Too many horses in the barn?

The Primo horse - Giant TCR Advanced Womens specific sweet ride!

Too many horses??

Just thought, since we were cleaning out/organizing the garage (as much as can be with 9 bikes!) I'd line up the horses for a close up. Pretty scary to think there is still a bike hanging from the rafters from our vacant home in Largo! We'll eventually find some way to store these but for now, they keep each other company!
Happy New Year to all and go Gators!

Enjoying the holidays

The chef in his element

Not as surprised as I look over my new gadget!

One week of vacation time down, one to go. I really like not having to rush off to work every morning. We are getting some good training in. I have been able to ride a lot more which I like and need. Haven't run a lot this week - felt some left heel pain after the 10 miler on Thursday morning so am backing off a bit. Not sure why I'm having these issues but am trying to prevent any long-term layoff. I am getting new orthotics tomorrow which are much needed - have been duct taping my current orthotics for a while now! We rode in the hills on Sat (because it was warm) with a small group and this was relaxed and fun to be back out there again. There was a lot of traffic which wasn't nice but oh well. Did the Sunday group ride today, rode the Giant TCR Advanced women's specific demo bike and it is truly a dreamy ride! I hadn't ridden it with any real tempo until today and it did not disappoint! Thanks Val for letting me test this bike out! Legs weren't too bad considering we did over 3 hours in the hills yesterday. Tried to run but the foot was hurting so cut that short. No need to push any workouts this time of year! Thanks to my family for such wonderful gifts, we loved them all! Aloha!

Feeling blessed

I want to thank everyone for such a wonderful Christmas. We have had such wonderful weather all week and have been having "epic camp" training since we don't have to work. This is lovely and civilized! Getting up a reasonable hours to train vs getting up at 4:30 am the rest of the year and racing off to work prior to having second training session of the day is really nice. We did a 10 mile run then a weight training session in the gym this morning prior to enjoying the spoils of Christmas day. We feel tired and great all at the same time. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve meal of roasted duck ala Danish Christmas dinner last night which was wonderful. Tonight's menu is linguini with clam sauce and a wonderful cab! I love vacation time!
I am riding a Giant TCR Advanced women's specific road bike demo, thanks to Val at Outspokin and Giant bicycles, which is an absolute dream! This bike makes me want to be a bike racer. It is smooth as silk and faster than it's rider! More to come on that and pics to boot! I have temporarily installed my primo X-mas gift, Garmin Edge 705, on the bike and cannot wait to ride it more. May need a new horse in the garage soon!
I wish all a very Merry Christmas and great training! Or, just good weather to walk around and enjoy the world.
Training with aloha.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I am sitting awaiting my Christmas Eve dinner that the Dane is cooking, yummy. Poor duck didn't have a chance! Inserted a pic of our little Christmas tree - my first real tree in many many years! We enjoyed a couple hours on the beach today as it was a perfect weather day. Sorry to all of you freezing but, hey, I chose to live here!
Love to you all!

Sunday ride

Resting after racing on Saturday, not in our world. We have gotten on routine to do this group ride on Sundays which is good for me since I don't love group rides (fear of crashing) and it gets really hard at times which, I hope, will make my overall cycling stronger. Today, we had a guy that is leaving in a couple days to begin training camp as neo pro for a European pro cycling team. This guy leads out sprints at 42 mph and that doesn't feel good when you're at the end of your rope as I was! Anyway, hard ride today but the weather was awesome, no fog today, just sunny skies to greet us. This ride seems to get bigger every week but at the end, the same folks are still there. Lucky for me, I'm one of them! I like that I have moved up a notch on my VDOT (for the run) and am able to stay in the front group for the Sunday ride. Hope it pans out for faster bike splits in my '09 tri's! I'm ready for a recovery day tomorrow. The Dane and I are off for a couple weeks but are staying home this holiday which allows us time to train and rest which we surely need! Just for good measure, we went to the gym after the ride today to lift weights for 45 minutes. Sitting watching football now and enjoying a nice cab - doesn't get better than this! I forgot to mention part of my "winnings" for the 5K yesterday was a free entry to the St Pete Beach Classic in Jan (which is very competitive) and a night's stay/VIP party the night before at the Sirata resort on St Pete Beach! I never would have gotten any of that in the local race! Like I said, Wendy Johnson puts on a great event!
Got a swim and ride tomorrow which will be at recovery pace!
Training with aloha!

