Tag Archive for Peace Coffee Racing

The Triathlon Rx | December 4, 2010
9 comments

MONO – 0 // Dr. TriRunner – 1

Dear blogfriends,

Before anyone thinks that MONO got the best of me, I thought I better get my butt back here. The epstein-barr virus is tough, but it’s got nothing on this angry little redhead.

Happy to report that I am back to sleeping my regular 8-9 hours a night, compared to the 15 that I was getting for so long. So funny… because looking back on the goals I made at the start of 2010, my #1 issue was not getting enough sleep!! I’ll come back to the rest of my 2010 goals soon enough, but HELL YES. I am finally getting enough sleep. And the excess 7ish hours I was getting each day, although necessary in the moment, I feel like definitely brought me to an “in the black” status. Whattt now Mr. Sandman??

(Hahah! Ok I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who just laughed out loud. It’s ok if only I’m the only one who thinks I’m funny….)

In addition to being free of mono, I also got the clearance to return to “exercising” last week Tuesday. Although I did hear my doctor mention something about the word “walk”… I am just thankful to be back in the gym, breaking a sweat, and starting to work myself away from the Michelin-man status that the last 4 weeks off has left me in!

Not pretty.

Because I only have 8 days of class left, five finals ahead, and four weeks of catch-up to do from being sick, you will not likely see much of me until the 19th of December. However… I may be popping in here and there with little random tidbits.

Which is in fact, all I have for you today. Please enjoy:

Minnesota is cold… and winter is definitely upon us. But every morning I get up at 5am, and am coming home just in time for the sun to rise. Wouldn’t trade it for anything.

You can kind of see my P.O.S. Honda in the background. What you can’t see is the hole created by rust, the brakes that didn’t break, or the BUMPER that fell off recently while driving home. Ummm… long overdue.

I love Peace Coffee. And I love Team Ortho Races! And I definitely definitely love playing with the overpriced Adobe software I was required to buy for Architecture when I was in school in Boston.

Important notes: Peace Coffee recently opened a coffee SHOP in Minneapolis! If you live in the area and haven’t checked them out yet, please please do because their coffee shop is awesome! They have this amazing piece of art tiled into their floor when you walk in. The smell is amazing. The fooood is amazing. And the coffee…. well you already know how I feel about that. :)

So yes, definitely check them out if you can! http://www.peacecoffeeshop.com/ And if you’re trying to come up with a good gift for hubby/girlfriend/aunt/grandma/whoever… I’m just sayin’.  At least I would love to get a bag of beans in my stocking!!

If you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve updated my Link love page! It still is “under construction” – there will be several companies added to it in the near future – but it’s a start!

And I think those are all the pieces of random information I can share with you today. (Read: I have church to get to in 15 minutes!)

I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing thanksgiving, and for all my fellow STUDENTS – hang in there! Just a couple more weeks and you will be hommmmme free. Keep truckin through these final weeks and don’t let the stress get the best of you!

Take care amigos!

E

p.s. WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! I can’t believe only one person guessed this right! The “W” sign to the lips is signing WATER! Congrats to Janine who was the only to pull that up. :) Hydration is so important when your sick!

p.p.s. For whatever reason…. “resizing” photos is a skill that was lost when I updated my blog templates. Sorry my pictures are so huge!

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The Triathlon Rx | June 13, 2010
20 comments

Manitou Tri 2010 – Race Report // Review

Currently: Sitting at coffee shop. With el chico. In front of fire place. Feet up. Still in desperate need of compression/recovery socks. Other-than-that, SOLID.

Gonna let the photos do the talking here – I’m pretty much all talked-out for today. :) Essentially, I had a less than stellar race today: I couldn’t feel my feet until 15 minutes after the race ended, and I had a T1 that leaves me hoping I won’t be disowned by my family. Or Peace Coffee Racing. Or UMN TRI. So… definitely not my A-game. But I still placed (2nd in my AG), so it’s hard to complain too much. If you want more coverage from this weekend’s action, check these out:

Manitou 2010 Official Results Online

Minnesota Tri News’ Coverage

In terms of a race REVIEW, here’s what’s up: Manitou. Is. Awesome. The course? Awesome. The swag? Awesome. The fans? Awesome. The race organization/management? Awesome. The transition being closed for 1:45 before my wave even entered the water? Not so awesome, but I’ll plan for that next year. Yeah… NEXT YEAR! I’ll be back.

