Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday to my Dad!!  See Karl's blog for the gift I gave him on Sunday.  I've been lucky to have my Mom & Dad at several races this year.  It's been so much fun and both of them are so supportive of their 4 daughters.  

NYC Tri

After the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon 2 weeks ago, I returned to New York determined to focus on training for 10 days straight.  Leading up to Lifetime, I kept finding myself distracted in workouts, not really paying attention to what I was doing.  Then, when I got to the race, I did the same thing.  Halfway through the bike ride I found myself just riding and not really thinking about competing for a place on the podium.  It wasn't until the run started that I snapped out of it, but, by then it was too late.  

So, it was back to the compound in NP for some quality training.  Starting the Monday after Lifetime, the plan was to make the most out of every workout and to stay focused on what I was doing, weather it was a hard track workout or an easy run.  I was able to put in some long training days with hilly bike rides and double swims, making each session quality but not over doing things.  

The training block, crafted by my coach, Cliff English, was just what I needed to be ready to race in NYC.  

Things almost didn't go as planned when we set out to leave at 4:15 am on race day.  The darkness we were prepared for, but pouring down rain?  That wasn't part of the race day schedule.  I'm not a huge fan of riding in the rain, especially as part of my race warm up, carrying a transition bag (which was likely to get soaking wet).  Luckily, the rain started to taper off as we were discussing whether or not to take cabs uptown.  We made the decision to ride through it  and 25 minutes later we were in Riverside park.  By the time we got to the swim start, another 20 minute run/walk, I was tired.  Good thing the race was delayed 20 minutes and we had some extra time to recover from the warm up!  

Once we dove into the Hudson, everything turned around.  By the way, when we dove in, it was BLACK.  It was the weirdest feeling.  The surface water was a murky brown, but underneath it was pitch black.  This isn't the first time I've been in the Hudson, but it was definitely the first time I've experienced that darkness.  As usual, the swim was short due to the current.  I was able to sit behind the leaders and then run into the transition area and get on my bike in the lead.  The roads were still wet from the road, so the technical turns at the beginning of the ride were slow.  There was some wind and some huge puddles on the road which I had to go through for fear of getting called for a stagger violation.  There were also a few stretches where glass was all across the road.  As a result, there were groups of people on the side of the road with flats.  

My bike, with its new cranks, worked so well on the hills.  I was able to put my head down and ride and it wasn't until about the turn around when Becky L. first passed me.  After that we went back and forth a few times until she finally stayed out in front of me for the rest of the ride.  I was happy just to keep her in my sights since she's one of the best cyclists out there.  After a casual transition, which would have never flown in an ITU race, I set out to run the 10k race.  It was a huge relief to feel so good coming off the bike.  It took me about a mile to catch Becky.  She was running at a fast pace, so it wasn't easy!  But, once we hit the hills in the park, I felt at home and was able to pick up the pace with each mile.  It helped that I was caught by an elite age group guy.  We ran together trading the lead until the last mile or so when I convinced myself that he was a girl and that I couldn't let him win.  He still "won" though because his overall time was about 15 seconds faster than mine!  

Heading into the finishing chute, the fans in YELLOW were out in full force.  I gave my dad the now traditional high 5 on the way in.  He was the last in a long line of 5's and he wasn't quite ready for such a hard hit.  See karl's blog for an action shot.  New York does things in a big way and this race was no different.  Coming across the line there were at least 20 photographers lined up across the road.  It was like the paparazzi that I see all the time in the west village.  Thanks to John Korff for making this event so big and also for telling me for the last 4 years that one day I was going to win this race!!  Congrats to everyone who raced yesterday--SJ, Karl (my training partner who I forced to compete even though she had to take 16 subways & trains to get to the city late saturday night after racing and winning in south jersey on saturday afternoon), the Team Lipstick ladies, and Becky and Margie for great races and podium finishes.  

Thank You!

Champagne!
Fan Club!!!  

