i know i know

I haven't posted anything in a long time. I don't really have that much to be bitter about right now. But I'm still listening to music and somewhat training, more eating and laying in bed though. So when I'm not training and eating chips and salsa and laying in bed, I like to listen to this song.


I'll get back to posting soon. I promise. Maybe. I'm busy right now, jeeeeeeeezzzzzzzz.

perfection

vampire baby

wtf

I saw this Victoria's Secret model at Whole Foods the other night...with her boyfriend who could have been Adam Sandler's ugly cousin.

More music

So when I went to the Zac Posen Show at Bryant Park (ahem), the models walked to this song and I was obsessing over it and I finally figured it out.



Emiliana Torrini, Jungle Drum
Loves it.

my latest song obsession

I've been obsessed with Meiko forever but I just started listening to this song and I can't get enough. This song and her song, "Boys with Girlfriends" just rule.

Family!!

Love

I hate love. I don't like vampires. Teenagers disgust me. But, holy shit...get on the the teenage vampire novel train and read these books. So good.

meh

I've been feeling uninspired lately. Here's my calendar for the end of 2008 and 2009.

2008
Seagull Century 10/4/08
Richmond Marathon 11/15/08
plus a bunch of bullshit NYRR races to be able to run NYC next year.

2009
Hinte Anderson 50k 3/21/09 www.hatrun.com
Bull Run Run 50 miler 4/11/09 http://www.vhtrc.org/brr/
and if i dont get into that one
Diablo 4/11/09 http://pctrailruns.com/Diablo.htm
Mooseman 6/7/09
IMLP 7/26/09
SOS 9/13/09 http://www.ulster.net/~sosnyta/

Yeah, next year should rule.

hot mess

This is not fierce. I love her but no. Nobody's gonna be able to bring back the bike shorts under the jean shorts. Not even Aggy. Sorry sister.

Warning: Longest race report EVER

Ironman Louisville Race Report

Pre-Race
I got down there on Thursday afternoon. I went to registration and got myself weighed in, disgusting. This year, they also took your body fat and your percentage of hydration. I really liked it when the volunteer said, “Wow…I wouldn’t think that was your body fat by looking at you.” Thank you lady. That night I had dinner with Team KY and then Matt saved my ass for the millionth time by completely cleaning my bike and chain. I spent Friday eating, the entire day (and I swam a little). Mexican, pasta, ice cream, a frosty. I took FULL advantage. It was sort of disgusting. The ice cream deserves a mention though. I convinced Andrew that we should drive across town in horrible traffic to get it and it was worth it. Probably, the best ice cream I’ve ever had in my life.

On Saturday, I swam again and got all my bags together and did all the usual annoying Ironman errands. My last minute search for my Pink Tab didn’t work out so I got a couple Red Bulls for my special needs bags. I ran into Joe, Nathan and Kristoph on my way to dinner and talked to them for a while. Then waited a ridiculously long time for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory where I stuffed my face with pasta. And then got a solid 6 hours of sleep.

Sunday
I got up at 4 to leave the hotel at 4:50 to walk down to transition. Pumped up my tires, changed up some ghetto rigged Gus on my bike and dropped off my special needs bags. Then started on the 30 MINUTE WALK in the pitch black to the swim start, insanity.

Swim
The swim start was my biggest gripe with the race. I understand that the channel where you jump in is small, but why start it there? We got to the end of the line around 6 am and sat down on the ground. And then waited an hour and forty minutes to get in. The start was definitely lacking that epic Ironman feeling when they sing the National Anthem (I never heard it) and it’s silent and then the gun goes off and 2,000 people start together. Ironman is unique because it’s an even playing field. You pass someone, you beat them. You don’t know when anyone started, so there was no telling if it mattered to pass that next person in your AG.

