Playing in the crosswalk

Wednesday after work Spicy and I went for a run through Clarendon. So we jetted off, and Spicy decided to use the run to work on my stride. I was VERY happy, because even though I have long legs, my stride is SUPER short. I was just never taught how to run correctly. Luckily, Spicy was ready to work with me!

He tried to get me to simply elongate my stride, but I was NOT getting it. So he (knowing me VERY well) decided to make a game. Every time we pass a crosswalk, I would stretch my stride to hit each white line. That would elongate my stride and use my back leg to push me forward instead up my “up and down running” that I usually do. So of course, I LIKE GAMES, so I played along. I def DID feel the difference and hopefully with enough practice I can get my stride to STAY that long.

As we rounded back to the shop, I was going SUPER slow, but once we got to Clarendon metro, I got a second wind and jetted out my long stride all the way back to the shop. It wasn’t a sprint, just bigger steps. Needless to say, I was QUITE proud of myself, and even Spicy was proud of my going as far as I did on my newfound stride.

Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves from our 3.5mile run with a naked juice from whole foods (as it was already 10pm and WAY too late to try and cook something at home)!

I have my anniversary race this weekend: Crystal City Twilighter 5k. This was my first race EVER (besides middle school track) and I am really hoping to incorporate my longer stride and shave off some of my time from last year….so let’s see what I can do!

- apes -

Dear Santa...

After I took Erwin the Black Stallion out for our first ride, I realized there were a few items I need to look into getting for us.

- Bike Computer: I can find out how far I travelled, AND how fast I go. I don’t need a crazy one, just a simple one with the basics: distance, speed, time, stop watch, etc.

- New Chamois: I currently ride wearing the “diaper shorts” so I don’t get too sore, but I DEF need some new ones (partially so I don’t have to do laundry after EVERY stinky ride) with some different padding. Riding Black Stallion is a little different than riding cupcake, and with the different posture on the bike, my soreness happens in different spots

- A Jersey: A nice wicking jersey to keep my cool. Cycling jerseys have pockets in the back so that way I can store stuff without it getting in my way in front pockets. I already want to get a Revolution Cycles jersey (duh!) but I think first I am going to get a regular sleeveless one for fun rides. I hope I eventually get a small collection of sweet jerseys!

- New Pedals: I knew I wanted these anyways since this is a racing bike. I am looking at getting some RED pedals, and then probably some new shoes as well.

So if you guys are looking for “any occasion” type gifts….there’s some ideas :)

- apes -

My first peloton

Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of my cell phone buzzing…my alarm clock. It was 8am on a Sunday morning. WHAT AM I DOING AWAKE SO EARLY AFTER A NIGHT OF DRINKING?!?!? Ahh….I remember. It’s the morning of my first group bike ride!

So I get up, chug down some water…and get geared up for the big ride. Alex and I do a warm-up ride into Clarendon to the shop to meet the group. Francis and Spicy were both already at the shop getting suited up, and there were a few others outside waiting to ride.

Once Jess (the group leader) showed up, it was time to ride! She introduced all the staff members and then it was off to Georgetown. Click, Click, Click went the sound of about 30 riders clipping in and taking off for our next stop. I took an easy pace in, and chatted with a few of the riders around me that I knew.

When our peloton got into Georgetown, we met with the group out there. The group would break off here and we could either do the “beginners ride” of about 17 miles on the trails or the “more experienced ride” of about 30 miles at a 17mph pace on roads. Of course me being me, I decided to hang with the big dogs and do the 30 miler.

Click, Click, Click goes everyone clipping into their pedals and heading off. Up comes the first hill…kicking my butt and putting me way into the back. I can still see the whole group, so maybe I can eventually catch up. Then comes hill number 2. HA, there’s NO CHANCE of catching up. Luckily Alex stayed with me and we did our own ride. Jess came back looking for us, but I told her not to worry about dropping us, Alex was safe since he was “with a staff member” – which apparently means we can get any of the riders back to the starting point. Ha! So off she went to catch up to the group.

