What a sweet ride-my PARKPRE TT bike!!!

I am so excited!!! I have ridden my Parkpre bike 3 times now (3 mile TT, long intervals, easy recovery ride). This bike feels so great, it is light, aero and it makes every effort up a hill or into a headwind so much easier!!!

It is so great that Parkpre makes frames that even short people like me can ride:-) Look at the nice carbon look with the silver:-) It already looks fast:

Tuesday was the longer ride with intervals on the bike and like I said before, it felt great. The bike is the perfect size, I don't have to stretch or anything. And I don't feel bumps like I used to on my old bike, which is very nice in a TT. All I can say is that I love the bike!!!

Also on Tuesday was a transition run and 7.1 km in the pool, which made it a 5.5 hr training day.

Yesterday JR and I went to Sedona, he was doing TT intervals, I was doing 1200 m repeats on the brand new Sedona High School track.

The workout was tough, especially after Tuesday, but I got it done!!! Yeah!!!

After a little picnic on the Oak Creek, JR and I drove back to Flag, walked to Pay'n'Take and relaxed on the couch trying to watch two movies, but both of them were sooooo boring...I just fell asleep trying to watch them:-)

Today is all about recovering. Nap, nap, run, nap, swim, nap:-)

Angi

What a weekend!!!

Last weekend JR and I went to Tucson for the Tucson Bicycle Classic. Thursday afternoon we picked up my sweet Parkpre TT bike at AZ Bikes. Then we were off to Tucson. The TT on Friday was very uneventful, only a 3 mile effort, so everyone came in very close to each other. I ended up 10th, 2 of my teammates came in 4th and 5th.

Saturday morning was EARLY...just like in a triathlon. Carrie and I had to leave the house at 5 am, because the race started at 6:50 am. It was 105 km. Our strategy was to do the least amount of work but if someone is trying to get away, bring them back. I was the workhorse at the front, protecting the 2 girls that were higher in GC. My AVIA teammate Melanie McQuaid was in the race as well, but in Cycling we are racing for different teams, that meant that I had to bring back every attack she threw out there, and she threw out MANY!!! What a strong cyclist, well she isn't a 3 time World Champion for nothing:-) I held onto my handlebars so tight, and gave 110%, pulling super hard on the handlebars, so that this happened:






The skin got rubbed off my finger from pulling so hard by my shifter!!! (gross, the skin was still on the shifter after the race...but this is a sign of giving everything, no matter what YEAH!!!)


So the race ended up in a field sprint. I definately got a great workout in, with tons of hard efforts.

Sunday was the Circuit race of around 70 km. Here our plan was attacking attacking attacking-we did that but couldn't get away as the other teams were working hard to get the field back together. The efforts today were even harder than on Saturday. It was again a great training day and since our race started at 6:40 am, we were done before breakfast, yeah.



I had a great race with my teammates, BUT EVEN BETTER:


JR won the overall even though he had NO teammates!!! He had the yellow jersey going into the last stage, and held it despite all the attempts of all the other teams trying to take the jersey from him!!!


Staying with our friends Carrie and Todd was great, they are such nice and FUNNY people:-) Carrie made me smile and laugh the entire time, even at 4:30 am, where I am usualy very grumpy!!! It was so much fun and so many funny things happened: sitting in a cactus, gels exploding in the jersey, ...:-) AND Carrie made her first money racing a bike!!! Yeah, who needs a job, we will just race:-)

We drove back to Flag on Sunday evening...mhhh...we tried to drive back. The car decided to stop in Phoenix and we had to get towed back to Flag...

At least we made it back to Flag at 11 pm. We stopped 3 times on the way up, because our driver needed breaks:-) During our stop in Camp Verde I saw this:

See the Genuine Innovations sticker there!!! Wasn't me, but someone is a Genuine Innovations fan as well!!!

This weekend is no race, just many hours in the pool, saddle and running shoes.

Angi

Why is Masters swimming sooooo early?

I think Masters should be at around 6:30 am, not at 6 am:-) I know that I am already lucky since there are lots of Masters programs that start at 5am!!! CRAZY!!! So like every morning my alarm went off, my first thought was: I am not going...but I am already awake, so I go. Turns out that everytime I go and I am done at 7:30, I feel great, because the workout is done!!!



