Have You Met Roxie?

Soooo remember that time I signed up for a triathlon? Oh you don't because I haven't mentioned it on here... ;)

Well, in case you need to jog your memory you can check out the fateful day here.

Don't worry I will wait here until you are all caught up.

Done?

Really?

Already?

Well you are a fast reader.

Anywho...

... after completing the Boston Marathon on April 15 and taking some time off (okay not really as much as I should have, but there was some time off) it was time to come up with a triathlon training plan.

And that's where we hit the snag of ... oh you need a bike to complete a triathlon!

Say whaa??

So before coming up with an actual training plan, step one became: buy a bike. :)

Thankfully I have amazing friends and social media folk to steer me in the right direction. I had a long list of shops to check out.

Since I never shop alone (and my parents were kicking in some money as a belated christmas present), my dad and I headed out to a local bike shop - Ace Wheelworks - on Friday May 3 to start this whole process.

It brought back flashbacks of when he and I went to buy me a car as my college graduation present. <<shiver>>

I walked into the store like a blank slate! I was definitely going with the suggestions from the guy at the store. I trust the experts.

He steered me towards the Specialized Women's Road Bikes. They looked great. :P

Well he wanted me to try a Specialized Dolce Compact, but they didn't have one ready for me to ride.

My dad had to get to a dinner thing so we set up an appointment to go back to Ace Wheelworks the following day after 3pm to road test the bike.

We went back on Saturday, May 4 and had a different person helping us. But she quickly won be over with her knowledge of the bikes and especially how a woman would feel on the bikes.

It was weird to be back on a bike. I don't think I had ridden a bike since maybe high school? But, just like they say it, it was like riding a bike. The mechanics came back to me as soon as I got on there. Yes, I was still a little nervous, but it was great to feel the wind in my face.

I love that bike shops have you take the bike for a ride to find the right fit ... just like I do with running sneakers!

I test road 3 different styles ranging in three different price ranges and even tried a Trek Bike as well...

Dolce Elite Compact Equipped

... but felt most comfortable on the Specialized Dolce Sport Compact. They only had the red option in stock and I was hoping for the charcoal and teal. The woman made a call to Wheelworks other location and they had one in stock! SCORE!

Isn't it pretty?

I wasn't ready to pull the plug on the sale yet, so we set up another appointment the next day to test ride the charcoal/teal Dolce Sport Compact. Woo!

After the bike shop, the wife and I headed to KMart for some shopping and I found THE bike I would use for my triathlon.

HA!

NOT! :P

On Sunday morning (May 5), we headed to Quincy so I could run the Half of Quincy then it was time to get back to the task at hand.

My dad, wife and I headed over to Farina's in Watertown to see what they had to offer. Their featured brands are Cannondale and Giant. The guy had me try a Giant. I took it around the blocks a couple times, but it was over my price point (cheapest option they had in stock) and just didn't feel right.

We finished up right on time to head back to Ace Wheelworks to see if it was in fact the bike of my dreams.

How could it not be?

I took the bike for a test ride and as soon as I pushed off I knew it was right. :) We were a match made in Heaven.

Boy are bikes expensive!! I know I could have taken more time to look at used models, but friends kept stressing to get the right feel and I am such a bike novice I wanted to trust the experts.

My crew and I pow-wowed and it was a consensus that this bike and I were made for each other ... and it was under the price point. I had been hoping to spend less than $1k on this bike since it is my first bike.

The Happy Couple

I went with the basics for Day One by just adding a water bottle holder. I can go back within the first month of purchase to pick up other essentials - like a bike lock, pedals with clips, another water bottle holder, etc.

I signed on the dotted line and the bike was mine.

There was just one little issue...

We rolled up in my Jetta. Yeah no real room for a bike in there with the three people.

So I had to make a date to pick the bike up on Tuesday (May 7).

Once the bike was selected, it felt like ages before I could pick her up.

With work schedules and weather, I've gotten out on the bike twice so far:

A quick 8 mile ride with my dad (May 10)

A solo trip around the Mystic River before a downpour (May 15)

It was crazy for me to see how much farther you get on a bike in the same amount of time I run. Yes, I know that should be obvious, but still. My first ride was a 2-to-1 ratio of bike miles to run miles. I hear the correct ratio should be 4-bike miles to 1-run mile. Eek! I have to work on my pace.