Anyway, the swim was ok. I like the point to the point and not having to do 2 loops. Supposedly you swam against the current on the way out and then turned and swam with it. Not so much. The buoys were pretty close together which I like. Swimming with no wetsuit was not that big of a deal and the water temperature was perfect. I wanted to swim around a 1:25. I knew I was doing ok but the current got a little hairy going under the bridges and I was sort of all over the place.
1:31:08

T1
I have a thing with transitioning. I do not fuck around. I had my bathing suit off before the volunteer even had my bag open. It took 2 people to pull my bike shorts on. Those girls were on it! I turned around and one was holding up my jersey for me to put my arms in. I was putting on my helmet and another lady was spraying me down with sunscreen. In and out.
4:53

Bike
I really didn’t know what to expect on the bike. I had heard so many varying accounts of the bike course. Flat, easy, good for first timers, hilly, rolling, comparable to Wisconsin…I trained on the hills at Harriman all summer so I knew I was ready for hills if it was bad.

The first 15 miles or so are flat and I was trying to suck down some water and get some calories. I was hungry when I got of out the water. I heard that the out and back section was going to have some hills. There were some fast down hill sections and it would have been way better if someone hadn’t crashed bad on the bike and I pretty much had to stop and go through a teeny space at the bottom of the hill. Hairpin turn around a cone at the end (hate it!) and back up. It wasn’t too bad.

Then I started on the 2 loops around La Grange. Then it started to get really hot. Lots of people (crybaby men) were lying on the ground under trees. What happened, guys? Your special bottles of accelerade, protein powder, baby tears and sheep’s balls didn’t stand up to the 100 degree heat???? There were a couple little hills that really didn’t look like much but if you didn’t stand up, you fell over. I saw 4 people just tip right over! At one point, I looked down and my shorts were crusted with salt and I got the worst cramp in my thigh that I’ve ever felt. I took 2 Electrolytes, downed half a bottle of Endurance and stepped up my salt to every 30 minutes. I stopped at Special Needs for about a minute, opened up my boiling hot Red Bull, took a huge sip, looked at my Snickers and thought, “oh hell no,” took my potato chips and left.

At around mile 75, my toes started to hurt really bad in my shoes. Then it moved up to my feet, then it moved up to my shins. I really had to talk myself out of hysteria because all I could think about was how bad my feet were hurting. I rode the last 20 downhill miles with my shoes barely on and sitting up straight like I was riding a Huffy, going 20 mph. I just kept telling myself (and maybe crying a little) that the pain would stop when I got the bike shoes off. It was really important to me to do the bike in under 7. I didn’t want another shameful bike time.
6:55:52 (zing!)

T2
I threw my bike at twelve year old girl and tore off my bike shoes and ran in my socks to T2. I had 2 more extremely helpful women putting my shorts on and getting everything together. One even ran to the medical tent when I was whimpering, Tyenlol pleassssssssssseeeee. My compression socks took more time to get on than I would have liked but they were worth it in the run.
6:41

Run
I didn’t see my Mom when I came in on the bike so I was really looking for her on the run out. I saw her and screamed, “SUB SEVEN!!!!!!!!!!!” and then kept running. You run out and immediately run across a bridge. I wasn’t scared of the bridge hill because the Brooklyn Bridge is my favorite running route in the city and I do it all the time. This bridge was nothing compared to it. I saw MJ on her way back down and then Gary. I think everyone’s first thought was “hottttttttttttttttttttttt” It was so hot. The sun was beating down, my skin felt like it was boiling. People just looked bad. There was one man literally stumbling. Luckily, I have a black heart and ice runs through my veins so I was doing ok…I stuck to my plan: run 4, walk 1, don’t talk to strangers. I can’t get sucked into someone’s life story while I’m trying to take care of business!

The run was flat, 2 loops on an out and back and some it was shaded. There was one little hill to go under an overpass. The crowd support was pretty good. It wasn’t a silent death march. I knew that I needed to keep my head together on the run. It was so hot, it’s your first instinct to suck down as much cold liquid as you could at the aid stations. The volunteers are great but they offer a full buffet to everyone who comes up! I forced myself to take a quick sip of Coke, throw down the cup, a couple sips of Gatorade and then dump 2 cups of ice water on my head and grab a cup of ice to go. I was still eating gross Power Gels and taking the salt pills. I didn’t have any time frame or method to the madness at that point; it was really whenever I realized that I needed something. At about mile 8, after seeing many broken people, lots of barfing, random triage units set up on the side of the road with EMT’s and IV’s and mass carnage, I made a decision to just keep pushing until I couldn’t anymore. I just tried to be very aware of how I was feeling and try to keep a strong pace.

