Monthly Archives: August 2012
First Post Isaac Run
Workout: 3 mile run
My neighborhood has a new soundtrack and it sounds like generators humming.
I ran the same route that I did the day before Isaac, but this time it looked very different. Tree limbs, branches and general debris lined the streets. There were even three power line poles laying across houses on Orleans Ave. I wanted to run the loop twice, but since I couldn’t always tell what was under the street debris (is that a power line or are those leaves just excited to see me?) and most of the street lights were out, I decided not to risk it.
On the bright side, today is college colors day. I took Jess’s advice and rocked my Camp Sweat tank for the run.
And added a little inspiration to my hair.
Afterwards, I took a cold shower and got out my potentially-controversial-but-still-funny Honey Badger tee.
We are still out of power but I’m thankful for my awesome New Orleans family, as well as the rest of my Louisiana family and all of my extended family and friends that have been checking on us.
I’m also grateful for my iPhone, along with twitter, bloglovin, and WordPress, which has made this a less stressful hurricane experience.
Oh, and Rouse’s Fresh. They reopened their salad bar today and man, have I been missing my perishables.
I may even run to Rouse’s in the morning and pick up a yogurt and some fruit so I can make my breakfast parfait I’ve been missing. But I’ll just have to be patient and stick it out til the power comes back on so I can make a Laurasippi. Drink one for me if you can!
I definitely appreciate all the out of state energy workers and trucks who are in town helping Entergy put Humpty Dumpty together again. They are working 16 hour shifts trying to clear debris, fix lines, and get power running as fast as possible, especially with temperatures in NOLA ready to rise. Sometimes the power outage problem seems really overwhelming though and I start to feel a bit like this.
Oh, we all need a little sense of humor and a lot of patience right now!
Isaac Sucks
No workouts during a hurricane. We are safe and sound here in New Orleans, but I don’t know how frequently I’ll post for the next few days.
Let me live vicariously through you! What was your last workout???
DIY Bib Holder
Monday Workout: 3.35 mile run / 33:12 minutes
Tuesday Workout: 3 mile run
We are hunkered down in New Orleans. In case you haven’t heard, there’s a little hurricane headed our way. I managed to get some running in this morning though and took a few pictures along the way.
The streetcars stopped running at 2pm so people could park on the neutral ground in case of flooding. Lots of buildings have been boarded up.
Since we have plenty of time on our hands, we got crafty!
I’ve been meaning to make a race bib holder to match my medal holder. This is a very easy project to do by yourself. If you don’t have wood the exact size that we used, you could definitely use a different size or potential get someone at Lowe’s/Home Depot to cut it for you when you buy the wood. You can also easily modify this to make a medal holder.
We started with a 9.5 ” x 11.5″ piece of wood, some paint, and hooks.
And of course I had my purple paint ready!
Start by painting the board.
It helps if you have a kitten wandering around while you paint.
Race bibs generally come in two sizes, so I needed to put 4 hooks in. I marked the spots with a pencil where the hooks would go so that Mo would know where to put the hooks. Mo simply pushed and twisted the hooks into the wood.
finished product
Next we put a hook on the back. I didn’t have a real picture hanger, so we hot glued a canned coke pop top to it.
And in the end, it looked great on the wall with the medal holder.
Would you make a race bib holder? Or would you rather make a medal holder?
Yam City Triathlon Recap
Workout: 150 meter swim / 3:39 minutes 15 mile bike / approx 56 minutes 2 mile run / 16:38 minutes
Yam City Triathlon was yesterday and it was definitely, as advertised, a “yam good time.”
The race was in Opelousas, Louisiana, which is about 2.5 hours from New Orleans. Luckily, I have a gorgeous, Cajun hipster sister living in Lafayette who we could spend the night before with.
packing up
we should seriously set up the bike rack
We picked up my packet and the much anticipated t-shirt did not disappoint.
And then met up with my family for dinner.
we actually ate next door to here, but I couldn’t resist
That night, we did have a bit of a bike nightmare. Mo and I were pumping the bike tire of my bike, which has a faulty valve. Of course, the valve broke. I had a spare tube, but neither of us have changed my tire before, although I have seen it changed.
Between this video and my memory, we were able to get the tire off and put the new tube in but we were struggling with putting the tire back on.
Just then, my sister walked into the room and found me pulling my hair out, Mo frantically searching youtube videos, and bike parts strewn around her apartment.
“You know, my neighbor runs a bike shop.”
