Clips and Computers

Oh my goodness, I'm becoming one of those bike people. I keep acquiring the gear, bit by bit. I now have 3 bike jerseys, 2 bike shorts, 2 sets of bike gloves, and 6 water bottles. The biggest additions to my bike gear... my new clip pedals and bike sandals. I also just got a new bike computer to keep track of my progress.

Kari and Kait have been talking to me about bike clips for at least a year now. After the triathlon, I realized that I needed to make the switch. It will give me more power while I pedal and it just looks cool :) The cool part isn't the reason, I just needed to throw it in there. Anyway, the day I decided to switch to the clips, I got an e-mail from a local bike store about their HUGE sale. They had Keen bike sandals for $30 off! Yipee! I figured the bike sandals will be so nice to have in the heat. Plus, they are a lovely shade of blue and look cool (is there a theme brewing here?).

I've been using 2 different bike apps on my iPhone to track my mileage and routes. I had some doubts as to their accuracy, and they were draining my battery. If I went for more than 1 hour, I'd need to charge my phone.

So, yesterday I went to a St Paul bike store and picked up a trek computer, on sale! It was tough to figure out how to install it, but with the help of the internet, I figured it out. It's pretty darn cool! It tells me the current time, elapsed time, speed, average speed, top speed, odometer, and temperature! Plus, it looks cool!

I really wanted to get a 20+ mile ride in to give me a bit of confidence for RAGBRAI. It was supposed to be in the mid to upper 90s and humid, so I needed to get started in the morning. I hit the road at 10am (not morning to most people, but I had be here for Greg at 10am). It was an awesome ride! I saw places I hadn't seen before. My bike computer kept me motivated to bike a bit faster than I would have done without it. I even got up to 28mph on one hill! On the other side of that down hill was an up and I went 4 mph up that beast.

After all was said and done, I got in a 25 mile ride in just over 2 hours. I'm pretty pleased and feel better about my RAGBRAI preparations now.

70 POUNDS!!!

I've officially lost 70 pounds since beginning Weight Watchers back in October! YEAH!! That number is still shocking to me. I can't believe it's so much!

This may seem slow to most of you. It is slow. It's meant to be slow. I want to keep it off, not just loose it. Experts say that if you loose 1 to 2 pounds a week, your chances of keeping it off are much greater. It's a slow battle, but I'm winning it!

In celebration, what did I do? I ran a 5K today. I was so motivated from this big loss. It felt so good. At 1 mile, I'd run a 10 min mile. At 1.5 miles, it was 15 minutes! This is great for me. I'm still working on keeping my pace up and speeding up my 1.5 mile time. It's also working. It's so amazing to see how far I've come in the past few months. I keep saying it, but it's amazing what my body can do right now.

One thing I must add. Before advertising my 70 pound weight loss, I debated putting it in print. I even put it on my facebook page. It's scary to let people know how much I'd gained in the past 6 years. However, the joy of loosing 70 pounds far out weighs that fear. I figure, they can judge the weight gain if they want. I don't care. I'm just thrilled that I'm at this point today. What ever I weighed last year is in the past. I only have the future to look forward to now! YIPEE!!!

Around Northfield - Road biking - Everytrail

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day! I decided to try my new bike stuff, and hit the road. It was a slow ride, due to traffic stops and site seeing. I wanted to go over 12 miles, but really wanted to do 20 miles.

I was sure I did 20 miles! However, my new toy on my iPhone said I did just over 16 miles. So sad. Anyway, here is the link to see where I went and how I did. Remember it is a sad sorry pace.

Around Northfield - Road biking - Everytrail

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Lessons Learned

Reflecting back on the Danskin Triathlon 2009, I've learned a few lessons. I'm recording them mainly so I can look back on this next year and remember these things.

- Don't be afraid to get there early. Get there between 5 and 5:15 am. There will be no rush.

- Walk to the triathlon site. It really helped center me and calmed my soul. I had no idea how helpful it would be.

