Inspiring woman of the day: Jeannie Rice - new marathon world record!

I just come over a Facebook post in this group I am in.

The post is about this faboulous woman who run the recent Berlin marathon 29.09.2019, at a time of 3:24:48.

Of course, I didn't take this picture, Sportograf did (find them here).
Click on the picture to get to the article from runners' world)

Amazing!

And she looks so young doing it!

Runners' World wrote an article about her, and you can find that article here.

Quoting three points from the article about Jeannie Rice:

• Jeannie Rice, 71, set a world age-group record in the marathon on 29 September in Berlin, where she ran 3:24:48.
• The performance bettered by 3 minutes the record she set last year in Chicago, 3:27:50.
• Her next competitive races include the Naples Half Marathon in January and the Tokyo Marathon in March.

Awesome!

The bike - my safe place

Sometimes, it feels as if my bike really is my "safe place" - when most other things are overwhelming, riding my bike is surprisingly simple.

Of course, the getting dressed for the weather outside can be quite a task when you are not feeling great to start with, but when I have made it through all the decisions, which bike to take out, what to wear, what nutrition to bring, where to go, it gets surprisingly simple.

I am just sitting on my bike and pedaling.
There is really not much more about it.

While riding on the road, most of my atttention is focused on the few meters of road right in front of me, and the cars behind and in front of me, and the rest is mind-wandering or a casual glimpse at my watch to check for heart rate.

I must admit that even when the traffic is a bit daunting, my bike still feels like a safe place.
As for the possibility to get hit by a car, that possibility is there just as much when I am on the road driving myself, or when walking or crossing the road.
So I just try my best to be a "decent cyclist", meaning that when I am on narrow roads, and hear a huge truck from behind, and know there are few chances for him to safely drive by, I slow down and give him space if possible.

Why being a stubborn cyclist, claiming a huge part of the road when I can be decent and give way for someone that is probably driving his truck to make a living, while I ride my bike for the pure joy of it.

A few seconds more or less, or even minutes, on my workout total don't bother me at all.

I'd rather be a friendly cyclist and ride safely and share the road so I can have a good experience, and feel "safe".

One funny thing that doesn't happen very often, is that I got hot on the bike because I had dressed too much for the outside temperature.

After all, yes, it was sunny, but it was also end of august and by definition, fall was approaching fast.

I usually love sleeveless tops for bike riding in the summer (for the freedom of movement and better tan lines) but chose a bike jersey.

And it got soo hot!
And while I often wear a really thin sleeveless top underneath so I'd be more flexible in terms of how many layers to wear, I didn't this time.

Well - it was still nice bike ride.
The hills were long and beautiful, the sun shining and the view excellent.
My legs felt fine and I didn't bother too much about how fast or slow I went on.

Just had a good time on my bike, and a break from my usual overthinking.

Yep, my bike is still my safe place.

Resurrecting a 17-year-old (mountainbike).

Oh after my last cross triathlon, Gråtassen, I definitely want another bike.

Not that I am not satisfied with my good old Hardrocx, but I really want to get even better at mountainbiking (and of course, a new bike is the number one thing you should start with).

I have been thinking about buying a full-suspension bike for a few years now, but the reality is, I am not sure if spending a lot of money on a low-badget suspension bike will make such a huge difference on my mountain bike riding ability.

That is - the real reason that I haven't gotten a new bike is, that I bought a car last year, and my money is currently being spent on fun car parts like brakes and hubs. That's ok.
It is an older model, so I was prepared for it.

So - what are you going to do if you desperately want a new bike, but cannot afford one?
You upgrade you current bike.

But - my current bike is also my commuter bike, and the last few winters of outside riding have shown that winter riding on streets that are salted will wear down your bike parts.
Rust, yes.

No matter how much you wash your bike and keep it inside, I found that especially the chain, would simply get rusty really quick.

So now that I have decided to give my Hardrocx a good service, shift all wires and maybe also the chain and maybe even more, I am getting sceptical about the winter riding.

Solution: I need a proper commuter bike.
Would I buy one?
No.
Maybe I already had one?
Yes!

A generous friend of mine stores some of my larger gear at her place (bike, skiing boots, bike trainer), and also my former and first mountainbike.
This one is also a Hardrocx bike, and actually the same as my current - that is, a Hardrocx shock machine - and it's from 2002!