I stopped at Special Needs, took a sip of my second hot Red Bull, tossed it, grabbed my Reese’s PB cups and my potato chips. I opened the Reese’s and thought, “nope!” and threw it down. But the potato chips saved my life. I came around to the turn around, saw my Mom and a bunch of Team KY spectators and Joe and his crew. I was still on my 4 and 1’s and feeling ok. The finish line was amazing. Right when I made the turn to get on to 4 St to finish fireworks were going off. I was so excited to be done. I heard the guy say, Erin Harden, You are an Ironman! It was awesome.
4:37:16

Overall: 13:15:48

My goal was 13:30. But my real goal was 13:15. I’m still shocked that I made it. First and foremost, I have to thank my Mom who is my mother first, but she’s also my coach, my mentor, my best friend, I could go on… I’d be dead in a ditch somewhere with out her. Jeremy and Dan, who push me everyday to not suck and peer pressure me into riding when I don’t feel like it. I think I would be lost in New York City trying to train for IM without you two. To all my Team KY team mates, everyone did awesome; it was a brutal day out there. And especially to Matt who was the unofficial team captain…you get shit done, bottom line. I don’t like to count on people for stuff, but I know I can always call you when I've screwed something up.

IM KY ruled. Now I’m stoked for some fall ultra marathon training and IMLP 2009!!!!!!

oh no

Somebody gonna miss their mama when she's at Ironman....

Done and done

I don't usually blog about individual training sessions because I think no one really cares to read about me going on about my bike but yesterday was the end of my Ironman training. (I'll be back with my usual snarkiness in a few days.) I really wanted to end with a strong, kick ass workout. Thank the baby Jesus for Dan who let me borrow his car while he is on his romantic vacation in Croatia, so I drove up to Harriman to do 4 loops on the bike and a 2 hour run, alone. Harriman is gorgeous. This is a picture that I took while I was running.We've been riding that loop on a regular basis since May. The best time I've ever done 4 loops in was 4:04. That loop is fucking hard and the hills suck your energy but it makes you strong as hell. I decided to really push it and work a good pace and finished 4 loops in 3:42. I threw my bike in the car and went right out on the run. I decided to run 30 minutes in one direction, turn around, do 30 minutes back, refill my water at the car and then do 30 minutes in the opposite direction and then turn around and do 30 minutes to get back to the car. I negative splitted the first hour by one minute and the second hour by 4 minutes. It's all about the 4 and 1. It makes for a strong finish when everyone else is dying. See you on the run course, bitches!

Just kidding, it was a good end to a good season and I hope that the work that I've put in shows itself on 8/31.

Now it's time to taper. Last year, I spent the last two and half weeks before Ironman drinking vodka and trying to ignore the fact that I was fucking terrified. This year, I'm staying sober and embracing the terror. I'm a bitch but I'm ready to race.

fry you little piggies!

Best celebrity sighting ever.
I took HH to the Washington Square Dog Park last night and sat down on the only empty bench. I love over to see who/what I'm sitting next to and its PARKER POSEY. OHHHHH YESSSSS. I tried to hold it together and not throw myself at her when she started asking me about Henry and if he gets scared in thunderstorms like her dog. Amazing. I love her. I was in a full on lesbian girl crush haze for hours.

Act like a lady!

I know that's saying a lot coming from me but for serious ladies...there are rules in the gym locker room. Follow them.

• Take a FAST shower. You don't need 40 minutes in a public shower stall.
• Do not hock up loogies in the shower and try and spit them down the drain. Everyone knows those drains don't work. And if you are hocking shit up, then you are probably peeing in the shower too, so stop.
• Walk to your things wrapped in a towel, not with all your lady parts exposed and flapping around.
• Put on your underwear asap. No one needs to blowdry their hair naked. You are not at home.
• Put on your lotion quickly. You don't need to rehearse for your porno shoot by lotioning up for 30 minutes.
• Do not sit down on a bench with no underwears on. Have you seen the person before you put their foot up on that bench to lotion themselves up porn style? Now you are sitting in it.
• Do not clip toenails or fingernails and DO NOT pull out a huge skin file and file down a corn or bunion and leave all the shavings on the ground.
• Number one, most important...DO NOT STARE!

