My A race is a coming. USAT Nationals is this next Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I realized an interesting thing the other day - my very first collegiate cross country race was in Tuscaloosa (University of Alabama's home meet; I was running for Auburn), and my very last collegiate cross country race was also in Tuscaloosa (Regionals my senior year, running for UCF).
This morning, after not setting any alarms and sleeping until our hearts were content, Marty and I did a short brick in gorgeous weather. It is still abnormally hot here for this time of year, but the humidity has FINALLY let up a bit and it sure does make a difference. Anyways, the brick went well, but I could tell that something was wrong with the cleat on my right shoe. Sure enough, when I got home and took my shoes off I found the problem.
"Yup, all my screws are loose," I said to Marty. Uhhhh, durrrrrrrr!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Music
We have Sirius satellite in the car I usually drive and I mostly listen to Alt Nation on there. This puts me slightly ahead of the curve for new alternative music, but not so much that I'm all indie hipster or anything. Just enough to when they finally play a song on the real radio I can say, "Psshhh, that song is SOOO old." And then I feel cool.
Marty doesn't like anything that was made after 1994, so he thinks all my music is crap the first time he hears me play it. Then 4 months later he'll say, "Oh, I like this song." Then I remind him he heard it 4 months ago and you said it was noise and why can't every song sound like Pearl Jam or Pink Floyd.
By the way, I heard that Pearl Jam is celebrating their 20th anniversary of being a band. Sigh.
Anyways, I wish there was a song with my name. Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon is the closest I think I'll ever get, and that's not all that close. But when I was younger I used to pretend they were singing "Briiiiiiiiii-aaaaannnnnnnnne" (note: NOT Brianna)
Marty doesn't like anything that was made after 1994, so he thinks all my music is crap the first time he hears me play it. Then 4 months later he'll say, "Oh, I like this song." Then I remind him he heard it 4 months ago and you said it was noise and why can't every song sound like Pearl Jam or Pink Floyd.
By the way, I heard that Pearl Jam is celebrating their 20th anniversary of being a band. Sigh.
Anyways, I wish there was a song with my name. Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon is the closest I think I'll ever get, and that's not all that close. But when I was younger I used to pretend they were singing "Briiiiiiiiii-aaaaannnnnnnnne" (note: NOT Brianna)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Patriots Half and Sprint Weekend
Marty, Tassie and I left straight from Marty’s high school cross country practice on Friday evening. We were going to save a little money and stay at my sister’s house on Friday night in Chesapeake, VA. She lives about an hour away from the race site in Williamsburg, and 4 am was an early wake up call for us on Saturday morning. No trouble getting to the Jamestown Settlement where the races started and finished – temps were cool!
Marty started in the 4th wave but had such an awesome swim that he was in the top 10 getting out of the water. There was a good current parallel to shore, but when turning back to the finish most people got swept real wide and added a ton of time to their swim times. It was also quite shallow and a lot of racers chose to slowly walk out of the water instead of continuing to swim or dolphin dive. Marty-I-Am-An-Awesome-Open-Water-Swimmer took a great line and dolphin dove his way to a very fast split considering the conditions. Erin, one of his athletes and our good friend, was also racing and killed all the women in the swim. Marty was lucky to outsplit her!
Dan, Michelle and I set up camp while everyone was out on the bike. It really is tiring spectating, which I know sounds ridiculous but I’ve spectated enough of these long events and can honestly say how draining it can be. We cheered for all the racers coming off the bike – Marty came off 4th but I think at this point he was really leading the race since he started 9min behind the first wave. The run was two loops so we got to see everyone a lot. Erin ended up 2nd overall and broke 5 hours in her first half – that girl is dripping with talent and works hard – in her first year of triathlon she is already a force to be reckoned with! Marty finished up 6th overall and had a really solid race.
I was exhausted when we finally got to our hotel that afternoon. Since the sprint was starting at 7am we decided to stay in Williamsburg that night so we didn’t have to drive back and forth to my sister’s and get up sooooo early again. This was a good idea since a group of us had a fun time at dinner that night. We ended up at Hooter’s…don’t ask.
