Outdoor Living: some patio spruce-ups

Hold on to your hats ... a home post!   A real, live home post!  A non-training, non-race, non-IMLP post!

I absolutely adore my outdoor spaces, so when I found myself on a gorgeous weekend day with nothing to do and my training done for the day, I set to work.  I have two outdoor spaces: my upstairs deck, which overlooks a gorgeous, private green area and my downstairs patio, which is fenced in and has a perimeter of plantings.  Up today are some updates I made to the downstairs space.  

Downstairs Patio

This wasn't too bad to start: a few weeks ago, I had taken an hour or so to do a little weeding and lay fresh mulch.  I also planted some hydrangea (please live - please!) and a handful of other flowers in the beds.  I pruned the bushes and generally tidied up the space.  Last year I made a ton of progress and did a ton of work and I had plans to do more (as evidenced by the "part 1" in the title of the post), but I eventually shelved the space.  I really don't use this space that much, and I want to change that.  Here are some "before" pictures, which is how my patio looked when I started on this particular day.
   

What needed to be done, and what I did, follows:

* Cleaned the Bricks *

The first thing I did was clean the bricks.  I bought a commercial deck cleaner last year and mixed up a batch and used that for the bricks.  It did a great job.  I do not like these bricks.  Weeds get in between them and they are a mess to keep clean. But I do my best to keep things looking nice down there.  Cleaning the bricks wasn't fun or pretty: I used a scrub brush and worked in sections, kind of like Cinderella in the movie.  Actually it was exactly like Cinderella.

Only, I had a mean face and was wearing neon.  But at the end of the process, my bricks looked pretty darn fine.

* Replaced the Hose *

Oh that is right:  I replaced my garden hose.  I bought the one above last year when I did my major patio clean up, but I bought one that was insanely long.  I do not need this much hose ... so I will give this one to my parents and bought a smaller one, much more appropriately sized for my space.

* Cleaned the Chairs *

Then it was time to clean my Adirondack chairs.  I bought these years ago at Home Depot.  They're wood and I assembled and spray painted them.  But they were looking a little worse for wear ...

Cleaning was easy.  I just used warm water and Dawn dish detergent and a scrub brush.  And ... voila.  I also added a pillow.

* Decoration! *

Once the chairs were cleaned up, I decorated a bit.  I brought my indoor/outdoor rug outside.  I got this for a steal at Overstock a few years ago, and it was originally intended for my kitchen.  But it was too big for that space.  I moved it into the playroom, where it lived for awhile.  Now it's outside, and I love it out here.  I moved my two outdoor navy and white trellis pillows outside on the chairs.  I think they look great!  And finally, I brought out a table, which I'll eventually paint a different color.  The Adirondacks are not the best quality and I'm probably on borrowed time with them.  I may do a quick swipe of white paint when I have it out, but I'm not going to invest in much time or money with these chairs.  I'll eventually replace them with better quality chairs instead.  But for now, they work and look pretty cute.

I'm happy with my outdoor space!  I just have to keep the plants alive and pruned and add a handful more white stones to the bed where the hose and air conditioning unit live.  But now it's time to break in my patio with a cocktail and a good friend :)

Have a great weekend! 

See you swoon,

Race Recap: 2014 Black Bear Sprint Triathlon

Hello! Wednesday is here.  The weekend is close.  Weekends are for miles and workouts these days, so I'm not exactly in store for rest, but such is life these days.

On Sunday, June 1, I did my penultimate triathlon of the season (at least as of now):  the Black Bear Sprint Triathlon in Lehighton PA.  Amy and Bill did the Olympic distance at this race last year, but I did not, as it was the same day as the Upper Dublin Sprint triathlon.  This year, I knew I wanted to give it a try, as the bike course was supposedly really difficult and it was a gorgeous open water swim -- both excellent preparation for Lake Placid.  My coach was fine with the race, but told us to do the sprint.  So that's what we did.  And this is what I walked away with:

Race medal on the left and the bronze third place in my age group medal on the right!  Yay.  It was a hard fought battle, and I'll share the details below.  

