Service Interrupted!

Life is a little crazy right now and in the meantime, writing blog posts is not really a priority. Unfortunately, reading and commenting on other blogs also gets cut short a lot.

Between long hours at work, the workouts and a husband that wants to see me every now and then, the blogging has suffered.

Hopefully, I get caught up some over the weekend or while I am on vacation in Germany next week.

Be back soon.

Ride Report: Tour de Paws Metric Century

Pre-Ride:
The ride wasn't scheduled to start until 9am, but since my tri team member (Hi Audrey! ;-) and I both had a four mile brick run scheduled for after the 63 mile bike ride, we decided to head out early. So instead of getting up at a decent hour, I was once again out of bed at 6am. Got to the ride start and registered and we headed out almost an hour before the official start.

Ride:
The ride starts out and ends on a super busy street, but fortunately, that's only two miles in total. It starts with a good size hill and ends with and even better one.

I was wishing for arm warmers during the first 10 minutes of the ride, but after that, I was fine. The first 22 miles and the last 15 miles were on familiar terrain for me and in the middle, I got to discover some new roads. Yay.

The time was really flying on the this ride, mostly because of the great conversation. The route is very pretty, but I was surprised at the amounts of good hills that were packed into this course. According to the cue sheet, there only one grunt hill, but there were a good many other grunty hills there too.

Due to us leaving early, we were happy to find, that the first rest stop at mile 17/51 was already ready for the riders to come through. Also, a big shout out at the rest stop volunteers! Great job all around! Thank you!

We got passed by the lead group around mile 27... Those guys were moving it. They had a motorcycle escort with them and the motorcyclist  came up to us just at the right time, when we were chased by two big dogs... Thanks again for that!!

The ride didn't have ups and downs for me, it was just a constant plucking along... Last 10 miles really hurt and that kind of surprised me. My legs just had enough and I wasn't looking forward to the run at all.

Brick Run:
I did a quick change into run shorts and a t-shirt. I don't like to ride in tri shorts for anything over 40 miles and of course, I don't want to run in my diaper cycling shorts. Sorry if this is TMI: Unfortunately, I didn't wear a more supportive sports bra... What works for cycling, doesn't necessarily work for running. Ouch!

Other than that, the brick run was alright.... We got it done. Nuff said.

Post Run:
We got back to the start/ finish of the ride and immediately dug into the post ride buffet. We said down with some of the rest stop volunteers and had some good conversations. I didn't even notice how late it had already gotten by that time, so eventually I booked it home.

Mark Your Calendars! 9-8-2011

9/9

BMW Performance Classic 2-Miler

Will be held at 6:30 PM at the BMW Performance Center in Greer, SC. This is the only time runners are allowed on the test track, so it's a real treat. Another great thing about this race: IT'S ONLY 2 MILES LONG! Stick around after the race and take a ride with a professional driver on a "hot lap".
ENTRY FEE: $10 (no t-shirt),  $15 (with t-shirt )

9/10
Setting the Pace at Whitten Center 10K and 5K Run/Walk at 8:30 a.m.
Clinton, SC
Entry $25 before August 26th. Late entry is $30.

9/10
Tour de Paws
Routes: 62-miles, 28-miles

9/11
Bakery Ride
Leave Tigerville Elementary at 9am.
35 miles round trip, beginner friendy ride.

9/15
Discussion about Nutrition and Fitness @ ON ON TRI
lead by Dr. Rick Kattouf, starts at 6pm

9/17
Ride for St. Jude
Location: Forest City, NC
Chili's in Forest City is hosting a ride Saturday, Sept. 17 to benefit St. Jude Children's Hospital. ALL registration fees go directly to St. Jude's Hospital. There are three ride lengths: 35, 65, and 85 miles.
Registration is $35 and gets you the ride, plus t-shirt and goody bag. Pre-register by sending a check or money order to: Chili's Forest City, Attn: Natasha Earney, 128 Sparks Crossing, Forest City, NC 28043
Registration on Sept. 17 is 7-7:45 am.

9/17
Ride On Group Ride
Happy Cow Route. 47 miles round trip with a stop at the home of the happiest cows in the Upstate.
No charge, cue sheet will be provided.

