Married & headed for Hawaii!

Well, we're now married! The wedding was a great time and we couldn't have done it without the help of our family - thank you all for holding us together and helping to make it such a wonderful time. We were up late last night packing for Hawaii and in about 50 minutes we'll be heading out to the airport for the honeymoon.

The family made some great signs for us to show us their support even when they won't be able to make the Hawaii 70.3. THANKS guys - ha, they are great!

Good luck to Joey, Courtney and Lesley in Tri Ridgefield coming up next weekend. We'll be thinking of you all on Saturday night and Sunday (even though you're likely to be done by the time we wake up) and wishing you an awesome race. Can't wait to see how you all do - ROCK IT!

Sorry for the rushed posting but we wanted to get something up before we left. Aloha!

Wedding & Hawaii

HI EVERYONE! (Liz here)

SO sorry we’ve been on blogging hiatus! Life has been busy.

We’ve been training hard, no lack of effort there. The past couple weekends have been tough though since we’ve been traveling and with weekends reserved for long bike rides, we haven’t been able to put in the mileage we should have – but we do what we can. In fact, this past weekend I found myself in Ridgefield for my sister’s graduation. Had an early wake up call at 5am to drive to Fairfield for a 6hr ride with my brother, only to find out he never woke up that morning for his drive from NJ - awesome.

I headed back to Ridgefield to ride solo for 3hrs. I didn’t have a computer hooked up on the Cervelo yet, so I had no idea what my pace was, but according to mapmyride, I did 58.13 miles which gives me a 19mph pace – holy cow. Not sure if that is accurate but I hope it is!

(Pic of Turtle Pond from ride)

Justin and I are getting hitched this Saturday!!! Word from the wise: do not plan a wedding and an Ironman within the same year, or at least not within 2 months of each other, cause it has made our lives hectic. Pics below have been our living conditions the past month… looks like fun, right? Lots of wedding boxes, lots of bikes, lots of everything…

We’re headed to Hawaii for our honeymoon and racing the Hawaii 70.3 on May 30^th. We’re psyched.

AND, last note for today (promise), this season I am being sponsored by Bear Naked and am really excited about it. I love their products and looking forward to supporting them through my racing. More on this to come… : ) Unfortunately, all the gear is too big so I’m sending them back to get exchanged which means I won’t be rockin the Bear Naked goodness in Hawaii : (

3 Weeks

First off, congrats to everyone that ran the Leatherman Loop (a local 10k race in Cross River, NY that traverses through creeks, lots of mud, and over some good-sized hills) this past weekend! All 4 of us (Liz, Jen, Courtney, and myself) had great runs on what turned out to be a very hot day- I'll post some pics when available. Liz, Courtney and I all ran this course 2 years ago and had tremendous time improvements at this years race.

Race Results:
Liz: 1:07:26 (good for 4th place in AG)
Jen: 1:09:06 (finished strong in 5th place in AG)
Courtney: 1:31:14
Justin: 0:57:27

During the ride back to Boston, Liz and I started talking about how crazy the next few weeks are going to be. We have 3 graduations, our wedding, Hawaii 70.3, and IMLP training all within the next month (I know there's other stuff too I just don't remember...damn short term memory). While laying out the next few weeks, we realized we only have 3 more weeks of working out before Hawaii (the other 2 weeks are recovery and taper).

That leaves us with only 18 heavy workout days between now and the race- 2 of which are during our wedding weekend). Up until now, our training has consisted of long, endurance workouts. At this point, we can swim for 2.5 miles, run for 20-something miles, and bike well over 100 miles but can we put it all together with some speed? I was fairly spent after the hard effort 10k last weekend- how am I going to fly in hotter weather with open water swim conditions, high winds on the bike, and searing heat during the run!?!

The mayhem starts today with a speed swim and a strength progression bike. Forecast is for 90+ degrees so I may throw in an easy run to complete the trifecta and soak up some of that heat...let's rock.

Catching the pack...