- Leave notes for friends. It was so much fun to do, and really set the tone for it to be a fun time instead of terrifying.

- The day of the triathlon... TAKE A NAP!!! I was so tired, but didn't want to poop out on anyone. It caught up with me and I'm still tired 3 days later.

- The night after the triathlon: the reality is I'm exhausted come 7:30 or 8pm. What I really want to do is have a nice dinner with Greg and the girls. That way we can visit and share stories from the race. It's good for my head, and relaxing. Going out on the town would be nice, but the reality is that I just can't stay up for it. I'm old... so sad, but true.

- If I want to paint the town red, then I need to show up on Friday night. I've realized after 2 times now, I'm off to Austin, TX for the triathlon... not to site see. If others want to go out (like Greg and Kari) they can do it. As I said earlier, I need to nap. I get grumpy when I'm too tired.

- Show up early on Saturday and I can go out in the afternoon to see some sites. It's a BEAUTIFUL town, and worth seeing.

- Figure out dinner plans for Sat night about a week early. Maybe go to a local Italian restaurant next year? Carrabbas was great though! Again, it's a way to see the local flavor.

- Lunch at the Thunder Cloud Deli on Sunday is PERFECT! Those sandwiches were AMAZING!

- Bring a more mobile cooler for Greg. Either lighter, or better wheels. Would a wagon do a better job?

- Bring Cliff Blocs with. They really helped keep my energy up. So nice!

- Bring a pillow for the car and airplane rides. I was EXHAUSTED. Have I said that enough yet?

- Watch the Chocolate Martini intake the Fri before. 2 are the max. The neighbors still remember, even if I don't.

- Bring thank you notes. So many people help out, and I forget to thank them. Not good on my part.

Danskin Triathlon 2009!

Today as the big day. The Danskin triathlon in Austin, TX! It was an amazing time! The supportive women and the excited energy is unlike any other event I've ever experienced! It's addicting, which is why I returned to do it again this year.

It was a very early morning. Greg, Kari and I got to the Expo Center at 5:30am. The shuttles to the race were slow and there were hundreds of women in line to get on them. So, Kari and I hit the road for a 1.5 mile hike to the race site. I didn't think it was a good idea at the time, but realized later that it was the best thing for me. It helped me calm down and get in a better place, mentally, for the race.

We got set up, and found our meeting place under a giant oak tree. Before I knew it, Kari was off to start her swim. I was about 12 minutes behind her, so off I went to get ready. We were assigned to different "waves" for start times. I was wave 11, starting at 7:30am. Everyone in my group was between 35-39 and we all had red swim caps. It was so neat to meet my fellow athletes in line.

The swim was tough. They had us in much larger groups for the waves, and set us out every 3 minutes, vs. every 5 last year. There were swimmers everywhere. I was kicked and clawed often. However, the swim was finally done, and it was off to the bike.

Kari had found me a fabulous bike to ride in the race. Since it was foreign to me, I had to think of a way to find it in the sea of thousands of bikes. I bought a children's safety flag and made a lovely green "Lufkin" banner for it. The flag pole was so bendy, that I had it on only to find the bike, then took it out for the ride. I didn't want to take anyone out.

The ride was GREAT! I kept passing so many people! At 3 miles, I pulled my water bottle out for a quick drink. A lady asked me a question, I got distracted, and when I was putting the bottle back it slipped and hit the pavement. Oh well! No one was hurt. At 7 miles, one of the arm rest on the bike suddenly fell of the bike. I had now lost 2 things from this bike! What more would fall?

At 8 miles, Kait passed me. We chit chatted for about a minute and she was off again. It felt so good to see her during the ride. Just what I needed at the time.

Oh wait, there is this horrendous hill at 4 miles. It is so steep and slow. I walked it last year. I thought, if I can ride up it the whole time then I know I won't walk at all. Well, I didn't walk! At the top of the hill I let out a HUGE scream and let everyone know I made it up the hill. It felt amazing!