9/17
Crank It! Cycling Charity Ride
Starts at Gateway Park in Travelers Rest
Ride Options: 62, 30 and 10 miles

9/17

Kings Mountain/Moss Lake Open Water Swim

Distances: 5K, 3K, 2k, and 500m

Information/ Registration here.

9/17
Tour of Oconee presented by Wilderness Wheels
Start location is Fair Play SC. Fully supported road ride. 118 mile ride, following the perimeter of scenic Oconee County SC. Also 64 mile ride and 26 mile ride. All skill levels welcome. All riders receive a custom designed jersey and t-shirt included in the registration.

9/24
Food for the Sole 5K Race
Location: Greenwood SC

9/24
Ache Around The Lake
Tryon NC
8K and 2 mile fun run

10/1
1st Annual The BumbleBee Fund 5K Fun Run & Walk
Heritage Park in Simpsonville SC
Race starts at 9am

10/8
iRecycle Run Half Marathon and 5K
in Spartanburg
click here for registration

10/9
Tour de Vero
Routes: 34, 54 and 100 miles
in Vero Beach, Florida

10/15
Bluffton SC Half Marathon and 5K

10/29
2nd Annual Pumpkin Pedal
32 and 67 mile routes throughout Spartanburg's water lakes and surrounding watersheds.

11/12
Leaf Tour - approx. 42 miles

Tigerville to Table Rock, Aunt Sues for lunch, then return. In Marietta we stop by Slater Drug Store for a homemade milkshake, on the house!

11/19
2011 Hope Relay in Greenville SC
RUN - 48 MILES...12 LEGS...6 RUNNERS...1 VAN...
WALK - 24 MILES...6 LEGS...6 WALKERS...1 VAN...
Register here.

12/3
3rd Annual Columbia Half Marathon

12/31
Final Fifty - approx. 55 miles
Furman University (pending approval) to Table Rock and back.  What a great way to end the year with one last group ride before the New Year celebration begins. This ride heads to Dacusville from Furman then through some beautiful valleys to Table Rock where the turnaround and break is set up.  We then return to Furman via Tubbs Mt. Road through Travelers Rest.

********************


Weekly Activities @ On On Tri

MONDAY @ 5:30am : GO RUN - Speed Training, Intervals, or Hill Workout w/ Nova
MONDAY @ 5:45pm : GO RUN -  w/ Traci
WEDNESDAY @ 5:30am : GO RUN - Speed/Intervals w/ Wendi
WEDNESDAY @ 5:45pm : GO RUN - w/ Traci
SATURDAY @ 5:30am : GO RUN "Marathon Training" w/ Nova
SATURDAY @ 8am : GO RUN Walk to Run Program

Weekly Rides @ Gusto Cycles
Saturday Morning Ride-
Beat the heat! 7:00am leaving from Gusto Cycles. Spirited 40-50 mile tour of the Reidville/Woodruff countryside! Sprint zones and no rider left behind! Come join us!
Tuesday Evening Ride- 
we are now riding on Tuesday evenings, leaving the shop at 6:15. Beginner and intermediate paces and no rider left behind!

Greenville Track Club Paris Mountain Trail Run Series

11/5 - 15K


The Y Tri Series:

09/10 – Surf City Beach, NC
09/17 – Hartsville, SC
For more information (pricing, distances, if duathlon event is available etc) check the website.

Other YMCA Tri/Du Events:

9/ 24 Tri the Ridge Pickens County YMCA


********************

GROUP RUNS organized by the Greenville Track Club

* Tempo Runs at Mauldin Middle School every Monday night at 6:30pm
* Track Workouts at Greenville High Track every Wednesday night at 6:00pm

ON THURSDAYS - TIME CHANGED!

"Girl's Morning Out" at Carolina Triathlon in downtown Greenville. Gather at 8:45am to pedal promptly at 9am. This is a 30-mile "C" ride hosted every Thursday by GHS EveryWoman Cycling Team and Carolina Triathlon. Road bikes and helmets are required. Everyone is welcome and nobody is left behind.

