I soaked up the sun!

First of all, I didn't forget about blogging!! Well... I kinda did... but I'm back finally! And I have done 2 races since I've been out!

The first was just a 5k that a school here held (Cougar Shuffle). It was a lot of fun! Not my BEST run/race as my calves were already oh so sore, but it was still pretty good :) My time was 25:something...25:45 maybe? But I know I could have done better had my legs been a little more fresh! After doing this one it really made me want to do more just plain 5k's! They are great training and really show you your fitness levels in ways solo training can't, IMHO.

Now my second race was my first triathlon this year! Soak up the Sun! It was AWESOME! I would have had 2nd place in 15-19 buuut they ended up making it 19 and under, so I took home 3rd place instead. But that's okay! I still placed and got a medal! ;) Here's a little run down of the whole race:

Swim (250m): went well! Although it got realllly cold that day, the lake didn't have time to cool off to air temp yet, so it was still comfortable. I realized I pushed a little too hard at the start when I felt dizzy halfway through... but it was all good and I kept going! That was my only complaint :)
Time: 4:21

Transition 1: it went smoothly! I did have a little trouble putting my shoes on (I went sockless). Just took more effort than I hoped!
Time: 1:37 (fastest in my age group by 30 seconds!)

Bike (8 miles): don't have much to complain about here! I KNOW I could have gone faster. Maybe I tried to pace and save for the run too much? I don't know... but anyway didn't have any problems! Good ride!
Time: 27:39 Pace:17.4 mph

Transiton 2: very good! Not a single mishap... I actually did a flying dismount (left my shoes clipped to the pedals and ran off barefoot) I really hadn't practiced it THAT much but it went perfectly!
Time: 0:47 (also the fastest in my age group!)

Run (2 miles): wasn't as great.... had some crazy calf cramps, both legs! AND a side stitch, AND the usual stomach cramps. Yay. So that took a lot of stretching which probably set me back like.. 30 or 45 seconds? That's too much for such a short race! Once I got to the turn around I felt a little better though and picked up the pace some! But I really didn't have enough distance left to make up for that first mile...
Time: 19:29 Pace: 9:45 min/mile... ew.

Overall time was 53:51! Almost six minutes faster than last year! So it was a pretty good race and very fun :D Getting pumped for my next!

Thanks for reading! [and sorry this was so long;)]

Smoothie! nomnomnom

This morning after my workout I wanted a smoothie. So, I made one! It was half-way made up, half-way by recipes I found. But whatever I did worked! Here is the recipe I put together and used:

1 banana
3/4 cup cut strawberries
4-5 oz fat free yogurt
1 tsp honey (or however more or less you please)
lemon/lime juice
a few ice cubes

All you have to do is blend the ingredients up!

You can most certainly use really any kind of berry, or even a mixture. And if you use strawberries, they don't have to be cut. Whole works just as well, just cut the leaves off! Same for the yogurt. I used key lime pie flavored in mine but any flavor you fancy is perfect too. It was in a 6 oz cup, but I only used around 3/4 of it so it wouldn't be TOO thick and creamy. I'd start with about half of the cup, blend it, see how it looks/tastes, then add more if need be. Most recipes call for about a tablespoon of sugar... But I decided to substitute honey instead of any sugar, a healthier alternative! The lemon and/or lime juice is of course optional, but I like a little twist so I added a good bit of both. Also, many recipes you'll find say to add orange juice... which I allllmost did! But I was trying to go for lower sugar, so I nixed it. :)

This picture really does not do it justice. It is a very healthy, very delicious, very easy post workout drink! (or anytime drink!) 

Enjoy!!

And thanks for reading!

MS Gran Prix!

Was awesome!! It turned out that I was the only girl out of all the juniors... Sooo no I didn't place at all, no I didn't chick any boys, but yes I had fun! I'll give a little recap of each event...

Road Race: Yes, I got dropped pretty early on... Earlier than I'd like to talk about... :\ So that was pretty rough not having anyone to draft off of for the majority of the time. When they say it starts fast, they mean it starts FAST! The first 6 miles was nothing less than a suffer fest. I was trying my best to close in the gap enough to have at least someones wheel to catch, but I just never could. I later found out it was only about a 50 second gap where we settled! :( And then there was a hill. A loooong, steep, dreaded hill. (mountain) I'm pretty sure that gap spread out once we got there! Definitely put a dent in my time, and with less than 5k to go! Not only was it a super hard hill to climb, but I also had a brutal head wind knocking me around, and an equally brutal calf cramp. But I finally finished. :)

Me on the finishing stretch!

