Clue about new toy.....

Triumph Daytona 675 Named 'International Bike Of The Year'
Dec 20, 2006

From a press release issued by Triumph:

DECEMBER 20, 2006 - It’s official: The Triumph Daytona 675 is the International Bike of the Year with praise from the professionals heaped on its incredible performance, unique character, stunning looks and superb handling.

Topping the prestigious 2006 International Bike of the Year (IBOTY) poll with a comfortable majority of the votes, the Triumph Daytona 675 has well and truly confirmed its status as the premier high performance motorcycle on the market.

This stylish machine crushed its closest competition, amassing more than twice the number of votes as any of its rivals and was awarded maximum votes by an astounding 6 of the 15 leading motorcycle magazines that participated.

This prestigious honor rounds off a superb year for Triumph’s newcomer, which has scooped a wealth of accolades from the world’s media. It was also victorious in the Supersport class at the world’s biggest sportsbike shootout, Masterbike, and has been named as bike of the year by various publications across the globe, from the USA to Australia.

Triumph’s Commercial Director, Tue Mantoni, commented: “Winning the International Bike of the Year Award with the Daytona 675 is a superb achievement for Triumph and we continue to be extremely proud of the bike that we have created. The Daytona 675 has now won nearly every motorcycle comparison test going, and we are confident that it will continue to achieve great things, as will the rest of our range for 2007.”

The Daytona 675 has redefined the standard for high performance sports bikes. It offers the perfect combination of handling, performance and looks. New to the already eye catching array of colors is a sleek black option and with its unique triple engine, which provides a rich and glorious growl, this exceptional motorcycle is undoubtedly the coolest model on the market.

ABOUT TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLES

Triumph Motorcycles, the iconic British motorcycle marque, is solely owned by Bloor Holdings Ltd. First established in 1902 and now located in Hinckley, Leicestershire, Triumph has always set the pace for category winning machines. From the iconic Bonneville to the mould-breaking Daytona 675 Triple, Triumph offers a blend of design, character, sex appeal and performance that combines to create truly distinctive motorcycles.

www.triumphmotorcycles.com

Week recap

Another decent week in the bag, despite my fall. Can't keep this girl down!

Mon 1/22 60 minute spin class, Upper Body Workout

Tuesday 1/23 -Rest & recover from fall :-)

Wednesday 1/24 60 min spin class, 5 miles ran on treadmill, lower body workout, 1000 yards swam

Thursday 1/25 7 miles ran treadmill, abs

Friday 1/26 60 min spin class, 4 miles ran on treadmill, Upper Body Workout

Saturday 1/27 New Vision Cycling 2.5 hour butt kicking-speed drills kill me. Now that I have this nice new computer with cadence counter I really am working on keeping cadence in specified zones, my sweat puddle is so wrong at these!

Sunday 1/28 16 mile snowy run - Ran with normal friends and some extras. A couple of the extra guys were running just enough fast for us to try to keep up, yet faster than we probably would have normally went in the conditions, so had to work a bit on this one!

This was week one of lifting at the gym with my cousin on my lunch breaks. She is getting reacclimated to the gym and I really enjoy the company...hopefully the soreness will not scare her away!

Put money down on a new toy which I am totally so excited about!!!!! Details later!

Not my week...

Warning to others...don't run downstairs on a commerical break of 24...just a bad idea! For cying out loud I even have a DVR that if I missed 10 seconds I could still watch it.

Anyway Monday night decided to switch the laudry on a commercial break and proceed to run downstairs in these tractionless slipper socks. You see I have one of those 200 year old houses in which the basement stairs are the little wooden scary ones with no handrails and about the second step from the top, I slip right off and went down on my back side to the bottom. I sat there for a minute trying to collect myself as I was already in a good bit of pain before walking back up the stairs (forget about changing the laundry). Both of my elbows were bleeding, bruised and were swollen with golf balls on them and had hit so many areas on my back side on the way down. So I sat on the couch and the hubby brought my ice packs for my elbows and I did not move the rest of the night.

