Last things first - REV3 Maine Race Report!

I still haven't written a race report for my last bike race (i.e. my first bike race win) but I have pictures from Maine this weekend so I suppose I am doing that one first! I also have the day off and I'm back in town so I have this crazy thing called free time. It feels weird.

Anyway Maine was awesome. It is so beautiful there. This is the scene of our swim!

Now do I recommend doing a tri with an ocean swim involved after not swimming for four months? Definitely not. But I'll get to that. First things first. My awesome friend Tamra and I headed up Friday morning and went to packet pickup and then since we still felt relatively energetic we headed up the coast a little further to see my old school, Bowdoin. I hadn't been back in a while and it has changed a lot and not at all, at the same time.

One thing that hasn't changed is how stunning the campus is. Wow. Here are a few shots. This is the chapel:

Me in front of the Student Union posing with the Polar Bear (our mascot):

Hubbard Hall where I took government classes:

The Bowdoin Pines, a little trail you can walk along outside the back of the alumni house:

It is my happy place, I love it there.

We also checked out the island where I lived my senior year and had dinner at a cheesy but tasty restaurant called Cook's. This is the sunset that evening outside at Cook's:

The next day we did our little pre-race workouts and then had breakfast. This snap is for Kim (who is Tamra's coach and told her to eat a lot of food for breakfast that morning).

Those are pancakes with real Maine blueberries. YUM.

So anyway that was fun, but I know what you really want to know is, how was the race? Well it was awesome. And not awesome all at once but I had a great time. We got up Sunday around 4:00 and had breakfast and headed down to the race. This was such a great venue - very easy to get around, tons of parking, very supportive community. It could not have been easier. So we got there so early because everything was so easy, which was fine. We set up our transition spots and walked about half a mile down to the start.

Now I really had not swum a stroke since late April. NOT RECOMMENDED. I did swim on Saturday for maybe 20 minutes and my arms didn't fall off and I noticed with the current it would be good to sight often. It was a beach start but there wasn't much contact at all so I just started swimming along and tried to swim in a straight line. I was all alone except at the last turn some guy swam over me for no reason so that was annoying! I didn't really get tired except I guess my back felt tired. When I exited the water I realized that was because I swam a 44! Nice personal worst swim. But what do you expect when you don't train? Pretty much that. There was a long run to T1 so I just said well what can you do and started running. There were virtually no bikes left in my area so I knew that the swim wasn't just way long, good to know. But I knew the bike was where I was fit.

So the bike was so great. I loved the course. Almost totally flat. I got into my small chain ring twice, each time for under two minutes. I probably passed 300 people. And this was NOT that big a race. One guy asked me what I ate for breakfast. I said oh that's not it sir, all I've done for the last few months is ride my bike! I wanted to have the fastest bike split and I didn't quite do it but I was close. I was told the course was a little long but my time was 2:34. I guess it was a little windy but I don't know, I feel like I could have ridden a little faster. I suppose that the swim actually taking something out of me had something to do with it! Who knows. I had a great time though, just enjoying being out there. The scenery was beautiful - all these lovely trees and farms and just MAINE. I love that place.

I got off the bike and the good news was that I felt fine. After riding as much as I have this summer I didn't feel like it took anything out of me. Which was good because I needed everything for this run.

So I don't know if I have said anything about this because I never blog but my butt is really jacked. I keep going to people here and I don't know if anything is working. It seems like there is this tightness in the insertion of my hamstring and then on the side and on the top, pretty much all over on the right side. It is really painful when I run but it doesn't hurt when I ride so I've just been riding and not running. I hoped I could finish but I wasn't sure. My friend Randy told me to take 4 Advil at the start of the run so I grabbed all my normal stuff plus a pile of Advil and headed out. I immediately felt my butt - however, it wasn't that bad so I said well worst case let's try to run the Olympic run course (a 10k) and if that's all I can do I'll come back and DQ myself.