Alex and I stayed on MacArthur Blvd. on the way to Maryland and passed the Glen Echo Park (apparently used to be an amusement park) and rode for about 15 miles. Then we turned back around and he taught me how to “ride out of my saddle” (not sitting), how to “climb” (pedal while out of my saddle while going uphill) since I was always too scared of falling over to try it before. Now that I had THAT mastered, going uphill wasn’t so bad!

On the way back other cyclists kept passing us in their race line and I said “I just want to pass SOMEONE!” and later, I did it! I passed Alex. We ended up playing a game of leap frog and I got to work on sprinting. Alex clocked us on his bike computer at getting up to 21mph!

Once at the key bridge I hear some familiar voices “How’d it go April?!?” – what do you know, it was part of the original group! They caught up to us on the bridge, and we stuck with them a little on the way back to the store. Once at the store (and exhausted after 30 miles!) we biked over to Robek’s for some after-riding-smoothie. A smoothie has NEVER tasted so good!

Back at my place (almost noon!) it was time to muster up the energy to make it to the pool to nap. I don’t know how I found the energy, but I didn’t last too long at the pool before I was napping in the sun!

I can’t wait to take Black Stallion out on another group ride (but this time I may stick with the Georgetown group till I get good enough to do that 30 miler again).

- apes -

You shall be named...

Thursday afternoon I picked up Erwin. He is a BEAUT!!! So I decided my first ride would be on Friday evening. Since everyone already had plans, I decided to go by myself and get a little bonding in with my newest addition to my “wheel family”.

Once home from work on Friday I suited up, and went to switch me pedals from Cupcake over to Erwin. Cupcake was NOT happy! I got her first pedal off fine, but the right pedal (my dominant foot) would NOT budge. I tried over and over, but couldn’t loosen it. Eventually I gave up and ended going on my ride with my left foot clipped in and my right foot in the toe cage (not fun).

I knew there was a trail in Ballston but couldn’t remember which one it was (Custis Trail) so I headed through Arlington to hop on it. About a block from my place, my IPOD died and I wasn’t too happy. Once on the trail, I followed it around (passing the 5k race I was supposed to do) a few miles – past a MILLION parks! Once I stopped for a water break/leg stretch I took a few pix of the new bike and then headed back the way I came.

Once I got to where I was supposed to turn to stay on the trail and head home, I decided I was NOT done bonding with Sir Erwin. So I continued on (it turned into the W&OD trail) and I rode along the quiet path. There were a few runners, and a few bikers, and it was AMAZINGLY peaceful. I didn’t mind that my IPOD had died and I was just out “being one with nature” – well, as “one” as you could get while riding a bike on a bike path.

During my bonding, I needed to figure out what to call my new set of wheels. My thinking went something like this:

Let’s see, he def needs a manly name since he’s a cyclocross bike. Something like HANS that makes you think of a super muscle meathead. The frame is made of steel…BLUE STEEL! But there’s no blue. Red Steel? Nah, that’s weird. Ginger (since I want to rewrap the bars in red) YUCK! I am NOT having a “Ginger” bike! Red Stallion? That’s reminds me of that creepy guy from Longwood Freshman year...DEF not. BLACK STALLION!!!! Done! He’s a black frame, and stallions are manly and can move fast! DONE AND DONE.

Erwin, my Black Stallion. It’s a pleasure to have you in my life.

Anyways, back to the ride. So after I was on the W&OD trail for a few miles (passed some people too, woo hoo) the trail dumped onto Columbia Pike (Barcroft) so I decided since it was after 8pm (and roomster was cooking dinner) I would go ahead and ride Columbia Pike the rest of the way home. So I turned into the direction I thought was east (towards home) and started on Black Stallion once again. I rode a few blocks and thought “I hope this is the right way” as with Columbia Pike being super hilly, I didn’t want to ride a while in the wrong direction. So I saw a man walking on the sidewalk and decided to stop and ask him which way to the city.

Me: Excuse me, is the city that way? (pointing)

Spanish looking Man: What?

Me: Is the district in that direction? (pointing)

Spanish looking Man: Confused look

Me: La ciudad….esta direccion (pointing) o esta dirrecion (pointing)? Luckily I remembered that much from Spanish class.