Please girls!! Let's act like ladies in the locker room.

brother and sister

she's most definitely a Harden

We love to accessorize!

IMLP 4eva

Just got back from Ironman Lake Placid. There was a conversation in heaven around 7:30 am Sunday morning and it went like this:

God and/or The Baby Jesus: I think I'm going to take a day off from the weather maintenance today. Satan, could you watch over it for me??
Satan: Oh sure, God. I'm on it. Hehehehe.
Swim start.


Davis running out of T2.
Julie rocking the run!Everyone killed the race. Dan, Jeremy, Julie and Joe, you all did amazing!!

now for some love

Click here.

I love you Dita!

while I'm on a hatred kick...Musselman Race Report

If I made a list of things that I hate in life, it would be constantly rotating, but top three-ish...Babies, teenagers and rain are high up there. There were no babies this weekend.

The weekend didn't get off to the best start after I waited for the 19 year old intern at a Dunkin Donuts in the Bronx for 2 hours. Because he forgot his car keys...twice. Like a normal 19 year old kid would do. I forgot how irresponsible and not logical thinking teenage boys are. (Kingsley Harden, remember when I wanted to kill you for like 5 years??) So I scrambled to call everyone I knew doing the race to pick up the room key by 9 pm because we were not going to make in time for the check in.

The day before the race was equally annoying. It was a million degrees, I walked around too much and did annoying shit. Being at someone else's mercy to get around is just unfun and I don't deal with it well.

Race day: It was clear and cool when I woke up so I thought that MAYBE JUST EFFING MAYBE the thunderstorms that they were calling for would hold up.

Swim: The swim was a joke. The water was so choppy, it was just a shit show. I was actually stopping and just laughing because there was just nothing you could do. You had to walk out to the start buoy and it was about knee deep. Then they blew the horn and it was too shallow to even swim until about half way to the first buoy. Wasted time. It was a one loop swim, the water temp was perfect, the water is clear and gorgeous but it was so choppy. I patted myself on the back for teaching myself how to bilateral breathe or else I would have been screwed. And doggy paddling, like half the people out there. Same thing happened at the end, it was so shallow that you had to walk in and waste more time.

51:39 (my swimming prowess amazes me. I just get better and better. ha)

Bike: The bike started off fine. The first 20 miles or so are uphill, false flat type riding with a straight on head wind. It was hard but I felt like I was keeping an ok pace for the climbing/wind. Once you hit about 25, its pretty much downhill. There were time when I was going 25-27 mph on the flats. I was actually thinking that I may not pull a suck ass time. Then the rain. Not rain mist, or rain drops, or just rain. Sleeting, hailing thunderstorm rain. The wind was whipping sideways and it was raining so hard that it was burning my eyes, getting in my ears and stinging all the exposed skin. Not fun. It never stopped. The last 30 miles, it poured rain. Needless to say, biking in the rain is one of my biggest fears and I did not do well. I'm glad I finished and sort of conquered a fear but my bike time suffered and I realized that it was not going to be a PR day, or even CLOSE to a PR day, I started to get really mad. It was more of PW day, personal worst.

3:21:25

Run: I knew I wasn't going to run at 1:40 half marathon to make 6 hours like I wanted so I just stopped looking at my watch. I did my usual 4/1s and felt strong on the run. It's a hard course, alot of short steep uphills. Even though it was a bad day, I love the people of Geneva and the support they show to the athletes. They were standing the god awful, pouring down rain cheering, screaming and smiling and handing out aid. The bongo players were there at the devil hill at mile 7, a long steep climb up a gravel hill. It's really cool. The rain poured so hard that I was stepping in puddles that were covering my whole entire foot. No amount of body glide or vaseline could right the wrongs done to me by my tri shorts/jersey for 6 hours in pouring rain. Not pretty.