Thanks everyone for all the notes and congratulations!  Special thanks to Bubba, Leezie, Jack, Mom, Eamon, Sarah (above L-R) and my Dad who got to the starting line and to the finish line of yesterday's race.  With a 5:53am start time and a point-to-point race, that's no easy task. And thanks to all of the people out on the streets of NY cheering (including Rod, Kevin, Annick, Doug D, many NY Road Runners).  

This morning we woke up and turned on the tv and happened to catch a short piece on the triathlon on Fox 5.  My interview, done minutes after the finish of the race, made it on.  After that, we opened the NY Times and found an article IN THE SPORTS section, about the TRIATHLON!!  This is the first time I've seen Triathlon as one of the headings in the sports section.   

More later, but first I'm cooking a celebratory breakfast for SJ--he brought home some hardware too, 3rd place in his age group!!  

Summer Day

All I need to make today a perfect summer day is a chair circle with a few family members and cold beers or gin & tonics.  Karl's time capsule roll of black & white film had some classic chair circle shots (which I hope she posts soon).  We don't have an official chair circle at RL yet, but I'm working on it.  

Today started with an early swim in the outdoor pool where I managed to get only slightly chilled.  Still getting cold after all these years of swimming!  After warming up, I put in some quality Tour watching, followed by a bike ride of my own.  We resisted climbing the mountains because of the race this weekend and opted for a flatter route on our time trial bikes.  Justin is back in action and paced me through my intervals.  My bike felt great, especially with the new cranks.  It actually shifts now!!  The ride was HOT which was perfect for splashing into the pond.  We put a wager on our competition to see who could get their feet in their shoes first (transition practice) -- winner got first dibs on the new raft I purchased yesterday at Stop & Shop.  Yes, a grocery store raft, cheap and from China, but so far it works.  I'm waiting for it to turn into a sausage though (I know some people know what I mean!!).  This little bet might just become a tradition!  

New Look

Check out wassnertwins.com to see our new look.  We changed the home page to action shots now that the triathlon season is in full swing.  What do you think?

Lights

What do you think?  Please ignore the table cover and the junk in the background.  The extra outlets are for the table extension, for when we have extra large dinner parties!   We didn't want the lights to hang down too much or they'd start to interfere with the view.  

I'm actually looking forward to it getting dark this evening -- an awful thought for a summer day, but we've been waiting for these things forever and want to see what kind of atmosphere they create at night.  

Family Gathering!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have a few hours to spend with the fam in Hoboken.  The celebration was for Ea's baptism and Sarah & Mark put on a fab spread in their backyard garden.  They even had a kiddy pool which Eamon loves!!  He is going to be a natural swimmer for sure.  He just goes right for the water and loves it.  He'll be getting his first High Point trophy soon!  Sam was happy to toss the miniature four square ball into the water and watch it splash.  He was sicky, but as soon as the Aunt Becs arrived, he lit right up and started smiling and laughing.  It was so much fun, as always, to see everyone!!

Moon

This morning the radio was all about playing songs about the Moon for the 40th anniversary of the moon mission.  

It got me thinking that SJ was around then, so I went looking for a photo.  I didn't have time to sort through everything, but I found this one from '69.  Unfortunately, it is from Christmas 1969 (note the red Christmas oootfit on SJ), but close enough.  I wish I had my mom & dad's photos from summer of 69, I know they have some good ones.  

One random thing I did come across was a certificate from Vancouver General Hospital, dated 1918.  It was for recognition of SJ's great-grandmother for exceptional service during the Influenza Epidemic.  

Obviously, I have a day off today!!  I am hovering around the house because the dining room lights are FINALLY being installed and the electricians are here.  

Update from Training Camp

Long day.  Early start w/ a 6:30 swim (low 50's outside, so cold again), quick break for breakfast, 3 hour ride w/ hills and intervals, 30 min. transition run that wasn't easy, quick break for lunch, tour watching, and organizing/cleaning, mountain bike ride to lake, another swim, dinner...