We got up the next morning to rain and 60 degree weather. We were running just a bit behind schedule so Marty stayed at the car to get my bike ready so I could head to packet pickup and get all my stuff. It’s really annoying to just be standing in lines when it’s raining, not to mention setting all your stuff up when you know everything is just going to get soaked. I was starting to get a little anxious because even after all the lines, Marty still wasn’t there with my bike and we hadn’t parked that far away. He finally showed up with his disc for my back wheel. We had been having trouble with my disc – specifically, my cassette would just fall right off of it. Marty thought that actually on the bike it would be fine but it wasn’t working. Apparently, while putting his disc on my bike, my cassette must have fallen off the bad disc into the deep grass of the parking area. We didn’t realize this until we got home and were unloading the car. If anyone finds an almost brand new cassette at the Jamestown Settlement, please contact me ;)
I felt rushed and poor Marty got the brunt of my anxiety when I was trying to get my wetsuit on and our bottle of Pam was clogged. Sorry, honey. The first wave was men 34 & under and I was the second wave of women 34 & under. I mistakenly tried to dolphin dive at the start and it was too deep so I kind of mucked that up, but managed to get on some fast feet for a little while. The swim for my wave was uneventful, unlike for the some of the later waves who dealt with a moving buoy, and the last waves who didn’t even have to go around the first turn buoy because after moving it was eventually just taken from the water. I tried to be like Marty and took a good line into the finish and got some good dolphin diving at a more appropriate water level on the way in. I think I was 4th or 5th out of the water. The run to transition was long and I had some trouble getting my wetsuit off (remember the no Pam incident?) but I managed to get on the bike in 2nd place.
I moved into 1st place quickly and then just concentrated on passing as many guys as possible. The roads were wet so I was careful but felt like I pushed pretty hard out there.
T2 was all right, a little slower than normal because it turns out putting soaking wet socks on is harder than dry socks. Yes, I wear socks even in a sprint. I have sensitive feet. I felt good heading off on the run and again, just tried to pass as many guys as possible.
All in all, it was a good race. A nice final tune-up for USAT Nationals in two weeks. Here's a link to the results.
Erin and her mom came out to cheer for us in the rain when they could’ve been sleeping off their half in the nice hotel. Tom and Marty were also great cheerleaders for us – great job to Dan on his 2nd place finish. This race gives wine and wine glasses for awards – nice!!
Marty started in the 4th wave but had such an awesome swim that he was in the top 10 getting out of the water. There was a good current parallel to shore, but when turning back to the finish most people got swept real wide and added a ton of time to their swim times. It was also quite shallow and a lot of racers chose to slowly walk out of the water instead of continuing to swim or dolphin dive. Marty-I-Am-An-Awesome-Open-Water-Swimmer took a great line and dolphin dove his way to a very fast split considering the conditions. Erin, one of his athletes and our good friend, was also racing and killed all the women in the swim. Marty was lucky to outsplit her!
Dan, Michelle and I set up camp while everyone was out on the bike. It really is tiring spectating, which I know sounds ridiculous but I’ve spectated enough of these long events and can honestly say how draining it can be. We cheered for all the racers coming off the bike – Marty came off 4th but I think at this point he was really leading the race since he started 9min behind the first wave. The run was two loops so we got to see everyone a lot. Erin ended up 2nd overall and broke 5 hours in her first half – that girl is dripping with talent and works hard – in her first year of triathlon she is already a force to be reckoned with! Marty finished up 6th overall and had a really solid race.
I was exhausted when we finally got to our hotel that afternoon. Since the sprint was starting at 7am we decided to stay in Williamsburg that night so we didn’t have to drive back and forth to my sister’s and get up sooooo early again. This was a good idea since a group of us had a fun time at dinner that night. We ended up at Hooter’s…don’t ask.
We got up the next morning to rain and 60 degree weather. We were running just a bit behind schedule so Marty stayed at the car to get my bike ready so I could head to packet pickup and get all my stuff. It’s really annoying to just be standing in lines when it’s raining, not to mention setting all your stuff up when you know everything is just going to get soaked. I was starting to get a little anxious because even after all the lines, Marty still wasn’t there with my bike and we hadn’t parked that far away. He finally showed up with his disc for my back wheel. We had been having trouble with my disc – specifically, my cassette would just fall right off of it. Marty thought that actually on the bike it would be fine but it wasn’t working. Apparently, while putting his disc on my bike, my cassette must have fallen off the bad disc into the deep grass of the parking area. We didn’t realize this until we got home and were unloading the car. If anyone finds an almost brand new cassette at the Jamestown Settlement, please contact me ;)
I felt rushed and poor Marty got the brunt of my anxiety when I was trying to get my wetsuit on and our bottle of Pam was clogged. Sorry, honey. The first wave was men 34 & under and I was the second wave of women 34 & under. I mistakenly tried to dolphin dive at the start and it was too deep so I kind of mucked that up, but managed to get on some fast feet for a little while. The swim for my wave was uneventful, unlike for the some of the later waves who dealt with a moving buoy, and the last waves who didn’t even have to go around the first turn buoy because after moving it was eventually just taken from the water. I tried to be like Marty and took a good line into the finish and got some good dolphin diving at a more appropriate water level on the way in. I think I was 4th or 5th out of the water. The run to transition was long and I had some trouble getting my wetsuit off (remember the no Pam incident?) but I managed to get on the bike in 2nd place.