2:03:14

I didn't get a massage at the end because all I wanted to do was get out of my soaking wet clothes and go home. And get the hell away from EVERYONE. Even the post race ice cream didn't do it for me.

overall 6:20:56

SO....I figured that maybe my shitty time was going to be the worst part of the weekend.

No. We start the drive home and my ride tells me he wants to stop in PA and spend the night at his parents house and get up at 4 am and drive back to NYC. I'm thinking please, baby jesus, god no, just take me home. but wtf can i do? So fine. I'm stuck in PA overnight.

Then the car breaks down on the side of the road. In the pouring rain. We wait for AAA. Then wait to get picked up. Then spend the night at someone's house and wait to get a ride to the bus stop after I had to borrow a bike box, break down my bike and add it to the pile of shit that I now have to drag back to NYC on the bus.

It's going to take a massage at the asian place and some sort of guacamole/chips/mexican food/ice cream/wine to make things right in my world.

Musselman...I love you forever. But, I'm glad that shit is over.

hatred

I decided to wait a day before I posted this picture so that I wouldn't go off on too much of a tangent about my hatred of assholes on the subway. I told myself that I wouldn't talk shit about her fucked up toenails, her inappropriately short for work skirt, the fact that the watered down iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts (barf) that had it's own seat obviously had half and half in it (fatty) and the purse that also had it's own seat was cheap and made out of fake white leather and she probably bought it from a dirty man on Canal St who pulled it out of a garbage bag and sold it to her for $40.

No, I'm not going to go off about all that. I'm just going to say, fuck you bitch for taking up 3 seats on the 3 train at 8:30 AM with your gross coffee, your ugly purse and your stupid ass texting on your old Blackberry. I hate you.

sighting!

Colin Hanks strolling with some chick in Hudson River Park. See people? It pays to run in 90 degree weather and barf afterwards. I would have missed this amazing celebrity spawn sighting.

get jealous B

Spotted! Jenny from GG outside of my apartment last night.
She's seriously 15 and looks it. I figured it would be inappropriate to squeal, "JENNY!!!" at a teenager hanging out with her friends. Because I'm an ADULT and I've never even seen Gossip Girl, anyway.

birthday time

Two years ago today, a star was born...Henry Harden!!!!!!!!! Light of my life, apple of my eye, baby dog, cutest thing ever.

post holiday blues

Poor HH. He wants to go to the small dog dog park to run off the 4th of July gluttony but it's raining.

killed it

Jay Z fucking killed it at Glastonbury.

Vintage Henry Harden

Lake Placid Recon

Around 1 on Friday, Dan, Jeremy and I headed up to Lake Placid for the Fireman Ironman Training Camp weekend. We got in around 6, checked out Mirror Lake and checked in to the Northway Motel. It was like the Four Seasons of Lake Placid. Saturday morning, we got up early to meet the campers in the Olympic Oval to start the ride. We also met up with Joe who got in late the night before. The IMLP bike course has always scared me so I was terrified to ride. The 20 minute talk beforehand about the "7 mile downhill where you can hit 50 mph" and the "you don't want to crash or you will die" warning didn't help the situation. I left to go out on the course not feeling confident. The bike course was awesome once I got myself started. The course profile on ironman.com makes it seem like you climb a steep mountain twice, but in reality, the climbs are ladder type climbs long but not so steep. I sat back and spun up the hills. The downhill was insane, in a good way. I didn't have my computer on, thank god. I don't want to know how fast I went down that hill.

It started to pour a few miles into my second loop and I made the call not to ride it in the rain. It's not my race, it was a training weekend and I couldn't face that mountain again in the rain. I was disappointed but OK with it. I went back to the hotel, picked up my wetsuit and swam what I thought was the Ironman course. I did one loop, got out, checked my time. 59 minutes for one loop. Hum...Then some girl tells me I did a 2 mile canoe course and not the IM course. So not a bad time!

Dan and Jeremy killed 112 miles and then ran after. I think Dan rode the course in 5:40. The man is a machine and is going to kill IMLP. Then we lounged outside of our 4 star cabin room at the Northway in some lawn chairs.

