Our first day of riding was amazing!! We must have biked about 45 miles, and we loved it!! The Italians know how to enjoy life. They really do. And really, who wouldn’t with this scenery?
Our instructions attached to our bikes were really cryptic like: Make a left at the old Roman bridge like this one:
At first, it was really annoying because I always like to know where I am and where I’m going. But then, it hit me.
I’m on vacation. Who cares if I get lost? I’m with my love, and life is an adventure isn’t it?
Yes, that is the ocean.
We got lost A LOT the entire trip!! At least we were together!
The support vehicle was great. If we got flats, the guys were there to change them for us. They made us stop every few hours for a snack because they said we needed to replenish calories. You didn’t have to stop, but they were like caring brothers who didn’t want your blood sugar to get low. They even bought some gluten free biscotti just for me! And, they refilled our water bottles with cold water and a fresh lemon wedge every time we stopped. Lovely….
Time for lunch complete with artichokes, mozzarella, tomatoes, tuna pasta, olives, anchovies, prosciutto, strawberries, and of course, a butt load of wine and olive oil. Even though everything was soaked in olive oil, nothing felt heavy. It was so fresh, healthy, just perfect.
Up next: more cycling, beautiful country, and gelato!!!
In the beginning of June of this year, my husband and I FINALLY went on our honeymoon after 2 1/2 years of marriage. We first got married right before we moved to Germany, and again in front of our family last October (it’s a military thing ). You could say that living in Europe was our honeymoon, and I wouldn’t argue with you. However, cycling, eating, and drinking our way through Tuscany has always been something that we wanted to do for our official honeymoon. So, four weeks before packing everything up to move from Germany back to the states, we finally went on our honeymoon, and it was a crazy wonderful dream…
Why am I posting this now? Because moving from a another country back to the states is a whole other beast than moving cross country. I finally got a chance to sort through our more than 2,000 photos from this trip. I will be posting in several parts b/c there are too many to fit in just one!
The first day, our bike tour company (VBT—freaking awesome company by the way, and no they didn’t pay me to say that. We had to pay for this trip ourselves.), picked us up from a hotel in Florence to take us to our first hotel in Tuscany. This was the beginning of many fabulous eats. I think I drank a gallon of olive oil on this trip because it was amazing. I couldn’t get enough. Oh, and except for the first day of the trip because of traveling we rode anywhere from 25 to 50 miles a day for 6 days. It was amazing. Sigh…
After being taken back to the hotel, we had a brief meeting and were told to set out on the bikes to make sure that everything was adjusted correctly. In addition to that we had our first round of trying to read directions while riding. We got lost. Twice It was a fun adventure, what can I say?!
After riding about 15 miles, it was time to shower, go to a meeting about our ride the next day, then a wine tasting! The hotel was also a winery and produced olives for olive oil.
Our hotel room ended up being away from everyone else’s because they didn’t have enough room in the main hotel. So they stuck us in the middle of some olive trees. We did NOT mind at all.
Then to dinner. I must say, the Italians know how to eat!!
So…I have a HALF IRONMAN in 3 WEEKS!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I have to admit, I’m feeling very overwhelmed at this point. I’m starting to think it was a stupid idea to sign up for this thing knowing that I would be moving from Germany back to the states, and that it would take a while for all of my training stuff to come in including my bike. After two months of waiting, my furniture, household goods, and my bike finally came in this weekend: 3 WEEKS before my race.
I’m trying not to freak out, and tell myself that my goal should just be to finish since this is my first Half Ironman, but…
I’m a competitive person. I will probably have to just get over that for this race. To compound with that, I’ve been feeling really overwhelmed by training. I was supposed to run 10 miles and ride 2 hours this weekend. None of that happened b/c:
A) I had movers at my house all day Saturday.
B) I had a headache ALL day Sunday.
C) My bike was actually broken because the movers in Germany packed it wrong plus I can’t find my bike pump anywhere yet. The thought of jumping on a spin bike for two hours like I have been doing ever since my bike was packed and sent to the states, makes me want to vomit. I’m SICK of riding inside the gym staring at exercise balls for hours on end.
D) I DIDN’T WANT to workout AT.ALL.
If my bike was in good condition to ride, I probably would have ridden Sunday. My body is craving the bike, but I wasn’t feeling the run despite tweeting that I was going for a 10 miler in an effort to motivate myself to get out there.
I’m burned out! The sad thing is: I just want the next 3 weeks to be over with. I’m already planning on what I will be doing exercise-wise for a month after my HIM. A clue: It will have nothing to do with triathlon. I love triathlon, don’t get me wrong, but I love to do other types of exercise too.