I moved into 1st place quickly and then just concentrated on passing as many guys as possible. The roads were wet so I was careful but felt like I pushed pretty hard out there.
T2 was all right, a little slower than normal because it turns out putting soaking wet socks on is harder than dry socks. Yes, I wear socks even in a sprint. I have sensitive feet. I felt good heading off on the run and again, just tried to pass as many guys as possible.
All in all, it was a good race. A nice final tune-up for USAT Nationals in two weeks. Here's a link to the results.
Erin and her mom came out to cheer for us in the rain when they could’ve been sleeping off their half in the nice hotel. Tom and Marty were also great cheerleaders for us – great job to Dan on his 2nd place finish. This race gives wine and wine glasses for awards – nice!!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Labor Day Weekend
These yummy little cupcakes are the death of me. I ate 6 of them over the course of 4 days. 6!! I am thankful that we don’t have Publix’s in NC or I would really be in trouble. My sister bought some for me and I shoveled one down my piehole right when I got to her house (Tassie was going to be partying with her and Carter in Jacksonville). Then once we got to New Smyrna Beach 2 hours later, I enjoyed another with my almost 3 year old niece. Couldn’t have her eating alone, now could I?
It was a long drive to Florida. We didn’t make it out of town until 6:30 on Thursday evening, and stopped in Hardeeville, SC 5 hours later. It was dark which was good since there isn’t anything to see in Hardeeville except for fast food chains, hotels and gas stations. Another 4 hours the next day with the dog drop off in Jacksonville and we were finally at the beach house! I went for a run and it was HOT. Figures NC had fantastic weather this weekend. I got in good heat training instead.
Marty and I went for a flat, hot, ugly bike ride Saturday morning. I so appreciate living in our beautiful state, but never more so then when I ride my bike in FL. I felt good. Marty took a spill and now has some cool road rash on the right side of his body. Luckily, that’s all he got and nothing was broken or hurt (bike or Marty). However, I did not like watching him lose control and go down. I was the one who cried.
We got in some beach time, family time, and a little more training time. It was a good weekend. The drive was long coming back yesterday, and Shana refilled the cupcakes for me and since I apparently have no self control, I ate 2 more yesterday. There is still 1 left. I think I’ll have that when I get home today.
It was a long drive to Florida. We didn’t make it out of town until 6:30 on Thursday evening, and stopped in Hardeeville, SC 5 hours later. It was dark which was good since there isn’t anything to see in Hardeeville except for fast food chains, hotels and gas stations. Another 4 hours the next day with the dog drop off in Jacksonville and we were finally at the beach house! I went for a run and it was HOT. Figures NC had fantastic weather this weekend. I got in good heat training instead.
Marty and I went for a flat, hot, ugly bike ride Saturday morning. I so appreciate living in our beautiful state, but never more so then when I ride my bike in FL. I felt good. Marty took a spill and now has some cool road rash on the right side of his body. Luckily, that’s all he got and nothing was broken or hurt (bike or Marty). However, I did not like watching him lose control and go down. I was the one who cried.
We got in some beach time, family time, and a little more training time. It was a good weekend. The drive was long coming back yesterday, and Shana refilled the cupcakes for me and since I apparently have no self control, I ate 2 more yesterday. There is still 1 left. I think I’ll have that when I get home today.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Bulls and Beach
We're never bored here at Gaal Central. Tonight we're headed to the Durham Bulls game with a bunch of friends. Yesterday was an interval run in the morning, followed by work, followed by the Inside Out Sports bike ride (hung onto the front group - go me!). Swimming this morning, back at work and straight to the game tonight.
Tomorrow evening we're driving down to Florida for our annual 'it's Marty's dad's birthday weekend so we're getting the whole family together.' Last year we went to Hollywood, FL, the year before we were in St. Pete. This year we're going to New Smyrna Beach (with a stop in Jacksonville Thursday night).