Sunday morning, we got up and swam the real Ironman course with the Fireman campers. There were about 75 of us out there swimming. I did the 2 loops in 1:25, ten minutes faster than Wisconsin. We'll see how I do at KY. Mirror Lake is gorgeous, flat and you can see the bottom and the famous cord that connects all the buoys. There's no need to sight if you can stay with the cord.

After the swim, Jeremy and Dan ate breakfast burritos (smart) and we went to a Chi Running Clinic by Sherru Fraiser, a million time Ironman from Canada. She gave some great tips for running up the hills on the run course and I really tried to think about them. Then we headed out for about 16 miles. 13 of the actual run course and 3 miles to get there and back. For all the talk of the LP bike course, I think its the run course that is the killer. It's soul destroying and hard. Tons of hills, and a windy, rolling out and back where I'm sure there will be no spectators at 9 PM. The hills back into town are just brutal.

The weekend ruled. I would reccomend that camp to anyone doing IMLP. It was low-key but organized. They had great sponsors, tons of aid and lots of booze after a hard day of training!

sightings!

Amber Tamblyn sitting an outside table on Greenwich St last night, eating chicken wings!Then an hour later, Lisa Loeb walking down 7th ave. on her cell phone.

I should be a paparazzi.

Long Island Gold Coast Tri

On Sunday, Jeremy, Minty, Heather and I went all the way to Port Washington, Long Island to race the Gold Coast Sprint. We got up super early and took the LIRR out there. We had to ride about 4 miles from the train station to the race site. It was a long uphill and then a fast downhill with all our gear on our backs. Not fun.

Swim: .5 mile
The swim was an ocean swim in the Sound. It was a run in start and the salt water was a little shocking when it got in my mouth. I was really thinking I was pushing it and getting a good draft to the first buoy. It was such a short swim so I was really trying...I stood up at the beach and my watch said 16:45. I was psyched. Then there was a long pavement run to T1. They added it into the swim time so my overall time was 17:54. Jeremy effing beat me in the swim! The same Jeremy who's ass I hand to him every morning in the pool beat me in a half mile swim. Godddddddddddddd.

Bike: 12 miles
The bike was 6 mile loop with 2 hairpin turns. It was...cute. There were 2 long straightaways, a little bunny hill (I saw someone get off their bike on it) and it was mostly in an office park area. You could go pretty fast but there were some scary idiots out there on Huffys and some people in aero helmets thinking they were going pro. It was fun to try and bang it out. 38:52 overall, average mph 20.1. Not too bad for someone who is a pussy on the bike.

Run: 3 miles
The run was another 2 loops of randomness. It did go out on to the boardwalk which was pretty cool. I was still trying to push it but couldn't really tell what I was doing. There was one aid station on the run that you passed twice and I walked through them. I think I did 2 rounds of 4:30 running, 30 seconds walking and ran the rest. Time, 23:47, pace 7:37 miles. I think the clock was wrong. I don't think I can run that fast. Usually, I'm dragging ass and not caring.

Overall time: 1:23:47

I don't have much to say about the race. It was really fun. It was my second sprint ever and I don't think I love to try and push it. Plus, I'm bitter that Jeremy beat me in the swim and overall. Just kidding, I'm proud of him. He's gotten really fast and he's going to do awesome at IMLP. Minty and Heather had great times as well. It was Minty's second triathlon ever and I think she is slowly coming around to loving triathlon again after her torture half IM experience.

Next up...Fireman Ironman Training Weekend. 3 full days of torture, IM style.

Bay Swim equivalent of a Jem and The Rockers Barbie

Special order on Etsy.com
I can't wait for it to come

I don't know what my deal is with the cute stuff lately

But this is killing me...I love him.

awwwwwwwww

I'm all about babies and puppies.

Bay Swim...BFD

JK.

Actually it was a BFD. And I'm glad it's over.

Race Report:

I knew I needed a lot of food on Saturday night and a good night's sleep. Check. Done.

Sunday morning, I had my favorite pre-race breakfast. Gluten free bagel with butter and 2 eggs. Stopped at Starbucks, got a large coffee and drove across the bridge.

