Big Rock This Weekend

ahhhh! It's happening! My first Olympic Distance Triathlon is this weekend!
Time to Google where the race actually IS, I guess! haha, I don't even have the slightest idea where the race is... I know it's less than two hours away... but in which direction is anyone's guess! I don't know how I can be so Type A about certain things like punctuality, but so Type B about other things!

Last weekend was a fantastic girl's weekend with my best friends from college. We spent the weekend in Palm Desert. I had never been there before, but WOW! It was seriously so beautiful there! The big clear skies, the mountain ranges in the background, the pink and purple sunsets... Obviously, I was excited for a change of scenery for my training! I made my friends laugh when I showed up to vacation with more training gear than clothes.

I did my final brick workout before the big race: I rode 25 miles and ran 7.5 miles. The temps were perfect, although quite windy. It was hillier than expected (who knew the desert would be less flat than Long Beach?) so I was glad to have more practice riding and running on hills. I sincerely enjoyed the views on my ride. The roads all had bike paths, there was hardly any cars on the roads, and everywhere I looked was pretty and surrounded by these big brown majestic mountains. I was in awe. I always thought I was more of an "ocean/beach" person, but man, the mountains were absoulutely beautiful. At mile 23.5 of my ride I got a flat on my front tire....shoot! I didn't wanna waste so much time and effort fixing it, being so close to finishing, so I just rode back to my car as quickly as possible. Thank goodness I was less than a mile and a half away from my car! I actually made it back with plenty of air in my tire to spare.

I quickly changed and took off on the run. I stuck to one road and ran up and down the same street for 7.5 miles. I was initially only gonna do 6.2, but it felt good and I wanted a challenge, so I did 7.5. The run was slightly slower than I would have liked, but overall felt really solid and strong. The more I do these longer bricks, the easier they get. Well... not entirely easy... but you know what I mean. The first time I did 5.5 miles I thought I was gonna break. Amazing how the body adapts.

After the brick I lounged about in the pool; it felt amazing to be in the water after a challenging workout. My leg muscles definitely appreciated it!

I've also been doing a lot of hot yoga again too, mostly because I have a 20-day pass. I find hot yoga to be very complimentary to triathlon training; I feel a lot more limber, my muscles feel looser, I feel more balanced, and my back muscles get a lot more of a workout. Although I find Triathlon training to be a very good total body workout, I find that it really lacks in the "back muscles" training. Running, swimming freestyle, riding the bike... they all work the front muscles a LOT more. Hot yoga balances me out with a lot of spine strengthening work. I have bad posture to begin with, so I find it to be very beneficial.

I also installed my new Speed Play pedals onto my bike on Monday. They are a lot lighter than my previous pedals, but I have not used them enough to give a full assessment. I will get back to you with more details later. I also FINALLY changed my own tire. I know.... I'm bad.... I've always had boys to do it for me.... But enough was enough and I buckled down and changed it myself. I knew how to do it in theory, but it was different actually doing it. Hopefully, (fingers crossed!!!!!) I will not have another flat disaster during the race this weekend, but if I do, I will be able to change it myself... I hope!

Sorry it's a borig and long post with no photos. Hopefully this weekend I will have a lot more, from the race as well as from our monthly tri-club mixer! For now, I am gonna get my booty in gear for the race this weekend!

ps... I kept typing Palm Dessert instead of Palm Desert... Freudian Slip of the finger much? ;)