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proof of aeroness June 30, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : biking , 1 comment so far

It’s all in the sunburn. Not a bad one as I’ve been liberally applying sunscreen (with a desire to avoid what tan lines I can when I wear my princess dress). But still a bit of one. Where? Only on the inner edge of my arms and by my thumbs. Guess that part isn’t used to sun and could use even more — and at least I know it means I did a good job staying aero during Sunday’s ride.

Reason #532 I love my coach June 26, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : swiming, marky , add a comment

You know that little voice in your head? That isn’t negative, but doesn’t always push you as much as it could? That believes in you, but keeps you a bit safe from that edge of failure?

Well, sometimes it has to shut up. Marky recently had me doing 15×100 on 2 min. That is good for me — I had often done on 2:05 or occasionally on 2 min. But never for that many repeats. But I trust him (a requirement for success with a coach) and so I didn’t mention any fear, climbed in the pool, and got it done.

Well this time it was 15×100 on 1:55. I saw that and part of me doubted. But Marky said it, so I got in the pool and that was the goal. So what did i do? Well, came in on 1:47-1:51 for all of them and hit each one. Because that faith in me helped me try pushing that envelop, and it was something I could do. And it felt DAMN GOOD.

Marky said…. June 25, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, marky , 3 comments

… try to find some hills (for my long run this week). So I said

Happy? I am :)

so many watts I broke my bike June 4, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : biking, Planet X, PowerTap , 2 comments

Yesterday’s schedule called for a 15mi time trial test on the tri bike. I knew of a loop that I thought would be great for it, and that I pass on the way to work, so I headed out there. It’s a 4 mi loop that is basically flat and has a single stop sign I have to really pay attention to, plus 2 that are a T intersection. So by going the right way you can really sit at a consistent number and “git ‘er done”.

It was my first time trying to hold a set and hard power number for that long. It was tough! But finally I got to the part with instructions “for the last mile try to tear the cranks off the bike” and I begged and pleaded with my legs — “Just one more mile, and then I promise I’ll back off, and shift, and you can have a nice easy spinny loop before we head off to work” and they did it, just for me!

I cruised for a bit, and started downshifting. KAPABLAM! The rear shifter exploded in my hand. Well, it hadn’t felt like it was shifting well during the test, so I was mostly just thankful it waited til after my 15 miles to poop out on me. But it did mean that I couldn’t shift, and of course with the lack of tension on the cable the rear derailleur moved to “hardest to pedal” gear. And then the front was like well, no, I don’t want to make your life easy, so if you shift to the little ring I’m going to not catch.

So after all the promises I made to the legs, and how they held up their end of the bargin, I didn’t get to give them the nice easy spinny part they love. And instead had to have a very low cadence and make it back to the car that way.

But at least I suffered for the prescribed 15 miles first. And legs, I know I don’t always keep my promises, but I was trying — really! I’ll make it up to you. How about a swim this evening?