Norovirus 1, Alinda 0

Yup, been taken down by norovirus. Will return to regular programming soon (with the race report).

I did it!

Yup, I survived 1.2 miles of swimming, 55 miles of biking, and half a marathon despite at 6+ week taper. Here are the stats:
Swim 33:36 (8/52 in AG)
Bike 4:08:05 (46/52 in AG)
Run 2:20:56 (43/52 in AG)

All in all pretty slow, but considering the POURING rain, the mud and the lack of training, I am HAPPY! Race report to follow :-) In the meantime, check out my lovely wubby's post... Isn't he the best?

First BIG Rookie Mistake

So we made the 4 1/2 hour drive from Den Haag, The Netherlands to Wiesbaden, Germany. This was my first time in 3 years driving in the Netherlands, and the first time in 9 months driving a stick shift, and the first time in 3 years driving a rental car... However, I am very happy to report that drive was pretty uneventful.

We are staying at the lovely Radisson Blue in Wiesbaden. My only pet peeve is the price of valet parking (25 EUR/day for them to park our car in a public lot...). So I parked my own car, thank you very much, for a price not much below that... So parking in Wiesbaden is a rip-off.

On the (very) bright side: the city is completely, and absolutely STUNNING! (sorry, pictures will need to wait a couple of days). So, if all goes to bits on Sunday, at least I will have a great walk through an amazing city.We also had some great all you can eat sushi, so all is happy.

Now, for the triathlon stuff (well, yeah, that's why we are in town). Since I have NOT been training for the past two months (my last real training session was early June, WHOOPS), I have decided that my goal for Sunday is to enjoy the race, and if things go really well, finish before the 5:30pm cut-off. There, I said it. I will be a triathlon-tourist. I will stay out of others' way, cheer them on, and enjoy the sights. And if I finish? GREAT! In my infinite (lack of) wisdom, I signed up for a half ironman that has 1,500 (5,000 ft) of climbing, and "technical descents" on a day like this:

So, at least I won't get too hot...

On an even funnier note, I manage to do my first huge silly ROOKIE mistake: I did not bring shoes. Yup! You read this right. I was soooooooooooo worried I would forget my running shoes, I decided to wear them on the trip and to walk around Wiesbaden. I have done so for all my races until now. But while driving, I realized I had to give my shoes on Saturday. See, for this race, instead of setting up the transition ourselves on race morning, we get to rack our bikes the day before (Saturday), and put all of our other stuff in three bags, two of which we need to surrender on Saturday. Also, the swim-bike transition is different from the bike-run transition and I don't think I get to see T2 until race day...

So long story short, I had to pick: option 1) surrender running shoes on Saturday and walk barefoot... 2) keep running shoes and walk barefoot, 3) buy a cheap pair of shoes... I present you, the shoes of shame!

If you want to see whether I finish, I am pretty sure that you can follow the race at: www.ironmanlive.com. Find Wiesbaden 70.3. I will be number 685 :-)

First European Workout

Today is our fifth day in Europe. We arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday, and after a whirlwind three-day administration spree (registration at cityhall, signing of work contracts, residence permit for the hubby, signing up for utilities, and all that good stuff) we flew to Bratislava for a one-week vacation. Slovakian vacations are always fun, relaxing and delicious as they involve loads of good home-cooked food and visits to pastry shops.

 Coffee and Cake in Bratislava, Delicious!

Today also marked my first European (real) workout, a 30 minute run. The run was painful and slow, as I haven't really worked out in a while. Also, since I don't really know my way around the neighborhood and my Slovak is non-existent I decided to just run laps in the cul-de-sac in front of the house. Each lap is about 0.25 mile so it wasn't too tedious. I was aiming for 60 minutes but called it quits after 30 or so. I am hoping to start building up some running in the next 10 days, so that I can at least finish the Wiesbaden 70.3 triathlon next weekend...

Garmin 310XT

DCRainmaker is giving away a Garmin Forerunner 310XT which is getting me very excited (I am a gadget maniac after all).