Help a Sistah Out!

There are periods in my life when I'm super productive, and then there are the periods when I'm in a relationship. I'm an all-or-nothing kind of gal, and while I've managed to keep training and racing somewhat since meeting Grease Monkey; blogging, looking for a job, and training have been disorganized and sporadic. I'm so ashamed!

About a month ago I looked at my life and realized something: I'm poor and I don't like it. Ever since then I've stepped back into a super-productive space (learning how to do this when I'm not single has been a learning process, but that's a post for another day). I've actually been keeping up with my end of the unemployment bargain and applying to pretty much every job that appears on craigslist under the writing/editing heading. And guess what? I've gotten more freelance writing gigs than I know what to do with!!! The problem? They don't pay shit. But it's a process... and I'm learning how to limit myself to 500 words and write without the words "shit," "fuck," "cunt," "asswipe," and other favorite phrases of mine.

Last week I was accepted for a really exciting position: Starting this week, I am the Boston Triathlon Examiner, ostensibly Boston's expert on triathlon for examiner.com. I'm still figuring out what angle I want to take with the column, learning about Search Engine Optimization, and figuring out what people want to hear about. While I usually only post to the speed racer blog once every one to two weeks with rambling race reports and explosive brain farts, I will be posting short, skim-able articles about triathlon (not just about me) to the Examiner site about three times per week. Most importantly, I am going to try to keep the attitude... just as soon as I pick up momentum and find my own voice on the site.

I'm leaving the door open for the column to mature into something that I can't plan for, but in my three weekly articles I'm going to try to structure it as one part coaching-type stuff, one part race reports, etc. (pro's, reviews, stories from things happening at local races, etc.), and one part "Just for Fun Fridays" when I'll do things like satire, funny stories, etc. I could really, really, really use your help!

Here's how you can help me:

1. Visit the site. Often. I get paid based on the number of page views, length of visits, subscribers, and number of times that people click on ads. Please do me a favor and check the page regularly, leave it open for a bit (even if you just skim it and then go to the bathroom), and click on an ad. If you're pressed for time, I'd prefer you check the Examiner site over this blog because I don't get PAID for the blog.
2. Recommend it. Obviously I don't expect you to recommend the site if you don't like it. But if it does ripen into something that you enjoy, please link to the site on your blogroll. If I write an article that tickles you or that you find interesting, please send it to friends.
3. Digg it. If you belong to pages like Digg.com or Stumbleupon.com, make me your friend (user name BostonTriathlon on both sites), and click that you like my articles. I'm looking into making a facebook page and linking the twitter feed to the Examiner site as well.
4. Let me know. Please tell me if there is a topic you'd like me to address, whether it's something in the triathlon news, training philosophies, or whatever. I'll research the topic (something I don't bother to do for the blog) and do my best to address it in an article. Also, if you live in New England and do any races, please let me know about them so that I don't miss your race reports. Also, any pictures you could send along (complete with permission to use them) would be GREATLY appreciated!
5. Become an Examiner yourself. If being a local expert sounds like fun, apply to be an examiner in your area by filling out the online application and submitting a writing sample. If you do decide to apply, please let them know that I referred you. To see how, watch this video.

I'm now a Twit!

I've been quiet, I know. I haven't been posting as much, and I've been truant in all your comment sections as well. I apologize. I've had a drought of things to report right around the time that I discovered Netflix instant viewing, and my reading and writing time has taken a huge hit as a result. Pretty soon, though, I will run out of Law & Order SVU seasons to watch, the bike season will pick up, and I'll burst back on the blog scene.

In the meantime, though, I've joined Twitter. It was kind of an accident, really. I just wanted to see what the site was all about, but I couldn't figure out how to browse without setting up an account, so I did. I'm not entirely convinced that people want to know about it every time I sneeze, but I think that this could have some pretty useful applications this summer. First of all, I figured out how to put a feed on my sidebar (see it???). So now when there are long silences from me, you can see what's been going on in mini-posts that are guaranteed never to exceed 140 characters in length.

Also, since I can "tweet" (or "twit") from my phone, I'll be able to give instant updates from races and trips. I'll be able to keep you posted from the road in France, let you know when I'm stranded in the middle of buttfuck New York, and have friends update on my progress in some of the longer races that I do. In the off-times I'm going to try to keep the play-by-play on bodily functions to a minimum, and instead "twit" about interesting articles I read, or cool tid-bits I pick up from books. I'm going to TRY to keep it an interesting way to share information that everyone would care about.

