Good Things

Whenever I find myself lamenting about how tough it is to balance my PhD-Self with my Triathlete-Self, I realize I have to take a step back and appreciate how truly lucky I am.

#1 Amazing, supportive husband! He cooks for me every.single.night and only occasionally  complains about my wheat-free, almost vegetarian diet :)

#2 No Time Clock, my schedule is flexible!! Those 60 hours of data analysis, lab work and thesis writing can squish like jello-brains around my training.

#3 No additional responsibilities (like kids, for example). Just this fuzzy-wuzzy nubbins that wants to spend every waking minute with me.

#4 My pool is a 2 minute walk from my office!

#5 And to go with that- the rats don't care what I look like! Goggle eyes? Wet hair? No problem!

#6 Michigan is actually a decent place to train (when the weather isn't below freezing, so, um, half the year :) ).  We have an amazing state and metropark system with relatively safe roads to ride on. The best open water swimming lake EVER is 20 minutes from our house. From my door, I can run almost 15 miles on all trails, ride my tri-bike for 80 miles while only stopping at 4 stop signs and 2 lights, or ride my cross bike on dirt country roads for unlimited miles with more tractor traffic than car traffic.

So yeah...stress can suck it- life is good :)

Week In Review

That's right- warmer than San Diego!

Another week of training is in the books! And what an amazing week we’ve had. Michigan decided to skip over spring (and winter, I suppose) and head straight to summer. This was the 5 day forecast (and since then, it's only gotten warmer- 84 degrees, as I type):


Going into last week, I had high hopes for massive volume and quality sessions, and for the first half of the week, I was crushing it- great pace on my runs, and some strong watts on the bike.  Wednesday night I caught some type of stomach bug/food poisoning and it’s amazing how one day of feeling crappy can derail your training for days. Despite that, I got in some quality sessions on the bike, and got to ride outside lots :) I know global warming is *technically* bad, but it sure does benefit Michigan in March!


Last week, I decided to join the 21st century, and got an iPhone 4s. I am in LOVE :) The camera on the 4s is truly amazing, and despite the fact that I'm typically a crappy photographer, I was able to take these pictures on my rides around Michigan:

...but the lake is so pretty!!!

I LOVE green barns. My goal is to own one, someday

Cody doesn't always like to get her picture taken, but she hasn't totally figured out that my phone is actually a camera (it's the flash she hates)- so, I've had a ton of fun taking pictures of her gorgeous little face:

And finally, here are some cool pictures I took at our local cemetery. The fog was clearing just as we were walking through, and Cody found this interesting toy on the ground.

Winter is Dead

Onto this week! I am on track to have my biggest volume week this year. Now that the racing season has kicked off, every time I read an article about an event, I get butterflies in my stomach! Eeeek! I have to keep reminding myself, as I read about the women's pro race, that I will BE with them- racing as a 'Pro'. Somedays, it's extremely motivating and exciting, but I will admit there are days where that prospect is terrifying. Either way, it certainly keeps my life interesting!

Red River Gorge Days 3 and 4

Red River Gorge Days 3+4


After a full night's sleep, we awoke to another sunny Kentucky day. I had the intention of heading out early for a bike ride, but the temps were in the 20s, and would quickly rise to 50. By holding off for a few hours, I could really enjoy the warmth- so that's what I did. After enjoying a leisurely walk with Cody, who frolicked in the Red River, I found some popular routes on mapmyride.com and headed out on my own to climb some Kentucky Hills (which, compared to Michigan, were Mountains!).


The first exciting part of my ride was going through the Nada Tunnel on my bike. As you can see from the video, it's pitch black in there, and I didn't have the luxury of headlights on my bike! That was totally freaky-awesome. The next part of the ride was a ridiculous climb of 500 feet in just under 2 miles- OW! I don't think I've ever stayed over 250 watts for that long before! The road for this climb was barely a 2 lane road, with excellent pavement and more incredible scenery. However, there were no guard rails, and one wrong move would send me tumbling down the side of the Red River Gorge, splattering my parts onto the rocks below, so it made it tricky to enjoy the views as much as I would've liked. After turning around, I got to enjoy a screaming descent, hands gripping the brakes for dear life. Not quite as scary as the Keene descent in Lake Placid, or flying down Torrey Pines in San Diego, but still one of the scarier/thrilling moments I've had on two wheels.


The rest of the ride was just more gorgeous scenery, more crazy climbs (I almost had to walk my bike on a 28% grade hill!!), and hardly any cars. I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have pictures to share, sorry :(


Once I finished my 62 mile ride, Ryan, Cody and I immediately set out to hike some more trails.

Day 4- Final Day
The first part of the day was spent on gravel roads. We finally found the only flat roads in Kentucky, and enjoyed flying around on our cyclocross bikes. 

Kentucky Gravel

That rock in the background looks excellent for rock climbers

After that, Ryan found another route to run that was considered 'HARD' for hikers. It started out easy enough, with a fun jaunt to a 'true' natural arch- one that had water running underneath.