And before I get to the photos, I need to do a several major mad props shoutouts.UMN (University of Minnesota) TRI is really cleaning up this summer. Andrew Turner, David Preston, Cody Stadler, Sam Janicki, Tom Kandiko, Matt Dodds, Matthew Priess, Aaron Barlow, Claire Chandler, Tracy Powell, Megan Brandes, Susanne Gabrielson (reppin’ overseas!), and hey, I’ll throw myself in, Erika Sperl-Imhoff. Look out for these names. We’re comin’ at you.

Another big up to el chico, my boyfriend, who also raced today at Trinona and finished 7th overall (!!) and 3rd in his age group! It makes me nervous to do the same race as you…! ;)

This is an exact copy of my album on facebook. All photo credit goes to my mamacita – I am so happy and thankful you came!! You should be able to click on the image for the full size. Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ciao!

-E


THE. END.

Until 2011.

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The Triathlon Rx | June 5, 2010
26 comments

New Bri Tri Race Report

For there to actually be a race report, that means that I did indeed race!! And for there to be exclamation points following that statement, that means I “got a smile on”! :D Here we go…

Fell asleep by about 10:30 pm last night, and the alarm went off at 5:00 am this morning. 6.5 hours obviously isn’t isn’t ideal, but it’s pretty good for the night before a race. That, and I was telling myself my 12.5 hours from Wednesday would hold me over a little bit. ;) I had gone over my check list (which I will post soon, along with adding it to the Train On Top files!!) and all I had left to do was load my bike in the car, grab my coffee, and GO!

Taken at 5:42 this morning.

I drove up with Tom and Cody – two guys on my UMN Tri Team. Tom was nice enough to drive (the fact that bikes fit slightly better in his Pathfinder has nothing to do with it…) so I got to his house around 6:00, made a quick transfer of items from my Accord, and we were off! We took a slight detour on the way to the race, following someone with bikes on the back of their car thinking that they obviously know where they’re going. Until they turned into their garage… FAIL! We still got there in plenty of time, and pulled into the Long Lake Park lot just as many other athletes were arriving.

Myself, sandwiched between Pretty and Muscles. Hahahahha!

Re-attached wheels… gathered bags… and suddenly a wave of terror swept over me. “My helmet is in your trunk… right?” says the ingenious redhead who checked her check list three times. “Nottttt that I’m seeing…” says fellow teammate who now must really now I’m an idiot. REALLY!?! Who forgets their helmet?!? Oh wait.. the girl who also forgot her SHOES for the marathon. Awesome. At that moment, I was seriously thinking I was not going to be racing today. People bring spare goggles, they’ll let you borrow an extra watch, they’ll even share their body glide. But NO ONE brings an extra helmet.

Except Randy, the God-sent jolly man behind Vacation Sports who was putting on the race. In fact, he had several spares, for the rest of the numskulls who forgot this critical (and mandatory!!) item. So with that taken care of, I went to go set up in Transition.

After I racked up my bike and was heading off to warm up, I hear “Dr. TriRunner?” No joke guys.. this MADE MY DAY! I know there are at least a few regular readers, but it feels so awesome to know that there are local triathletes (or at least one!!) out there reading along! And it doubly made my day that he is a he, because for whatever reason my first assumption is that most of “you” are female. Not that I have anything against the ladies – nothing at all – but since 80% of my friends are of the male variety, it’s almost comforting to know some hombres are reading too. ;)

This is getting wayy too long, and I haven’t even gotten to the race yet, so I’m going to [try to] keep it to the facts:

Pre-Race Fuel:

Gluten free apple cinnamon granola, and dried apple rings. New combo to me (don’t try anything new on race day…? pshhhh), and it was PERFECT!!! And delicious. Along with Tanzania Peace Coffee, of course!

