Is this Colorado already?

Wow, it was windy today, and we started the ride at below freezing temps. Rode the "mall crawl" - up 360 from Barton Creek Mall almost to 183, around past Anderson High School and back down 360 to BSS on South Lamar... this time with a trip up Courtyard thrown in. A couple of alumni rode with us to the bridge at the river, and then it was three of us the rest of the way.
After riding the Carmichael series the last couple of Wednesdays, the mind automatically went to "try to be consistent with the cadence, don't worry about the speed". So that is what I tried to do on this ride.
But the boys have compact doubles or triples - me? I was on my Fuji which is a regular double... this was my first trip up Courtyard, and you want to talk about some steep road! There is a false crest thrown in there, but at least you get to take a couple deep breaths part way up.
I am excited, though - we put together the website for the Triple Bypass team (www.triplebypass.me) and we have over $500 in the fundraising account already. We had a "conference" sitting in the truck before we started the ride this morning, and with some suggestions from Briana, we came up with some changes to the website.
Tomorrow swimming and Monday running, I think. Since I bought my wetsuit Sunday, I am looking forward to getting into the water in it. But I want to make sure somebody else will be out there, having never done this before. Maybe I can talk somebody in my training class into swimming, or get coach Steve out there.
The wind seems to be holding up for our rides, pretty consistently. Last Saturday, and again this weekend. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder that it was today, so likely a swim instead of a ride.
Last but not least, I registered for my third triathlon (yeah, I can hear what you are thinking - "You haven't even done ONE yet, so why register for another one?") -- the Pflugerville Tri. They are limiting the number of participants this year, which is a good thing for me - less people to try and drown me. It is close to home, and it is just sprint distance.
So - I have registered for events in April, May, June and July... three triathlons and the Triple Bypass ride. Busy season ahead!
Practice, practice, practice!

I have met the devil !

I say that in jest... our team riding the Triple Bypass in July 2010 is meeting on Wednesday nights to work on climbing skills, on the trainers. Kristen bought Allen the Chris Carmichael Climbing Series, and we work out to those - Speed, Endurance and Power. These things are brutal! I am sure we will get to the point where we can ride the session and look like the folks on the video when we get done, but for now it is puddles of sweat. Great workouts, though.
And the swimming and running continues. On some evenings I will ride and then jump into the running shoes. Tuesday I managed to get on the tri bike and push for almost 11 miles (I need to measure out the 12 mile marker) averaging almost 20mph. I know Galveston is fairly flat, so hopefully the push on the hills will help.
Soon it will be time to try out the wetsuit in the lake. I am looking forward to that - hopefully nobody will shoot the beached whale in the water!

And awayyyy we go!

So - it has been about a month since my last post. In the interim, I have been swimming usually twice a week, working on the running, and of course, getting on the bike. It has been a busy month with the holidays and all that entails. But I did manage to participate in the Freeze Your Fanny ride on New Year's Day.

With the new bike, I have been doing some longer rides, and realizing how much fresher I feel coming off the tri bike, compared to riding the same mileage on the road bike. But I have to maintain a balance in the time I am spending on each bike - on January 13th, I registered for my 2010 goal, the Triple Bypass ride. They changed the way they handle the registration process this year, and with a cap of 3500 riders, registration closed in less than an hour! My three fellow Triple Bypass teammates were also successful registering.

But a lot of work between now and the ride on July 10th, outside Denver... I have to prepare for the two triathlons, and get in a lot of road time on both bikes with my training coach for both her events and mine, as well as with my Triple Bypass team.

The weather hasn't cooperated much these last couple of weeks for the road riding...I like the bike trainer almost as little as I like treadmills, but you do what you gotta do, right?

Today, we had our first official Triple Bypass team practice - we did one of the Carmichael Climbing series in Allen's garage on the trainers. Tomorrow I will do a road ride on the tri bike, and then either get in a swim or a run. I am excited about good weather on a weekend for a change, and it won't last long before the next wave of ugliness rolls into the area. We plan on doing the Carmichael once a week and getting the road time in on the weekends, riding some with the Team In Training cycling team.

Looking forward to the next few months...