I’m talking about this hunk:

Hubba hubba

Glorious, no?

I bought this guy over the summer in between the Charlottesville Sprint Tri and the Fort Ritchie Sprint Tri. I must have tried out every bike in my LBS (Local Bike Store) before settling on him. It’s been about 3 months since I bought him, and I am still super happy with my choice.

I was a little worried about where I would store it at school – I bought it with the money I’ve saved up as a TA  and I’m not about to let some punk steal it. Luckily, I found a solution:

The fire marshalls will hate me

I’ve definitely noticed a huge difference in comfort. I think my previous bike, like the grinch’s heart, was three sizes too small. I feel like I can generate a lot more power on the Cervelo, and I’m a lot more comfortable too.

I miss riding with my dad, but there’s some pretty awesome riding here in Charlottesville. I’ve started riding with the UVA Cycling team, and I’ve learned SO much about road riding already. Rotating pace lines, how to pick up a dropped chain, hill strategy… you name it. We’re lucky to have an amazing coach, Coach Ruth, who is basically amazing at life. And, as my luck would have it, her usual training partner is in Sweden for the semester, so she’s been taking me out on weekdays instead. Having someone who knows the roads and has been a coach for years is amazing. She gives me great tips and is just the nicest person.

Also, check out our sweet jerseys:

Smokin hot.

I even went on my first 50 miler last weekend. Woot woot! Riding sure is easier in a group…

Do you have a cycling buddy?

A few 5ks with my Dad, who has become an awesome triathlete in the past year. I think he was inspired by spectating at the 2010 Charlottesville Sprint Tri :)

PRing at the Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon 2011 with a time of 1:46:xx, vs my 2010 time of 1:58. This despite the race directors changing the swim from 500m to 750m. I took a ton of time off of my run, which I think made the biggest difference. This race was also fun because I got to race with my dad (his first triathlon!) He did awesome, and it was so fun to be racing with him. I also came in first in my age group, and 13/53 women.

Practicing our transition setup in the hotel pre-race...

Dad showin off his tats

Dad and I pre-race!

PRing again at the Fort Ritchie Sprint with a 1:35:xx, earning me the 1st place in my age group and 6th woman overall. I almost felt bad for just missing top 5 women, but I gave it my all out there and have no regrets.

Sippin coffee on the B&A Trail

And for those of you with eagle-eyes (and probably those of you who don’t…) yes, I did chop all of my hair off. Well, someone else did the actual chopping, but you get the point. So much easier to swim now! Although I need to relocate my running hat, short hair doesn’t work with a visor too well. Men (and short-haired women) – how do you pull off a visor without hair floofage?

What did YOU do this summer?

Why should you Feed the Turkey? The answer is simple – because we created this event to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The mission of St. Jude’s is to “advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases.” Every kid deserves the chance to lead a happy and healthy life, and hopefully to run their own 5k someday, and St. Jude is at the forefront of helping kids who are suffering in ways that no child should. When you enter the Feed the Turkey Virtual Turkey Trot you will be asked to donate $1, $5, or $10 to St. Jude – it’s a small amount, but our numbers are large, and we can make a difference.

We hope you’ll join us, and please encourage your friends and family to join the fun as well.  Here’s what you need to do to participate:

1. Head over to feedtheturkey.com to sign up
2. Post that you are participating on dailymile, Facebook, Twitter, and/or your own blog (feel free to use the image in this post!)
3. Make your donation (levels are easy to handle – $1, $5, or $10) which will go 100% to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
4. Run or walk a 5k (or more) on Thanksgiving day.  It can be an official race, a solo effort, or just a fun run with friends.
5. Head back to feedtheturkey.com to post your results, print your finisher’s certificate, and be entered for prize giveaways!

If you are a fellow running blogger, Facebook user, or Twitter runner, please help us spread the word – you’re more than welcome to use any of the text and images I have posted here if you choose to do so. Let’s all pitch in to make this event a huge success for St. Jude!