Time Trial: Went awesomely! I was very happy with it, and it was much easier than I expected! I felt great the whole time, even on the hills :D I definitely wish (and probably could have) I had gone faster, but it wasn't terrible. No dogs, no cars ;) Definitely enjoyed this race!

Pre-TT: Ready to race!

And I'm off!

Circuit Race: 7:00 AM, and f.r.e.e.z.i.n.g. Totally un-prepared for this! It was low to mid 40's when we started. NOT my ideal bike race weather!

Cold and happy pre-race ;)

Overall I'd say the circuit went well. Sore but not too sore, cold but not too cold (once I was actually riding), and hilly but not too hilly! BUT, having said that, there was one little... issue. A vulture. A vulture that came so close to me and scared me so bad, I promise it was going to eat me. I know I wasn't dead or anything, but it could by all means have attacked me!! It was traumatizing. Dogs are one thing, but I NEVER thought I'd have to watch out for vultures while cycling. When I finished I think everyone thought I had gone looney while trying to tell them about it. They laughed because a vulture almost ate me. Such caring friends ;)

Crossing the finish line

Brennan, Sam, John and I!

So the race in a nutshell: I survived an attempted vulture attack. ;) Haha it was an awesome race, I had a lot of fun and can't wait till next year! :D



Carbo loading and loving it :D

It's RACE WEEK!!! More over, it's DAY BEFORE RACE!!! I am soooooooo excited! But that doesn't mean I'm not nervous... It's just a very excited kind of nervous...

Yesterday I was able to ride the criterium course and drive the road race course. So it shouldn't be too much of a shocker now that I'm more familiar with it!  Except that there are like 10 dogs in one little stretch of road that like to chase you... As I said in the last post, I don't do dogs!! But, that's one way to make me go faster!

I'm feeling pretty good about it right now, and if nothing else it will be a lot of fun! I'm also so excited because I get to eat carbs like a fat kid eats candy today :D Carbo load!! Besides that today has/will consist of CEP socks, The Stick, stretching, cleaning every speck of dirt off my bike (has to look good for everyone!), and trying to rest (but to no avail, I'm in too much of a hyper pre-race mood!).

Well that's about all that's going on, I'm off to finish packing up everything I'll need, then go to the Cat 1, 2 and 3 crit tonight! I should be back on Sunday with a race report and hopefully pictures! Thanks for reading!

Nice and bruised, and 9 days!

Bruised from a minor crash I maaaaybe had on my bike Saturday... :/

The story: I rode with Jonah [after John and Luke left us;) ] the old Gran Prix course on Saturday. It was a HILLY 26 mile loop plus 4.5 we did as a little warm up. And I mean HILLY. They were mostly long, medium sized hills... but there was a lot of them. It killed my hips within the first 2 or 3 miles! There was also a stretch around 2 miles long where the road was basically compacted gravel. Or "glorified gravel". Gravel + bicycles = not good! So anyway, the course took us through downtown Wesson, where we stopped at a little restaurant deal to pop some Shot Bloks and Clif bars. Buuuut as I was in the process of stopping, my foot got stuck in the pedal! One was unclipped but I couldn't get the other out quick enough... Soooo I kinda sorta fell. :( The dialogue between us after that? Anna,"Shoot!"  Jonah, "Hahaha you okay need some help?" Anna, "No don't worry about me, just hurry check my bike... is it scratched?!?!?" But I luckily took more damage than my bike did! And also lots of being made fun of... -_-

That's about all exciting that happened... besides some attempted dog attacks. My fear of dogs grows more and more every bike ride! But it was a great ride, so glad to get it in befooorrre..... Mississippi Gran Prix in 9 days!!!!

First race of the year! It's a cycling stage race so it consists of 3 races in 2 days! (4 for the seniors) Woo hoo! I'm SO excited yet quite nervous.... I'm 99.9999% (make that 100%) sure I will not place or anything. The guys that race this are CRAZY. But it'll be a good experience and one more race to put in the books. :D

I'm out, thanks for the read!

A video for you!

So I just happened upon this video and could not resist posting! Enjoy :)

I have good news and I have bad news

This past week (spring break!) our church youth group did a local mission project! We spent the week at the church, and everyday did a service project and a kids camp. The first day was yard work, and the next couple days we painted a house. It was a lot of fun! But that meant I didn't get to do much training :( (the bad news) Run accels was about it. So as you can probably imagine, I am MUCH more than ready to get back to it this week!

Now to the good news!! :D I got new shoes!!

They are Zoot Ultra Race 2.0! And I love them! My first run in them was yesterday and they were great! So excited :D In person they are VERY shiny, like metallicy ;) And the best part? They were $150 MSRP... but I got them for $36!! Makes them all the more better ;) Can't wait to race in them!

Thanks all for reading!