4 weeks to go!

This last saturday may have been our last long bike ride before our bikes ship off to Hawaii, on March 13th. Eeek its coming up so fast!

We did a 18 or 26 mile bike ride, followed by a 4 mile run, and once again had great weather for it (though a little chilly to start with). I did the first 9 miles with my mom and Karen along the burke Gilman, then decided to continue on the 26 mile route while they turned back. I caught up with a group of 4 from our team, just in time for a humongous never ending hill. I'd see it flattening out and push myself to that bit, thinking it was over, only to turn a corner and see it go even higher... That was a long long hill...(thanks coach Cathy!). We stopped to take a few rests part way up, which helped, and then we were able to make it to the top. I did enjoy the long downhills we earned as a result of it though :).

After cutting through bothell (for that lovely hill), we hit the burke gilman again, for a 10 mile flat ride home.

With about 6 miles left, I came across Sarah changing a flat tire (with Capt'n Ande's help). I stopped and watched, and commented that I was lucky and had still never had a flat, and that I should really know how to do it... Then I hopped back on my bike, rode a mile or so, and got my first flat!! Poor Ande then had to come help me as well. We had one little scare where we thought the tube was part of the tire, cause apparently they make some fancy tires like that, but then found it was just well stuck. So I finally got it back on, and headed back to the car.

At this point it felt like I'd been out there for ever (like 3 hours) with all the stopping to figure out were we were going, and seeing two flat tires get changed, and it didn't help that I managed to forget all my liquids that day! (I left my Gatorade on the kitchen counter :( ).

I knew I needed to practice more bricks though (bike-run-ick), so I compromised and said I would do a 2 mile run. It just so happened it was a two mile loop. However, as I finished my first loop, I found cathy and 5 people cheering for me, and cheering me onto the 2nd loop! Peer pressure is totally unfair!! So I guiltily took off, and ended up doing the 4 mile run. And I ran the whole way, and didn't find it terrible! (Very exciting for me).

I'd just like to also point out that I have had two flat car tires in the last 3 months, so that is 3 flats in 3 months, and I think that is unfair!

After practice I drank lots of water, ate a lot, took a nap, and then dropped my bike off to get looking over, so it is fresh and ready for Hawaii.

Go team!

Snow!

On christmas day Karen and I went for a short run in the snow. Its been hard to fit in full workouts with the weather we had, but we figured a short one is better than none at all :).


a snowman we built in the back yard.

Weather

Extreme Seattle weather has put a bit of a damper on our training. Last monday night our outdoor running practice switched to circuit training (it was about 20 degrees outside). Wednesday every single school in the area closed because of snow. and by snow I mean the ANTICIPATION of snow. We didn't get a flake of snow, but everyone was terrified we would, and everything closed, and thus swimming was cancelled as the pool was closed.
Thursday the snow then dumped down, and we got about 3 inches by friday. Which then froze as the temperatures dropped, making biking and running for Saturdays practice pretty hard. Bikes and ice don't really play well.
(unlike snow and Boomer - see below).



Then Saturday at about 3pm, it started snowing again. And this time it came down long and hard. By Sunday we had a few inches. Boomer Kyle and I went for a quick run in downtown Bellevue park through the snow. And by Sunday night we had over 10 inches of snow.

So basically, most of my week has been spent admiring our weather, and not much training. I'm trying to get in a few trainings, to keep in shape. I set up my bike trainer tonight, and put in 40 minutes on it, but it doesn't really compare to outside riding. Suppose the holidays our trainings often taper down...

So Happy holidays everyone! Hope ya'll say warm and dry, and find some creative ways to get some miles and yards in.

Running

We had running practice again yesterday, and again, the weather was beautiful. well, I knew it was, cause at 4pm when the sun was still out, the sky was blue. By 7pm, it was pretty dark, and got even darker when the lights on the track turned off, but there was no rain, and I thought it was perfect running temperature. Cool enough that you don't get too hot, and not cold enough for my feet and hands to go numb.

We did a mile at a moderate pace - to get our times at 75% of our max heart rate. Near the end of training in February, we will do the same exercise, and hope that at that heart rate, our running speed has gone up... Then we did strides - down the straight part of the track, you speed up faster and faster, till max speed, while trying to keep up good running form. Then we get to recoup on the ends of the track.

It was a somewhat light workout, as we are still discussing form, and base building, but I think after thanksgiving they will begin getting more intense.