I told Marty the other week that there was no way I was swimming in the ocean there. New Smyrna (in Volusia county) is well known for it's many shark bites (I don't want to say 'attacks' because they aren't really). It also has a great surfing break. Nonetheless, this girl doesn't want to take that chance. Here's a little excerpt from wikipedia:
According to the International Shark Attack File maintained by the University of Florida, Volusia County Florida had more confirmed shark bites than any other region in the world in 2007. Experts from the University of Florida have referred to the county as having the "dubious distinction as the world’s shark bite capital". This trend has continued into 2008 with 19 confirmed shark attacks as of September. In early 2008, Forbes Magazine rated New Smyrna Beach North America's top shark attack beach over North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii. In 2008, it again broke its own record with 24 shark bites.
So yeah, if it were me and Marty in the water, guess who the weak link is? No thank you.
Now there are some hurricanes out in the Atlantic so it would be rough anyways. I think we'll just find a pool.
Tomorrow evening we're driving down to Florida for our annual 'it's Marty's dad's birthday weekend so we're getting the whole family together.' Last year we went to Hollywood, FL, the year before we were in St. Pete. This year we're going to New Smyrna Beach (with a stop in Jacksonville Thursday night).
I told Marty the other week that there was no way I was swimming in the ocean there. New Smyrna (in Volusia county) is well known for it's many shark bites (I don't want to say 'attacks' because they aren't really). It also has a great surfing break. Nonetheless, this girl doesn't want to take that chance. Here's a little excerpt from wikipedia:
According to the International Shark Attack File maintained by the University of Florida, Volusia County Florida had more confirmed shark bites than any other region in the world in 2007. Experts from the University of Florida have referred to the county as having the "dubious distinction as the world’s shark bite capital". This trend has continued into 2008 with 19 confirmed shark attacks as of September. In early 2008, Forbes Magazine rated New Smyrna Beach North America's top shark attack beach over North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii. In 2008, it again broke its own record with 24 shark bites.
So yeah, if it were me and Marty in the water, guess who the weak link is? No thank you.
Now there are some hurricanes out in the Atlantic so it would be rough anyways. I think we'll just find a pool.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Nuclear Swim Recap
Our final open water swim in the Trysports Triangle Swim Series was held yesterday morning at Harris Lake. This 1 mile swim (named the Nuclear Swim since the Shearon Harris Nuclear power plant uses the lake to cool it's reactors) is a popular one and we usually get our biggest turnout.
I coerced my friends Kari, Alysia and Karen to help me with packet pick-up and they were nice enough to fall for my manipulations and got to the race site early. We got in the water and sunk into whatever sludge is on the bottom of that lake with lots of squeals after the men had started. This is a nice wide start so there's not a whole lot of banging around and I situated myself right next to Alysia. After about 100 yards she was inching up so I decided to fall in behind her and let her sight and do all the work. It was perfect! I limited the amount of foot tapping I did and let her drag me around for 3/4 mile before I decided to kick it into high gear and sprint on home. Poor Alysia -- some friend I am! The entire time I was thinking, "MUST BEAT ERIK!!" 
Everything went very smoothly - we had enough t-shirts for any late signups, all food was there and delivered early, and the weeds were at a minimum this year. Because of the amount of swimmers we had, it was decided to once again split the men and women up. The men would go 10 min ahead of the women.
Some of you all may remember the Showdown I had with fellow master swim, Erik, at the Big Deuce. It was time for my rematch...bummer that we were in different waves! At the Jordan Lake swim, this is how we finished (different waves, here, too).
And at the Big Deuce (someone snuck in between us)
I coerced my friends Kari, Alysia and Karen to help me with packet pick-up and they were nice enough to fall for my manipulations and got to the race site early. We got in the water and sunk into whatever sludge is on the bottom of that lake with lots of squeals after the men had started. This is a nice wide start so there's not a whole lot of banging around and I situated myself right next to Alysia. After about 100 yards she was inching up so I decided to fall in behind her and let her sight and do all the work. It was perfect! I limited the amount of foot tapping I did and let her drag me around for 3/4 mile before I decided to kick it into high gear and sprint on home. Poor Alysia -- some friend I am! The entire time I was thinking, "MUST BEAT ERIK!!" Getting out of the water was a bit slow with that sludge again, but I ran out and was extremely tired. Turns out it's pretty hard to sprint for a 1/4 mile.
