Bridge Runs

If you have ever been to Charleston SC, this is a familiar sight.

I love the bridge... I think it's just so pretty!

Back in 2009 (pre blog), I ran the Cooper River Bridge 10K. That's one of the biggest 10K's around the country with close to 40,000 participants every year. I don't like big crowds. They make me nervous.

Source

For the half, we stayed at the Mt Pleasant Red Roof Inn. The hotel is half a mile away from the bridge foot/ bicycle path. I was planning on running anyways, once we get to the hotel, so what better way to get your last run in before a big race than visit this beautiful sight? And don't have to share it with 40,000 other people!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera on my Friday run... So of course, I had to return on Sunday to snap a couple of pictures... Friday it was blue skies and Sunday... it wasn't. Darn.

Just like Rocky, but on the top of the bridge instead the top of the stairs.

While I thought it was crazy to even attempt to run on Sunday morning, I am glad we rolled ourselves out of bed and got in a couple of miles. I felt so much better right away.

Recovery is going well so far.

I have done easy swimbikerun workouts every day since Saturday. No intensity and pretty short workouts, but just tried to keep on moving.

The soreness is pretty much over at this point and all that is left to do is to also mentally recover and refocus.

I may be still high from the race, but I am exciting to see what the rest of the season brings.

First Brick and Other Stuff

And it's Monday again.

This weekend, I felt a little like a weekend warrior... Trying to get everything squeezed into a 48 hours time frame.

But let's start with Friday, even though Friday is technically not part of the weekend.

After feeling sorta under the weather since Monday, I finally broke down on Friday and saw the nurse at work to make sure, that there's nothing too funky going on. After she said: "It's most likely going to clear up by itself, but I'll give you an antibiotic to make sure!" I said: "Let's skip the antibiotic and I come back, if it's not cleared up by next week!". I don't get how antibiotics are the solution for every and anything and it seems nothing is too small to treat it with antibiotics. That afternoon, I had an appointment with my chiropractor again and I walked out of that office with a herbal throat spray that made this whole thing much easier to deal with over the weekend and now I am happy to say, that it has mostly cleared up by today. Take that, antibiotics!

Friday, I was in bed a little after 9pm, because I figured a little extra sleep can only promote the healing process.

When I got up Saturday morning, Terry was sitting fully dressed in his cycling outfit... I ended up procastinating for a while, but around 8.30am we were on the road for a 50 mile bike ride... Yes, it was cold and yes, it was windy, but we still got the job done.... We don't call ourselves "Team Awesome" for nothing! ;-)

We rode from the house towards Highway 11 along some beautiful backcountry roads with only very little traffic. I honestly think, we probably saw more cyclist out there than cars. Pretty neat. On Saturday was also an organized ride from Furman to Ceasar's Head, but we had no intention of actually climbing that mountain, we were good with getting somewhat close and then turn around. I haven't been out in that area for a while and it was fun to show Terry a couple of new roads!

After getting back to the house, we made a fairly quick transition to running shoes and were out for a 2 mile brick in no time. I did that brick run at a 9:14 minute mile pace and it's a pretty hilly course (everything around the house is hilly)... I seriously do my best running off the bike, it's quite ridiculous. And while this was a good run, it's hard to picture having to go 13.1 miles after biking 56 miles in a couple of months.

I have never done a brick workout this early in the season. Every time I see a brick pop up on the schedule I get a little sour and then most of the time it doesn't turn out too bad. I also used this ride as an experiment on how the lady bits perform for 50 miles on a bike in tri shorts and can only say: bodyglide, bodyglide and more bodyglide... And no, I wasn't only wearing tri shorts in mid 40s temps, I had thick tights over the tri shorts... I wonder if that helped or worsened the situation?

After getting the workout done, we did some good refueling and stretched out on the couch. On the topic of refuleing: I am pretty darn proud of Terry and myself to both really buckling down on our nutrition. We massively cut down on the eating out and go through tons of veggies and fruits these days.

Since Karma hasn't gotten any exercise for that day yet, I then ended up taking her for a 2 mile walk.

And if that wasn't enough for one day, I had also planned to attend the showing of "Chasing Legends" at the BMW Zentrum Saturday night with a friend.

After living in the Greenville area for over six years and working in the automotive industry, I finally made it into the BMW Zentrum. I swear, I tried before, but their hours or not very convenient.

The movie was awesome and having the director there setting the mood was really nice! The showing was a fundraiser organized by the Greenville Spinners.

Overall a great movie night and I can only recommend watching it. I am actually thinking about buying the DVD.

