4 for the 4th and a PO'd Achilles

My last weekend of big training has come to an abrupt stop. Starting Thursday, I noticed a nagging pain in my left Achilles going up into my calf muscle. Something I've never felt before. It didn't really start hurting noticeably until after my 10k run Thurs, so I iced, massaged, etc. I had run every day since the Saturday before SDIT (of varying intensities and lengths), so clearly I would do no running, just swimming, on Friday to save myself for the weekend.

The the 4th of July plan was to spend four hours biking and running (couldn't--actually, didn't want to--do the celebratory 4,000 swim, 4hr bike, 40 min run like some people were planning!).

I planned a ride with lots of climbing and got 'er done... no Achilles pain at all. So 62 miles later (legs hating me, hot as hell), I set out on my T-run and pretty soon in--ouch! Achilles was pissed! Since I was already out and away from home, I ran until I nearly reached the four-hour mark, then walked/jog to cool down a bit. Iced after and no pain for the rest of the day.

The 4th was great... my friend invited me to join him at a BBQ in Huntington Beach at an apt right by the beach. In true American fashion, I enjoyed a couple beers and hot dogs with all the fixings! Our group was super mellow (thankfully!) compared to some of the mayhem going on. I swear, after the sun went down it was like controlled rioting on the streets of HB. Fun to observe, no desire to participate. It amazes me how many people had fireworks, not just little sparklers and screamers but real burst-in-the-sky fireworks, and they were shooting them off all night from their homes. Call me a goody-goody, but I could never do that--I'd be so scared to get in trouble!

I stayed up way past my bedtime but had a blast. When we finally left, Stuart and I forgot where we parked in the HB mess, but it was actually really fun because I had my new Republic bike to cruise around on... love that thing! I need to name it...hmmmm.

Anyways, I went to attempt a long run this morning, and literally 0.3 miles in it was clear that was not gonna happen. Achilles still pissed. So, rest it is! Thankfully I have a massage/ART appointment scheduled, and taper is beginning so I'm not too worried about taking time off from running. It's all about being well for Vineman.

So, instead of hittin the road today, I'm going to hit the surf in a bit. Shaka!

SDIT Race Report

Ahh what a weekend. Can't believe all I've done in the last 48+ hours. Exhausted. The highlight, of course, was racing San Diego International Triathlon. All things considered, the race went very well and I'm stoked on the results.

I say "all things considered" because a couple minor things worked against me in this race. 1) I'm still battling a cold; 2) My transition area was in BFE. Normally I wouldn't even mention something like that, but it was so far in the boonies that it likely added on 2-3 minutes extra transition time that not everyone had to deal with. But that's racing, and those were the cards I was dealt. Rise to the challenge, right?

I had two goals for this race: 1) Feel pain, the good kind 2) Get a sub-2 hour finish. I achieved one goal: I made myself suffer. Didn't get the sub-2hrs, though; maybe it was the transitions because according to my watch I got the times I planned for myself on the 1k swim, 30k bike and 10k run. I finished in 2:02:39 (so close!) and got 2nd in my AG, literally 5 seconds behind 1st place in what was an INTENSE sprint to the finish line. Whitney Handy, who I know and like a lot and who's doing Vineman 70.3, was the rockstar who just edged me out. Good job girl!

So here's the story...

Pre-race

Got into town early to enjoy the weekend. Saturday morning I did a 35/20 bike/run in La Jolla as my pre-race warmup. During, something totally unexpected happened: my heart rate shot up into the high 170s, wtf?! I don't know if it's b/c I'm still sick or the couple glasses of wine I had the night before, but I didn't like that. At all. Hmmm.

Saturday night we ate at Bali Hai on Shelter Island (great view), and I ordered a Kona Special dish. Appropriate, right? I also wore my Newtons to dinner b/c my feet were killing me after tons of walking in sandals earlier at the race expo/bike drop off and I had no other comfy shoes. Yea, I looked dorky.

Dinner with friends went late, and I managed to sleep maybe 5 hours. Blah. We also set 3 alarms which all gloriously awoke us at 4:30 a.m. That was fun.

Race morning I ran into some very special people... the Golden boys. No, really. Brad Golden (my ex/now good friend), Brian Golden (dad) and Rory Golden (bro)...in order w/ my mom and me in this picture:

I had just finished picking Brad's brain of everything race-related merely hours before because the dude just qualified for Kona at IM Cour de'Lane. He gave some good tips, one of which helped me tons today, something I'll for sure do again at Vineman! The Golden boys were swim buddies at the race and it sounds like their help was very much appreciated. Good job guys!

