I'd Rather Be Swimming

How to say "I have cancer." Or, not.

2011-04-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have mastered how to tell people that I have cancer. Here are some examples . . .

1. I've been playing phone tag with a friend since January. We were finally able to talk after I learned that the cancer was still hanging around. I'm sure she was expecting a great conversation about how I was feeling great and glad to be back a work. Instead the conversation went something like this:

K: Hi, how are you?!
M: Well, not so good. I just found out that the cancer is back. Or, was never gone.
K: Ummm . . . wow . . . I'm not sure what to say.

That was probably the best thing she could have said. I mean, really, what do you say?

2. I was a work and ran into an acquaintance that I hadn't see since before my surgery. He knew I had been sick last year and thought things were looking up.

J: Hey! Hi! You look great! I love the hair. How is everything?
M: Not good.
J: Oh.

And, I just left him hanging.

3. Today I was talking to two volunteers about a project and I had to stumble all over the place to tell them.

M: Well, I don't know what J told you about why I was out last week . . . well, oh, K, probably doesn't know . . . but might have guessed . . . I had cancer last year . . . and, um, it's back or was never gone . . . so, I had treatment last week . . . then I'm going to Maui . . . so I will work on your project after my second treatment . . . when I'm working at home . . . any questions?
K and G: shocked stares.

I really need to work on my delivery.

Abrupt U Turn

2011-04-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

I'm really not sure what to write. I hadn't planned on cancer being a main topic of my blog. It began as a place to brag/whine/bitch about triathlon training. Well, it looks like I have something different to bitch/brag/whine about it. (I don't know exactly what I will bragging about, but I will find something.)

My first chemo was on Monday. These last few days haven't been fun, but just about what I expected. I've tried to get lots of rest and eat. Eat healthily. Which is a little challenging when I don't feel like eating. But eat I will! My plan is to go back to work tomorrow, I can only stand so much daytime TV and naps.

Visions of Maui, warm breezes, clear water, and drinks with little umbrellas, is the light at the end of this short tunnel.

A sunset view from our condos.

The Travel List

2011-02-23T20:29:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I celebrated 10 years at my job. The perk of 10 years is four weeks vacation. Woot woot!! Last year I started my travel wishlist. Here is the start . . .

United States

Maui, Hawaii - Check, going in May!
New York City - plays, museums, and fashion stuff
The Four Corners - maybe this fall. I have to go to Arizona in November anyway.
Yellowstone in the fall - friends shared some amazing pics of wildlife at that time of year.
The Middle - my buddy Jessica says I need to visit her in the Middle
Alaska
Kaui, Hawaii

International

Mexico - revisit Tulum and visit Teotihuacan
France
Italy - Venice, Florence

Thinking about but not on The List yet

Cruise in the Mediterranean Sea
Safari in Africa

I guess it's time to start saving. ;-)

Adventures in Healthy Cooking - A List

2011-02-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Farmer's Market - Next week bring more cash, $30 wasn't enough. Was I ripped off by $12 for yams and sweet potatoes? The more I go the more savvy I will be. Right?

Trader Joe's - I got a lot of stuff there from my Whole Food's list.

Reading Comprehension - I need to re-read my recipes and shopping list. Prunes are not dates and fennel seed is not flax seed.

Magic Mineral Broth - Makes a ton!! Next time make a half batch. Anyone need some broth?

$$$$ - It's pricey. But hopefully with planning I can make smart choices. This week I made the broth and that was a lot of stuff.

Dishes - It makes a lot of dishes! Especially when you make three in one afternoon.

Time - I spent most of Sunday shopping and cooking.

What is going on? Well, as a wise friend told me (and many books and articles too) one thing I can do to prevent a recurrence is give my body cancer fighting tools, aka excellent nutrition.

The next thing I need to conquer is sugar. Is there an app for that?

Monthly Hair Pic

2011-02-01T22:28:00.000-08:00

I've been brave enough to pop into a few stores with my chic new hair.

I caught a few people looking at me but it's because my hair is so rockin'. Right?

And, my attempt at a cutie-pie pic. Self portraits are challenging!

We'll check out the progress in 30 days.

Reluctant Acceptence

2011-01-31T20:45:00.000-08:00

One of the things I'm struggling with is a "new" exercise routine. My plan for the new year was to jump back into exercise. I was feeling so good compared to how I'd felt for the last 6 months that I thought I was good to go. Yeah, not so much. The first week in January I went back to work and started swimming masters again. I was wiped out by Thursday. The second week, I added an exercise program at the Y for cancer survivors. Again, I was completely wiped out, this time on Wednesday. Hmmm . . . maybe it's time to re-evaluate the situation.

First, the swimming. Not only am I slower and moved down to the slower lane, but I'm not even leading the lane. *sniff* The Masters workouts were really kicking my butt trying to keep up with the intervals. Also, Masters and the Y class are on the same day. I discovered that I can't do two workouts in one day, I don't have enough in my energy savings. Unfortunately, Masters is only on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. So, my new plan is to swim on Wednesday and Saturday until the Y program ends in March.

Cycling, I got back on the bike! Dad and I went for a nice easy ride on the Coyote Creek Trail. My goal was an hour. I'm not much slower, but I was pretty tired around mile 9. Luckily, the car was only a mile away. My butt, however, was done at mile 8.

At the half way point.

I'm going to try to get on the bike once a weekend for a fun, easy ride. Weather and schedule permitting. I can get on the stationary bike at the Y, but there is only one upright bike in the whole place! Getting the sit bones in gear will be challenging.

I did a little running on the treadmill at the Y. The good thing is that I can still run. Not very fast but the feet do leave the ground. However, running was a little too much so I'm back to walking with purpose (aka < 20 min mile) twice a week. My plan was to run the Mermaid 5K in May. But I will have to see what I'm up to by then.

I was frustrated that I couldn't jump back in to my old routine. I was feeling so good and normal that I didn't understand why I couldn't do what I used to. Apparently, abdominal surgery, chemo, and six months of inactivity takes a toll on the body. Who knew?! So, I'm settling into my new routine and working on accepting the new me.

Blog Silence

2011-01-30T15:31:00.000-08:00

Radio silence is what one of my bff calls it when she doesn't hear from me for awhile or I don't call her back. According to her, "radio silence is not cool."

So, sorry about the blog silence. I've been conflicted about what to write about. I had grand plans for 2011. I was going to jump in with both feet and get moving on my "new normal." Umm, yeah. It didn't quite work out that way. "New normal" is a lot more new than I expected it would be. As much as I didn't want my blog to be a "cancer" blog, it looks like the C-word will be coming up often.

So, here we go . . . let posting about becoming the new me begin!

New hair pic, December 23, 2010:

Just one day left . . .

2011-01-03T14:55:00.000-08:00

This morning the alarm went off very early. I hit the snooze button at 5:14, 5:21, 5:28, and 5:35. I finally got out of bed at 5:42 got dressed. It was pretty chilly, I wished I had slept with my clothes. Jemma and I were out the door at 5:50 to meet BFF2 for a brisk walk. In a weird way it was nice to be walking in the cold, dark morning. (One of the major bonuses of early morning walks is there is no one to see me throw away the poop bags in the garbage cans that some people keep on the driveway.)

It has been interesting to go from training to doing very little activity. I can really feel it. After walking-with-effort for about 20 minutes there is a little pulling sensation on the inside of my knee. Based on knee pain I had while I was training for a 10k, it means my adductor is tight. Oh, alright everything is tight. IT Bands. Hip Flexors. Quads. Hamstrings. It looks like I will spending some quality time with my brand new foam roller.

Tomorrow I start pushing my body again and go back to Masters. I've gone a few times since June, but nothing remotely consistent. I'm interested to see what I'm able to do in the pool and how long it takes to get my endurance back. My plan is to get in the pool at 6am and swim for at least 45 minutes. I want to push but not totally exhaust myself. It's been so long that I decided I needed new gear. Right? New bag, paddles, suit, cap, and goggles! I'm going to be so coordinated.

I can't completely wear myself out in the pool because I'm also going back to work! Part of me can't believe that I haven't been there since mid-May. I haven't not worked since 1996 when I started grad school. Things have changed at work while I've been gone so there will be a lot to get used to. I've been climbing the walls that last few weeks, and I am ready and excited to go back to work.

It's good to be getting back to "life."

Early to bed, early to rise?

2011-01-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

I hope so. Today I tried to get up at 7am and it was a struggle. Tomorrow I'm jumping back into my old routine and meeting a buddy at 6am for a walk. Ugh. I have to get back into the early morning routine because I'm going back to work on Tuesday! More about that later.

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-31T12:16:00.000-08:00

Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

I haven't posted in months so here is a quick summary:
January - Lots of training for my first 10k.
February - Celebrated my 40th birthday with family, friends, and great 10k.
March - Lots of long bike rides with fun friends.
April - Finished my first metric century on a very windy day. Arrival of my niece. Lots of work to open a new exhibit.
May - Started feeling yucky.
June - Surgery and ovarian cancer diagnosis.
July thru October - Chemo. Felt like shit but was well taken care of by wonderful family and friends.
November - Started to feel better and walked a 5k in celebration of finishing chemo.
December - Celebrated at Disneyland and feeling even better.

With a few exceptions (10K run, 100K ride, niece) 2010 sucked. I'm not sorry to see it go.

Hello 2011, let's be friends!

Cinderella Classic: a very late report

2010-04-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

I understand that my numerous fans have been waiting for over a month for the exciting report of my first 100km ride. My apologies to my devoted fans.

The pain and exhaustion of my epic ride has faded, which may be a good thing for you. But first I have to start at 7:00am the Friday before the ride when I rolled my ankle while walking the dog. Some of you know my dog and she is a bit of a spaz, but she didn't do anything to make be sprain my ankle. I just stepped on the edge of the sidewalk. That led to a few hours of fretting and trying to decide if I would be riding. Finally, after an email exchange with coach and comments from friends, I decided to ride with the sprained ankle. (It wasn't a very bad sprain.)

The day started very, very early with meeting the Mermaids to caravan to ride start. Gina, Jill, & Naama did the Challenge (longer with big climbs) and Diane, Wilma, and I did the Classic, 67 miles. As Molly pointed out, the is 5 miles longer than a metric century.

We headed out for our epic ride at around 7:45 am. It wasn't raining, but it was just about the windiest day I have seen in long time. Great. We started out from the fairgrounds in Pleasanton. It was nice and green.

and checking in behind me

We pedaled and pedaled and pedaled through Pleasanton, which I don't know at all so I was really hoping the directions were correct. Mostly, I followed the women in crazy costumes.

We got to the first rest stop at 23 miles, I think. We refilled bottles and I discovered the rest stops had circus animals cookies. Score! We headed out for the next section which included our first climb of the day. Nothing horrible, just a long steady climb.

Some people stopped to regroup before the climb.

And, some of us just went for it. One of the good things about the climb was that it wasn't windy. I was about 2/3 of the way up the hill when I realized that I wasn't in my granny gear, I was still in the middle chain ring! Woot, woot! Which of course, meant I had to finish the hill in that gear.

There was a killer descent after that climb. Nice long, but not too steep hills. Sa-weet!! And, then we really hit the wind. Crosswind. Which I have decided is worse than headwind.

Self-portrait in the wind.

Then our next stop was lunch. Mmmmm . . . food! Diane and I met up with Wilma there, she ditched us on the climb.

Refueling. I probably should have had more to eat.

After lunch we headed back out. Back out into the wind. We were on a slight descent that we should have been able to go about 20 mph. Instead we had a headwind and I was having trouble maintaining 10 mph. :-( I was not happy.

That sky looked scary, but didn't produce much.

And, this was the last we saw of Wilma. She had a hot date and needed to finish faster than I could.

We had one more climb that was very pretty. When we were dealing with the headwind I thought I would much rather have climb. But once I got to the climb I wasn't so sure. But, really I think I will taking climbing over the &#$@! wind. After we finished that climb we had our last rest stop. What I really want was caffeine. Coffee, coke, diet coke, tea, mountain dew, jolt, I didn't really care. But there was no stimulants to be found. :-( Keep in mind that by now we were riding through Danville and could have stopped at any number of places for caffeine. I have no response to that.

As we were driving through Danville, something felt funny, kinda squishy. I yelled back to Diane, "Do I have a flat tire?" Her answer, "Yes!" Crap. We stopped and sat down on the sidewalk to change my tire. I had all the stuff I needed but was really hoping for one of the SAG wagons to drive by. I got my tire off, which was amazing because it is really tight. I got going on changing the tube when Diane spotted a SAG. She almost didn't wave them down, but thank goodness she did because it turned out I had a hole in my spare tube. D'oh! They got me all fixed up and on the rode again.

Diane said they must have filled my tires with magic air because I took off and was yelling "on your left" over and over. (Really, I think it had more to do with all the downhills and the 30 minutes of rest.)

The last 5 miles were torture. We were back in the wind. My ass hurt. My ankle was achy. I was done. But we finally made it back to the start. It was a good ride, but I would have been perfectly happy with a true metric century, I didn't need the 5 bonus miles. Diane (and Wilma before she left us) was a great partner and we had a good time. Just as we were pulling out we saw our buddies doing the Challenge route roll in. (I'm so glad they didn't beat us.)

When I got home it was time for a very long, hot shower and pizza.

The End.

Burn out and getting back in the groove

2010-04-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 2 months since I posted here. What have I been up to?

Burn out. One thing I've discovered about myself is that I need a break after my "A" races. Last year after the 1/2 AquaBike, I was done. I was not interested in training and didn't care about the next race. The same thing happened after my 10K, I was d-o-n-e. I didn't want to run again. Ever. I was also not terribly interested in riding. I was doing the Cinderella Ride training series and "dropped out." Which was unfortunate since I was supposed to be getting ready for my first 100K ride, the Cinderella Classic, on April 10th. After two weeks of wallowing in burn out it was time to get moving again.

Getting back in the groove. With the Cinderella ride and the Mermaid Run (yes, my life is a Disney movie) approaching, I had to start doing something. A month before the ride I finally had a plan that involved long rides every weekend and time on the trainer.

The first back-in-the-saddle ride was with fellow Mermaids Jill and Wilma, 40 miles. We rode from Wilma's house to Uvas Reservoir and back. It was beautiful with all of spring greenery.

The next weekend, 50 miles with Diane, Lisa, Jim, and Sara as SAG. I planned a lovely route from Uvas Reservoir, across the valley, up the east hill to Gilroy Hot Springs, and back to Uvas. I went into the ride with trashed, sore legs so it was a little more challenging than I planned.

Heading up to Gilroy Hot Springs. Note the climb in the distance.

A view of the valley.

Done!

After an "ice bath" in the reservoir my legs were feeling much better.

And, then there was this Saturday, the 60 mile ride. After last weeks ride I was kind of dreading this ride. I am amazed that with each ride more people were willing to come along. There were six wonderful Mermaids on this ride. This time I came up with a route that included only hills that I knew I could climb. ;-)

Photos courtesy of Diane, I was too busy pedaling.

At a rest stop with Lisa. Making sure I don't "bonk."

Beautiful winter grass on the Peninsula.

The Supastar Mermaids near the end!

I'm still in awe of how far we rode yesterday, from my place to Woodside and back. I RODE TO WOODSIDE and back. The more I ride the more I'm amazed at how close things really are. Or, maybe I'm impressed at how far I can ride. I can't decide.

Next week the Cinderella Classic 100K (65 miles)!

Mermaid Run San Diego Race Report

2010-02-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

This wasn't my typical everyday-no-biggie race. (yeah, right, like that ever happens.) This race just happened to take place the day after my 40th birthday. Yes, that's right, I typed 40. A few months ago I decided that I wanted to really celebrate this milestone year big, but I also wanted a personal challenge.

What is my biggest challenge? You guessed it, running. I decided to do a 10K as my challenge and started looking for event. There didn't seem to be many near the 12th. Lot's of half marathons and 5Ks, but few 10Ks. Then just when I was going to settle for a race a week or two after my birthday the Mermaid Series popped up with a 5K/10K in San Diego! I could run my challenge in the supportive environment of my Team Mermaid friends and coach. Sign me up! To help me achieve this goal I asked on of my inspirational friends Molly to run with me and keep me on pace.

Start and finish line

After 8 weeks of training the big day arrived on Saturday, 2/13 at Mission Bay in San Diego. I knew I could finish the distance but I was still a little nervous. Luckily, I was surrounded by friends.

Molly, me, and Jill.

After a little milling around and then it was time to go. I know I'm a slower runner so we started in the back. I started a little fast and Molly reminded me that I needed to save my legs for the rest of the race, so we slowed down to something like a 13:30 pace. I really wanted to run a 13:00 pace, but I knew based on my training run that I would probably average a 14:00 pace. But, you know, for someone who "didn't run" a year ago not so bad.

.25 miles in to my 10K.

Once we were out on Fiesta Island the crowd had pulled away from us and we were enjoying the beautiful San Diego February morning. We even got a little toasty. I kept my heart rate in its favorite zone and Molly kept me on pace.

I told Molly, "I can't suck it in in the back." But it's not too bad a view at mile 2.

At mile 4 things I was getting hot, thirsty, and tired. I was hoping for an aid station at mile 4 but it wasn't there. "Where's the aid station?! I'm thirsty," I whined. Molly, bless her, offered to run ahead and get some water for me. And, in my best 4-year-old attitude said, "No. I want the aid station." Just then we went around a turn and the aid station was in sight. One cup of water on my head and one cup of sport's drink to drink. Ahhh . . . feeling a little better.

Just before the where's-the-aid-station meltdown. Note the swinging ponytail.

I was starting to get tired and quiet. Molly picked up the conversation and was working hard to keep me moving forward. She told me the end was insight, we just had to go across the bridge that connected the island to the shore and it would be the home stretch. We were planning to turn left but they said we had to turn right. Right? But the finish line is to the left. I could have cried. We had to go about .25 mile or less to a turn around. Even though the detour (which wasn't on the map) did mess with my morale, I managed to muster up some humor for the turn around.

Flying around the side trip turn around, less than a mile to go.