Sweeter words have never been heard. So thanks to Erin’s neighbor Tony, my bike was back in commission for the race.
Race Day
My dad drove with me to the race and helped me get my transition area set up. We had a blast, and I enjoyed getting to show him around the triathlon. He has been a road race director, so I’m sure he was looking at it through an organizer’s perspective.
Swim
I seeded myself ambitiously for the swim portion and our race numbers were assigned based on your projected swim time, so I was placed near some pretty accomplished swimmers. Since the pool was a small outdoor 25 meter pool (6 lanes), this was a solid plan by the organizers. There was no timing chip pad to walk over right before jumping in the pool, but there was a volunteer checking off the swimmers as they started and letting them start every 10 seconds so the organizers could subtract that time from the athlete’s overall time.
I swam the 150 meters in 3:39 minutes, which I was pretty pleased with. I did get passed by a few people in the pool, but I stayed out of the other athletes’ way. It was really great to hear my dad and friend cheering for me during the swim and on my to transition!
Bike
I felt confident starting the bike course. I have put in some really good training rides in over the last month, so I was looking forward to the bike portion of this race. What I hadn’t anticipated was the hills! There are NO HILLS in New Orleans. None.
But apparently Opelousas is another story.
I planned to finish the 14 mile bike in 50 minutes. I ended up finishing in about 56 minutes. I forgot to take a picture of the race results and they haven’t been posted yet, so I don’t know exactly how long it was. The course was supposed to pass a yam farm, but I must have missed it. A lot of the course was along an interstate service road so there wasn’t a lot of scenery, but I honestly wasn’t paying attention. This 14 mile course also made me realize how much hanging out with Mo on a ride makes the ride fly by!
Run
The run felt like it took forever. There was a water station at the very beginning of the course as soon as you left transition but I skipped it. I was pretty focused on giving it everything I had left and passing other women. I think I passed maybe four or five women along the way. The run is my strength, so I’ve got to put it all on the line. It went through a little neighborhood and a lot of it was shaded. There was a water station at what I guess was the 1 mile mark, but I skipped it too. In such a short run, passing a water station is a great way to pass other athletes if you are well enough hydrated.
I finished the 2 mile course in 16:38 minutes. That was a little slower than at Rocketchix, but I definitely ran as fast as I could, so no worries.
post race glow
Overall
The race was well organized and the race swag lived up to the hype. The atmosphere of the race was energetic and excited. There was music and every athlete’s name was announced as they crossed the line, which is always special. This is a race I am looking forward to doing again next year!
Post Race
Mo had one goal for our trip to Lafayette: find good boudin. And where you find good boudin, you find good cracklin. My littlest sister Tess, Mo, and I went on a hunt for the best boudin and cracklin the Lafayette area could offer while Erin and my parents went to an event. Erin recommended Best Stop Supermarket in Scott. It was amazing! After the meat fest, we stopped at a serve yourself TCBY. I had no idea those even existed and I am so grateful New Orleans does not have one because I would be there ALL. THE. TIME.
I can’t eat like this all the time, but after a hard race, I can make an exception.
all the girls. you would never guess we were all sisters.
Did you race this weekend? How was it?
Do you treat yourself post race or after a hard workout?
Another one bites the dust
Thursday Workout: Upper Body & Core Boot Camp / 60 minutes
Well, for someone who doesn’t like tapering, I’ve taken most of this week off.
I missed Wednesday and Thursday morning’s runs because I was feeling worn down. I should have known when Mo’s allergies started acting up that I would be right behind him. Unfortunately, when my allergies strike, they knock me off my feet like the flu for a few days. I’ve been on Zyrtec nonstop and I took off those runs so that I could set myself up for Sunday.
But I couldn’t miss boot camp. One, because I’ve already paid for it. Two, because it was Jess’s last night before maternity leave. I headed out and it was a great workout.
I mentioned earlier this week that my micro fridge in my classroom bit the dust. This morning, the Magic Bullet followed suit.
RIP Magic Bullet. You made many a good Laurasippi.
After that I left the house with a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon and told Mo I wasn’t coming home until I had a replacement. Two hours later I came home with this:
It does essentially the same thing as the Magic Bullet, but the cups have tops that go with them. And it’s Cuisinart so I’m hoping that it is more durable.
Now hopefully our appliances will stop dying on us. I’m talking to you beloved Kitchen Aid mixer.