Swim

7:15 and I was off! Great conditions all around. It took a while to get my groove, and when I did, I got kicked. Twice. Hard. In the ear area. I've never been kicked so hard where it leads to a ringing noise, pounding head and discombobulation. I sucked it up and continued on. Found a rhythm again and was feeling OK. I think I did alright for my weakest link, finishing in 16:xx I believe.

Look! There were still a decent amount of white caps (my wave) behind me, (I'm the crazy girl running out with her eyes closed):

T1

Because of my ridiculous transition area placement, this time was ugly. My T skills were fine though!

Bike

I wanted to hammer on the bike because, well, it's my strength. My goal was to average 20mph or more, which I think I did. Finished in 53:xx for 30k according to the Cateye. Thankfully, I've ridden up to Cabrillo Monument several times and knew what to expect. Talk about a gorgeous view and even more gorgeous day! I ate a Hammer gel halfway thru even though I didn't feel I needed it and also drank a water bottle with Zym. Tummy hurt toward the end. Bummer. But not devastating.

My dad caught me biking in...

Ohh Dad. I appreciate and love so much and am so grateful to have him support us, and he really tries to get pics of us racing, but inevitably we end up with a lot of these (my favorite):

T2

See T1.

Run

This was my biggest personal test of the day. I could predict my swim/bike times fairly well, but my running is schizo this year. So the plan was to make it hurt... could I pull of a 40-minute 10k? Well it hurt, but I didn't get the 40 min. I know I could have dug deeper and pushed harder, but hindsight's 50-50. Right? I averaged ~7:30 min miles; don't know the official split yet. I remember seeing Beth so far ahead of me on Harbor Island and just wondering how she does it. I hope to be as good as her one day. (Not trying to be a kiss ass, really.)

The highlight of the run was the last half mile. I recognized fellow 20-24 AGer Whitney up ahead, within catching distance, so she was my target. I got just behind her and made my move to pass on the final straightaway. She responded and started sprint battling with me. My body was hurting all over and I tried to find it to beat her, but she barely got me... and took 1st place in our AG by 5 seconds. Whew. Then I got to thinking after the race... If it hadn't been for my darn transition area I might have made a successful pass on the run earlier on to pull off 1st AG. The logic: I'm pretty positive Whitney was with the Breakaway Training crew in the VIP/Pro area... i.e. not dealing with the extra BFE transition mini-marathon runs. But no biggie. I'm super stoked for Whitney and her win! She nailed it. We were all hugs after the race and agreed that she's going to help me with swimming and I'll help her with running (although, she might want to go to Beth for that haha).

So overall, good day. I stuck to my game plan and executed. I even kept the snot rockets in control. Kinda.

Post-race

I downed like 8 cups of water within 1 minute of finishing. It was hooottt out! And I was a little shakey after my sprint battle. Then I met up with the Golden boys again and did the usual post-race chatting while eating a million Clif Bar samples.

Also, had to wait for Mom to finish! And soon enough, there she was. This was her second race of the years, and it went excellent minus the run. She was with the top 50-54 females until the run, where she got dropped. She finished 2:17, and felt better than she did after Superseal. Improvment? I think so!

There we are all chatting in the mix of things. My shoulders got super sunburn today. Ooopps!

Mom and daughter before race. Looking pretty calm, maybe a tad preoccupied.
Post race. Looking releaved.

I have to say, Koz put on yet another great race, especially by getting through the award ceremony in a swift manner. Man, sometimes those can drag on forever! But I am questioning the logistics behind the transition area setup. Heard some other folks talking about it who were also PO'd, so I know I wasn't the only one who noticed. Hmmm.

Next up: Get back to 100% health and make it a quality 3 weeks until.... drumroll.... Vineman 70.3! Can't wait!

I have some other later-season news, but I'll share that, well, later!

Woah...That's a New Number!

I was reading a post on Mark's Daily Apple today on weight, and I found it ironic that in the last couple weeks my weight has been on my mind quite a bit, so much so that a scale has creeped into my routine--yuck!

