My bike is here!

The most exciting box showed up the other day- MY NEW BIKE! It was so much fun to take it to the bike store, get it put together and finally get it out on the road!

First step, put it on the car and get it to Bradley!

The Escape looks GREAT with bikes on top cruising through the streets of the Big Apple. Getting them in the Thule rack is going to take some practice...we may or may not have already broken one...but I am sure we will get there! 

Team Curtiss, cruising down to the Shore...

No pictures of me actually riding the bike yet, its a work in progress. I did go for three nice (short) rides this weekend though. I am not yet able to ride on the aero bars yet, which has the side effect of me not being able to shift gears very efficiently. So I went for a nearly 60 minute ride in the same gear! Tonight I was able to shift the back a bit with one hand, but it wasn't very smooth and I have no ability to shift the front! 

On the way home today there was a little rain in the forecast, so I did a quick fix with some grocery bags to cover my saddle and handlebars. Took a little picture through the sunroof! It did pour down on the drive, so I was glad I did it! 

Hopefully I will get this bike figured out and have some pictures of me looking very cool on my bike very soon! 

Wall Street Run

The lack of posts sadly correlates to the lack of training....opps. Work has been a little crazy and my training hasn't been so great for the month of May, but I have plenty of time left (or so I tell myself!) before my big races, so I am not taking it too hard.

I did however fit in a fun little 3 mile race this past week- the American Heart Association Wall Street Heart Run.

I dashed out of a meeting at work, ran to the Husband's office to change clothes and jetted downtown to Wall Street to run this little guy. I have mixed views on the race- it was in an amazing location in the heart of lower Manhattan and so much fun to run on the streets when the NYRR races are usually in Central Park. On the other hand, the race started over 30 minutes late which was frustrating after I had made such a big point of running out of work early, it was SUPER crowded through out the whole race resulting in a lot of pushing and shoving and I am fairly sure the race ended up being longer than 3 miles. My Garmin hit 3 miles a good 3-400 meters before finish line. My Garmin is not always right, but I tend to believe it this time. 

If my Garmin is to be believed, I ran a 29.17, which, given the crowding issues, isn't too bad. If NYRR is to be believed, I ran a 31.29, which puts me at 10.36/mile. Not exactly breaking world records here. My goal for the summer is to start consistently running sub 9.00 miles. I actually think I do run sub 9 most of the time- but the occasional stopping for water or otherwise really throws the average... 

My first mile went fantastic, about 8:30/mile. My second and third miles got slower- it was a bit warm and I hadn't had anything real to eat in a while and was perhaps a little distracted by the crowds and the sights. Heading in to the finish they routed us onto a very narrow sidewalk, which created a very crowded and slow situation. 

All in all it was a fun event- and should serve as good inspiration to get back to running since my results were not all that inspired. I love the atmosphere of races, even when they don't go as planned, so I am always excited to get to run with a few thousand of my closest friends! 

Athleta Power to the She

Check out this awesome Athleta award I was honored to receive at the Iron Girl triathlon:

athleta power to the she award lake las vegas 2012

It was so nice of Athleta to celebrate my Mom's fight against breast cancer this year and my journey to my first tri and I was very excited to be selected for their award! The Athleta team at Lake Las Vegas was so sweet- it was great to meet them! Looking forward to spending my present on some lovely Athleta clothes in the near future!

Thanks, Athleta! 

New Wheels!

I decided that I liked triathlons so much that I was going to go a little crazy sign up for 5 more of them this summer, and because I signed up for so many, I was going to need upgraded wheels to get me across all those finish lines. And upgrade I did. 

I went from this...

My first road bike! 

To this......

My first tri bike!

Like many of the things I do in life, I decided to go after triathlons full force..I hired a professional coach (she is awesome, more on that later I am sure!), started a training plan (compliments of the awesome coach),bought an indoor bike trainer (don't want to miss a work out), multiple books on triathlons...so buying a sexy tri bike was the obvious next step. 

So meet my Specialized Shiv Comp with Zip 404 race wheels. We need to spend a little more time together before she is officially named, but I have one in the works. 

I have to say that I was SUPER intimidated about the bike buying experience. When the Husband and I bought our first road bikes last summer we more or less walked in to a store, said we wanted bikes, and came out with, you guessed it, bikes. There was minimal research involved. We didn't know our carbon forks from our cassettes and certainly didn't know the different between Sram and Shimano. And it turned out just fine and we have loved our bikes this past year. But for this bike, I wanted to make a very educated decision. So I attacked the internet and read everything I could about tri bikes. Honestly, I am not sure what I would do with out youtube and google?!? 

So much internet-ing later, I found myself at the coolest bike store in the world, ready to make a big purchase.

All hail Pelton- Specialized mecca. 

Seriously, Peleton is the coolest bike store I have ever been in. It is gigantic, the people are nice and it is full of really incredible Specialized bikes- nothing not to love. I will spare you the details of the love affair I have with my salesperson and bike fitter, but they were unbelievably nice and amazingly helpful! 

Once the Shiv was picked out, it was time for a Body Geometry fit. 

Do I look aero? 

Yes, I know I know it looks like a teeny tiny clown bike but I am assured that they are supposed to be compact and my short torso and long legs means my bike has to be little so I can reach the aerobars! 

Multiple hours on the bike later, it was fit to me like a glove and I got to take it for a spin around the block before they boxed it up and got ready to send it to New York. The first ride was....terrifying! Having a bike this nice, and one with aerobars (you want me to shift the gears where?)  is a totally new experience and I nearly fell off on at the first intersection. But  my new friends at the bike store assured me that it will get easier and I will not always look like a complete idiot riding this thing. Crossing my fingers!!!

Sadly she is now in pieces, in a box, in route to New York- but hopefully she will arrive next week and we will start spending a LOT of time together. I am sure there are going to be some stellar stories about the tri-bike learning curve so stay tuned for the inevitable tales of my tri-bike related mishaps. 

NEW Crowdrise Page...

Well there was a little mix up with our dear friends at Crowdrise and they have switched my fundraising page to the following address:

Erin's NEW Team Pink Agenda Crowdrise Page

Apologies for any confusion- and THANK YOU so much for all of the amazing donations- I am blown away by what wonderful friends I have =)

New Wheels...

Since I will be spending countless hours on a bike this summer training for the Augusta Half Ironman, I decided it was time for some upgraded wheels.

Meet my new Specialized Shiv Comp. She still lives at Peleton Cycles in Fort Collins for now, but we have a fitting date on Thursday and then she will be headed back to NYC. Hope she is comfortable because I am going to be spending a LOT of time with her. 

Happy Mother's Day (Belated)

Well Mother's Day for the family got a little sidetracked with yet another medical emergency that had us spending our day in the ICU with my Aunt- but things are looking up- and it is never too late to celebrate the amazing Moms in our lives. And always important to remember that a little humor can get you through the rough patches.

But really, I am so thankful to have such an amazing Mom, she is the best. And because I am really lucky, I also have been blessed with an awesome Grandma, Aunt, Mother-in-Law and Aunts-in-Law as well!

And to celebrate Mom, the Husband will be busy today installing her new HD TiVo. Nothing says I love you like on demand Netflix and the ability to record hundreds of episodes of "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding."

Love you Mom!