The frame is a different one though, and it's an inch smaller.

It didn't look to bad after five years standing still in the barn at my friend - just had to get some air back in the tires, give it a thorough wash and some lube, and it was actually working quite well!

As for the size, although it's an inch smaller (16" as opposed to my current 17", they are both too large for me I'd say) - it felt too big.

So I started by switching out the handlebar from the old, original (and faded) handlebar to an Easton handlebar - same type, and also switched the completely worn down handlebar grips (to Cannondale grips) - and it already looks better.

Yes, I am doing bike stuff INSIDE.

What I plan to do about it, is changing all the wires, that is, brake and gear cables.
Some screws are a bit rusty too, so I'll change them too.

I don't think there are too many parts that will need changing, but time will tell, and how much smoother the ride will get.

For cosmetic reasons, I will maybe also change the seatpost - and switch to a zer-offset one to shorten the distance from seat to handlebar.

I have just started the project, but it is already so much fun to see my good old bike coming to life again!

We have had some good times together, so I will try and find some old photos for the old times sake later 😊

Pollen fight!?

When I was young, I never had allergies.
Although I think that I did have a predisposition to get allergies, since I had atopic eczema. There is some degree of correlation between atopic eczema and allergies.

The summer when I filled 21, I experienced  my first signs of allergy though, and it was against mugwort. It was exhausting, but lasted only a few weeks. I can't remember taking any medication against it, I was still living at home, and my parents somehow weren't too fond about taking medication that you don't necessarily need to survive.
And I was still livint at my parents home, and also financially dependent on them.

Fast forward to today, over 20 years later, when allergies came and disappeard, then came again and disappeared again. All depending of my general levels of stress. The worst bout I remember was when I started my master studies and at the same time had a job at our university as a teacher's assistant.
What an irony that I had developed a full-blown pollen allergy against both grass and flowers, and my job was joining our teacher outside on our excursion on botany.
I remember it being both fun and exhausting, since the students were all really nice, while my body battled against the pollen in the field.

During the recent years, I haven't had allergies, only minor reations against dust inside my appartments from time to time. Fortunately!

But this year, it flared up again.
For real.

Looking through my medicine closet, I realized I was almost running out of antihistamines (I am using Loratadine against pollen allergy, if anyone is wondering about it) - so I started taking what I had left, and ordered a new recipe at my doctor.

The recipe is supposed to be available today.
And I really hope that the fresh pills will do a better job than the ones I had left at home (ok, they can't be that old, but you never know).
Because my allergy is bad. Despite the medicine I have been taken.

Even Garmin recognizes the stress my body is under.
Usually, my stress levels are below 25, and rather variable.
And the last days and weeks, the physiological stress was rather low (the psychological though, quite high):

Yesterday though, and through last night, it looked like this:

I spend some time trying to figure out the cause.
Was it severe mental stress?
But it couldn't have been, since I just had decided to just give in and accept that there are things I don't like to do, but that are the right thing to do.

I haven't been training too much either - for usually, after too much high intensity training, the stress usually starts right after the workout, and keeps getting up and down, but calms down at night.

So I decided that the cause must be the ongoing allergy, which doesn't give my body any break at all, and I can feel it all the time.

But! I was thinking that even though my body is stressed out, there really is no need to stress about it.
After all, if I didn't have my fancy little Garmin watch, I wouldn't have known about it, and just thought that "Oh no, that annoying allergy is bad, I am exhausted, I hate it." - and tried to do the best about it.

Also, I am not sure if training or not is right, but I am guessing that light training AWAY from pollen could actually be benefitial.
So maybe I will go for an easy hike up in the valley today, where there is no mugwort but only refreshing mountain air.

I could even go as far as to take my tent and sleep in the mountains tonight.
But I am not so sure about how restful that night's sleep will be, and there is stille the sprint triathlon om two days.

And not that I am planning to do a great race, but I'd rather not be in brain fog when I am there.
So, today will be an easy day - hiking, and picking out the necessary race gear, and washing my mountain bike so it's ready for saturday.

Also, taking small breaks and giving my mind a rest, since it is actually rather disturbing feeling the body at high alert with the faster heart rate - but I'll just do the best about it 💪👍