It started when I went to the doctor for a routine visit and I was shocked when I stood on their scale--up nearly 10 lbs since the last time I weighed myself (ok, yea, I had just eaten and was fully clothed). Still, I was a little taken by the number because I NEVER weigh myself, so this was news to me. Last time I stepped on a scale was maybe back in January or February? I like to go by how I feel and how my clothes fit, rather than focusing on a number. So I retested my weight the next morning at home, before eating and in minimal clothing, and sure enough I've gained about 7-8 lbs. But I have an idea what the dealio is with this unfamiliar number.

1) I wanted to gain some weight. Going into IMCA I was a tad on the skinny side, very low body fat and just not enough substance (i.e. muscle) to power me through the race like I wanted to. So after April 4 I declared I wanted to make some changes and become more of a powerhouse...

2) Subsequently, I've increased my caloric intake a bit, particularly taking in more calories with and after workouts. I also will have maybe a couple extra eggs at breakfast, an extra serving at dinner and eat a lot even on days off. The thing is, I eat insanely healthfully, like borderline crazy, but I guess you can even have too much of the good stuff.

3) I don't deprive myself. I snack, and it's often at night. If I'm eating out with friends I don't overly analyze what I order--no one wants an anal eating companion. I have wine and/or beer every now and then. Etc, you get the idea. But maybe I've been indulging on all of the above a little too much.

4) This may be the most significant factor: I've been strength-training a lot more and have actually gained muscle mass! And obviously that means I've gained weight, and those are lbs I'm OK with. I'm honestly stronger than I've ever been right now and am stoked about it.

However, though I've gained the muscle I was hoping for, I've also gained some pudge as an unintended side effect. Hey, I don't have my body down to a science. You'd think burning anywhere from 700 to 3,000 calories in one workout nearly every day means you can eat whatever, but not necessarily, at least for the type of high-performance body (machine) I want to have. I got a little more love-handle going on right now than I'd prefer.

I'm not sccrrrrrd though. It's time to get serious. I've had to lose weight before... Yup, I've been through chubby stages and I put on that freshman 15 back in the day (Ohhh SDSU), but I know how to get it off. It's not rocket science--calories in vs. calories out.

But now that I'm a focused athlete, it is a little different. I don't want to lose any of my precious muscle, nor do I want to workout in a deprived state and have a sub-par performance, so I'll just have to be creative and smart. And, in reality, I don't even need to lose much weight, maybe 3-5 lbs? I just see it as a new challenge.

Anyways...

NEW FAMILY MEMBER

In other news, I new addition to the family arrived today. My fixed-gear bike! After a lot of Internet research and bike-shop hopping, I found a sweet deal on a fixie at Republic Bike. They're based in Florida, and have great deals on new, custom-made bikes where you pick the colors. Still, I was a little skeptical. But then I noticed Charisa has a new fixie that looked similar to the ones at Republic, so I asked her... sure enough hers was from Republic, and she had great things to say about it, so that confirmed this wasn't some gimic. So I picked my colors and placed an order. (I warned Charisa that I might end up with the same color frame... the wasabi is just so cool!) I didn't expect the bike to arrive so fast, but today, I got to build this:

Can't wait to take him out for a real ride. Wonder if I can make it up a legit hill? Well, I'm going to have to learn... This baby is going to get a lot action, taking me around CSU Fullerton, down to SPI and many other places. Now I just need a sturdy lock.

Annnnd lastly, I'm getting ready to leave for my favorite place: San Diaaggooo. San Diego International Triathlon is Sunday, and thankfully I'm pretty much fully recovered from what turned out to be a nasty nasty cold. I'm still blowing my nose like a crazy woman (riders near me on Sunday, beware of flying snot and don't take it personally if I accidentally shower you). But I feel lightyears better than I did last weekend, so we'll see how things go! I'm really excited. I'll be looking for familiar faces out there... and trying not to snot or sneeze on you.

Spoke Too Soon

Yesterday I made a point to say how well my training is going. It truly is, but now I have a cold! Hopefully it's a freak thing I picked somewhere (door knob, dirty ocean water), but I think my body is telling me a little more recovery is needed. I can't even recall the last time I was sick. I felt it lingering within me yesterday and tried to deny it. But after waking up through the night to blow my nose because I couldn't breathe, having zero desire to jump in the pool at 6 a.m. this morning and hearing my new manly voice from a sore throat leaves no question. So I guess I'll just pump in every healthy thing I can get in body, rest and chill. The guys at work told me to stay away, they don't want to be around a sickie. So I'll make use of my time with some NSCA studying.