Race Conditions/Gear:

Cloudy, off and on sprinkles, and somewhere in the mid 60s. Virtually NO wind. AKA ideal. Wore my QRoo wetsuit, Peace Coffee tri kit, and stripped to just my homemade PCR sports bra for the run. Haha – Sarah called me an overachiever? Made this on my “sick day” on the couch. :D Was glad I did, because I would have felt too hot running with the tri top on. This is the first time I’ve used a shoelace as a racebelt, after seeing this amazing lady do it, and let me tell you – LOVED it. I hate the feeling of anything extra around my waist, and you can’t get much more minimal than a shoelace. And of course Gomer and Rilo were in on the action. ;)

I did take home-ec back in the day…

The Swim:

1/2 mile. Despite starting in the front of the pack, there was lots of face kicking and breast stroking going on. >:( Maybe I need to run out farther into the water? Oh wait.. here’s a better idea. Maybe I need to be more consistent with my swimming. Ding ding ding!! We have a winner. Anyways… I could feel myself getting frustrated on the way out. And then I reminded myself – this is essentially a free workout. I had a free race certificate, and I was sick all last week. I didn’t have expectations for this race other than to shake out the race nerves and have fun, and there was no way I was going to let negative thoughts take over. So I decided to take charge and slapped myself back into reality. Today will not be wasted was the mantra of the day. (Haha, yes. I am considering Sports Psychology.) With that mindset I went ahead, and felt like things finally settled down at turn around buoy. And the 1/4 mile swim back to shore honestly felt awesome. I have this “kayak theory” but I’ll post more on that later. Passed some wave 2 and 3 swimmers (I was wave 4)… which gave me some [possibly false] hope that maybe I’m actually a decent swimmer? Orrr maybe the wave 2 and 3 people that I passed, well, swimming just isn’t their strength. ;)

T1:

Note to self… work on taking off wet suit!!

The Bike:

14 miles. Basically, I loved the course. There were a few hills, but they were all rolling. There were two girls on the Tri Kings team that, little did they know, really helped me push myself. We were passing each other back and forth, sometimes on an uphill, sometimes going down. I also took note of some really sick bikes out there, and some really amazing athletes riding them. I talked about training with your friends and using them as inspiration… and believe me, I drew in plenty of inspiration today. Felt good and strong throughout, and I know I’m not fast. I’ve accepted that [for now], and I know where to work.

T2:

Already had my shoe-lace-race-belt on… ripped off the helmet and threw on the hat, threw on my happy-feet shoes, and bounced! Would also like to make note that I was wearing the Sof Sole socks I won, and LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Felt like my feet were on clouds. :D

The Run:

5k. What I was really looking forward to. Despite the steel infused shins of yester-year, I was confident that today was a better day. Not going to hide this one… I passed 53 people on the run. Yes. I counted. It gave me something to think about during the run, but honestly, if I’m going to be a slow swimmer and biker, then damnit I’m going to be proud of my run. I know my mile splits weren’t anywhere near my “just running” 5k times, but I still ran sub 7s, and I still felt strong. And with that, I’m happy.

The Finish:

1:22:?? Says my watch… I’m waiting for official results online. I didn’t want to try and dig my way through the crowd of people that always surround the print-outs, so I just went for a cool down. With this guy!!

No, he didn’t race in basketball shorts. I made him put his sweaty jersey back on for the photo. :)

I didn’t know that another Peace Coffee Racing teammate was going to be here, so I was super pumped when I saw Justin before the start of the race. I went on a cool-down jog with him and some of his buddies, and called it a day!

THE. END.

The greatest thing about these early morning races (well, at least when they’re this short…) is that you’re DONE and home by like 10:30, and you have the whole day ahead of you. My mom called as I was driving back to la casa and asked if I wanted to  go to CostCo, to which I replied, damn straight (I do understand why learning English is so frustrating…), and I was home, unpacked, showered, and at her house within 45 minutes. We stopped for an obligatory coffee on the way, and hit Costco, Trader Joe’s, and the local Co-Op so she could get all the ingredients for a special dinner she’s making tonight. I was just along for the ride!

The view from the shower.

Tonight I have nothing planned other than putting my feet UP, and chillaxin. The weather did eventually turn icky, but I’m giving a HUGE thanks to mother nature for waiting until the race was done. ;) I hope THIS GIRL got her race in before conditions turned soggy too, and I can’t wait to hear her recap!!

I will most definitely be returning to race New Bri again. It was very well put on, just like all the other Vacation Sports races I’ve done. HUGE UPS to todays winners, Jenny Wilcox and Carl Shultz. Like I said, there were a lot of really outstanding finishes today! You can read all about it at Minnesota Tri News’ new website!! I was a little disappointed with my finish, and especially that I didn’t place in the top three in my age group. Thankfully my UMN teammate hit me with a dose of reality and said “you better get used to it!” 20-24 is a lot more competitive, and I have lots of work to do if I want to still have a “title” to defend.

