life in perpetual motion

tales of a twenty-something grad student with a serious triathlon problem

[perpetuallykelsey]

casual life update: i’m officially a doctor (of philosophy!) 🎉

in other news: i think it’s time for me to officially retire from this dark blue hellsite. if you want to stay in touch, send me a message here or find me on instagram (@kenoll) and/or strava. it’s been real ✌️

[perpetuallykelsey]

when you drop your bike off to get the brake fixed and three weeks later walk out of the shop with a brand new whip.

[perpetuallykelsey]

tomorrow is my 28th birthday and my private defense.

today we are riding bikes and baking cupcakes.

[perpetuallykelsey]

annual vally day shot with my ride or die boo

[perpetuallykelsey]

the most important question I’ve asked in 2020

[perpetuallykelsey]

Kicked off the 2020 race season at the Speedway with best gal pal teammates! There were only maybe 8 of us total in the combined women’s race, 2 who dropped off the back pretty early. There were a few moves to test the waters throughout the race, but it was apparent that no break was gonna stick. So we kept it pretty tame until the last lap, which ended in a sprint. Tactical race strategy and sprinting are *not* my jam but I finished 2nd in 4/5 and got some series points to carry into next weekend. And most importantly, had a blast sharing the day with my friends!

[perpetuallykelsey]

[perpetuallykelsey]

wish there was a good rhyme or alliteration for “bicycles and dissertations” but i have nothing. or something something mocha. “riding and writing”? eh, kinda boring.

[perpetuallykelsey]

luna is thrilled to be a participant in my post-ride selfies! 3 hours of solo steady state tempo today under overcast skies... don’t ask me what i’m training for at the moment because tbh i do not know.

[perpetuallykelsey]

I haven’t posted about a workout in forever so hi today I rode my bike and it was wet and gritty and there was a lot of man ego out there.

[perpetuallykelsey]

new phone = new camera = high quality luna pics

[perpetuallykelsey]

finished the first draft of my discussion. a whole 12 pages!

[perpetuallykelsey]

grateful grateful grateful for this life and these views

[perpetuallykelsey]

2019 Triathlon Recap

Triathlons: 8 (2 half irons, 2 olympics, 2 sprints, 2 supersprints) 

Overall wins: 5

Total swim/bike/run time: 611 hours (beat 2018 by 2 hours!)

Swim - 125 hours / 471k yards

Bike - 315 hours / 4.2k miles + trainer “miles”

Run - 151 hours / 1.1k miles

2019 was another really great year for me in triathlon. I spent winter and spring building up for Chattanooga 70.3, and saw a lot of progress on my run especially. After Chattanooga, I moved from being coached to planning my own training and using TrainerRoad. I shifted my training focus to be more bike-heavy and worked on my fueling strategy in prep for Lake Logan Half. I raced a number of shorter local races throughout the season as well, mostly for fun and/or as a part of my elite team obligations. I finished my season with my last ever collegiate conference championship race, where I was pleased to see I could hang in there with some of the top young kids. After conferences, I planned my off season to keep the training focus on the bike while reducing overall training time to put more focus onto wrapping up my dissertation.

Landmark achievements:

8th amateur at Chattanooga 70.3 

1st overall at Lake Logan Half

Longest ever run (18mi) and ride (130mi)

PR in the 5k (19:03)

I’m looking forward to another season in 2020. I’m really motivated to keep working on my cycling for now, and my primary goal for the coming year is to reach an FTP of 4W/kg. Outside of that, I don’t have anything lined up yet in terms of races or targets, as there’s going to be a lot of change going on in my life next year and I’m not totally sure where I’ll be or how much time I’ll have for training. I do feel like I’ve had more life balance in the past few months with the reduced volume, so we’ll see where things go from here!

[perpetuallykelsey]

2019 Highlight Reel

January

Rang in the new year with great friends, saw Lake Street Dive in Charlotte, raced the Speedway crits

February

Took a snowboarding trip to WV with friends, was in the throes of some large experiments in lab

March

Turned up for PhD formal, celebrated “single girl March”, saw Upstate play live, ran some long ass training runs

April

Took an incredible trip to Mexico, saw a Hellogoodbye show, had my review published in Cell Host & Microbe

May

Had a great race at Chattanooga 70.3, started my writing internship, spent MDW on the lake (@aubsenroute​!)

June

Went to two super fun weddings, ran the Pop Up Miles, had a successful committee meeting, had a farewell gathering for our coach

July

Celebrated our last 4th of July at my grandma’s, did some fun sprint races

August

Won Lake Logan half, tacked on 30 miles to the annual century ride, graced with a visit from the BFF, lived it up in Palm Springs for my friends’ hen party

September

Went to France to attend a conference in Strasbourg and visit my cousin in Paris (and eat all the GF pastries)

October

Raced my last collegiate conference championship race, drank a lot of mead, bopped around the NC state fair

November

Started on the job application hustle, partied with the undergrads, spent Thanksgiving with the fam and reunited with BFFs

December

Went to a Hellogoodbye living room show, attended a bunch of fun holiday parties, survived Disaster Day, spent Christmas week with friends and family, had a super fun NYE to ring in the new decade

[perpetuallykelsey]

welcome to the salty spitoon, how tough are ya?

[perpetuallykelsey]

honestly this was such a great decision.

i had a blast cooking and it only took about 2.5 hours from start to finish for everything (not including the pie which happened the following day).

roasted chicken quarters, mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. all from scratch. i’ve never actually made stuffing or gravy before! the stuffing was killer and i’m definitely keeping that recipe in my arsenal. gravy i’ve never been a huge fan of and could easily go without next time.