Thin, separated yogurt. But my yogurt that I made on Saturday did actually come out edible, at least once you stir it up and mix it with granola! I had a bit of a problem with maintaining a consistent temperature for incubating it. I ended up having to use our huge cooler that we just bought last week (for endurance races and camping). It held the temperature much better than the small cooler bag I was using, and my yogurt finally began thickening up. Unfortunately, the whey separated from the yogurt. I’m pretty sure this was because of all the jostling and moving that occurred when I was trying to keep my first incubator warm enough and then moving the jars into the big cooler. There are a few other things that could have happened too, but I guess I won’t really ever know what happened. I’ll try again in a few weeks. My smaller container of yogurt that I’m going to use for the starter didn’t separate like the other two bigger containers, and I’m hoping it will be suitable for the next batch. I’m tempted to make yogurt cheese (strain out the whey) with some of this batch just for the heck of it. I’ll add some chives from our “garden” (really a bunch of herbs planted in a strawberry jar).

I haven’t been in a writing mood lately, hence no new updates about training for the duathlon, or how my six hour race went. I actually have half a write-up for the race, I just can’t seem to finish it. I imagine in the next few days I’ll finish it up. I really am okay with posting about things weeks after they occurred.

So what have I been doing instead of posting to my journal? Well, I’m still running and riding. I even managed to run 5k the other evening after a .5K warm-up, with one tiny little moment of walking towards the end of a long grind of a hill (about 3K into the run). It was really a short moment of walking though, so I feel like I can say, with confidence, that I ran 5k. Hey, you can coast on a bicycle right? This wasn’t too much different, right?

I’ve also been reading a bunch. Mostly novels by various authors. I just finished The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. I liked it quite a bit, and was a little sad when it ended because I found that I really had become “attached” to a few of the characters. I wanted to know what would come next for them. Apparently there is a movie version, but I’m not sure I want to see it. The actors and actresses don’t fit my vision of a few of the characters in the slightest. I really have a strong idea in my head about what the characters look like. Also, I have a tendency to always think the book version (of any movie) is better.

And now to the title feature!
I am making yogurt! I’m using these instructions. Next time I’m making the 4 quart batch. It was way too much of pain to stand over the hot stove for only 2 quarts. On the plus side, maybe all the hot steam from my makeshift double broiler was good for my face. Anyway, the original instructions called for Dannon plain yogurt but I read the ingredients for the nonfat version and it contained pectin. I wanted nothing but milk and yogurt cultures. I ended up using FAGE Total 0%. It contains active yogurt cultures, so it should work. The main difference is that this is strained Greek yogurt so it’s a thicker consistency. I hope that doesn’t cause any problems. Also, FAGE Total has different kinds of yogurt cultures than Dannon, so the flavor is a bit different. I prefer the flavor of FAGE. Hopefully the yogurt was fresh enough so the cultures were indeed still active, and hopefully the cooler I used insulated the water enough to keep the yogurt warm. I’ll know in about a half hour! I’ll post an update tomorrow, whether it’s good news or bad.

Yesterday’s group ride ended up not happening since there was a tremendous storm that blew through and supposedly there was a lot of debris on the route that we were going to take. In addition, we were still under a tornado watch and the sky looked like there would most likely be some thundershowers. I ended up going home and going for a run instead, since it was starting to sprinkle and also the power was out at the house so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too dark when I got back home. The run was absolutely miserable for the first half, but I stopped for a moment and walked a tiny bit, then gave it another go. It was probably less than 2 miles total but the second half really wasn’t too bad as far as speed and pain were concerned. The second half was actually kind of boring- I ran up and down my street, sprinting up the the little hill at the end of it, and sprinting between a couple of mailboxes on the way back. I called it quits after I felt the same as I would feel after a very hard bike ride as far as my breathing and heart rate were concerned. Speaking of heart rate, I haven’t been wearing my monitor but I did wear it for my race on Saturday and I keep meaning to wear it when I climb the mountain. That’s really straight up curiosity, since it does feel like my heart is going to explode when I climb the mountain.

Today I went on my Aldie route. I actually wanted to run a little bit, but I’m planning on doing a 6 hr mountain bike race on Saturday so no running until after that! I have enough going against me for a 6 hr mtb race. Today’s ride was a moderate pace, with a few hard efforts and moment of bonking/recovering. It was an hour long and I averaged just over 15 mph. I time-trialled it for a bit and I averaged 28.something mph on a straight section of road. I’ll guess it was about a 1/4 mile effort? It didn’t feel quite like a sprint, I could have maintained the speed for a longer distance except I had to stop for a stop sign. Next time I ride that road I’ll try to do a sprint to the stop sign and run out of gas at the end of it. Then I’ll recover a bit and ride on home.

