Random happenings and advice needed

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Random Happenings:
*  I got to go on a long bike ride on Sunday, and finally Mother Nature didn't get in my way.  It was an awesome ride and I got to stay in aero almost the entire time.  The only thing that sucked about the ride was all of the bugs that were out and about.  I was literally getting pelted by these little black bugs.  I think I swallowed a handful of them, which was really really gross!  Here is a picture of part of my arm after my ride.  See the little black spots...those are dead bugs, and that is just a small sampling of what was all over my arms and legs!

*  I had an embarrassing fall on my road bike on Monday.  My husband and I loaded up the boys in the burley, packed a picnic lunch, and headed to the Cherry Creek Reservoir.  We knew that it would be crazy busy, but we figured since we were riding our bikes that it wouldn't be as bad.  We really wanted to take the boys by the reservoir so they could see all of the boats, jet-skis, etc.. in the water.  When we got to the res. it was really, really busy.  There were bikers, cars, trucks, etc. everywhere!  Anyways, we were going down a multi-use trail when we came to a place where we had to cross over the main road to continue on the trail.  My husband was in front of me with the burley.  I looked both ways and there was a big truck coming, but it was far enough away that we could have passed safely.  I just assumed my husband was going to cross, but he stopped.  I had to slam on my brakes and couldn't get clipped out in time.  So, I fell over and scrapped my knee pretty bad.  It was a little embarrassing, but I'm just glad I didn't hurt myself any more than I did.  It really would have sucked to have had an injury that would have prevented me from doing my tri on Friday because I fell over!

Now for the advice:

source

I am doing my first sprint tri of the season on Friday.  I am really excited about it because it's fairly small and right by my house.  Anyways, the tri starts at 6pm.  Usually, with morning tris, I eat a bagel with peanut butter and honey a couple of hours before the start time and I'm good to go for the race.  With an evening start though, I have no idea what to do!  Here's where I would really appreciate your thoughts and advice on what you think I should do.

Right now, I'm leaning towards eating my bagel with PB and honey around 4ish, then having a quick Gu or something before the swim start.  But, I don't know if that will be enough.  I usually eat dinner at 6pm, so I'm assuming I will be starving at race time.  I don't want to eat a huge meal before the race, but I also don't want to bonk during the race either (not that I think I would bonk, but you get the idea).

Oh yeah, and the temperature on Friday is supposed to be 92...the hottest day yet.  Yikes!  I'm hoping that it won't be too bad by 6pm, but it will probably still be in the 80s.  It should make for an interesting race!

Oh Road Bike, I've Missed You So

Let me just start by saying that I LOVE my road bike.  I've loved it since the first day I test rode it 5 years ago.  It was my first "real" bike aside from a cheap Mountain bike I got in college, and I could not believe how comfortable it was.  Since I'm short (5' 4"), riding a bike was never really comfortable for me, until I was introduced to the world of women specific bikes.  Enter the Specialized Dolce Vita.  At first I was drawn to the color, but after that first ride, I was drawn to so much more.

Finishing up the bike leg of my first Half Ironman

This bike has been with me through all of my tris, from my first Sprint to my first Half Ironman.   I made some changes along the way, like adding clip-on aero bars (which have since been taken off) and upgrading the components, and to me, it is just an awesome bike!  This will be the first tri season that I won't be racing with it.  Since getting my tri bike in the fall, it's been pretty much collecting dust hanging in my garage.  Now, I love my tri bike, but there is just so much history with my road bike that it's been making me a little sad knowing that it's now a dust magnet.

That was until tonight.  My husband had the idea of going on a bike ride to the park with the boys in the Burley.  I got giddy with excitement because I was going to get the chance to ride my road bike again!  We got the boys all ready, got ourselves ready, and headed out.  At first I was afraid I wouldn't remember how to shift (ha ha), but as soon as I started riding, it all came back to me.  It was so comfortable and I felt right at home on it.  Oh, how I've missed it.  It was so great to just go for a nice, casual ride with my husband and boys and not worry about cadence, speed, distance, time, etc.  In fact, I don't even have a cycling computer on my bike anymore, so I have no idea how far we rode.

We got to the park, played, and may or may not have rode to DQ for chocolate cones dipped in sprinkles for the boys and small blizzards for my husband and I.  :)   It was a great little adventure and one that I hope will be repeated many times throughout the summer.

Christmas came early!

Thanks to the wonderful last year model closeout sale, I was able to get a Cervelo P2C! Yeah!!! I have been eyeing this bike for a loooonnnggg time! I had to change out the saddle to make it more comfortable for the "parts," and will eventually switch out the wheels, but I just think it is a beautiful bike! Here's a pic of it on the trainer in our basement. I know the picture is not that great, but it's our workout space so it's the best I could do!



I finally got to ride it last night on the trainer for the first time. The weather in Denver has been cold and snowy, so unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to ride it outside until spring... :(. But, so far I really like it! My previous bike was a Specialized road bike with clip on aerobars. I love that bike b/c it was my first real bike, it is really comfortable to ride, and I've used it in all of my tris. But, I think I will grow to love this bike just as much. The aero position will definitely take some time to get used too...I better get going on my core workouts now!

I was able to get in a 30min. ride after we put our boys down for the night. It felt good to be back on the bike after being off the saddle for a month. I can definitely tell that I've already lost a lot of my fitness and stamina for riding aero. How does that saying go...building up muscle is like a card house, it takes some time to build up, but can be destroyed in a second...or something like that! Anyways, it's so true! I wish I would have kept up with my workouts after my half ironman a little bit more consistently. The good thing is I have all winter to build back up my base before I start training again. Now, to just find the motivation to get up at 4:30AM again when it's 20degrees out and snowing....ugghh!