POSTS TO COME:

Tri packing list
A…. Kayak?
Motivation
A review!!

And with that, I’m out for the night. No work, no obligations other than enjoying myself. Sounds great. Have a lovely night, and a great rest of your weekend!!

-E

p.s. I just realized how much link love is goin’ on in this post. Sorry… a little much!!

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The Triathlon Rx | April 18, 2010
16 comments

Peace Coffee Racing + 5K RR

Pretty sure that this is the first time ever in D.T.R. history that a race report is being posted day-of. But before I get to that, I have some very important people to introduce:

Above you will find about half of the members of Peace Coffee Racing. Road riders, mountain bikers, and triathletes alike… we all have one thing in common: an awesome sponsor with equally awesome caffeinated products of joy.

You’ve heard me mention Peace Coffee probably more than enough times, but you also may have seen the little turtle elsewhere, such as Whole Foods Markets, Lunds, Byerlys, pedaling their coffee-wagon down the Greenway, at Birchwood cafe, and more. And although Peace Coffee is a local deal, don’t think it’s just us midwesterners who luck out! Check out this map and you’ll see you can get your Peace Coffee fix on the west coast, the east coast, the southern coast, or truthfully any place you please since you can order online!

From Peace Coffee’s website, they are…

A cultural, social and consumable revolution with grounds firmly fixed in a Farmer Friendly, Fair Trade reality.

There is obviously so much more that could be said, but that does a pretty good job in setting straight their values.

So who is Peace Coffee RACING?

Well, you can check out their website, or you can look at the photo above!! There are “two teams” – a mountain bike team, and an endurance/road team,  but truthfully.. we are all one. (Look out.. here comes that team spirit!) ;) Yesterday was the team open house, aka caffeinated gear party, and it was a blast! Not everyone was able to make it, and especially a lot of the triathletes who are stationed down in Rochester, MN (or on an airplane to Boston to beast a marathon)… but it was awesome to meat some of my teammates who I haven’t met before! Thank you to Birchwood Cafe for providing the pre-ride fuel, and THANK YOU Peace Coffee for having the Pollinator blend on hand!! Quickly becoming one of my favorites!

Not going to lie.. the team kits are SICK.

And because of such flashy team kits, I felt it necessary to break them in with a ride. Many of the crew went out to mountain bike (it’s about an 80/20 split in terms of mountain bikers to endurance/tri), but four of us decided to hit the roads:

Yes.. that is a pretty sick Salsa bike. No… sadly it is not mine.

Stephen and I with our top-secretly-engineered road fuel. ie Quaker Oatmeal Squares and Nana Nut Cheerios.

Peace Coffee Racing has not traditionally included running as part of their whole shebang, but I am clearly trying to change that!

Get Lucky 7K – 03/17/2010

Which brings me to today…

Recycle Run 5K Race Report!

As I mentioned in the last post, you better believe I was going to race this weekend if I wasn’t going to be down racing in Texas. This morning I ran the Recycle Run 5K at Lake Harriet – about a mile from my house (1.34 to be exact) and a lake I run all the time. Lake Harriet 5Ks and 10Ks are some of my favorite because they just feel like they go by so fast! Home-course-advantage for sure. ;)  Taking into account yesterdays 43 mile ride (I won’t go into details… all I will say as look at my 3 accompanying riders – I was making every effort not to be dropped…) I was honestly not sure how this morning was going to go. For 0.325 seconds I considered not going, but then remembered I was already registered, and repping a team. Not as much flexibility to flake anymore I suppose. ;) So my convenient 1.34 miles I trotted over to the lake, extending it out and back a bit to make an even 2 mile warm-up. Several things to mention, and hopefully convince you to participate next year:

1. SUPER awesome shirts!! A) They had size XS. Thankkk you race-director-Gods. B) They had two different design options. C) They’re all AnvilRecycled – 69% recycled cotton, 29% acrylic, 2% “other fibers” – seems pretty fitting for the Minneapolis Recycle Run. :D I know having huuuge size “small” race shirts is not only something I take issue with.

