In my quick escape down to LBI I still had to get in some training. Wednesday morning I went out on the bike for about a 17 mile flat and fast ride. With little to no elevation changes I used this time to work on a few sprints here and there. Speed training is helpful to build up power and explosiveness.
After a great ride it was time to reward ourselves with the finest of beers on the island at Ship Bottom Brewery. Go check it out, get a free tour to drink some great beers! I had a flight. There were about eight different beers available on draft at the time of our visit. In my flight I had the Blueberry Bikini Bottom Wheat, Cerveza, Beach Patrol Hefeweizen, and Barnacle Bottom Stout.
My favorite was between the blueberry wheat and the beach patrol hefeweizen. Getting the miles in to enjoy the beer was well worth it. Ship Bottom Brewery started in 1995 and seems to having major growth. Most, if not all of the names of the beers have something to do with different things or places on Long Beach Island.
Donuts just seem to put a smile on everyone’s face. An excuse to eat cake in the morning! I don’t really need an excuse I will happily eat a fresh donut. This morning I got the chance to have one from Shore Good Donuts in Ship Bottom, NJ.
The donut of the week was the Pebble Beach donut- a warm donut dipped in glaze, fruity pebbles and then topped with marshmallow drizzle. Jared and I also opted to try a traditional cinnamon sugar.
Let’s say these donuts did not disappoint. As much as I wanted to exercise resistance and not eat the entire thing I could not stop myself. I would recommend these donuts to anyone visiting Long Beach Island. I love that they were made fresh to order and having a special donut of the week.
You are probably familiar with the saying, ” if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.” Well I’m learning the same goes within the triathlon world. It doesn’t matter how hard you train and how well you think you are prepared or the gear you have when it comes down to race day there are several things that can affect you. What are race conditions? Are you familiar with the area you are racing in? How do you feel? Did you get a good nights rest? And then ofcourse training and gear comes into play. You have to do the work to be prepared, just like studying for an exam, very few people have the ability to not study for an exam and go in and ace it. And even if you did study you may have missed some information or not understand a question. The same applies to a triathlon- if the course is not marked clearly you may swim a couple extra yards or miss a turn on your bike causing you to be set back.
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Today was my second mock tri. This time the swim was in open water. The first mock tri I did the swim was in an outdoor pool. Now I did have the opportunity to swim in the lake prior to the race. This allowed me to have a higher comfort level, understand where the buoys were and sight lines of where to swim (some areas being more shallow then others). Today we jumped in the lake five seconds apart from one another. (Talk about pressure to get moving). My swim went well. I felt pretty comfortable and even passed people! By the time I finished my swim though I was out of breath! Defiantly something I need to work on and as you see from my Garmin results, I forgot to turn off my watch during transition. (Opps). I ran up on land and had an easy transition from my wetsuit to my bike shoes and out on the road I went.
The bike was comfortable for me. I felt powerful on the fast and pretty flat course. It was all right turns making it easy to navigate with traffic for the most part. After reviewing my pace I was happy with my speed, but would like to build some more power and finish out as close or under 30 minutes if possible.
The run is my strong point and what I feel should be. I slipped on my new cloud ON running shoes and headed back out on the road. If you have ever heard the term brick it is in reference to biking then running because your legs feel like bricks!!! It takes a little adjusting, but it’s best to keep moving. My pace was steady and at the turn around I heard someone shout, I’m going to pass you. That’s all I needed to motivate me to go faster. (lol) The run was just a smidgen under 3 miles, but it felt great.
Overall, I was pretty happy with my overall times and how I felt. I know I can improve upon the breathing techniques in the swim, build more power on my bike, and speed up my run. It’s good to have your own goals. It’s going to take time and practice to push myself harder, but I like the challenge.