I also had no idea how fast I would go if I could run but I knew that when I got back from the bike there were hardly any bikes in my area so I thought well maybe I can get top 5 in my age group and that would be nice. Then I hit mile 1 in 8:16 and my butt hurt so I said maybe not, I am sure someone will pass me! But I just kept running and once we got past about mile 2.5 we were on this awesome trail. It was flat, smooth, and almost totally shaded, and the surface was dirt which was a godsend, it was so much easier on my body and allowed me to continue without too much pain in my butt! I also tried out a new EFS gel flavor - the Kona mocha one - which was delicious, that helped too! I was also just having so much fun out there. Every person I passed I told them good job and if they said oh you look so strong or whatever I said you know I am just happy to be out here. It was so much fun. I was running around 8:00 pace for a while and then slowed down to around 8:30 pace for a while but just kept saying to myself just keep running, and each mile that went by I was happy that I could run that far.

I came into the finish just under 5:15. I think I ran a 1:49 - definitely not a great time, but I'm happy with it considering my lack of training. I don't think I would even have started had the race not been in such a special location for me. I am so glad I did! I still don't know if I want to do any tris next year or just keep racing my bike, because I am really enjoying that. But I do really love tris. I think because I love to run so much. I just hope I can fix my butt either way, so that I can find that joy in running again - it's not fun when it hurts!

Here is a scene from the finish line. REV3 put on such a good race. They were getting ready to cheer like crazy for the last finishers.

And here is a snap of the medal I received along with the finishers medal - they snap together, pretty sweet!

The finisher's medal is the lobster claw and the podium medal or whatever is behind it (I think it is a pot you cook a lobster in or something). Again I just can't say enough good things about this race. The course, organization, location - all incredible. You should definitely consider it for next year. I might be back if I get my butt healthy!

Tour of the Catskills

So Tour of the Catskills. Such an epic weekend, so much to say, so many great memories. Most of all it was a really fun weekend with my teammates, they are great girls and I love hanging out with them.

I tried to relax as much as I could, sitting on the front porch of the house we rented. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful!

The Catskills remind me of the smaller mountain towns in Colorado. Very pretty and nice and quiet in the summer. But more like the mountain towns like when I was a little kid, now the ones in Colorado are much busier and larger. Anyway after hearing of their existence for so long it was fun to see them.

So we started off with a 12 mile time trial. My goals were:
1. Ride hard
2. Finish in time to hand my bike off to my teammate who is my exact size, so she could use it too
3. Put myself in a decent position for the GC (like any other stage race the winner of the race is the person with the fastest time overall)

I would say all three goals were met. I was 4th in the Women's 3/4 category and the fastest of all the Cat 4 women. I was under a minute back from the leader of the GC. And I got to give BrittLee my bike! She had an awesome TT and was second in her category (P/1/2/3). I like to think I helped with that a little bit!

After that I tooled around a little to cool down and then we ran around trying to get dinner, food, etc. I also had to wash my kit because I only have one and it was already disgusting. Next year I am ordering so much kit I swear. It was fun and relaxing. We knew we had a big day Saturday so we tried to go to bed at a nice reasonable time.

Saturday was Stage 2 and a 65 mile road race. Here is the course:
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1178909

It doesn't look that crazy but the last big climb is ridiculous. Like it's not even like riding a bicycle. But I'll get to that.

So I was feeling good and I was with the leaders like maybe 3rd to 8th wheel back for a long time. It was kind of boring for a while to be honest - I don't have a power meter but my teammate Meredith said we were pushing like 80 watts which is not a lot! The ride was beautiful though and I was enjoying that. One funny thing happened - I'm riding along down a long descent and a bee flies into my leg and stings me. Of course, this would only happen to me. Now the reason everything was cruisey however is because of this crazy climb. So we come to the climb and it is like 'oh you have got to be kidding'. So steep. I was determined not to get off my bike and walk, because everyone said I'd have to because I had a 12-25 cassette. Well yeah, I ended up walking for a little while. I literally could not help it - my brain said pedal, my foot said clip out. So there I was! I felt like a douche but then I found out that everyone in the 3/4 field walked. So I didn't feel that bad.

Once I got to the top I was pretty far from the leaders so I started TTing my butt as fast as it would go. I caught Meredith after maybe 5 minutes and we worked together and caught two more girls and then we got into a little sprint with them at the finish and I tied the other girl who was sprinting fast. Not bad. I was dead when I finished though. It was really hot so we just ate a sandwich, drank like 13 bottles of water, and sat down in the shade on the sidewalk. This stage I finished in 10th. Oops. Not great but I mean really I could not have climbed that crazy climb any faster on that day.

