Cait Snow - Professional Triathlete » Training

I want the back story!

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:56:43 +0000

Ok, Lowe’s, explain yourself… This sign, posted by the toilets in the Bathroom department of the local Lowe’s reads, “Please Be Careful. Product is For Display Only. Not Ready for Use.” I would love to know what prompted management to hang this sign next to the elevated toilet display.

ANYWAY, training is going really well. Somehow it is already the end of May! We’ve got some heavy training ahead, Rev3 in two weeks, and LP in 9 weeks. So psyched!

1 Race, 3 Athletes, 3 PR's!

admin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:10:43 +0000

Awesome weekend! I think I get more anxious before my athletes race than I do before I race. Not only do they work so hard, but they put their full faith in us as their coaches to guide them. Because of this their performances, in a way, become our performances. Well, my folks did me proud! Salmon, Flummerfelt, and Palto all PR’d at New Bedford Half Marathon, and showed that their hard work and patience over the winter is setting them up for a great season to come! Nice work, guys and gal!

Those of us who were not racing, spent Saturday soaking up the sun during a sweet 6 & 60 session! We did not get to ride in shorts like last week, but were able to shed a couple layers after the first 4 hours of the ride, and wear shorts during the transition run. It’s so freeing!

So, what do you do when you get a new training jacket, but could really use a vest? Or when the plastic cage that holds your helmet in place breaks? Well, if you’re Tim, you tear the sleeves right off the old jacket and tie that helmet together with twine! Check out the duds:

Who has twine

anyway?!

Downloading Nancy movie full

Fashion issues aside, the training session went really well, with a solid tempo session at the end of the ride and undulating run off the bike.

For dinner, we headed out to a lovely little pizza joint where 5 of us we were seated at a card table (literally), and treated to the lively conversation of a group of inebriated women taking full advantage of their “lady’s night out”. Not only was there pizza everywhere

(yeah, I know, that’s usually what they serve at pizza

restaurants), but, because we were celebrating Mikaela’s (my little sis) birthday, there was also CHOCOLATE cake with CHOCOLATE frosting. Oh, wow! That’s what we in the business call a Will Power Check! Well, I was strong – I had myself a delicious salad (you know, one those elaborate deals with a whole head of Iceburg lettuce, half a tomato, and a slice of cucumber?) and grilled chicken. For dessert? Protein shake! Yesssss!

Off to take advantage of the recovery day – nap time!

Just Like Riding A Bike

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:07:44 +0000

We rode outside this weekend! And we were all able to balance without the trainers holding us up! Wheeler, Tim, and I toured the south shore for 6 hours, and wrapped the session up with a 60 minute run. 6&60’s are back! Woop woop!

Bee Movie psp Somehow Tim and I made it through his cousin’s play later that night. The play itself was actually pretty entertaining, especially for a high school musical, but with the ride’s caffeine beginning to wear off about an hour before the opening act, I was nervous they’d find me sound asleep by intermission. As we’re generally ravenous for the hours following a 6&60, we packed food – lots of food! We brought salads, wraps, home-made sweet potatoe chips, and protein bars. Because food, especially four course meals, are not allowed in the auditorium, we needed to sneak our picnic in using my moblie pantry that a layman would mistake for a purse. We’re so slick!

We made it through the play, slept in on Sunday, rode outside AGAIN, cruised through our long runs, and topped the weekend off with an oh-so-fun core session! Now that’s a weekend!

Another TT, Another Snow Storm

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:06:17 +0000

Personally, I find indoor bike time trials to be one of the most painful tests of fitness. They’re worse than a 5k. The first 5 minutes are usually ok, and then all hell breaks loose as you try not to lose the wattage that you’ve averaged but your heart can’t seem to pump hard enough to get blood to both your legs and your brain. By continuing to pedal with all your might you force the blood south and start to see spots as a result. When you finally hit the “finish line”, every muscle, including some not generally associated with cylcing, is toast. The nice part is that, while extremely taxing and vomit-inducing, the pain is relatively short lived and there is little resulting soreness. You complete the event, and get to cool down. Maybe do a steady workout later on. The pain is over though. Unless your name is Chrissie Kroplnicki. Then you do it twice. With 10 minutes recovery between! See, Chrissie was about 7 minutes into her inital effort when it was realized that her weight had not been entered into the computer (key variable to determining speed on a Computrainer as it is based on power/weight ratio). One of the organizers attempted to get her to stop and restart. Chrissie was not having it! She was 7 minutes into her escape from Hell- she wasn’t heading back to start the trek again! While the speed is not accurate without weight, the wattage reading is not affected. Since our main concern with the event was to check power progress, Chrissie wanted to get her number. So she finished, hitting her goal wattage, and was attempting to regain blood flow to the brain when she was asked by an event organizer if she’d like to do it again… What?! Are you nuts?! Chrissie said “No!”. She faltered. Then she said “Yes!”. What?! Is she nuts?! Maybe the ol’ grey matter was still waiting for its nourishment! Either way, Chrissie was back on the bike and cranking away within 10 minutes. Not only did she hit her wattage AGAIN, she took third place overall! Her second time trial effort was the third fastest women’s time of the whole day! Chrissie rocks!!