It was time to pick up the pace. As Molly said, "you can do anything for a mile." So, I pushed it and finished really strong. I could hear the announcer, who also happens to be my coach, saying something about me finishing. I think it was about it being my birthday. I focused on keeping my head up and finishing strong. There were some very enthusiastic guys waiting at the finish line to give me high fives, water, and my necklace. Unfortunately, there were also right on the timing mats so I kinda high-fived and pushed them out of the way at the same time.

Finishing strong with my head up! 1:27:18. 14:03 pace.

It was so wonderful to share this challenge with supportive and encouraging friends. I have to thank you my coach Heidi for being the first person to tell me that I could run. Molly was so generous and supportive to come down, run with me, and keep me going. Without her there would have been some walking around mile 4. And, my teammates Wilma, Jill, Gina, Diane, and Naama who keep me going and help me laugh through the pain.

Everyone at the finish line.

Then it was time for celebrating! Lounging around a beautiful pool, reading, talking, and drinking fruity drinks. It was a great weekend and fabulous way to celebrate the Big 4-0!

note to self: bring a cuter shirt for pool-side lounging.

Week 7

2010-02-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

Sunday - Run 5.5 miles. Wait, what? Who typed that? Run 5.5 miles. It's only a half mile longer than last week. Since this is the last long run before my 10K on Saturday (that's in 5 days!) here is a mile by mile summary.

Mile 1 - Good. Mile 1 is always good. Yesterday was the first of 3 birthday celebrations this month. One of my very generous wonderful friends gave me an ipod shuffle. It is so tiny! I didn't even notice it.

Mile 2 - I've been doing my long runs on the LGCT and this part of the trail is a false flat so I have to watch my heart rate. When it gets above 170 I get kinda loopy and light headed. My running buddy and I were comparing songs on our ipods. I had a very random mix including a little Janet Jackson . . . gonna take you on an escapade . . .

2.75 - Half Way!! If I can make to the turn around means I will usually feel a little hopeful.

Mile 3 - This is when a tend to slow down a bit and there are a couple of little hills. Today I was trying to keep up with my running buddy and got a little light headed so I walked a little.

Mile 4 - Oof. Maybe party food and cupcakes weren't the best fuel. My heart rate was okay, but my legs were getting tired and didn't want to go. A little Katrina and the Waves perked me up a little. Then, it was deal making time. I said out loud, for accountability, "I'm not stopping until we get to the dog park." I made it and did a little walk/running under an overpass and down a steep hill. It was time to get this run over with.

Mile 5 - Half mile to go! Two laps around the track. Two more songs. "Rock This Town" by the Stray Cats came on and that kept me going. More deals, "I can't look at my watch until the song is over." .28 mile to go. One more song, I got a little, "We Used to Friends" to make it through the last little bit. I picked it up to finish strong. And, then . . . . the magical garmin said 5.5 miles. We were DONE! I was sooooo happy to be done.

Whew. I walked about .75 mile to cool down but when I got out of the car my legs were pretty weak. I followed up my run with two of Molly's post run things a cold bath and chocolate milk. And, I added a big cup a coffee, too. Ahhh . . .

If I can do that I can run another .7 on Saturday. Right? Even with the walking parts I averaged a 14.08 minute pace. There is hope for a sub 14 minute pace on race day. Molly is going to pace me on race day to keep my mind from wandering and keeping me focused. She is talking about motivational techniques. So far, we have ruled out a bull whip. My only other tip for her is we are "almost done" when there is .25 mile to go. I hate it when people yell out "you're almost done" when I'm only half way there. Halfway is nowhere close to almost, it is halfway.

I have just a few more short runs this week. I can't believe the weeks have gone by so quickly! Now it is time to play with my intimate friend the foam roller.

Ride 3 and Week 6

2010-01-31T12:02:00.000-08:00

Saturday - 28 mile ride. It was our 3rd week of Cinderella Ride Training. I'm sticking with the fast group. At times I really wish I was in the middle group, but I know that the fast group will help me get stronger. We started out at a blistering 17 mph. Um, could we warm up a little first? Next week I may spin around the parking lot to get things movings. We have a group of 18 and it is hard to get all of us through the lights in busy Fremont. We usually end up going about 15 mph. This we were introduced to climbing. Nothing too bad, in fact, I was thinking to myself, "well, these aren't too bad." Okay, part of one was really steep and I walked the last 100 feet.

My only complaint is too much stopping! Let's go, I've got stuff to do! And, other people have stuff to do. Three women headed back on their own after a stop at Starbucks 2/3 of the way through the ride. I joined another six women about 30 mins later to finish the ride. Really a 28 mile ride shouldn't take 3.5 hours.

Sunday - 5 mile run. I'm getting close to the big day. Last year I would have laughed if anyone had told me I would ever be running 5 miles. Two years ago I "couldn't" run at all. Last year I completed a 10K by running two minutes and walking one over and over and over. This year will be different, I will be running the whole 6.2 miles.

Today I ran with one of my swimming friends, A. She will be giving TeamMermaid a try this year. She was a good friend and ran slowly with me the whole 5 miles. She hasn't run much lately so I was very impressed that she was willing to come out for 5 miles. Having her with me and talking while we ran made the time go by so much faster. And, I ran a little faster, too. My knees are feeling a little better. A good friend who happens to be a chiropractor thought it might be tight adductors. Sure enough, I started stretching, icing and rolling them and things are feeling much better. Still some little twinges but I think I will make it through the next two weeks if I keep up the treatment.

This week TeamMermaid starts up again. Tuesday nights will be full of fun running for the next few months. On Thursdays I will be alternating between swimming and core torture.

Totals:
Miles - 7.75 miles
Time - 1:51:29
Avg. Pace - 14.25

Week 6, part blech

2010-01-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

Maybe this is the two-weeks-before-a-race blues, but I've just not been interested in training. It could be my achy knees, the weather, or my short attention span.

On Tuesday I had a good swim. My coach just went to a clinic and came back with all kinds of new torture. Apparently, dolphin kick is the key to swimming. Our new regular set is 12 x 50 torpedo kick. What is torpedo kick? One 50 on face down, one on the right side, one face up, and one on the left side, times three. Well, it's good for my core, I guess.

I finally got a run in tonight. My knees have been achy but oddly enough they don't hurt much when I ran. They started to hurt a little ways into mile 2. I listened to my body and walked for a little when the pain was more than an ache and then was able to run again for a bit.

While I was running around the track I was thinking about how frustrated I was that my knees are hurting. Then I hit my "happy pace" and started to think about how far I have come. There I was running 4 laps around the track without stopping. Less than a year ago I was walking the curves and tentatively running the straights. Now I'm pretty happy for 2 miles. Not bad for someone who couldn't run two years ago. Tonight I gave myself permission to run whatever race I have in me on 2/13.

Now it's time to go play with my friends the foam roller and rolling pin.

Week 5 - Adjusting

2010-01-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

Rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain. We desperately need the rain but really was five days of pouring rain necessary? When I got up for swimming and opened the door to take the dog out, I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I debated whether to swim or not but I figured I was already up. Just as I got to the pool there was a flash of lightening. I thought, "oh crap." And, sure enough, no swimming due to lightening. By Wednesday morning Jemma had cabin fever so we went for a walk in the morning. We didn't get very far before we were soaked through. Finally, on Thursday the storm gave us a little break for the Run Club and Team Mermaid info night at Lululemon. I got in about 2 pretty easy miles with minimal knee pain.

The parade of storms finally gave us a break on Saturday in time for the first real ride of the Cinderella Ride training. I had to work a little to keep up but its good for me right?

4.5 mile run on Sunday wasn't horrible. I turned off the pace alarm on my Garmin and switched to heart rate. I like that much better and maintained a more consistent pace.

Since my knees have been acting up I've had to adjust my plans for my 10K at the Mermaid Run San Diego. My original goal had been to work on my speed and be able to average a super speedy 13 minute mile. My new plan is stay in my preferred heart rate zone, about a 14 minute pace, and not ruin my knees.

Well, this weekly post thing isn't working out well. I may have to start doing this more often. ;-)

Week 4 - Losing Confidence

2010-01-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

It hasn't been a great week in running. I was so proud of myself after last week's four mile run. And, then this week happened.

Monday morning I headed out on a 3 mile run at 6am. Things were going well, my heart rate was a little low but that frequently happens early in the morning. My goal was to run 1.5 miles, walk for 1 minute, and then head for home. Things were going well until I reached 2.5 miles. My knees were complaining. Loudly. I toyed with powering through but then I remembered that I have 4 weeks until the 10K and it wasn't a good time to do any serious damage. So, I power walked that last half mile. I was disappointed.

I had a track workout on schedule for Tuesday but decided to give the knees some rest and lots of time with frozen peas. And, I decided it was time to use my gift certificate to Rose Garden Health for a little Active Release Therapy. Or, as I like to call it, torture. It's good for she always seems to find things that didn't hurt before my appointment.

I was supposed to swim on Tuesday but couldn't wake up, but I did make it to the pool on Thursday. Our coach was offering to do stroke evaluations so I took her up on her offer. I figured there must be something I need to change. I swam a 50 as naturally as I could knowing someone was watching. She said, "I have no suggestions. You have a very pretty stroke." Wow. Nothing? Cool!

Friday, it was time to try running again. My knees did okay for my 2 mile run. (Whose idea was it to this 10K anyway? Also, this is a really long post. Maybe weekly isn't often enough.)

Saturday. Usually this is my long run day, but this Saturday was the first day of Cinderella Ride Training. The Cinderella Ride is an all women 100K or 100M ride in the east bay that has been going on for about 18 years. I met Chris, Deepika, Jill, Naama, & Sara for the first day of training. There was a lot of talking, checking bikes, assigning groups, but we finally got rolling. Chris, Jill & Naama are hardcore and doing the Challenge series, so they will be riding longer and more hills. I lost Sara after the talking, but she said she had a good time. Deepika and I started out in the Intermediate group which was HUGE. When the group leaders asked for some people to give the Advanced group a try, we pulled on our big girl panties and headed over to the Advanced group. We did a short, flat 12 mile ride to see if people thought they had picked the right group. We fit right in and will be staying with this group.

Sunday, my new long run day. Today 4 miles. I'm kinda figured myself out. I don't like the 2nd quarter of my runs. Once I make the turn for home things start looking up. I really like the first and last miles the best. I got my heart rate a little high and I've discovered that I really don't like that and it makes me cranky. I got really pissed at the "speed up" beeping of my garmin, so I think I will change it to heart rate instead of pace. Speaking of the garmin, it was so not working in the last mile of the run. It seemed to think my pace was 16 minutes. Umm . . . I don't think so! My knees were hurting in the last half mile but I kept running. I was a good girl and walked for almost a half mile to cool down.

I may have to make some adjustments to my goals for the 10K but I will be doing something I never thought I would.

Weekly Totals:
Miles - 9.47
Time - 2:23:00
Avg. Pace - 15:05

4 mile run #1

2010-01-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is what I typed.

Four mile run!!

I ran four miles in 57:27. Under an hour! This is huge for me. I have never run that far before. Ever. And, it kinda felt good. I was able to stay in my preferred heartrate and and I was less aware of gavity. Things seem to jiggle a little less. I decided to use the LGCT so I wouldn't have to deal with cars and I'm familiar with the landmarks and the distances. And, I managed to remember both my ipod and the earphones this time.

Mile 1: I know this part of the trail pretty well and started out a little slow to warm up. I even managed to do something that resembles running up the steep hill.

Mile 2: Walked the first minute. That was the deal I made with myself, I could walk for one minute after each mile. Started running by the dog park and was amused at some of the not-well-behaved dogs heading for the park. Then I was annoyed by some kids on bikes annoying be by starting and stopping a few times and getting in my way. Just before I got to the curvy part, finally, it was time to turn around.

Mile 3: Walked the first minute. I kept telling myself that I was have way there and that it was down hill from there. And, it is kinda downhill since I was running along a creek and going with the flow of the water. There was an interesting sight of a woman, who I can only describe as a Real-Housewife-of-Silicon-Valley, riding a bike with her family wearing a black and shiny gold jacket, perfectly done hair, and big gold hoop earrings.

Mile 4: Only 1 mile left! I was almost done. I experimented with "chasing down" people. I saw a couple walking two dogs ahead of me and focused on passing them. I wasn't too hard since they were walking and I was running. Then I saw a guy walking a golden retriever and passed him. Woot! Ahead I noticed people looking at something in the creek. There was a big vulture, or as my dad calls them buzzard, sitting in a tree. They are big. Another few minutes and I was done! Yes!

I still need to work on keeping my head up. Chasing down people helped with that. I tried out my new "toe socks" to help with rubbing between two toes and they worked!

Weekly Totals
Miles - 11.74
Time - 2:48:43
Avg. Pace - 14:22

Week 3 - a little early

2010-01-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

Week 3 was going well.

Monday - I had a nice 2.5 mile run in new shoes (yay!) with a friend on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. (I brought my ipod with me but forgot the headphones.) My goal was to run the whole way, but I had to stop to use the loo. At least there was one to use. If I remember correctly, our pace was pretty good. And, my feet and ankles felt much better with new shoes.

Tuesday - I was back in the pool, yay! Pull two 500s? No yay. But it was good to be back at "my" pool with my buddies. Later, a 40 minute tempo run was on my calendar. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with a tempo run, but I'm running right? (I brought my headphones with me but forgot my ipod.) Another friend, Gina, joined me at the track and it made all the difference! I had done a 3 lap warm up and was ready for 20 minutes at a faster pace. She had a touch of a cold so was running a little slower than usual which was the perfect pace for me running faster.

Wednesday - Rest day . . . ahhh . . .

Thursday - sneeze, sniff, sneeze, cough. Down with a cold. For work I had to go to Alum Rock Park, possibly the oldest municipal park in California. I've never been there before because they don't allow dogs. It's bea-u-ti-ful! There is a nice trail along the creek that I think I will try for one of my longer runs.

Friday - Still sick but there is a 2 mile run on my calendar. After some personal debate and encouragement from friends I decided to do the run. I took it easy and ran most of the 2 miles. Who would have ever thought that I would run while sick?

Tomorrow I have a 4 mile run on the schedule. I'm thinking it will be a little running and a little walking. There is another 4 miles on tap for next week, so considering the cold, I think I will be okay.

Week 2 - 10K Training

2010-01-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

Monday: I had a 2.5 mile run on my calendar and met up with a few friends on the Los Gatos Creek Trail where we would be doing the Resolution Run later in the week. It's a nice location along the creek that flows out of Lexington Reservoir. Right now it is nice, green and there in a good amount of water flowing. As I write, I can remember much about the run.

~~Tuesday~~ Wednesday: Tuesday was my gammie's 95th birthday and I decided that running intervals after Chinese food was a bad idea. So, I finally dragged myself out of bed and made it to the track around 9am. I was very happy with my interval times. :-) There is hope for a somewhat decent pace.

Friday: Happy 2010! I celebrated the new decade with a 3.5 mile run/1.5 mile walk with some Mermaids. Apparently, I can't read a calendar and decided to switch my 3.5 mile run with my 2 mile run. (more about that later.) It kinda overcast and threatening to rain, perfect for running. We were busy talking and were very surprised when the gun went off.

Oh, I guess we are starting!

Not too far into the run I saw a big fluffy St. Bernard and thought, "hey, that looks like Cujo." (not the one from the movie.) And, sure enough it was Molly's husband with his dog, Cujo. We said a quick, hi, and Cujo left some slobber on my pants. :-) My plan was to run 1.75 miles which I thought would be near the bottom of a hill, then power walk up and down the hills, and run back in. When my watch got to 1.75 I hadn't reached the hill so I kept running until I got to 2 miles. By this time the leaders were running back.

Did I mention that this run goes up to the top of Lexington Dam?

At about mile 4 there was a little whining, "I'm tired!" but I kept running. And, running and running. I finally made it to the end and I was glad it was over! I forgot to tape one of my toes and was sure I had a blister. Other than that it was a great morning with great friends! We celebrated with breakfast in Los Gatos.

Deepika, Jill, Diane, me, Gina, and Atsuko

Saturday: Crappiest run, ever. Everything hurt, my legs wouldn't move, my heartrate didn't get very high, it was 2 miles of torture. Time to resume the knee exercises and stretching. :-) Oh, and get new shoes. And, maybe not run after my big run of the week.

I'm really looking forward to swimming and biking tomorrow. It will be my first time on the bike since October! I hope I remember how. And, all the stuff I need.

Totals:
Miles - 12.71
Time - 3:08:45
Avg Pace - 14.51 (remember that includes walking at the RR and the Crappy Run)

Week 1 - 10K training

2009-12-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

The week started off rough but got better day by day. My first run was good for about 1.5 miles, but the last mile was miserable. I got my heart rate up too high and just felt crappy. I took more walking breaks than I wanted but I made sure I ran a for 2.5 miles. On Tuesday, I met a friend at the track for a "tempo" run. I'm not sure if it was exactly what Hal Higdon had in mind but we were out there running in the cold December evening. My next run was scheduled for Christmas Day. I kept to the plan and went with Dad to West Cliff Drive and ran 2 miles in my new running shirt and tights. :-) I didn't expect West Cliff to be quite so busy, but it was a beautiful day!

On Saturday I met up with some Mermaids for a practice run on the Los Gatos Creek Trail up towards Lexington Reservoir. (Somehow those tricky Mermaids talked me into doing the Resolution Run on 1/1/2010. We thought it was a 5K, but no, it's 5 miles.) We did 3 miles with a little walking. Overall, it was a pretty good first week of training and I think this whole 10K thing will be a good thing.

Also, Santa was very good to me this year. Both Sara and I were lucky enough to get transition bags. At the end of the day we packed all of our gifts into the bags.

Totals:
Miles - 10.26
Time - 2:29:22
Avg Pace - 14.33

10K training begins . . . tomorrow

2009-12-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

It all begins tomorrow. Ten weeks of training for the Mermaid Run 10K in San Diego. This is my challenge for my 40th birthday. I hope that these ten weeks of training will improve my endurance and speed. And, losing a little weight along the way will be nice.

