My baby is growing up!

wooooahhhhhzzzz It's April already? When did that happen? :) I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post?! sheesh. (bop myself on the forhead) My first Olympic Distance Tri at the Big Rock Triathlon is next week! gaahh! AND HALF IRONMAN IN 100 DAYS!!!??? OMG. Training has been going well despite the awful weather we have been getting on the weekends. It'll be sunny all week, and then BAM! Rain on Sundays. WTF. I've done a couple of good brick workouts though! They include:

• 26 mile ride 5.5 mile run brick


• One hour spin plus 4 miles treadmill indoor brick (hate these!)


• One hour spin plus 8 miles of BRUTAL HILLS OF DEATH in the rain!


• 26 mile ride 6.2 mile run brick

Olympic distance: bring it on!

What about the swim, you ask? Well..... I'm winging it. It's what procrastinators do best :)

I wanna talk more about my bricks, but first, I am so excited to show you how my baby is growing up!

And of course, by Baby, I mean my road bike

duhhh ;)

And by Growing Up, I mean, get triathlon friendly updates! So this has nothing to do with bicycles, but look at all the goodies I got at our last tri club meeting! I loooooooooove Clif bars. have you ever tried the Mojo Bars? deeelish!

PS- if you are looking for a new flavor of energy gel to try out, I highly recommend the Citrus Clif Shot. It tastes AMAZING! Plus, it's got some caffein too, which I find really works for me. Yum!

Ok onto bike parts. In preparation for my upcoming triathlons, I decided to blow most of my paycheck (...yikes!) on bike upgrades. They are all still entry-level items, but I cannot WAIT to try them out and feel more like a legit triathlete!

To start, I needed to ditch my clunky and heavy mountain bike shoes and pedals for triathlon shoes and speed pedals.

My new shoes: Louis Garneau Tri Speed Shoes

Photo from Triathletesports.com

It's blue and white, matching my bike! It is SO much more flexible than my current shoes, and OMG so much lighter! I also tried on some carbon soled shoes, but they were about double the price, and I know that I am not a good enough rider yet to really benefit from a couple of ounces lost from my shoes. Plus, these shoes are prettier ;). Not that it matters, but.... haha. I will still use my old shoes a lot though, for the indoor spin bikes, but I will be doing most of my riding in these shoes now.

To go with the new shoes I also got new pedals:Speed Play Light Action

I have the black color. (picture from Nytro.com)

I actually have not had a chance to try them out yet....But I will let you know when I do!

I am also getting new tires through a friend with hook ups. Serfas SECA-RS Road Folding tires:

(photo from serfas.com)

How awesome are these tires with the blue trim? Again, it complements my bike's complexion. :) It's also 700X23, so it's skinnier than my current tires, which will really help with speed! They aren't racing tires or anything, but definitely an upgrade! Also from Serfas I will be getting new bar tape. Mine's been peeling away for some time now...oops! Oh, and it you are in the market for new bike stuff, Serfas is really awesome brand, because their stuff is seriously like half the price of some of the other brands! My friend clued me into this brand, and though they aren't triathlon specific, they've got some asweome shades, clothes, road bike shoes, and accessories. Check it out! And of course, no triathlon bike is complete without aerobars. Enter: Profile Designs T2 Plus!

Photo from (Profile-designs.com) According to the website, it has an "aggressive s-bend postition." Sounds good to me! I'm kinda scared about trying out the aerobars on the road.... I know it changes your balance, steering....pretty much everything.... and seeing how I'm basically the most clumsy person on the planet....I am just hoping I don't do a face plant out on the road! Any tips for begginner aerobar users I should be aware of? To go with my aerobars I also got this cool looking water bottle as a raffle prize from the tri club meeting:

Profile Designs Aqualite Bottle that goes in between the aerobars for easy access hydration on the ride. I was super happy to win this prize! This bottle has a 22 oz capacity, and an extra long straw. I have a tendency to forget to hydrate on the bike, so seeing that straw right in front of my face would be a good reminder to drink up.

Phew! That was quite the shopping spree, huh? My baby is growing up right before my eyes! And I feel like such a proud parent.

Alright. This is a monster post because I have been a slacker blogger and need to cram a lot into one post in case I slack off again. haha

Bricks are getting better! I run so much faster off the bike, so I find it exhilierating to do bricks. One of the toughest workouts I've done in a long time was the brick with the Tri Club two weekends ago. It was raining so we decided to ride the indoor spin bikes for an hour and then go for a run in the rain. The spin sesh was tough, but pretty standard. Then we set off on the run in a really hilly part of town. I desperately needed to run 10K to boost my confidence, so I pretty much begged and convinced everyone to run 10K with me, instead of the usual 5K. We set off....and within a mile we were facing the steepest hill I have EVER attempted. WTF. In the rain, too! Good gosh this hill was killer! But I kept thinking about how this would help me in my hilly half Ironman and kept trucking along. Slowly but surely I got to the top..... only to discover another killer hill a half mile later. Let me tell you about this hill....I couldn't even run DOWN this stupid thing it was so steep! And we had to run UP it. Insanity I tell you, INSANITY! My gosh my calves were burning! And we were only 2 miles in! Thank the heavens the rest of the run was not as steep, but we had rolling hills throughout. At mile 5ish it was decided that our run would be extended.... so 8 miles later, we finally finished out killer hilly rainy run. And you know the best part? I beat all the boys. I was the only girl there, and beat all the boys. What a confidence boost! ;)

But OMG I am in desperate need of more hill training. My calves were sore for a good 5 days after that run! Phew! Long post.

This weekend is spring break time in Palm Springs, and though it's the crucial weekend before the race, I will not be able to ride my bike. Oh well. I am going to make up for it by doing my first 10+ mile run in over 3 months! agh! wish me luck!

Thanks for reading, and Hi to my new followers! :)