Back on the Trails

I hate finishing a workout covered with muck after road biking--car exhaust, street grit, nasty pollution. However, I love finishing a workout covered in dirt from nature--fresh mud, creek water, mountain dust, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, the latter doesn't happen that often for me. But it did today!

These socks perfectly express my feelings :)

My friend Stuart and I went mountain biking at Whiting Ranch, a trail that I'm very familiar with from countless trail runs and mountain biking waaay back in the day... but it's been a long time since I rode it. Like years long. I borrowed my mom's mtn bike because I think my old outdated Diamondback has seen it's day and would be a hazard to ride. Here's a peek at our sported-out garage. We somehow have equipment for just about every sport/outdoor activity imaginable fit in there--thank my dad for MacGyvering that one.Anyways, speaking of hazards, I'm also known to be a charge-hard kind of girl, and, thus, a hazard to myself (why I don't dirt bike anymore), but that wasn't the game plan for today. I sucked up my pride and told Stuart that I'd be "taking it easy" because I REFUSE to get injured so close to Vineman. He's a great all-around athlete and a lifeguard (he kills it swimming, so jealous!), but he doesn't do much mountain biking either, so all was good. Just a fun ride.

As soon as we hit the trail my heart starting racing--a combo of nerves and adrenaline. Like my recent rejuvinated love for surfing, I immediately felt that old love for mountain biking building within me. I had a grin from ear to ear and wanted to go all out but held back through some of the initial technical single-track stuff. And as much as it hurt to do so, I even got off my bike and walked through some super-deep technical sandy parts saying, "It's not worth it!"

Whiting isn't anything too gnarly at all (in fact, when we were done I was like, "OK, either let's do that again or I need a real workout). But, there is one infamous hill, Mustard Hill, that's a decent climb. When I was younger, I was rarely able to make it up the whole hill without stopping or walking. But today, no problem. Right up. My level of fitness is definitely in a whole other realm. After Mustard, I took us up another climb, Dreaded Hill, which wasn't long enough! I wanted more suffering! For a guy who doesn't ride bikes often, Stuart rocked. But I still beat him, just barely :) We chilled out at the top a bit and took in the view. My next adventure on the list--riding up that big mountain right behind me, Saddleback.
After the little break, it was all downhill from there. I guess my concept of speed is jacked up from all my time spent on the Felt TT bike because according to Stuart I was "flying down." It didn't feel that fast to me... I maybe maxed out in the 20-something mph range. But I felt confident and in control, so what the heck! It was a blast. Especially the curvy downhill single-track stuff (is that proper mountain bike jargon?!). After our ride we chowed down some killer sandwiches at a local deli, Bagels and Brew. I swear, mainstream sandwich shops just don't compare to the little hole-in-the-wall mom and pop places in my opinion. A swim followed later on. I'm working on not crossing over at my midline so much, thanks to some great advice from Mike at SPI. Hopefully this will start shaving off time; I've already noticed slightly faster 100s when I do it "the right way."

On the Training/Racing Front...

Nothing too exciting to report, except that I've been taking things up a notch and am hanging in there, especially that I'm able to recover quickly from intense workouts. I attribute good nutrition and early bedtimes to that. Check out this study on the importance of sleep. It's amazing how many workouts I fit in the last few weeks without crashing and burning, sometimes three a day now that I'm doing Crossfit. And, I of course take a recovery day when needed, as painful as that is. (But lately off days have included surfing or some sort of activity.)

I did an 80-mile bike and 35 minute t-run last Saturday and was curious to see how I'd perform after an already hefty training week with no rest. I faded at about mile 60, but got a second wind and did pretty well overall, I think there was like 8,000+ feet of climbing according to my Garmin. Ouch! Surprisingly, the t-run wasn't so bad. Sunday's run, though, was another story. (Crappy.)

I think I'm most stoked on my new love: Crossfit. I'm doing about two a week now and am hooked. It's so intense you want to puke, but in about 10 minutes it's over. And it's incredible the amount of work that is done in that time. It's not your typical strength-training routine, Crossfit does laps around a regular weight-lifting session! I'll leave it at that.

So next week I'll taper a bit for the SD International Triathlon on June 28, then a couple more intense weeks and then time for Vineman tapering. Feels like just yesterday I was getting ready for IMCA.

Time flies when you're having fun!!!