I’m being lazy and not posting specific ride/run stats, but that’s mainly because I’m just too darn tired. I know that I’m progressing towards my goals though, and hopefully next week I will get in a few great runs. I want to do a little bit longer of a run next week, at least a 5K. I plan on walking a little bit during it so I don’t over do it.

Well, I survived the race. I didn’t get dropped until just after the beginning of the third lap. The third lap turned out to be the final lap, since apparently there was lightening on part of the course. {Note: sorry Heather- I mislead you in my response to your comment- it was only a three lap race, not four}. I ended up time-trialling that lap until I hooked back up with Barb of Haymarket Bicycles. We took turns pulling until we passed the finish line and were told our race was over. I always feel a little ripped off when a race gets shortened. Oh well. I haven’t uploaded my data yet, but I believe we averaged 21.3 mph for the first 2 laps (about 16 miles in distance), and then for my solo/duo lap I averaged just a hair over 17 mph. The course was relatively flat, but I wasted way too much energy being at the back of the pack when it came time to go through the corners. So basically it was slow way the heck down with the rest of the pack, and accelerate. I also know I was wasted energy even in the pack. I’ll get better at drafting, eventually. There’s nothing else exciting to mention about the race itself, other than Barb and Leigh Ann were trying to recruit me to their team I’m just not ready to leave KCOI/Boulevard yet… I guess I’m nervous about joining a new team without really knowing what my options are. But Barb and Leigh Ann are both very nice and I imagine I may end up joining the team. Even if this season’s shorts are all white. The ladies were not asked their opinions on the shorts, so I won’t place any of the blame on them.

Tonight I went for a run, or tried to anyway. I kept getting side stitches and would eventually have to walk them off. I did throw in a couple of sprints for good measure. Tomorrow I think I’ll climb Bull Run Mountain (via bike) and then immediately change into running shoes and run for a mile or two, or maybe do a few sprints up and down my street. If I do a regular run, I’ll try to stick with the trails though because the pavement is really not being kind to my feet or knees. As a matter of fact, I actually had this thought today: “damn, I hate running, why the heck am I doing a duathlon???”. Then I found a patch of wild strawberries and helped myself to one, and though I was still having side stitches I was able to continue along for a little while longer without thinking such negative thoughts. I haven’t downloaded the data from the run either, but I know I was running very slowly. I am curious as to what I was able to pull off for a sprint though. I’ll check tomorrow after I ride and run.

I’m in my pre-race nervous stage at the moment. I’m actually not as nervous as I often am the night before a race. I think this is for a couple of reasons- 1. I’m fighting off a cold. I don’t have the energy to waste on being nervous. 2. It’s really not that long of a race. It’s actually shorter than several of the training rides I’ve put in lately.

Tomorrow, I’m really going to try hard to stick myself in the middle of the pack, maybe even the front. If I start near the back, I have trouble hanging on, plus when I’m further up front I feel obligated to suck wheel so the people behind me don’t need to wonder why I don’t close the gap.

In a sort of related topic- since I’ve began running, I’m finding it hard to wait for cyclocross season to begin. Hopefully this duathlon training stuff helps me out with ‘cross this year.

I was a lucky girl and got a new mountain bike on Friday for my “gradbirsary” present. {note: gradbirthsary=graduation, birthday, anniversary). I now own a ti hardtail- with gears!! Not that I don’t love my Surly 1×1, but let’s face it, there are more hills here than in Kansas City, so I want options. For instance, for our ride on Sunday, I would have possibly died just climbing the mountain roads to get to the mountain trails if I had ridden the 1×1. My new bike is a Motobecane, with really ugly yellow decals that I plan on removing. I don’t normally feel the urge to remove decals, but it’s just going to have to happen on this bike at some point. I’ve been out trail riding twice now on my new bike and I have to say it is very nice. It’s light, snappy and has really nice shifters and brakes.