And speaking of interesting tid-bits from books... I'm reading The Cyclist's Training Bible (little more than The Triathlete's Training Bible or Going Long with a different picture on the front and less consideration for swimming and running. Friel has made a mint printing the same book under 3 different titles! It's not even the best book out there, fer goodness' sake...). In the "Special Considerations for Women" section, he had an interesting paragraph about "Contraception." It went like this:

Contraceptives and Performance

A study at the University of Illinois showed that women who are on the pill may have an advantage in endurance sports such as cycling. During long endurance runs at a low intensity, women taking oral contraceptives showed an increase in growth hormone. They used significantly find [sic] carbohydrates and more fat for fuel than those women not taking the pill. This suggests that using oral contraceptives may improve a woman's capacity for burning fat, may allow her to get into shape faster, and may extend her endurance range in races. I am not aware of any other studies that have tested this finding, so the results should be taken with some reservation.
If you are not currently using an oral contraceptive, talk with your health-care provider before starting. Don't take the pill only for race-performance reasons.

I find this fascinating! I'm not on the pill, nor have I ever been. I have reasons for considering it (not for contraception, obviously, and not for performance enhancement, duh), but have always discarded the idea because of the oversimplified assumption that if testosterone makes you faster, then estrogen must make you slower. Boys = fast, girls = slow. So don't take extra girl hormones. I've heard that the pill can make you fat. Fat = slow.

Anyway, as the voices of experience, what have you ladies found?

Innocent? (play Barry White tune here)

Or DIRTY???

(play Riding Dirty here)

2008: The Cliff Notes

Life has been pretty crazy in my kingdom as of late, so I've been sitting on this post for over a week. First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope it was happy and safe and you got to spend it with cool people.

Since I can't seem to think of anything new to say, of late, I've decided to ring in the new year on my blog by reviewing the one that has gone by. My total mileage was as follows:

148 runs, 1,158.7 miles, 7 days, 16 hours, 07 min, 11 sec
92 bikes and 49 spins, 13 days, 13 hours, 12 min, 28 sec, for a grand total of 4,430.6 mi (not counting miles done in spin class or on the trainer)
133 swims, 344,812 yd (195.9 mi), in 4 days, 23 hours, 25 minutes, and 18 seconds
423 workouts, 28 days, 14 hours, 4 minutes, and 56 seconds, 5,789.2 Mi


I made the podium in my age group or division a total of 11 times, although in some cases this distinction is pretty dubious due to the lack of competition.

1. Run and Dunk – Jan 1 – 5.87 mi, 51:25
a 10K-ish run followed by a jump in the ocean. Not as cold as you would think.

2. Frostbite 15K – Jan 20 – 9.29 mi, 1:20:53
lived up to its name. I had a pretty good day despite the cold.

3. Mid-Winter Classic – Feb 3 – 10 mi, 1:39:59
a 10-mile run in Maine that I ran with the flu so that I wouldn't miss the chance to meet Mindy, Nitsirk, and Iron Matron.

4. Half at the Hamptons – Feb 10 – 13.25 mi, 2:02:50
This race sucked. I still had the flu, it rained and snowed, and some guy died right in front of me. Not a terribly positive experience.

5. Martha's Vineyard 20 miler – Feb 16 – 20 miles, 3:31:00
Still sick, and not the easiest race I've ever run, but at least I got to talk to a pretty girl!

6. High Anus Half – Feb 24 – 13.3, 1:58:29
I saw Mindy again and PRed, breaking 2 hours in a half marathon for the first time.

7. Stu's 30K – March 2 – 18.75 miles, 3:02:34
This was possibly the hardest running race I have ever run. Harder, maybe, than some marathons I've run. This was my first rematch with Grandpa. I made him cry, I'm sure.

8. Trout Creek 15K – March 11 – 1:20:54
Angry and I took some vacation time and fled to Florida for a weekend where I ran a 15K "trail" race. I won my age group!!! Okay, there was only one other chick IN my age group, but I beat her!

9. Eastern States – March 30 – 20 miles, 3:13:27
I met up with Mindy and Maine Runner for a nice run through 3 states. I was so over running these races at this point, but I finished the 20 miles in one piece (far behind Rick and Dick Hoyt, I'd like to add). I had a nasty sunburn after that one, though.

10. Michael Dunleavy 5K – April 16 – 5K, 28:13
This one was just a fun 5K with my friends. We beat the Bitchy Bathroom Lady, though, so that's all that's important.