I was seriously terrified but trying to be cool about it. I stood next to 2 old men who had done the race 18 years in a row or something and eavesdropped on them giving people advice. I parked at the park and ride across the bridge and took the shuttle bus back across. Found Gary and Sandi and sat around for an hour and a half, getting nervous. I put sunscreen all over my face and neck and ears but really didn't think about anywhere else because I was wearing a full sleeve wetsuit. Bad idea. I thought I hit up the Body Glide enough, but obviously didn't.

So, the swim start. You can start anywhere along the beach, so the mass start was really a non-issue. You can enter the bridge anywhere you want once you get past the jetty. I caught a good draft off a girl and made it to the bridge pretty fast. Swimming under the bridge and coming up in the middle is so amazing. Sighting the bridges is just so cool and swimming underneath those bridges that I've driven across hundreds of times is so surreal. The weather was way too hot, so there were seriously hot patches of water and then if you got in the shade, the water was cool.

I made it to the first buoy with no problem in about 35 minutes. I was drafting as much as possible. And thanking Joe the whole time for the major draft practice that we did. The current really picked up in the second mile. I had a good draft going off this man but I kept hitting his feet. He finally turned around and yelled something and I backed off. Then we passed the 2 mile buoy and came up the first aid boat. I swam to the other side of the boat and hid because that dude was pissed about the drafting and I was afraid he was going to punch me in the face. The aid boats had water, pieces of banana, saltines and vanilla wafers. So basically, I was screwed. I ate a piece of a banana and had 2 cups of water and went on. I wish there was gatorade or gus. My second mile was so slow that when I got the buoy, I thought maybe I missed the second one and I was actually at the 3rd. Ha. No. It was about 50 minutes.

Third mile, I started counting the bridge pile-ons and trying to talk myself into swimming pile-on to pile-on. I was really starting to lose my mind and feel extremely tired. I don't think I thought one positive thought at Nanticoke and it really affected my performance so I really tried to keep my mind in check. I was repeating all my swim techniques in my mind and trying to do them. I think the 3rd mile was around 40-45 minutes. We were supposed to get a slack tide in the middle of the swim, but I never really felt the current let up. It was fight the whole time pretty much.

The 4th mile and last .4 were completely mind over body. I really struggled. I knew I wasn't going fast but I knew I was going to finish. All I really wanted out of the day was to finish and not come in last place or get pulled. Check.

A few things I learned from the Bay Swim:

1. I can swim. I've proven it. But, I am not a fast swimmer or a strong swimmer. I think the 2.4 Ironman swim is about my limit to be able to make any sort of decent time.
2. I've never been the biggest fan of water. My earliest swimming memory is my mom begging me to jump off the diving board at Worthington Valley Swim Club. I said hell no for pretty much the whole summer until she offered a Jem and the Rockers Barbie for jumping off it. I threw myself off that shit, swam to the side, everyone was cheering and I said, "get my shoes, we're going to Toys R Us." My mom said, "don't you want to do it again? Wasn't it fun?" I said, "yeah, yeah, fun, whatever. I'll jump again tomorrow. I want that Barbie." I went to Toys R Us wrapped in a towel, dripping wet. That sort of sums up how I feel about swimming. Get it done to get what I want.

The event was totally organized though. And it had maybe the best race shirt ever. I've done a lot of OWS where I felt like I could die out there and no one would see for hours. But this event was so organized, you were never alone, there was tons of kayakers and boats everywhere. The whole thing was very cool.

But, I'm never doing it again.

the littlest diva

Introducing....Lindsey Theresa Jackson
May 29, 2008 7 lbs, 2oz.

Deana and Linwood

Anna and Lindsey

My family makes the most beautiful babies ever.

celebrity!

On Joe's blog here.

We had an awesome swim last night. I got some good motivation and a sweet reminder bracelet.

Yes, that does say "harden!"

loverrrrrrrrrrrrr

Spotted: Henry Harden chillin in CP...Where will he go next?

Columbia Triathlon Race Weekend

This weekend, I took Friday and Monday off of work to go home and do Columbia and relax some.

Friday night, my Dad and Kathy took Deana, Kingsley and I to Fogo de Chao in Baltimore for a meat orgy. It was amazing. Highly recommended.