Building off my last blog post about training being part of my lifestyle. I just want to give you a little insight to what things look like day to day. Today started with a 6am bike ride for an hour. I got up around 5am to get some coffee in my system, because if you truly know me I am not a morning person. Please give me coffee before you ask me to do anything. I had to limit my ride to an hour before I had to be back home to get showered and head out to physical therapy ( I’m in week 2 of the final 3 weeks)! After a day of running errands, doing some homework (yes still working on my doctorate), and taking a quick 30 minute nap I was prepping for an open water swim. If I’m not up getting in a morning ride, its either an early swim or early run (how else can I fit it all in). In fact, tomorrow morning at 6am I’m taking a master’s swim class. Now masters does not refer to education level, its a swim class for anyone over the age of 18. The class will be an hour long with other swimmers and a coach.
So much to do so little time
Getting back to my open water swim that I did tonight-this swim was in a lake. Open water swimming does not bother me as I used to scuba dive when I lived in Florida. My mom who is also training for the triathlon is not such a fan of the water, but she did great tonight. The lake was marked out with buoys for a quarter mile distance. The temperature was actually pretty nice probably high 60s. We quickly covered about a half a mile in distance.
After a full day, I’m prepping for another day of training tomorrow. Start with the swim, back to PT, and in the evening I will either get back on the bike or go for a short run. This sport takes dedication. There are times I doubt myself and times I ask why I am doing this, but when I reflect I realize how much I truly love this sport. I feel great after my workouts and sometimes you have to love the pain. You are your own competition. I am committed to pushing myself to be the best I can possibly be.
The weekend has come and gone and all I can think about is did I really train as hard as I wanted to this weekend? Could I have pushed harder? Did I give it my all? I feel confident and strong, but does that mean I didn’t really push my muscles and mind hard enough? Not necessarily. I’m learning to listen to my body. I’ve got three more solid weeks on the road to recovery for my ankle. While the specialist has given me the green light to keep training, I have to understand my own personal boundaries.
Saturday I went for a 35 mile ride on the back roads of South Jersey with my Mom and Uncle. We rescued a turtle trying to cross the road and even saw a ground hog who ran out in front of us! Sunday was a swim session with the coach who continues to push my limits and teach me thing to perfect my technique.
Monday I escaped the city to the Jersey shore. I decided to take Monday as my rest day. I drove to Cape May Beach. The southern most beach area for New Jersey. As a child we would take frequent Day trips here. As I walked the quaint town I found Cape May Running. Either I can’t escape the sport of running or it can’t escape me. I ended up chatting with the owner/triathlete about some new running shoes I am considering trying- newton and ON. He gave great information and we even discussed triathlon training.
Running has become such a large part of my life. I love the positivity and meeting random people that share the same passion. Running has led to biking and now swimming to compete in triathlons. I’ve recently become part of the Mojo Racing team. This group of athletes are amazing- ranging in age and abilities. There are about 100 team members all over the world. The encouragement has been tremendous. As a beginning triathlete I have been able to ask so many questions and even received a half ironman training plan within minutes of asking for suggestions. The Mojo Racing team is affiliated with Love the Pain and The Triumph Project.
Today I received a running singlet and hat in the mail from Rabbit-a running company based in California formed by two women runner’s that promote being a runner and dreamer (RAD)! I was lucky enough to snag a spot to represent their running team!
Keep a look out on my Instagram- Southjerseybelle03 to see my latest swimming, biking, or running adventure.
Today is Global Running Day! If you have the time and energy, get outside or even on a treadmill and get a quick run in! I just wanted to write a post about how much running has changed my life for the better and what the sport has done for me.
After graduating from my undergrad-Temple University in 2009 I moved to Florida and this is were my running career started. After about six months in Florida I was not ready to return to the Northeast, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I started working in hospitality which allowed me time to figure out what my next move would be. While working in the hospitality industry I met so many wonderful people. This is how I found out about so many races that occur in Florida. I figured if these people were running, I could too. At first it was just something to keep me in shape, but I quickly learned it was so much more than that. While living in Florida I ran my first 3k, 5k, obstacle course with 5k, and half marathon. Eventually I signed up for other races and began running all over the United States where ever I was and even a race in London.