11. Boston Marathon – April 21 – 26.5 miles, 4:13:49
I ran the Boston Marathon as a bandit, thus beginning my quest to actually qualify for the race. See this post and my post about the Eastern States to follow the argument of who should be allowed to run Boston.

12. Sheriff's Sprint Triathlon – May 4 – 300 yds, 4:48/9 mi, 27:24 (inc. T1)/3.2 mi, 26:25
I won my age group and made a new nemesis. Remember this one, guys? I thought that my blog had been pulled down by a certain someone after I wrote this post.

13. Hairy Man Triathlon – May 17 – 1.2 mi (long), 40:10/56 mi, 3:27:04/13 mi, 2:04:45
The most challenging triathlon I've ever done, swimming in freezing cold water, riding a bike course with 6,000' elevation gain/loss, and running a half marathon up and down a mountain. I won my age group and got 4th (female) overall, but only 11 women even finished. Read this post to see my views on Ironman Tri-Geeks.

14. Pineland Farms 50K – May 25 – 31 miles, 6:03:30
My first ultramarathon. All in all it was an extremely positive experience. Can you believe 31 miles hurts less than 26? This is where I met Damon, my now running guru, although I wasn't very fair to him in the race report.

15. AIDS LifeCycle (posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, I never did write up the last day) – June 1-7 – 545 miles, 7 days
This was far and away the most fun I have ever had at an event. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I think that all the riding I did played a huge part in the success I had on the bike later in the season.

16. Charles River Swim – June 15 – 1 mile, 28:50
I did this race just to say that I'd done it. It was pouring rain and everyone fled as soon as they got out of the river. Imagine my surprise when I got an envelope in the mail a few weeks later with a gold medal for WINNING the wetsuit division!

17. Cranmore Hill Climb – June 30 – 6.5 miles, 1:34:29, 2889' elevation gain/loss
This race was interesting, if nothing else. We started running up the mountain in a thunderstorm, and the whole hillside had turned to mud. I ran the whole second half of the race holding my pants up because they were so waterlogged they were falling off.

18. Patriot Half Ironman -- July 5 -- 1.2 mi, 32:43/58 mi, 2:45:57/13.1 mi, 1:59:41
I feel like this was my high point of the season. I had a really good race (although I didn't think so at the time, I've eventually accepted my run time for that race). Best of all, I beat Cunt on a Pink Bike by like 5 minutes! Oh yeah, and I won my age group.

19. Loon Mountain Run -- July 6 -- 5.15 mi, 1:25:38 >3,000' climbing
I did this race the day after Patriot and I was WRECKED! Parts of these hills were so steep, my GPS registered me as standing still. My most vivid memory of that day was that I couldn't move fast enough to get away from the flies.

20. Saratoga 12/24 -- July 12 -- 199.6 mi, 12 hours
If Patriot can't be my high point, I feel like this day was my high point. I had never gone farther than 115 miles on the bike, and I went nearly 200 that day, breaking the course record by over 10 miles, despite really bad conditions: 100* heat and incredibly high ozone. I thought I was going to puke all day long and my feet were KILLING me. But I was so proud of that garish trophy!

21. Vineman Full Ironman -- August 2 -- 2.4 mi, 1:03:27/112 mi, 5:57:55/26.2 mi, 5:17:08
I know that this should have been the high point of my season, but it wasn't. It made me sick for weeks to even look at anything that had to do with the race. I had a fine day physically, pulling out 4th in my AG and 9th overall, but I was just so angry that I had had a bad race mentally. Everything seemed to be stacked against me, and even though it all turned out okay in the end, it really ruined my first ironman experience for me.

22. Savoy 20 miler -- August 18 -- DNF, 10+ mi loop finished.
After Vineman, I just couldn't seem to get it together. This race was hell in the mud: badly marked and extremely technical. I gave up after the first 10 mile loop and was furious with myself. I gave up for all the right reasons: I simply wasn't having fun, but I still felt like poop.

23. Green Lakes 50K -- August 25 -- 31 miles, 6:01:03
I signed up for this race because I was furious about the last one. I drove all night to Syracuse, and ran the race expecting nothing but to finish. Imagine my surprise when I got second in my age group! Thank god for small age groups. The race bolstered my confidence again, and kicked me out of my horrible slump.

24. Malden Irish-American Club 10K -- September 1 -- 10K, 50:37
And imagine my surprise AGAIN when I placed third in my age group at this little 10K, despite taking it out WAY too fast and blowing to bits by mile 3.