This week I am heading back to Ace Wheelworks to pick up a lock and an odometer to record my mileage/pace so I can start riding this baby around the city. :)

Oh and how could I forget!

Remember to call her Roxie ... she likes to be referred to by name! ;)

*** Do you have a bike? Did you name it? Are you hooked?

Weekly Workout Wind Up (4/25-5/1/13)

While I am in between training plans - Boston Marathon and my first triathlon - I am winging the workouts. ;) I can't wait to be back on a new training plan soon...  

Thursday, April 25: Rest Day

Friday, April 26: 45 min Walk

Saturday, April 27: 26.2 Marathon Relay Challenge ... my leg was 4.36 miles

Sunday, April 28: 60 Min Spinning

Monday, April 29: 3.1 Mile Run and 45 Min Spinning

Tuesday, April 30: 2.13 Mile Run with Laney

 

Wednesday, May 1: 5-Mile Run

 

REVIEW: Zensah Compression Socks

What is with the compression craze? Why do runners wear compression socks/sleeves? What is the benefit? These are just a few of the compression questions I get on a regular basis.

So when Zensah offered me the chance to review their neon yellow Compression socks, I jumped at the opportunity.

A little about Zensah:

Based on the Italian word "SENZA" meaning to be "without" so too should athletes be "without limits." This mantra inspires us each and every day to create the most cutting edge sports apparel. All of our products are developed using seamless technology, simply meaning they are made without seams.

Zensah was created to help athletes at all levels improve their performance by utilizing innovative sportswear made with cutting edge technology.

I first learned about Zensah and compression socks/sleeves in 2011. I had major back surgery in January 2011 and during recovery researched products that would help with the side effects of the sciatica in my left leg caused by the herniated disc. The Sciatica left my left leg weaker than the right and I wanted to try anything I could that may help.

Since that moment, I started using a pair of Zensah Compression Sleeves during my training runs.

Compression sleeves and socks are designed to enhance blood circulation and oxygen flow before, during or after an athletic performance.

When I got my first pair of Zensah sleeves, I was using just the left sleeve while running to aid my damaged leg.

But as I did more research, I learned they also had benefits during pre-running prep and post-running recovery.

Now I use my Zensah sleeves and socks all the time. ;)

My first pair of sleeves were subtle - a nice black - that could blend in with my running pants.

But no longer - the brighter the better I say!

So I was pysched when Zensah offered up a pair of neon yellow socks.

Can you see me coming?

I took a casual recovery walk the day after the Boston Marathon and I took the Zensah socks along for the trip.

I could feel the aching and soreness in my legs slowly leaving as I wore the socks and kept my legs moving.

A few days after the marathon it was time to once again lace up the sneakers and go for a run. Again, I brought the Zensah socks along for the trip.

I had set out to run just a couple miles to shake the legs out, but wearing the Zensah Compression socks gave me the strength to run farther. My legs felt strong enough to leg out a 4 mile run - double what I had set out to do.

Not a runner or athlete, Zensah Compression socks can still work for you.

Since they are designed up help with blood flow in the legs, I love to wear socks under my pants when on a plane or around the house after a long car ride. They can easily fit under a pair of work pants so there have been times when I have rocked them under some work pants when I know I will be on my feet for an extended period of time during the day.

Or feel free to boldly wear them with whatever outfit you may be wearing. ;)

Hot, right?

The Zensah Compression socks will run you $50, but it is a true investment. They are versatile and improve both athletic performance and general health of your legs.

Plus, who doesn't need a little color in their lives?

So head on over to Zensah and check out the many different colors and patterns they offer for Compression Socks and Sleeves.

***

Have you caught on to the Compression craze? When do you tend to wear them the most?

*Virtual* Half At The Hamptons - 2/24/13 - 1:58:04 (9:01 min/mile)

Let's just call this the race that almost didn't happen. One always takes a risk signing up for a race in New England ... in the winter ... that a race could be called due to weather. But, you never think it will happen to a race YOU sign up for. Okay, well maybe that is just me.

My friend Sarah and I had signed up for the Half At the Hamptons on November 24. Yup, three months before the race so clearly we didn't know what the forecast would be that day. :P

At the beginning of February, Boston was hit by Blizzard NEMO where roughly 30 inches of snow landed by my house. So I thought that would be it ... but I was wrong.