Caffeine Low
Monday Workout: Run 5 miles / 49:09
Tuesday Workout: Run 3.5 miles/ 33:39 Lower Body Boot Camp / 60 minutes
The weather in NOLA has been beautiful for the last two days! And by beautiful, this is what I mean:
Hey, in NOLA, you don’t complain about a cool breeze and lower than normal humidity.
On Monday, I had a lunch time nightmare. The handle on my beloved mini fridge broke, locking my delicious lunch inside. On the bright side when I went to buy pretzels the vending machine man gave the bag so it was free!
Speaking of my poor dead fridge, anybody who has known me for a hot minute know that I am addicted to Coke Zero. I’ve been known to down 6 of them in a school day. Along with another 2-3 caffeine free diet sodas in the evening.
I know, I know.
And this darling little refrigerator has been my right hand man. It fits 6 cans of Coke Zero in it perfectly.
But even before it died on Monday (and Mo took some serious glee in rescuing my lunch and a Cherry Coke Zero out of it that afternoon with a hammer), I have been working really hard on cutting back.
Now I am down to drinking 2 Coke Zeros a day and 1-2 caffeine free diet sodas in the evening.
Progress people. It’s slow.
Unfortunately, I’ve been feeling pretty slow and sluggish after cutting back on the caffeine so drastically and going back to school and keeping up with middle schoolers. Whew. I wasn’t even sure I was going to make through boot camp tonight.
I saw some pretty art on the way to boot camp. All of the trees around the light box are crepe myrtles with those white blossoms on them. It was kind of similar to the ones we saw on Carrollton.
The dreaded hill. We only had to run it on two circuits. The sky opened up before we finished the third circuit and we finished under the shelter.
I just started reading Kara Goucher’s Running for Women and me and Kara both love this quote. Definitely pulled me through boot camp tonight.
Got any vices? Mine is obviously Coke Zero. And the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Those ladies are CRAZY.
Today’s Brick is Brought to you by…Tapering
Workout: Bike 10.7 miles / 53 minutes Run 2 miles / 19 minutes
The weather was awful today! We got up extra early to get our workout in before we went to breakfast with some friends and managed to get our bike ride in just as it started to rain. Initially I wanted to do the whole 15 miles like we have for the past two Sundays, but given our time constraint and the impending weather, it seemed good to just go ahead and taper. (Note that the actual upcoming race wasn’t actually a factor. I should seriously start using a training plan.)
so gross outside
After our ride, I was still planning on running 3 miles, maybe even 4. Just as I reached the half mile mark, it started to pour. Right around the 1 mile mark it started to thunder and lightning. I almost kept going to the 1.5 mile mark, but made myself turn around. Mo said he had actually expected me to turn around earlier than that but I wanted to get something in. Again, the proximity of Yam City Tri didn’t affect my decision to taper, just made me feel better about having to cut the workout short.
Soaked!
I have been thinking about my goals for Yam City. It’s a 150 meter swim, 14 mile bike, and 2 mile run. Based off of how Rocketchix went, I know there are some things I want to improve on.
1. Swim Time: I have swum once since Rocketchix. Once. It’s only going to be 150 meters so I am hoping that I can finish it in under 5 minutes. I am really not putting a lot of thought or obviously effort into this part.
2. T1: Rocketchix’s T1 time was 4:30. I’d like to see this more like 2:30 minutes. I bought a tri top and shorts along with a race bib belt and have been practicing biking and running sans socks so that I can cut down here.
3. Bike Time: 55 minute goal for 14 miles.
4. T2: This should be under 2 minutes. Maybe even around 1:00, depending on the transition set up. All I have to do is take off my helmet and rack my bike.
5. Run Time: My biggest strength is coming off the bike and running strong. My goal would be to do it in 16 minutes (Rocketchix time was 16:20). Deep down I think I could do it in sub 16:00 though.
This would bring my overall race time to 1:20. Of course, I know that the humidity made a big impact on my runs at GatorTrax, so I will have to play it by feel just a bit.
I’d like to think she’s saying a little prayer for me. More likely it’s for chicken.
Oh, and I think I knew what kind of GPS watch I want to get. I’m leaning towards the Timex Run Trainer. This review by DC Rainmaker has swayed me. He also has tons of reviews on other watches and heart rate monitors if you are interested in one. I’m planning to order it from Road Runner Sports since I do their VIP membership which gets me a 10% discount and free shipping. I’m not quite ready to buy it though.
Do you taper before a race? How far in advance do you start?