Being healthy is about more than just working out or eating healthy – it’s respecting your body.

res-pect (n) – esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of something.

But what does that mean exactly? What does it mean for us to respect our body? The human body is an amazing thing – I am constantly awed by the things people are able to do once they set their minds to it and put their feet in motion.

But it can be really overwhelming to think about all the things you’d like to change about how you eat, sleep, exercise, think… it becomes easy to either lose motivation — after all, why waste your time chasing an impossible standard? — or become preoccupied with health and lose sight of other important things in life.

Over the past year, I’ve experienced both ends of the spectrum, and I think it’s time to give my relationship with health a new start. And this time, I want to take things slow. The way I see it, loving yourself and having a healthy body image is like any other relationship: best when grown slowly over time. OK, I’m no relationship expert, but this seems to be the general consensus.

I’m setting out on 52changes as a pledge to respect my body and make slow, steady changes to treat it better.

The Plan: Each Sunday I will decide on one change – one way I can do myself a favor mentally, physically, nutritionally… whatever. 52changes won’t be about trying to be perfect, it’s just recognizing that slow, incremental changes will help me to stay running and happy for a long time.

As you may have guessed, the 52 changes are for the 52 weeks in the year… so here we go! Week 1 of 52.

The race started at 9:00, so we headed out at 8:00 with my mom and little brother in tow, got some coffee for the non-runners, and headed into historic Laurel for the race! My dad was asking all morning if he should put his bib on yet. Nope, dad, not yet. Wait until we get to the race…

We were numbers 3 and 4 – that’s right! Elites. Total pros.

We had some trouble finding the starting line, though. Upon finding the finish line (easy to spot!) we were told by the volunteers that the start line was “just up the road,” but … after much walking we still couldn’t find it. Finally we realized that we had been walking past it the whole time, and that it was just marked very poorly and not manned by a volunteer. Anyway, at 9:00 we were lined up at the start, the horn blew, and all 50-60ish of us were off and running!

Dad and I stayed together during the race – I had my Garmin on so I could keep him on pace for his sub-30:00. I was a little worried because he’s had some ankle pain recently (achilles tendon, actually) and I didn’t want him to get hurt. But he was a champ! He’s been really smart and he’s been icing it after runs lately, so it held up during the race. The first mile we got down in 9:23, running along the streets of Laurel. My mom and brother got pictures of us flying by up the hill! The second mile we kept steady at 9:29. There were a lot of little hills this mile, but we didn’t let them slow us down. Mile 3 we started to put on the gas going down some of the hills we’d climbed in mile 2. We got it down in 9:05, and sprinted the last .1 miles for an average pace of 8:24 for that little segment. Dad wanted to kick it for the last .2 miles, and we totally did. We came sprinting in, gave the carrot-top guy a high five on our way by, and crossed the finish line together! No official time posted yet, but according to Garmy I’d say its about a 29:15.
Dad was a great running partner for the race – it was awesome to chat with such an awesome dude for 3.1 miles! We kept each other on track and it was an awesome bonding experience. Thanks a ton to my mom and brother for cheering us on – it helped! Dad and I headed out for a nice bike ride today (17 miles in a little over an hour – his hilly route kicked my butt!) and it felt great.

Oh, and he’s already looking into his next race :) Looks like someone’s caught the racing bug, too! There’s something about racing… it’s not about the competition or the free bagels or the time on the clock, it’s about being around people who are excited to be out and running, and trying to give your best out there. It’s you and the other runners against the course, against the weather, against the clock.
Or maybe it’s just the simple joy of being outside on a beautiful day with your family!

Why do you race? Or not race?

We ended up scoring some more free swag because we had left our North Face sweatshirts at our hotel and we didn’t have time to go get them – so they gave us new ones! Sweet.

This hike was honestly one of the best parts of the trip. It was breathtaking. I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the trail because I kept wanting to look up at the beautiful mountains we were hiking through.