This week I . . .
Ran: ~7 miles
Lost: -0.2 lbs

Gettin' back in the grove . . .

2009-12-16T18:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first day back in the pool. It took me awhile to pack up all my pool toys and remember what I would need to get ready for work. It was very early and dark when the alarm went off at 5:07 am. But I got out of my warm bed and made it to the pool. The water felt so good when I in, it was warm but not too warm. I started to warm up and was relieved that I still remembered how to swim. After two laps I was out of breath. Wow, two months off and out of breath after a 50? They were supposed to kick 8 x 100 IMs. Ha, ha. I just tried to stay out the way while I tried to kick the stiffness out of my legs and stretch out my calves. Next up was 16 x 100s on 1:40. I did o.k. but still tried to stay out of the way. I was shocked at how sore my shoulders were after just a few 100s. After about 50 minutes and I was done with my reintroduction to swimming. It was great to be back in the water!!

Today was a rest day but I still have to walk the dog. After two days of running and one day of swimming my calves and hamstrings were really tight. Hello, stretching, foam roller, and ice packs! I really haven't missed you. Icing in the winter isn't all that much fun.

Well, that's it for now. An, exciting reintroduction to activity.

Catching up

2009-12-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Where have I been? What have I been doing? Nothing. Really, truly, nothing.

In October and early November I was working hard to have a strong 5K at the Mermaid Run San Francisco. I week before the race a medical issue (nothing serious) popped up and I wasn't able to do the race. :-( I've been out of commission since November 9th. No swimming. No biking. No real running. Last week I started reintroducing running to my legs. I start swimming again on Tuesday!

In the middle of my month off I had the amazing experience of watching my friend Molly complete her first Ironman in Tempe Arizona. Watching more than 2,500 people attempt to swim, bike, run 140.6 miles was incredible. That is some dedication and training. I wasn't inspired to complete one myself (it's the marathon) but a half-ironman in couple of years is not out of the question.

This week will be my first week back to regular exercise. It will be interesting. I haven't gone this long without exercise in years. Years! I hope one month off isn't like starting from scratch.

Next up . . . training for a 10K in February. Get ready for a lot of whining about running.

60 Mile Mermaid Ride

2009-10-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

But first let's talk about surfing. Surfing? Yes, surfing. Saturday was a beautiful, sunny, warm, October day in Capitola and the Mermaids had the opportunity for an impromptu surfing lesson. By the way, surfing uses some of the same muscles as swimming but in a completely different way. I knew after about two hours that every muscles in my torso was going to be sore the next day. And, I ended up mystery bruises on my arms. I didn't stand up but had a good time. The funniest part was I was wearing my tri wetsuit and was on a slick board. One of the guys gave me a push into a wave and the board slid right out from under me. One of the real surfers said to be patient she spent three years on her belly before she stood up. So, we will see.

Proof that I was in the water with a board.

60 Mile Ride - What was I thinking? I haven't been on my bike in two weeks. At all. But off I went. The beginning was fine I was able to keep up. Then the hills began and kept coming. I'm 100 times better on hills than I was at the beginning of this year, but I am still really slow on the steeper hills. I was pretty much riding by myself which was kind of a bummer. We finally got to Portola which I love. It's nice and smooth with a wide bike lane and long descents before long inclines. I was joined by my coach's husband and we had fun checking out and commenting on the fancy spreads along the roads in well-to-do Portola Valley. I was going along pretty well and was joined by V who decided to tackle 60 miles for her first long ride, she did great! The route took us down Canada Road which is closed to cars on Sunday and it was really nice to have the road to ourselves. Then we ran into traffic for the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. It wasn't a big deal for us as we flew by the traffic, but are pumpkins really worth this?

Almost to the turnaround. We had to ride passed the lunch stop (waannhhh) and ride another few miles before we got to the turn around. All. Up. Hill. I was tired, hungry, and probably thirsty. Which leads to cranky. Jill, who was heading back down the hill "whoo-hooed" at me and I just shook my head. My coach's husband was quite amused at how pissed I was, "She was so mad." Then I was fed and watered and started to feel better. And, everyone was ready go. Already? The ride back was a little better. There was a lot of down hill and I was with my buddies Gina, Wilma, & V. We had about 20 miles to go and I kept telling myself, "you love Portola, it will be fun." I got some miracle energy and cracked up a long incline on Portola at 10 mph. I don't know were it came from as my legs were pretty much toast. But I just kept pedaling. V and I made a slight route change to avoid the hills from the beginning of the ride and headed down to Juniperro Serra which turns into Foothill Expressway and takes us all the way to the end.

Heading back along Crystal Springs.

60 miles. ~5 hours. 4,747 calories burned.

Ride to Gilroy? And, back?

2009-10-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, I guess so. My crazy-awesome friend Molly is training for Ironman Arizona and I decided to join her for part of one of her training rides. The part I was going to do was flat so I thought I might not fall too far behind. But just in case I brought Amy, a swimming buddy, along with me. The plan was to meet in south San Jose, ride through Morgan Hill and San Martin, into Gilroy and back. We left at 7am when it was 50 degrees out. Ummm . . . yeah. I don't have any cold weather riding clothes.

X-mas List:

one of those really light weight wind-breakers that can fit in a bike jersey pocket
leg warmers
gloves
toe covers
long sleeve, warmish jersey

Anyway, I braved the cold in my shorts, running jacket, arm warmers, & running gloves. It worked. My legs were numb after about 5 miles. Just as we passed the sign "Welcome to Morgan Hill" my front tire felt a little squishy, I looked down and yep I was getting a flat tire. :-( Amy and I pulled off on the sidewalk of a little sub-division to take care of the problem. I knew Molly had a big training day ahead of her so I texted her to keep going. Once I got my super tight tire off, it turns out a teeny-tiny thorn caused the flat. Amy and I had to struggle through my super tight tires twice. We think the CO2 cartridge blew out the first tube. Great, I left my second tube back in the car. Luckily, Amy had a tube. Fingers crossed that we wouldn't need another tube! After about a half hour we were back on the road to Morgan Hill.

Morgan Hill was a little trip down memory lane. We passed the duplexes where we lived when I was a baby & toddler, the park where we had fun 4th of July parties, the site of the first Nob Hill Foods, and the school Dad taught at for 30 years. We headed east and Amy and I had a great time riding through rural areas. There was very little traffic so we were able to ride side by side and make snarky comments about the giant McMansions out in the middle of no where.

When we got to Leavesley Road in Gilroy we decided to make a slight change to the route. We stopped for a potty break, had and exciting sprint at the intersection with 101, and rode through Gilroy to Santa Teresa Ave. (Road?) By the time we go back to the edge of Morgan Hill both Amy and my butts were done with the ride. Too bad we still had another 10 miles to go. I got a text from Molly saying they were back at the cars and were heading out for the first of the hilly loops. Amy and I continued on and on and on. We finally made it back to the cars and Molly's husband was there waiting for Molly and Nigel to get back. They showed up about 10 minutes after we did. Amy and I were done! Molly and the guys had more work ahead of them.

Amy invited me back to her place for brunch. Score! We got there and her husband had made an egg, zucchini, mint, & parmesan cheese thing and had fruit all ready for us. And, coffee! It was so nice. Especially, since I didn't have much at home.

Sore butt, tired legs, 40 miles in 3:18 = a well deserved nap and a day of vegging out.

Mermaid Santa Cruz Tri 2009 - Report

2009-09-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

I went in to this triathlon feeling a little unprepared. I didn't train the past two weeks like I thought I "should" have. Heck, I hadn't been on my bike in almost two weeks. But I was going to give it my all. (Both of my personal photographers were out of town, so fewer pics than usual.)

I was up at 4:50 and quite surprised when Sara showed up early at 5am. But that was fine we were on the road at 5:30, over The Hill and in transition at 6:15. It was very dark but luckily Sara had grabbed some headlamps from the camping gear.

Setting my transition. In the dark.

Heading down 150 stairs (that we have to come back up after the swim).

Swim: I think I like the starts at ocean swims better than lake and river. More people are intimidated by the waves, but not me! They sent us off right as a set was coming in and I dove under a wave to begin my swim. :-) I swam and swam and swam. About 2/3 of the way through a jet ski came by and created a big wake. Lame. There were no waves as I was coming in, I waited for my hands to touch the sand and then popped up and ran for the mat.
Time: 11:25.8 (2008: 11:40.4)

THE STAIRS: 150 stairs done. Not fun, but done.

Bike: Made up all the nasty, gross hills and even passed people going up The Hill of Doom. Felt good on the bike and flew down my favorite part of Sumner. The course is a little trip down memory lane as I ride past friends houses from my childhood. When I made it up the last nasty hill I saw that my time was at 48 minutes and booked it to the dismount line.
Time: 51.37.5 (2008: 1:10:22.9)

T2: The only reason I mention this is I was faster this year then I was last year. What's funny about this is I didn't have to change my shoes last year. What was I doing?
Time: 3:02.9 (2008: 3:16.8)

Run: Well, its running. I was trying to keep a steady pace under a 14 minute mile, it came and went, I walked for 30 secs here and there. (Turns out that I averaged a 13:46 pace.) My legs were toast from bike. But I power walked up the long hill and at the top busted into a fast pace and booked it to the finish. Yay! I was done.
Time: 34:24.0 (2008: 36:18.5)

Heather caught my strong finish. (It looks like I am running for a change.)

Total time: 1:49:07.1 (2008: 2:05:58.9) It's amazing what a year of training and a new bike will do, huh?

Some triumphant Mermaids!

It was great and I felt like I finished strong and the tank was 99.9% empty. Very pleased with the whole day. They've started doing raffles at the Mermaid events. The prizes vary from water bottles, t-shirts, massages, and wetsuits. And I won a wetsuit!!! So stoked!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

While many people were celebrating Labor Day with BBQs, trips to the beach, general merriment, I decided to be active everyday of the three day weekend. And, not just a little active, but I did some significant stuff.

Saturday: Epic Swim
On Saturday morning, bright and early, I headed to Santa Cruz with a bunch of friends to join Molly on her 1.5 hour open water swim. The plan was to swim around the wharf. Twice. Swimming around the wharf isn't my favorite thing in the whole world. The water is salty and filled with bacteria. There are sea lions that bark and come to close. The water can be cold with spots of colder. But Molly is training for an ironman, so if she needs swimmers I'm there. Especially, if we get to go out to breakfast afterwards.

I took control of Molly's rad waterproof camera:

Most of the group at the end of the wharf, 1/4 of the way done.

Molly coming in to the 1/2 way point.

I really had fun with the camera.

Swimming buddies

Molly's new Garmin produced this image:

Good sighting!

Sunday: Climb a Mountain
Two of my swimming buddies (A and N) who also ride wanted to conquer Old La Honda Road. Really? 3.35 miles, 1290 feet, 3-18% grade, with an average of 7.3%? Really? Are you sure? I decided to give it a try. I figure I can make it up almost an incline if I can stop. So, we headed out. "A" reminded me to keep my heart rate down and just keep pedaling. I completed the first mile and then took a break. "A" hung back with me for the first mile and "N" came back to find us and took over babysitting duty for mile 2. Mile 2 was the hardest part and I didn't make it the full 2nd mile before stopping. We eventually found "A" and finished the last mile together. Oof. There was a lot of swearing and giving my friends a hard time. But we made it to the top!

At the top getting ready to go back down.

Going up killed my legs but going down killed my hands! OOOW! Heading back the car we had a great descent before a big hill so I used gravity to my advantage and flew down the hill. (later when I looked my max speed was 33.5 mph.) It was funny and scary at the same time. Thanks to " A" and "N" for getting me up the mountain! I really think we need some "Wave Swimming Cycling Team." ;-)

Monday: Family Fun Ride
Mom, Dad, Sara, and I met in Monterey for a fun ride on the Monterey Bay Coast Recreation Trail. (or, something like that.) It was a little dicey riding the rec trail through the touristy areas of Cannery Row and Fisherman's Wharf. Once we got past the crowds it was a nice ride. Beautiful weather, good conversation, and a nice spin for my legs.

Practicing my photography while riding skills.

Mad rear photography skillz.

The Triumphant Red Hot Johnsons.

Happy Labor Day!!

Why do you want to lose weight?

2009-09-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

This was the question posed at WW last night. We were supposed to write down why we want to lose weight to remind us why were are counting points, moving more, and drinking lots of water. Other people had things on their list like:

reduce my blood pressure or cholesterol medication
get a knee or hip replacement
prevent cancer/heart disease
play with my kids/grandkids

My list:

look better in clothes
buy cuter bras
wear jeans with a belt
feel more attractive and confident
be more active

My WW buddy looked at my list and said, "be more active? are you kidding? you are more active than most skinny people!" Hmm . . . that is kinda true. What do I really mean? Okay, how about:

feel more comfortable while active
swim/bike/run faster
be able to ride up hills more easily

Other than the "more active" part of the list my list seems a little vain. I guess I'm lucky that I don't have to take medication or have any weight related medical conditions. Yet. So, I will add:

to prevent potential weight related medical conditions

Next up, we'll see how this list helps my "weight loss journey."

Back in the saddle again . . .

2009-08-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

After two weeks with no bike time, today I got back in the saddle. I met two of my swimming buddies, A and N, for a 2 hourish ride with some hill repeats. Just as we were heading up the hill on Kennedy (just past my Gammy & Gaga's old house) I hit a milestone on my bike.

1,000 miles! One thousand miles? How did I do that?

It was a fun ride. I huff-and-puffed my way up Kennedy (only one stop) with A & N saying things like "we are almost there, the top is just around this corner, keep going." They lie. Or, they have a different idea of "almost there" than I do. But we did it and they kept me pushing when I would have stopped. Thanks, A & N! We went back down the hill to do it again. And, weirdly, it was easier the second we went up. My legs were more tired but my heartrate and breathing were under control. I see more hills in my future.

I'm trying to back in training mode, the Mermaid Tri is one month away!

The slope really IS slippery

2009-08-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

It has been three weeks since the Vineman 1/2 AquaBike and my training schedule is non-existent. One week of recovery is normal. Two is acceptable. But three? Time to put down the remote and leave the house.

Not that I have been completely sedentary. I've been swimming, working out with Team Mermaid, run/walking in the mornings, and a few big hikes. It's the weeknight rides and bricks that have disappeared. It's time to my butt back in the saddle. Literally.

I'll be back with updates.

2009 Vineman 1/2 AquaBike Race Report

2009-08-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

So, this is what I have been working towards for the last 6 months. Warning: this post is kinda long, feel free to skim.

Race Morning:
Sara and I got up at 5:30 am and started the double-check ritual. You know, double checking all the stuff we got ready the night before so we wouldn't have to check it again and just get going in the morning. Yeah, right. When I went to braid my hair and realized that I never got around to buying new little red hair ties the day before. "No red hair ties on my adorable braids?! Whatever will I do?" Big black hair ties at the end of my little skinny braids would have to do. Then, I pulled on my tri top to discover a hole on the front seam. Great. I scoured the hotel room for a sewing kit and nothing. Crap. "Do a race with a growing hole in my tummy?" On the way to the race we stopped at the front desk and snagged the last sewing kit in the hotel and I sewed up the seam while Sarah drove to the start. We ended up at the race start about 30 minutes later that planned due to the sewing and parking 1/2 a mile away. Ack! My wave starts at 8:10 and I'm getting body marked at 7:50? Crap. I squeeze my bike on to the rack, much to the chargin of some of the ladies on my rack. "Sorry, the rack holds 10 (I think) bikes, move it!" The family showed up and helped by taking stuff like sweatshirts, glasses cases, and keys off our hands. I slathered on the sunscreen, got my post swim gatorade and PB&J out, socks, shoes, etc. out, in no particular order, on my towel.

Bob (Molly's Dad), Molly, gnome mascot, me, Sara

The Swim:
Finally headed down to the water to warm up. I was in the water for all of a minute before they wanted us out of the water to walk through the "corral" to activate our timing chips. Alright, fine. More walking on the rocky shore. "Oh my god. I'm really doing this." Luckily, the water was lovely. Perfect temperature. I positioned myself towards the front, but not at the front and to the outside. BLAAAHH!! The start horn sounds and off we go. I start off nice and steady and fight off the people trying to run over me. I find it fairly amusing that triathlons have all kinds of rules for the bike (no drafting, ride single file) and run (no ipods) but the swim is a free for all. I get in my groove and just keep swimming and swimming and swimming. It was in a river so I couldn't see the whole course and was wondering where the turn around was. We reached the turn around and it was pretty shallow so people were standing up, walking or running in the river. I popped up for a few steps and then dove back in. It was pretty shallow on that side of the river so I stayed close to the buoys where it was the deepest. I was having a great swim trying not to kick too much, but really enjoying myself. When I got to the last bridge over us and I could see the finish it was time to pick up the pace. I started pulling and reaching further. Then I was out of the water and walking to my bike. Jill, super spectathlete and injured mermaid) was right at the fence screaming her head off for me.

Doesn't the swim start look fun?

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . .

Time: 36:52.7 PR!

Transition:
I took my time at transition to pull on my bike shorts, slather on some more sunscreen, drink some gatorade and eat a half a PBJ sandwich. Dad was right there snapping pics. I brought my arm warmers and wasn't sure if I needed them. I looked at Jill and she was talking to someone, so I turned to Dad and said, "arm warmers?" He said, "yes," so I struggled them over my damp skin. I didn't want any more of my sandwich so I got Dad's attention and tossed a 1/4 sandwich at him. Isn't he lucky? Time to head out.

Ready to go! (note the excessive sunscreen)

Time: 9:59.4 (maybe I took Heidi's comment, "what do you care how long your transition takes?" too seriously. at least it was under 10 minutes. barely.)

Bike:
As I headed out of transition I had a great surprise and saw my friend Christina, yay! The ride starts with a small hill, but in my rush in the morning and didn't put my bike in a good gear so I walked up the hill. Then is was time to start the long 56 mile ride. My goals for the ride: Take time to look at the beautiful scenery; take the first 10 miles of rollers easy; enjoy the experience; and finish in 4:30 hours but 5 would be acceptable too.

