  My watch told me when to warm up, when to do my intervals, and when to cool down.  It also kept reminding me that I was running much faster than my pace zone, but I got good at ignoring that incessant little chime.

But what I realized after I uploaded the workout to Garmin Connect afterwards was that, if you program the workout ahead of time, you get split times you can actually use:

I walked my recoveries.  Don't judge me.

My Garmin.  It is magical.

This along with the 50 degree weather we had this morning almost made up for all of the times I ran in the snow and single-digit wind chills this winter.

Almost.

Getting better.

Last night I finally got some good sleeps with this cold.  That's because I actually took medicine to help me sleep.  As far as I am concerned, NyQuil liquicaps are the best thing on God's green Earth right now.  Although it did not stop me from having weird dreams about kangaroos, aliens invading the Earth, and haunted warehouses.  Thank God those weren't all in the same dream.

After a good night's sleep, I woke up still pretty stuffed up.  Yesterday I took the day off from working out, but today I felt I needed to do something.  So I suited up and trotted outside for a very slow (11:27/mile) 2 mile run.

It was exactly what I needed.  (Although trying to snot rocket while you're sick and running is an adventure all unto itself, let me tell you.)  I am feeling mucho better today.

I felt even better this morning when I finally got ahold of my run splits from the duathlon I ran on Saturday:

• 1st 2 mile run: 13:23 (6:41/mile)
• 2nd 2 mile run: 15:23 (7:41/mile)

Holy schlamoly.  I have never ever in my life had recorded times like that.  My first instinct is to write them and tell them their timing system is all screwed up.

Remember, I ran this duathlon without my Garmin because I was so nervous I forgot it.  So I was totally running by feel on those miles, and basically my feeling was, "I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO STOP RUNNING NOW."  But I kept telling myself it was only 2 miles, so I pushed through to the end.  The issue with running the second 2 miles was that you have those weird bike legs and you can't really tell how fast you're running.  Well, I can't, anyway.

And here I was worried that marathon training made me all slow and stuff.  Still have to work on that biking though...took me almost 50 minutes, and that included the transition.  Oy.

As far as my weigh-in goes, I was up again today-146.8.  My body fat percentage went up as well, jumping to a 26.2%.  This can only mean a few things:

1. My eating manifesto needs a complete overhaul
2. My body is hoarding nutrients because I am sick and have been reducing my exercise
3. NyQuil contains about 6,000 calories that are not reported on the side of the package

I'm going to give it a few more days, and then probably overhaul my eating plan.  We shall see.  Until then, I will leave you with a joyous picture of me on my last day of school before I embark on my journey as an administrator:

Gotta love that shirt, too. ;)

Beloit Wellness Duathlon Race Recap (I mean "Biathlon.")

I almost didn't go to my duathlon this morning.

I woke up with that deep, scratchy itchy chest cough you get right before you start hacking up both of your lungs the next day.  I am getting sick.  I blame it all on my dirty student netbooks and the baby I held yesterday afternoon.  You just can't trust babies, man.

Anyway, I considered ditching it altogether and resting up for a 10K I am running with a friend tomorrow (and running 8 miles after that when I get home-Ragnar!).  But then I thought about all the time and effort my husband put in this week putting up with me and my biking exploits, so I knew if I didn't go he would kill me.  Well, maybe not kill me.  Maim me while making it look like an accident, maybe.

So the hubbs and I hauled our butts up to Beloit for the Beloit Wellness Biathlon (really a duathlon, but they refuse to change the name) held at Beloit Memorial Hospital.   We got there super early because, for some reason, whenever I go to Wisconsin I think it is super far away because it is another state.  Beloit is only a 30 minute drive from my house, however, so we got there about 2 hours early.  The hubbs was not pleased, but it just gave me time to scope out the situation and get acclimated.  And start freaking out about the transitions.

Me after setting up my transition area.  Sexy sexy.

I think I asked about everyone I could find about where to set up, what the runs were like, what the bike course was like....I should have just written "Newbie" on my forehead and just pointed to it whenever I encountered someone.  I was nervous, nervous, nervous. I hit the port-a-john about 4 times, the last time being about 2 minutes before the first heat's start time.  Thankfully I was in the 2nd heat, so I raced over to the start line right before my heat began.

And then, we were off on our first run:

Run #1:

The two miles seemed to take longer than usual.  But I wouldn't know because I FORGOT MY GARMIN AT HOME (Along with my purse!  See how anxious I was about this?) so I was running by how I felt.  But, considering what a slave I am to my Garmin, it was probably a good thing to run by feel today and monitor what my body was telling me instead of ignoring it in favor of what some machine on my wrist was telling me.    I must have really been pushing it OR my lungs were sicker than I thought, because I had never ever been more happy to stop running as I came into.....

Transition #1:

All I have to say is that I am glad I brought my bright-ass orange beach towel; it made it very easy to spot my bike when coming into the transition area.  I was actually happy to take a running break, and I was very much looking forward to getting on the bike.  This transition was slow but smooth, and I did remember that I wanted to put my helmet on before anything else.  The only issue became running with my bike shoes out to the road in order to mount the bike.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but it is hard to run in bike shoes without looking like a complete moron.

It's like walking in shoes with heels under your toes rather than, well, under your heels.

Trying to get the toe clip in so I can get started.

