super sunday

today i played in the fields of the lord, no ...wait. sorry ... i ran in the garden of the gods.

it was heavenly to see, though not so much to run. actually, that's not true. i enjoyed the run ... just not reading the pace calculator on mapmyrun later on.

i logged just over 8 of the slowest miles i have run since i started running in 1999. i told my coach i would dub this run "the ego crusher" except for the fact that i was proud of myself for sticking it out.
as you know (sorry to bore you with it repeatedly) the altitude has been tough on me and has really effected my training this past week. i usually tend to be a bit on the breathless side when swimming, biking or running ... but this is ridiculous. it feels like my head is in a vice and my lungs are in some sort of compression chamber.

there were a few brief moments on today's run when i felt more like myself and they were glorious. the fact that i am lucky to do this at all was not lost on me. i complain now about what my pace was, but the truth is it didn't get me down like a shitty run at home does. it was what it was and i was happy. a few people along the side of the road even gave me the thumbs up and yelled "good job!" it boosted me just like it does in a race. thank you!!

after my run i met up with j. i was beyond hungry, in fact ... i was a 9.5 out of 10 on the food emergency scale. i almost enacted jenni keil's "silent rule". the day i read that post was the day j.'s and my relationship (post workout) improved 10-fold. if you are in a relationship and happen to suffer from post-workout-low-blood sugar-rage, i suggest you try it.

all i could think about was noodles & co. i had been chatting about it with marit and the indonesian saute was swirling round in my head. we went. it was delicious. then there was an ice cream cone at josh + john's, a tour of the olympic training center, a drive through manitou springs and finally we swung by a place i had seen yesterday that i wanted to show j.

check out these amazing sculptures. they're done by a man named starr kempf.

dang, this is getting long and i still have so much more to report. like on last night's triathlon hall of fame induction banquet. and the one-on-one "pilates on the ball" class i wound up having the other day (no one else showed up) and the copious amounts of goose shit that adorn the walkways of the hotel property. but i'll save all that for another post. my hunger timer just went off again and if everyone is going to remain unharmed, it's best i go eat.

^..^

denver digs n' dogs

when i found out i was going to vail and would be in denver before heading to colorado springs, i contacted my friend heather. we used to work together many moons ago at an internet/software company.

heather and i bonded. she was direct and had a potty mouth. it was love at first curse. for a little while she even lived near my place. i thought she was a hoot.

then she moved to new york. : (

she worked for a little while for my best friend and lived in my old stomping grounds. : )

we'd chat. life kept going. we lost touch. i'd search for her on facebook. she wasn't there.

about a month or so ago she appeared on facebook! oh happy day. and as it turned out she was in denver. we made plans for me to come visit. meet her fiance, her dogs and whatnot.

j. asked me how it was to see my friend after all these years ... it was like i had hung out with her last week. how great is that!?!

she has a beautiful life; a cool fella who will become her husband in less than two weeks, a sweet house and two awesome dogs.

here's a little pictorial.

traveling ten

10 random things from this past week ...

1. i got popped by the po'leece for running a stop sign ... on my bicycle.

2. i went cross country skiing and i wiped out ... twice.

3. this morning i saw a leeeetle red fox on my run (errr ... "brisk walk"). made me think of my friend emily.

4. the geese here at the hotel squawk a lot. i like it. when i put it as my status, i had to look up how to spell squawk.

5. at present i am STARVING. ready to gnaw my arm off, if only i had some ketchup.

6. there is a dog in denver who loves me, his name is shazam.

7. i had dinner with a woman last night who is starting a new job this week in an underground bunker. cool.

8. i had a nosebleed today and it wasn't from picking my nose. when's that last time that happened!?

9. today i partook in zumba. "ditch the workout, join the party!"

10. the 5430 triathlon is named for the altitude at which boulder is. did i just revert back to "newbie" status by admitting i didn't know that?

talk to ya later!