Aside from the thrill of a race and a break in training, I was looking forward to meeting Brian Schwind, my bloggie friend, of his blog, Bri Tri, who I "met" online last year after we both did New Jersey Devilman.  I found Brian's blog and his recap of that race and then realized he was training for IMLP 2013.  I followed his training journey and his ultimate 12:37 IRONMAN finish in Lake Placid.  He's training for IMLP 2014, so it's been cool and inspiring to follow his training journey again.  Brian was doing the Black Bear half iron distance, and he managed to find me in a sea of black wetsuits at the swim start.  He mentioned he recognized me but what sealed it was when he saw Amy and Bill with me.  Ha.  Brian was doing the half iron and had a great race.  It was really cool to finally connect.  

The Details

There were 247 athletes in the sprint race.  I finished in 2:01:10, was 76th overall and third in my 35-39 female age group.  I think I was the 14th woman to finish.  I don't think I could be happier with those results! And it wasn't just me: Amy and Bill crushed Black Bear as well.  They both finished 2nd in their age groups and had times of 2:00:25 (Amy - who was the 71st overall and 12th woman) and 1:35:47 (Bill - who was 12th overall).  

Me on the podium with the other 35-39 AG winners

Amy on the podium with the other AG winners

Bill on the podium with the other AG winners

The sprint race started at 7:30.  We were able to get in the water between 7 and 7:30 to warm up, which was really nice.  If given the opportunity, I always warm up in the water.  It truly helps.  Even just to swim for a minute.  

Swim:  750 meters [15:06]

The sprint men got in the water and were on their way.  Then the sprint women.  We got in the water and it was just perfect.   The temperature was just right (if you were in a wetsuit) and the quality was amazing: crystal clear.  It was hard to get to the buoy line to start - I wasn't really swimming - more of a dog paddle type thing and it was exhausting.  We bobbed around for a minute or so and then the horn went off and off we went!  There was a lot of commotion, a lot of swimmers, a lot of splashing and just a big crowd the entire time.  I didn't feel like it was an aggressive situation at all - just a lot of people swimming.  I did my usual first few minutes where I sang ABBA, took deep breaths and did not kick: just swam stupid slow.  Then once I was in a groove and out of the initial scrum, I could kick and start swimming a little harder.  

This race uses labeled buoy markers which count off every 100 meters - so so so nice!  Sighting was a snap: the sun was behind us, so it was very easy to see.  Plus, I could see the red meter buoys on my right.  The yellow turn buoy was very easy to sight the whole time.  Once you hit that yellow buoy, you turn right and head for the shore.  I got out and was happy to see a 15:00 or so swim, which put me squarely in the middle of the pack as the 121st of 247 finishers.  And into transition I went.

T1:  [2:53]

T1 was pretty smooth and uneventful.  As I exited the water, I started unzipping my wetsuit and pulled it around my waist.  I also pulled off my cap and goggles.  Once I found my rack with my stuff, I ripped off the wetsuit, quickly sat down and dried off my feet and put on socks and bike shoes.  I balled up my wetsuit, grabbed my helmet and sunglasses and bike and headed up the hill to the bike mount area.  It is a long run from transition to the bike mount!  And you have to run up a grassy hill (with a volleyball court in the middle, which you can avoid).  I did really well in T1: I was 59th overall of 247 people.  

Bike: 18 miles [1:15:04 ~ 14.4 mph]  

This bike was no joke.  Brian described the bike as a roller coaster and that is about as accurate as I can imagine.  It really was just like a coaster: either climbing or descending and very little flats.  Add to that, the race had some technical aspects: lots of sharp turns, lots of descents into turns that immediately went into a climb.  Your hands had better be on those shifters at all times or you'll pay dearly.  The bike was a challenge for sure, but I held my own.  I think the only person on the bike who passed me was Amy!  I kept her in my sights, which was helpful.  I always say if I can keep up with Amy or keep her in my sights on the bike, I am doing A-OK.  She happens to kill the bike.  I was beyond thrilled with my 89th of 247 people finish.  That is just about top third.  For me that is amazing.  And as you can see ... my speed was 14.4 mph.  If that speed is the 89th best of the sprint race, that is really saying something about the difficulty of that course.  