(The Mentally-Soft Machine!)

Me – 4th place. Ok, so I was beat by the chick who had to do it twice, BUT I hit my goal wattage. Yessss! The base phase is starting to payoff – wattage is rising, pace is dropping, body fat (although at the pace of molassess… mmmm, molassess…) is creeping down. Feeling good!

Star Trek: Insurrection video So we wrapped up the TT, did a transition run around central park, and headed home just in time for the snow to start. My poor Guru has not seen pavement since early December – hopefully she doesn’t feel too naked without the trainer attached to her tail when we finally get to roam the South Shore again! As much as I miss the open road, the wind blowing through my helmet, the taste of the dirt being flung off Tim’s wheel, etc, all these trainer rides are making a huge difference in my pedaling efficeincy, pedaling consistancy, and overall power. Some how we haven’t missed a second of training, and so far, I’m hitting, in some cases exceeding, my pre-LP goals. I’ll take it!

Soooo, Snow Day! It’s a bummer that he’ll have to make the days up at the end of the year, but it’s fun having Tim around on a random week day. We slept in, we did our recovery rides, we couch-potatoed it! Here’s Tim doing his core work for the day:

(It’s taken from inside because I did not venture outside the whole day!)

And this is how Jake spends his snow days:

Gotta love New England weather!!

5 Stops, 4 Workouts, 3 x 10°, 2 Days, 1 Wedding, 0 Missed Training

admin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:57:38 +0000

The alarm went off at 5:45am Saturday. In case you didnt know what “am” meant, that’s in the morning, folks! On a Saturday. Not cool! We got the car loaded up with a week’s worth of luggage for the weekend, including dress-up clothes (this is what I call it when I have to wear heels), training clothes, a stand-up fan, bikes, and trainers, and headed to our first destination: West Roxbury. Here we spent five hours on the trainers while listening to Jesse’s post-travel thoughts/rants (always entertaining), and followed it up with a sweet 40 minute run in SHORTS!! Woop woop! We took down a recovery drink, showered, and hit the road by 3 for destination number two: Hampstead, NH.

We blew up dust as we skidded into the parking lot, got dressed in the car, and cut off the bridal party on our way into the wedding (I kid you not)! “Hurry! In there!” the father of the groom directed us as they lined up for their entrance. Because it was Valentine’s Day, we were wondering if they were going to go the super-cheesey construction-paper hearts all over the walls, red wedding dress route. Luckly they did not. It was a really nice wedding with normal portions for the meal (not that sampler crap some places like to get away with)! We danced the night away (pretty much me holding onto Tim and hoping not to end up plastered to the wall when he gets a little over zealous with his self-taught swing moves), and peaced-out to destination number three: Salem, NH.

For Your Eyes Only move

I barely made it to our room in the Holiday Inn before I was down for the count (it was only 10:30, but I RARELY go to bed after 8:30 – a loser, I know!). Everything was going really well- I was hitting that sleep hard- until I was awakened by the buzz saw immitation that a certain someone was practicing. Oh, wow! That was some impressive snoring! Even with the interuptions, we managed about 8 hours of sleep which is the minimum that I require if you don’t want me to go infant-without-a-nap on you around 3 in the afternoon. We hit the “fitness room”, and did a little redecorating. Basically, we moved everything in the 8 x 4 room to the sides and set up our trainers. We got the recovery ride done, and headed out for the long run. With my lack of navigational skills, these can get pretty interesting when done in areas that I don’t know well, but we found a damn-near perfect loop, which we repeated 4 times. This allowed us to focus on the run and not the land marks at every turn. It ended up being a really good run! Again, took down a recovery drink, showered and headed out for destination number 4: Amherst, NH.

This was a quick stop at the family of the groom’s house for a post-wedding breakfast. Hung out here for half an hour, and took off for destination number 5: Lawerence, MA.

After a few road-rage-induced outbursts, and a short loop around the city, we found our way to the Sons of Italy, site of the TriFury clinic. Luckily we were not the only ones running a bit behind, so we were able to slide in the back and sit for a minute before it was my turn to get up in front of everyone and talk about my past season, the years leading up to it, and my goals for the future. This has been a bit strange for me as I feel the story is really not all that exciting (started relatively young, trained, raced, etc), but the athletes always have good questions which makes it more entertaining. We chatted for about an hour, and then Tim and I departed for home. 36 hours after the beginning of our adventure we rolled into the driveway having not missed a second of training – good work!

Stepmom psp