We took a bus through Mont Blanc (11 km tunnel into Italy!) and then we were off! We hiked uphill for the first 2.5 hours or so, taking a break to watch the racers go by.

I spoke lots of French with our hike leader! She was from Reunion (a volcanic island)

One of the racers!

My brother with the mountains. He was a super-awesome companion for the trip – he never complained about all the hiking we were doing, or if he didn’t like the food (he had some bad beef, that he claimed had a barnacle on it), and he was fun to be around. My little brother is awesome!

We stopped at the Refuge Bertone for lunch. It was so delicious! Cheese and bread and polenta for me, italian meats and polenta for everyone else. We topped the meal off with a piece of delicious cake.

Then it was back down the mountain into the town of Courmayeur, where my brother has decided he will live when he grows up. He plans to teach English there. Awesome!

Here’s him again:

The next day we went up to the Aiguille du Midi, which is a peak reachable by really sketchy cable car. It’s right next to Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, and it was probably the highlight of the trip for me!

After two cable car rides, we were at 3800meters above sea level. Whoa!

On the outside of the peak, there were staircases that you could climb to get higher. Unfortunately, the stairs were grates, so you could see through them… Scary to look down and see just a straight dropoff with craggy icy rocks.

EEK!

Couldn’t beat the views, though.

The rest of the day was spent shopping and watching the awards ceremony, and then a final French dinner.

Mmm profiteroles.

All in all, this was an awesome, active trip. I managed to get in a few runs, too! It was great to bond with my little brother. I was sad to leave Europe, but I was looking forward to getting back to school – I missed UVA!

Thanks so much to Vibram for this awesome experience!

It’s been a little over a week since I returned from the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) and now that things have settled down a bit I can finally blog about the experience! If you missed this post, I won the Vibram Grip Your World giveaway and won a trip for two to Chamonix, France, to watch the UTMB and enjoy the VIP program at the race (complete with planned day trips, free meals and lodging, and front-row seats at the start and finish of the race!) I decided to take my awesome little brother, and from August 25th to August 30th we had a blast. This definitely ranks up there on my list of travel experiences.

We didn’t have very good internet access while we were in Chamonix, so I didn’t tweet as much as I would have liked to, but armed with three cameras (yes, three) I did manage to get some pretty good pictures.

We spent the first day in Geneva, where we checked into our hotel and then promptly headed out in search of food! We found a baguette, some cheese, and some fruit at a monster store named Manor – the basement was like Ikea, the first floor was a full-size grocery, next two floors were mens and womens clothing, then a Target-like store, then a restaurant. We were impressed.

We ended up walking along the Geneva waterfront for a few hours – we saw swans, got gelato, saw the parks, and went out on a little walkway to see the Geneva monument (the giant fountain). The cold water was refreshing on such a hot day! We dried off pretty quickly in the sun.

The next day I took a quick 6 miler in the rain and then hung out at a cafe for a few hours while my brother slept off the jet lag. Afterward it was time for a bus ride to Chamonix – the hour-long drive was gorgeous! When we got there we were greeted by Annalaura, our Vibram contact for the trip. She was from Milan and she took very good care of us on the trip! She showed us around town (I have never seen so many athletic-y stores in one place!) and introduced us to some great Vibram people. I had a great chat with one of the Tester Team people (I have no idea how to spell his name…) and we bonded over being shoe-nerds.

Then it was the start of the race! 2000 runners trek the 100 mile loop around Mont Blanc, battling snow, tired legs, and the insane elevation changes. I was really inspired watching them begin their journey.

Annalaura walked us back to our hotel and then told us to rest up for our busy night.

We found tons of free stuff in our hotel room!

