I signed up for the Life is Good Duathlon awhile ago because I wanted to try a multi sport event without the pressure of swimming. For a duathlon you run/bike/run a certain amount of miles whereas a triathlon is swim/bike/run. Both a du and a tri have an area in-between called transition where you set things up ahead of time for the next part of the race. You place everything on a folded towel next to your bike. For example, if doing a tri, you have things set up so that when you run in from the swim, everything you need for your biking portion is ready to go. Then when you finish the bike portion everything else is set up for your run. There are many different lengths of races to choose from so I started looking for a short course aimed for beginners. I stumbled upon the Life is Good Duathlon at Peace Valley Park – there were 2 lengths to choose from – short (2 mile run, 5.5 mile bike, 2 mile run) and long (3 mile run, 11 mile bike, 3 mile run). I decided to go for the short course as I had never even attempted anything like this before and didn’t know what to expect or how my body would handle jumping from one activity to the other back to back. I did a little research and it seemed like it would be a good beginner course to try. I assumed both the run and bike would be fairly flat as it stated on their website that there was a hill that was too much for most people so they rerouted the course this year to take that hill out. Well you know what they say about assuming right? 🙂
Cycling
Du Tri, when Pigs Fly…
I have decided to challenge myself this year – not only did I sign up and complete my 1st 15K trail run, but I signed up for a duathlon, triathlon – and I signed up for the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati next May with my sister! 🙂
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Earth Day is such a great day to celebrate – you don’t need to decorate, send cards or buy presents – actually NOT doing any of these things is best! 🙂
Ocean to Bay bike ride
Every time I think of Delaware I think of this scene from Wayne’s World:
Yup – so for the 2nd year I headed down to Delaware to take part in the Bethany Beach Ocean to Bay bike ride. I was a little nervous as the weather channel was calling for up to 40mph winds – not something I really felt like riding 30 miles in, but after watching the documentary The Man Who Cycled The World I figured if Mark Beaumont could ride his bike through the desert in a crazy sandstorm I could probably tough it out for a few hours – plus I already paid for the place we were staying. 🙂
GIVEAWAY!
This year when I was setting up my Christmas tree I was just not happy with all the old ornaments I have had for YEARS. They are just very generic ones that anyone could get at any major store – nothing personal about it. I remember being a kid and almost all of the ornaments on the tree had a special meaning – either my sisters and I MADE them or they had some other significance (1st Christmas, etc). Thinking about this made me realize my tree was pretty drab and how I could personalize it better.
I am a big fan of supporting local artists and shops on Etsy (In case you don’t know Etsy is a website that sells only handmade or vintage items), so I set out to see what kind of ornaments I could find to “spruce” up my tree (see what I did there?? 🙂 haha!) OK – bad jokes aside I found several LOVELY ornaments that would let me bring my love of the outdoors in! Then I thought, why don’t I share these with all my outdoorsy friends on my blog – and have a giveaway with one! (We will get to the giveaway in a sec)
Conestoga Trail – Section A: part 2
The Conestoga Trail is a little known trail in PA that is 63 miles long, starting in Furnace Hills, PA where it meets the Horseshoe Trail and goes to York, PA where it meets the Mason-Dixon Trail. It is considered an endangered trail because big sections of the northern part of the trail have been rerouted onto roads due to landowners revoking trail access. I can’t say that I blame them – on the one hand I want people to get outside and explore, but on the other I’m not so sure I would want people trampling through my private property either. I can see both sides.