I spent the first few miles spinning to warm/wake up my legs. I was immediately grateful to Dad for telling me to put on the arm warmers. It was chilly at 15-17 mph. Almost after the first turn, not even a mile into the course, there were two guys stopped. One's face was bleeding and the other was picking up bike stuff from the street. I have no idea what happened but what a crappy way to start the race. I kept going and all the super fast women from Barb's Race (the women's half ironman tri that started 5 minutes behind me) started passing me. Including my supafast friend, Chris. She had a great swim and was off on her big adventure. I kept riding, hit the first big hill and the the section of rolling hills. Heidi joined me on the rollers and asked how I was doing and reminded me to eat and drink. What a good coach! Then she laughed and said, "You have so much sunscreen on your face is white! You are so cute, I wish I had a camera." Great. Then she went on to rock her Barb's Race. Well, the excessive sunscreen gave me something to do for awhile. I started rubbing my face when I could. Not too much later, Marisol past me, she was going fast!

I managed to do the rolling bottle exchange thing at the first aid station (tossed my bottles out and grabbed new ones while still on my bike). I was so proud of myself that I grabbed a mini Clif bar, too. More beautiful vineyards. I was managing to look around. But at the same time I was wondering what the hell I was doing out there. I wasn't even 20 miles into the race and I was tired and my legs hurt every now and then. Why? Why was I riding 56 miles? This was going to hurt. But I kept pedaling. I heard a group of women chattering away behind me. I guess it wasn't a difficult race for them. They passed me and then came Molly. She commented about how the group was breaking a bunch of rules, they didn't seem to care. Molly had a great swim and was off for a fast ride. Bye Molly!

I checked my bike computer and saw I was at mile 25. Almost halfway there! I passed the spotted where I ripped a hole in my tire on the training ride and gave it a little wave. Mile 27. This was the area I missed on the training ride and there was a pretty long incline. I was steep just long, that's why I have all those gears, right? Mile 28! Yes! Halfway there, it was all "downhill" from there. My time was around 2 hours. How did that happen?

I stopped at the second aid station in Geyserville to finish off my liquids before getting more, take off my arm warmers, and rub off the excess sunscreen. The sun had come off and it was a beautiful morning. Then off I went to the lovely Alexander Valley. My legs were tired, my quads were burning, I was worried because I still had Chalk Hill to deal with. Then I started an internal (occasionally verbal) conversation about what to do on Chalk Hill. Walk? Inch worm?

"If I inch worm (ride, stop, catch my breath, repeat) I will have ridden the whole hill. But my legs are already tired. Maybe I should walk. But then I'll be bummed that I walked. However, I don't want to get in the way of the people doing the full vineman, if I stop and start I might bug them. So, I'll walk. No, I'll inch worm. But, then again . . . "

You can imagine the rest. My final decision was, "we will see when we get there." I stopped at the aid station at mile 41 to use the porta-johns. I guess that means I was drinking enough. my hydration solution was: if you think "should I have some gatorade?" that means you should. I had a little trouble getting my two pairs of shorts back were they belonged so I had to stop make some adjustments and add a little lube for the last ~15 miles. Two guys passed me and I heard one say to the other "this is Chalk Hill." Then as he passed me he said, "no stopping on Chalk Hill!" Um, dude, this isn't the hill. I kept going over the rolling hills before the really steep part. When I finally got to the steep part I pedaled until I couldn't go any further, then stopped and walked one steep straight part. I got back on the bike in a little shady spot and rode to the next shady spot by a group of Team in Training spectathletes. I stopped took a breather then got back on for another short burst of riding to the next group of spectathletes. They were playing some nice mellow music and told me the top was just around the corner. I got back on my pedals and they gave me a big cheer for riding to the top. Now it was really downhill! 8 miles to go!!!

On the training ride, the last 8 miles were torture. "Where is the end?" So, I prepared myself for the long final 8 miles. At this point the lead Full Vinemen athletes were passing me on a regular basis. I was trying to stay out of their way and they were encouraging me to keep pushing. There are some lovely views so I took a moment to appreciate them. Said hi to some beautiful German Shepards dogs playing in front of their historic house, asked some spectathletes to do something about the wind, and thanked all the volunteers and law enforcement at the intersections. I was dreading this part so much, that it went much faster than expected. And, I was much faster than I expected. This is it, this was the end. I didn't have to do anything but cheer my friends after this, so now was time to push. I was pedaling hard the last few miles and came flying into the finish. I was focused, but I could hear Mom, Dad, and Cabe cheering as I made the turn into the finish.

Time: 4:19:59.6

I did it! I was done! I swam 1.2 miles and rode 56 miles!! No flat tires! No falls! I did it!!! Christina was there at the finish for a hug and Mom was right there to give me a big long hug.

Total time: 5:06:51.7!

Now it was time for Sara to come in. She had a good ride and me all her goals. We were done!

We did it!

All photos courtesy of Jack D. Johnson

Random photos . . . long story

2009-07-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

7/18 - Mermaid Ride

2009-07-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do this post quick before I forget and get caught up in my training and work next week.

Saturday was the day of the 40 mile Mermaid Ride. There was a nice big group with some new faces, including Nancy from masters. I wanted to wear my tri top to expose my skin to the sun a little before the race. (in 2 weeks!) However, it was a cold foggy morning in Santa Cruz so I bought a pair of sleeves to keep me warm. And, after we started rolling I was glad I did. I would have been really cold.

The route went along the coast from Santa Cruz to Capitola to Rio del Mar. In Rio I had to face my nemesis, The Hill of Doom. I made it further up the hill, but decided to walk the steepest part. *sigh* Then it was a lovely ride (with some gradual hills) through the strawberry fields to Watsonville. When I turned on to Beach Road there was a nasty headwind so I took some pics since I wasn't going anywhere very fast.

Still working on my photographing while riding skills.

Okay, that's better.

We had a nice lunch and then headed back to Santa Cruz.

Mermaids in front of me . . .

Mer . . . umm . . . need to work on shooting behind me

Better . . . let me try again . . .

Out of focus Mermaids behind me.

Here is where I found my happy pace last year and remembered how much I liked bike riding.

The Hill of Doom is too steep to stop and take a pic of going up, so here is going down:

We made our way through busy Capitola Village, up another hill, by the beaches in Santa Cruz, and finally I could see the Rio Theater. I was never so happy to be back and done in my life. (Well, maybe except for the ride in Sonoma last week.)

Nancy and I at the end.

Why does Nancy's hair still look normal? I was a sweaty mess.

40.91 miles
3:19 riding time

This was my last big ride before the Vineman AquaBike on 8/1. Starting to get nervous.

Long time, no post. Too busy training.

2009-07-13T16:43:00.001-07:00

Rather than try to write about all my training I'll hit the highlights since 6/29.

>>Lots of riding & swimming.

>>On the 4th of July I celebrated with a 3 hour, 15 minute ride on the Peninsula with a bunch of friends. No one got lost or injured, we all made it back pleasantly exhausted.

>>Having some trouble with my Achilles Tendon. Hurt's when I point my toe so it mostly effects my swimming.

>>On July 9th I did the "Splash and Dash" at Stevens Creek Reservoir. Dude, those were some fast splashers and dashers. Usually, I'm in the middle of a swimming event, but this time I was at the end of the middle. But it was nice to swim in the open water. Whoever thought they would see me write that? Not me!

6/29 - :55 run/walk & 6/30 - Masters & Mermaids

2009-06-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

6/29 - I jogged 4 minutes & walked 1 minute eleven times. My achilles felt okay during the "run" but later it was tired.

6/30 - Masters was canceled to due extreme chlorine problem, hopefully it will be open again on Thursday. I swam with Cindy and Nancy at the Fremont High School pool. It was set up for long course, it was an interesting swim. Damn, 50 meters is a long way. We made some attempts at 200 IMs and I was doing okay until my foot cramped during fly.

Mermaids = more swimming and running. My achilles was tight during the swim this morning so I decided to walk at TeamMermaid. We started with a swim at Camden pool which is hot and salty. (whatever happened to cool pools? all I'm asking is 80 - 82 degrees) I jumped in at the deep and went all the way to the bottom and pushed off the bottom. Ow! No that hurt my achilles. Duh. We did a 200 warm up and then swim at 85% for 20 minutes. I did something pretty close to 1000 yards. Then it was time for transition from swim to run. Ha, ha! We must have look charming with wet boobs and butts. After the first lap, I stopped to get a rock out of my shoe and Coach H was shocked when I pulled off and put on my shoe without untying the laces. "Well, no wonder your achilles hurts! You need to tighten your laces!" Then she proceeded to tie my shoes for me. I did feel more stable but, dude, those were tight. I guess I need to find the right tension for my feet. Something to work on.

6/27 - Ride 1:30, easy run :40

2009-06-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to this workout all week. This was a tough week for me. The time on the bike increased and I had a little trouble figuring how to do the workouts and go to work. But I did it and I'm very proud of myself.

This morning I met up with some of the Mermaids. Gina F., Ashley, and Naama were doing a 3 hour ride and I joined them for half of it. We met up the Campbell Track and headed west on Campbell, which turned into Prospect, and continued on to Saratoga - Sunnyvale Road. Then when we headed for the hills to Highway 9. I was a little worried about the hills on my clickity-clackity bike, but I did okay. I took the hills nice and easy so I didn't have to worry about the random gear changes. I had planned to stop after 50 minutes and head home, but I decided to make a loop instead. I left the Mermaids at Blossom Hill and Los Gatos Blvd. I found my way to the LGCT and headed to Wheel Away to address the clicks-and-clacks.

The guys at Wheel Away were great! They seemed to know what "clickity-clackity" meant and adjusted the cable and gave it a little oil. And, it was as smooth as silk. Thanks Wheel Away Guys!

Oh yeah, and there was no running. The top of my foot was hurting.

6/26 - Ride 1:45 (and bonus swim around the wharf)

2009-06-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's 2 hours and 20 minutes? No problem. Well, except for my clickidy-clackity gears. I don't know what happened but my easier gears are clicking and clacking and dropping all over the place. Basically, I have about three gears that don't make me nervous. I'll be stopping by the local bike shop tomorrow morning to see what is going on.

Okay, on to the ride with 3 gears. I headed out at 2:00 and it was kinda hot. I decided to ride to the Los Gatos Creek Trail (LGCT), find my way to Highway 9 and ride down it until it was time to turn around. The LGCT had much fewer people on it this afternoon, I didn't have to say, "on your left" a zillion times. Nice. I ran into a group of four boys (12-14?) on their mountain bikes. It was kinda cute. They were all wearing their helmets and having fun going off some jumps and riding together. The only problem was that they got in front of me, went a little too slow, and rode 2 and 3 abreast. I hung back for awhile and took a little break. The we came upon a group of three girls (junior high-ish) on their bikes. Riding with their helmets hanging from the handlebars. Tsk, tsk, tsk. The boys and I passed them. When I passed I heard one of the girls complaining, "how much further?" and another respond, "oh my god, we haven't been riding very long." Again, cute. I wish I was on summer vacation.

I eventually found my way to Highway 9. First I turned the wrong way from Blossom Hill and then ended up on N. Santa Cruz. I don't recommend N. Santa Cruz too much traffic. I almost took a tumble but thanks to my mad unclipping skills I caught myself. When I finally got to Highway 9 my lack of gears got to be really annoying. I made it to the intersection with Quito and wasn't sure when I would be able to turn around again so I turned back. This time I skipped N. Santa Cruz and tried University Avenue. Much better.

As I was heading home with the clickidy-clackity gears I thought about stopping at the LBS but remembered that I needed to get on the road to Santa Cruz. I went straight home. While I was riding I checked my time 1:30. 1:30! I rode long again? How did that happen? It happened because I forgot that I was supposed to do 1:45. No doy. I must have been thinking about my ride tomorrow. :-}

I had a quick rest and ice my sore foot. (&*@$#%!) Gathered all my stuff and joined the Friday traffic over 17 to Santa Cruz. I met up with Molly and Chris for Molly's inaugural swim around the wharf. Woot! The water was warmer than last time and it was pretty calm. We had a nice swim around the wharf with no sea life joining us and not too much seaweed. Molly had a great swim and beat the time she was expecting.

One more workout until Restday.

6/25 - Ride 2:20 followed by :20 run or walk

2009-06-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

But, its Thursday. But, I swam this morning. But, I have to work. But, it's a school night. But, who's gonna cook dinner. But . . . . .

*sigh* Okay, let's try and turn this around or its going to be a miserable 2:20 hours.

#1 - Find a new route. I checked mapmyride for some ideas. Since this was a brick I wanted to start and end at the apartment so that I could change shoes and grab the dog. I wanted to try Foothill Expressway because a lot of cyclists like it and it has a nice big wide shoulder. So, I found a route from my place to Foothill.

#2 - Figure out the best setting for the bike computer. Having it set for time keeps me looking to see how much longer and on a 2:20 ride that would drive me nuts. Setting it for mileage also has me checking it all the time. So, I decided on my average speed.

Headed out at 5:30pm and had to make a quick pit stop at Pam's 'cause I didn't want to disturb the dog. I set the bike computer for average speed and told myself I could check the time when I got to the intersection of Shilling and Homestead. When I got there it had been 45 minutes. Pretty good. I continued on with the goal of turning around at 1:15. I thought I would gain some time on the way back due to elevation and wind. Foothill Expressway is a great road to ride on. Big wide shoulder. Few intersections. Smooth. Great! I turned around at Arastradero at 1:19. I made it all the way to Arastradero?! Oh my god! I was so amazed I had to call Sara.

Then it was time to head back. I was a little tired of being in the saddle but had to get home. It took longer to get back than I thought so I played a little game of counting intersections. It worked and I made it home!

Then it was time for the :20 run or walk. It was a walk. The post long ride top-of-foot-pain was pretty bad. Jemma and I walked for 20 minutes to cool down the legs. Ahhh . . . home at 8:30pm. Good thing it's summer.

Time: 2:31:59
Distance: 30.36 miles
Average: 12 mph

6/24 - Ride 1:30 with 7 x 3min push, 3 min recovery

2009-06-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

Or, something like that. I really need to learn to manage my time better. And, remember that there is traffic between work and my destination. *sigh* I had WW tonight so, I had to cut my workout by 30 minutes. I parked by Lake Almaden and rode down the Los Alamitos Creek trail and then south on McKean. Is it always windy on McKean? Of, the two times I have ridden on it there has been a nasty headwind going south. It's hard to recover when you are fighting the wind. And, why can you feel a head 100 times more than you can feel a tailwind? The ride on McKean was a little un-nerving this afternoon. There were more cars than Saturday morning and not much shoulder. Most of the drivers gave me plenty of room but one or two felt a little too close. I think I will save it for weekend mornings.

6/23 - Masters + Mermaids

2009-06-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Masters:

12 x 25 on the :30, :30, :20
10 x 50s kick on :55 (but I pulled)
10 x 100 drill (what?)
16 x 50 fly (double what?)
8 x 100 back (oh, alright)
4 x 200 breast (I'm outta here)
1 x 400 free

We're not sure what our coach was smoking when he came up with that workout.

Mermaids:

Brick workout. Bike 3 mile loop, quick transition, run 3 minutes out, 3 minutes back x 3. Pretty good day. My calf and achilles started acting up on the last loop and run, so I took it easy. Not much more to report.

6/22 - Run somewhere fun for 35 minutes

2009-06-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

Run and fun in the same sentence? Okay, I'll give it a try. I took Jemma for a run in Vasona Park. I've never run there but running near the water sounded nice. And, it was for the most part. The geese were pretty entertaining. Three times there were hundreds of them blocking the trail. One time we divided the group when we came down the trail and there was one goose that couldn't decide which group to go with. It finally sprinted across the trail, very cute. Later, I got to witness a geese stampede. I guess Jemma freaked them out (and they freaked out Jemma) and they created a dust cloud when the ran for the water. I finished my run and headed home with a tired dog.

Riding Twofer

2009-06-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

Two, two, two posts in one!

Friday, 6/19 -
I had a "brick" on my calendar. 1:20 ride, followed by a :20 run. I don't know if it was that I was tired from the day before, or cranky, or just plain stubborn, but I really didn't feel like doing it. :::sigh::: I finally got my act together and headed out on the bike. 8 minutes into the ride I knew it was going to be a long ride. "8 minutes? That's it?" It was time for "Let's Make a Deal Cycling Edition." "2 more minutes and you will be a 1/4 of the way through the first half of the ride." I didn't choose the most exciting route, straight down Williams, its a pretty long straight street. "13 minutes? Just keep pedaling." It was kinda windy which isn't that unusual for the evenings in San Jose. "20 minutes! 1/2 way through the first half, 1/4 done." My bike shorts and skirt were drying so I was riding in my running skirt. Maybe not the best choice, I felt a little exposed when the wind blew back my skirt. "30 minutes. Getting closer. You can turn around at DeAnza whether it's 40 minutes or not." And, I forgot my gloves. "36 minutes . . . 4 more minutes . . . 3 more minutes." Oh, look DeAnza. Fine keep riding. "2 more minutes . . . 1 more minute . . ." Then the street ended at exactly 40 minutes. Ahh . . . heading back. Much faster then going out. Turns out that I was going slightly uphill the way out. I ended up getting home 5 minutes faster. My sore achilles tendon was irritated so I decided to skip the run. Stretched, iced and fueled for my big ride on Saturday.