Now the update on my “training” for the duathlon (Time data won’t be adjusted for moving time only since I’m currently having problems uploading stuff to motionbased.com):

Saturday: Zach and I went to Fountainhead Regional Park. My timer on my GPS unit flaked out and shut off after 20 minutes into the ride. Looking at the trail map, I’ll estimate that we rode about 8 miles. There was some nice flowing fast singletrack, but also some fall line up and down stuff. Overall it was nice. There were a couple of teeters and skinnies out there too. I rode one of the teeters (my first time!) after a few false starts.

Ride Type: MTB, Fun! Testing out new bike, relearning how to mountain bike after all these road rides…
Distance: ~8 miles
Time: ~1.5 hours

Sunday: Zach and I rode up the mountain via different roads than I mentioned in a previous post about riding up the mountain. We stopped by a yard sale towards the top, but didn’t find anything worth buying. We continued up a little more and hopped on some trails that run along the ridge and down the back side of the mountain. It was really a beautiful ride and the trail was a neat mixture of pine needles, moss and quartz.

Ride Type: MTB/Road on MTBikes, recreational, hill climb
Distance: 8.83 mile
Time: 2:09:05 This includes stops at overlooks and a yard sale.
Average Speed: 4.1 mph
Max Speed: 24.5 mph

Monday: Zach and I went for a long tandem ride. We rode from our home to Aldie, Bluemont, up Mt. Weather, through Delaplane, up Naked Mountain, the Plains and then home. Did I mention it was long? I needed at least one additional chamois butter stop. Notable neat thing that we saw on this ride was the Mt. Weather Homeland Security Site that surrounded both sides of the road at one point. This is apparently one of the places they evacuate important people to in case of emergency. The barbed wire fence was designed to keep people in, as well as out. I guess if you manage to actually get in, they don’t want you getting back out until they’ve dealt with you! Anyway, the Mt. Weather portion of the ride was my favorite part of the ride. We rode along the ridge and had some fantastic views, at least when we actually had a chance to see anything but forest. The forest was beautiful too of course. Like most most mountains that I’ve had a chance to visit, there was a unique mix of “mountain folk” type homes and “rich folk” type homes. I think this is one of my favorite things about mountains. I have no idea why.

Ride Type: Road/Tandem. Base miles, recreation.
Distance: 67.97
Time: 5:17:39
Average Speed: 12.8 mph
Max Speed: 40.1 mph

Tuesday: See my last post.

Wednesday: Haymarket Bicycles group ride. Rode to the Plains and back. The two other girls talked me into doing a road race on Saturday. I’ve preregistered, so no backing out. It’s only about 23 miles or so, and I guess on a not too hilly route. I’ll write about it after I complete it. Not too much else to say about the group ride, other than I didn’t get dropped or anything. I fit right in with the B group ride.

Ride Type: Road. Training/group ride.
Distance: 26.8 miles
Time: 1:33:16
Speed: 16.9 mph
Max Speed: 34.6 mph

Thursday: I went for a road/trail run, adding two or three good uphills on the road. I felt that I was able to push it harder but I did die sooner. After I couldn’t run any longer, I walked for just a moment, and then finished up the rest of my run. I’m still only able to do about 2 miles.

Run Type: Road/Trail
Distance: 2.2 miles
Time: 23:46:74
Speed: 6.1 mph on the first part, 5.5 mph on the second half.
Max Speed: 10.1 mph on the first part (you gotta come down the hills that you go up ) 5.9 on the second.

I just got back from a quickie trail run, and the humidity is so high that I am sopping wet. Gross. I ran for 2.07 miles at a little bit quicker pace than I’ve managed on my last two runs, or at least it felt like I did. I don’t really have any decent data for the previous runs. I ran three+ laps on the trail that is in the woods behind us. The temperature isn’t too bad right now except the humidity and the light sprinkle made it feel a lot hotter. I didn’t hurt too bad during the run except I kept rolling my right foot on rocks. I think my form was half decent until about 1.7 miles into the run. I could feel myself getting sloppy and tired. Also, I hadn’t grabbed a water bottle and I had to use the bathroom all of a sudden so I figured it must be time to finish up my lap, cool down and go home.

The plan for tomorrow night is to do the Haymarket group ride and then a quick run, and on Thursday I’ll do some sort of run. Length and effort will depend on how I feel. Ride updates from the long weekend will most likely be posted later tonight, complete with photos.