2. Excellent choices of post-race goodies: Water … Peace Coffee (of course!) … granola bars … Wheaties FUEL cereal … naners … various Aveda trial sized goodies (random?? but appreciated!) … and I saw someone with Snicker’s Marathon bars – I didn’t see them but they might have run out.

3. RECYCLED SHOE DROP! So bummed I didn’t know about this ahead of time, because I definitely have a few pair of shoes to pass on! They were giving out BlueSky Guides to those that donated a pair of shoes too! If you’re not familiar with the BlueSky Guide (maybe it’s just local..?) you can score tons of great deals on natural/organic/local goodies, restaurants, and stores. Yeah – I’m bummed I missed that. I asked the woman collecting and she said I could drop off shoes at their HQs though, so I’m in luck.

4. This was one of Anderson Races races! I didn’t know that ahead of time, but was super happy to see the familiar Anderson Races tent and Mary Anderson (owner)’s face when I got there! I had the delight of interviewing Mary Anderson a few years ago for a Sports Management class, and the rest is history. Not only does she help put together fantastic races, but she’s about the nicest person you will ever meet in Minnesota. Look for her table at expos. (Twin Cities Marathon and Grandma’s runners – I’m talking to you!)

5. And because all good things come in odd numbers (hahah Karyn did that just make you cringe?) it was very family friendly! They offered a kids race – xx miles – and I LOVE watching those little totts make their way to the finish line! That’s how I got my start running (thanks Mom!) and I just feel like it is SO GOOD for these kids to have this physical activity made FUN, and crowds cheering and supporting them at a young age! (I’m NOT saying they should get rid of “winners” at T-ball games or get rid of the competition aspect of youth sports. It’s important to learn how to win and lose. But that’s for another post…)

Ok… time for the real RACE REPORT part of this. Short I promise – it was only a 5K so there’s not too much to report!

Ran with one of the guys I’ve trained with a bit over the summer! Glad he was there because I already know how he runs, and otherwise I was going to just pick one of the lead guys and try and hang on! Keep in mind.. this wasn’t a huge race. No chips, no official times recorded (thankful for that one…).

Mile 1 – 6:36
Mile 2 – 6:22
Mile 3 –  6:25
Last 0.1 –  62 seconds

Finish time: 20:15

You math kids will be able to see pretty quickly that the numbers don’t add up perfectly, but that’s what happens without chips, and a starting gun that is as official as yelling the word “GO!” Those are the times Gomer’s giving me, so that’s what I’m taking. Definitely not a 5K PR, but it was the first time I’ve outright won a race for the XY half! Also a first – there was legitimately a dildo on the road right around mile 2.6. No lies. At first I thought it was a super awkward stick, or a potato, when I was running up on it. A day full of firsts I suppose…

Doin’ a mighty fine job of reppin’ if I do say so myself!

I also want to give a shoutout to my good buddy Dave who ALSO won his first 5K today! We lead these parallel racing lives.. it’s crazy. Only that is a very hopeful statement on my part because this kid is wicked fast. He ran the 5K over in St. Paul, and *hopefully* he will be pacing me at a race in the near future. Bahaha – secrecy!

Alright, well it’s time for this fish to flip over and brown the other side! ;) I hope everyone has had a splendid weekend and an awesome week to come! GOOD LUCK TOMORROW MY BOSTON BUDDIES!!

-E

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The Triathlon Rx | April 15, 2010
10 comments

The Grab Bag…

“The Grab Bag” because this post contains SO much! I don’t blame you if you skip around, but photos can give you a heads up about what’s goin’ on.

Current status: I’m only 21 minutes in to what will be 120 minutes on the X-Runner, so apologies if this gets a little lengthy! Today was officially declared a no-running day, as I’ve been trying to stick to only 4 days a week, and unfortunately I already capped that this week! Will be running tomorrow anyways, riding on Saturday, and racing on Sunday! Numerous items on the agenda today, and since I have 100 more minutes ahead of me… I think I have time for a little PhotoShop love:

Well that took long enough! I’m now at 55 minutes. Good thing I still have 1:05  to go… ;)

1. Mail Bag

I mentioned last week that my next post would be comin’ out of the mail bag — it’s a question I’ve received enough times (or at least similar enough) from readers that I figured it was time to answer on the blog.