Saturday, 6/20 -
3 hour ride. 3 hour ride?! Where? How? Why? I enlisted the help of my friend, C. She planned a route that she was pretty sure would take about 3 hours. 39 miles in 3 hours? Yeah, right. We headed out for Morgan Hill at 8am. With a headwind. blech. "wind is a good training partner." yeah, yeah whatever. We were on a "country" road with rolling hills. Some were easier than others. At the top of a hill by Calero Reservoir I tried to change into a harder gear and the chain wasn't catching. My left foot (the one with the irritated achilles) was flung forward and I had a pain go up the side of my ankle. Eek? We stopped at the parking lot so I could stretch my calf. I was worried but it was fine for the rest of the ride. At 1 hour we had made it all the way to Chesboro Reservoir in Morgan Hill. How did that happen? Then we took a smaller country road through some nice trees and horse ranches. There was a surprise hill, but after a little break I was okay to continue. I had a lot of fun on Hale Avenue, which I remember from my childhood. It was fun to be on a straight flat road without intersections. I was going pretty fast, ~18 mph. Too bad the road surface wasn't smoother. Then it was time for Bailey Hill. Dun, dun, duhhhh. I've heard about this challenging hill. C chose this route because it is similar to the route for the AquaBike on 8/1. I got myself in a good head space and tried to remain calm. I did pretty well. I think it was about a mile long. I stopped three times to catch my breath, but rode up that darn hill. Then we were back on McKean Road and had some fun on the down hills. We ended up back at the cars 30 minutes early. "What the heck?" So, we continued on Camden for 15 minutes out and back. Which included Camden Hill. Oof. Usually, I stop once on Camden Hill, but this time I stopped twice and used Coach H's counting technique to get to the top of the hill, "30 . . . 31 . . . 32 . . . 33 . . . 35 . . . 36. Done!" We headed back to the cars and were back in that headwind. Grrr.

I have tired legs but I'm very pleased. 36.25 miles in 3 hours. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do 56 miles on August first, but I still need to work on the chafing.

By Popular Demand: The Tour de Cure

2009-06-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

When I was living in LA (well, Pasadena) in 2000, I remember my dad calling and saying, "I'm thinking of getting a bike." Umm . . . okay, dad sure. he started looking but was shocked at the price of bikes. Keep in mind that he hadn't bought a bike since the early 1970s. Last year after I started this whole triathlon thing he was interested in bikes again. Then, when I bought my new bike this spring he was caught up in the bike buying frenzy and got one for himself. Also, this spring he was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and knew he need to do something for his health.

He recruited Sara, Cabe, and I to ride with him as a team in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure. The tour is a ride (not a race) to raise money and awareness about diabetes. At first, Dad was interested in doing the 25K (~12 mile) ride. Sara and I got together and nagged until we signed up for the 50K (~30 mile) ride. We did a few training rides together, including part of the Tour de Cure course two weeks before the ride. I was a nice ride, but there were more hills than expected. Apparently, I need to learn how to read elevations.

Sunday, June 14th was the day of the big ride! Ready or not, the Red Hot Johnsons were ready to roll. We got to the start area with Mom as our SAG wagon. Perfect timing! We had time to pick up our packets, Dad got his "Red Rider" jersey which identified him as a rider with diabetes, make a pit stop, and line up at the start.

I was a little nervous at the start, I could just see a big crash with the start. But we made it through and headed out on our big adventure. The first few miles are a gradual climb and the team did a great job! We even passed some people. :-) Unfortunately, no one brought a camera, so we don't have any shots of our beautiful ride through Palo Alto, Woodside, and some other towns on the Peninsula. We enjoyed the snacks at the rest stop. But I was very sad when I dropped some of my trail mix. Then we were off for the trek to the turn around. I absolutely loved riding on Portola. The road was smooth and I felt comfortable flying up and down the rolling hills. We all just kept pedaling and pedaling. I couldn't believe how good I was feeling even up the hills. There was a group heading the opposite direction, they saw dad's jersey and yelled out, "Go Red Rider!!" (I think we have a new alter ego for dad.)

The last push to the turn-around was long and I was really happy to turn in to the aid station. I got off my bike and took of my left shoe because the top of my foot was hurting. But that's okay, there were cookies! I got a few cookies, a banana, and some trail mix. And, what happened? I dropped my trail mix. :-( Anyway, we had our snacks and then it was time to head back. It was all downhill, from here, right?

Well, almost. We had a good ride back, mostly down hill but a few up hills. As we were hitting stoplights with other riders things got a little backed up, but we all found our own pace. At one of the last lights before the end another rider was getting tired and turned to dad and said, "I'm doing this for you, you know." :-) I told dad, our team captain, to lead us in to the finish. It was so great to have people cheering at the finish and mom was right there to take our picture!

50 K in 3:34 hours. We had a great time and thank everyone who made a donation to American Diabetes Association.

2009 Mermaid Tri Fremont Race Report

2009-06-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry, never got around to posting a race plan last night. Oh well.

Goals:
1. Finish the swim in less than 7 minutes.
2. Have fun on the bike.
3. Run the whole run.
4. Finish around 1:30.

Got to the race super early and got a nice spot on the end of the bike rack. Had about 2 hours until my wave started so plenty of time to hang out with friends and take a pic or two. Luckily, Super-Spectathlete Molly was there to document the day. (Thanks Molly!)

Sara, me, and Heather

After watching Julia, Lauren, and Riley run in the Mini-Mermaid Run (1.5 miles for girls 6-12) it was time to get in the water.

Finally, it was time to go!

(I'm somewhere in the front.)

Wow. The 30 - 39 year olds are fast! I stuck with the group for quite awhile, past the first buoy. When I dove into the water I hit the water kinda hard and ended up with a goggle full of water. I tried swim with the water in my goggle but finally gave up, took a break, and empty the water. I calmed down and hit my pace about halfway through the swim. Then it was over and I ran for the timing mat which was nice and close to the shore. :-)

I had a pretty quick transition since I didn't wear a wetsuit. I put on my socks and shoes, grabbed the bike and headed out. It was a really nice bike course closed to traffic, mostly flat, with one no passing zone on a bridge over the BART tracks. I turned on my bike computer so I could see my average time. I wasn't sure what to expect and was very happy when I saw that I was averaging a little over 15 mph. I had a really good time on the bike. It was fun going fast and passing people for a change. I had some time to think about why I do this tri stuff and the best answer I could come up with is: I enjoy the sense of accomplishment and people clapping for me.

So fast, Molly couldn't focus.

Next up, the run. My favorite part! Not. I walked out of transition to get my legs and started running when I hit the timing mat. I decided not to wear my watch which turned out to be a good thing. I knew the route from last year and just kept running. And, running. And running.

As I got closer to the finish, I started thinking about the finish which is on the sand and then up a small hill. Oof. I was pretty tired. I hit the sand and got up on my toes and kept running. it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Lauren and Julia joined me for the finish and I yelled for Riley to come, too.

And, the power finish!!

I am so happy with my race! I pushed hard and had a good time. Molly guessed that I met my goal of around 1:30. Yes!

Sara and I at the finish

And, my sad, lonely transition. It cracked me up so I took a pic.

And, the results! (with last year's time)
Swim: 7:07 (9:44) Missed my goal by 7 seconds. drat.
Bike: 36.33 (50:19) Had a great time and felt strong and fast.
Run: 40:47 (43:35) Ran the whole way!
Total time: 1:32:09 (1:53:23) Finished around 1:30.

Had a great day with great friends and family! Thanks to everyone I raced with and who came out to watch me huff, puff, and sweat.

Looking back at June 2008

2009-06-05T19:04:00.001-07:00

Last June was my first triathlon, the Mermaid Sprint Tri in Fremont. At that time I had never done an open water swim, had a used hybrid bike I bought off craigslist, and didn't run. I had a few friends who had been bitten by the tri bug and thought I find out what it was all about. I went back and looked at some posts on a forum I'm a part of:

6/9/2008 - 10 mile bike & 2 mile brick on Sunday. I guess I'm ready for Saturday. I was hot, tired, sweaty, had moments of "what was I thinking" combined with moments of "you can totally do this."

6/13/2008 - A brisk walk to wake my body up for tomorrow. (And, Jemma needed a walk.) The rest of day? Eat small healthy meals, drink lots & lots of water, pick up my packet, put bike in my car, get all my stuff together and packed (and check it obsessively) and go to bed and try to sleep.

In response Molly posted, "Tomorrow you become a triathlete - welcome to the crackhouse!" Little did I know . . .

2008 Race Report

Swim: I started near the front, but got trapped by some swimmers that should have gone later. But I worked my way around them. The swim was nice, I may have to rethink my position on open water swims. I saw Chris when I came out of the water. My family said I was about the 5th in on the swim for the For Fun group.

Bike: My transition was fine, got all dressed, drank some gatorade, and got on my bike. I hit a tiny wall on the second lap but persevered. I really need to strengthen my legs. I heard "On your left" a bazillon times. I did manage to pass 5 people!

Walk: My legs were like cooked spaghetti noodles when I got off my bike. I racked my bike, took off my helmet, drank some water, put on my hat and off I went. The walk was the least fun. The course seemed soooooooo long in front of me. And, it was a little disheartening having so many people pass me because they were running and I was walking. The best part of the run/walk was the end. It finished on the beach by the lake and I was struggling walking in the sand. About 50 yds from the finish a women came up behind me and said, "c'mon you're running to the end with me. On your toes! Let's go!" So, I ran to the finish! I stopped and thanked her, I hope she knows what it meant to me.
-----------------------

So, that was last year's race. Tomorrow I revisit the start of my triathlon addiction. Race plan later tonight.

Lazy blogger . . .

2009-06-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Everyday I think, oh, I'm so blogging about that. But I never seemed to get to it last week. Another busy week full of training, work, and a wedding. Now that I'm trying to, I can barely remember last week. So, I will just go with the end of the week.

Friday - I went back to the bike shop to adjust my fit. My hands and elbows were killing me after an adjustment on Wednesday. The plan was to fit the bike and then meet friends for a swim around the Santa Cruz wharf. The bike shop was running behind schedule so I missed the swim. *shrug* I went to the folks for dinner. We did a little review for a friends' wedding that I was officiating and dad was photographing.

Saturday - The pool was closed for repairs, again. The joke at the pool is that the city was complaining that the old deck only lasted 20 years. Too bad they can't get the new deck to last 20 days. Har, har, har. I had a bike ride on my schedule and headed out early so I could get ready for the big event that evening. The wedding was very nice and I got many compliments on the ceremony. I was delighted when I cracked up the bride with my choice of readings, "The History of Love." :-)

Sunday - After a very late night at the wedding I dragged myself out of bed to try swimming around the wharf again. I went over the hill with Molly, Nigel, and Steve to meet Chris. We didn't dwaddle too long and ventured into the water. The freezing cold water! Brrrrr . . . I really wished I had sleeves. We eventually made it around the wharf and didn't go to the hospital with e coli. Pics courtesy of Molly and her killer waterproof camera. Then there was a really long nap.

Monday - Happy Furlough Day! And, last brick before the Mermaid Tri on Sunday. I had a good ride from home to the Los Gatos Creek Trail and into Vasona Park. While I was riding I was thinking about how last year my longest ride was about half of what I'm doing these days. I got home, grabbed Jemma and headed out for the run. After much mental debate I decided to run the full 30 minutes. No breaks at 10 minutes or 15 minutes. Straight through to 30 minutes. And, I did it! I kept busy really cleaning the kitchen, paying the bills, and doing laundry.

This week I have a few good workouts on my schedule and then some good rest days. I'm looking forward to the tri on Sunday. Lots of friends will be there! I will have to make a lot of recovery cookies to hand out. :-)

Busy Week, Lot's o' Stuff

2009-05-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Monday: ahhh . . . rest day. After being at Uvas I got the tri itch and decided to the Mermaid Sprint Tri @ Fremont on June 7th.

Tuesday: Double workout day! Master's was good. I have no idea what the workout was but probably about 3,000 yards. At Team Mermaid, Coach H said that there were only two hard workouts left before the Fremont Mermaid. We warmed up with two laps around the track, followed by 6 x 20 second striders & 1 minute recovery. Then it was time for the big part of the workout. 2.5 miles with a pace time. Coach H told me, "you are going to run all 2.5 miles. It'll be good practice for June 7th." Me, run 2.5 miles, aka 10 laps, without stopping? Coach H said I could do it so I gave it a try. I did it! I ran 2.5 miles without stopping.

I've been having trouble with my energy and I'm not losing weight. Coach H gave me a calorie range that I truly can't believe. ~2,250! What?! It's been challenging to switch my thoughts about food from Weight Watchers to training.

Wednesday: I was still tired from my big 2.5 mile run but went on my lunch time bike ride as planned. My legs were pretty dead after that. At WW I was pretty pissed. -0.2? What the heck?! I've been working my @$$ off for 3 weeks and my weight has not gone down. Grrr . . . I'm not asking to lose 5 lbs a week, but c'mon a 1 lb a week would be great.

Thursday: Was a big, long day.

Oh, so tired. Master's workout was some crazy IM torture. I did the best I could. One rave: Coach T said my butterfly looks good, no corrections on technique. Now, if I could only do more than a 50 of fly. I moved over to another lane and had a nice "social kick" with Sarah. It really helped loosen up my legs.

Shout out to my buddies Lauren & Julia. Their school had a jog-a-thon on Thursday. They dominated that jog-a-thon! They both did 5.5 miles. I'm so proud of them. Oh, and did I mention that they are 8 (almost 9) and 6? They are going to do the Mini-Mermaid Run on June 7th, they will rock it!

I missed my schedule run due to my Sports Basement party! I invited everyone I know to the party for munchies, drinks, and, most importantly, 20% off! It was a lot of fun and think everyone got some good deals and stuff they really needed.

Friday: Back on the bike. Oooff, the chafing.

Saturday: 6am swim. Why do we swim so early on Saturdays? I dragged myself from my bed and made it to the pool. Everything was find until I saw the 16 x 100s on decending intervals. Ugh. I surprised myself and made it through those. Then went on to Coach's new favorite thing pulling back or breast.

After a few hours at work (don't ask) I headed out for my last workout of the week, a brick. 1:15 ride up Winchester to Vasona Park, around the park twice, and back home. On my way back there was a guy selling cherries and strawberries near my place. Cherries sounded so good so I stopped and bought some. Then I did a quick change and grabbed Jemma and headed out for a 30 minute run around the neighborhood. After my performance on Tuesday I decided that I need to run most of this workout. I decided to run 10 minutes and walk 1. Eight minutes into the run I really, really had to pee. I was near Pam & Richard's and decided to impose for a pit stop. They were surprised to see me but very accommodating. :-) Great friends! I knew my legs would be pretty tired to I took an "ice bath" as recommended by Molly. I just be able to tell tomorrow if it helps the knees.

Phew! That was a long, busy week. Tomorrow is a rest day! Well, at least a rest from training. I'm watching my god-daughter while her parents move into their new house just a few miles from my place. :-) I'll try to post more mid week so the posts aren't so long.

Morgan Hill Sprint Tri Relay Race Report

2009-05-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

Forecast: ~100 degrees. 100??!!! Oh boy.

Today I was the swim leg of a relay with fellow Mermaid Jill and her husband Dennis. We were the Smart Hot Cookies:

The race got started a little late so the Athena/Clydesdale/Relay wave was the 12th and last to take off. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a water start. None of the frenzied dash into the water. And, the wave was nice and small. :-)

I started out with a little sprint to get going. I was turning pretty fast to get going and pull away from "crowd." It was a left shoulder swim which was a bit of a problem because I like to breathe to the right. When I started looking for the buoys they were really far away and no one from my wave was near me. :-( I found the next buoy and started heading that way and sighting a lot more. It was a long swim to that second buoy, I thought, "at this rate I'm never going to make my goal time. I finally made it around the second buoy and fell into a nice rhythm.

Here is an aerial shot of Uvas Reservior. The 3/4 mile swim was around the peninsula sticking out in the lake. It started swimming toward the bottom of the image and then counter-clockwise around the peninsula. No wonder the first part felt like it too so long, that's a long way until we turned.

The rest of the swim when well. I started passing people from wave #11 (men 50+) and wave #10 (women 45+). That always feels good. When we made the last turn toward the finish I kicked up the effort and pushed to the water's edge on the boat ramp. The boat ramp was kind of a pain and hard to run up. I tried to walk up quickly. I made it to transition, Jill took off the timing chip off my ankle, transfered it to Dennis, and he was off on the 16 mile ride.

According to Jill's watch I finished in ~21 minutes, meeting my goal of a sub 23:00 swim! We are still waiting for them to post the race results. (click refresh, click refresh, click refresh)

While Dennis was out on the bike course Jill, Wilma, and I cheered Gina, Sara, Gina, Paige, and Harj through their transitions.

I transfered the timing chip from Dennis to Jill and she headed out for a hot run. It sounded like Dennis had a good ride and powered up the evil hill at mile 11.

We had a great area in the transition area for watching the finish. We saw the pros come flying in. Saw some crashes at the bike dismount, and cheered all the Mermaids and other friends in to the finish.

Jill rocked the 5 mile run and finished in ~50 minutes. (I think. Still waiting for the effing results.)

We hung around for the awards and I'm glad we did. Sara placed in the Athena division! Go Sara!!

Overall, a good day. I was very, very hot but I seemed to have escaped without a sunburn. It was fun to be there with so many friends. Go Mermaids!

I'm "It".

2009-05-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

As in, "tag you're it!" courtesy of Molly.

8 things to which I'm looking forward

1. Tri relay at Uvas Sprint Tri.
2. Serving as Deputy Commissioner at K & H's wedding.
3. Good friends moving closer.
4. 50K Tour de Cure with the Red Hot Johnsons.
5. A big Mermaid weekend at Vineman for Barb's Race & AquaBike.
6. The economy turning around.
7. 2.4 mile swim in September.
8. Smashing last year's time at the Santa Cruz Mermaid Tri.

8 things I did yesterday

1. I ran (not wogged, not wun) 4 x 800!!!!
2. A really hard IM set.
3. Realized that I really do want all workouts to be easy.
4. Tried to restock the fridge with healthy food.
5. Blogged.
6. Played with Jemma.
7. Suffered through 3 hours of the Biggest Loser finale.
8. Fell asleep while re-reading a romance novel.
(fun day, huh?)