Spanish looking Man: I understand English.

Me: Oh, um. Well, which way is East? To the city?

Spanish looking Man: Confused look again. DC is that way (pointing to the direction I was already going) and that way (pointing in other direction) is not DC.

Me: OK. So DC is THAT way?

Spanish looking Man: Yes.

Me: Ok thanks.

WTF?!?!?!?!!?!?!

So I jumped back on Black Stallion and finished my ride, NOT stopping to ask anyone else anything.

- apes -

Adding to the family

Since I am doing a sprint Tri in October and I already want a bike with gears (although I still love cupcake!) it was time to start hunting around. While the bike shop crew all thought it would be AWESOME for me to ride cupcake during my tri I explained that it was a hilly 20k, and without gears I would be doing MUCH more walking than biking.

Soo…it was time to investigate.
I started off looking are multiple options, and when none ended up in my size I got QUITE frustrated. But then…Brian came through! One of the guys (ok all of the guys) I work with helped me solve my problem of being bikeless apes. Brian found a Gary Fisher cyclocross bike...IN MY SIZE!! So I checked it out, and here it is:

Gary Fisher Erwin

Pretty beautiful, huh? Well what’s even better than its beauty is the actual bike!! Here comes my bike talk:

- Steel Frame
- Carbon Fiber fork
- Tiagra shifting- 105 rear derailleur

So for those of you non-bike linguists, what’s cool about a cyclocross bike? It’s made for THIS kind of racing:
Think tons of mud, and a course where you have to carry the bike over stuff as well as parts where you ride.

What does that mean for me? It means I now have the option of doing a cyclocross race!! (ok ok, let me get through my sprint tri, AND my marathon first, then we’ll see what happens).

I should get my new addition to my “family” sometime this week, so look for a post on how much I (hopefully) love it!

- apes -

Sorry about slacking

I know I have been slacking on posts lately, but it is not due to slacking in working out! My computer at work is blocked and my computer at home doesn't seem to be interested in blogging.

I do have some posts ready on running, racing, and even biking so stay tuned and hopefully they will start getting posted!

- apes -

Bikers wear gloves??

New Biking Gloves!

So after our last tour de franzia (similar to a bar crawl, but we ride bikes, and don’t go to bars) the meaty part of my palms felt a little raw. Well, DUH! I didn’t wear bike gloves! So to solve that problem, I bought bike gloves! Woah…it’s like a simple math problem, eh?

So I got a pair of Pearl Izumi Gloves:

Pearl Izumi Select Gel $30.00 at Revolution Cycles

“Pearl Izumi's Women's Select Gel Gloves have gel-padded Clarino palms that soak up vibrations to keep you fresh and fatigue free. They also feature mesh backs for excellent ventilation and anti-microbial bamboo linings keep you dry. And, the microfleece thumbs provide a soft place to wipe your face. “

They didn’t make too much difference on my latest ride (since it was only a few miles) but I can DEF tell that they will make an impact on my longer rides.

- apes -

Apes in a TRI??

While on a beach trip recently I stopped in Richmond to spend some time with one of my FAV people ever…Beaz! We got to talking and we decided we are going to do a sprint triathlon! Woah….a TRIATHLON you may ask?!?! Yes, I will be doing one. Time to incorporate my biking and running into one race (and adding some swimming).

The race we are doing will be the Naylor’s Beach Sprint Tri in Warsaw on Sept. 26^th. It is a 500meter swim (in open water), 24k bike, and 5k run. Now a normal tri is WAY longer (think half marathon run). This will be a good start to see if I like it, and I’m SUPER stoked since I get to do it with Beaz!

That means…I need to start swimming. UGH, as slow as I am running, I am WAY worse at swimming…I think the last time I actually got in a pool to swim was during summer swimming lessons back in elementary school so I’m thinking this won't go so well....this should be QUITE interesting. I really wanna kick some major butt…but that means I’ve gotta get training like LAST MONTH!

So I guess I’d better get to it….

- apes -