And oh yea, I'm now in the market for a new mountain bike. I'll have one by the end of '09 for sure :)

My "Twin" Is Coming

I don't think I've ever really mentioned her (shame on me) but I have an 19-year-old sister, Karlee, who I absolutely adore. I probably haven't spoken about her much because she's busy up at Cal Poly SLO. But she's about to finish her freshman year and is coming home this week for the summer. Can't wait to have her back.

Here's us on my b-day last year (I still had my long hair)! We look a lot alike. Sometimes it's freaky--I'll look at a picture and be like "hi me."

Karlee is a riot. She is the funniest, most outgoing person I know and she radiates energy wherever she is. She's the type of girl who is friends with everyone and has no enemies. Not to mention, she's a stellar athlete. To this day, she smokes me in the pool--so jealous! She was a killer volleyball player all through high school and almost played in college but decided to take time off from organized sports and "have fun." And, oh is she having fun. Her life at SLO reminds me of how I was when I was unleashed into SDSU. We know how to have a good time :)

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Speaking of good times, Karlee and I really bonded in Mexico last summer, where she could legally drink. By bond, I mean we partied like rockstars todos los noches. (Glad we didn't give my poor parents heart attacks.) That trip was right before I started getting serious about triathlon, kind of like my last hurrah! Ha ha. Here's my mom, me and Kar:

Karlee loves surfing, so I know we'll do a ton of that this summer. But my real goal while she's home is to get her on a training plan and encourage her to do a triathlon by the end of the year, hopefully! So far she's down for me to be her coach, but she hasn't agreed to entering a triathlon yet. It's going to be tough work on my part to convince her how amazing racing is! But like I said, she's very athletic, so I know she can pull it off.... if she can balance workouts with her busy party life... uh geez.

ONE MORE THING...

On an unrelated topic, I have to mention what Michellie Jones said in her blog about the recent OC Duathlon. It made me smile.

"...This would have to be one of the hardest 40km's I have ridden or maybe it was the 5km run before hand. The first 6 miles were uphill not a lot of fun after running hard. At least that meant on this out and back course you could fly back home to the transition..." ~MJ

Props to my regular training route... Even my idol sees it as challenging :)

Making Time for the Beach

New priorities! Not only is surfing making a huge comeback in my life--I went twice this week--but I also did a little soft-sand beach running Tuesday morning, and oh man... that's good stuff. I also did my first-ever Crossfit workout, and for those of you who know about Crossfit...daaaang, it is legit.

As for surfing, I really forgot how much I enjoy it! I think for a while, back in the day, I was so concerned about being good that I lost the ability to just paddle out to have fun. Then other things started becoming more important, namely triathlon, so surfing sessions became few and far between.

But now I see surfing in a whole new light. With triathlon as my main focus and discipline, surfing can be a relaxing, enjoyable way to be active outside of swimming-biking-running with none of the added pressure of thresholds, intervals, pace work, beating myself up. Don't get me wrong--I love doing all that with tri, but it's nice to have another sport that's just for fun. No big deal if I suck or kick ass.

On that note, Friday the waves fairly bigger than they've my past two sessions, and it definitely was more challenging. The first wave I caught was my best of the day; things kind of went downhill from there. But thankfully I had a friend out with me so it was fun and I wasn't scared or anything like that... just held onto my board and got pounded on a bit. Good times.

This was my view when I opened the back doors of the Prazak Surfmobile. Ahhh, heavenly. (A little windy out today, but still surfable):

Being at the beach and in the ocean is therapeutic after a gnarly workout week, and spending time in this environment just seems necessary:
All I needed was a Corona with a lime. Too bad there's no drinking allowed at San-O anymore.I have to do a little work with my surf equipment, though. I've had the same Becker longboard since high school (why change something if you love it?), and at this point I think it's had the same wax on for about three years now. Poor neglected board. So this weekend, I'm making it a priority to re-wax my board. All that sandy grit is tearing into my skin.

I was thankful that it turned out to be so beautiful at the beach today because the Friday forcast called for more thunderstroms (WTF?!) and conditions were like this in the morning when I headed to the gym for a swim/run session:

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Part 2 of my new beach obsession is running in the sand, SOFT sand that is. After doing an early-morning workout at Sport Performance Institute with the Tribuys team on Tuesday morning, I headed down to Calafia in San Clemente to meet a friend for a soft-sand barefoot run. Very peaceful so early in the morning, before the crowds start shuffling in:

We ran for about 40 minutes, down to around Lowers and back, which was 4 miles. Sounds ridiculously slow, but I was working hard! Not 100% hard, but I don't think I could have pulled off even 8-minute miles. Running it the soft stuff is a killer workout, so I've decided to make it a semi-regular part of my routine. Talk about getting powerhouse legs.