8 things I would like to do

1. Go on vacation. Hawaii, Italy, Mexico, France, NYC, Disneyland . . . I really don't care, as long as it is away.
2. Have a weekend with absolutely nothing to do. No training. No cleaning. No cooking. No laundry. Nothing!
3. Complete an Olympic distance triathlon.
4. Reach my weight goal.
5. Have a job that is only two jobs, not four.
6. Live closer to my bff, Heather.
7. Be independently and anonymously wealthy.
8. Have a elf that will clean my apartment.

8 shows I watch

1. Lost
2. Law & Order: SVU
3. Chuck
4. Bones
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Ugly Betty
7. How I Met Your Mother
8. Doctor Who (when its on)

People I tag

If you are reading this you are it!

Last Chance Tuesday

2009-05-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

Tuesday is double workout day. And, what workouts I had today.

Master's Swimming main set:

200 IM (2 lengths of each fly, back, breast, free)
150 fly (!)
100 back
50 breast
25 free

200 IM
150 back
100 breast
50 free
25 fly

200 IM
150 breast (ugh)
100 free
50 fly
25 back

200 IM
150 free
100 fly (yeah, right)
50 back
25 free

That's 2100 yards of IM work! What the heck was that?! I had trouble holding the hair dryer up to dry my hair.

Team Mermaid workout:

I received this email from the TeamMermaid coach, "At the track. Running gear and whatever nutrition you think you are using for your race (gu, gatorade whatever it is..)" She's never had us deal with nutrition before a workout, that concerned me.

I was right.

Warm up: 100 at 7 (a good pace), 100 easy, 200 @ 7, 100 easy, 300 @ 7, 100 easy, 200 @ 7, 100 easy.

Main set: 4 x 800 with a rest in between. Me? Run an 800? Run four of them? Coach H said, "yes, you can run the whole thing." Okay, if H says so, I can do it.

I did it! Tonight I ran further than I have ever run before, 2+ miles. As I finished the first 800 H checked in with me and said something that turned on a light bulb, "these shouldn't be easy." I confess, I want all of my workouts to be easy. I persevered and made it through all four. They weren't easy, but they weren't horrible either. It looks like I might be able to do the run part of the Santa Cruz Mermaid in September.

Time Management

2009-05-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

When I first got my training calendar one of my first thoughts was, "I'm going to do nothing but train until August. I'm not going to see my friends for 3 months." A little dramatic, ya think? And, I've been struggling with fitting in my workouts on weeknights. I have my little routines and it is oddly hard trying to change my schedule.

On Friday, I decided it was time to be a big girl and make the workouts fit in to my schedule. Sunset isn't until 8ish. I just need to do some planning to make sure I have dinner, fit a ride in at lunch, pick days to do dishes, or wun in the morning. I can make it work!

On Friday I had a brick, 1 hour ride, 20 minute run, on the calendar. I didn't have any plans Friday night so it wasn't going to be a big deal. Then J called, "Wanna go see X-Men Origins: Wolverine tonight?" Ah. . . Um. . . Eye-candy . . . But. . . Hugh . . . I . . . have . . . a brick . . . Yes! I can make this work, the brick is only 1 hour and 20 minutes. I left work a little early, quickly changed, let Jemma 'hurry', grabbed my bike and headed out on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. I had a good hour ride and tried not to focus on time too much. I rolled back to the apartment, grabbed Jemma and headed out for the wun. (I like wunning in the morning better when there is no one out in the neighborhood.) Got back, jumped in the shower, dressed, ran out of the house, let my hair air dry, and made it to the theater before J & M. Phew. I did it. I did my workout and saw my friends. It is possible!

This week the big challenge will be a noontime ride on Wednesday and a mid-day brick on Thursday. It is possible and I only have to do this until August. That's only 12 weeks.

12 weeks????!!!!

Weekend Wrap-up

2009-05-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

I know it's Monday, but it was a furlough day for me so it seems like the weekend.

Saturday: a wash. I didn't feel good and vegged out all day.

Sunday: I went for a ride on the Uvas Sprint Tri bike course with The Mermaids. It was drizzly when we started and one Mermaid was reluctant to ride in the rain, but we talked her into it. It wasn't too bad at first, kinda refreshing. Then it really started raining. I was a little worried, but it didn't last long. It was a beautiful ride. We rode along Uvas Reservoir, up and down some rolling hills, saw a turkey that was gobbling, went by Chesboro Reservoir and the rode to Sue's old house. It was a little trip down memory lane. The was one steep climb that I just wasn't up for and ended up walking up. That is the first hill I've walked up since I got my new bike. :-) We continued on and I was pretty tried. Gina had to listen to me crab and whine my way back. I was supposed to do a 2 hour, 15 minute ride, but due to the time of the month I was done after 1 hour, 29 minutes, 29 seconds.

Monday: Furlough Day! (yes, I'm trying to make it sound exciting that I'm not working or getting paid.) I got up at 6am for a walk with Pam. That's a pretty big deal for a day that I could have slept in. I decided that since Saturday was a wash that I had to be productive. I had a bike ride scheduled but I knew if I went on the ride I wouldn't want to do any cleaning or organizing. My biggest task was cleaning out the fridge and finding all of my "missing" plastic containers. Dude, after I cleaned out the fridge it was really, really empty. I maybe having some interesting meals until payday. Finally, I headed out for my bike ride. Assignment: 1 hour, 25 minutes with 12 intervals of 1 minute all out and 2 minutes spin for recovery. I decided to try a city route and left from my apartment. I had a great time and enjoyed the ride much more than Friday's. It was a little interesting doing the intervals with stoplights but I made it work.

Tomorrow is my big day: Master's and Team Mermaid. I hope the legs keep working!

And, it begins . . .

2009-05-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Training for Vineman 1/2 AquaBike (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike)

Assignment: Ride 1 hour 30 minutes.

1 hour 30 minutes? Where? By myself? How? When? Why?

I thought I was going to be babysitting tonight (but it was canceled) so I decided to see what it is like to ride during lunch. I work very close to a nice long recreation trail and figured it would be a good place to start. At at 11:40am I headed out on my adventure.

The internal dialogue:

"Okay, here I go 45 minutes out, 45 minutes back."

"It's only been 2 minutes?"

"Oh, look it's the velodrome."

"What is that rubbing sound?" Stop and check the front tire.

"It's only been 5 minutes?"

"What is that weird feeling on my legs?" Who knew that my bike would kick up all of the pollen on the road?

"Why is it rubbing again?" Who knew that pollen and crap on the road would accumulate between my tire and brakes.

"Oh, look some geese and goslings. How cute. Please don't attack me."

"It's only been 7 minutes?" Okay, time to switch the mode on the bike computer from time to miles.

"I'm already to Bernal? It's only 4 something miles."

"Dude, its windy."

"My back kinda hurts. Zip up that zipper!"

"6 miles, 2 before I can check the time."

"I hope the wind gives me some help on the way back."

"Geez, I'm practically in Morgan Hill."

"7.5 miles almost there."

"Oh, look cows."

"8 miles! Let's check the time. Ah ha! 44 minutes perfect."

I turned around at 45 minutes and had the wind at my back the whole way. 16 miles in 1 hour 24 minutes, close enough. Maybe next time I will try the road. And, I think I need to add a destination to my workouts. Clearly, time isn't enough for me.

Master's Workout - 4/30/2009

2009-04-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

Coach went a little crazy with the workout this morning . . .

12 x 25 on :30, :30, :20
8 x 50 kick IM order on some interval
12 x 100 Pull on 1:40, 1:40, 1:35ish
12 x 50 kick on :55 (this is when I started counting the yardage)
16 x 50 swim on :60 - odds all out, evens recover (I did about 4 and got out)
6 x 75s something or other
8 x 100s
And, then another 1200 yards that I can't remember.

Workout yardage: 4750
My yardage: 2600

Not a lot of yardage today, but that pull set was tough. There were 10 minutes spent agreeing to compete in a swim meet if Coach will swim a workout with us. :-) We will see what happens.

Master's Workout - 4/28/2009

2009-04-28T11:05:00.001-07:00

I'm going try and post my workouts again. I want to see if I'm getting any faster.

12 x 25 on :30, :30, :20
10 x 50 kick on :55 (trouble making those, turned into a 500 kick)
8 x 100 on 1:40 (oof! Did 4, took a break and did 50 of #5, then finished the set.)
4 x 100 IM kick
10 x 75 drill on 1:30
3 x 100 pull: 1 - Fly/Free, 2 & 3 - Back/Free
2 x 100 will 4 pool lifts at the deep end.

Total yardage: 3200

Big Sur Marathon 5K

2009-04-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Team Johnson headed out at 6:10am from Santa Cruz to Carmel for this morning's event. We made a real effort to take pics, so here is the photo blog.

Sara and I stretching with the help of tall and sturdy Caleb.

At the start. Aren't dad's fun?

And, we're off!

This was my first run since the Vineman Showdown a few weeks ago. For most of the event we ran for 1 minute and walked for a minute. Dad and Cabe can walk as fast as I jog.

Beautiful views!

Our shirts got a lot of comments. :-) "Go Team Johnson!" "I love your shirts!" They were a big hit. But its time for some short sleeve Team Johnson shirts for the summer.

More views and Team Johnson.

For the last half mile Caleb used his long stride and broke away to the finish. Sara tried to catch up with him and finished a few minutes later. Dad and I stuck together and ran in together.

Sara's big finish!

Dad and I coming in. It's doesn't look like it, but we are running. Good job on the running Dad!! We finished in 47:26, meeting Dad's goal of under an hour.

I can't believe that I am about to type this, but I think I'm getting the hang of this running thing. I'm ready to work up to running for an entire 5K. Wait, who typed that?

We had a great time and loved the location and are toying with the idea of doing the marathon relay. We will see what the year holds . . .

Pet Peeves of the Fast Swim Slow Bike & Run Triathlete

2009-04-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

1. If you aren't a fast swimmer don't start at the front. You don't see me hogging the left when I'm on the bike.

2. Please look around you when you reach the mount area. If you see someone ready to go, don't stop in front of them to mount your bike.

3. If you finish your triathlon and decide to pack up your stuff in transition and go home, please don't stand in the middle of the run out with all of your stuff. Some of us are still going. Yep, that was me screaming, "excuse me!" at Showdown.

Thank you,
The fast-swim-slow-bike-and-run-triathlete

2009 Vineman Showdown Race Report

2009-04-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

I did this event with my bff Heather and dog/tri buddy Molly. Heather and I headed up to San Rafael at 9am for the race which started at 2:30pm. We got there at 10:15am, just a tad early. So, we headed out to drive the bike course. We had heard that the course was nice with rolling hills. For some reason I pictured straight road with gentle rises and descents. Um, hello, we live in California. We headed back to get a good parking space and pickup our packets.

We headed out to test out the bike route. Heather did the whole route. I didn't want to wear myself out so I did a long hill I had noticed on the drive just to see how my bike handled. On the way out I saw Molly coming back from driving the bike course. We fueled up, set up our stuff in transition, and went away to rest.

Waiting:

Heather following coaches orders.

I thought it sounded like a good idea.

Warm-up:
Damn, that water was cold! I wished I had arms on my wetsuit. Didn't swim the whole course but stayed in the water and swam around while the 3 waves ahead of me started.

Courtesy of Jen super-spectathlete!

Swim:
Messy swim. I could not get away from people. Very cloudy water couldn't even see the feet in front of me. And, there is one +35 year old woman out there that really needs a pedicure. It looks like one of the timing mats for the swim didn't work. But . . . according to my watch: 7:15.22.

Edit: They fixed the swim time. Official time is 7:13.4!

T1:
Caught my breath, put on my shoes loose to avoid foot pain. Still a little stunned about the messy swim. Ate some Luna Moons. Headed out.

Bike:
Walked up the first steep hill. Heard someone crash behind me. Ouch. Glad I walked. Mounted up and headed out. A more difficult course than I expected. Side stitch for the first half of the ride. Lots of turns and hills and wind. But my killer new bike carried me up every single hill. :-D I asked the guys at dismount if they really thought my legs would work. They laughed and said we are about to find out. Started down the steep hill with shoes, but didn't trust my tired legs so I stopped to take off my shoes and went down in my socks.

T2:
Pretty basic. Took some time to drink. (I wasn't comfortable reaching for my bottle on most of the ride.)

Wun:
Started out with stairs. Stairs? Anyway, fairly uneventful. Stuck to my 2 min run/1 min walk plan. Felt pretty strong, like I could keep going for awhile. As I was heading in all the fast people were heading out. Many had parked in the overflow parking. (I'm so glad we got there early. I don't what I would have done if we had to haul everything back to the car.) Many were encouraging: "you can do it," "keep pushing," "good job," "lookin' good," "you are almost done!" Hearing this was encouraging and amusing. The long hill at the end was tough, but I ran when I was supposed to. Booked it to the finish line.

Image courtesy of Molly, who despite a tough bike was yelling me in. :-)

Finish time: 1:58:37

Not an ideal race but I learned a lot that will help me in the upcoming months. 1. Don't be so cocky about the swim. 2. I need to go train with the bike on some hills. 3. I can conquer the hills. 4. It's good to practice the course.

Best of all spending the day with my amazing supportive friends!

Getting ready . . .

2009-04-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

I was having trouble packing for my first tri of 2009, the Vineman Showdown. I had planned to pack on Thursday but I discovered that it is difficult to pack when your clothes are still drying. Note to self: do laundry earlier in the week. (Why do we go to races in clean clothes only to get them all salty and sweaty?) So, I ended up packing today. Dude. We need a lot of crap for this tri thing. Here is a visual:

Swim Stuff:

Bike Stuff:

Wun Stuff:

Other stuff:

(for some reason I worry about losing my keys.)

Everything:

I hope we can get all of my stuff and all of Heather's stuff in her car tomorrow morning. :-)

Race report to follow tomorrow or Sunday.

What a difference a bike makes.

2009-03-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Oh . . . my . . . god. I can ride up hill. It's not easy, but it's possible. Today I went for a ride with Sara. We debated between two routes and decided to stick with riding a loop the Stanford campus, it's about 5 miles from Sara's office. Last year we did the route a few times while training for the Mermaid Triathlon in Fremont. When I was riding The Thing it was not a fun ride. It isn't steep but Stanford is on hill, and any incline was hard riding my old bike. Today, I rode up that hill and was truly surprised when I got to the top. "That's it? The hill seemed much longer last year." We did the complete loop twice and then I voluntarily went up the hill a third time. On the third trip up the hill we turned left on to Juniperro Serra where I hit 21 mph. My fastest ever. Overall, a great ride on my new supafast bike with Sara and her new bike.

Oh, and it was an absolutely beautiful day!!!

"You don't trust your legs."

2009-03-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

My coach said this to me yesterday. And, you know what, she's right, I don't trust my legs. I'm not exactly sure why I don't but I have a few ideas.

#1 When I was 6 I walked through a sliding glass door and ended up with a knee full glass. They didn't get all of the glass out and I have scar tissue in my knee. It took awhile for the knee to heel and I learned to "baby" my knee. Doctors has told me that the body has an amazing ability to adjust from childhood injuries and that the old injury probably doesn't have anything to do with current pain.

#2 As a kid I would frequently "turn" my ankle when I ran. Not sprain it, just kinda twist it.

#3 My weight. I still have a significant amount of weight to loose and its hard on the joints. All of the joints.

#4 In November 2007, I tried running, my knees started to hurt, and I was diagnosed with Patellofemoral Syndrome. (aka kneecaps that slide around.)

#5 In fall of 2008, I tried running again and my feet, knees, and back started to hurt.

Gee, I wonder why I don't I trust my legs? However, I just did a 10K where I ran twice as much as I walked. So, I guess I will give try to give the legs another chance.

My First 10K

2009-03-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

After a few absolutely beautiful spring days, showers were forecast for the Mermaid Run this morning. When I woke up I could hear the downspouts dripping from the rain during the night. Maybe the rain had passed. Maybe not. I dressed in layers of shorts, shirt, pants, fleece, and parka. I had no idea what I would end up wearing for the race. (I still hate calling them races.)

I headed out to Shoreline Park in Mountain View, the freeways are nice and empty at 7am on Sunday. I got out of the comfort of my nice warm car to see Molly pull up. Silly girl was walking around in shorts! Dude, it was cold and windy out there at the edge of the bay. Brrrr. . . .

I met up with all my friends who were running or walking, Chris, Justine, Sara, Heather, Michelle, Christina, Mary Sue, Meredith, Wilma, Jill, and Amy. Then there was Gina, Gina, and Marcia serving as cheerleaders. They deserve a lot of credit for waiting around in the cold, wind, and occasional rain. Brrrr. . . . it was cold out there.

We started of close to the 8:30 am start time. I tried to start to the side and in the back because I knew I would be one of the slowest. Sure enough the pack pulled away from me right away and I was out there pretty much alone for most of the race. That was fine with me because I didn't have to worry about being in anyone's way.

My goal was to run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute over and over for 6.2 miles. I had been at the run site about a month ago and did the 5K route in an hour, my goal was to finish the 10K in under 2 hours. I hit the 1 mile mark and thought, I only have to do this 5 more times. Just a little after that my left hip flexor and my right knee started to hurt. The knee was normal but the hip flexor was kinda new. I persevered stretching my hip flexor during the walking intervals. I would be feeling good and then make a turn into so nasty wind. Ugh, it was awful!

Run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minutes, run 2 minutes and walk 1 minute. I just kept moving forward.

When I was around the 2 mile mark the 10K runners started heading back. I saw Amy who used to swim with me, Molly who was out there for a training run, Heather who placed 5th in our age group, Chris, Amy, Justine, and Sara. Some how I missed Michelle. "Just keep moving forward." I was so happy to reach the turn around however once I turned around I was hit with more nasty wind! "Just keep moving forward." I slowly crept up on two women walking ahead of me. For about two miles all I could think was, "how can the be walking faster than I am wogging?" At around mile 5, I passed them! Woot!

With each mile I thought, "you are one mile closer." As I was at the beginning of the last mile there were two Canadian Geese on the trail, I said, "Hi, geese." Then they decided to take of and fly towards me. ACK! You may not know this about me but fluttering birds completely freak me out. I let out a scream but luckily there was no one around. Stupid geese.