2nd Place Mother/Daughter Team
1st Marathon
Running has made me a healthier and happier person. I was never a morning person, sometimes I still struggle with getting up early, but I can attest that running has helped me recognize its not so bad. Running in the early morning when things are still quiet and peaceful is completely enjoyable. I’ve learned I can push past my limits and challenge myself. I no longer believe there’s no way I could accomplish something. If I put my mind to it, I’m going to do it, no matter what it is. If you would have asked me 6 years ago if I would ever run 26 miles I would have laughed and said there would be no way. Now I’m looking to go further and run an ultra, complete a triathlon, and even qualify for the Boston Marathon. There is no better feeling in the world than the endorphins I get after a run.
Half Marathon in London
13.1 Completed
Running has also taught me it is important to fuel your body properly. My eating habits have improved greatly. As a child I looked forward to my weekly happy meal. Nothing could come between me and my hamburger, fries, and diet coke. HAHA! And those Wendy’s chicken nuggets! I could never get enough of them. Years have passed and I no longer crave that food, but I am always looking for new healthy recipes to try out. I try to educate myself on what foods I should be eating to give myself more energy and recover quicker.
Philly Rock n Roll Half Marathon
Finisher Beers
I’ve gone from dreading running to simply being upset if I don’t get a run in. The running community is full of great people who are always willing to encourage and share training info along the way. It’s never too late to change your lifestyle. Get out there and give it a try!
Left foot I hate you right now. After a brief phone call from my doctor I found out my MRI shows tendonitis and a grade III tear on one of my ligaments. Left foot/ankle how could you betray me like this. We were on the road to recovery, but we knew something wasn’t right, but surely I wasn’t expecting this. An appointment with a specialist will come soon and we are setting you straight. No funny busy this time. We are coming out of this stronger than before and we are going to dominate all the races we compete in.
I hope you are listening ankle because I’m not playing games with you. You don’t want me to run right now fine, but that just means my swimming and biking is going to take presendence.
After making the decision to compete in a triathlon, today was my first opportunity to actually attempt a swim, bike, and run consecutively. There are five different lengths of triathlons; super sprint, sprint, olympic, half ironman, and ironman. The two triathlons I have signed up to compete in this summer are both of the sprint distance. A sprint tri consists of a quarter mile swim. One then transitions from the water to the bike to ride 10-12 miles then back to transition to run a 5k (3.1 miles). Each event separately is not overly difficult for me, but try to complete them one after the other creates a bit of a challenge. The swim portion is my weakest link, but I have been feeling more and more confident recently after a few months of swim lessons.
Prepped to go before the race
Today the swim portion took place in an outdoor pool, to complete a quarter mile you must swim 16 laps. The water was cold, but after a lap down and back my body quickly adjusted to the temperature and I started to focus on my breathing to keep on pace. I hopped out of the pool and jogged over to my bike where I slipped on my biking shoes. I just purchased a tri specific bike shoe from Garneau, but I didn’t get time to adjust the cleats yet! I then took my bike out for a very hilly 10 mile ride. Looking for the positives in the hills, once you work your way up, you get to coast down! The run portion of this was only 2 miles and by this point in the morning even though still early, was very hot! This 2 mile run was an out and back with one big hill to conquer.
This race was completely organized for and by the Mullica Hill Women’s Tri Club. It was great practice before an actual race, there was no pressure, only bragging rights in the end. The race was over much faster than I expected and I enjoyed every moment. I was very happy with my overall performance and the times reflected in my Garmin watch.
Some of the women that completed the triathlon this morning.
When preparing for your race the night before its key to write down each segment of the race and what is needed. For example
Swim
Goggles/Swim Cap
Bike
Helmet/sunglasses/bike shoes
Run
Sneakers/sunglasses/socks
Other key items include:
Sunscreen/lip balm/body glide/water/energy gels or chews/hat or visor
My first try at a triathlon was a complete success. I’m excited to get in some open water swims soon and start prepping to train for longer distance triathlons such as the half ironman- 70.3 miles to complete between swimming, biking, and running.
South Jersey Belle 