This morning was a 5:40am wake up call. I got on the trainer for an hour and then headed out the door for an hour run. Technically I was only suppose to do a run today but this past Wednesday was brutal – biked in the AM, had busy day at work, and then did a 2.5 hr run that evening and come yesterday, I was exhausted and didn’t workout. So, I made up for it this AM. (and am now very tired…)

My run was great! Legs felt good, only took a few minutes to get into the groove of things. I’m starting to run faster and faster with each run I do, making it just a bit further than I did before.

I was shocked at how any people were out running this AM on the Charles River. It was very unusual, until I processed that the Boston Marathon is just around the corner. Yup… that explains it. Lots of new faces out on the river. In an attempt to keep myself entertained, I spotted a pack of runners ahead of me (all dressed the same) and figured they were taking it easy given they are running 26.2 miles on Monday, so I said to myself “go catch them.” I ran a bit faster and after a few minutes of good effort, it was apparent I was not going to catch them… what the heck?! Only until they turned around and headed toward me did I realize that it was a group of Kenyans… yea… no chance I was going to catch up with them. HA!

All the activity was a nice change. What is usually a lonely run was shared with many other athletes this AM and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jus and I are headed to CT this weekend but I’ll be back on Monday to cheer everyone on in the marathon!

Defrost

After 5 1/2 hrs of biking, 6200 ft in climbing, and suffering 73 miles of the cold and rain, Joey and I defrost in front of a heater.

From the Gym to the Outdoors

For the last couple of offseasons, it always takes me a couple of long rides to get used to normal biking outdoors. I think my body gets accustomed to either the indoor trainer- where its always toasty warm- or riding the mt bike at 9 mph in the freezing cold. I've also taken the road bike out some this winter but its usually a really slow, slogging pace. Its make the first ride on the Cervelo feel like I'm flying.
I was headin' back to Atlanta this weekend for Easter and was completely stoked to see 70-75 degree days ahead- this meant I could finally ride in full summer gear and not be frozen. So I called the local bike shop for a road rental (damn Delta Airlines for charging $179 each way to bring a bike) and packed my wetsuit in my luggage just in case. Saturday morning the family rode up to Seneca, SC to go out on the boat for awhile and I took the opportunity for an open water swim. While extremely brisk- 58-60 degree range- it only took about 5 minutes before I was warmed up and oblivious to the water. However, it was the first wetsuit (out of the pool) swim I've done this year and it was tiring. I'd swum 4,000 yds the day before and felt great so I wasn't expecting to hurt from a measly 30 minutes. The wetsuit/open water swim was a much needed slap-in-the=face but there isn't much i can do about it until it gets warmer.

Right after the swim, I took off on a 60 miler through the Blue Mountains. It was a great ride for climbing. The pic above is a distant shot of the foothills on my way home. Just can't wait for the warm weather to move a little further north...

Oh, how things have changed

In high school, I played field hockey. Practice was every day and lasted over two hours – it was a lot of running. Since it was a fall sport, I began running on my own during the spring and summer. I would run from my house to Country Corners, a total of three miles every couple days after school. This was my sole source of exercise, outside of dance.

When I went to college, I became obsessed with the gym and come junior/senior year, I was spending 2+ hours, 6 days a week in there. I was running no shorter than 6 miles every time I went. On days where I ran less than that I would feel unaccomplished, in a way. After my run I would either do the elliptical or bike followed by core exercises. I ran my first half marathon the year I graduated in 2006.

After college, I moved to Boston and started doing triathlons, yet my daily runs still only lasted about an hour, 6 days a week. Since I started training for the Ironman, my runs have slowly increased to 2.5 hrs long. Last night, finishing up my run I thought about my running past. It’s so crazy how things change, how I am now running 16 miles every Wednesday after work. I’m extremely happy with my progress, and it’s still mind blowing to me how things have changed. I ran my first marathon under 4 hours, and I couldn't have asked for much more than that. Each run gets easier and easier. It always helps having someone there with you, too, even though I don’t talk (I hate talking while exercising). On long runs like last night, the end is always fun. Once Jus and I hit the final stretch of a quarter mile, it’s always a sprint to the end… it’s hard not to sprint… plus it’s fun to see who beats with beat up, tired legs ; )

Keep on running…