I made the turn for the last 500 yards (?) to the finish into more wind. Ugh. It was blowing so hard that all I could hear was the wind. As I inched towards the finish I could hear Heidi on the mic and see to women walking towards me. I could have sworn I heard Justine's voice but I thought I was just imagining things. But no! It was Chris and Justine they paced me in. I did my last walk, and the we broke into an easy jog. Justine told me to stop trying to talk and just breathe. Then C & J said, "okay, you are going to pick up the pace at the man in the grey sweatshirt. I mean woman." :-) We reached the grey sweatshirt and kicked in the last bit of energy. I could hear and see out of the corner of my eye all of my buddies cheering me in. It was wonderful!

I finished strong and met my goal of finishing under 2 hours. Time: 1:34:25, 307th out of 327. :-) Not bad for someone who sprained her back in January (?), planned to walk the 10K until the end of February when she gave this 2 min/1 min thing a try.

Thanks for pic, Molly! Heading in for the big finish!

Chris is on the left and Justine is on the right.

Look . . . no hands!

2009-03-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today the family was celebrating Mom's birthday. She wanted us to go for a ride while she served a SAG. First, Sara picked up her new bike, whoo hoo! It's a beautiful black and red Specialized Roubaix. So sexy. She is going to need coordinated clothes to go with it. Especially a new helmet.

Once we got going it was a great ride. Perfect March weather. We decided to try out the recreation trail along the San Lorenzo River. Not very long, but good for trying out new bikes and avoiding people, stop signs, and lights. :-)

And, we're off:

(someone remind me to not lock my knees in pics.)

Our destination, East Cliff Drive. Sara and I pose with our supafast bikes:

The ride to the beach was a little faster than we expected, so Mom wasn't there with B-B-Q yet. We rode around the Seabright neighborhood and then down to the harbor.

The Endurance Chicks:

Caleb (with helmet):

Dad with his new bike (next purchase bike pants):

On the way back I finally got the nerve to try to ride no hands and I did it!!!! I'm so stoked. I love riding no hands and totally couldn't do it on my hybrid. Unfortunately, I had the camera so there is no visual documentation of this skill. You will just have to take my word for it. ;-)

swim, wog, eat, sleep

2009-03-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Swim: What is with Saturdays? I had another crappy swim this morning. It was like the pool was full of jello rather than water. It may have had something to do with the cheese and bread I have for dinner last night. It was frustrating.

Wog: Today was my last "long" wog before the Mermaid Run on 3/22. I wogged (1 min walk, 2 min run) for an hour and 45 minutes. I was tired and my knees were irritated at the end but felt like I could keep going awhile longer.

Eat: Well deserved lunch with Mary Sue, Christina, Sara, and Michelle. My favorite quesadilla.

Sleep: That's up next!

Yes, I still swim . . .

2009-03-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

I know. There has been a lot of run, jog, walk talk lately. Only two more weeks of all this run talk. But first here is some swimming.

I have moved myself over to lane 4, the somewhat fast lane. I usually swim last and barely make some of the intervals but that is the only way to get faster. Right? Here is the workout this morning with my sarcastic comments:

12 x 25 on :30, :30, :20
8 x 75 kick, IM order - some interval

Main Set

200 IM
200 non free
6 x 50 kick (I think)
4 x 100 on 1:30

Repeat the above 3 times (what has Coach T being reading/smoking/thinking?)

8 x 100 on 1:30
And, then something about pool lifts.

I'm barely making 100s on 1:30, its touch-n-go. I'm hoping that if I suffer for a few months I will get faster. Fingers crossed.

I ran, I ran so far away . . .

2009-02-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to swim this morning and then go to the Mermaid Run Clinic. Well, after a fun night out with JG in SF, I didn't get home until 1:30 am. I decided a 6am swim was unlikely. so, run clinic is was.

After a little trouble finding the right parking lot, I found the Mermaids and listened to a good talk from Coach H about pacing and goals. I'm going to do the 10K at the Mermaid Run on March 22nd. Just 4 weeks away. Eek! For the run clinic I decided to run the 5K route and see how I did running 2 minutes and walking 1 minute. Coach H had me give running a try again last Tuesday and it felt okay. Today felt okay, too. Just before I got to the turn around I was getting pretty tired and did a little extra walking. I slowed down on the way back but kept up the 2/1 pattern. I managed to push the last few hundred yards and finish in 1:00:30.

Three weeks of increasing my distance left. We will see . . .

Oh right . . . swimming

2009-02-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

That's right this blog is supposed to include swimming. I got all wrapped up the bike stuff. As if you hadn't noticed.

This mornings workout:

Warm up
12 x 25 on the :30, :30, :20
6 x 100 IM kick on 2:00
5 x 300 on something like 5:00. (They were supposed to be pull: 100 back, 100 breast, 100 free. Instead we did swim: odds back, breast, free and evens free.)
8 x 100 on 1:50 (my goal was to finish them on the 1:40 and I did it!)

And, then I was done. 3,300 yards.

Bicycle Memories . . .

2009-02-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

While I've been obsessed with bike shopping I've been reminded of my history with bikes.

I learned how to ride a bike when I was four. My grandpa was a John Deere tractor salesman and we had everything in green and yellow. Little model tractors. Trucker hats. (It was the '70s) Wind breakers. And, my lovely banana seat bicycle.

(This is not my bike but very similar.)

My dad likes to share the story about teaching me how to ride a bike. Like many parents, he taught me how to ride my bike by holding the back of the seat to help me balance and running along side me as I pedaled. I was very nervous about the whole balance thing and kept telling him, "don't let go Daddy. Hold on, Daddy. Don't let go!" Being the sneaky guy that he is, he would get me going and when I had my balance he would let go and run along side me telling me he was still holding on. Eventually, he told me he wasn't holding on and I was riding on my own. I freaked a little but didn't fall and I was off and riding. :-D What a great dad.

When I rode my bike to school in kindergarten they didn't know what to do with me. They didn't have a bike rack for the kindergarteners. Why I couldn't use the bigger kids bike rack I don't know, but that ended my biking to school until I was in first grade. But that didn't stop me from riding all over Morgan Hill.

A year or two after my brother was born Mom and Dad got some ten speeds so that we could go on some family bike rides. I have one clear memory of a ride in Paradise Valley. Dad was riding with C in a kid seat on the back of his bike. C was probably around 2 and was very excited about the bike ride. He got so excited that he started squealing and rocking side-to-side in his seat. Mom and I thought this was pretty funny. Dad not so much.

(Mom and Dad's bikes looked a lot like this.)

When I was about 8 or 9 I decided that I wanted to ride a ten speed. Mom and Dad weren't in a position to buy me a new bike. Somehow I talked Dad into lowering the seat on one of their bikes. I was always a tall kid, but keep in mind that Mom is 5' 10" and Dad is 6' 2". I learned some very creative ways to get on and off that bike and who knows how I reached the pedals. But didn't care I was riding a bike with gears!

I rode those bikes for many years. When we moved to Rio del Mar bike riding wasn't as easy as in Morgan Hill. We lived in a very hilly area, and being fairly lazy, I didn't really want to ride up hills. I do have a brag a bit. My friend A lived down the hill from us and I learned how to ride to her house with no hands the whole way. Oh yeah.

Recently, my BFF reminded me that when she met me she was very impressed at how much I rode a bike. My last big adventure on one of those 10 speeds was the summer of 1983. I was on the Santa Cruz Aquatics Team and we had morning and afternoon practice. Dad would drive me to afternoon practice, but I had to get myself to the morning workouts. I'd take off in my swimsuit and Dolphin shorts for a 5.5 mile ride to practice, work out for an hour or two and ride home. One day I remember I was flirting with Eddie, :-), and crashed my bike into a parked car. D'oh! The bike was fine but I had a nasty bruise on my shin. Anyway, sometime after the summer of ' 83 the trusty 10 speeds were stolen from our carport and that was the end of my riding for 24 years.

But, it seems like I am back. S, my SIL, says I always look so happy on a bike. (Clearly she hasn't seen my face when I'm riding up a hill.) I'm hoping to add to my happy memories of bike riding and make up for those 24 years.

I promise to write about swimming tomorrow.

Bike Shopping - Day 5

2009-02-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

The Last Day.

But first, I began the day with a 6am swim. I'm working on pushing myself harder and did 6 x 100s on 1:45.

Okay, back to the shopping. Rain was predicted for late today so I was super motivated to get going on the shopping. Frankly, I couldn't take too much more thinking and test riding. My goal was to narrow down my top three and make a decision. The 2008 of my favorite (but out of my price range) from Day 4 was on sale in Santa Cruz, so the goal was to get over the hill to test two bikes before the rain started in the afternoon. My SIL and tri buddy, S, left Daly City at 8am on Saturday so I would have someone to bounce thoughts, doubts, and excitement off.

We made it to the first stop just after they opened the doors. We went for a long ride on the Giant Defy 1. As we headed out I realized that S hadn't used the integrated shifting before. Whoops! But she's a quick learner, so it was all good. We rode on old crumbling streets, new smooth street, in traffic, out of traffic, up a hill (without stopping) and down a hill. It was a nice ride until I dropped my chain off the chain ring in the middle of turning left in a busy intersection. I'm sure that was purely user error. I liked the Giant, but didn't love it.

Then it was on to stop two. There S and I tried out matching 2008 Specialized Roubaixs:
We went for a loooong test ride on the west side of Santa Cruz. Again, we did crappy roads, nice roads, up hill (woot!), down hill, in traffic, with dogs, surfers, and tourists. We just kept going and going and going. I took this a good sign. I was still a little worried. This is a big investment for me and I am going to have a very intimate relationship with this piece of equipment. I was a little freaked out about whether I was making a good decision. But I finally decided that this was the most comfortable bike in my price range and it was time to go for it. So, I ran to the bank to transfer some money and bought it.

Meanwhile, S, was tooling around on some fancier bikes. :-)

Then . . . they started the fitting. My flexibility was very impressive. (who knew?) As he fitted the bike, he noticed that I was preferred a position with a fairly long stem. He said, "I think you need a 58." (I was on a 56.) "We have a 58, but its a different color. Do you like the color?"

Me: "Yes!! I prefer that color." In real life it is a little darker blue than the image. The fit is better and I'm more comfy and have more position options when I ready to take advantage of my flexibility and get lower. I also got a lesson in proper stopping and starting. I will be doing some practicing in the school parking lot across the street from my place.

The decisions aren't over. Next up: shoes, pedals, computer, new color-coordinated helmet(?), and probably some other stuff. There seems to be a never ending list of accessories for the bike.

YAY!!!!

Bike Shopping - Day 4

2009-02-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Don't worry I'm almost done with the shopping and will get back to writing about swimming.

Today I could feel the difference!!!! Finally. I tried 3 Cannondales and decided that I'm not a Cannondale person. I also tried some Fujis and they were fine.

I tried a Specialized Roubaix and for the first time thought, "I really like this bike."
Unfortunately, it is just out of my price range. :-( So, on to something in my price range.

The Top Three are:

Giant Defy 1

Felt F75

Jamis Quest

But wait! I found a 2008 Specialized Roubaix on sale and in my price range.
Now, if Mother Nature will give me a break I will take the Top Three and the Roubaix for longer rides and make a decision.

Bike Shopping - Day 3

2009-02-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

Can someone just pick out the right bike for me? Please? No, really, I mean it. I swear choosing a bike is more difficult than picking out a car.

Today I visited a different bike shop. For the first time I was measured and it turns out I have pretty good proportions and I fit a 57/58 cm bike. I tried two bikes and couldn't feel a remarkable difference. I rode them around a nearby neighborhood for about 15 minutes each. I was hoping to narrow down to my top three and take those out for a longer ~5 mile ride. But maybe I need to ride every bike that far.

The Orbea:

Very smooth, made good clicking sounds. I really want to love this bike purely because they are made on a commune in Spain. However, I just realized that the shop gave me a carbon frame to try when I can only afford the alloy/carbon frame. Hmmmm . . . not sure what to think of that.

Here's the one in my price range:

Then I tried a Giant:
Again, nice smooth ride and super quiet. My first reaction was that I liked this one better. The one I tried had lower end gear and shifting components.

If I go with a Giant it would be this one:

Maybe my problem with feeling the difference between the bikes is that the position is a big change for me and the seats hurt!

Stay tuned . . . more shopping tomorrow.

Bike Shopping - Day 2

2009-02-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

Today was birthday #2 with the family in Santa Cruz. My brother was sick, but my s-i-l, S, was able to come for my b-day brunch of Mexican egg scramble and homemade buttermilk pancakes. An odd combination but it was yummy! After brunch we hung out with my BFF and her daughter. Then Dad, S, and I went out for some bike shopping in the pouring rain. (Seriously, it's time to build an ark.)

We went to The Spokesman Bicycles in Santa Cruz. We knew we wouldn't be able to ride, although they said we could, but we could look and talk. It was another very informative visit. Not much more to report since we didn't ride. But I think Dad is inching closer and closer to getting a bike. S and I think we have enough information and need to start riding some bikes to make some decisions.

That's all folks!

Bike Shopping - Day 1

2009-02-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

I had the day off and decided to start my quest for a new bike. Thanks to a generous benefactress cost is a little less of an issue. :-)

I started my journey at La Dolce Velo in San Jose. Coach Heidi suggested I start there and ask a lot of questions. I did and they were very helpful and answered all my first time bike shopper questions like, "what's the deal with carbon?" and "are wheels important? and "what is with the shifters and brakes together?" I tried three bikes made of the three major materials.

Steel:

Felt very smooth, gears were easy to change. It was a size to small for me. I couldn't tell on the trainer but once I was out on the road I did feel kinda of scrunched up. The pedals had toe clips and I almost got stuck and fell over, but wiggled my foot out just in time.

Aluminum with carbon front fork and rear:

Well, first there was the saddle. Oof, a little narrow and hard, but I know that can be changed. I tried not to focus on the seat and how far forward I was leaning and focus on the feel of the frame. I could feel the vibration in my hands that I have heard about. But it wasn't bad. I assume I would get used to the vibration.

Carbon:

Felt good, again very smooth. But I'm not sure what felt smooth the ride or the gears.

When they asked which I liked better I had trouble deciding. They all felt so different from my current hybrid bike. (which Coach Heidi recently named, The Thing) I did like the carbon, but I know I probably can't afford it. The aluminum/carbon was good, except for the saddle. Of the two I can afford, I think I'm leaning towards the steel. And, for some reason I kinda like the idea of steel. It sounds so strong and real.

Overall, a good experience. I didn't decide anything but I have some information. I know a little more about materials, components, and my size. And, depending on the bike, even though I'm tall, the women's version maybe better.

The biggest thing I learned today about bikes. It depends.

I'd Rather be Sleeping.

2009-02-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

What to do when you don't want to swim? Swim anyway.

When the alarm went off this morning at 5:14am, I didn't want to get up. I hit snooze and when the alarm went of again at 5:21am, I still didn't want to get up. My bag was packed and Jemma's kong was ready, but I was tired. I continued the alarm snooze game at 5:28, 5:35, and 5:42. Finally, at 5:49 I hauled my butt out of bed. Ugh. I went to bed at 9:30pm, why was I so tired?

Got up, put on my suits, grabbed a banana, leashed the dog, and took her out to "hurry." I still didn't want to swim, I wanted to s-l-e-e-p. Picked up my swim bag and headed to the pool. Luckily, I only live a mile from the pool and there isn't much traffic at 6am.

Here was the workout I attempted:

12 x 25 on the :30, :30, :20
10 x 50 kick on 1:00
10 x 100 swim, negative split on 1:50
6 x 200 pull on 3:00 (I did 4, but not on an interval)
6 x 100 kick (I did 1 and got out)
10 x 100 with snorkel (oh, darn. I didn't get to this)

I spent the workout telling myself to push harder. Then the next lap was, "oh, ef it."

Today's lesson? Doing any workout when you don't feel like it is a successful workout. At least as far as I'm concerned.

Training Without Team Mermaid

2009-02-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day of training for Team Mermaid and I wasn't there. Effing economy. I gained so much from being part of TM last summer. I learned that I can push myself much harder than I usually do. Now I have to keep that up on my own. I'm not very good at that.

Swimming is built into my schedule, but I need to push, push, push myself to swim faster.
Walking is pretty much built because of my dear little Jemma. She needs her walks. But I do get distracted and forget to push myself to walk faster and do my planned mileage.
Cycling, I'm doing pretty good, with what I have. When I get my new bike I'm going to have to work on mileage.
Strength/Core . . . . . . . . . what? Did someone say strength? Core? Yeah, this is something I need to work on and dedicate myself to. I'll get back to you on that one. ;-)

Morgan Hill Sprint Tri: Um . . . water? Thanks to Molly, I found out that there is no water in Uvas Reservoir. None. And, the tri is in May. We will see what happens. Fremont Mermaid is probably the alternative. But who knows, I have no idea what water situation will be this. So far its bleak.

Swimmin' in the Fast Lane

2009-01-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

I was running late this morning. I didn't get to the pool until 6:05. (I mean, really, how can that be late?) Anyway, "my lane" had five people in it and six would have been too many. Coach T said, "you can swim in that lane." The lane he was speaking of was the "fast lane". And, when I say fast, I mean f-a-s-t. I think it takes them seven strokes to get across the pool. *heavy sigh* I jumped in, put on my zoomers, and said, "I'll try and stay out of the way." I managed to stay out of way, barely. It was good for me. I need to work on a longer more powerful stroke if I ever want to make it to the "fast lane."

Today's workout:

12 x 25 - :30, :30, :20
6 x 100 kick - 2:00
10 x 100 swim or pull - 1:30 (1:30!)
12 x 50 IM order
10 x 50 kick

. . . or something like that

Overdue Updates . . .

2009-01-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

Two of my few followers recently complained that I haven't updated my blog in awhile. So, get comfy this may take awhile . . .