The rest of the day we pretty much loafed like champs, made dinner, did more laundry, nothing too exciting. It was nice.

Sunday was Stage 3 which was a 61 mile road race with two climbs. I didn't feel awful when I woke up but I didn't feel great. I mean come on, who would? That would be ridiculous. So we got to the start and did a little warmup and then lined up. Since I was top 10 in the GC I got to start at the front, that was kind of cool. I felt very pro. We started out and the first 20 miles were easy which was alarming because what goes down must come back up. The field held together until I would say partway through the first climb which was around a 5k in length and fairly steep. I just lost it mentally and lost the leaders. I was bummed because I thought I could stay with them if I had just had more mental fortitude. But once again there I was off the back TTing as hard as I could. I caught Meredith again and we pacelined to the next climb which was later in the race. The second climb was crazy steep but not as bad as Saturday's. I managed to stay on my bike the entire time. At this point it was pouring which was annoying but also meant it wasn't nearly as hot as Saturday which was a blessing.

I suck at descending in the rain because I am afraid of crashing, I must say. Meredith TTed to catch me and we just worked together as much as we could to get to the finish. I sprinted into the finish as hard as I could and ended up 9th in that stage, bringing my final position to 10th in the GC. I won $20 so that was cute.

Here is the view from the finish:

Overall I am so happy with how I did. It was so hard but so much fun. I love my teammates. I love the Catskills. I really, really love stage races and I can't wait to do another. I am already plotting the next one which is probably next year - the season is going to wind down after Labor Day weekend and I can't race that weekend because I'll be in Denver for a wedding. Oh well! Just gotta hit it hard next year. I have a few more races this year but nothing that exciting. Thanks for reading!

I (heart) Summer

Summer in New York is even more awesome than summer anywhere else I've lived. It is so much fun. And as  you may guess, it is busy, because I never blog. I've  been racing a little more - did a road race up in Pawling, New York, last Sunday. It was so much fun. The race consisted of two challenging, beautiful loops in hot weather. I ended up 14th, which I was not delighted by, but I was delighted by swimming in an awesome lake after the race. They had a few laps set up, which was fun. I swam a 150. Pretty much the extent of my swimming recently, oops! It felt amazing after racing though. Mostly we just floated around and chatted. Very good times.

I also recently went to the beach for the first time since I moved. It is so easy, and absolutely beautiful!

We had such a good time, just running around playing in the waves, loafing, and gossiping. Here is me and my friend Nancy:

After the beach we headed back to the city and watched the longest fireworks show of any major city, from a friend's rooftop. Very good times.

Pictures don't really do it justice. As rough as a July 4th in the middle of the week was the next day, it was definitely worth it!

I've also been spending more time in Brooklyn. It is great. This is a view from the Brooklyn Promenade. Boy, that's hard to get sick of. It's a nice quiet break from Manhattan. We've also been doing some crit practice there, let me tell you that's a great way to make yourself want to hurl!

In other news I've replaced my road bike with a new, aero, much better-fitting bike. It is so much fun to ride. I really can't wait to get on my bike every day, which is good, since I'm riding a lot. This weekend I didn't race (there weren't really any 4 fields except out in New Jersey and I wanted to get marshaling out of the way), so I rode 70 yesterday and 65 today. Yesterday included hill repeats so it was a lot of climbing. Today was more mellow yet also lots of fun. Now I am just napping on and off and watching the Tour before I go meet a girlfriend. Life is good.

Bike Race Number Two - Alpine Hill Climb!

I completed my second bike race yesterday. This was somewhat delayed just because of weather and then me being an idiot, so I was eager to get another race under my belt. Now considering the fact that my longest race last year took over 11 hours, this was a silly event - a hill climb up Alpine Hill in Palisades just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan. Convenient yet I only expected the race to take around six minutes. Ha! The last time I raced in a six minute race was probably in college.

This is a snap from the base of the hill that I took on Wednesday, when we practiced climbing it four times. In 95 degree, humid weather. Good times, good times.

It's actually really, really pretty, and the road was paved about a week ago, so that was nice. It used to have a ton of potholes. So I woke up around 5:45 Saturday morning and met a few teammates to ride over. Our warmup was around an hour, just because that's about how long it takes to get to the base. My legs felt somewhat busted but I hoped I would be able to push hard for six minutes.

