New bike? The saga never ends also Tri en France: last day of practice

In recent history, I've been having some serious troubles with my bike (sheila, the pink one, in the states) one of which includes, you know, getting hit by a car. Oops.

Anyway, given the Christmas season I've been thinking about buying myself a new bike. Thus the posts this summer about bikes. However, as most plans go, this girl is not going to have enough money to buy the bike she wanted (doesn't that always happen) so I was depressed and then the bonktown gods heard my tears and said "Andrea, it's going to be okay. We're going to post a $1500 bike for less than half price."

Now I'm sitting here, comparing the geometry of my bike to this beautiful bike... deciding whether or not the bonktown gods are presenting me with the best possible choice.

In other news, it was my last day of practice in France. I wasn't finished with the workout when everyone started congregating around our coach (as usual) and I ran up and said "I'm not done!" to which my coach respond "How many have you done? 5 reps? You have still earned a small piece of chocolate anyway..." to which we all cracked up laughing... and then he whipped out a box of chocolates and handed them out. I am going to miss that man. Hervé Delaunay was a positive influence on my tri experience.

Tri en France: French for "mud" is "la boue"

Raacce day.
When I arrived, about an hour before my race (I learned from my mistakes when I arrived too early last time) the whole race site was covered by a haze of fog. How foreboding!

Oooo scary, right? It was also cold.

 The men's race took off before us at 9:45, and I quickly recognized two of the guys from the tri team who were running the course. I considered watching them start, but decided to go warm up around the track. I did some strides and drills and a little easy jogging, and then went to watch the men loop around the muddy course in the trees. Albain (who is the fastest guy on the team) was hanging in the pack with the top 4 guys and they were way far away from anyone else. The other (who looks like a baby-Pre... before facial hair) was hanging out in the middle of the pack. I think he can do better and was having a bad day :/

About 20 minutes before the women's start, Albain won the race! The 2nd and 3rd guy were a decent distance behind him, and the 4th guy in the pack apparently couldn't keep it up and ended up coming in 4th, quite a bit behind the top 3. I was impressed and excited to know the kid who won... but then it was time for my race.

I started jogging a bit in the start area, realizing that there was mud uh EVERYWHERE. Great. Cross country races. Right. I've never really felt a desire for spikes until today and then I thought "Hmm, I wish I had spikes or... any experience wearing them." I looked around and quickly realized I was not going to come anywhere near winning this one. (A) I wasn't being ranked by my age group, but only among the ranks of these 70 women on the course (B) these women were infinitely more athletic than the women at the other race... although still not all that legitimate. :P Some of them were fake-boxing with each other before the race. I mean... whatever gets you pumped right? One woman changed into her spikes and her legs were so intense she looked like she could pick me up with one of them and throw me to the finish line.

The race then immediately became about time. My goal was to come in at 18:30 and to stay focused. Then this French guy shot a gun and we went trampling through the mud. Lots of women took it out WAAAY to hard. I spent the whole race passing people. Some women walked... in a 3.465 km race. I understand fitness goals, but a 3.465km race? Whatever.

We wound through trees, uphills, through LOTS of mud, grass, and dead leaves. The men all watching as we suffered through what they just had. All I could hear was "Allez, filles!" and I just kept passing. I only looked at my watch twice. Once to see I was disappointingly climbing a hill at 9:21, and one happily to see I was pushing a flat a 7:50.

In the second loop, I knew the end was near, but my abs were crying. I kicked myself for biking 6 miles to a race. I wondered if I had warmed up too much... or not enough, or if I took the first loop too hard, but whatever it was, I was paying for it. I pushed through anyway, passing another woman in purple. Her shirt said "Nelly" and she was always exhausted. Ohhhh Nelly. We came down the finishing hill, and she ripped right by me with her friend, stealing two places. Wish I was better at short distances... ah well.

winding and rolling through the trees - don't worry, this time it WASN'T during the race

I ended up coming in at 18:58, which wasn't quite what I'd hoped, but it wasn't too terrible either. 8:48 pace is not all that beautiful though when you know you can do better. I crack it up to the mud and it being my first trail race. Still, it was tons of fun and a really cool experience. I definitely would want to try that again. Definitely not easy, but also it was over SO FAST! And it was free, so there's that.
I asked a woman to take my picture at the finish and after some questions about where I was from and if I actually did the race, she did.

Notice how I'm not nearly as dead as I was at the end of the last race.

mmm muddy

But honestly, the best part was the races for the little kids. I couldn't handle the cuteness. I considered crying, just saying.

LOOK AT THESE MUNCHKINS!

I biked home, but on the way, stopped at the entering Nantes sign! Important! NU triathlon has been to FRANCE!

Rocco says "Hi."

Deal is first team member to get here gets dinner on me at a nice restaurant in Nantes!

Tri en France: Nobody no nobody is gonna RAIN ON MY BIKE RIDE

Today was one of THOSE days. I skipped my workout yesterday to be normal and walk around with friends... and then the Gods of triathlon looked down on me and laughed. In all their power, they called my phone at 4 am this morning, which woke me up until 6. Then they made sure it was cold, windy, and pouring rain all morning...
Well, Gods of triathlon, nice TRI.

Against my better judgement I took my biking and running stuff down to the basement around 10 am this morning, and suited up. I left my sneakers in a pile with my bike lock, turned my lights on, and left the apartment building "oh puhlease, this isn't that bad." I probably shouldn't have thought that.


My ride was relatively horrifying. The rain got harder and I made a wrong turn that took me onto a highway that I really didn't want to be on in this weather. By some miracle, after a 10 min detour I found my way back to my route and went the correct way this time. I turned around at my usual round about. I'm not TOO scared of this one, but I am generally scared of round-abouts and corners. As I took this corner nice and tight... on wet roads, in the rain, the first car decided to blow the yield sign and sneak in ahead of me. Thanks dude. Then as approaching MY exit, this other car decided to take the round about at warp speed and almost cut me off. I literally saw my life flash before my eyes before he hit the brakes. Seriously dude? I'm exiting. CHILL OUT.


Needless to say, at this point I had already taken my glasses off because they were like a windshield with no wipers, but as soon as I exited that round about, I kind of wish I left them on. The wind was SO bad that I felt like my jacket was a parachute and I may have flown backwards into the air with my bike. Then on a downhill where I normally gear out going 26 mph, I was pushing to keep 17 mph.


Not having bricked in a while, I forgot how difficult it is to settle into a run after a bike. All though one good thing did come of it - I found a quicker path to the university (you know, 2 weeks before I leave).


But ultimately, I came home victorious, 75 minutes of workout later, covered in mud.
TAKE THAT STORMY DAY.

... I cannot say as much for my cleats, socks, and sneakers which are all cuddling by my radiator.

I swear this doesn't even do it justice