What is the logical thing to do on Sunday, if you did your long ride on the Saturday? Yes, you are going to run long(er). After church and lounging around the house, skyping with mom and doing some cleaning, I got my stuff together and set out for 8-10 miles. The tummy wasn't happy with me at all, so I am pretty stoked about getting in a little over 9 miles, but was really hoping for 10.

While running through the Furman campus on my way back (potty break), I saw those signs up... I don't know, if this is an ongoing thing or if it was an organized event that day, because I also saw a family wearing the same t-shirts.

Since Terry still can't run... (especially after he tried to run after the bike ride the day before) we took Karma out for another walk once I got back. I was also hoping that my tummy would straighten out on the walk, but no dice. All good now, but boy that was quite something yesterday.

Now reading back, I feel like I need a weekend from my weekend. 

South Carolina Snow Day

It's like a flashback from a week ago. Just when we thought we escaped the snow in Germany, the snow is coming down in South Carolina as well!

So this morning, I took the doggie for a walk to stretch out the legs a little and snap a couple of pictures.

Please tree, don't let your branches snap and hit power lines.

First time that Karma ever saw snow.... She LOVED it way too much!

Speed limit or not, some people were plowing through the snow.

Even the swamps freeze over today!

Paris Mountain in the clouds.

We picked up a new boy toy for Karma on the way.

A snow day is a killer for training, but at least, I got some race registrations out of the way. I am now official signed up for....

and....

It took me a little this time, but it seems like I have my race schedule together for 2011.... Yeah! ;-)

Why Disturbe A Perfectly Good Sleeping Pattern?

OR Long Slow Run on Hilton Head Island!

I am so used to getting up at 6am or sometimes even earlier, so even on the weekends or on vacation I rarely sleep longer than 7am even if I don't have to get up. Since my party girl days are long gone by now, it's not like I ever get in bed at 3am anymore. So getting up early isn't that much of a problem and on top of it, you can do so much more stuff when you are out there early.

So since I was up anyways, why don't use those super cool pathways that are all over Hilton Head Island for my long run? If you think I was the only nut out there at 7.15 on a Sunday morning you are sadly mistaken. It was amazing how many people were already out and about.

I got on the path right in front of our hotel and was running towards the beach. It wasn't that far, but I am currently doing heart rate zone 2 runs and that means my pace tops out at a 12.5 minute/ mile. This way a trip to the beach and back should pretty much be my 1:40 hours long run. At least I had plenty of time to do sightseeing once again.

I did a quick stop and look around at this park only to turn around and see


the "don't feed the alligators" sign next! ;-)

My turn around point was Coligny Beach and even though it was still early the beach with already bustling with people. Amazing.... and so much fun!

The beach access at Coligny Beach is totally pimped out. There are showers and dressing rooms, restrooms, swings, benches, foot fountains and WiFi! Seriously.... They want to keep their tourists happy.

Oh yes, even that early in the morning it already was HOT and HUMID!!

I was back in the hotel by 9am, grabbed a shower and then we headed out for some real breakfast, because the hotel breakfast wasn't that great. Right after breakfast we drove over to Savannah GA for some sightseeing.... Coming up in the next post! ;-)

So long!

Palmetto Bluff Plantation Riding

Living here in the Upstate has a lot of advantages and we really do have the best of both worlds in our front (ocean) and back (mountains) yard. But living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains doesn't always fly. Especially if you just want to ride your bike on a flat road FOR ONCE!

Naturally, we wanted to take advantages of being in Hilton Head Island and the flat roads around there. After talking to the guy at HHI GoTri Sports, we knew exactly where we wanted to do that... The Palmetto Bluff Plantation!

Just for kicks.... The elevation profile! ;-)

Here is a commercial for the area, since I didn't take any pictures. I was too busy riding "like a bat out of hell" as Terry put it so nicely. Seriously... I was so stoked about the flat road that I just pedaled my little heart out and it was sooooooo much fun!

We got into a little drizzle that actually felt pretty good. It was hot and humid out there even at 10 in the morning. By the time we got back to the car, we and the bikes were covered in grit.

