Friday Film #8

(Writing this up on Thursday and scheduling it to post on Friday since I might be really busy.)



This is footage of Sister Madonna's Kona finish five years ago. (For those who don't watch Kona every year, she's a nun who does Ironman every year and the reason they had to open a 74-79 and now 80+ age group.) She was the last finisher, making the midnight deadline by less than a minute. Fire dancers, a special song queued up just for her, an interview with Mike Reilly, and a crazily cheering crowd were all waiting for her.

This is to remind me to not worry about my time or placement on Saturday and that even if I AM last (actually probably won't be, but close) oftentimes in a triathlon, the last finisher gets the biggest rock star finish of all.

See you on the other side.

Most Amazing Search Result Ever

It's always interesting to see how people find my blog. Some come from a link I have at a local website, a bunch come from Beginner Triathlete, and I get some from Google searches. Most of these are from years ago when I was a "House" fangirl and had a lot of "House"-related entries, but one from yesterday REALLY caught my eye. I clicked on the link that had brought a German reader here from Google, and this is what I got:



You'll need to click on it to get the full-size, but basically this reader found my blog while searching for pictures of triathlon women pissing. (The result was my profile picture.)

...sorry to disappoint dude. I know I'm all wet and glistening in that photo, but it's from a post-race jump in a fountain. No pissing here.

Taper Brain

...I SHOULD be writing up a nice, coherent entry about my tune-up sprint race on Monday night. I SHOULD be paying attention to the teleconference I'm currently listening in on for work.

I have complete and utter taper brain. I've had butterflies in my stomach since MONDAY.

It's going to be a LOOOOOONG 2.5 days until the gun goes off.

Friday Film #7

One week from today I will be heading out to Tupper Lake to pick up my race packet...AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! In all seriousness, I feel way more prepared than last year.

This week's video: Jokes for nerds. Everything from Harry Potter to Physics - he's got you covered.

COLD

Had a freezing bike ride this morning - it was 50, overcast, and WINDY. Froze my ass off because I refuse to wear UnderArmour in freakin' JUNE. Luckily it was a short ride.

An OWS is on tap for after work. It is all the way up to a scorching 60 degrees, and the wind is still guaranteeing some "fun" chop. The water itself will be comfortable enough in a wetsuit, this is what it's going to look like getting in and especially out of my wetsuit:



The killer part? Tomorrow is going to be almost 80 and sunny and all I have is a short jog. Sigh.

Gotta love the Adirondacks!

Friday Film #6

I didn't have anything in particular lined up for this week's Friday Film, but thanks to my friend Fran, who shared this on Facebook, I am SET.



I don't usually find "Crazy person completely melts down" videos funny, but this girl crying just THINKING about cats had me in tears I was laughing so hard.

Ironically enough, I have to post this so I can take one of my cats to the vet. Shut up.

Peaking on the Bike

...That's PEAKing, not PEEing. We clear? Cool. ;-D

On Saturday I had one last hard, long ride to do before tapering. 70 miles, and NOT at an easy pace - high Zone 3/low Zone 4. Ouch. Because I am very slow on the bike, I was going to be out there a while.

How long?



This long. That's five hours' worth of hydration and nutrition. Since this was from my last 70-miler, which was a brick, you also see some fuel for the run (the two Fuel Belt bottles and the Hammer Gel), but you get the idea.

When I got up, the weather was perfect and I was feeling good, so I decided to hurt myself a bit out there. It was two loops down to Wilmington and back with a final loop of the IMLP run course. I was willing to risk having to granny gear the last loop - I wanted to see what I could do.



Ready to rock.

The first loop was easy, of course. I finished with a 14.8 average (yes, almost a MPH faster than two weeks ago), and still plenty in the tank. Dr. Z. hopped aboard for the second loop and I could tell right away he was feeling strong. Because I wanted to push it, I decided that as long as my HR didn't skyrocket I would put on my big-girl panties, loosen my bra, and go with him as long as I could. I was beat by the end of the descent into Wilmington, but I stayed at his well. (And that was with him trying to pull away for the way back since I'm a better climber.) Second ascent back to Lake Placid was taken a bit easier since his back started bothering him, but I still had a 14.8 going.

The last little loop was mine. Only some small rollers aside from Big Nasty and I felt good and mentally strong as well knowing I only had ten left. I cruised it good and even with the climb up Big Nasty actually INCREASED my average to 14.9. The best part? When I logged everything later, I realized that my HR was about the same.

That's right. In two weeks on the same course with similar conditions, I upped my speed by nearly a MPH without really working any harder. My 56 mile time was 8.5 minutes FASTER. Does my coach rule all or WHAT?

So, now feeling great about the bike going into taper. Yay!

Friday Film #5

I have a special treat for you fine readers this week - not one, but TWO Friday Films, both awesome.

Film #1 - Credit for this goes to Steve in a Speedo (Link on the right), who tweeted it yesterday and posted it on his own blog today.



Film #2 - The alternate video for "The Lazy Song." I have no words except to say that Leonard Nimoy rocks my world.



3K swim tonight followed by my last long bike and long run this weekend before I start tapering. Gulp!