Monday, April 20, 2009

spandex convention

my face hurt in the water. my legs hurt on the bike. my gut (the margarita belly) hurt on the run...along with my knees and ankles. but man was i excited to finish!


crazy as it sounds--i really wanna go train out there this summer a few weekends to get a head start on conquering those hills! (the cold water i dont know what to do about.....except ear plugs and two caps)


so someone please hold me to it!

NATIONALS!!!

So the USAT Collegiate National Champsionship this past weekend was AMAZING! For the first time ever, UNT Triathlon is a nationally ranked team. We had a full team in the Olympic, and even some extras spilling over into the sprint - including Coach Sean!

We crammed the whole team into 4 hotel rooms, and there were five of us girls (and four Specialized bikes) in one room. We spent about an hour running around with our swim caps on and taking pictures with our bikes. Then Kira talked about floss for about half an hour. Andrew shaved himself a mohawk for the race, and Coach Sean gave our bikes the once over Friday night before the big day.

The course was intensely difficult - there's a reason the Half they have there is a Kona qualifier!!! The water was freezing cold, and a number of people were pulled out of the swim for hypothermia. I know my race strategy was gone as soon as my face hit the water - I was really wishing I had a wetsuit with SLEEVES! The temp when we were checking into transition was 38, and I think the water was around 55 - as opposed to the predicted 65 degrees. Ugh. Transition was tough after the swim because I couldn't feel my limbs! The giant hill out of transition was difficult with my calves wanting to cramp up from the cold, but at least I knew to put my shoes on IN transition, and have my bike set in the easiest gear. The bike course was challenging, to put it mildly, and that was with only a mild Lubbock wind. Riding it for the 70.3 this summer will be an adventure! The run was tough for me - after being sick the past couple of months, I've been having some stomach problems, and they came back to haunt me for the entire run course. Had to stop and walk a number of times which NEVER happens for me. I think my pace was 9:30... as opposed to the 7:30 pace at my last race! Ouch! But considering how sick I had been two weeks before, I was just so happy to be there and racing.

Getting to watch the 2012 Talent ID race was way cool - as was the bowling, arcade games, and pizza at Main Event with the team later that night! I'm so proud of our team for competing, and I'm ready for us to dominate next year!!!

Monday, April 13, 2009

i ran today with miss kira, and then swam. i forgot my suit an the only one i had in my car was one that did not want to keep my "girls" covered when i was pulling. made for a short swim. it was lime green though, and that made me happy, BUT note to self- preplant suit at pool so boobs dont show.

amanda

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

the lonestar festival was amazing! there were zillons and zillons of people there! i did the sprint on saturday which was more windy but not as hot as sunday's races. chris was the only other sprinter from UNT to race-- all our other athletes took on the oly. i realized i should probably be more organized and what not, i forgot my cap...and wetsuit....and gels at morgan's place on race morning. my T1 was a fieasco, with one rubber band not breaking, and the other shoe becoming unclipped...still attached to the rubberband and my bike being literally stuck on someone elses. and i totally practiced all that good stuff the day before with miss morgan. the bike was wonky, i was suppose to go today to get it fixed, but the shop is too busy :( so hopefully sometime before nationals-or i cry. the run wasnt too bad physically, but mentally i was drained. i dont like courses that you can see all the runners ahead of you still going out, it makes it seem longer. but thats okay cause all in all i think i did okay. debating a wetsuit for nationals....i dont know weither the T1 time will be outweighed by the leg flotation and what not. k, hope all that made sense im going to get ready for the TT.
amanda

ride

Went riding today around 1:15ish and went out jim christal expecting a short ride but after the turn around I decided to head down TN skiles and go down that way. The wind was kinda a pain in the gluteus maximus. I am beginning to take the look of Michael H. the shirt without a shirt and skivies with out skivies tan lines. dont know how far i went, i was riding without my trusty dusty computer for an hour and a half i thinks.
andrew

Monday, April 6, 2009

Trying to Recover

This weekend was awesome for the Team

Congrats to Ben of course for dominating and showing people what the team can do and i have to say everyone made a good showing with almost all top 5 finishes

Finding it hard to recover though :( red bull and greasy foods for the day should get my motivation to get out and going again by the end of the day

Sunday, April 5, 2009

70/4 brick

Michael H. and Andrew S. met up for a bike ride Saturday morning, along with a future tri-team member who will transfer to UNT next year to help us win races.

We left the rec center at around 9 am and rode around Denton for a little while, then headed up into Sanger to the gas station at 455 & 5th. We stopped to refill on Gatorade and some little girls helped us out us with their delicious bake sale cookies.

We headed back into a headwind for the next 10 miles before turning onto Jim Christal and taking that down until we hit C. Wolfe/Skiles and taking that down to Hwy 156. On the way back to Jim Christal, Andrew had to turn back to Denton since he was under a time constraint (and had already extended his 2 hour ride to just over 3 hours). Future tri-team member and I headed the long way down Jim Christal, then headed back to my apartment.

We spent ~5 minutes in my apartment throwing on our running shoes and ran a 4 mile brick around campus and up Hickory/Oak. My legs were strong and I ran sub-8's, while future tri-team member bonked! We got him to Pita Pit immediately for some nourishment.

All in all, it was a great day for a long workout. Good friends, good weather and exercise. That's what training should be!

Michael H.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

geese, with the wind how it was today-- you could point your bike in any direction and you would still be headed east! i could barely walk against it. (this is how zack said it would be in lubbock) use your imagination!!!

amanda