Run type: trail run, training
Distance: 2.07miles plus .16mile cool down walk
Time (run only): 00:24:4
Speed: average 5 mph, max 6.6 mph

Alright, so I’m officially registered for my first duathlon. So I really can’t back out of it now. Unfortunately I won’t have my support crew (Zach) with me since he has already preregistered for a stage race the same weekend. I was actually going to do that stage race too, but didn’t preregister because the Women’s Cat 4 race isn’t exactly in danger of filling up. However, since it’s the same weekend as the duathlon I’m going to have to pass. I really enjoy stage races but I picked this particular duathlon because it seems like a perfect first-timer race. Plus if I don’t do it, then I run the risk of never doing it.

I mentioned in one of my last posts that I would try to do a decent job of updating my journal as far as training was concerned. I have to do a list recap since I’ve been too busy to write daily this week.

Monday: Zach and I went on a tandem ride to Haymarket and Manassas. This was a double-duty ride to put some miles in but also run some errands. We went to Haymarket Bicycles, CVS, Global Foods (I’ve never seen so many varieties of eggplants!), A-1 Bicycles and Bloom (a grocery store). Notable neat things that we saw: a red fox crossing the road, Iris Pseudacorus (yellow irises) in the marshes {note: these were neat and pretty, but apparently an invasive species. That sucks.}, red poppies along the road side and several varieties of eggplants at the Asian/Hispanic market {including: Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and the regular large purple ones that you can find at most grocery stores.}. The last 20 miles or so of this ride was completed with a heavily loaded BOB trailer.

Ride Type: base miles, errands
Mileage: 47.7 miles
Average Speed: 14.4 mph
Moving Time (time not including time in stores and at stop signs): 3:18:10

Tuesday: I rode up the mountain. Ugh, that hurt. I started to feel the telltale twinge of my IT band telling me to be careful. I really need to get back into my daily stretching/foam roller routine. I have to remember that the stretching and foam roller is supposed to be preventative maintenance, not just something to do when I feel like my IT band is acting up. Anyway, back to the mountain. It’s really a pretty ride. I was in granny gear for a good chunk of the ride, but there were definitely a few spots that I was able to put it in a taller gear. My goal for the mountain is to be able to ride to the top in something taller than granny gear, and a bit quicker too. It was a long, slow grind for almost the entire ride, save a few spots here and there where the road decided to give just enough of a downslope to recover for the next switchback. I have a tendency to climb and mash up hills. This one was no different except for towards the top I had to sit and spin to try to take it easy on my IT band. However, I’m not sure “spin” is the correct word there. It was still a grind. I was huffing and puffing the entire way up the mountain. It was a great workout to say the least. I started with a quick warm up on Mountain Rd, had to head back home to put more air in the tires (that is the first time I’ve forgotten to check the tires before heading out) and then headed up the mountain via Gore to Ridge. Nothing interesting as far as neat sights go. I did run into a couple of other cyclists trudging up the hill. I actually met them the next evening, and learned that they do it about 5 times in a row in hard gears so that it’s a challenge for them. The junior said “so you just went up one time?” Um, yes. But thanks for making me feel like I suck.

Ride Type: Hill Climb
Mileage: 7.49 miles (included warm up/uphill/downhill/cooldown)
Average Speed: 9.1 mph
Time: 0:49:1
Elevation Chart: (Click to see larger view)

Wednesday: Tried to do the Haymarket Bicycles group ride, but right before 6:00 there was a nasty storm. We’re talking sideways gusts, hail/icy rain and a pretty significant temperature drop. The shop team decided that they would do their meeting that apparently was scheduled for after the ride, and postponed the ride until 6:15/6:20ish. Well, I loaded up my bike and decided to head home to do a run instead once 6:50 rolled around. Of course, the second I turned the key they all got back from their meeting. Oh well, I’ll try again next week. I went home, changed into warmer non-cycling clothes and went for a run. Nothing too exciting- I just did a loop down Youngs Dr. and up Mountain Rd back to Tiffany. I sprinted up “Mount Tiffany” and felt the same way I do when I ride up the darn hill, so I must have done it right. Notable neat things: I saw an Eastern Bluebird, several varieties of wildflowers, mosses and ferns along the side of the road, and I snagged a leaf from the cash crop of mint that I ran by. Hopefully it was pretty clean because I chewed on the leaf…

Run Type: Road, training (note: you will probably never see the words “recreational road run” anywhere at any time in my blog. Recreational implies “fun”.)
Mileage: approximately 2.4 miles (includes a 1/4 mile brisk walk warm up)
Average Speed: unknown (GPS didn’t pickup satellites). If I did the math, I would see that it was “slow”.
Time: 0:32:27