T2:  [1:46]

I really like T2.  It's one of my favorite parts of the race, because I can dismount the bike and get moving on the run.  Maybe that's why my T2 times are usually so good!  I was the 36th overall time for T2.  Ha.   As you can see in this pic, I was kind of hulking out and ready to HULK SMASH BIKE in transition.

The best part of transition in this race is "The Preacher" who is this awesome cheerleader type guy who stands at the bike exit/entrance into transition and cheers people on, but also gives practical advice.  He was yelling "rack your bike and RUN AWAY FROM ME!!", which sounds funny but it was actually useful, as the entrance to the run was at the opposite end of transition.  I love the Preacher and want to make him come cheer me on at all of my races.  He also said gems such as "this is YOUR race" "they're gonna name this race after YOU" "you RUN up that hill. go go go!".  

Amy and the Preacher (on the right in red jacket and white cap)

Run: 5K/3.1 miles [26:18 ~ 8:29/mile pace]

As much as I love running, the run on a sprint tri is really tough.  What inspires me is that the faster I go, the sooner it's over.  I just run as hard as I can.  I didn't wear a heart rate monitor but if I did, I'm pretty sure my data would show I redlined this entire run.  The run is mostly on trails, which is a tough adjustment for someone like me who sticks to the road.  It is mostly flat but with a handful of steep hills, which were very tough.  I could see Amy in front of me the whole time and I just tried to keep a steady pace behind her, which I did for the most part.  No one, except the Olympic distance winner, passed me on the run, which was awesome.  At the very end, I passed a woman who I think may have been in my age group.  

It felt great to cross the finish line!  The race had really good post-race spread: bags with soft pretzels, a pbj sandwich and fruit, and plenty of ice water and soda.  It was a great day: a challenging course that we all managed to do well at.  I walked away feeling pumped and ready for the next few weeks.  

I will definitely do this race again, and I think the sprint distance is perfect.  The Olympic and half iron distances have to run up the rocky side of a dam (you read that correctly ... just read Brian's blog about his half iron race if you don't believe me!), which is wholly unappealing.  It was a good day.  

If you like and understand fancy vocabulary (i.e., my use of "penultimate" above), you'll know that my next and final race is Ironman Lake Placid, which happens in about 52 more days.  June will surely be a really big push with workouts.  I am ready!  I say this fully aware that it is only June 4!

See you swoon,

IMLP Training Recap: Week 28

Week 28 was pretty darn good and ended with another age group podium finish! I placed third in my age group in the Black Bear sprint triathlon in Lehighton Pennsylvania!  More details to come in the race recap later this week, but it was a fantastic race and a gorgeous day.  Amy and Bill each won 2nd place in their age groups too!  On Facebook I joked that this race was the Oprah race: "You get a medal! You get a medal! You get a medal!"

Team Awesome is, well, awesome!  [yes, our team is Team Awesome.  It has a backstory/inside joke meaning, but it's also from the Lego Movie, "Everything is Awesome! Everything is Awesome when you're part of a team!" And many times when the workouts seem way too much, we joke that everything really is awesome.  Ha.]

So, what was not awesome? On Saturday, I had a big a curve ball with some equipment challenges - namely, my bike.  I'll go into more detail below but Bill and I were supposed to ride about 60 miles and ended up scrapping it and doing just 11.  My bike is still not quite right (it is *not* supposed to honk like a goose when climbing steep hills), so I need to take it to Philadelphia Bike Smith for them to take a good look.

Anyway - workouts!

Week 28: 10:27:45 hours

Swam: 1:20:18 hours (3,777 yards)

Biked:  4:37:33 hours (67.9 miles)

Ran:  4:21:50 hours (28.3 miles)

Workouts:

Monday:  55 minute bike & 30 minute run
Tuesday:  Brick: 50 minute bike/3 mile run
Wednesday: Long run (16 miles)
Thursday:  Long, hard swim
Friday: Bike with Tempo & 3 mile shake out run
Saturday: scheduled long bike ride -- only made it 11 miles
Sunday: sprint triathlon (hilly, difficult course)

Monday was Memorial Day and an absolutely beautiful day.  I had a bike and a run and I did both outside.  The bike was terrific and fast.  The run was a bit of a struggle, but I got it done.

