Melissa - Vain Triathlete

The Patriot HI was in June. I had my fastest HI yet (5:14:28).  I was extremely pleased. Thanks to coach Carrie at PBM!  Compared to the last time I did this course I shaved off over a half hour!!!  Here are a few pics.   I was thrilled to have a face cloth at the end. Pure luxury. This race was well run.  PBM

Training is going well. I have found ways to get in doubles even before getting to work in Boston by 9:am.  Not bad eh?  I can go to work without blow drying my hair. Finally! I had to wait for it to grow to a certain length before that could happen.  This new style saves me a good 10 minutes. In the grand scheme of things I have my triathlons planned out for this year and will have no problem getting to the start line in decent or even fabulous shape. It's all good. Over the past two years I have been forced to train on less hours.  Combined with more responsibilities at the insurance agency I have slowly progressed from an average 6-8 hours last year to on average 7-10 hours this year. (I got in one 11 hour week on vacation!).   I consider this a significant improvement in my volume.  Not exactly the prescribed hours I would like to be able to hold but they will do.  Especially since I was able to do fairly well in the two half irons last ye...

We had 11 runners from GNRC   performing today.   Here are most of us pre-race. And Post Race: The wind was 20 mph which made it really hard to figure out how to dress without over dressing or under dressing. Gloves were a must as was a headband but no jacket required. I was fine for the first mile then soon felt overdressed with just a thin base and moderate half zip.  After pondering should I or Shouldn't I remove my shirt I decided to suck it up. There just isn't much you can do when your number is securely fastened in 4 places to your outer shirt. Erin, however, through away one of her shirts to the side of the road around mile 6 never to see her shirt again. I wonder if she pinned her number to her inside shirt. Duh! I had at least 3 goals for this race. Goal #1 - PR by running under 1:33:25.  Why?  So I can pat myself on the back and say what a good runner you are and although you are almost 50 you are still effing fast and capable ...

Sunday morning I lay in bed listening to the wind howling. I finally drug myself out of bed to prep for the 1 hour drive to Derry NH.   My driving mate had a snafu and could not ride up with me. I whined quite a bit about that and then eventually accepted that I would drive alone.  I left my house to meet the others around 7:15 and as soon as I got about 5 minutes up the road I realized I had forgotten my all important Garmin.  I whined a bit about that too and then got over it and cranked up the tunes. After meeting up with GNRC folks, fretting about what to wear, taking a group photo, fretting some more, changing in the last 20 minutes, it was finally time to go.  I was pleased to see port-a-potties immediately outside the exit door and I quickly took advantage.  The floors were slippery so I was VERY CAREFUL in there. Here is our Greater Norwood Runners before the race: Getting ready! ...

There is so much more in life that I want to do I sometimes ask myself - should I NOT continue to devote so much time, energy, and thoughts to my sport of choice?  Occasionally I seriously wonder if I'm missing out on more casual play time like making more clothes, going to a book club, cooking cool new recipes.  I have always wanted to join or start a book club but have never made time to do that.  I have a fear that 10 years from now I'm going to WISH I had spent more time doing other fun hobbyish things such as the aforementioned.   I'm referring to the time you set aside for hobbies. Not family or work time. I mean free time that you have and how you choose to spend that time. Perhaps in 10 years I'll actually have more time to do these things. Right now there isn't to many choices. It's either I train or I give up training to do the other things in life.  I choose of course to train but that doesn't do much for my fear that I'm not as well rounde...

The legs: 3 mile run 10.85 mile ride 2 mile run Started out coldish with arm warmers. No gloves although I wished I had them during entire race. First 3 miles were glorious. A 5k but not all out.  Felt good.  Hate running on bumpy grass at the end. 20:26 (6:49 avg.). Out on the bike pushing pushing pushing.  I THOUGHT it might be flat but it wasn't.  At least 3 steep climbs. Short but steep.  Only 11 miles.  34:48 -  19 MPH or just under. Second run leg I started out easy. Was not sure how I would feel but soon was able to pick it up. Found I still had speed. Yah!  Small race, not a lot of people out there. This leg was faster on average.  13:26 (6:43 avg.) Over - thank goodness.  2nd Overall woman. Yay!  1:10:19.

I wanted to share my adventure with you as I headed up to race the Timberman 70.3 in NH this past weekend. Kathy and I went up on Friday around 4 PM and checked into the Holiday Inn Express. Ahhhh. So nice to be in a clean, comfy hotel. Saturday was the highlight of the trip when we visited the Tilton Diner. They really know how to feed me. I continued my eating frenzy throughout the day consuming lots and lots of pretzels, and other carb laden foods. The night before the race I was able to have a really nice, albeit slow, dinner with friends from my local area in MA. Kelly, Mary, Andy, Linda, Kathy and I met up at the O'pechee Inn. We ate dinner at the O Steak House on Lake Opechee. A very beautiful lake in NH. It was great to finally see everyone and talk about the race. Saturday morning was spent trying out the bike and adjusting the seat. Something you never want to have to do the day before a race.  My seat had shifted a few days before for some unknown reason. Scary, bu...