The best part of everything was that since it was technically a Time Trial, a nice man held me up, clipped in, before I started. That was fun. Once I started I just tried to ride hard. I couldn't get my legs to do what I wanted but I tried to push and definitely picked it up towards the top where it levels out a little. The general profile of the ride is medium, then steep, then medium again. I finished in 6:34 which I was a little disappointed with - I thought I could do a little closer to 6:00. But sometimes your legs just don't agree with plans!

After the race I rode to Nyack and back with my friend Anneliese and this cool guy Nobby, it was really fun and mellow. That was probably the most fun part of the ride aspect of the day. Although I did enjoy the race and I ended up fifth in the Women's 3/4 category which I am happy about.

I have been taking a few cool pictures when I see things I like. New York is amazing in the summer.

Here is a picture from my ride  on Friday, this is the sun setting over the Hudson.

I am such a poor photographer but it was stunning in person. And here is a view from a little nook in the park I found on Saturday after wandering around with a few friends.

I love it. The city is so nice and quiet on summer weekends unless you're in really touristy areas. I had a beautiful ride today with my friend Max. I did bonk towards the end - just didn't bring enough nutrition with me, oops! - but it was an awesome ride with several fun climbs. Then I crashed on the couch for a while before I had to go out. I swear I do not know how I fit everything in on the weekends, but that's a good problem to have!

Next weekend is another Central Park race, a little longer at around 42 miles. Should be fun!

A Catch-Up in Pictures...

Once again I am alive! I know, even I have no excuses for my pathetic lack of blogging. But here I am. I figured the best way to catch up on what's been going on is in pictures.

Sooo.... I've been riding!!! I took this shot off my bike, that is my friend Richard. He is becoming quite the bomb cyclist. This is up in Westchester near Armonk. It is beautiful. And really only requires about 45 minutes of annoying city riding to get into a nice, peaceful area with great roads and some  decent hills. Richard is great to  ride with.

The day after I rode with Richard I had a friend in town and we went to a Yankees game. It was my first game in the Yankees' plush, beautiful new ballpark. Wow. It was a perfect day for a ball game. I actually got a little sunburn even.

After that visit, my mom came to town for 10 days. What a cute little thing!!!! She was in a state when she arrived (another entry on that another day) but by the end of her visit she was doing really well. I am proud of her, she is trying to make some changes after years of bad habits, and she is doing a good job.

When she was here she had her first sushi experience, and she loved it!!!

What a cute little thing. I don't think I had ever seen her try something new like this, it was a little bit weird, but not in a bad way!! She had a great time in New York and I really enjoyed having her. Not only is she a fun little person to hang out with, but she was basically my personal assistant. I could really use a permanent assistant. But what can you do, only so much money in the world!

While she was here I raced my bike for the first time. It was so fun. Here I am post-race in my bomb new kit.

It is such a great team of girls and I love how we look bombing around the park in our sweet kit. I haven't raced since then just due to weather - I'm not quite ready to race around in the rain.

Last weekend since I didn't race I went for two really fun rides. Here is one of the highlights of the first ride:

These are from a new joint in Nyack called Gypsy Donut. They were totally homemade and incredible. I spoke to the owner for a while and he was a really cool guy who is clearly passionate about making the best possible donuts in all kinds of unique flavors. The rest of the ride was great too - I started out from the Soldiers and Sailors monument with  my friend Wayne...

We ended up running into his girlfriend and some of her friends when we were almost in Nyack and did the rest of the ride, including the donut adventure, with them. I always enjoy meeting a nice group of strong women to ride with.

Then on Sunday I went for a great ride with my friend Joe. He is one of those people I randomly meet out and about on my bike because I am that obnoxious chick who will ride up to you and say 'Hi!!! I'm Barb!!! Where are you riding today??? Can I come???' I am exaggerating but not much. I met Joe last weekend when my friend Scott was in town and he is so fun to ride with. He has a Brooklyn accent and is a very good cyclist, and he is also really fun to hang out with. So we rode to the apple orchards and back.

Even though I love summer I'm really excited to head back in the fall for apple picking!!! It was a beautiful and really fun ride.

Last night I was in the park not riding for once, and it rained a little, leaving a rainbow over the park. Beautiful.

This weekend should have more of the same - ride, food, fun, friends. I am feeling lucky to live the life I've got right now.