Tuesday was a 3:30 bikeride with intervals and a run off the bike which felt great. Yesterday morning I had a track workout which felt great as well, plus my 1000 meter times were 5-7 seconds faster than last week-and it felt easier. I guess it all depends on the day too-yesterday there was no wind, last week I felt like I was standing on one side of the track.



Yesterday night was an easy recovery swim where I saw PAM, how exciting!!! I haven't seen her for 6 months and then I meet her at the pool-YEAH. You can do all kinds of great'n'crazy things with her...like swim in Lake Marry at 5:15 in the morning, when it is cold outside, the water temperature definately wetsuit legal...but noooo, we didn't use a wetsuit :-) Anyway: I was so happy to see her!!!


In a few hours I will pick up my new PARKPRE USA TT bike from the bikestore and try it out at the TUCSON BICYLE CLASSIC, a 3 day stage race I will be racing this weekend.


And I am super excited for the weekend because my friend Lizzy will race IM New Zealand-I will cross my fingers for her all weekend. Good luck!!!GO LIZZY!!!

Before I forget:
Here is a picture of JR (on the right) and his teammate Ben from Australia, last weekend at Lake Meade:


Ciao!!!

5k race in Vegas

JR and I started our drive to Las Vegas on Friday evening, and we got stuck in traffic at the Hoover Dam. WHY? There were pedestrians...they were walking across the street constantly and us cars ended up in a traffic jam that lasted probably 45 min!!!

Luckily we still got to Las Vegas in time for dinner. Our homestay is about 3 blocks away from the Strip, in Old Vegas. I did not expect such nice houses so close to the Strip. JR and I didn't go party as I was running a 5k race in Henderson at 7 am and he was racing the Collville Bay Stage Race. I got up at 5:30 am and started driving after some coffee and food. I tried Ensure for the first time, easy to digest pre race breakfast as I am still searching for the perfect prerace breakfast. I got to the race with about 20 min for registration and warm up-I don't know how that works, even if I get up super early I still get to the races just a tiny bit late (a 20 min warm up run would have been nice, and 10 min for stretching, some strides,...).
My goal was to run 19 min. since I am coming off a hard week of training and I am still recovering very slow due to the altitude. I started the race, ran relaxed and held back in the first mile-it is better to be smart in the first mile then sorry after the race:-) So I went 6:10 for the first mile, then faster for the next 2.1 miles. I ended up running 19 min just as I wanted adn it felt great.

I did not see any women in front of me during the race but when I looked up the results, there were 2 in front of me...WHAT? HOW DID THEY GET THERE? How could I miss them? After some confusion they started the awards and called the first person's name....she got up there, did not look like a 16:55 min 5k runner, but you never know...and then she told the organizer: I did the 1 mile walk. AHA, ok. Second women came up, same thing. They mixed up the 1 mile walkers and the 5k runners. So I ended up winning the race with a 2:20 min lead to the next women. Yeah, but the main goal was to run smart!!!

And I got to try out my AVI BOLT racing shoes, they are awesome and feel so light and fast and comfortable!!! (2nd place used the same shoes as me I saw!!!)

After my cooldown I went and watched JR race at Lake Mead...what a strange looking area... looks like you are on the moon... He and his teammate did great. Ben got second in a breakaway and JR got third with a 20 sec gap out of the peleton (he had to hold back because his teammate was in a breakaway...those cycling tactics...).
Today is a crit, so hopefully it will go well and do great in GC.

Tonight we are driving back to Flag. I am looking forward to it- I guess I am not a big fan of the Nevada Desert...nice to look at but staying there and people living there is another story.

I like trees and the smell of the forest:-)

Ciao from Las Vegas

A great place to train: Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff has everything a runner, cyclist, swimmer and a triathlete needs.

1. Olympic size pool, with open hours and masters practice. PLUS you can go to Masters in the morning and get the workout out of the way or you can go in the evening. NICE. And you NEVER have more then 3 people in one lane, even if the lane lines are set for long course. Love it, no fighting, no passing, you can just focus on swimming.

2. Biking: wide shoulders out on Lake Mary Road where you can do a pit stop at the Mormon Lake Lodge to fill up the water bottles, you can climb up Snowbowl, Wupatki and Sunset crater loop or if the weather is too cold, you just drive the 30 min drive to Sedone where there is very rarely any snow = always ridable:-)

3. Flagstaff Trail System, running trails that will make training interesting, you get to run on soft dirt, or like today soft mud because the snow just melted. There is an outdoor track and also an indoor 300 m track. Plus you always have someone to run with as there are tons of great runners in Flag.