All I can do at this point, is just stick to my schedule and make sure my diet is clean. Here goes nothing!
This morning I did get out for my 10 mile run, and I think the weekend break did me some good. I actually enjoyed it. Trail runs are definitely good for the soul.
Up next: some yoga if I can find my yoga mat in the plethora of boxes.
Why does my husband always have to take pictures of this? Seriously. These are the only pics of this leg of the race for me. Doesn’t this remind you of the last race I did?
Anyway, the second run of this race was at about 11pm for me. Complete with a reflective vest, ipod, headlamp, a migraine, and my husband by my side on a bike, I set out for my out and back 7.6 mile run. Is it possible for me NOT to get sick on one of these relays?
With every step, my brain felt like it was smashing up against my skull. I felt the chunks come up in my chest and throat. I swallowed the puke that came up multiple times. The hubs was a little worried, and he kept offering to run my leg for me, and I could take the bike. I wanted to switch with him so badly. I was so tired, and all I wanted to do was close my eyes for a few hours after taking some power medication to get rid of this thing. Every single time a person passed towards me with a headlamp, my eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head.
But I’m a stubborn person. I didn’t want my husband to finish MY leg. I needed to finish it. Unless I passed out or died, I was going to finish this thing. It seriously took everything out of me to finish my leg.
My husband’s “Babe, you are doing great.” and “I love you. You are honestly my hero. You are amazing.” seriously helped me make it to the end averaging an 8:56 minute/mile pace.
We told the van to meet us at the end of the hub’s leg instead of at the end of mine, so we quickly switched at the next exchange. I pedaled next to my husband for his leg cheering him on the best I could through my pain. He rocked his run passing a bunch of people.
As soon as we made it back to the van, I passed out for 2 hours in one of the back seats. The hubs woke me up for the roller coaster ride. You see, in this race you ride a roller coaster with your team before the last section of the race starts. Getting out of the van, I felt so much better than when I went in. My migraine was gone! I think it was about 3am? The roller coaster was AWESOME! Here is a video that the race organizers put together that has the roller coaster ride in it:
After the roller coaster, Van 1 started their last legs, and we went in search of the next big exchange point and tried to nap for a few hours before our last legs.
My run did not come late enough. Since I was the first runner out of our van, I had to be ready to go as soon as the last teammate from Van 1 came running through around 8am.
Before the run, I found out some devastating news: a runner and one of their teammates biking right next to them were hit by a drunk driver around 4am. The person on the bike was killed. Are you freaking kidding me???? Someone had already been hit by a car when the race first started. So, 3 people were hit by vehicles during this 2 day race. This angered me so much because this didn’t need to happen. Why do drivers have to get so defensive over the sharing the road with runners/cyclists? I just don’t understand why we can’t all get along! Cars were passing me so closely at some points when there was clearly enough room to move over a bit while passing me. This seriously made me so upset that if I would have had a baseball bat, I would have smashed up the many a$$holes’ cars. A person actually died at this race. Crazy.
I had to start my last run of 6.5 miles with this knowledge, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared about getting hit by a car. I began slowly. I didn’t really care about my pace for this last leg. I just wanted to focus on the positive and enjoy the act of running itself.
I was taking it extremely easy on my way up a hill, and a guy passed me with a coffee in one hand. He waved with his other hand, and said good morning.
That’s it. I’m done taking it this easy! I’m not letting a guy beat me with a freaking coffee in his hand. Ridiculous!
I picked up the pace and passed him. His coffee was gone, and I have no idea where he put it. I could hear him behind me for a while trying to keep up, but the footsteps quieted down after a few minutes. I saw a few people ahead of me. It was cat and mouse time. I started picking people off the best I could. This was another extremely hilly course, and my knees were already bothering me a little bit, but I just kept going. I finished extremely happy because I was ALL done! I think I averaged about an 8:50 pace? I can’t remember.
For the rest of the time, my teammates and I focused on cheering the final runners of our van on. We finally finished around 12pm.
We were dirty, hungry, and tired by the very end! 185 miles done!!!
My first relay race (216 miles) happened to be this year, then two weeks later I followed it with another 185 mile relay race. I learned a lot in those 4 days of racing about my endurance with no sleep and hanging out with the same 5 people in a two day period for each [...]
First off, thank you so much for the lovely comments regarding my Blogiversay! You all were so sweet. About a week and a half ago (sorry for the lateness in posting), the hubs and I participated in a relay race that spanned 185 miles from Spokane, Washington to Sandpoint, Idaho. It was a lot more [...]