A True Arch

Cody swimming under the arch
Cody was the closest to a triathlete today- she spent more
time in the water than I do in a typical week!

Yup, this was the 'trail'

From there, running started to look a lot more like hiking, at a slightly faster speed. The trail was GNARLY. Barely 2 feet wide, with only roots and rocks to gain footing on, and a sheer 100 foot cliff off to our right. One little trip on a root could send you into the gorge. Cody was like a little billy goat- her 4 dainty legs traipsed across the ground like a ballerina, never missing a step and always picking the safest, easiest path. When she's motivated (or when we're running super slow) she is the best trail-running partner ever.

Cliff edge into the river

Eventually, this particular trail got to be too much. We weren't running at all anymore, and we had only made it 3 of the 7 miles in. Ryan's ankle is also on the mend, so in the interest of preventing injury and death, we turned around, got back to the car, and found a new trail to try. The second trail started out much easier, and right around the time it got to be too much, we had run enough miles for the day and ran out of the gorge and back to the car. Overall, we ran 10.5 miles, but it took us 2 hours and 20 minutes!!!

A spot to run!

Cody- the most amazing trail running dog ever

EXHAUSTED! 

EXHAUSTED #2

The end of this run meant the end of our time in Kentucky. It was a wonderful 3 day weekend, and all 3 runners were spent. It was tough to get back to the daily grind, when our lives felt complete, training in the hills of Kentucky, living in a gorgeous cabin on a hillside, with everything we needed (except alcohol!!) right there....maybe someday....

Red River Gorge Weekend

Red River Gorge Days 1 and 2

This weekend, Ryan and I needed to get out of the Michigan cold, so we looked for a training locale within 6 hours of Ann Arbor where we could get some warmer weather, mountainous biking roads, remote gravel roads, and a large system of hilly running trails that Ryan could use for Leadville 100 training. And this lead us to...Kentucky!

Within the Daniel Boone National Forest in eastern KY is a geologic area called Red River Gorge, best known for its diverse collection of 50 - 200 foot natural rock climbing faces- Look at these crazy climbers!

While scrambling at work to alleviate the guilt of leaving for the weekend (*gasp*- a full 3 days off?!), Ryan packed all of our gear into our amazing Honda Element. With 3 bikes, 2 humans and 1 dog loaded up, we hit the road with the sun still out and headed south to Kentucky. I used this time to catch up on some lost sleep (sorry Ryan! You are a wonderful driver!) and before I knew it, we were headed to our cabin in the Red River Gorge

Our cabin was in the Natural Bridge state 'resort' area, in a place called Quiet Waters. Even with our late arrival, there were people out enjoying the crisp evening drinking around the campfire or partying in the hot tub. Cody desperately wanted to make friends, but we wrangled her and our gear up to our amazing cabin- the Butterfly Suite. We rarely go into a hotel or vacation home with any expectations, because we are almost always travelling on the cheap- but this place just blew us away. The decor was all natural wood, using simplicity to highlight nature's beauty. It had a perfectly sized kitchen/living area with a gas fireplace and a wonderful king size bed so that dog and humans could all stretch out to their heart's content (reducing the amount of nighttime growling)

Saturday morning we were up and ready to tackle some awesome trails. Ryan picked our route based on difficulty, remoteness and total elevation- and they all lived up to his very high standards!

 Beginning of Gray's Arch trail

 Taking a moment to enjoy the scenery

 One of the many Natural Arches in the area. 

Happy runners at the top of one of many ascents.

 Is this really Kentucky?! If it weren't for the 30 degree temps and lack of ocean, the scenery reminded me a lot of Hawaii!

Cody stays within 5 feet of either of us almost the entire time we are running. She also picks excellent paths for running on tricky terrain, making her an ideal running companion. She also complains the least out of the 3 of us, but does take more swimming breaks :)

Where did the trail go?! We crossed this creek at least 5 times during our run. Good thing I was wearing my trusty Brooks Adrenaline GTX trail shoes! My feet never got wet. Ryan's? Notsomuch. I love Gore-Tex!

Happy, Tired Dog. Happy Alaina.

Our total run was 'only' 9.2 miles, but we managed to climb almost 2,000 feet. There was a lot of time spent power-hiking those climbs, either due to footing or steepness- but it was all awesome. This was the perfect start to our weekend, and all 3 of us had shit-eating grins on our faces the entire time.

After the run, we made a quick stop into town to pick up some food. This was when we realized, to our disbelief and horror, that the county we were in was DRY. As in- NO ALCOHOL. WTF? I had no idea that was even a remote possibility. I mean, this is 2012, not 1920, right? 

The rest of the afternoon we ate, relaxed, found the nearest place to buy beer and attempted to ride our cyclo-cross bikes on some gravel roads. Three out of four of those ventures were successful, but the 2 roads we attempted to ride on either ended abruptly despite continuing on the map, or ended in secured gates with 'No Trespassing' signs everywhere. It was still a wonderful day.