4. THE ALTITUDE!!! 7000 feet, you can get up in the mountains for running, biking or XC skiing at 9000 feet.

5. Phoenix is so close to Flag and the season in Triathlon and Cycling and Running starts in February and ends in December...NICE.

There are group rides, group runs, good massage places (got a 1 hour massage today:-).

This weekend I will be running in Las Vegas, a 5km race to get the legs in race shape. Training has been going well, I got adjusted to the altitude (almost-I have only been here for a week). I have been sleeping a ton, guess that training will get you.

I am excited to built the new bike next week and race and train on it...CAN'T WAIT!!! It is sooo pretty...

...there are probably 100 more reasons why Flag is great for athletes, but they are all floating around in my head, maybe someday I will make a list with 100-why-Flagstaff sentences.

But if you get a chance: come to Flag for training!!!

New sponsors for 2009

I just arrived in Flagstaff and had many packages to open, thanks to my new sponsors. I heard that I will have gear waiting for me but I didn't want to post until I knew it was for real.

I received so many things from AVIA, who are supporting me with shoes, clothing and other tri gear. They have really great shoes, the AVI BOLT, my new racing flat, light weight, comfortable and good looking. The AVI LITE II, which will be my half marathon shoe, feels great is also light and feels soft and cushioned. I tried the cycling gear in Sedona yesterday and everything looks great and feels great. Running equipment is great as well, and they have everything a runner needs, long sleeve, short sleeve, shorts, tights, hats, socks,...The racing backpack is awesome as well, I already used it for my cycling gear and during swim practice. There are seperate pockets for biking, running and swimming equipment, including a goggle pocket, hear rate monitor pocket and a pocket for wet stuff that you can take out-perfect for a triathlete!!!
So thank you AVIA for supporting me!!!

Visit: http://www.avia.com/

I also received a super light and good looking frame from PARKPRE USA, it is great and I cannot wait to put all the parts together and built it. It is a carbon fiber frame, super light, super aero - a black beauty!!! I am so excited to race on it and see how fast I can go on that TT maschine!!!
Thank you PARKPRE USA for the great TT bike!!!

Visit: http://www.parkpreusa.com/

Thanks to Genuine Innovations I will always be able to fix my flat tires when I am out riding on the roads. They send me everything from a big pump to many many CO2 cartridges. They also send me a package to Germany so that I don't have to worry about taking them on an airplane when I go back to Europe.
Thank you Genuine Innovations!!!

Visit: www.genuineinnovations.com

Friday the 13th...I guess scary things do happen on that day

I have never really thought about Friday the 13th...a day like all the others...but IF something DOES happen that day it gets scary...

The first half of the day was great including a ride on the trainer, because of the snow, and an email with an entry for me for WILDFLOWER. Then I ate, watched some TV, then I went for a run. I decided to run to my neighbor town and back because of the weather. There is a cross walk right in town, you know, one of those Zebra striped things where people are allowed to walk across and cars HAVE to stop-it is NOT optional... I run there, come to a stop, wait, look left and right, see that about 5 cars are coming from the left, about 100 m away. Off yourse they are going to see me...they probably already saw me with my pink hat!!! That is what I thought and step on the street...I look to the left...this guy doesn't seem to stop...everything was going so fast. He was going the speed limit and didn't slow down, and I saw that he had his eyes on the road only in the last minute. Tires squeeked, I froze and couldn't move and he came from 50 kmh to 0 kmh just in time so he wouldn't hit me. There were about 5 cm between the car and me. (I learned in Biomechanics that jumping on the car results in less injury then going under the car, so I was actually thinking about jumping-who knows if I could have...). I was so shocked that I couldn't say a word and I walked across the cross walk and sat down in the middle of the sidewalk. Now here comes the best part: THE GUY DID NOT STOP!!! No apology, no :"Are you alright?" He just drove away. Too bad I didn't get his license plate!!!
So on my way home I thought: "Was I lucky." And that on Friday the 13th...Thank god that nothing happened!!!

After that scary experience I went swimming and now I feel a lot better.

JR is starting the Tour of California TOMORROW!!! Yeah, I am so excited for the race to start and to see MY fiancee in there!!! Good luck out there!!!

It is midnight, got to sleep now:-)