While the southern most section of the trail is considered the most scenic, I decided I was going to do the whole thing in sections- why not? 🙂
I began with the on road section of the trail (Which is near the end of section A of the trail guide) as it is hunting season and a big portion of the start of the trail is closed until hunting is over – this way I could get the “boring” on road section of the trail out of the way first while the days are still nice. I found out this section is ANYTHING but boring. While some of the roads are fairly busy (which is why I decided to bike it instead of walk), the views of farmlands, animals and covered bridges were amazing – good old Lancaster County! This section of the trail is a little hilly with one section I had to get off and push my bike up – it was steep even to walk it! The only other thing besides cars you need to watch out for on the trail were the road apples which if you are from PA you will know this is a nice way to say horse poop from the Amish horse and buggies. 🙂
MS 150 – City to Shore (part 2)
In 2009 I attempted to ride 75 miles of the MS 150, but just wasn’t prepared enough to finish. In 2010 I was back with a vengeance! Kevin decided to do the ride with me – we both signed up for the 75 mile route. We got padded bike shorts (what a difference!!), trained, and Kevin even got a new bike!
We pulled into the parking area EARLY and were within the first few waves to leave. Since there are so many people doing this ride, they let groups of riders go, spaced out by a few minutes. It was amazing how FAST some people can ride – Kevin and I both commented on that – I mean it seemed like there were people who were in worse shape than us just FLYING by us – we didn’t get it! Did they have better bikes? We were both on hybrids. It just felt like the WHOLE time, we were pedaling like crazy and people would pass us who were definitely not pedaling as much as us but going so much farther faster. I understand the people with road bikes with the clip in shoes, but other than that it was strange!
The Mystery of the Presta Bike Valve
Last year when Kevin got me my beautiful new Cannondale bike it took a little getting used to – the whole feel of the bike was completely different. I never would have thought – I mean a bike is just a frame with 2 wheels and pedals right? I know that there are different bikes for different things – road bike, mountain bike, hybrid… I went from a Diamondback hybrid to a Cannondale hybrid – It’s hard to explain, maybe I was just trying to be super careful and not wanting anything to happen to it as my new bike was more expensive than what my current car is worth (my car is super old and according to the Kelly Blue Book value my car truly is a little less, but it’s like a tank and I love it dearly and can not bring myself to part with it yet – LOL) but also it just FELT totally different. It has hydraulic disc brakes, slightly thinner tires (even though they are both considered hybrids) and thumb shifters – which I LOVE – they are sooo smooth compared to my old bike which had the twist grip shifters. It is also incredibly lighter than my old bike. I think I was just so used to the my clunky old bike that it took a lot to get used to how smooth the new one was.
But the BIGGEST difference I didn’t even notice until I was riding home from work earlier this year – I decided to swing by a gas station to fill up the tires with air (I got the bike for Christmas so I hadn’t been riding it much til spring.) I rode up to the air pump, jumped off my bike and started to unscrew the cap and noticed it was a WAYY thinner valve than my old bike – what was going on? Once the black dust cap was off I had no idea what I was looking at – was this some kind of defect? I didn’t even see anything that looked like a hole where the air would go into – just a weird little nubbin! I stood there just staring at it – there was NO WAY I would be able to fill up my tires – that dinky little bike valve would never attach to the air pump. I rode home totally confused. Continue reading
MS 150 – City to Shore (part 1)
Well I did it! I signed up again for the MS 150 City to Shore. I have done this ride twice before – well let me rephrase that, I have attempted this ride twice before and completed it once. The MS 150 is an epic charity bike ride which benefits Multiple Sclerosis – it starts in Cherry Hill, NJ and goes all the way to Ocean City, NJ. There are literally THOUSANDS of people that come to ride this event of all different abilities – it is quite overwhelming to see! Of course, you don’t have to ride the whole 150 (if you do, that’s split up into a 2 day event.). There is also the 100 mile century ride, the 75 mile ride which is the ride I sign up for (which is listed as 80 miles this year), a 45 mile and a 25 mile – so there is something for everyone! There are also MS cycling events a lot of different states across the US.
Biking to Work – it’s WORTH IT!
I LOVE riding my bike so I’ll take any excuse I can to sneak in a ride! If you have been reading my blog for a while you know I started biking to the grocery store. I have been biking to work for a few years now – not every day, sometimes I wake up too late or the weather is bad, or I’m feeling lazy 🙂 but the days where it works out just seems to start my day off right!
blisters and bug bites 
