Almost Fall

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the first day of Fall - Summer JUST started right?

So I was thinking about what all we did this year. There have been a few events, but not as many as before (I think) -

March - 8K Shamrock Run
April - Monster Cook Metric Century
May - Ride Around Clark County
June - Blue Lake Duathlon & Tour de Blast
July - 4th of July Run, Cycle Oregon Weekend Ride and All Women's Duathlon
August - The Covered Bridge Bicycle Tour & Vine Ride

This weekend we are heading to Salem to ride the Peach of a Century (75 mile route) and then in a couple of weeks we'll ride the Harvest Century (full century).This has been a pretty good year overall; although I did less cycling and more running and added swimming after All Women's.

The other bonus for the year is that Tom and I have started doing yoga. I had wanted to do yoga, but didn't think that Tom would be all that interested - little did I know that it took John to inspire Tom to try something new. Recently I read on a website that yoga is beneficial for people who suffer from asthma. By golly, after I had read that I thought about how much easier my breathing has been while running and even during my swims. It must be true!

So while we transition into the rainy season I hope to continue my training for the 2011 Blue Lake Sprint Tri! I have informed my supervisor of my desire to change my work schedule more permanently to work 8:00-5:00 and use my lunch hour for treadmill time...WOO HOO!

For the end of a cycling season I'm feeling pretty upbeat. I'll try to get out on my bike when I can during my lunch breaks...hoping for a not so rainy fall/winter this year :)

Looking forward to having a very fun 2011 swimming, riding and running season!

Streamlining

Tom learned this week that if you want to do a faster Time Trial, the thing that will help you speed up is to get an Aero Helmet. This might be a little overkill...

Swimming is...

not so bad afterall :)

Okay, so this swimming thing is REALLY starting to stick! After reading my post of almost a year ago, I can't believe how much improvement I have made just by being consistent with getting into the pool! Check out my post from September 2009 and my attempt to start swimming...HERE

My swim drill for the week (and probably next week) has been to start my swim by swimming as far as I can and then resting for one minute at the wall before continuing on with the workout. I have to be honest, I have been stopping after one lap even though I think I could probably do more. I am going to change that next week and do exactly what the workout is wanting me to do. The really cool thing is that when I stop, I'm not as breathless as I have been in the past - I no longer am gasping for air! Now for me having exercise induced asthma that's not so bad. Although today I did run on the treadmill so my lungs got a pretty good workout before I even jumped into the water. So, what I have read is true - it DOES take about 6 weeks to notice improvements!

My first tri will be a reality, I can feel it, but first...Open Water Swimming! I'm pretty sure it won't be like this video...

Final Vrrooom!

We have had a pretty good time this year with the Vancouver Bicycle Club Time Trials. The season started off a little slow as we missed several weeks, mostly due to weather (too much rain or too hot). Come to find out later, there were a few cancellations along the way.

Riding the time trials has been a fun way to challenge ourselves on a weekly basis, trying to get a better time each week. The week that I got my first sub-33 time was the week that Tom flatted…he was trying to flag me down when I realized I was having a great night…so I yelled back to him that I would be back. Right, I’m going to stop when I know that I’m going to get a good time…hehe. Although, I almost did stop – I slowed down a little. So really, my time that night could have been better. SIGH. All in all, I’m happy with how the season went. I made a huge improvement since the first TT…just over 2 minutes better! So that’s all good. I think the obsession has begun…fast goooood!

Looking forward to next Spring and the start of another time trial season!

	NANCY		TOM
DATE	TIME	AVERAGE	TIME	AVERAGE
April 22	34:38	17.32	31.37	18.98
May 6	33:10	18.09	31.25	19.10
May 13	32.58	18.20	DNF	----
June 17	33:10	18.09	30.16	19.82
July 15	33.53	17.71	30:16	19.82
July 29	33:44	17.79	30.00	20.00
August 5	33:18	18.02	29.23	20.42
August 12	33:09	18.10	----	----
August 26	33:14	18:05	33:09	18:10
Sept 2	32:25	18.51	30:21	19.77
Sept 9	32:35	18.41	30:15	19.83

At the end of some things...

Our Time Trial season will come to an end effective tomorrow, September 9! It has been a fun season of riding...really fast...or just plain fast...or what might pass as fast ;) Actually for being an old chick riding a road bike with aerobars attached, this year hasn't been too bad. I did manage to shave off more than a couple of minutes from the first TT this year so I'm happy with that. I picture myself riding a time trial bike, but that is a seriuosly expensive dream I have going right now. Check out this sweet bike...

This is a thing of beauty!

Yeah...so cool and very much a budget buster...a girl can dream right? My plan is to convert my Trek to a TT bike once Andrew has officially outgrown it. There are a couple of things I can do to make it more TT worthy, a new seat post and saddle. Those items along with my aerobars will make a nice poor-man's TT bike.

Anyway, TT bike or no TT Bike, tomorrow is going to be the BEST!

Less wind please...

Vacation Time...

This week has been a vacation week for me, but not as far as my workouts are concerned. Still have been running & swimming because I need to work on both of those the most.

Tonight is the VBC Time Trial - woo hoo! Last week the wind was so bad, fierce...WICKED! Even so, my time wasn't too much more than the week before when I posted my fastest time of the season. My attitude last week was to go out and enjoy the ride, but the wind...ugh. That sort of killed my desire to enjoy the next 30+ minutes. However, the tailwind was like no other I have ever experienced before, so it was easy to make up some time and still ride a decent Time Trial.

It will be a warmer day today so tonight should be a good ride....NO WIND! Or less wind please-oh-please...

One more TT and we are done for the year. Then we start counting down for next spring and the start of yet another season of time trialing - WOO HOO!

Vrooom!