Normally gets canceled, if rain is in the forecast.

New York City Trip

Time to get all caught up again.

Terry and I spent the long weekend in NYC for some serious sightseeing. Here are some pictures from our little adventure... I will write separate posts about the food and the hotel in order for me have a record of it and might is helpful if you are planning a trip to NYC.

Day 1

1. From the plane 2. The Battery
3. Statue of Liberty 4. Manhatten from Ellis Island

Last Friday, we hopped on a plane in Charlotte and hopped off at JFK. After spending way too much money for a cab to get from the airport to the hotel in Brooklyn, we were done with cabs for the weekend and used the Subway (more on the also in a separate post). At the hotel, we just threw our bags into the room and then headed out again to start the sightseeing trip.

This was my third time in New York, but  my previous two visits are around five years ago and I forgot a lot... It was also Terry's first time in the city and so we did a lot of the regular touristy things.

Since it was already after 2pm when we got to the hotel, we decided to do Statue of Liberty/ Ellis Island right away, because it sounded like it would fit in easily before dinner and it did. We boarded the boat to the Statue of Liberty and after that, caught the last boat that dropped off visitors at Ellis Island.... While our stop at the SoL was fairly short (the best photo opps are from the boat anyways), we took a little more time on Ellis Island. Wandered through the registration room and the museum in the back rooms.

After getting back on the other island (Manhatten that is) we were hungry and made our way back to Brooklyn, were we had a Groupon for a Caribbean restaurant. After dinner, we took the scenic route to the next Subway station (read: totally got lost) and saw some neat neighborhoods with nice bars and restaurants... Unfortunately, we already had dinner and quite honestly, were just completely wiped.

I think I passed out the moment my head hit the pillow.

Day 2

1. Subway Station 2. Times Square
3. Flat Iron Building 4. Hershey's at Times Square

We got up bright and early and raided the breakfast buffet at the hotel and then crawled back into bed (it's vacation after all), but not for too long, because we were on a sightseeing mission - remember?

Our first order of business was to find a Bank of America for some cash... I was a little surprised at how many places (especially restaurants), it was only possible to pay cash. Our second order of business was to get tickets for one of the city's sightseeing busses (hop on/ hop off) with guides. We went with CitySights, because their 48-hour ticket seemed to be a better deal over the 48-hour ticket from Gray Line. If you need a 72-hour ticket, I recommend Gray Line with the 3 attraction package... Best bang for the buck. The bus route is the same for both, but Gray Line seemed to have more busses on the road, but the wait times were not too bad for us.

We started out with the downtown loop: Time Square, Empire State Building, Flat Iron District, Greenwich Village and then got off at the World Trade Center Site. We made a quick stop there to take some pictures and see the plans mounted to the construction fence. After that, we walked to Chinatown while passing City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. We got there around lunch time and hit up a local place for some grub. Chinatown was PACKED! The sidewalks are not that wide and then add all the vendors that put parts of their merchandise (produce, livestock) on the sidewalk and then all the people... It was quite overwhelming. After we fought our way through Chinatown, we made a stroll through Little Italy, trying to pick up the bus again on it's way back to Times Square. Back on the bus, we saw East Village, the United Nations Building and Rockefeller Plaza/ Center.... And the German Embassy, even if our guide missed to point that one out! ;-)

The plan was to be back at Times Square around 3pm in order to get (discounted) tickets for a show that evening. We got there a smidge after 3pm and the line was crazy! After standing in line for almost an hour, we got our hands on two Stomp tickets! SWEET!

We had plenty of time left before the show started, so we decided to make a stop at the Rockefeller Center just to have a look around and to get some shopping in. For food, we headed back downtown close to the theater, so we wouldn't be rushed with dinner. We ended up at a tiny little Italian place in NoHo and really enjoyed dinner and after that, we really enjoyed the show as well. Can only recommend it. I don't think you can do wrong with any shows in NYC (on and off Broadway), it just depends on what's your taste. When you travel with a dude that isn't much into musicals, Stomp was the way to go! If we hadn't gotten tickets for that, Blue Man Group would have been next on the list.