As the weather reports started hitting the week before the run, people started talking snow, snow and more snow! But, you always have to take the weather forecasts with a grain of salt - again especially in New England.

As the week went on, the forecast got worse. By Thursday (February 21) they were calling for 6-12 inches in New Hampshire, which is where the race was being held.

Rumblings started that they would be deciding by Noon on Friday whether the race would go on as scheduled on Sunday.

I DID NOT want to see the race called. I sent positive thoughts to the weather gods...

... but they must've been blocking them because we received news I didn't want.

After much agonizing and discussion, we are very distressed and sad to announce that the 2013Half at the Hamptons is cancelled. The  weather prediction for Saturday night into Sunday morning is predicted to dump 6-12 inches of heavy snow and up to 40 mph wind gusts. There will not be a makeup date. We are just as disappointed as you are and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We want to say thank you to everyone involved in the race for working with us and the Ashworth and Town of Hampton for being our gracious hosts.

Race cancellation decision process: The final authority on whether the race can be held is determined by our Assembly permit which is issued by the Town of Hampton and the HamptonPolice. With the promise of inclement weather it has been determined that the roads are unsafe for our event and our permit has been cancelled. Therefore we are unable to conduct the race.

SAD! :(

I was bummed when I saw this come across my email.

Then I immediately went to social media and my friends came up with an idea: Come run the Hyannis Half on Sunday instead!!

The wheels started turning, but that race too was possibly going to get canceled as well due to high winds (50mph or so) and their decision was coming down by 4pm on Saturday. At that point, my friend Sarah said she wouldn't be able to do that run.

We decided to run our own 13.1 mile race on Sunday near our house.

So late Saturday morning, the wife and I headed up to NH to collect our race t-shirts and medals. They didn't allow bib pick-up, but we were able to get the rest.

That night I asked the wife to design a couple of custom racebibs for Sarah and I and she didn't disappoint.

Aren't they amazing? I wish you could see the seagull design she put as the background, but it is a little to faint.

She wanted to put our numbers on there, but I said NO! Sarah and I are the elite runners today so everyone will know us by our names. ;)

Okay, I've just always wanted to be considered one of those elite runners. If this was the only way possible, I'll do it. :P

I met Sarah at her house at 8:30 yesterday morning since she had a nice 13.1 mile loop close to her house.

I wore my normal race gear because I was soooo excited to FINALLY wear my Got Chocolate MilkTeam REFUEL singlet in a race!

We stretched and hit the pavement.

Running at normal race pace was not our goal for today's virtual run ... especially once we hit the River path and BAM there was the snow, ice and puddles. This was just a TINY TINY preview for what we would experience over the next 13.1 miles. :P

But, we are professionals - okay not really - but once we started we weren't going to stop until we hit 13.1 miles.

Once we hit Mile 5 I looked down only to notice that my bib had blown off thanks to the winds. Boo! It was nice while it lasted. :)

My knee was a little sore from the lack of traction on the course, but once we moved to the street the pain seemed to go away.

My Garmin beeps every time you complete a mile and the splits were all over the place during this run. I could tell when we hit a patch where the road was completely clean because we would post a 8:15-8:35 min/mile then when we were wading through the snow/shuffling over ice we had a 10:00+ min/mile pace.

Again, we weren't going for any PR today ... especially with the wind/rain.

Thankfully I gave the Sparkly Soul headband and Got Chocolate Milk visor combo a try and it was PERFECT! The curls stayed in place and the rain was kept out of my eyes. I think I will be breaking this out again for many runs to come...

As we made our way back to Sarah's house, we realized we would be hitting her place at about 12.9 miles and CLEARLY I wouldn't let us finish short of 13.1 so we started sprinting.

And it was our luck that we were still heading right into the wind for that final .75 miles. But, we did it.

While we ran, I kept telling myself in my head that no matter what I wanted to try and finish in under 2 hours - even with the conditions.

And. We. Did!

Did I mention it was also raining while we were running?

As soon as we walked back into the house, we grabbed our medals and took our post-race pic. :)

Yeah not my best attempt at a selfie, but Wyatt (the pup) wasn't offering to help at all.

I'm proud of Sarah and I for sticking with our plan of running today. No rain. No cancellations. No wind. No ice. Nothing would stand between us. Sarah put a lot of time into training for the run and I had already worked it into my marathon training.