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Even though it was still overcast and chilly after our run, we were so heated up that we jumped in the ocean to swim and cool off. I was straight up in my workout clothes (sports bra, strecthy capris--kind like a bathing suit, right? haha); my friend had his boardshorts on so no big deal for him. It was awesome though--kind of like an ice bath right after a hard session, felt great... until I got cold ha ha.

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After Tuesday morning double-workout craziness and a 33-mile bike Wednesday morning, I was invited to try out Crossfit that afternoon at SPI. All I have to say is wow. Add it to the list, too, because the power and strength benefits from that will be amazing, and I have proof in seeing some of the other guys. I'm hooked!

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Needless to say, by Thursday I was mush. But smiling. And back it all by Friday.

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Final thought: I will always live close to the beach. After all, that's how I chose which college to go to!

OC Duathlon Race Report

Warning: My parents actually came to this race so there's lots of pics and even some video in this blog. All tech'd out!

So June gloom came a little early and in the form of what I consider rain (those who have "real" weather would probably disagree). Into Friday night that was the name of the game, so I couldn't wait to see what Saturday morning would be like for the OC Duathlon. I was ready to race in any conditions, but to my surprise Saturday morning was fairly dry and not even that cold.

Now this was cool: How often do I ever get to ride over to a race from my front door step? Hm, like never. The du was 3 miles from my house, so I took off at 5:45 for a nice little warm-up ride. Here's Sydney seeing me off... you can see it looks kinda damp/crappy out.

Got to the race earlier than most (as usual), racked up and hung out with some familiar faces. Here I am with Pete and Corrine, they both do ultra-marathons and are just really good, nice people. Glad to know them.

Another plus to having the race close to home: Before my parents I came I made a special request: Bring deodorant! I forgot to apply before I left, so thank God they grabbed some for me. Would hate to offend anyone.

Wasting time b4 the race, overlooking transition and trying to scope out Michellie Jones' rack spot. Her Felt puts mine to shame, ha ha.

And here we are right before the race start.

Now, I didn't taper at all this week and it's been another hard training week, so I didn't have big expectations for this race. Plus it was my first du ever, so who knew how it'd go. My goal was to do the 5k's in 23 minutes or less, which I know I did on the first one--wore my Garmin and avg'd about 7 minute miles. I didn't try to kill myself and go all out. Good advice I got: leave some gas in the tank for the 2nd 5k!

A video of me finishing the first 5k:

Going into T1 was crazy. Since it was a mass start, there was lots of traffic in transition heading into the bike, as you can see below. I politely told the dude in front of me to "pick it up!" He was moving like molasses.

Onto the bike. Within 2-3 miles (heading into the canyon/mountainy zone), it was WET! Super heavy drizzle/light rain. Before I knew it, I was covered in specks of muddiness as was my bike. Visibility was sketchy, but I was glad to have my Rudy's blocking raindrops from stabbing my eyeballs.

It was crazy to race on my regular weekly training route... I liked knowing what to expect at every moment. The guy who normally sells beef jerky on the roadside wasn't there. Too bad. And too bad we didn't do Modjeska Grade Road! ha. It was also crazy how alone I was for most of the bike. It was pretty spread out and not a lot of passing went on my "time zone." It was even crazier to see Luke Bell, Michellie and all the other pros/elites fly by! I wonder what they thought of the course.

Overall, I was happy with my bike. I wanted to average 20 mph, ended up averaging 19 mph. I attribute that -1mph to the conditions ha ha; although, I did get up to roughly 35 mph several times. Adrenaline rush on slippery roads!

Here's me about to dismount with some beautiful blue scenery in the background. (That's not a lot of Port-o-potties for a race, huh!?)

The second 5k was of course more difficult, but I just went through the motions knowing it'd be over soon. I looked at it as if it were a regular T-run after a Saturday ride--with a little more oomph. I was not a fan of the surprise hill at the very end of the run. That sucked.

Here's Michellie Jones crossing the finish at 1:40:47... first-place female (of course). She's so amazing, love her! Luke Bell won with a time of 1:30:47.