Hi I just found your blog. First of all, you are am amazing athlete! You are such a fast runner – so inspirational.

I was wondering what your diet is like so that you have enough energy to fuel your training and develop muscles and strength while staying so lean? Do you eat smaller meals more frequently? What are you meals like?

Also, how did you start doing triathlons. Did you know how to swim before? How often do you train? Sorry for all the questions. Take your time. I know you’re a busy girl! Any advice would help. Thanks!
–
Jessica Lee

First things first – THANKS!! – I have been running for a loooong time, so success has definitely required work. But I can promise you that there are lots of faster runners out there. Given that I’ve come back from a fractured femoral neck, twice, I’ll take what I can get!

Question one: diet. This year my diet has gone under some changes because I finally have the guidance of an awesome nutrition and strength coach, Jodi, from Model Per4mance. Prior to working with MP4, I had the opportunity to work with a pretty awesome dietitian in Boston, but a lot of my “theories” or beliefs just come from trial and error. Before MP4 I was eating about the same calorie-wise, but I definitely ate more processed foods. I’m not talkin’ like Ho-Hos and a Coke for lunch, but think Kashi GoLean Rolls… microwaveable meals… etc. My current diet is a 90/10 = 90% whole, fresh, from nature foods… and 10% fun. ;) There has to be room in your life for going out to eat with the boy, or that biga$$ cookie you know you want. If there is no “it” you crave, or if all your cravings are for healthy foods, then fine. But if you DO ever want something “unhealthy” and you’re like me, you’ll just keep eating other things until you finally squash that craving, wishing you just ate what you really wanted in the first place. It’s a lesson learned, for sure.

Frequency of meals? Would be better referred to as “frequency of food” because “meals” don’t really happen per se. I’d like to work on balancing the food out a little more evenly through out the day, but essentially I graze, or small “meals” throughout the day. It works for me. You gotta do what works for you!

“Lean” is only partially attributed to diet. I would say more of it comes from strength training.

Question two: training. Like I said, I’ve fractured my femoral neck, twice. You can read about the first time + surgery, and the second time (no surgery).  I have a genetic condition called fibrous dysplasia… a condition where a section of my hip is super soft – more like scar tissue. After surgery (December 2008) I knew that if I was running at all, I definitely wouldn’t be running as much. Enter: triathlon. It gets me off of my feet for 2/3rds of my training. So I guess I should thank my geneticFAIL hip because that’s where it all started!

Swimming was a prior activity for sure – I had been tossed in a pool since I was like 1 year old. Swam for the YWCA Uptown Otters from 5th grade through 8th, and I also swam Varsity my freshman year in high school. If you haven’t concluded yet though, it’s not exactly my favorite.

I am part of two teams – the University of Minnesota Triathlon Team, and Peace Coffee Racing, so training happens… all the time. I take a rest day when I need to. I don’t always stick to the “schedule” because I feel like when you feel good, you shouldn’t “save it” for tomorrow’s tempo or interval or long ride. [If you have time...] You should let your body dictate what it wants to do.

I think that about covers it, and WOW – I gotta move on!

2. USAT Collegiate Nationals

[ETA: Hahah.. ran out of time. Used my last 30 minutes on the stair mountain because that’s something I almost never get to do.. and want to use this “free day” to (as my boyfriend’s Sundays are declared) do what I want. True story kids… want to know where I am right now? Doin' what I want, I can tell you that!]

“]Ahem… USAT Collegiate Nationals. The race I have been building up to be THE race for the last how many months. The ultimate in team bonding… 20+ hours in a 15-passenger van with the crew. And where am I right now? At the lake.

Say whaaat?

A couple weeks ago, some family events were presented to me that I had not been previously privy to. (Fun fact of the day… “unprivy” is evidently not a word.) I don’t need to waste time on details, but they involve my Singaporean relatives and sister and B-I-L coming to Minneapolis for the 16th/17th/18th … and those days only – Singaporean relatives that I have not yet had the chance to meet. If you’ve been a reader for a while now, you might remember my qualms last year about leaving Boston and transferring back home to the University of Minnesota: the basis of my whole move was that I wanted to be closer to family. I was sick of missing Thanksgiving, missing Easter, missing birthdays, state hockey tournaments, missing FAMILY. So to have this big family deal going on this one weekend, and electively chose to not be there, seemed like it was going against my values a little bit. I know… its Nationals… but there will be next year. I have no clue when the next time these guys will fly all the way from Singapore. There are a couple other contributing factors, but overall, I feel very good about my decision.