Nope, these are not tan lines, but dirt lines. Yummie! ;-)

After this 30 mile ride, I felt like added some mileage to my day. Especially because I am signed up to ride a metric century ride this Saturday and needed some more T.I.T.S.... get your mind out of the gutter! ;-) That's short for "Time In The Saddle".... OF COURSE! So I asked Terry to drop my off on HHI somewhere on the bike path. This way I ended up with 8 more miles for the day and also got some sightseeing in. No way you can ride fast for long on this path... Too many people, too many intersections, but it was worth it nonetheless. I also saw some local wildlife... Buzzards... Fortunately, they just had some roadkill lunch and didn't bother me... But it sure gives you an incentive to keep moving! Just kidding! ;-)

I worked up quite an appetite on the bike over the morning and so we stopped by at Kenny B's French Quarter Cafe and had a HUGE grouper melt.... That was good! We got there over a recommendation of a friend... It always is so much better to get a place recommended than just randomly go somewhere! Thanks, Ivey! I didn't take any pictures of the food (you know, this is not a food blog! ;-), but the place in and of itself is worth a visit!

So long! ;-)

Kayaking in the Calibogue Sound

We are just getting back from our little* honeymoon on Hilton Head Island SC!

*It's the little honeymoon, because our "real" honeymoon fell through due to my current travel restrictions... It's just postponed! We'll going to do it, once all the paperwork is sorted out!

When we got to the island on Friday our first stop was GoTri Sports in order to figure out where the good road cycling is to be found. We good some great advice in general and were also pointed to the Kicking Asphalt Bicycle Club website for cue sheets etc. Awesome! So we knew were to go for our ride planned for Saturday morning (will be in the next post, I will milk last weekend for the next couple of days for blog posts! ;-) and we also got a great tri jersey for Terry* for a steal... double YAY!

*This way, he doesn't have to race topless anymore! ;-)

After checking in at the hotel and relax some, we headed out for dinner and then drove out to Habour Town for a guided kayak tour in the Calibogue Sound. It was a 1.5 hour tour around the sound to see some sea life... mostly dolphins... it's not like they don't have sharks, but we "only" saw dolphins and several of them. Big ones and smaller ones, some were hunting and others just playing around. It was fun and impressive to see these animals so close up.

It was my very first time in a kayak and I had a blast! I found a rhythm right away and paddled away. I am glad we picked the 7PM tour because it was still pretty hot out there when we started, but by the end of the tour the temps were really nice. The paddling gives you a good upper body workout... I was pretty sore the next day between my shoulder blades!

We were talking about getting kayaks* for a while and now that I finally tried it out, I think we might start looking more seriously.

*Since we are already looking like a sporting goods store when we go on the road, a couple of kayaks won't make a difference anymore! ;-)

After the tour, we hung out a little more in Habour Town and had a drink. Well, I had a drink and Terry was the designated driver. It was really pretty out there and several restaurants had live music. All of it with a nice back drop of pretty yachts and people to look at!

Here are some pictures of our little adventure for your viewing pleasure.

Kayaks still on the shore.


The group on the way back in, pulled by the current.


Arrrrghhhhhh! ;-)


We are the total pros! Kayaking and photography at the same time! ;-)

Dear SC Back Country Road Truck Driver,

Against the popular believe of you and your buddies...

• cyclist don't appreciate do get honked at. If you think you need to make us aware of your presence by honking, let me in on a secret... Your V8 engine is a dead giveaway most of the time.
• cyclist don't appreciate to get yelled at. If you have to yell... Let it as least be something nice... "Get your a$$ off the road" is not appropriate.
• cyclist don't appreciate to get stuff thrown at them. Your buddy that threw that almost full coke bottle out of the window can at least not aim very well, so it rolled to the other side of the road and didn't harm us... That little punk needs a crash course in manners.
• cyclist don't appreciate you pulling over in front of them. If you want to play chicken, pick someone your own size and not someone that doesn't have two tons of steel around them. Seems like some people never grow out of the high school pick order.

-----------------------------------------

Even though all of the above happened today at our ride, we still had a GREAT time.



We took it a little easier today pace wise. This was perfect in terms of doing this kind of distance without feeling wiped out for the rest of the day. And it was good for my confidence, that I can whip out a bike ride that is 1.5 hours longer than anything I have been doing in several months without feeling bad at all.

The route we choose for today's ride was an extension of the ride, I did last Saturday. On my turnaround point last week, we kept on going passing through Marietta, Pumpkintown, Hendricks and Dacusville. Beautiful back country roads with little traffic. Fortunately little traffic, because I don't know how many crazy truck drivers we would have survived without incident.

Funny detail of the day: At the end of the ride, I have been saying to the girls, that I am surprised that I am not hungry... WELL... I ate a lot since I am back home and I am still hungry... According to the Garmin, I burned over 2,000 calories! ;-)

So long!