I made it up every long and steep hill without walking. When I made it back to put my bike in, I didn't see Greg. I was disappointed, but quickly realized he guessed I'd be there much later than I was. That made me smile.

As I came into the transition area with my bike, I heard Kari in my head telling me to work on my speed in the transition. I moved quickly to my rack, and dropped of my bike and helmet. Then, I jogged to the exit. It took me just over a minute, and only because I had to move bikes out of my way.

Once I started to run, it took effort to keep my pace slow. At this point, my goal of NOT walking was in my sites. I didn't want to screw it up. There were a lot of ladies passing me, but I kept my steady pace going. So many women were walking the entire route. I didn't expect to do as much bobbing and weaving as I did.

At 3/4 mile until the finish, there is the HUGE and HORRIBLE hill. It's about 1/2 mile long. It saps all of your energy. I didn't want to walk. I kept saying that in my head. NO WALKING. Then, the evil me started to speak louder and louder... you can walk, everyone else is. But, the stronger Deeann won out and I did NOT walk!!!

I crossed the finish line with the biggest smile on my face. It was an unbelievable feeling. But, I didn't see Greg. I left the finish chute, looking for him, Kari and Kait. It took a while, but there was Greg running up to me. He gave me a HUGE hug that lifted me off the ground. Then, he showed me that I finished in 1:47! Kari and Kait ran up and gave me a huge hug too.

Kari knew my time from last year. I still didn't know it. My goal last year was to finish it, and knowing my time would be depressing. Well, I bettered last years time by 43 minutes!!! Holy cow! Who knew? I couldn't believe I did it in under 2 hours, much less 43 minutes faster than last year.

It was an amazing time. It is so unbelievable to see what my body can do this year. I guess loosing 67 pounds really can help!

2 mile Run

Today was a busy, busy day. We are getting ready to head to Dallas, so we needed to wrap some stuff up.

Greg was so nice and he went to the nursery and got 2 cubic yards of mulch for me. It's just in time, because I've been battling with weeds lately. It looks so good! I'm thrilled with the results.

So, after all the mulching of my 4 gardens, I hit the trail. I decided to take it a bit easy and just run 2 miles. I figure with all the mulching, I didn't need to run 3 + miles today.

I had just picked up the new Dave Matthews Band CD today. It is AMAZING!!! You must know that I am a HUGE Dave Matthews Band fan. So, I'm biased. Anyway, I loaded it onto my iPod and put it on for the run. It was very motivating, especially the 2nd and 3rd songs.

I started out slow, but then thought I'd push it just a bit. I'd been running slower and slower since my horrible cold 2 weeks ago. I wanted to see if I could run a 10 min mile. Well, there was yet another strong northerly wind as I hit the large hill on my way out. I pushed through it, and made 1 mile at 10:12. I did have to wait for a little bit too to cross the road. I figure it was around 10 minutes. I turned around and when I hit 2 miles it was 19:51! Yeah me! It felt amazing!

5 days until the triathlon now. I'm getting more and more excited. 2 days until we leave for Dallas!!

30 minute Bike

After talking to my triathlon advisor, Kari, I decided to take it easier this week than I originally planed. The Hal Higdon Speed Tri Training program had me doing 30 min swim with 30 min bike, or 30 min bike with 30 min runs this week. Kari suggested that I take it easier to let my body recover from my training. The best thing she said was that I should be rested enough so that I'm itching to get on with the triathlon (a paraphrase, but you get the idea).

So, I went for a little over a 30 min bike today. It felt great! It was 6.36 miles through the quiet neighborhoods around St. Olaf University. I didn't push it too hard, and it felt good. I even told Greg right after that it felt good, which he commented was not a normal bike reaction of mine.

I'm ready to go! I can't wait to hit the course again. I'm anxious to see how much I've improved over last year. It's exciting this time, not terrifying like last year. This time 1 year ago, I had Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 going through my head. This year, I have upbeat and happy songs. What a difference a year makes!