I will still be acting as “reporter” for my team, and will be in constant contact with them via phone and online. If you want to stay up to date on the University of Minnesota Triathlon team and their venture to Collegiate Nationals, please see the first installment in my post on Minnesota Tri News! There will be more to come soon!

3. Peace Coffee Racing

Because I am not in Texas this weekend… I will be doing a race that Peace Coffee is sponsoring on April 18th. Please believe that no matter what I was going to be racing this weekend. Its early enough on Sunday morning… not going to interfere with the fam-o plans… but I am very excited to be doing it! AND it’s for a good cause – EARTH DAY! I’m down.

4. Giveaway preview

Scroll up. Study the photo. Can you guess what the next giveaway is?? :D

Aright… This gets it’s own collage…

5. LIFE

Here is just a little bit of life lately:

Upper left photo – note not me, with the “oh-shit-how-do-i-clip-out-not-funny!” face (new to the Kilo at the time of that picture), but the P.O.S. Honda in the background. I shouldn’t say that… she’s been a good car. Many many miles on her, like all Honda’s should, and many good times. Picked up my first puppy and she threw up all over the floor in the front seat on the way home. Crazy High school memories with the girls, one in particular possibly intoxicated with way too much Patrone and her feet out the window. Changing my first tire. Getting hit by my own friend in a rain storm. Like I said, many good times. I just changed the oil today, and turns out she has about $800 worth of work needing to be done. $800 worth of money that I don’t have. Conversed with the padre on this one, and we decided that this summer would be the right time for me to get a different car. Don’t think it’s just because of these repairs – this decision is about $5,000 in repairs OVERDUE. So if you have any [used] car shopping advice for me, I would take it all with open ears.

Upper right photo – That is a man. Sleeping in a box. And that is what I will turn into (not a man, but sleeping in a box…) if I don’t figure out my housing sitch for the next year. OK… truthfully it’s not at that point. My lease isn’t up until the end of June, but I really want to have it squared away – it’s stressing me out!! It would be sick if I was living with another kines. student because we’d be working on/interested in the same stuff, but obviously that’s not a requirement of mine. Ahhh I just want to decide!

Imaginary photo – Starting work back at the restaurant this week!! Those are legit exclamation marks. I am SO excited!

Wow. Record for longest D.T.R. post? Possibly. Apologies (or not – haha you’re ready for me to be done I’m sure!) but I got to get to some real work… aka this VO2 Max lab report that I have been working on for howw long? If you stuck with this whole post, I hope you can feel my love for you!! Till next time amigos.

-E

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The Triathlon Rx | March 25, 2010
16 comments

Get Lucky 7K Race Report

First things first… a big hey hey to any of you who clicked on over to Dr.TriRunner from MinnesotaTriNews!! I know there are at least a few of you, because someone stopped me yesterday around Lake Calhoun saying “hey… you’re that girl that was on…..” :) I invite you to sit down, make a drink sip some PowerDew, and stay a while! If you see me out around the lakes… down on my aero bars attempting to look fast on the bike… at Whole Foods… wherever – say hi!

And for the Twin Cities tri-kids who are regulars here but haven’t checked out Minnesota Tri News yet… climb out from under that rock and hop on it! Moving on to business…

Get Lucky 7K Race Report

From start to finish…

I’m pretty sure I signed up for the GL7K within the first 20 minutes registration was open. At only $29.80 (for those that are on top of their game…) it was a steal, especially compared to certain other possibly St. Patty’s Day related races. Extra-especially given all the sweet swag… a HOODIE? Medal? Flag? Post-race party + Free drinks? Yep.. the Irish know how to party. And clearly, so does Team Ortho, because yet again they blew away my expectations with another epic race.

Pre-Race…

… went basically as planned. The GL7K offered plenty of pre-race packet pickup hours. As an added benefit for me, it was at the local running store that I grew up with, and my still-favorite: Gear Running Store on 44th and France Ave. Not only did I get to chit-chat with the owners (one of which Paul Horan, who did very well in the 7K himself!), but I got to check out some sweet sales. Further solidifying the fact that 87% 89% of my wardrobe is indeed intended for athletics.