Then here's me... 16 minutes after MJ came in. Official finish time: 1:56:48... That put me at 1st place in my AG and 15th female overall. Not too shabby for racing on tired legs I guess.

I caught up with my dad and Syd in the "dog zone" post-race. Saddleback Church (where the finish/post-race events were) would not let doggies close to the action so they had to hang out in the distance. I'm sorry, but I find that to be lame.

Then time for awards. Now here's something that makes the statement "it's a small world" so true. The OC Tri Series race director, Bill Leach, was my mom's teacher at Corona Del Mar High School back in the '70s. He and a student fell in love back then and together they went to the Olympics for kayaking. Then, she, Julie Leach (Bill's wife, who my mom had many classes with growing up) went on to win the Ironman World Championships in 1982! Gnar. And today, they are clearly both active in the tri world.

Here's what Bill had to say about my mom and her dad (my grandpa) when I got my award...

Then I had to leave cause I was freakin freezing. When I got home I realized how DIRTY my bike got. This picture doesn't even do it justice, but I assure you I cleaned it right away. Well, that is, after I ate a nice big meal first.
After eating, cleaning and looking at Honu 70.3 updates, I took my mom out for a 30+ mile ride (for Mother's Day I promised I'd "kill her" on a grueling swim, bike and run). We've done the run, so today was the bike. But unfortunately my legs were toast. I was pissed about how crappy I felt, but I'm still glad I got in some solid riding after the race... My mom kicked ass, so I'll have to really push her limits on the bike another time.

Bike, SURF, Run

This was probably the best "recovery" day ever. I was planning on taking it easy given my hard training week with a nice hard weekend--Sat: 80 miles biking/T-run, Sun: 14-mile run--but that didn't happen. I ended up getting in a different kind of triathlon today: biking, surfing and running!

The day started off with an easy bike down the street to the Laguna Hills Half Marathon where I checked out the racers (well, I actually was a little late to see most runners... I slept in, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast...what!?). I mainly went down to hang out with my good friends at their Juice Plus booth at the expo. What a fun group.

In the pic below, the woman on the left, Jacke, just got finished doing a 3-day 150-mile moutain bike ride/tour through Moab, Utah. She's gnarly on a mountain bike and leads a local group called the Trail Angels. I don't even think I could hang with her. In the middle is her daughter-in-law and one of my best best friends of many years, Marcai. As you can see Marcai is very pregnant, and I've come to the conclusion that her little boy (due in July) is going to be a triathlete. Since I'm not planning of having kids anytime soon, I can mess with my friends' kids. Ha ha.

After spending a couple hours with them, I took the long way home on my bike to get a little mileage in. Felt good to spin out the legs. When I got home, my dad had the van packed up and he, my mom and I jetted down to San Onofre to go surfing. I haven't surfed since last August-ish, so I was super excited to get out and see if I could still do it. I used to be quite the surfer chick back in the day. Thankfully, today was a PERFECT day to be at the beach! That's me getting ready with my trusty 9'0" Becker and stalling pulling up my wetsuit (putting on a surf wetsuit sucks compared tri suits).

Surfing was absolutely amazing. Call it luck, but I caught so many waves that I lost count! Maybe all my swimming is paying off in other ways because I was taking off on wave after wave like it was nothing. Such a blast! Even though my "style" was a little rusty, I couldn't have asked for a better first session back. I'm going again soon!! The best part - no sharks and no fear of sharks... despite knowing there are sightings at San-O 24/7, including last weekend when an 8-foot Great White breached by Dogpatch. Eeekk!

After the surf sess, the family fun continued. It's weird, I live at home but I rarely see my parents, especially my dad who works his butt off, so it was nice spending time with them rather than the typical "See you later!" as I run out the door. Anyways, we felt bad that Sydney missed out on the San-O action, so we took her on a run. The parents beach cruisered it and I ran with Syd. Once again, an unexpected workout, but totally mellow and enjoyable.

To top off an amazing day, for dinner we cooked up fresh Mahi-Mahi tacos, homemade guac and a bunch of other good stuff, inlcuding one of these:
Pretty good recovery day. No complaining here.