I'm alive! I did a bike race in fact!

Well yes in case you were wondering, I am alive. Frankly I would say I am barely keeping my head above water. I have had visitors constantly for what seems like a month. Visitors are high maintenance as much as I love them! My mom is here right now for 10 days. She is very cute. Then she  leaves and a friend from Boulder arrives and then he leaves and I will be visitor-free for a week and then after that it is NO VISITOR ZONE for at least a month. I will need some Barb time.

What have I been up to, you may ask? Well definitely not swimming. I moved and then I thought swimming would be easier, but no, it just hasn't happened! What a slacker. I have been riding a ton. I joined a bike racing team here in NYC and it is so much fun so far. In fact this past Saturday I did my first bike race in New York. It was a CRCA race meaning only NYC clubs could participate, in a mixed Cat 3/4 field. The course was 5.75 laps around Central Park. Home turf, about .2 miles from my apartment. It was FUN. I was so nervous but I didn't almost crash even once. It was so different but awesome. I ended up 25th which I think isn't too bad for my first bike race in over a year, and my very first real circuit-type race. My mom was so cute and she watched. Sadly I didn't give her a camera to take pictures with, so I have none! I looked bad ass though, I think :)

So tris and me, I just don't know. We need some time apart. Every time I run my butt still hurts. I can't seem to say no to doing fun social things to swim. I just don't know that I want exercising to be a huge part of my life right now, which is why focusing on one sport that doesn't hurt or make my hair look gross may just be the ticket! We'll see. I may not be done with tris forever, but for now, I am enjoying taking a break and enjoying doing other things.

And in other news, I absolutely love living in New York for reals (not in Jersey really close to New York). Every time I walk out of my apartment and head into Central Park, I am just in love. It is so beautiful this time of year, it's really stunning. The whole city is so alive right now with spring. It is great. But you'll have to take my word for it, because you can't visit!

Sometimes my life is too exciting for words

And sometimes it is not. My big excitement of tonight was mopping. No, I am not joking. But I must say that the floors in my apartment were positively filthy when I moved in, it was driving me nuts, and I didn't have time to buy a mop until tonight. I know, don't be too jealous.

But today was super fun!! So I did this ride series with the New York Cycle Club all spring which was a lot of fun, and very time consuming, so while I enjoyed it and met a ton of people, which was great, I am not too sad that today was the last ride. But it was awesome. We rode to Cold Spring, New York, via all kinds of awesome quiet roads. We also climbed Bear Mountain. Now although I must say that as someone from Colorado, I question the use of the word 'mountain' in describing this place, it was great.

Here are a few views from the top:

The first picture is of me and a few cycling buddies. They are awesome. Once we got to Cold Spring we got to take the train back to the city, fun!!! I hadn't been on a Metro North train since I was 5 or 6 years old and my dad lived in Connecticut.

Here is the super cute train station:

The ride flew by because we were all chatting and I was looking out at the scenery. So pretty. It's been raining a bunch this week so everything is like GREEN. WOW. I am in heaven. What a super fun day, in spite of the excessive mopping.

So the only other news is that I am positively in love with the Upper West Side. It is so amazing. Everything is super convenient and being in the city just fills me with joy. I know that is cheesy but well, deal with it. Waking up in the morning and running for three minutes, or leaving work and riding for two minutes, and ending up in Central Park, is worth the price of admission. I just love it. I must say I am getting all mushy, probably because I am exhausted, but here are a few of my deep thoughts. First off it is weird to live in one place for almost your whole life, and to move somewhere else when you are in your 30s, and feel like you are finally home. Isn't that strange? I never felt like I 'fit' in Denver. And I just fit here. It is so peaceful in my soul even though I am in a busy, crazy place. Now here is the second thing. It was scary as crap to move here. I had no idea what it would be like and I hardly knew anyone and it's very expensive and there were about a million reasons not to move. But I thank God every day that I did it. Also, people always used to tell me 'wherever you go, there you are'. This is true in many ways but the experience of moving across the country is incredible, and I really feel like making the change was something I just had to try. I am shocked by how much happier I am. So if you're thinking about doing something that everyone thinks is crazy, well my advice would be to make sure it's something you really want to do, and you want to do it for the right reasons, but don't let anyone talk you out of reaching for your dreams.

Banzo OUT!!!