18 years of triathlon had convinced me that I didn’t like swimming. Every touch of the pool wall represented an opportunity to stop and go home to me. I seized many. Maybe if I did all my running on an indoor, dimly lit, 50 yard track I wouldn’t like running either.

I’ve blown off the pool for the month of August. I don’t claim this will make me a faster swimmer, or live longer, but I sure like swimming more. I’ve gone all open water, all wetsuit, all the time - no intervals, no drills, no turns.

I’m lucky, my training partner has access to a lake and 3X a week we’ve been hitting it for 65-75 minutes. That’s an eternity for me in a pool. Check this out. That was taken on a Sunday morning about 6:50 AM and I was looking forward to swimming because it would be fun. I haven’t thought that since summer camp.

Perhaps it’s the same type of fun Conrad gets from riding a single speed, simplicity. I enjoy it when the weather is nice because it’s a beautiful place and I enjoy it when the weather is bad because I’m encased in neoprene so it’s more comfy than biking in the rain.
Recently, I added adventure to open water swimming in the form of a few jellyfish and a lot of fog with a 2.5 miles point to point swim in Long Island sound from Stamford CT to Todd’s Point Beach in Greenwich CT. Reveille was 5 AM, car drop off at the beach was 6 AM and tide and fog made it a longgg swim. We weren’t going to take the short cut across the cove when we couldn’t see the other side. I don’t swim straight even when I can see where I’m going.

Here’s the start. We thought the fog would lift.

And here’s the finish with our leader, 70+ year old John Cook. He’s managed to keep swimming fun.

At the beginning of this year, I needed a new singlespeed for Sea Otter. Since I broke the frame I was riding last summer and didn’t have my new Timex Trek 69’er yet (since there was a delay in availability), I converted last year’s hardtail, and thought I should share this beautiful, sensual process with everyone. The process for creating a singlespeed is really quite simple and takes less than 30 minutes, “It’s breathtaking, I suggest you try it”. If you’re not ready to go buy your own, like the Trek 69er, this is a great way to get an inexpensive introduction to singlespeeding.
Take any currently functional hardtail mountain bike, that you most likely don’t ride anymore if you don’t race and have joined the rest of the 20th century with full suspension.

1. Remove all shifting related apparatus: shifters, cables, derailleurs
2. Remove big and small chain rings, move the middle 32 tooth ring to the outside position install with custom chainring bolts ($5)
3. Remove cassette, install single 18 tooth cog ($6) with spacers ($5)
4. Shorten chain, install surly singleator ($30) if necessary
5. Weigh bike and marvel at it’s light weight and simplicity (My temporary Giant = 19.5 lbs)
6. Ride & smile

Try it and have fun! Here are 2 pics: last year’s Kelly, and this year’s Trek.

I really like pancakes, especially on Saturdays after long rides.  Here is the recipe I’ve been making recently which is delicious.  I usually eat the entire batch, but it would also probably be enough for two ”normal” sized servings…

1 1/2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbls sugar

3 tbls butter, melted

1 egg

1 1/4 cups milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Walnuts (optional)

Blueberries (optional)

Pour dry ingredients into a bowl and mix.  Then do the same with the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, making sure to warm the milk up a bit so the butter stays melted.  Pour the wet into the bowl with the dry and stir until all the lumps are removed.  Let the batter sit for a couple of minutes while heating a large pan or skillet to medium-high heat before adding a bit of butter to grease the pan.  Pour batter onto skillet and add walnuts or blueberries to the cakes on the skillet if desired.  Let the pancakes cook until the bubbles on the top are no longer disappearing and then flip and cook for another minute or so on the other side.  Remove from skillet and serve with syrup on top and a glass of milk on the side.   

Last weekend I raced in the Charlottesville International Triathlon, a race put on by the Charlottesville Triathlon Club.  Even though I’ve lived in Charlottesville for a two years, this was my first shot at this race and I was excited to be racing in C’ville.

The day started fine until about 30 minutes before the start when we were informed that wetsuits would be allowed.  This was a bit of a shock but upon hearing this I lubed up, pulled on the Helix, and headed to the lake.  After the start one of my training partners, Chris Morrow, and I broke away pretty quickly and were out on our own in no time.  However, I wasn’t feeling great and Chris was able to open up a gap on me.  Thinking back on it, I realized that I had pulled my wetsuit on too quickly and that it wasn’t fitting properly.  This is a great lesson for wetsuit wearing: make sure you don’t rush it!  This is especially imperative with a suit as precisely designed as the Helix.  So back to the race, Chris gapped me on the first buoy and never looked back, which left me second out of the water.