Beer Makes Me Faster

Well, that's probably not true, but I've drank more beers in the last six days than I have this whole year so far and I've seen an improvement in my swim, bike and run times during training the last several days. I even did the Encinitas Triathlon kind of worn down from major lack of sleep and the going out, and I did alright - podiumed in my AG (2nd). I guess in that case the adrenaline rush of racing allows you to push beyond fatigue - well at least for a short sprint race. And in the spirit of beer drinking, I won a Encinitas Sports Festival beer mug that says "I'm Really Fast." I suppose beer can work into the equation, as long as I don't get a beer belly. (Flashbacks of SDSU coming to mind!)

Each occasion during which I've drank lately has been well worth the indulgence because despite how focused I am on personal goals like improving in tri, being a good student, etc., it's all about balance and enjoying good times with good people. And that's exactly what I've done. Although I did put off studying for two major finals I had Tuesday and my scores might reflect that I chose a weekend in San Diego over hitting the books. But I had good grades going into finals so it's cool...

Letting loose a little also gives me something to laugh about while working out. Like today, during my 35-mile bike, I was laughing out loud while replaying last night over in my head: country-line dancing at OC Tavern in San Clemente immediately after our Anatomy and Physiology final. There's a lot wrong with this scenario. A) I don't like country music. B) I can't dance very well, let alone country-style. C) My friends had no idea what they were doing either. But I dressed the part - cowgirl boots (my sister's), jeans, a westerny shirt, and thankfully some of the good guy dancers took me out on the floor and had me doing the two-step and were twirling me around in every direction. I also learned a square-dance routine called "good times." Coming from a non-country girl, it was actually very fun, and I would totally do it again. Not to mention, it was quite a workout! I was sweating like crazy. I wonder if I can log that as training hours hahaha....

Anyways, back to the Enicintas Triathlon. It was a super fun race in a place that feels like home away from home. One day. I did some counting, and this was my 9th triathlon ever and I think my 15th race ever since I started this multisport lifestyle in 2007.

ENCINITAS Race Report:

Woke up at a hotel in Oceanside at 4 a.m. (stayed with my best friend from college who was there for work). On the road by about 4:45, transition set up by 5:30, an hour + to kill. Sweet. All the while, it was drizzling hard. This was my first "wet" race.

SWIM
I did a pre-race swim and made a mental note to watch out for all the ditches in the sand - no more sprained ankles please. I was the 3rd wave (I love being spoiled by going off early and getting to avoid course traffic!), and as soon as I got going my swim plan was blown. Instead of getting a set on the way in, where I would have attempted to body surf, we got a set on the way out just like I didn't want; I dove under about 3-4 waves and lost time doing so. Kind of lost my breath too. Bummer. But finally found a rhythm and was talking sh*t to the sharks in my head (there was a sighting at Moonlight Beach a couple weeks ago). That was fun and pumped me up. Got out at 13 minutes, hit the mat at 14 min, and ran up that damn, long, steep ramp to transition.

BIKE
I was doing windshield-wipers on my Rudys with my fingers a lot. But even though the ground was slick, I didn't hold back. I'm getting more confident every day on my bike and I hit some pretty high speeds (for me) going down PCH. Right now, cycling is my strength so I hammered hard. Since it was a sprint, I wanted it to hurt. I did notice my Cateye said the course was over 13 miles (not the planned 12.4), and I averaged just about 21 mph. Usually, during the bike I'm focused on passing girls who beat me in the swim, but not in this race. I was pretty much on my own the whole time, so I didn't really know where I stood. I figured whoever was ahead of me smoked me on the swim and I had no chance.

RUN
Once again, the goal was to hurt and not hold back. I exited transition just behind this 14-year-old girl and tried to stay on her feet, but she was too fast - and probably 80 lbs. Ha. So I just pictured myself doing a track workout and set my pace by the way a feel during that. It worked alright, and I ran just over a 7 min.-pace for the 5k. I'm satisfied. I also was wearing sunglasses and a hat, which I realized were totally unnecessary given the cloudy, damp conditions. Guess I don't have to do the same thing in every race.

DONE
I crossed the finish line at 1:17 for the 820-yd swim, 12.4 (13+)-mile bike and 5k - 2nd age group! The girl who beat me did it in 1:10. Wow! I really wanted to meet her, but she didn't stick around for awards. No bueno, I should have grabbed her beer mug. After everything wrapped up, I jumped on the Felt and rode south to climb Torrey Pines then into La Jolla then turned around. Good ol' Torrey - a must! Right? Then showered up and hit the bar for beer, grub and Lakers. Good times. I slept very well that night.

CHEERS!