Starting off the tri season

First race of the season is done. I couldn't resist...I had to enter a triathlon...even if it is a sprint with a pool swim :-)

Watching Havasu last week made me want to race. So I swam for 1500 m on Friday and did a 2 hr ride on Saturday and decided to enter the Sprint Triathlon at Vistancia (Phoenix) on Sunday.

Timing was a little off, as we thought Vistancia is close to the Interstate. It turned out to be about 30 min away from the interstate and I arrived at the race about 10 min before my start :-) At least it was a small race, which means that the transition never closes.

The swim consisted of a 400 yard pool swim, it went by fast, very fast. But I have to admit that I felt the lack of swimming for 14 days.
The bike went by fast as well. I think that all the racing bikeraces really helped get me fit and fast.
The run was a 5 k run that felt a little long. Looking at everyone's time I am pretty sure it was longer then 5k. But I had a great time and was happy to be out there. I could feel a lack of speed work, which will be added to my training soon.

I ended up taking first place for the women and second place overall men and women. It was a great racing weekend.

Now I am off to more househunting. Next race up is the Superseal in San Diego.

Back to work

10 days of no swimming...7 days of no riding...=a lot of free time.

I am so excited. The stitches are out, I am patiently waiting 24 hrs until the little holes close, and I will be back in the pool tonight. Off course still taped up, so that the scap can really heal, but at least something :-)

Yesterday was the first ride where I had no pain bending my knee and on top of that it was a beautiful day in Flagstaff.

It is amazing how much time you have in theevening if you don't swim Master's from 5:30 until 7 pm...

But I am ready to get back into serious training. No tempo for the last 10 days makes you feel SLOW!!!

On the other hand, I am really thankful that it only took 10 days-there are a lot of things that take you out for WAY longer and I was really lucky!!!

JR and I are driving down the hill to look at houses tomorrow. I hope we find something we like in a good location (aka close to a pool and a track :-).

4 weeks until the move.

My first stitches :-) EVER!!!

Well...it happened. I was in a bike crash...at the Tucson Bicycle Classic.
Day 1 was a TT:
Same as the weeks before I was unable to ride outside before, but somehow I managed to finish 3rd behind a girl from Colavita and a TIBCO girl.
Day 2 was a 40 mile RR. I tried attacking, others did too, but noone got away. It cam down to the last few km. On the last downhill everyone was a little jumpy and wanted to get in a good position. I was riding next to a girl, saw a huge hole in the road and yelled :HOLE...she must not have heard it and I had no choice but to hit the hole at around 35 mph. And off I flew into the ditch, which in Tucson consists of gravel and cacti. I went for a while (seemed like forever)in the dirt until I tumbled over rocks and crashed. For some reason I thought my nose was gone because it felt wet. I touched it and it was just water and dirt mixed. Nose was still there :-) Funny what your fist thoughts are. The motorcycle judge came and wanted to get me an ambulance but I told him I am fine:-) I got up and a nice lady got cactus needles out of my leg. I couldn't feel my shin and my hipbone, but the only thought I had was to finish...I got a new front wheel and rode to the finish. My bike ended up having only a few scratches, but my wheels are ...hmmmm... in bad shape (hello wheel sposor? anyone?).

The rock I hit poked a hole in my shin, but I didn't think I needed to go get it stitched...but if it is still bleeding after 6 hrs, a trip to the urgent care might not be bad...

3 stitches and 14 days of no swimming. She said I can run if I can handle the pain.

I was very lucky, not a lot of road rash!!! I ran on Tuesday, but it felt a little stiff and I can feel an empty space under the stitches...but I made it for 45 min.

Thursday I tried riding...ended up being 25 miles of standing because the knee is stiff...

Yesterday: success-2 runs. Today: success-2 runs!!!

I went and watched the Lake Havasu Triathlon on Saturday and I really really wanted to compete!!! I cannot wait to be able to get in the water again...never thought I would miss swimming...

JR and I are moving to Phoenix the end of April. Just in time for summer, but we sure will enjoy the nice all year round training!!!

