Sarah Jo Austin

Four Post-Run Activities You Shouldn’t Do (And Four You Should)

So it’s Take It and Run Thursday over at Runner’s Lounge, and the title of this week’s writing assignment is “Run. Rest and Recover. Repeat.” I’m supposed to be sharing my secrets for recovery after long runs or hard races, but instead I’m going to share four you shouldn’t do. Let’s take a look:

Continue Reading 6 comments August 28th, 2008

Republic Tiger Triathlon Race Review

Sunday I shared with you all my experience with my first triathlon, and today I want to tell you a bit more about the race itself and give you (and its organizers) some feedback about how I thought it went. Let’s get some key stuff out of the way:

* Race Name: Republic Tiger Triathlon
* Years Held: Two
* Distances: 300 yard swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run
* Sponsors/Organizers: Republic Parks & Recreation, Ozarks Multisport Club, Sunshine Bike Shop, Ultramax Events

Continue Reading Add comment August 27th, 2008

Republic Tiger Triathlon Pictures Posted!

I finally sorted through all the pictures Chris took at the triathlon, and here’s a link to the album. Once proofs from the race photographers are posted, I’ll link to those, too. (Please forgive me of the atrocious bathing suit. I promise to get a one piece for the next race.)

Republic Tiger Triathlon

Add comment August 25th, 2008

My First Tri: The Complete Race Report

2:03:26. The official I-completed-a-triathlon-and-didn’t-die time. I thought I was going to die–several times. I have several post-triathlon posts up my sleeve, but today’s will cover my experience at the Republic Tiger Tri (and how much it sucked). OK. I’m being melodramatic. I’ve been finished with the race for about 34 hours, and in retrospect, I am very proud of myself. I’m a triathlete now! Yikes! Thirty-four hours ago, though, it was a different story. Here’s how everything went down:

Continue Reading 2 comments August 24th, 2008

My First Tri: Some Initial Thoughts

Well, I finished. I have no idea what my time(s) is because when I finished the race, I just didn’t care. You’ll get those times when I get them. I know some of you are dying to here about the race, so here are some initial thoughts:

Continue Reading 8 comments August 23rd, 2008

This is how I feel today…

That’s all you need to know.

P.S. I got bangs, by the way.

6 comments August 21st, 2008

For-the-Love-of-Links Friday | 15 August 2008

Wow! It’s been a busy week! The Olympics have totally consumed my evenings and my RSS reader, so this week’s link lovin’ will all be related to those fantastic games. Here we go:

Continue Reading 1 comment August 15th, 2008

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Release Rescheduled

I am officially depressed. My entire fall schedule has fall through the floor. According to MarketWatch.com, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will not be released until Summer 2009. Originally scheduled for a Thanksgiving 2008 release, producers say the movie’s production schedule was completed on time but that the writer’s strike still affected part of the production schedule. Producers also say that because summer is a season for blockbusters and because Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix did so well last summer, a summer 2009 release will make the film available to the widest audience.

Translation: We know we’ll make a boat load of money and break all sorts of theater records by releasing the film in the summer, so we’re going to make our faithful fans wait two whole years between HP films. Two years for more Helena Bonham Carter, two years to see young Lily and James, two years to see a Horcrux. Although this is the biggest load of crap I’ve heard in a while, I guess I now have time to reread the entire series (again). And maybe LAM will be Stateside to watch it with me!

3 comments August 14th, 2008

Triathlon Training: Weeks 9 & 10

Can you believe my race is less than two weeks away? I can’t! It’s crazy how fast this summer has flown by. I can tell you, though, that sprint triathlon training is a heckuva lot better than marathon training in July/August because you get to spend time in the pool (water in the face) and on a bike (wind in the face). Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Monday, July 28, 2008

• Workout type. Running
• Route. Forest Park 3
• Feeling.
• Time. 33 minutes
• Distance. 3 miles
• Pace per mile. 11:00
• Additional notes. Again, another normal run around my neighborhood. I wouldn’t mind some new routes, but I often run after dark, and I like to stick to side streets that are well lit.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

• Workout type. Brick
• Route. Forest Park 3 x 4 + Pembrooke 2
• Feeling.
• Time. 66 minutes (46 + 2)
• Distance. 11 minutes (9 + 2)
• Pace per mile. 6:00 (5:06 + 11:00)
• Additional notes. First ride with the helmet, and I think it will work just fine. At first, my forehead itched, but after a few rides, I don’t notice it anymore. Will have to practice transitioning from “swim cap” hair to “helmet” hair to “visor” hair. Maybe I should shave my head…

Thursday, July 31, 2008

• Workout type. Brick
• Route. Forest Park 3 x 5
• Feeling. Surprisingly
• Time. 90 minutes (60 + 30)
• Distance. 15 miles (12 + 3)
• Pace per mile. 6:00 (5:00 + 10)
• Additional notes. Holy crap! Did you see my 3-mile time? That’s faster than my 5K PR! OK, now granted I’m not running with a stopwatch, so I don’t know minutes and seconds, but that was a pretty awesome run! If I can do this on race day, this puts me on track for a 1:45:00 triathlon. And that would be neat!

Friday, August 1, 2008

• Workout type. Lap swim
• Route. YMCA pool
• Feeling.
• Time. 60 minutes
• Distance. 1800 m
• Pace per mile. N/A
• Additional notes. Well, I finally got back in the pool. I know I can finish the swim in the race, but I’m not sure how quickly I’ll do it. For sure, I want (need) to finish in less than 10 minutes if I’m doing this in 1:45:00.

For week nine, I planned to take it easy. Instead, I took the week off. The hubby and I had a hard weekend of meetings, design, and editing, so I intentionally took Monday off. Tuesday it was blistering. Wednesday it threatened rain. Thursday was the So You Think You Can Dance finale. I finally hit the road on Sunday night for my longest bike ride thus far.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

• Workout type. Cycling
• Route. Forest Park 3 x 5
• Feeling.
• Time. 73 minutes
• Distance. 15 miles
• Pace per mile. 4:50
• Additional notes. Another ride around my neighborhood. This one got me thinking about marathon training for a December marathon and how I might work in cycling. For sure, I’ll have to do some cross training during training because I tell the difference in my knee and how much it flares up. I might do a preliminary 7 or 8 mile run this week to see how the knee holds up.

And with that, I have 12 days until my race. YIKES! I know I’m ready, but I can’t believe it’s soon!

1 comment August 11th, 2008

Phone Cord Art

I have no idea where these photos originated, so I can’t give credit to the proper photographer, but these pictures are so cool that I had to share them. Remember the old phone cords from our childhoods? We had a few of those really long ones that could stretch from one end of the house to the other. Just thinking of them makes me thankful for cordless and cellular phones.

Anyway, some genius took some of these old phone cords and turned them in to art—sheep in fact!

Continue Reading Add comment August 9th, 2008