25. Lobsterman Triathlon -- 1.5K, 19:32 (current?)/40K, 1:09:23/10K, 54:54
I'd been building up to this race all summer. It was a wicked competitive field, but the only competition that mattered was Big Red. I had a good swim, a great bike (except for the last 5 miles or so when this dipshit wouldn't let me by), and a HORRIBLE run. I don't know if I have EVER hurt that bad running. Ever.

26. Hartford Marathon -- October 11 -- 26.5 mi, 3:58:56
I had no idea what to expect from this marathon. I hadn't even run in like 2 or 3 weeks. I started out really strong and was doing great until suddenly I just wasn't. My quads locked up (they'd been stiff since I stopped running) and it was all downhill from there. (Actually, it was all rolling hills from there, but what does that matter).

27. Busa Bushwhack -- November 2 -- 8.7-ish miles, 1:19:46
I finally got a rematch with Grandpa on the turf where our rivalry began. I kicked his ass. In fact, I think I made 3rd in my age group. This was a really great race for me. My running was starting to come together.

28. Salem Wild Turkey 5 Miler -- November 25 -- 5.05 mi, 38:02
My running finally came together. I took one and a half minutes per mile off my pace from last year. Too bad my sprint finish with that tomato-faced bitch didn't turn out the way I wanted, or the race would have been perfect.

29. Fells Trail Race -- November 29 -- 26.54 mi, 6:01:34
This race, astoundingly, was great. It was lonely and cold, but it was an incredibly challenging course and boredom was the only reason I didn't finish the full 32 miles. Much to my surprise, I was the first woman in of the people who did 24 miles. And I did an extra 2.5 miles, just to round out a full marathon: my sixth one of 2008.

30. Santa Speedo Run -- December 13 -- 1.5 mi in my underwear.
And finally, my friends and readers came through so that I could run a mile and a quarter around downtown Boston in my underwear to help raise money for poor kids. This might have been the most fun I had all year. At least it was the only race where I was screaming my head off and smiling every second of it.

Thanks for following me through such an eventful year. Let's hope that next year is just as fun, although I may be going down different paths. I'm going to sneak my big New Year's Resolutions down here where few have bothered to follow me. However, stating them out loud will give me some accountability:
1) Qualify for Boston, Kona, and RAAM in one year. (Boston and Kona are reaches, I believe that RAAM is not).
2) Break the World 24-hour outdoor cycling record by riding 440 or more miles in 24 hours. This will be a real challenge. Please don't make fun of me if I don't make it.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Oops, I deleted my blog

Crap.  Leave it up to me to fuck up my blog when I was just trying to help.  

As a holiday gift to my readers I decided to change my blog template.  I have received a lot of complaints about reading white text on a black background, so I wanted to find something easier on the eyes.  And anyway, the running chick on my old background looked like she was running in a skirt.  I detest running skirts.

The problem: There are very, very few usable blogger skins that have anything to do with swimming, biking, and running.  Take Lance Armstrong and mountain bikes out of the equation and you have none.  

I was about to give up, when I decided that I'd spent 2 hours searching for a template, if I didn't change anything, that would have been a waste of time.  I like to finish what I've started.  Sometimes.  I realize that the picture at the top is of a BMX rider, and I've never even TOUCHED a BMX bike, but at least it was an attractive image involving a bicycle.  And there was no black background.  

The next problem: When I loaded the template, it deleted all my gadgets and sidebars.  Fuck!  That's really not good.  And I've STILL never ridden a BMX bike.  So I went through and I put them up AGAIN.  I had to do my blogroll from memory, so check and see if your name is there.  If it's not, I apologize.  Please let me know and I'll put it back up.  Nothing personal!  (Note: I tend to only add people to my blogroll if they come by and comment often.  If you want to be on my blogroll, help me get to know you and leave some comments!  You are excluded from my blogroll if you do not have a blog.  Sorry.)  

Once I'd finished updating all my colors, themes, fonts, sidebars, etc., I looked at the page again.  "Home," "Entries," "Comments," "Edit" at the top of the page... what the hell are those?  How do I make them go away?  What do I do with them?

Oh whatever, who cares?!  I hope you like it.  Maybe more cool features will appear later.  But in the meantime, I hope the new skin is easier on all your tired eyes.  Happy Holidays!

UPDATE:

Alright, I've been working at it all day, and I've finally got something that I'm half way satisfied with.  Not all the way satisfied, but I'm tired of wrestling with blogger trying to change styles.  I hate you, blogger!  Why won't you just let me pick my own background color!

On the plus side, I have discovered some pretty cool scrapbooking tools on photobucket.  Please let me know what you think of the new look.  And if you know how to create your own blogger skins, please let me know.