Hiking Governor's Rock

Around here, we see wonderful fall leave foliage. It's what is everyone is talking about for weeks, it's just that beautiful. So how better to enjoy the color explosion than to go out there.

That's why we met up with some co-workers of mine to hike to the Table Rock summit in the Table Rock State Park. This is Table Rock from an viewing area in the valley:



As the title of the post already implicates, we didn't quite make it up to the top, but called it a day after reaching "Governor's Rock" about 2.3 miles into the Table Rock trail. But I jump ahead here a little.

The trail was classified as "strenuous" and for the 3.6 mile hike up to the top, they projected two to three hours. Most of the time, I feel like those classifications are pretty conservative, but they are pretty much dead on on this one.

Around 12PM we finally hit the trail behind the nature center. We had to register and everything, so they can make sure that nobody got lost on the trails in the evening. It was a beautiful day yesterday and of course the trails were packed. Especially, as long as we were on the Carrick loop which is an hour hike around the valley with some waterfalls. After we took the turn unto the Table Rock Trail, things thinned out a little, which made it easier for our group of eight adults and three dogs.

As soon as we got on the Table Rock Trail, the trail got a lot steeper. But heck, we are all in good shape and the time passed quickly with conversations and views. Half way up the trail is a little picnic shelter with a gorgeous view over to the Table Rock reservoir:



Shortly after the shelter, the trail meets with the Ridge Trail. This trail connects the two summits in the park. One of them is Pinnacle Mountain and the other said Table Rock. The trail flattened out some, since we followed the ridge line, which was a welcomed break for all of us. Just shortly before Governor's Rock, we had to start climbing again and one of the older dog ladies that were with us, had to be given a hand in a couple of sections. That was a flashback to a couple of weeks ago, when Terry had to carry Karma up the ladders at the Grandfather Mountain hike. But here is Emma's moment of weakness! ;-)



Up there on Governor's Rock, the views are just amazing. We sat down to soak it all in and to have a snack. There was a pretty colorful folk up to be seen as well. The college girls and a guy that lost his shirt, but managed to have a radio with him (he is in the background of the following pic). A guy with his son that already hike Pinnacle Mountain that morning and they were on their way up Table Rock, when we met them... By the way... The just got off the trail when we were about to leave the parking lot later on... These guys were moving. Also, we met an older gentleman who was spicing up his hike with some letterboxing.



On the rock I took a poll about who is going to join to go to the top, but it was decided that we will call it a day right there. After maybe half an hour, we started our way down again. That was a lot of pounding on the old bones, but there was certainly a pull in everyone to get down this mountain.



Once we got back to the nature center, we put the other half of our registration in the box and sat down on one of the picnic tables for a couple of minutes.

I really enjoyed the hike. The weather was great, the trails were very nice maintained (thank a boy scout) and the company was great... But next time, I want to go all the way... Maybe we'll find another weekend this year to do it, since it's just half an hour drive for us. :-)

Fall Flavors And Following The Line

It's fall (at least in the northern hemisphere)... I don't have to tell you that, I am sure you know it already. I just had to remind myself yesterday, when I walked out of the office. I didn't notice the smell when I got in the morning, but in the afternoon it almost knocked me out of my shoes. Blooming holly trees around the plant create a wall of scent. Allergic people really never get a break around here... South Carolina's Upstate is not called allergy capital of the U.S for nothing.



I took a picture of the holly tree yesterday already, but it was all grey and foggy and rainy. So today, it was just an amazing mild fall day and that is a so much nicer backdrop for the picture! Enjoy and envy, if you live in other parts of the country/ world, where it's not that pretty right now! ;-)

The leafs take their time this year to turn the color. You see a couple of trees in bright red and yellow, but it's going to take them another couple of weeks until the peak. Beginning of November we are planning to take part in the "Leaf Tour" (not to be mixed up with the "Tour de Leafs") organized by the Greenville Spinners. By then, I need to get my cycle legs back otherwise the hills are going to be a sufferfest.

In the last couple weeks I started to get back into the pool on a regular basis. There is hardly anything I hate more (exercise-wise) than swimming in the morning. But going in the evening is not really an option, because the pool is always full and I don't mind sharing lanes in general, but sometimes that's a little irritating too. So I got my lazy butt in the pool this morning once more and I bet it's funny to see me there. I just dread to get into the cold (it's a competition pool and I think the water is way too cold) water and most of the time, I sit down a little and stick my toes in there a couple of times until I can work up some courage. But once I am in there, it's great. A lot of people don't like to go swimming, because they say it's boring. But for me it has some therapeutic value to just swim and follow the line on the bottom of the pool... Not being distracted by anything, my mind just wanders and works through whatever bothers me. I guess my form suffers when my mind is somewhere else and without my lap counter I wouldn't know how much yards I made.

