Tuesday, June 17, 2014

because i didn't have enough bruises before

Less than two weeks to race day, and for all my fellow Triathlon Club members who are participating in Pleasant Prairie, less than one week! I kind of wish we were doing that one instead of ITU – but no cars means for now we have to do races in the city.  At the same time, I am happy to have one more week.  Really, I just wish it was time for the Chicago Triathlon in August (not sure at this point if I am just ready for it to be over or if I am really excited for it – but I would say I am more along the lines of excitement). 
Heading up to race day, we have begun to make our final preparations and make sure we actually have what we will need for race day. Among the items we were missing were: most things for our bikes (spare tubes, seat pack, changing kit, water bottle cage), a wetsuit, sunglasses (the athletic kind), a race belt, sunscreen, and probably some other things I am forgetting without the checklist in front of me. All the things for our bike came in last week and we ordered wetsuits this past weekend (I ordered mine from an athletic brand flash-sale site I discovered, leftlanesports.com – which if it turns out to be a positive experience, this website rocks for all things sport-related). 
I had been anxious to get out on my bike for a long ride, but had been avoiding going too far given we didn’t have supplies that would really make that possible (like a flat kit, for instance).  Yes, most places I’d ride to in the city are not a terribly long walk away from a mode of public transportation if I needed it – but I didn’t really want to have to use that option.  We even started skipping our Tuesday morning brick training since it moved outside a couple months ago, and we didn’t want to have to deal with the possibility of a non-fixable flat.  We would just head to the spin bikes at the gym and get our ride in that way (which is like running on a treadmill, you don’t go nearly as far as fast and it is incredibly dull – exception is an actual spin class, those are awesome).  Now that I can take my necessary fixer-upper tools with me, I am back in the game.
In celebration of being able to go for a long ride, I thought on Sunday morning I’d get up and go for one on the lakeshore path.  Mark opted out of this one, so I was on my own.  This was also my first ride where I was going to try out my bike shoes on my actual bike (rather than the usual stationary ones at the gym) and clip in for my ride, so I could get used to it before the sprint. 
Other than the wind being unruly on Sunday, the ride went pretty well.  It was tough going towards the city because of the wind, but once I turned around I flew.  I will, however, never start my ride at 9am anymore because the path is just too packed.  Only early or late rides for me from now on – dodging other bikers, walkers, joggers, skateboarders, rollerbladers…it gets challenging!  I don’t actually know how far I went round trip, but my guess is about eight or so miles.  My sweet new fitness-tracking watch’s battery died as soon as I started out, so I couldn’t keep track.
The only hiccup I encountered from my ride was the end.  I was heading off the path and back on to the road when I came to a stop and forgot that I was clipped in – too late!  I fell right over (but seriously felt like I was falling in slow motion).  I’m not surprised I forgot, though, the people at the bike shop did say this would happen.  And I can’t ever let anyone be proved wrong.  Luckily the most injured part of me was my ego, especially after the few witnesses asked if I was ok.  Only minimal scrapes, but I did add some more bruises to my ever growing collection.   And of course all on my left side, where I’m already the most battered.  I’m adding a wedding goal for myself this summer – only scrapes and bruises below the waist, because at least those are covered by my wedding dress (FYI – my other goal is no tan lines, because wouldn’t that look awful?).  So far I have had success!  Only three months and change to go to make it!

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