I had a minor issue getting both of my toes clipped in, but I managed it without falling over and injuring myself this time.  After I got going, it was now time for an...

11-mile bike ride:

This was a nice course.  There were a few hills to make it interesting (and one overpass you went over twice), and you did get to ride out in the Wisconsin countryside (which looks suspiciously like the Illinois countryside.  Those copycats.)  The last 4 miles or so were straight into the wind, and I shifted down to take some of the stress off my legs and calves I could feel building.  I was worried I wouldn't know where to go out there, but there were volunteers at every turn pointing you the correct way.  When I got back to the Hospital grounds I impressed myself with remembering to take my toes out of the toe clips at the bike stop line.  After you dismount, you have to run into the transition area quite a ways....if I had to complain about anything, that would be it.  But it's just because I chose to run in my bike shoes which, as I have pointed out previously, is hard to do.  But it's what I had to do to get to....

Transition #2:

I didn't really want to do the 2nd run.  I was tired.  I was getting sick.  It was hot.  But I don't quit.  So I threw on my running shoes (which seemed to take forever), switched out my helmet with my hat.  This transition went much, much faster, except for the time I was struggling a bit to get out of my bike shoes:

So off I went, running on my weird-feeling bike legs:

And headed straight into....

Run #2:

Like I said, I really didn't want to do this.  But off I went, not really feeling my pace because my legs were all crazy from the bike.  I was pretty cranky at this point.  In fact, the hubbs got a nice close-up shot of my run #2 crankiness:

I am yelling at him in the photograph.  He tries to cheer me on by saying, "Go, Terie!" every time he sees me in a race.  I guess I had had enough, because I told him he had to think of something different to say.  I apologized later, but told him that this was like childbirth--I cannot be held responsible for anything that comes out of my mouth at the end of a run or duathlon.  After that initial bout of unprofessionalism on my part, the run went OK.  It wasn't pretty, but it got done (even as I thought hateful thoughts as I ran past a street named "Easy Street").  I was wheezing kind of badly at that point because my lungs decided to remind me that I was sick, and helpful volunteers stared at me with concern, reminding me that I was ALMOST THERE!!!!

The hubbs shot a really nice video of my finish, but he hasn't sent it to me yet, so I guess we're all going to have to wait on that.  I estimated my finish time at around 1:15 or later based on my "training" this week (I don't know if you could call it that since I just decided to run this last weekend), but I came in at 1:08:26.  I was pretty stoked about that (and am waiting anxiously for the results to be posted so I can see my splits!).  I was also happy that I pushed myself in that last run.  But the icing on the cake came when I realized I had placed 2nd in my age group:

This is most likely because the Rockford Marathon is tomorrow and people are taking their easy days today, so the real racers didn't show up.  According to last year's results, I wouldn't have come anywhere near placing with the time I got.  But, all's well that ends well, and this race was just the confidence-booster I needed to get me to sign up for my next one.

Now just to decide what that next one will be....after all, I spent gobs of cash on this bike. It needs to be taken to more races.

Dog pictures plus my first run-bike-run workout.

I got an early start this Saturday morning, mainly because my dogs like to wake us up several times while we are sleeping to take them out on the weekends.  They are old, cranky, and demanding dogs, and we are but mere slaves to their every whim.

"Dad.  Out of bed.  NOW."

Cranky old Sasha.

"In 5 minutes I will bark at you and you will do my bidding,  Slave."

After obeying the will of the dogs, at 7 A.M. I was out the door, ready to try this whole duathlon workout I had concocted (1 mile run, 5 mile bike, 1 mile run).  Not warming up at all (stupid), I booked a 9 minute mile, coming back to the house to get my bike.  I was impressed with myself that I remembered to wear my helmet for once, and took off for my 5 mile ride.

Well, I thought it would be a 5 mile ride.  Because I was totally caught up in the fact that I was riding straight into high winds, I was focused more on my suffering than the distance I was actually traveling.  I meant to do 2.5 miles out and back, but didn't notice my watch until about the 2.8 mile mark.  So, I decided just to go out to 3 miles and then turn around, bumping my ride up to 6 miles.

My cycling experience between miles 4.5-5.5 sucked.  There's no other way to describe it.  I was biking straight on into 16-20 mph winds, my quads were heavy and tired, and it was an uphill mile.  I was cycling in a very low gear just to survive.  It is amazing how much the wind affects your quads; as soon as I turned to face the east and the wind was at my back, riding became so much easier and I could crank it up into a higher gear to make up some lost speed.

After I jumped off the bike for my last run, it took me about a quarter of a mile to get my running legs back and not feel as if I was a big overweight penguin waddling down the road.  But I busted out about an 8:20 mile, so I was pretty happy with that.  I was especially happy that the last half-mile was not straight into the wind.

For my first duathlon-esque workout, it was pretty fun, despite the wind.  The variety really does help me mentally get through it, because this type of workout naturally breaks itself into segments to be conquered.  I think getting a new bike actually designed for this type of thing will help; the hubbs and I are going shopping today to lay out an obscene amount of cash for one.

While my workout was exciting today, what excited me more was seeing this right after I woke up:

Down from 146.2 yesterday.  This means I have lost almost 1.5 pounds in a week.  The hubbs suspects water weight, and no doubt that some of it is due to that.  But no matter what the cause, I'll take it.  I feel better, I have slept better, and my runs have been much better this week.  This whole eating better thing may just catch on with me again.