And now, I will get my reality TV fix and watch Biggest Loser! :-)

Off-Season Ready!

Living in South Carolina has a huge weather advantage. Basically, we'll be able to ride our bikes all through the winter at least as long as it's light outside. That means mostly on the weekends as long as there is no ice on the road which we normally have ice and snow on the road a couple of days per year... Not too bad. I actually know of one group that is going out riding each Wednesday night all winter long... I respect that, but I am just getting cold too fast and also think that's pretty dangerous even with lights on the bike. Car drivers around here are fairly used to cyclists by now at least during the day, but at night, I think that would take them completely by surprise.

Even with the plan of riding through the winter, only on the weekends just won't cut it, to keep and hopefully improve my bike fitness. So with the b-day money from my parents, I set out to get myself a Cycle-Ops Fluid2 trainer and yesterday we finally set the thing up in the downstairs living room and I also tried it out right away. I don't have anything to compare it with, but the ride felt pretty good. The trainer was fairly easy to set up since we did it with family team work, held the tension I was putting on and wasn't too noisy either. That is the first impression and I'll keep you posted on how things develop. I did a 13.8 miles in 31 minutes which is very fast for me, so I wonder, if I set the bike computer up correctly. Given that I got the cheapest from the cheapest, since I use my Garmin on outside rides. On the other hand, I wasn't putting wicked tension on and still felt my quads burning quite some after the workout... The reason for that could be lack of cycling workouts recently. ;-)

I have been doing a couple of spin classes over the past couple of weeks and on the one hand, I do enjoy the group experience in a class, but on the other hand, the spin bike just feels very different from the road bike. Also, the classes I went to were more like an aerobics class on a bike and didn't feel like a preparation for the real thing.. If that makes any sense to you. Another improvement, that the option of working out at home on my own schedule brings, is to be able to sleep in on Mondays instead of getting up at the crack of "two hours before dawn" to be in the gym by 6AM... In general, I hope that it is going to decompress my days a little and give me a couple of hours more sleep per week.

Areas of improvement on the current set-up: I need a piece of wood or something to elevate the front tire to have it on the same height than the back tire. We need to put the TV from the guest bedroom down there, because that one actually works properly. (DONE!) The TV that you see in the picture has a horrible picture, the remote doesn't work and I have no clue how to change channels on the TV itself. So I ended up watching CMT during my test ride yesterday... The conclusion of "Footloose" and the beginning of "Coyote Ugly"... Oh well, I guess it could have been worse, but it could also have been much better. I need to organize a DVD to put there... We should have a portable somewhere. Remember to put the fan next to the bike before I start.

Other than that, I think I am off-season ready!

Ode to South Carolina

In the Cleveland YMCA they have TVs in the locker rooms (and sofas in front of the TV). Crazy, don't you agree? I thought the whole idea of going to the gym is to get off the couch and away from the TV, but I guess that's just me. Anyways, while I was getting changed last Thursday, I saw this clip from SNL that I posted above. I thought that was VERY funny, but let me get something straight here... South Carolina doesn't deserve this! And it's not SNL's fault, but the politicians of this state seem to set us up for being joked about like this! The Sanford affair is still fresh on every one's minds and now the "You Lie!" incident... Nicely done! :-( Whenever my parents in Germany read something in the paper about SC, it's something bad... Good news don't travel this far about the state. But let me say this, SC see is a wonderful place and don't make conclusions on it based on those recent headlines (or old headlines... I heard bad representation of SC has a long tradition)!

Given that South Carolina is the only place I ever lived in the U.S. (though I visited several others) and also given, that I didn't choose this state to be my new home, because it was determined by where the company is, I feel very lucky!

And here are my top ten points why (applies mostly to the Greenville area):

1) the ocean is close
2) the mountains are even closer
3) the subtropical climate
4) the colorful mix of people that decided to make the area their home
5) downtown Greenville with Falls Park
6) Peace Center and Bi-Lo Center with great performances on a regular basis
7) the active running community
8) the active cycling community
9) the active Salsa community
10) downtown Charleston with the restaurants and bars

You see... Awesome state... People just completely misunderstand us... And it didn't take me long to put this list together.

If you don't have the privilege to live here, come visit. If you are related to me or if I know you personally, there is a good chance that you will have free accommodation to your disposal during your stay.