The women's finish was a good one! With a $100 on the line it was a sprint to the end and only 1 second separated first and second. Marty got it on video and posted it to Facebook (check out the Triangle Open Water Swim Series page to view). I would post the video on here, but I have no idea how to get it off of facebook. I never claimed to be very smart.
Once out of the water, I apologized to Alysia for using her for most of the swim. She didn't care at all; love her :) Then I saw Wayne from Master's and asked him what his time was. He responded with, "I'm not telling YOU." Hmmm, my competive reputation has preceded me. He did tell me and I did a few fist pumps when I realized I had beaten him.
But the real question -- what was Erik's time?! I couldn't find him and when I finally did, he didn't know! They had the results up quick and we both rushed over to look. After a quick look, I yelled, "DANGIT ERIK!!!"
4 seconds! Again! And once again we weren't even in the same wave. So over the course of these 4 miles (and 2 miles not even swimming together) we were separated by 7 seconds. I'd say we're pretty evenly matched in the open water. Hopefully, he doesn't learn to sight (an issue for him right now, apparently).
Since I handed out the awards I gave him a massive eye roll when he got his. Nothing but love for my fellow OSB Master's swimmers ;)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tips from Tassie
I wrote this for our latest OSB Multisport newsletter. If you'd like to subscribe to it (it's sent out monthly), click this link.
There are so many traits that my dog has that I wish I could instill into my life. For example, she is ALWAYS happy in the morning, no matter what the time. It’s as if she’s thinking, “A brand new day! Yay!” She gets incredibly excited when we take her for a run, and is very sad when we don’t. I don’t necessarily want to be spinning in circles (ala Tassie) at the beginning of every run, but I do wish I could be that eager for most of them – I am doing something I love, after all.
Another trait Tassie has is she absolutely won’t quit. She has been trying to catch a squirrel ever since we brought her home almost 4 years ago, and has continually failed, but that doesn’t stop her. If she spies one in the backyard she lets you know that she has to get outside RIGHT NOW. Unfortunately, although she is very fast, she makes way too much noise and then doesn’t always actually run to the squirrel's location. In other words, her chances of catching a squirrel are about as good as Marty being able to donate his hair to charity.
But she doesn’t care; every failure is immediately erased from her mind and the next opportunity is always just around the corner. This is really a remarkable lesson that we can use in so many different aspects of our life, but since this is a triathlon newletter I figured I’d relate it to the sport. How many times do we dwell on a bad workout or race? You can always learn from everything, but beating yourself up over it is not productive. You had a bad run? Well, guess what – there’s another run on your schedule two days from now! Make that one count and forget about this one. Or how about in a race? Perhaps you had a crummy swim – don’t think about your crummy swim the entire bike ride – it’s over. It’s done. Get on the bike and only think about the bike.
Maybe you haven’t had the season you’ve been hoping for? It’s not over yet. You still probably have a few races left –these are your opportunities to get after it. Don’t give up on the squirrel. You may just catch it someday.
There are so many traits that my dog has that I wish I could instill into my life. For example, she is ALWAYS happy in the morning, no matter what the time. It’s as if she’s thinking, “A brand new day! Yay!” She gets incredibly excited when we take her for a run, and is very sad when we don’t. I don’t necessarily want to be spinning in circles (ala Tassie) at the beginning of every run, but I do wish I could be that eager for most of them – I am doing something I love, after all.
Another trait Tassie has is she absolutely won’t quit. She has been trying to catch a squirrel ever since we brought her home almost 4 years ago, and has continually failed, but that doesn’t stop her. If she spies one in the backyard she lets you know that she has to get outside RIGHT NOW. Unfortunately, although she is very fast, she makes way too much noise and then doesn’t always actually run to the squirrel's location. In other words, her chances of catching a squirrel are about as good as Marty being able to donate his hair to charity.
But she doesn’t care; every failure is immediately erased from her mind and the next opportunity is always just around the corner. This is really a remarkable lesson that we can use in so many different aspects of our life, but since this is a triathlon newletter I figured I’d relate it to the sport. How many times do we dwell on a bad workout or race? You can always learn from everything, but beating yourself up over it is not productive. You had a bad run? Well, guess what – there’s another run on your schedule two days from now! Make that one count and forget about this one. Or how about in a race? Perhaps you had a crummy swim – don’t think about your crummy swim the entire bike ride – it’s over. It’s done. Get on the bike and only think about the bike.
Maybe you haven’t had the season you’ve been hoping for? It’s not over yet. You still probably have a few races left –these are your opportunities to get after it. Don’t give up on the squirrel. You may just catch it someday.
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