Thursday: Today I went for a bike ride to Aldie via the way I normally go. I rode to the post office, dropped off a bill and then rode home adding two offshoots to increase the distance by a little bit. A portion of Mountain Road was a mess to navigate since they were resurfacing it, but at least it was smooth. I had to ride on the wrong side of the road to avoid the fresh oily surface. They had flag men directing traffic, so I wasn’t worried about getting ran over. Plus, it’s not like it’s a busy road. Nothing really exciting to report other than I think I’m definitely doing that route a lot faster than I used to. Also, on one of my offshoots, I got to the end of the road where I found a sign that said “Private Road, Public Maintenance Ends” (or something to that affect). I’m pretty sure “Public Maintenance” had ended a 1/4 mile back where I had turned onto it. There were potholes, places where the road had buckled or shifted, and just general disrepair.

Ride Type: Training, errand
Mileage: 18.64 miles
Average Speed: 15.4 mph
Time: 1:12:25

I guess that’s it for now. My legs are feeling pretty tired right now.

I had to catch up on writing to a penpal so I ran out of blog time. I did want to write a quick note on my progress towards my duathlon goal. I rode almost 48 miles yesterday (tandem) and rode up the mountain (solo) today. It may not be a really big mountain, but holy cow is it steep. I should be doing a group road ride tomorrow and I’m going running (hopefully trail-running) on Thursday. More details (like mileage) will be posted on Thursday when I have a little more free time.

In the meantime, have I mentioned that I continue to love our new home?

I’m going to do a duathlon. Or a few. Road and off-road. Since I have to start somewhere, I’ve chosen the Fredericksburg Off-Road Duathlon (F.O.R.D.) Series race #2 on June 21st. I would have done race #1, but it happened in April, and I’m pretty sure I had a lot of other stuff going in April. I also hadn’t really decided that I was going to do a duathlon. So now that I’ve posted my goal on my blog, there is no backing out of it. As a matter of fact, it means I can’t skip out on actual training either. I chose this particular race because of the short distance (in other words, not an endurance event). It’s been a while since I ran, so I’m easing back into it, but I also wanted to do an event that isn’t too far off in the future. I haven’t decided whether I’ll do the beginner or the advanced category, but since I’ve never done a duathlon (or even an organized running event) I think I’ll start with the beginner race. I’ll decide at that point whether to do the advanced race for the third race in the series.

I started “training” this week. I did a 2 mile run (yeah, I know you runners are laughing at me right now) and that was enough for me. Actually, it was really a 1 3/4 mile run since the first 1/4 mile was a brisk warm up walk. The run itself wouldn’t have been too bad except for two things: 1. The only option I have to go running is to run uphill first. And then I can choose to immediately run back down a steep hill (and over to a hilly, but not steep, road or go up another hill. I decided to go uphill (because how bad can that really be?), and then my choice was to go uphill again, and then either uphill or uphill. Crap. After all those uphills, I had to go back downhill. This was harder than the uphills, and I seriously thought at one point that I would lose my footing and fly through the air. 2. Our chip seal roads are highly crowned or insloped or something, more so than the roads that were in our Kansas City neighborhood. This is probably due to the fact that mountain roads need to be built differently than flatland roads. That’s my guess anyway, I actually don’t know a darn thing about building roads. Anyway, my ankles and legs did not like the camber of the surface. I am also used to trail-running where I have a softer landing for my apparently sensitive feet. I guess I can complain about that run a little more: the socks I was wearing weren’t very comfortable, even though I’m sure I wore them before without any problems. So basically what I’m saying is that I have a little work to do before I’m going to be very successful with this duathlon thing.

I’m feeling confident about the bike part though, so I guess that’s good. I’ve been getting a few good road rides in every week, and I’m feeling stronger and less out of shape each time. Next week I’ll start posting stats (miles/speed) for each run and ride, even if they are not very exciting. This is mainly so I can keep track of what effort I’m actually putting into this duathlon thing, and I figure if I’m good about regularly posting stats then I’ll stay motivated to keep on track. I’ve been saying I’m going to do a duathlon (specifically off-road) for at least a year now so now is the time.

I’m fully open to suggestions, if anyone has any.

At least the uphills are pretty:

Sorry for the bad photo, it was completely the wrong time of day to take a decent photo with my point and shoot.