Tuesday was a brick, and it felt pretty good.  Not much else to say about this.

Wednesday was another long run.  It was really soupy outside: the air was thick and wet, and it was just uncomfortable.  I met Amy about 5 miles in and we ran a bunch together.  The run was a hybrid of our two workouts.  I ran 2 miles with a 4 minute run/1 minute walk (repeat), then moved to the 9 minute run/1 minute walk for a bit.  At mile 10 or so, we ran 3 miles with no walk breaks (that was in Amy's workout) and then from mile 13 moved back to the 9/1.  I was drenched when I came home - it was as though I swam in my clothes or ran in a downpour.  Gross!

Thursday's swim was one I was dreading: the main set was 5x400 yards hard.  AGH!  I got it done but it was tough.  I much prefer those long endurance swims!

Friday was a tempo bike: 10 minute endurance pace and 40 tempo.  Not bad.  The 3 mile shake out run was a really good one - nice and fast and effortless.  Just how I like it :)

Saturday.  OK.  Grr.  So, we were supposed to bike about 60 miles up at the Black Bear race site, which is essentially all hills.  Bill and I got up there around 1:30 (Amy had to work), and got on the road at 1:55.  We were biking about 3 miles when on a climb, I was really struggling.  So I tried to move to the small ring and realized the derailleur was not working: it was still in the big ring.  I kept trying, but it wasn't happening.  I thought maybe we could fix it, so at the top of a big hill (that I climbed in the big ring OMG hard) I stopped Bill and we tried to fix.  We were on the phone with Philly Bikesmith for awhile but ultimately could not fix it.  We were able to at least get the chain into the small ring (necessary for all those climbs) but agreed that we should probably try to find a bike shop to fix the problem before the race.  So that's what we did.  We turned around and banked an 11 mile run for the day. But Performance Bikes in Allentown helped out: they cleaned the derailleur but warned it should probably be replaced.  I was just thrilled that I was going to be able to use both my big and small ring at the race.

Sunday was the Black Bear Sprint Triathlon: 750 meter swim, 18 mile bike, 5k run.  I finished in 2:01:10 and was 3rd in my age group.  Thrilled!  The bike was the hardest bike course I have ever done (harder than Placid by far).  But it was a great race.  More details to come!  But here's a screenshot of my results.

This coming week should be good and ends with the French Creek century ride (100 miles).  That oughta be fun.

See you swoon,

What I Wore {post 45}: Style Me May Challenge [week 4]

Ahhhh. Friday.  I love short weeks!  I'm still going strong with the Style Me May challenge! I've posted my week 1 looks, week 2 looks and week 3 looks.  Week 4 was pretty good too.

May 19: Trend That's Never Out

I wore two trends: stripes and a peplum top.  I think both are always "in" and always will be.  The top is from Loft around Christmas 2013 and the skirt is a find from Forever 21 last year.  

May 20:  All Black Like a Spy

Well, this was easy: I just wore a black dress.  I had a presentation at work, so I couldn't get too bold here.  I wore my black sheath dress from Banana Republic Factory and a fun long necklace from the J.crew outlet.  I wore leopard print flats with the outfit - I have to limit heels with all my training and I had a long run the next day.  

May 21:  Your Best Foot Forward

I so so so so so so so wanted to wear a beautiful pair of heels.  This was a shoe challenge!  But, alas, I had done a 15 mile run that morning and my legs were not having heels.  Instead, I wore my favorite yellow flats.  They're from NY & Co. from a few years ago and I love them.  I wore a printed NY & Co. top with a pair of pants from the Banana Republic Factory that cost about $11.  I had to have them tailored, but it was worth it.  

May 22:  Rebel With a Cause

Ok. I took some liberties with this one.  I am not a rebel.  I'm just not.  I don't own leather.  I don't (and can't) dress like a rebel.  That's just not a look I can pull off.  So I searched for the movie "Rebel Without A Cause" and took my cues from the women in that.  This picture in particular. 