I always make fun of my mom as she is somewhat of a clutz (although she will never admit it) and recently my dad took a fall. This of course turned into me making fun of him for hanging out with her too much. Apparently I was hanging out with her too much too! Originally I was concerned that I had seriously did something to my left elbow but after moving around on Tuesday I knew I was just bruised and all body parts were still functional. Tailbone is just killing me though this week doing situps!

So then Wednesday I head to the pool on my lunch break in which every minute is critical as I am always rushed to fit everything in. Upon walking into the pool area the lanes are pretty busy with people splitting every lane except the fast lane. Now at this point there is a 2 slow, 2 medium, and 1 fast lane and even though I consider myself as slow, lunch hour crowd there is typically older folk that who go really slow. As a courtesy before entering the lane you are supposed to notify the person that you are splitting with. So I wait AHWHILE thinking I have no reason to feel bad swimming in the fast lane as this lady I am waiting to notify is barely moving. Finally I let her know and hop in and start my swim. Not more than 5 minutes later I see a middle age man standing at the end wanting to get in and circle swim. I knew this was not going to work with slow old lady but what can you say. So I say fine and start. It was horrible. Slow me would catch up to both of them within a few strokes and then have swim 3/4 of the pool at snails pace. I was getting agitated as I lost count of my laps and could not get in any rhythm. I felt bad because the slow lady would stop at the ends at let me pass but she said she felt bad she was holding me up. I did not want her to feel bad but she had to know she really should not swim that lane. I guess I was the most annoyed with the guy as he was not much faster (at all) than the old lady and I really felt he had no business going to the fast lanes and asking the people to circle swim. I don't know...much of the pool ettiquette is new to me and I never would say something to make one feel bad but this just had me absolutely frazzeled. Never thought slow me would have so much trouble with slow people in the fast lane.

Week Recap-

Wow has our weather changed this week! As much as I believe I was meant to live in the tropics, at least I married someone who plows snow so that I actually don't mind so much when it snows so he can make some $$. So this weekend it was time to suck it up, bundle up and head out into the snow.

I must say that every time I get out there and run it is really not too bad!

This week has been full of training and I have been feeling pretty good. Here is a quick rundown...

Monday 1/15 16.5 stationary bike, 2 miles treadmill (This was probably about the hardest I have pushed myself on a stationary bike doing an interval workout but doing alternating 30 seconds normal cadence and 30 high cadence at each level.)

Tuesday 1/16 7 miles treadmill, Lower Body Workout (Squats and lunges had me aching the following two days pretty bad)

Wednesday 1/17 Slept in instead of hitting the gym at 6AM, 1 hour trainer evening

Thursday 1/18 6 miles on treadmill -arrived to gym late so had no time for the originally planned 7th mile, but felt strong the whole run

Friday 1/19 1 hr spin, abs, 1000 yards swam

Saturday - Brick with Jodi which was 3 hours on trainer, 40 minute run. When she emailed what she had planned for the day I thought that sounded like an incredibly long time to be training. However it is amazing how fast time flies with friends and before I knew it, we were done.

Spent the rest of the Saturday cleaning house which was so overdue and was so tired I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30!! Wild & crazy Saturday night I had!!

Sunday, awoke nice and early for my 16 mile run with some friends out on the towpath. I decided to get splits on the run to try to gauge what pace we are doing most of our long runs. Despite the snowy trail we were very consistently hitting them at 9 flat. I figure given the conditions that it was fine by me. On my last long run 2 weeks ago which was 14 miles I was really waiting for the end to come as I felt a bit fatigued. Strangely this week on the snow I felt extremely good and could have kept going with no problems. What an awesome way to feel after a long run!! This was an extemely good thing because then we spent the day moving my hubby's sister! Is it bedtime yet??

Yeah, I know...I will put in a rest day next week, but at least I slept in one morning!!

Training update!

Well sneaking in a couple minutes to at least log my training for the week as I am ready to hit the hay already after my fun-filled day mostly filled with baptism activities....!