^..^

colorado rocky mountain hiiigh!

i used to spend endless hours singing along to john denver songs on the 8-track. i still sing them ... only now it's usually while riding or running and to the annoyance of j.

well, here i am ... vail, colorado. ain't no one gonna mind if i belt out a tune or two!

only thing is, who knew i got altitude sickness? the highest i've ever been is about 7,500 feet and that's at mammoth. i definitely get winded there. headachey and i have trouble sleeping. but i get used to it and i've skied, gone running and riding. here? notsomuch.

not being active here makes me so sad. it's not just the "i have a race in 3.5 months, i gotta stay on top of things" sad/mad/frustrated ... but the "i'm on vacation and it is soooo dang beautiful here all i want to do is run around and be active and soak up every minute of it, but i can't cause i don't feel right" sad. the prospect of having 8 days off of work, unleashed ... no desk ... no obligations ... just makes me want to swimbikerunskirecover.

coming up from denver i felt a little breathless. the higher we got the worse it was. by the time we hit 10,000 feet i was on the phone back to california asking j. to look up altitude sickness on the internet. i had never felt these feelings and i was flashing on the mini series "everest" we watched a few seasons ago on the discovery chanel. i wanted to know i wasn't going to die. that sounds so overly dramatic, but i was freaked out. i couldn't get enough air, my heart was racing, i felt a little sick and woozy. it doesn't sound all that bad written out, but trust me ... it was bad.

oh and a side note: when we arrived at the car rental place we had no idea we'd be heading out in this:giddyup!

taking our humvee driving seriously we immediately headed here to fuel ourselves for the task.


which turned out to be a good idea ... here's some of the nail biting scenery from our drive.

thank god we were in a tank, literally.

okay, back to the drama ... as we started to descend into the valley where vail village is, the serious, serious symptoms subsided a little. i spent the rest of the first day not feeling so hot. sometimes i would feel almost normal and then whamo! i'd think i was going to either hurl or pass out. turning my head too fast was a big no-no.

this morning i went over to the vail athletic club. beautiful little place if you are ever here. i took the "gentle honey flow" yoga class. and while i was disappointed that there was no honey involved, i did "set my intention" at the beginning of the class that i would stick with the "gentle".

i don't do a lot of yoga, yet i'm that girl who when the instructor gives two options for a pose (regular and more challenging) i usually go for the more challenging. i always want to see if i can. fact is it often turns out i can, but i probably shouldn't. today passing out with all my vail yoga lovelies around was not something i needed to do. that's not gentle and it certainly don't flow.

i spent the next hour taking a ridiculously long time getting ready in the swanky locker rooms and probably averaged one fluffy white towel per 5 minutes. wasteful, i know, but desperate times (no fun winter wonderland training) call for desperate measures (excessive towel usage).

now i'm back at our cute little chalet having a rest. i know i am not yet 100% because there are fresh baked brownies in the kitchen and i haven't even touched them so, i'll wait and see how i feel tomorrow before committing to anything, however cross country skiing or snowshoeing are in the running.

i've found a gym in denver that caters to triathletes so once i am there and no longer at altitude i'll be able to pick it up again. then it's on to colorado springs and if you've ever been there you know that garden of the gods is heaven for running. i can't wait.

enjoy the scenery!

^..^

just my style!

i am, by nature, a masher. i am jan ullrich to your lance armstrong. however, i've spent the past few years working on increasing my cadence ... and with good success. i now, naturally, find myself at 90-95 rpm, however ... i still loves me some serious pedal pushing.

so, imagine my delight when i saw 5 x 6 min. at 60-70 rpm on the schedule for today's bike ride. oh joyous, joyous pedaling! it was a chilly and very windy today in los angeles. hush up my midwest and canadian friends. i know you have REAL cold ... not my fault. i was smart and jumped on the west coast bus. however, blood thinning is the price you pay for mild winters so yes, i thought it was chilly at 40 degrees this morning.

air temperature aside, it was clear as could be. i could see all the way up the coast to malibu and across the ocean to catalina island. it was one of those days that you just marvel at and having permission to watch it all go by at a slow, strong cadence was just icing on the cake.

i haven't been on my bike all that much recently and i am excited to be back on. i have a couple of hilly races this coming season so i am looking forward to a lot more low cadence rides and lots and lots of hills. i love hills!!! and if you've seen me you know my quads ... well, they were built more for walnut crackin' than skinny jeans wearing ... so i'm right where i ought to be. bring on the long, slow climbs!!

so far i'm really diggin' 2009.

oh and as the period (or exclamation point) at the end of this vacation's sentence ... j. and i ventured out for a little ice skating, santa monica style.

^..^