I wore my pink fitted top with a pleated white skirt and belt.  Oh and gold ballet flats.  

May 23:  Blushing Beauty Red White & Blue

I have two blush colored shirts and they are long sleeved. It was hot this day so I nixed the "blushing beauty" challenge and used "red white and blue" instead, which was scheduled for Memorial Day Monday.  I wore an old old old Old Navy blue and white striped top, jeans and my red flats.  I was a yankee doodle dandy.  

Have a great weekend!  

See you swoon,

IMLP Training Recap: Week 27

Well.  Wow.  13 hours of training last week.  I remember last year a colleague of mine was training for an Ironman and she said May and June were the peak of training.  I can absolutely see that.  Despite the fact that I had a rest day, week 27 week was hard: long run, long bike, really hard swim.  I'm taking everything day by day, workout by workout, but the miles and hours are definitely starting to accumulate.  Despite the effort, I am feeling good and happy and strong.  This picture of me at the half-way point of my 90 mile ride this Saturday captures how I'm feeling.  Also: I am happy because I have food in my hand.  I was transferring my second half food from my jersey to my bike's fuel box.

Plus, when you have a ride that involves these views ... life ain't so bad.  Even if that life involves 90 miles of biking in one day.

Here we go with week 27:

Week 27: 13:17:57 hours

Swam: 1:47:19 hours (4,591 yards)

Biked:  8:06:53 hours (90.1 miles outside; remainder on trainer)

Ran:  3:19:27 hours (21 miles)

Workouts:

Monday: Rest day! Rest day!
Tuesday: Bike with Tempo & Shake Out Run
Wednesday:  Long Run (15 miles)
Thursday:  Hard Swim
Friday:  Easy Brick
Saturday:  90 mile bike
Sunday:  Open Water Swim

Ah Monday.  I enjoyed the rest day after a back-to-back long 80 mile ride and then a sprint triathlon.

Tuesday was a hard bike: 10 minute endurance and 40 at tempo.  Tempo isn't *that* bad but it's an increase in effort.  I had a 3 mile shake out run, too, which I did in the afternoon.

Wednesday was a long run - 15 miles - which I did with Amy. I was really glad we could coordinate schedules and run together.  I really enjoyed this run, but I felt so wiped out after.

Funny thing: I took off my Fuel Belt after this run and as it was sitting on my counter, I realized it's Ironman brand.  I have worn this belt for 12 years now and it only just now occurred to me what that meant!

Dorky or not, you will have to pry this Fuel Belt from my kung fu grip.

Thursday was a hard swim - 2700 yards, which isn't that bad, but the main set was 4x400 yards at "hard" effort.  I think swimming "hard" is much harder than biking or running hard.  But I got it done.

Friday was an easy brick: 50 minutes on the bike and 30 minute run - all endurance pace.  It felt pretty good.

Saturday was a long ride: 90 miles.  I did it up in the Poconos and it took me through three states: PA, NY and NJ.  Three states!   The views above are from that ride. Here I am about 20 miles in, just over the PA/NY border.  I had just jammed some food in my mouth, so I'm rocking a sort of chipmunk cheek look.

The topography of the ride was so similar to Lake Placid - it was some climbs in the beginning, then lots of descending (including one really steep descent where an idiot little dog ran into the street and who I promptly cursed out), then a bunch of flats, then a steady climb back.  The ride was gorgeous and included this gem in Hawk's Nest, right outside of Port Jervis, New York.

It was that beautiful and it was that fun.   When I first saw that road in front of me, I gasped in a good way.  Were I not training for this race, I would have never seen this gorgeous sight.  It was one of those "I am so lucky to be able to do this" moments.  

Sunday was an open water swim - 1.2 miles in a stunning lake.  A friend of mine supported me via kayak.

And here I am at the end of the swim: all smiles after a great swim.  Also, swim cap and goggles are the great equalizer.  We all look hot in swim cap and goggles.

This week it's getting even more real, ya'll: 16 mile run, 3000 yard swim, long bike followed by a very challenging sprint race on Sunday.  But because IMLP is officially less than 2 months away, I'll keep plugging away.

See you swoon,