Mon 1/8 - 1 hr spin class, 2 miles treadmill, Lower Body workout...very sore from the lunges for the following 2 days

Tues 1/9 - 7 miles treadmill (req'd more effort than usual to get in before 60 minute cutoff); Lifted Bi, Tri, Shoulders

Wed 1/10 - 1 hr spin, 15 min stationary bike; swam 1000 yards; lifted chest back; abs

Thurs 1/11 - 7 miles treadmill (increasing speed intervals 6.5-8.5 with .5 increase per minute, finished comfortably in 58 min)

Fri 1/12 - 1 hr spin, upper body workout, abs

Sat 1/13 - 15 minute warm-up followed by 2 hour New Vision Cylcing class

Sun 1/14 - 9 mile outside run (long run cut short this week on account of full day's schedule)

All & all felt pretty good this week. Went 5/5 with my 6 AM hour gym arrivals so that was an accomplishment in itself! Good night folks!

PS- Jack Baurer is da man!

First an aunt, soon a godparent!!

As my aunt responsibility it is again time to talk about my two favorite little cutie pies!!!

So in other non-tri news Sunday my husband & I, as well as my cousin and his wife will be standing up for Erin & Alyssa's baptism. So all this stuff is pretty new to me and if anyone has any traditions, great gift ideas, or things I should know, feel free to let me know.

Guess I will be missing my group Sunday run...may have to have a lonely one!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well where to start...it has been awhile.

I am working on wrapping up all my side consulting work here in the next week or so which will relieve a huge weight off of my shoulders as this final push has been a tad much to say the least. Then I can focus not only on my full time job, but also all the training and other things that have been significantly impacted.

The training has been going pretty well despite some minor aches and pains. I have had the opportunity to enjoy some long runs the last few weekends with some great company. Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, ran a hilly 13.1 mile run with Southeast Running Club. Then New Years Eve I followed that up with a 5K New Years Eve race. After my morning run I was not overly optimistic about what my performance would be on this hilly course, but ended up with a 22:46 and 2nd in my age group. Not too bad especially considering the decent turnout for the event.

This morning headed out to the towpath for a 14 mile run with some friends which was a nice consistent effort which went pretty well. As a side note these last three longs runs have been the best in a very long time as I have not had to make a bathroom stop on account of stomach issues on any of them. Whatever the reason, this is progress!!!

On the biking front, a lot of credit goes to my hubby. For Christmas he bought me a bad arse new Butterfly seat as he must have got worried with me complaining about my female area so often. My old seat was the original one and let me just say it was definitely not all that comfortable. He also got me a new computer which has the cadence counter, so that has been very helpful with the Spinerval DVDs (thanks again Lou) and the New Vision Cycling workouts(which are totally the coolest, yet tough workouts). Other than that I have been getting in some variety here with some great spinning classes, spinerval workouts, New Vision workouts, and just time in on the trainer cleaning out the ironmans saved on the DVR.

Swimming is still not my strong suit and my focus here is probably not helping. I try to swim 3 days a week on my lunch break at work, 1000 yards a time. I am strongly considering hitting the Orange Masters swm, but somewhat concerned that I may not be able to keep up with the easy folk. I guess there is only one way to get better and that is to take things out of the comfort zone...so we'll see!

So many other things to mention which I will save for some other posts which I am hoping to get back in the habit of making on a more regular basis.

If nothing else, I want to try to at least keep a running tally of my workouts a bit better which I will try to keep up to date.

1/1 90 minute trainer ride
1/2 30 minute bike, 2 miles treadmill---50 mile motorcycle ride (since when does this happen in January??!!)
1/3 1 hr spin class, 4 miles treadmill, 1000 yards swam
1/4 Upper Body Workout
1/5 1 hour spin class, 3.2 miles treadmill
1/6 2 hour New Vision Cycling
1/7 14 miles, towpath

Finally I have finally decided to send in the money today for Cleveland Marathon!

07 Tenative Season
2/3 Dirty Dog 10 K Trail Run
2/17 Chili Bowl 5 K
3/4 Youngstown 1/2 marathon
3/10 St Malachi 5 mile
4/5 Hinckly Buzzzard Du
5/6 Silver Spings Du
5/20 Cleveland Marathon
Sunday in June
6/24 Summi Tri (Spint)
July --Sweet Corn Century Ride
8/5 Cleveland tri (sprint)
8/12 Greater Cleveland Tri (1st half!!)
9/16 Portage Lakes
Fall Marathon to be decided