00kate

A quick post between all the fun we’re having down in Knoxville for Rev3′s first race of the season!

Yesterday Frayed Laces and I drove down to Knoxville Tennessee together. It was a pretty epic car ride in which we:

1. Rocked out to various mix cds
2. Earned strange looks from semi drivers
3. Talked race strategy
4. Did some sketchy things with beet juice
   

   Not at all sketchy

   Really, this is @beetperformer not wine that @frayed_laces is pouring into a starbucks cup in a 7-11 parking lot. twitter.com/katemcdowell/s…

   — Kate McDowell (@katemcdowell) May 3, 2013

5. Had a pretty epic lunch at Harvest Table Farm
6. Eventually made it to Knoxville TN!

It also happened to be my birthday yesterday, which Frayed Laces felt the need to tell everyone we saw. :P

Rev3 Team ready for the Glow Run!

The run benefited a local athlete who was injured in the attacks at the Boston Marathon a few weeks ago – just another reason why Rev3 is awesome. ALL proceeds from the fun run went to charity!

The Finish Line!

All in all a VERY fun birthday and I cannot WAIT for the race tomorrow! If you’re in the area be sure to come by the practice swim around 1230 today!

How did this happen? Is there really only one week to the start of my race season? I think the long-lasting winter faked me out a bit, all of a sudden its spring and Knoxville is right around the corner!

Photo credit to Eric Willis

This week was a pretty intense training week for me – 16 hours, and my longest bike ride ever yesterday followed by my longest run ever today. I am very, very glad that I’m headed into a taper week! After Knoxville, I’ve got a training weekend in Lake Placid planned. I’ll be going with some friends and getting some great training in on the 140.6 course there!

As far as the rest of my race schedule for the year:

May 5       – Knoxville HalfRev
June 23    - Williamsburg HalfRev
July 28     – Lake Placid 140.6
Aug 25      - Old Orchard Beach HalfRev
Oct 6         – Half Full HalfRev (in my hometown!)
Nov 1        - Venice Beach HalfRev

And I’m hoping to be helping out at Quassy, Cedar Point, and maybe Anderson.

Also, Rev3 – being the amazing, community- and family-focused race company that it is – is holding a 5k glow run (and 1 mile fun run!) on Friday before the race. Which happens to be my birthday :) I will be fun-running it up! PLUS all the proceeds are going to benefit a Knoxville local swimmer who was injured at Boston. This is why I love Rev3!

Hope to see some of you at Knoxville! Lets start the season off right :)

(Psst be sure to check out the bottom of this post for an awesome giveaway from SBRSportsInc, makers of TriSwim!)

UPDATE: We have a winner! I emailed the lucky Anne Brown and will be shipping her a set of TriSwim products from SBRSportsInc. Thanks for playing, everyone!

Even though I haven’t exactly been slacking off during the off season, I was really excited to open up my TrainingPeaks account last Sunday and see a packed week with lots of biking and lots of swimming. This winter Coach Jeff at PRSFit.com had me focus on my running to set me up for a successful triathlon season, especially with my first 140.6 triathlon this year, and a bunch of REV3 halfs on the books.

Originally I was planning to tackle an early season marathon this year, as (1) my friend’s bachelorette party! (2) preparation for Lake Placid and (3) confidence building after not getting to the start line in 2010 due to injury. But ultimately we decided not to do the race, to avoid injury before a jam-packed tri season. This turned out to be an awesome decision because I got really, really sick the week before the race. I got some kind of nasty virus and had 5 days of 0 workouts.

It was really hard to not work out for almost a full week! This is when I was really glad I had a coach to tell me to take it easy. I think if I’d been left to my own devices I would have attempted to go back to training earlier than I should have, which according to the nurse at Target (what? they have Starbucks there. It was win-win) could have delayed my recovery. Sometimes you need your coach to tell you to take it easy, as counter-intuitive as it sounds!

I’m feeling really strong as a runner going into this season. Coach took the winter to build up a great base and we have been doing some awesome tempo-ish runs that have made me faster. Now I’m eager to hit the bike and swim hard again. After all, my first race is coming up, May 5! Eep. This week was about getting back into full-on tri training after a winter focused on running.

The hardest workout of the week was a 3700m swim with some killer intervals. I think it was hard mentally because I KNEW I couldn’t make this one interval, so it took a lot of effort to still give 100% knowing I would fail. I think that training for a full 140.6 I’m going to need to see these “failures” as important experiences and necessary parts of training :) The tough workouts make you stronger!

Speaking of swimming, the lovely people at SBR Sports Inc  (One of my Team Rev3′s sponsors) have generously offered to do a giveaway! SBR Sports makes Tri Swim, a line of chlorine-out hair and skin care products. I have been using their products since January and LOVE them. The lotion especially – I hate most lotions because they make my skin feel sticky, but SBRSports product just feels silky smooth while still moisturizing. The hair products have done a really good job of getting the chlorine out of my hair without stripping it of shine (or color! My highlights survive the pool now).