As I started the bike my focus was on trying to go really hard since the run for this particular race is on a single track MTB trail.  Because of this I had to make sure that no one passed me on the bike so that I could have a comfortable lead on the run.  After 15 minutes or so I had caught Chris and for the rest of the ride I was just concentrating on pushing hard up the hills and really opening it up on the few flat sections in order to maintain or increase my lead.   

Coming off the bike and into T2 I was still in first so I was able to cruise the run and not worry about going too hard.  As I mentioned before, the run is on a single track mountain bike trail which is very technical and therefore not very fast.  Aside from the up and down of the hills, the roots and rocks can cause numerous impediments to fast running.  Because of this my strategy was to go hard up the hills and take it easy on the way down so as not to seriously hurt myself. 

Luckily I made it through unscathed and ended up having a great time.  Its amazing how quickly the time goes by when you are focusing on the trails rather than how much you are hurting.  However, while it was fun, I was still glad to take the last turn and head into the finish to take the win in a time of 1:59. 

Overall, the race was very well run and I have to give a big kudos to race director Steve Policastro who volunteered for the position and did a great job of organizing the race while also getting ready for his PhD proposal.  The bike course was fully staffed with police and volunteers at every corner, the run was clearly marked with large arrows, and there was a nice selection of bagels from Bodo’s, fruit, cookies, Gatorade, and water at the finish. 

So if you decide to travel down to beautiful Charlottesville, VA for this race next year don’t expect a fast time.  As I mentioned before the bike is hilly and the run is hazardous.  However, if you don’t like running on the roads because they beat up your legs too much, this race will be a lot of fun. 

There was also a very nice article by Sean McLernon in the Charlottesville Daily Progress and the awesome pictures were courtesy of Jason O. Watson Photography.  Jason is a fellow grad student here at UVa but does some awesome work with his camera as well.

I am realy shocked by my progress lately. I set 2 PRs in the past week! I ran the Lake Placid Half Marathon on Sunday June 10. A beautiful day, nice and cool, sunny with some clouds. It did heat up, but in the Adirondacks, the shade that early in the morning is still great air-conditioning.

So my last Half Marathon was a 2:09. That race was awfully cold and I was under-dressed. My IT bands also kicked in for that race and I was reduced to a hobble for the last 3 miles.

ANYWAY…..I set a big goal. I wanted to run under 2 hours to see if I could do it. I had my Bodylink on and the GPS unit on my arm. So by monitoring my heart rate and my real time pace I was going to go for it, or go at that pace for as long as I could! The first couple of miles I was in a big pack of people. Then it started to thin out. I was never really alone and I was trading spots with a couple of people depending on who stopped at what aid station. I have to say the station volunteers were great and I was out of character and a little rude to one person. VERY SORRY! I am not used to pushing myself like that and I think it really got to me towards mile 9. I also couldn’t understand what he was telling me. Totally my fault. EVERYONE - thank your volunteers!

So, in order to come in under 2 hours I had to maintain a sub 9-minute pace for the whole time. I was doing pretty well and my splits were really great in the beginning. I ran 4 miles in 32 minutes, then 7 miles in 1 hour. For me, thats pretty quick! I knew it would float up towards the end and it did, but by pacing myself this way I was able to buy time for the last mile or so that is mostly uphill. I hit mile 10 at 1:27. So I thought to myself, even if I run 10 minute miles, i will make it under the 2 hour goal! Phew. BUT I didn’t let up, and that was the big lesson I taught myself this weekend. Push yourself, you don’t know how far you can go and what you can withstand.

For those of you who have run the Ironman course there, it is about 85% the same course. A little different for the start and finish (ugh, that finish) but the majority is the same. A lot more pounding downhills in this course that I thought would be the end of my knee! (Big shout out to Cassidy and the TP roller!)

So the finish is this big ugly hill with SWITCHBACKS. When I hear that word, that can only mean one thing. STEEP. Oh man, they were steep. I was reduced to a jog, but i kept running. Then I ran the oval to the finish with very dead legs, trying to hold off anyone from passing me. I had a little over 1 minute when I hit the oval to make my sub 2 hour goal. My husband had finished ahead of me and came back to run the oval with me. He was giving me a countdown as I was trying not to blow up too soon. I paced it very well and had a kick at the last 100 yards. I always like to do that no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts. I made it! 1:59:18. WHOO HOO!

My other PR I did last night was a time trial. The Trek Equinox 7 WSD rode great for me. 10 miles, rolling hills. A month ago I did a 32 minute race. Yesterday was a 29:20! That was the first time I had broken 30 minutes on that course. I am so happy!

We are going up to the Whiteface Uphill Bike race Saturday June 16 and Ironman Coeur d’Alene June 24. Come and join us for some climbing pain! (I have a compact and a 27)