We chose the “adventure” plan for Friday, so our night was a bus ride to Les Contamines, then a hike up to a cute little in at Nant Borrand where we had dinner. The food was amazing! We had great bread, then a salad with the traditional french “carrottes rapees”, the best scalloped potatoes I’ve had in my life (sorry mom), and a delicious apple tart. My brother also partook of the brisket and some sort of grated potato tartine type deal. No idea what it was. We had some nice conversation with the French couples around us (glad I took French for so long! I love speaking it!) and laughed as “les espagnoles,” the rowdy group of Spanish visitors, drank super-alcoholic “mountain liquor” with the owner of the inn. Later we found out that the plant they use to make the “mountain liquor” out of looks just like one that is poisonous. Glad I stuck with the wine…

During our meal we found out that, due to horrendous weather conditions, the UTMB had been stopped in St. Gervais and then that it had been cancelled altogether. We were sad to hear the news, but I think that stopping the race was probably the safest decision; there were mudslides :\

We hiked back down in the dark (yay free headlamp!) and promptly fell asleep. The question on our minds was “If there’s no race… what are we doing tomorrow?”

Check back on Friday for UTMB Part 2 to find out!

I was very disappointed this weekend to not be able to run in the Virginia Beach Rock and Roll Half Marathon – especially after the good people at Sony so generously sponsored my entry. I began to feel sick on Thursday, worsened Friday, and by the afternoon of Saturday I was in no shape to drive the 3 hours to Virginia Beach – or race.

Ultimately, not racing was the smart decision. I woke up race day (Sunday) feeling like I hadn’t slept in a week, and definitely not feeling like running 13.1 miles. Spending the day doing homework and laying in bed was way less fun than seeing my DailyMile friends and racing would have been, but I’m glad I played it safe.

A huge thank you again to Sony for their sponsorship (I was looking forward to wearing the super-cool Sony Blogger shirt they gave me for the race – it’s Nike Pro gear and it is sweet!) and for the Walkman – it was great to not have to worry about pulling my ipod off the treadmill ledge (as I’ve done a hundred times in the past.) Check out my review of the Walkman for more information – it’s a pretty great mp3 player for runners!

I’ve done my post-not-race grieving and I’m looking towards the future – I’m excited to be racing with my dad in his very first 5k! He’s got a training plan and everything – he was telling me today that even though he has meetings all day at work, then a business dinner, he was “definitely going get the run in – even if it’s at 10pm!” That’s dedication right there.

I’m also planning to race the Charlottesville Fall Classic 10k. I ran this race last year (2009 report) and can’t wait to give it another go. I’m putting the finishing touches on my training plan now!

Congrats to all who *did* race in VA Beach, and happy running, everyone!

It’s been a super busy summer – I have spent the past two weeks finishing up at work, packing for college, and getting ready for my Maine trip! Right now I’m sitting on the porch at camp looking out at the lake drinking a cup of coffee and looking forward to Day One of rest and relaxation before things get crazy next week.

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I had a brush with injury last week and ended up missing about 5 of my training runs, including an 11-miler, due to a mysterious hip/back pain that made walking and running pretty painful for a few days. I’m glad to say that my worry that it was another stress fracture was (probably) unneccessary, as it has healed up pretty quickly and I was able to do 3 miles this morning on the beautiful Maine roads with no pain. I think it was a back muscle injury… Hoping to do 6 miles tomorrow, and then have a biking/rest day on Monday, and then…  :D Around the lake, baby! Here’s a video I took this morning post-swim using my new Bloggie PM5 camera from Sony.

My goals for this race are pretty simple – I want to stay injury-free! That means no time goals for this race. Staying healthy and having fun are all I need for this one! Coming back from the injury was pretty hard mentally, and I struggled a bit with being motivated to go out and run when it was slow and painful and tough. Training for the triathlon was a great break from that, and now that I’ve regained the fitness I lost being injured I’m ready for a new running challenge. This race on my calendar has definitely revamped my running training!

Right now I’m trying to plan out my next races. I just got the book “The Triathlete Training Bible” from my mom as a “way-to-go!” present for finishing my triathlon (Thanks mom!) and I think that will be a great tool for sketching out my training. When I’m done planning I’ll share it here!
Enjoy the beautiful weekend, guys! I’m off for a bike ride :)