I also picked up a Peace Coffee Racing jersey the day before – this was my first “official” race for PCR, no pressure though ;)

Complete Pre-Race Preparation Instructions: Click here.

All the necessities to start the day off right ;)

Due to said pre-race protocols, race morning ran pretty effortlessly.

  • Packet: check
  • Outfit: check, with a slightly warmer option in the bag, bib pinned on.
  • Fuel: check! I hate bananas, but Banana Nut Cheerios are another story. Topped off with plenty of Peace Coffee and I was good to go.
  • Sleep: check. One of the only people I’d share my bed with – Tylenol PM.
  • Plan: CHECK! See below…

Aright.. if you read the pre-race preparations post, OR if you know me in real life, OR if you’ve been reading Dr.TriRunner for a while at all… you’d know I fall slightly more on the Type-A end of the spectrum. In that post I stated that I will either have 1 or 0 plans, but you better believe a “plan of 0″ – meaning I’m going to race for fun – is still a plan.

“To race, or not to race. That is the question.”

Only it wasn’t, because I knew I wanted to [attempt to] go fast. My last race before the GL7K was the Victory Memorial 10K/5K… in September. And then I found out I fractured my femoral neck… again… right before Twin Cities Marathon, so it was speed work no more. Given the OK to start running again on November 10th (good lord.. how many posts am I going to have titled “CLEARED!!”) but didn’t really hit specific speed work again until… oh… Monday March 15th. Yassos, to be exact, and they felt good. I wanted to see if there were any fast twitch fibers left in there, so racing was indeed the plan.

That also meant I was going to ditch the 15 miler with my group of guys… which they did before the race. You know I love my long runs, but I don’t think I would have been able to race quite the same with 15 already down for the morning.

Pacing?

Yeah, you tell me. I’ve obviously I’ve never run a timed 7K, so I wasn’t so sure. Having an internal sense of pace is something that takes a logn time to develop, and I’d like to think that in the last 7 years of racing (I don’t think an asthmatic 5 year old attempt at the 1 mile counts) I’ve at least started to crack that code.  I ended up taking my 10K pace, 6:40, and my 5K pace, 6:20, and split the difference.

Given that my average pace for the 7K turned out to be 6:31, I’d say that worked pretty well. :D Funny thing is though, aside from the first mile I didn’t really check my splits on Gomer throughout the race. I know what 10K  feels like, and I knew I needed to be running harder than that. No kidding – there was a time around mile 3 when I said (out loud), “C’mon Erika… HTFU.” (And that’s a shoutout to YOU my Boston Buddies!!)

ANYWAYS… there are many more words in this brief recap than I intended. Too much coffee this morning. Dirty details:

  • FINSIH TIME: 28:23
  • AVG. PACE: 6:31
  • OVERALL PLACE (females): 3/1722
  • DIVISION PLACE: 2/133

How did I feel?

Pretty damn good! Only too hot in the last mile.5. Thirsty. Ready to run the slow easy cool down to make Saturday a long run day and take Sunday off. Hip felt solid throughout – success! There were two AMAZING runners who took 1st and 2nd, Amy Lyons and Jenni Wilcox, and I’m honored to even be in their company. And that’s the 100% non-butt-kissing-truth! Mizz Lyons and I are also now in the same age group , something I realized the night before the race (!!), but not for long. Until then, looks like I gotta pick a different race get my fast feet on and step my game up! ;)

Would I sign up for the GL7K again?

Heck. Yes. I ❤ you Team Ortho. As a matter of fact.. I already have several other 2010 Team Ortho races on the calendar!

Photo time!!

This is like a where’s waldo of race photos. Can you find me? :D

Some of the MN Running Wild crew

Tom & I (repping the U of MN Triathlon Team!) // Dave & I (Repping… 3rd place finishers? Hahah!)

Post race warm car felt so good!

That is one sharp & pointy medal! Love the flag. Love the hoodie. Love the medal. LOVED the race!

As always, you’ll be able to find this and all other race reports under the “RUN hard” tab on the top of the page! Catch you soon – I’m off to spin.

-E

p.s. I’m a redhead.. you know I’m sun sensitive. And that goes for my EYES too! Erica’s gonna hook me up… right? ;)

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