Saturday, I went and volunteered at packet pickup handing out timing chips. Who do I see?? MACCA!!!!!!!!!! I see lots of celebrities in NYC but I don't think I've ever geeked out that hard at someone. I was like jumping around and probably would have thrown myself at his feet if I didn't have a line of people waiting to get their chips.

After volunteering, I ran over to Centennial Park to get my bike and helmet checked and rack it. Racing Columbia is fun but it's also a chance for me to catch with so many people. I got distracted in bike racking and put my helmet on the handle bars of someone else's bike, 2 bikes down and left! I realized about 8 PM and ran back over to the park and begged the security people to let me back in so someone didn't pitch it off their bike in the morning. Then I came home and found my mom's chihuahua puppy chewing on my chip! Way to be prepared, Erin!

So, Sunday race day. The weather reports were calling for 65 degrees and 90% chance of thunderstorms. Not ideal racing conditions to say the least. I woke up around 4:30 and the sky was clear and it really wasn't very cold. So, I was feeling better. I do not like to ride in the rain. Got to the race, pumped up my tires, talked some shit in the transition area and headed down to the swim start.

Swim: The water was damn cold. Coldest water I've ever had in Centennial Lake. But got off to a good start and thought I was making good time. I didn't even get swam over by the wave behind me until a couple buoys past the second turn. I felt ok, but my swim time was one minute slower than last year. Boo. (31:57)

T1: Pretty quick and easy. Threw on my Team KY jersey and got out of there. (3:57)

Bike: Started out quick, passed a bunch of people on 108 and flew down the first downhill on Homewood. I really felt good and strong for a while. I've realized I need to hook my cat eye back up to my bike and stop riding with no computer. It's not doing any good and I think I need the constant reminder to pick up the pace. The rain drops started at around mile 15. I slowed the pace down and tried to ride smart on the wet roads. I went down the big downhill leading up to the shitty climb up Greenridge and there was a massive clusterfuck of bikes, cars and ambulances at the bottom. Everyone is screaming to slow down and I ride by and see the guy who fell. He was laid out on the ground, no helmet and his whole entire head and face were covered in blood. It was really a terrifying sight. I've never seen anything like that in real life. Maybe on Grey's Anatomy but not a real person and a fellow competitor. I didn't even realize that I was climbing Greenridge because I was so shaken up. So between that and the rain, my last 10 miles were alot slower than they should have been. Still a minute faster than last year, so I can't complain too much. (1:30:10)

T2: Pretty quick dismount off the bike into a muddy transition. Threw on my shoes and IM visor and race belt and hit the run course. (1:51)

Run: The Columbia run course is just mean. It's expected but it still hits you hard. The first hill is so steep and sickening. I stuck to my 4 and 1's and kept a 9:02 pace. I wanted to be under 9, so not great but ok. The aid station in the neighborhood was Dolly Parton themed this year and so funny. Everyone (men, women and children) had blonde wigs, glitter and fake boobs on. It was really funny. The weather was perfect for the run, not too hot, the rain stopped and I felt ok. One minute faster than last year (56:05).

Overall: 3:03:48 Good, but not great. Maybe next year I will make sub 3.

Yesterday, Matt and I rode 64 miles around the Mt. Hebron course. We climbed Spout Hill (death) and Sand Hill and a bunch of other hateful hills. I was tired but I'm glad I did it and I'm glad Matt rode so slow for me!!! Good training weekend.

Next up...the dreaded Bay Swim.

I'm old

Bliss Spa +

Babycakes Bakery
= Birthday Perfection

cinco de mayo

Location: El Maguey Y La Tuna, Lower East Side

Free shots and party favors send us all into a frenzy! Allison loved her sombrero wearing rubber duck so much, she tried to drink him.
Free shots
I won a Mexican Screaming Contest and this gigantic bottle of tequila was the prize! (That's why my face was so red, from all the screaming)
Those party favors just put us all over the edge.
On to the next LES dive bar.

I really love to win stuff.

Jim Wallis lovin up on rubber duckie

You missed out Kingsley Harden. Big time.