So no matter the time. We won ... and we really did since the race was just 2 of us and we finished together!

WOO! I came in first. :P

C'mon let me have this one.

I think my Superman socks got quiet a workout today with jumping over ice/puddles and flying in the wind.

I picked up my usual post-race Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee, but was planning on grabbing a fat free Chocolate Milk at the same time to refuel - but they only had whole milk.

It just meant another stop on the way home to make sure I gave my body what it needed:

Lowfat chocolate milk contains the right mix of carbs and protein scientifically shown to help refuel muscles. Chocolate milk helps restore muscles quickly to their peak potential.

Yum!

Once I refueled, the wife and I headed to lunch and I was able to enjoy my post-race celebratory beer!

Even virtual races deserve beer, right?

While this may not have been the race I expected or desired, it was still a great morning with a great friend. We pushed past some boundaries and kept our eye on the prize.

So never let a little race cancellation get in YOUR way!! :)

I Tried Crossfit ... Seriously!

This is a sentence I never thought I would utter: I went to a Crossfit session.

Yes, me.

Wow!

I follow so many people on Social Media that are Crossfitters that I had to give it a try.

I worked the Red Sox employee Wellness Fair for Weight Watchers earlier this month and my table was set up next to CrossFit Fenway. I got to chat with Eric, who ended up being the owner of CrossFit Fenway, and he let me know a lot about CrossFit and that you could try a class out for free.

He gave me his card and the seed was planted.

I decided that I had to try Crossfit before 2012 ended so last week I emailed Eric and let him know I was down for the December 26th 6pm "basic training" class, aka beginners.

Basic Training is:

"Our Basic Training class is an opportunity for new CrossFitters to work on building a solid foundation of movement, or for veteran CrossFitters to brush up on their technique.  It currently runs Monday through Thursday at 6 PM on a 2 week cycle."

I arrived at CrossFit Fenway 10 minutes early in order to sign the waiver and see what I got myself in to. ;)

After filling out the waiver, Eric had me wait for the instructor, Mandy to start.

It really worked out in my favor to pick a class the day after Christmas because it ended up just being 2 of us, Vida & I, in the "basic training" 6pm class.

We kicked it off with some great dynamic  stretching. I actually felt more flexible than normal and I think I owe a lot of that to Pure Bare Burlington and the techniques I learned in my month there that I still use now.

After the stretching portion, Mandy had us work on the correct form for squats. We started with air squats then worked on it using a pvc pipe instead of the bar.

But then it was bar time. :)

This was my squat station when we moved up to using the actual bar. :0) We did 5 reps of 5 squats. I decided not to up the weights as the reps went on because I really wanted to make sure I had the technique down.

Plus I had just done hill repeats earlier in the afternoon so I wasn't going to push the quads too much. :P

After squats we moved on to the W.O.D. (Workout Of the Day) and today we did the "Half Cindy," which meant we needed to do as many reps as possible of the workout in 10 minutes. A regular Cindy workout would have been 20 minutes.

Our workout was:

5 Pullups

10 Pushups

15 Air Squats

Here is where the pullups happened.

No no no I didn't do pullups on this with my own strength. Thankfully for weaklings like me they have bands that you can use to assist you with the pullups. As JT said "You can have the sensation like you're flying through the air."

(Note: since it was a slow post-holiday night, we ended up with man-on-man help during our class. Wicked beneficial for this newbie. Mandy helped Vida through the W.O.D. and JT helped me)

Since I also am new-ish to pushups (started regularly in November), I used the box below to assist me.

I owe a big thanks to JT for keeping me going and helping me with my form throughout the workout.

10 minutes passes really quickly when you are trying to fit in as many reps as possible. :P

This means I am weak. :P

Okay it means I completed the workout 5 full times plus 5 pullups and 9 pushups (hence 14). Vida dominated it.

Then before I knew it we were done.

It was over ... and I hit my snack! ;)

I want to thank Eric, Mandy and JT for giving me a great CrossFit experience.

I sucked. I felt weak. But I am proud of myself for walking through the door and giving it a try. As I said at the beginning, I never thought I would walk through the door to begin with.

This just showed me that I need to keep working, keep pushing and anything is possible.

Have you tried CrossFit? What did you like about it? What didn't you like?