We got back to the hotel at an ungodly hour for us senior citizens, especially after a day on our feet. I fell asleep right after my head hit the pillow... Okay okay, enough with the lies... There were chicken nuggets and pringles and beer... We had an early dinner and all that walking around all day made us HUNGRY!

Day 3

1. Best Buddies Friendship Bear in front of Time Warner Center
2. Peace Fountain, Church of St. John the Divine
3. Duke Ellington Statue, Harlem 4. Manhatten Bridge

We once again took the early shift at the breakfast buffet and then took it easy for a little while before heading back out.

On tap for Sunday was the Uptown Loop (Time Warner Center, Central Park, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, Frick Collection, Apollo Theater, Museum of Natural History, Museum of Modern Art, and Harlem Market). The first portion of the Uptown Loop is also Time Square, so we decided to dodge the traffic and ride the Subway out to Columbus Circle. Before we hopped on the bus, we also made a quick stroll through the Time Warner Center... Very nice bathrooms by the way.

The Uptown Loop is a little more relaxing than the Downtown Loop. You also pass through a ton of residential areas and all the guide has as content around these parts... Jerry Seinfeld has an apartment here etc. It's still really nice to see, but we got kind of baked on the bus, so we were glad to hop off at the south end of Central Park again (on the opposite corner of Columbus Circle). It was lunchtime and there were street vendors, so we had a lunch of halal and pretzel.

As part of our 48-hour ticket came a harbour cruise and that was our next stop. The pier was off the beaten path in an industrial area and while there were shuttles to take you out there, we walked, but then decided to take the shuttle back in. I wasn't sure about this harbour cruise thing, especially, since we already did Statue of Liberty on the first day, but it turned out to be one of my favorite tours (maybe ever) and there was much more to see on top of SoL. The guide was informative and funny and had a couple of really good stories sprinkled in throughout the 90 minute tour.... Also, great photo opps!!!

After the shuttle dropped us off close to Penn Station we arrived at the "Shopping Segment" of the trip, but cut it way short... We were tired and hungry, so we headed back to Brooklyn for our last dinner in the city for the trip and some sleep. We really hit the jackpot at that last dinner place: more to come on that!

Day 4

Travel Day.... Long travel day.

We already started talking about the next NYC trip and what we are going to do then, since we got all of the touristy sightseeing out of the way... It won't be for a while, but I am sure, we'll be back.

 

Month In Review: August

One should never start each and every "Month in Review" post with the sentence: "Can you believe it's already May, June, July, August, SEPTEMBER"! But seriously, where is this year going??? Quite honestly, whenever I started working in finance and the month started to get structured in preparing for close, doing close, cleaning up after close and get everything else done.... Right around in there, I started noticing, how fast the months are flying by. So here we are: It's September. And while fall official starts sometime later this month, in South Carolina, we should have another solid two month of summery temperatures hopefully without the debiliating heat... I am counting on you SC weather! I feel so sorry for my family back in Germany for a pretty crappy summer this year and really have to hold back with the gloating... On the other hand, they feel sorry for me and the squishy bread I get to buy and the missing bike trail network. You win some and you loose some... And I am completely getting off track, because I am supposed to review the training for August.

So here goes nothing:

My cycling mileage for August is just a mere shadow of July's pedal fest, but I traded the missing cycling off with some intense swimming this month. The running is just a tad less than in July, but seriously, what are three miles in the grand scheme of things. And before anybody calls PETA about my dog not being walked enough: 1. I am not the only person in the household walking the dog and 2. she has been doing so good lately to not run off in the huge back yard, that a lot of the walks turned into playing fetch... good for her exercise, not so good for my exercise... oh well.

Otherwise, the month was also pretty busy with all of the above and two races: The Lake Logan International and Tri Toccoa Olympic.

I was hoping to be able to log a couple of more workouts on the Plus3 Network, but nothing to be done about it.

As declared sometime in August, that September will be my month of fun. I'll be traveling quite a bit and work is expected to get a little crazy (that's the not so fun part), so we'll see what I am able to do this month.

Oh... And it's my birthday month too... I have a big ticket item on my brithday list and just need to find a way to make it a reality! ;-)