Hopefully I will find a swim team and great training partners.

I love my team!!!

Escape to Phoenix # 4 (or so):

Saturday was a great day. Drive to Sedona to get some riding and running miles in: 20 min run followed by a 1.5 hr ride, followed by a 30 min run. It was beautiful. Pam and I discovered a great trail to run on and also some great streets!!!

After the ride JR and I went straight to Phoenix for the San Tan Crit. We actually had a lot of women registered for the race:-)

As always (not sure how this happens) JR and I ran little bit late. 25 min before my start we arrived at the race. I ran to registration, ran back, put on my jersey and had to go to the start line. Nice warm up.

Allsports GPS AZ Women's racing (aka the Tribe team) was great. The plan was to attack and attack and attack. The third attack was mine. Somehow I managed to get away by myself and the gap grew and grew. My teammates did a great job of staying back (I know it is the hardest thing to do in a race to do the minimum amount to work...especially with this team...there are soooo many strong ladies!!!).

I ended up racing 33 out of 45 min by myself. My head was about ready to explode, but I kept reminding myself that the other teams have to work as hard as me just to catch up. I was very happy to hear "5 laps" to go. All of the sudden, on the last lap I saw the field in front of me-could I possibly lap them? Why not try:-) I ended up lapping them before the last turn onto the finish. It was sooooooo much fun (but also very painful!!!).

My team is just GREAT!!! I am so excited to race a lot more races with them.

We decided to drive back up to Flagstaff instead of racing on Sunday because the forecast said it would rain (or snow up here).

This was the first Sunday in a long time where we stayed at home. It was wonderful...caught up on a lot now.

Next week we are racing at the Tucson Bicycle Classic, a 3 day stage race. The week after that is the Lake Havasu Triathlon-first Tri of the season!!! I can't wait!!!

North End Classic-racing agains the men :-)

My original plan was to attend the Desert Classic Duathlon in Phoenix last weekend. Unfortunately my Foreign Elite License from USA Triathlon has not made it here yet, so I ended up travelling to Yuma with JR for the North End classic omnium.

The women Pro, 1-2 were supposed to race Saturday afternoon, but I decided to register in the morning. I got to registration at 8:30 am. I looked on the list of races because they mentioned that things had changed. I told the lady I would like to do the womens Pro,1-2 race but my categorie was not on the list :-( I was then told that my categorie was cancelled. Great, I drove for 5.5 hrs to find out it got cancelled.

The the lady told me that I could race in the women's 3-4 race...??? Mhhh, usually it is not allowed to downgrade but oh well. She said they will just combine all women.

The race started at 9:20. That ment about a 10 min warm up.

We were about 15 women. After a few laps of racing I went for it and soloed. I won 2 primes and the overall...just to find out that my race didn't count. The official told me after the race that I am not allowed to race with lower categories :-( No gifts and money for me...

The only thing I could do was race with the Cat 3 guys-mhhh OK :-)

The crit was super fast, the corners were taken completely different then in a girls race. I think there were 3 crashes in the race, luckily not with me in them. I ended up 4th in the mass sprint, with 17 riders in the field. Whohooo.

The next morning I found my picture in the Yuma Sun http://www.yumasun.com/sports/steinbrecher-56628-race-knew.html

Unfortunately they put the wrong name/race under the picture. Still, 1/4th of a newspaper page with TRIBE and CEEPO looks pretty good.

Day 2 was a circuit race on a very flat course. I was a little scared to race with the guys in that one because I thought they would go go go. Turns out we "played" for about 45 min. Sprint and slow and sprint and slow again...The last lap caem and I thought: screw this I am going for it. I took off and TT'd as hard as I could and got away from the guys. I finished with a big gap in second place (one guy got off the front in the first 10 min and we never saw him again).

I ended up 3rd GC, here is a picture, hope you enjoy the pink in the men's podium:

JR's team won everything they enterd and looked very strong!!!

We drove back to Flagstaff after the race and got home at midnight. Today is an easy day now, and if the weather stays this beautiful, maybe I can actually ride outside tomorrow!!!