Running, or maybe not . . .
Those aches and pains I was whining about? Yeah, as I was sitting in my chair icing my left foot, right knee, and lower back I thought maybe I'm not cut out for running. I saw my doctor about my back he said, "you kind of sprained your back." Kinda? Is that a medical term? Then he asked me to stop running to let my back heal and try again when I've lost more weight. No more running? Twist my arm . . . ouch! Not that hard. I'm a little disappointed because I was doing something I didn't ever think I would do. So, back to walking fast.

Swimming
Now that my back is feeling better and I'm not pulling the entire workout, I can get back to pushing myself. Between being sick and the pool closure, I've slowed down. :-( Not to mention that there are two swimmers who are pregnant and they are still faster than me. They should be pretty big by next month, so maybe I can pass them in February. Okay, I'm blathering, now. Here was Saturday's workout. Saturday at 6am in the rain:

300 warm up
12 x 25 on :30, :30, :20
10 x 50 kick
16 x 100 - IM order: 25 non-free, 75 free; 50 non-free, 50 free; 75 non-free, 25 free; 100 non-free.
some kicking
some pulling
100 warm down.

Cycling
Not much of a change. Still on my heavy hybrid. I've been obsessively looking at bikes online. Serious shopping should begin in February. Today I went on (an eventually) fun ride with some of the Mermaids the this morning. It started off pretty cold and windy but we warmed up quickly. It is so great that we are getting together to do some training. Everyone is talking about some killer goals for this season.

AquaBike
Yep, I'm doing it. I'm registered for the 1/2 AquaBike at Vineman on August 1, 2009. 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride. Swim *snap* no problem. 56 miles on the bike? What am I thinking? How long is that going to take? Forever? Okay, I know I can do it. But I think I'm going to be pretty tired when I'm done. Really tired. And, my butt will hurt.

Well, I think that is all. I know, a lot of reporting. I'll try to be a little more introspective next time. ;-)

Aches and Pains . . .

2009-01-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

Just as I'm attempting to conquer my distaste for running and increase my time and distance what happens? Aches and pains. Hello, body? I'm trying to do something good for you and you get all cranky. My knees have been a little achy. Last night while playing with the dog, the plantar fasciitis in my left foot started acting up. Then today while doing some much needed laundry and cleaning my lower back started to hurt.

WTF?

I don't have time for this. I have a training schedule to stick to. I have plans!

sigh

Time to get religious about the orthodics, ice, exercises, and ibuprofen. That's all for now!

More running than walking . . .

2009-01-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, that right, I typed the dreaded "r" word. For some unknown reason I decided that I could do a 10K. Why? Whose bright idea was this? Oh, right, mine. Why don't I think these things through. A 10K is 6.2 miles. 6.2 miles! sigh.

So, now that I've told people that I'm doing it and talked people into doing the 5K, I should really start training.

This morning, for the first time, I ran more than I walked. Here was the routine:

5 min warm up
run 1:30, walk 1:30
run 3:00, walk 2:00 (was supposed to be 3:00, but I felt ready after 2)
run 1:30, walk 1:30
run 3:00, walk 2:00
run 1:30, walk 1:30
run 3:30
10 min warm down

Woot! (Wait, is that excitement about running?) My goal for the 10K is to run 5:00 and walk 2:00. Based on this morning, I think it is possible. Prepare yourself, there will be a lot of running talk until March 22nd.

But as always, I'd rather be swimming.

Happy, Healthy 2009!

2009-01-02T16:10:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know, it's been a month since I posted. Nothing much happened activity-wise in December. Between work (my first exhibit Home Front opened), a cold, and the holidays eating well and getting exercise took a back seat. I did o.k. with exercise because Jemma does need a walk every day after all, but I had to stop running due to coughing. But it is a new year, my cold is gone, and the exhibit is open!

To start off the new year I'm doing a 30 day fruits and vegetable challenge. The goal is to eat at least five fruits and veggies a day. So far, so good.

Goals for 2009:

1. Lose an average of 1 lb a week.

2. Gradually work up to jogging for 5 minutes.

3. Swim faster. I don't really have a way to quantify this goal. Thanks to the comments I will change this to: Swim multiple 100's on the 1:30.

4. Get a "real" bike and ride faster.

Events for 2009:

3/22 - Mermaid Run, 10K: jog for 5 minutes, walk for ? minutes.
4/26 - Big Sur Marathon (no, not the marathon): 5K with Dad.
5/17 - Morgan Hill Sprint Triathlon: with a "real" bike.
7/26 - Catfish Crawl 2.4 miles
9/13 - Catfish Crawl ?
9/27 - Mermaid Triathlon Santa Cruz: I intend to crush last year's time.

Trying to get back in the groove

2008-12-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

Work has been getting in the way, but I'm trying to keep things together.

Today, I was really feeling my lack of swimming. Between being sick and the pool closing, I've swam about once a week. This morning my arms just weren't willing to work. I stopped at one point to take a little break. My coach came over and I told him, "I'm outta shape." His response? "What are you talking about? You aren't even breathing hard." :-D

Today's Workout - 100s Day

30, 30, 20s
10 x 50s kick on :55 (geez, these just don't get easier.)
10 x 100 pull on 1:40
6 x 100 IM (these weren't as bad as I thought they would be.

Yardage: 2400 - I had to get out early and get my work done.

Turkey Trot - 2008

2008-11-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

I talked the whole family into doing the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. The plan was for Sara and I to wog and for Mom, Dad, and Cabe to walk. Unfortunately, Mom's knee started acting up so she couldn't join us. But she was will us in spirit. We registered as a team, so Sara and I decided we needed a uniform. We thought orange would be unique. Not so much. Sara was very clever and added our team name to the back. (I would post a pic, but I can't find the cord for my camera.)

We got a bit of a late start, so here we are approaching the start.

After we walked over the starting pad, Sara and I took off on our wog, leaving the men in our dust. We both forgot to wear watches so we had base our intervals on exhaustion and landmarks. I would huff and puff to Sara, "ok . . . we . . . will stop . . . at the next . . . intersection." Meanwhile, we were dodging walkers and people with strollers. I know we started in the back and that the race is self seating but there were some really slow people in the way. And, I was surprised that people didn't leave room on the left for the faster people. *sigh* Okay, enough of that. We kept with our running/walking plan. Sara and I made it to the turn around an Mission street and meet up with Cabe and Dad around Jackson Street. There they go!

At about mile 2, my legs were getting pretty tired and I was slowing down. I think there were people walking faster than I was "running." The race route went off the road and on to the Guadalupe River Trail. This was the worst part of the race. The 5K people were supposed to stay in one of the lanes and the 10k runners in the other. It was very narrow. We couldn't run because the 10Kers were too fast and the 5K lane was jam packed with walkers and strollers. Part of the trail goes under the railroad trestle. Many of the 10K people were running off the paved trail and at least two people hit their heads on the trestle. (ouch!)

We finally made it off the trail and were ready to run, when I heard "Melissa!" from behind me. And, there was Molly and the fluffy dogs cheering us on. We stopped to say and "hi" and then in true "helper" form she told us, "keep going!" (or, something like that) My legs were still pretty tired and I was basically running one block and walking one block. The route went by the old Stockton Warehouse :-P. We were getting towards the end. I ran the block on Stockton from Julian to Santa Clara. Then, we walked until we got to Autumn. We were at the final push. Sara and I ran from Autumn to the finish line, it hurt, but we made it! Sara's time: 52:27, My time: 53:00. Not bad for my first "running" event.

No, pic of Sara and finishing. But this is when were creeping towards the start.

And, here come the men! They finished in 1:01:51.

It was a great morning and I was very proud of all of us! A great way to start a wonderful Turkey Day.

bad blogger

2008-11-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

Where have I been? Sick. And, somewhat annoyed. First, I had a cold which got better after a week, but slowed down the running workouts. Then, I had a very uncomfortable tummy. Now that my tummy is better my cold has returned in the form of a nice deep cough.

Sigh. Well, I guess its better to be sick now in the off-season then when I've trained for and spent money on triathlons this summer.

So, that is where the bad blogger has been.

Next week is the Turkey Trot. I'm not as far along in preparing as I hoped I would be. So, I will have to settle for 1.5 minutes running and 2 minutes walking. However, I've got to remember that I wouldn't have even thought of doing it last year. So, 1.5 minutes is progress.

Thoughts on running

2008-11-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

Now, I had these great thoughts on Monday, we will see if I can remember them all. As I began week 2 of the Couch to 5k plan (20 minutes: run for 90 seconds and walk for 120 seconds) I was trying to figure out why running isn't like swimming. Well, other than the obvious one is in the water and one is on land, one uses legs and one uses arms. When I swim I feel good: graceful, fast, and efficient. When I run I feel awkward: heavy, plodding, out of breath. Not to say that I'm not out of breath when I swim for some reason it is different. I want to feel good when I run. What does it take? Practice? Losing weight? Stronger legs? Will running ever feel good? I have to admit that the first 90 second run feels okay. I feel strong but not graceful. I see that next Friday (if I kick this cold quickly) I will be increasing to 3 minutes. 3 minutes? Me? Run for 3 minutes? I'll believe when I see it. I do admit that I would like to be run for 5 minutes at a time at the Turkey Trot on the 27th. I will feel really great if I can do that.

One of the most entertaining this about running is all of the crap I have with me. I'm sure some people simply put on a shirts, pants, shoes, and head out on a run. Not me. I wrestle the girls into an uber-sports bra, put on a heart-rate monitor, belt with a leash on it, watch, gloves, keys, ipod (if PW isn't running with me), and, oh yeah, the dog. That is a lot to remember at 5:50am.

Hopefully, I will report more on running on Monday. I'm trying to sleep out this cold. It worked once a few years ago, worth a try.

Blogger Behind

2008-11-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

Clearly I need to be a little more consistent in my blogging. Why would anyone be interested if I don't update this regularly? Why is anyone interested anyway?

Saturday's Workout:
30, 30, 20s
6 x 75 kick, IM order
8 x 100 pull, we did two on 1:40 and quickly switched to 1:45
10 x 50 kick, choice
Stroke work. I voluntarily worked on butterfly. Coach says it looks pretty good, but that I need to snap my head down sooner so I can get my hips up to finish the stroke. Several 50s of fly. Ugh.

Halloween . . . . Well, no trick-er-treater's left me with a lot of candy. I wasn't very successful in getting it out of the house, so I need to be prepared to live with the consequences at weigh-in on Wednesday.

Rest Day
I took the idea of rest to heart. Today we "fell back" so I got an extra hour of sleep and still didn't get out of bed until 9am. Jemma got a very short walk. I spent most of the day listening to Season 2 of Veronica Mars while I created and nice stretching and strengthening plan and messed around on the internet. I had a headache that wouldn't go away so I took a 2 hour nap. Jemma is not all that happy with me but too bad. I think I needed it.

C25K
On Friday PW and I restarted C25K. For the first time I actually felt like I was ready to move onto the next level. We will see what PW is up for tomorrow morning. Oh! And, I ran in the rain. When I left the house it was raining a little harder than I thought and I was quite grumpy on my warm-up walk to meet PW. However, once I started running the rain didn't bother me. So, now I have to say that I don't like to walk in the rain, but running is okay.

See, this is why I need to blog more often. Long, rambling posts.

Saturday at 6am?

2008-10-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

Once again I hauled my butt out of my nice warm bed at 5:35 am. (The first alarm goes off at 5:14 but I hit the snooze every 7 minutes until its really time to get up.) Why do I do this? Especially on a Saturday? Shouldn't I be trying to sleep in while Jemma tries to wake me up? No. Instead I'm up at dark o'clock in the morning and going to a pool for some torture. I guess I like it. I like the people I swim with and I like the way it makes me feel.

Workout:
30, 30, 20's (I was not feeling these. My arms were like dead weights.)
10 x 50 on :50, oh whoops, :55 (I was leading and tried doing 2 of these on :50 and quickly changed to :55)
8 x 125 - 100 fast, 25 sprint (boy that sounds fun) The goal was to do the 100 in 1:30 and the 25 in :20, and then rest. We ended up doing them on 2:10 with a master's discount at halfway.
8 x 100 kick IM on 1:00 (I need to work on my kicking, I'm so slow.)
6 x 100 pull on 1:45 (?)
Then we did a few drills.

During the 50s I started thinking, I miss open water swims. *shakes head* What who thought that. Yep, that's right, Miss I Will Never Do An Open Water Swim misses the open water. I'm looking forward to those swims next year. :-)

But 6am workout was not enough. At 10am I picked up Kris for a hike. My stamina is so much better! We headed up a switch-back trail, not too steep but still, and I trucked right up that trail. In the past I would have needed a break. Later, my energy dwindled and we had to take a few breaks when we had to make our way of a really, truly steep part of the trail.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend 2 workouts before 1pm, but I survived.

Finally, an explanation

2008-10-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

Ah ha!!! Today I asked my swim coach, "what is up with the hard workouts?" Apparently, we have improved and it's time to work harder. sigh.

Tuesday Workout
30, 30, 20s
8 x 100 drill, choice
16 x 50s pull on the :50, descending
8 x 200 150 free, 50 IM order

3500 yards. Woot!

Tomorrow mornings is Couch to 5K, week 1, day 3. Jemma and I will be working on not getting tangled.

Weekend Update

2008-10-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday Swim:
First of all, getting up at 6am on a Saturday is insane. Why do I do it? I wish I knew. I think its the whole getting the most bang for your buck thing. Anyway, I think our swim coach is reading a new book, "How to Torture Your Masters Group." Also, he's messing with our heads, no 30, 30, 20s.
10 x 50 on :55
8 x 75 on some interval; IM rotation
10 x 50 streamline kick on :60
8 x 200 drill on some interval (WTF?!)

side to side
one arm: 100 left, 100 right
shark kick
rowdy
catch-up
choice: breathing - 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 7, 5, 3
zipper
choice: breathing - 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 7, 5, 3

I have never, ever done a drill set like that. I don't even remember doing drills for more than 100 yards. What I don't understand is why drills are so tiring? It's not think we were swimming fast. But we were doing a lot of rotating.

Sunday Couch to 5K:
It was Week 1, Day 2 of my attempt at running. So far, so good. I didn't feel like dying and my knee didn't start to hurt until the last 1 minute of running. 20 minutes of icing afterwards and my knee feels pretty good.

Getting ready to run is pretty hilarious. Clothes: dark blue pants, yellow shirt, teal & black jacket, white & red shoes. All I needed was some pink and purple. Stuff: heart rate monitor & ipod. Dog stuff: belt to attach leash to me, clean-up bags, & dog. Oh, and keys. Could I carry more stuff?

Running with a spaz-dog: Jemma has issues with squirrels. I try to run just a little before sunrise because the squirrels generally don't scurry around until the sun is up. Today a few were up a little early. I did my 5 minute warm-up and then stopped to stretch. Unfortunately, I stopped under the squirrel telephone line freeway. Jemma started jumping and whining and barking. I'm sure the neighbors loved that at 7:15am on a Sunday. I skipped the calf stretches and got moving. Jemma doesn't quite appreciate running, it doesn't allow her to do much smelling, marking, and squirrel hunting. This is something we need to work on because she frequently ends up tangled in her leash. And, to make things even more fun, this morning she managed to go #2 twice. Running while hold a stinky bag is not all that fun. Luckily, I found two house who keep their trash cans in the driveway. :-)

Aren't you glad you read this today? Tomorrow? REST DAY!

Arms, what arms?

2008-10-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

Thursdays workout
12 x 25 on :30, :30, :20
6 x 75 kick IM order
10 x 50 on :55
12 x 100 pull on 1:45
Then it kinda of fell apart
We were supposed to do 6 X 50s in IM blocks. We did 3 of each stroke and then moved on.
3 x 50 off the blocks (totally hard to pull myself out of the deep end of the pool after all that pulling.)

I don't know what my coach is thinking lately, but these workouts have been hard. Those 100 pulls were hard! I wanted to take a "masters discount" at #6, my arms were hurting. But I decided, no, you get faster and stronger by pushing. So, I pushed through all 12 and made them all on the 1:45 interval!

I've lost my focus a little in the healthy eating area. I'm up .8 lbs in the last 3 weeks. Not a really big deal, but time to to get back in the game. Goals for this week:

Track my points. All of them.
Plan, prepare and eat meals.
Bring healthy snacks (veggies, fruit, popcorn, etc.) to work for impending stress eating.

I know I can do this. I'll report good news next week!

What is with all of the IMs?

2008-10-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Morning Workout:
12 x 25 on the :30, :30, :20
10 x 100 pull on the 1:45
12 x 25 kick on the :30, :30, :20 (ha, ha)
10 x 100 IM (I have not idea what the interval was.)
12 x 25 block IM on the :30, :30, :20 (really, ha, ha)
10 x 50 free on :50
10 x 50 non-free

(yes, I'm using this blog to keep track of my workouts. I can never remember my intervals and can't tell if I'm improving.)

I was pissed about the IMs but I did them. And, I did very little one arm butterfly. I did notice on the 30-30-20s that I really flatten out when I sprint. So, I will be concentrating on my rotation.

Tonight is the last workout for Team Mermaid. *sniff* We are going to get a refresher course on the core workout and a discussion about how to approach the "off-season". After that I will try to come up with a workout plan. Right now my schedule is pretty loose. Walk? Run? Abs? Yes? No? Maybe?

A blog? I started a blog?

2008-10-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

Well, now what do I write? I'll start with the title. Swimming. I've always loved the water. Anytime I saw a pool, river, lake, or beach, I wanted to go swimming. (However, I quickly discovered that most beaches in northern California and rivers and lakes in the Sierras are freezing!) Luckily Mom and Dad signed me up for swimming lessons in the summer. After my swim teacher convinced me that, no, I couldn't swim with my head out of the water, I turned out to be a pretty good swimmer. I don't remember when I started with the swim team but I think I started going to meets when I was 9. Since then I have loved swimming. I feel the best, graceful, weightless, fast, strong, when I'm swimming. So, if you were to ask me if I would rather do almost anything or swimming, I would probably pick swimming.

So. Swimming will probably come up frequently in this blog. Other topics will be eating healthy, losing weight, training for open water swims & triathlons, random history geekyness, and my dog Jemma.