To enter the drawing for a set of Tri Swim products – 80z each of the shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body wash – leave a comment on this post telling me what you’re training for this year! To get up to two extra entries, follow SBRSports on twitter or like them on facebook (and be sure to say you did so in the comments so I know to put your name in twice). I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday evening!

The other day I was talking to a coworker about weird things people keep in their cars – sleeping bags, giant piles of paper (I saw a van full of paper on the road last week. FULL), books, etc. And then I realized that if someone went through my car, they’d probably come to the conclusion that I am more than a little crazy. Let’s take a look, shall we?

The tri-mobile.

First up… POWERBAR.  I personally really fail at getting recovery protein in after a workout, so having a stash of Powerbar recovery goodies right in my car is huge. Also I sometimes get hungry. Okay I all the time get hungry.

Powerbar!!! I like the smores flavor ones for snacking, and the wild berry for post-workout!

Next, we have a myriad of water bottles. I love having a handheld for running, and use it on every run over 5 miles. Which these days is every run. I don’t really know why the other ones are necessary but hey, the cupholders would feel lonely otherwise.

I think there are a few more in the car I’m just not sure where…

Opening the trunk gets a little scary.

At least it’s organized?

• Bike pump. Obviously.
  

  Trusty bike pump. I keep mine in my car so that I have it when I need it.

• Yoga mat. For all those impromptu yoga sessions I go to? I’m really just lazy and leave it in my car instead of bringing it inside…
• Visors. You can never have enough visors. And there is never an inappropriate time to be wearing a visor. This I learned from my Rev3 teammate and friend JSmalls.
  

  One of many visors I own. SBRSports  not only makes great products, they have pretty visors too!

• Emergency workout clothes! I stash shoes, socks, a running outfit that is at least somewhat weather-appropriate, a swimsuit, and an old pair of goggles in my car. You know. Just in case. Also I cannot tell you the number of times I have gotten to work and realized I forgot to pack a sports bra / socks / shoes / whatever for my after-work run.
  

  It’s kind of a grab bag, but it has everything I need to run or swim!

• Helmet and sunglasses, because this way I never forget them on a ride.
• Sunscreen. I am german-irish and I burn at the drop of a hat.
• Towel, for when I’m sweaty after a run/bike and don’t want to sweat on my seats

So there you have it. A triathlete’s car. Looks normal on the outside*, filled with tri stuff on the inside. At least thanks to SBRSports products my car doesn’t smell like chlorine!

Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this! What do you stash in your car?

* Well, it is tic-tac orange, but besides that it looks normal.

Last weekend I drove over into Berkeley Springs, WV for the 2013 Team Inspiration summit.

Working hard at the summit

Team Inspiration is a charity run by my friend Roseann Dougherty to help those affected by cancer to increase their quality of life through fitness and exercise programs. This year I’ll be pioneering the social media side of things (please follow at @TIWarriors as well as organizing a new project, the Warrior Kids program. If you’ve heard of Girls on the Run, it will be like that, except triathlon and both genders and to fight cancer. If that makes sense.

Roseann is one of those people that has a huge heart and knows how to wring everything she can out of every 24 hours. You can read her story here, but the short version is that one of her triathlete friends was diagnosed with aggressive cancer 12 years ago, which inspired Roseann to become an oncology nurse and start Team Inspiration. She’s pretty incredible and I’m lucky to know her.

Roseann and Jess

It was a fantastic weekend getting to know everyone. I made a new friend (who is actually my age! and shares my irrational fear of serial killers) and got closer with some old ones. We spent Saturday planning (okay… and eating…) and then Sunday morning we started the day off right with a trail run! Up a mountain!

Going up….

It was super tough… It’s a week later and my glutes are still harboring a fairly intense grudge against me. But there were gorgeous views so the climb was totally worth it.

View from the mountaintop. Yes, we ran up here.

Becca, Roseann, and Erin with the TI-themed trail markers

You can bet the whole time we were out running we were thinking about the breakfast waiting for us back at home. And we were rewarded. I think I could smell the soy chorizo from the bottom of the hill our place was on! TI volunteer and Mid-Maryland tent captain extraordinaire Dawn was good enough to make us fritatta, pancakes (with chocolate chips, obviously), soy chorizo for me and bacon for non-veggies, and a delicious fruit salad. Does life get better than this?

The delicious meal prepared for us! I ate the pancake already. Thanks Dawn!

Really looking forward to volunteering this year. I’ve already met so many great people and I can only imagine that will continue throughout the year! I’ll keep you guys updated on my adventures into childrens triathlon and fighting cancer :)