Ok, I'm back....er....5K RR

So, as I was saying pre-first meal post race/beer! I love races that have beer at the finish! Quality event. Anyhow, we did the St Pete Bowl (new college bowl game) Fan 5K this morning. It was on the calender after we did Turkey Trot. The Dane really wanted to score a good time here. I, on the other hand, felt this was my "speed work" for the month. Honestly, we have been running during the week, nothing faster than about 8:something pace which is comfortable this time of year. The Dane has been racking up the run miles in his quest to return to FOP fitness. (FOP=front of pack) I merely wanted to try and go sub-20 which I haven't done for a couple years (sad, I know). Based on my 10K 3 weeks ago, I felt I should be able to go sub 20 on a fast course. We get to St Pete in pea soup fog and find the start area. It was wet, soggy but not cold. My second go in the Nike Lunaracers - highly recommended racing flats (if you can find them)! Got our packets and sat around and scanned the competitors. I seem to be very "bitchy" at the start of a race but I actually like to chat with others at the start - which likely drives them nuts! I had no plan other than to go out fairly hard but not too hard. The Dane got out good, ahead of me......until about 400meters. I went passed him and he let it happen so I knew he was having heavy legs (he blamed it on last night's sushi). I went by him and sat on a couple college guys, never a bad place for a 40-something woman! Even split miles one and two (6:10) but once we turned back on to Central Ave, I felt the false flat and began to suffer a bit! Felt the fitness from IM Hawaii would pull me through but if I needed to "kick", let's just say, not happening! The Dane told me during warm up exactly where he was going to start his sprint.......hmmmmm bad idea! So, running in the fog up Central Ave in the lead, for the women, I knew the Dane was back there, stalking me! Suddenly, the sounds of the finish line rang in my ears before I could see anything. I would take it, the illustrious household trophy! I had no kick, just a will to try and not slow down. Why do I love the Dane, well that would go on forever but let's just leave it today for the fact that he allowed me to have the finish banner to myself. He was sprinting like Carl Lewis to catch me at the end but allowed me have my "glory". All is fair in love and war.....and I have the trophy for the 5K! We enjoyed some networking post race and then had to get back home. One of the cool things about this race is every finisher gets tickets to the St Pete Bowl football game. We had every intention to attend but once back at home, we tend to stay home. Thanks so much to Wendy Johnson for such a great race, we'll be back for sure! We are now kicking back, relaxing and enjoying the time off from work. As I said, the Dane won the men's masters which he was very happy about and had to fight for in the last 100 meters! He is going to be a force come April, no more household trophies for me! Or, I will get REALLY fast! Cheers and Merry Christmas!

Whew!

Ok, I am still alive. Just got through the last week of work and now we have two weeks off to sit and do nothing........except train! Yipee, I love training. Anyhow, I'll do a mini-race report but the gist is we ran the inaugural St Pete Bowl 5k run this morning in the fog (it's snowing everywhere else in the country, so I can complain about some fog). There were a couple other races this weekend so you never know who will show. The Say No To Drugs race is closer to home but I like to support the MSM races, they are nice to me! Anyway, I won overall for the women and ran sub-20 minutes which was my goal. The Dane won Masters for the men too. Good day, all in all. Now we are going to eat. Later...
racing with aloha

20 hours in St Pete

The Dane and Mary D, we're out on the town

Room with a view

Pics taken with phone, not so good
Another ordinary week for the most part. Wonderful thing is that the week ended with the Mad Dog Triathlon Club Christmas party. A perfect chance for the Dane and I to test out the Vinoy in downtown St Pete (plus, we don't have to drive anywhere once there). It's always nice to see people we haven't seen in a while and hang out. The Vinoy was great, we loved our executive suite (got this on points!). Didn't really eat anything at the party so the Dane, Mary D and I went to Ceviche which was really great and really crowded! Had little more vino waiting for our table but the food was worth the wait! Once we emerged from there (after experiencing the loud Latin band in the basement, really cool), we headed over to where the post-Xmas party was to be held. To our dismay, they were packing up already! Guess it was a little late! Certainly felt late since we were up at 4:30 to swim and worked all day. Decided to call it a night and went back to our lovely suite. Slept in then ran the St Anthony's tri run course, since we were right on it! All in all, a really fun experience. We don't have much of a social life so it's fun to get out to new places and see so many friends every once in awhile. Sunday, we did the now routine hospital ride. Local group ride with some really sane people but also some fast people! Very female friendly ride. It's, technically, a no-drop ride but you better be near the front if you want to keep up! This is something I've gone away from in the last few years but during the winter, now, I want to do some hard group riding to keep my bike fitness up. Believe me, this ride is sufficient for that! It was windy and cold but pretty much has been every Sunday since we started doing this ride. All good, keeps the pressure on and the heart rate up! The Dane and I also started our power weight program this week, three lifts in and I've not got complete full-body soreness anymore, just partial body soreness! Hopefully, I'll get stronger, that's the goal. I love training this time of year because it's all just by feel and opportunity. We have the opportunity for a nice, hard group ride on Sundays, road running races and getting back in the weight room which I hope will all help when the season kicks off next Spring. We shall see..
Training with aloha.....