A note about the mountain bike ride:  I don't mountain bike like a real mountain biker.  I fall too much and have scars from the few times I've tried it.  But, I do have 5 mountain bikes to choose from on any given day (thanks to SJ!), so today we decided to hit the carriage roads (so not single track) for our second ride of the day.  The ride turned out to be about 3 miles because after swimming in the lake I was too cold to do much.  Too bad because we were planning to ride out to the secret wild blueberry patches.  Next time!

Cold Front

It was in the mid-50's here this morning for our ride to the pool.  Good thing I put on my winter cycling jersey before leaving the house.  It is warming up to be the perfect summer day.  Sunny.  Not hot, not humid, not rainy.  Going to enjoy this while it lasts!!

Lifetime Triathlon

It is time to settle back into the training schedule after about 6 weeks of traveling for racing, with at least one weekend of fun travel mixed in.  

Our travels to Minneapolis for the Lifetime Fitness triathlon went pretty well.  I'm happy with my 4th place finish in the race because even though I was 4th, I was able to make the race interesting and almost ran my way to the podium.  After an OK swim, which left me 5th out of the water, about 30 seconds down from 1st.  I passed one in transition and I got on the bike and quickly passed another rider who was on the side of the road with a penalty.  That put me in 3rd where I stayed for about 7 more miles.  Then, along came Julie D. blasting by, there was nothing I could do to stay with her.  Something about the potholes and rough road surfaces that got in the way of getting full power to my pedals.  That shouldn't matter, I know.  I rode the rest of the way alone, and proceeded to lose focus and slow down.  Finally, an age group guy passed me near the end of the ride and that woke me up to at least attempt to keep him in contact.  The last few miles of the bike, I thought, oh well, I'm not going hard on the bike, so at least I'll be able to run fast.  I started the run almost 3 minutes down on 3rd place but quickly was able to chip away and by the end of the 10k, I was only about 25 seconds down.  I had tons left at the end too and was able to win a sprint with the age group guy that had passed me on the bike.  He was a local favorite, so there was all kinds of crowd support coming into the finishing stretch.  My run ended up in the 35's, which is more like what I should be running (unlike the 38's the last 2 races!).  Sarah H., Julie and Becky all had great races, so finishing 4th, with a faster time than last year, is something to celebrate!  

It is also something to keep in mind over the next few weeks of hard training.  We started things off this morning with a 1k TT in the pool, followed by about 3k more of swimming.  Going out soon for an easy ride and then it's back to the lake for a run-splash-run.  And, yes, I am counting the splash as a double swim for the day!

Back at RL.  Training camp starts tomorrow with a big swim.  Going to bed early tonight.  I'll blog more tomorrow!

Happy 80th

Happy 80th Birthday to SJ's mom!!  Here she is when she was 11, watching out for bears at the Jasper garbage dump.  This is after she rode the train across Canada, alone, with her bike (the one in the photo above) from Windsor, Ontario to Jasper, where she stayed the summer with her mother's cousins.  This was one of the many photos from the slideshow we played during her surprise 80th birthday party.  

Much to our surprise, the birthday girl was completely surprised by the party!  None of the 30+ friends we secretly invited spilled the beans.  We managed to get her to the Inn where the party was held at the perfect time.  When she walked into the party room, all of the guests were already gathered.  Several months ago, mrs. h made SJ promise that a birthday party would not be party of her 80th celebration.  As SJ said, this wasn't going to be the first time he didn't listen to his mother!  With that, we photo-ed her address book and came up with a guest list.  Karl made a beautiful invitation, we reserved a party room, came up with a plan to drive to toronto and take mrs. h out to tea for her birthday.  One other plan that was made and one that was kept top secret to everyone (including me!) was the hiring of a singing Elvis impersonator.  About a half hour into the party, Elvis arrived and serenaded Mrs. H with a few numbers.  If she wasn't thoroughly embarrassed already from the surprise part of the party, she certainly was ready to kill SJ when Elvis started kissing her (on the cheek).